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David P. Allen
& Associates
Home Our Firm Contact Us
Serving Salem Indiana With Over 80 Years Of Combined Experience
Since 1940, we have been the go-to law firm for families in Salem and across Southeastern Indiana. No matter where our clients come from, they often become a part of our lives. We strive to become an important part of theirs — their first resource when they face any of the legal issues that can arise during a lifetime. Our law firm is a team of lawyers and paralegals, each with more than a decade of experience and 80 years of combined knowledge. Our clients trust us because we know the law, but also because we care. As we have for generations of Indiana residents, we will work hard for you.
Family and Domestic Relations
Negligence and Automobile Injury
David P. Allen Attorney Click to view Bio
Reba BrownParalegal Click to view Bio
Sharon LambParalegal Click to view Bio
Carla GuilmetteLegal Assistant Click to view Bio
Location: Salem, Indiana
David Allen shares his wisdom and knowledge with all of us. David graduated from Indiana University in 1968 with an undergraduate degree in Accounting, and from the Indiana University School of Law in 1971. He formerly was Deputy Prosecuting Attorney for Washington County. David has practiced in the fields of Dissolution, Family and Domestic Relations, Criminal, Negligence and Automobile Injury, Wrongful Death, Social Security, Bankruptcy, Corporate, Probate, Creditors Rights, and Civil Litigation.
Year Joined Firm
Indiana, 1971
U.S. District Court Northern District of Indiana, 1971
U.S. District Court Southern District of Indiana, 1971
Indiana University at Bloomington School of Law, Bloomington, Indiana - 1971
Indiana University - 1968
Mullen v. Tucker, 510 N.E. 2d 711 (Ind. App. 1987)
Womack v. Womack, 622 N.E. 2d 481 (Ind. 1993)
Hastings Mutual Ins. Co. v. Webb, 659 N.E. 2d 1049 (Ind. App 1995)
Wells v. Hickman, 657 N.E. 172 (Ind. App. 1995)
Allstate Ins. Co. v. John Burns, 837 N.E. 2d 645 (Ind. App. 2005)
In Re guardianship of E.N. , 853 N.E. 2d 960 (Ind. App. 2006)
Lisa Fleming
Licenses/Certifications/Professional Affiliations
Licensed Attorney in Indiana since 2009 - IN 28239-10
Licensed Attorney in Kentucky since 2008 - KY 92297
Licensed Civil Engineer in Indiana - IN PE1000116
Licensed Civil Engineer in Kentucky - KY - 21231
Lisa’s leadership and customers had this to say: “Lisa has an uncanny knack for getting to the bottom of complex contract issues, preventing unnecessary claims and resolving issues while upholding the absolute intent of the contract. This ability is an immense resource for our field staff.” “Lisa continually sees the big picture, both from a Local and Regional perspective.”
Prior Professional Experience
Served in a senior leadership position as Deputy Assistant Inspector General at the Office of Inspector General/USDA with responsibility for a large staff across 4 Divisions including Facilities/Property and Safety, Information Technology, Budget and Accounting, and Human Resources. Shortly after arriving at OIG, I became aware of our resource needs at a time of great budget uncertainty. Realizing that we needed to find ways to optimize our spending, I analyzed our Reserve Account and found that over $12M of our appropriations over the last five years was slated to be returned to the Treasury. The amount in the Reserve Account for fiscal year 2014 alone exceeded $5M. Recognizing that this was a tremendous resource loss, I took swift action. I implemented a new policy reducing the amount of money held in our working Reserve Account for the current fiscal year by half, to $500K. I also initiated and led end of year meetings in the last four months of the fiscal year with my staff in Acquisition and Budget and Accounting, and stakeholders, to track procurements and improve our execution. Because of my efforts and leadership, at the end fiscal year 2017, we had executed all but $358K of our $98.2M budget, which was the best execution rate in the last 6 years. Our hiring efforts and procurements of goods and services increased, as a result. Held a Top Secret Security Clearance while serving in this position.
Served in a senior role as Deputy Director of Field Liaison and Customer Service at the Agricultural Research Service/USDA, with responsibility for three Branches; Facilities Engineering, Property, and Safety (FPS), Acquisitions (ACQ) and Information Technology (IT). I found that the Engineering Section included staff that had been previously reassigned from Headquarters and area offices. Most had never met or worked together before the reorganization and still worked from different locations. A number of staff had rotated through the FPS Branch Chief position in the six months prior to my arrival. Morale was low among members of the facilities engineering team and performance was not strong. The team’s primary customers were four SES Area Directors, and these leaders were frustrated with the poor quality of their multiyear Capital Project and Repair Plans. I was determined to reenergize and increase the productivity of the Facilities Engineering team. I quickly recruited a highly qualified FPS Branch Chief with a strong engineering background. I shared my vision with the Branch Chief and set expectations. I also coached him on how to effectively lead his engineering team while holding all subordinates accountable. I organized the first ever Engineering Workshop, which enabled engineers, and supervisors to collaborate and build stronger bonds of trust, mutual appreciation, and engage in knowledge sharing. Because of my efforts, morale, production, and performance improved across the board. Under my leadership, the Facilities Engineering team completed high quality and comprehensive Capital Project and Repair Plans that provided a consistent format for each region. The four SES Area Directors thanked me for improving this critical process, as it helped them to develop more tailored strategies and budgets. My effective team building and leadership is also reflected in the team’s increasingly high levels of performance and efficiency. For instance, the number of projects completed with budgets between $25K and $150K increased from 71 in 2014 to 87 in 2015. The number of projects completed with a cost exceeding $150K grew from 17 in 2014 to 43 in 2015. Finally, the overall value of initiatives completed in 2014 was approximately $11M, and that number doubled in 2015 (to $24M). During my 12 years at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers I served in progressively responsible positons. While serving as the Deputy Chief of Civil Works on the Northwestern Division Regional Integration Team at HQ I resolved human capital and cross-organizational support issues, negotiated for the establishment of an Endowed Chair Program, in which the Northwestern Division and its Districts would send their best and brightest to four-month details at USACE HQ. I promoted professional development by mentoring and training five representatives from district offices during details to HQ. As a result of my efforts, knowledge increased, and there was better alignment of the vertical team, with stronger relationships between HQ and the Districts and Division. Five months into the trial period, senior officials decided to continue the program indefinitely. Salary and overhead savings alone were approximately $840K while I was there. This program is still in place today.
While serving as Chief of the Construction Contract Administration Branch, in the Construction Division, at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Louisville District, I took meaningful action to turn around a struggling team. I leveraged the Federal Career Intern Program and hand selected three highly qualified Engineers and a Technical Assistant to infuse new ideas and fresh talent into the Branch. I guided staff in establishing better Quality Control measures and standards. I reenergized the team, and morale, performance, and customer service improved, leading to the successful and expeditious execution of a number of civil and military construction projects worth in excess of $140M annually. I developed contract administration policy and training publications, and developed/taught the Contracting Overview class to staff at military installations. I also applied my technical and legal knowledge in settling construction claims through fact-finding and negotiation that resulted in significant savings (approximately $1.2M), and earlier completions of military projects. Finally, I achieved DAWIA certification in contracting during my first year despite an extremely heavy workload.
I served as a technical expert to USACE attorneys working on construction claims involving complex engineering and scientific issues. I drafted contracting officer decisions, Rule 4 discovery files, and answers. I conducted meetings and led discussions on legal strategy. I developed questions for depositions and wrote responses to bid protests. I researched the legislative history of laws to determine congressional intent. I conducted records research of formerly used defense sites to determine evidence and timing of contamination. I drafted summaries of legal issues, property ownership/usage and the government’s position with respect to liability for environmental cleanup. I was instrumental in providing technical support during negotiation and resolution of a $6M Type II Differing Site Condition rock claim.
While serving as a Lifecycle Military Project Manager at USACE I was responsible for managing the planning, scoping, development, design, construction and direction of important Army Reserve projects throughout the United States. I was also responsible for the integration of Army Reserve requirements and development of a comprehensive management plan that was fully coordinated with all contributing agencies, stakeholders and organizations. I developed and managed project schedules and milestones from planning through design, construction and initial operations. I prepared quarterly fact sheets for Congressional review, and routinely interacted with our Army Reserve customers including Action Officers at Headquarters. This position involved significant travel throughout the United States. One of my most significant projects was the Barnes Hall USARC, Full Facility Revitalization (FFR) project in Phoenix, Arizona. The FFR program was at risk of being cancelled. Seeing the great benefits of the FFR, I prepared a briefing booklet on this project and presented it to Congressman Hayworth, General Ostenberg, and Colonel Aldridge at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. I discussed this project and the FFR Program with Congressman Hayworth and impressed upon him the importance of continuing the program. The Army Reserve customer was extremely satisfied and the FFR Program was continued.
Reba Brown
Reba is a graduate of West Washington High School and Bryant-Stratton Business College. She has been employed with Allen & Associates for 34 years with 5 years of legal experience prior to Joining our firm and one year as Secretary to the Dean of the Indiana University School of Education.
She began at Allen & Associates working for the late James D. Allen and since then for Jay D. Allen and David P. Allen.
Her primary expertise at the firm is in probate and real estate work, for which she is highly regarded.
Leann Robinson
Marla Hannah
Sharon Lamb
Sharon K. Lamb’s Biography Sharon K. Lamb is a paralegal, specializing in the areas of personal injury, worker’s compensation, Social Security Disability and other areas of injury law. She brings 28 years of experience to the firm having worked all aspects of a case from its inception, through trial and even the appellate level. She is a graduate of Watterson College and Indiana University Southeast.
Sharon assisted with trial preparation and attendance at trial for the largest jury verdict in Washington County, Indiana as well as the largest medical malpractice verdict in Lawrence County, Indiana.
Assisted Cases
Huffman v. Monroe Community Schools, 558 N.E.2d 1264 (Ind. 1992);
Drake v. Mitchell Community Schools, 649 N.E.2d 1027 (Ind. 1995);
Harkness v. Hall, 735 N.E.2d 222 (Ind. 2000);
Wells v. Hickman, 657 N.E.2d 752 (Ind. App. 1995);
Womack v. Womack, 622 N.E.2d 481 (Ind. 1993);
Carla Guilmette
Email: info@allenlawyers.com
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BROKERING & CHARTERING
Foreign firms ready to leap on logistics growth
Posted on June 15, 2019 by webadmin
Increasing investment by foreign services providers is transforming Vietnam’s transport and logistics industries, with enforcement of free trade agreements expected to promote further cross-border trade.
Fabian Wandt, country manager of Lazada eLogistics, said that there have been tremendous changes in the field over the past few years with more new players and an increasing volume of parcels. Foreign influx continues to pour into the Vietnamese market from major corporations such as Alibaba and JD.com.
Online sales are not only driven by marketplaces like Lazada, Tiki, and others, but also fuelled by e-retailers on social networking sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Zalo.
According to Wandt, the market will continue to remain fragmented in the next few years, given that nobody is ready to take over completely at the moment. E-commerce platforms are mainly subsidising to grow a customer base.
However, Wandt predicted that giants like Amazon will finally make inroads regionally and spark further competition in the next half-decade or later. Indeed, there has been more tension for e-commerce logistics, especially same-day delivery services, due to the ongoing expansion of groups such as Grab Express, Go-Jek’s Go-Send, and Lalamove.
Indo Trans Logistics (ITL) has developed a dedicated last-mile logistics unit named Speedlink. According to ITL CEO Amanda Rasmussen, more companies who are operating in the traditional base might expand to e-commerce channels, thereby creating additional demand for e-logistics. Furthermore, cross-border e-commerce will continue to grow tremendously.
Thus, ITL has switched the development strategy of Speedlink to capitalise on the opportunities in the flourishing market. Along with serving online merchants on local marketplaces, the firm also launched inbound business to customer (B2C) solutions and began to implement outbound services for foreign companies like AliExpress.
According to a report by Indian market research firm Ken Research, Vietnam’s e-commerce logistics market is expected to reach over $990 million by 2022. The market is primarily dominated by third party logistics providers such as Giaohangnhanh, Viettel Post, VN Post, and DHL eCommerce, followed by merchants such as Lazada, Shopee, Tiki, and others. The surge in cross-border online trading activities is one of the major driving forces affecting the Vietnamese e-commerce industry.
” Giants like Amazon will finally make inroads regionally and spark further competition in the next half-decade or later. There has been tension due to the ongoing expansion of groups in the sector. “– Fabian Wadt Country manager, Lazada eLogistics
Cross-border trade
Major trade pacts such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), with further tariff cuts involved, will provide a boon to Vietnam’s transport and logistics industry.
As part of the plan, the EVFTA will lower tariff barriers and recognise the investor-state dispute mechanism. Such changes are expected to bring an influx of investment into Vietnam as well as promoting bilateral trade between the country and the continent.
In 2016, global shipping and logistics company Herfurth Group signed a memorandum of understanding with state-run Vinalines to establish a logistics centre in Belgium, so as to facilitate trade and logistics operations in advance of the EVFTA.
In addition, the SWITCH-Asia Programme of the EU has provided funds worth €2.4 million ($2.76 million) to the sustainable freight transport and logistics project in the Mekong Delta region which runs from February 2016 until this month. After three years, more than 100 small- and medium-sized enterprises in the Vietnamese transport sector have participated in project activities. As a result, the companies have been able to improve fuel consumption savings by 11.7 per cent per 100 kilometres for heavy-duty empty trucks, and 11.4 per cent per 100km for heavy-duty loaded trucks.
Tom Corrie, deputy head of co-operation at the European Union Delegation to Vietnam, said that Vietnam is deemed as one of the EU’s key partners in the region. Therefore, the EU is committed to upgrading transportation business to boost green freight and logistics in Vietnam.
He noted that the movement of freight increased by 75 per cent in the past three years, and exports of goods in the region almost tripled in the same period. The figures are expected to surge once the EVFTA comes into force.
Furthermore, the implementation of the ASEAN-Hong Kong FTA (AHKFTA) this month may increase demand for certain consumer goods and logistic services.
Speaking at a symposium held in Ho Chi Minh City in September 2018, Anthony Lau chairman of Pacific Air (Hong Kong) Limited said that the AHKFTA will strengthen the role of Hong Kong as a gateway for Vietnamese companies to enter the Chinese market. Meanwhile, Vietnam will become a transshipment hub for Hong Kong products to other Southeast Asian countries. He also lauded the fast-paced development of Vietnam’s aviation industry over the past decade with bright prospects for growth in the next two decades. Domestic carriers like Vietnam Airlines and Vietjet hold the largest market share. Vietjet in particular has recorded impressive growth after a few years of operation. Thus, he expressed hopes to make a deeper penetration into the Vietnamese market by opening a subsidiary in the country.
Thanh Van
New focus for logistics firms
VN among the world’s top ten emerging markets by logistics
ATTA – An Trung Tin Shipping Agency was founded on 2006, aiming to serve Ship Owners, Ship Operators, and Charterers as agent in Vietnam with efficiency, loyalty and reliable services upon customers’ satisfaction...
ATTA | An Trung Tin Shipping Agency And Trading Co., Ltd.
03rd Floor, H2 Building, 196 Hoang Dieu St., Dist. 4, Hochiminh City, Vietnam
Tel/Fax +84 8 3826.3848 / +84 8 3826.3828
Email: breakbulk@attavn.com
Website: attavn.com
Copyright 2021 © ATTA Vietnam. Designed by Kent Nguyen
Hotline +84 28 38263848
breakbulk@attavn.com
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Grant, Jones trade jabs about coaching opportunities
Livingston Scott - STAR Writer
Coach Carl Grant congratulates Bruising Gym boxer Richard ‘Frog’ Holmes after a win over Frank Cotroni in the Wray and Nephew ‘Contender’ boxing series in June 2017.
Bruising Gym founder and boxing coach Carl Grant says he will close the Stony Hill, St Andrew-based facility.
This is because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and also because he feels he is being marginalised for national duties by Jamaica Boxing Board (JBB) President Stephen 'Bomber' Jones and General Secretary Leroy Brown.
"COVID has come in and because of all the protocols and social distancing, we cooled off the gym," Grant said. "But I am doing well and I don't have to think about boxing, so it was easy for me not to open back. But I am tired of Mr 'Bomber' Jones and Leroy Brown."
Grant mentioned his many national titles won as a coach, his three-star coaching qualification, and that he is the only local coach at this level, which automatically qualifies him for national duties, based on International Boxing Association (AIBA) regulations. But he says coaches with far less qualification are getting more opportunities.
"In 10 years, we have won the National Championships six times and came second three times," he said. "So Bruising Gym was not just a little number, we were a force to be reckoned with.
"JDF [Gym] has no boxers on the [national team for Olympic Games qualifiers], Stanley Couch [Gym] has one, and G.C. Foster [Gym] has two. But yet still, it is the JDF coach (Corporal Gilbert Vaz) that is the national coach, and he is a one-star coach."
Other criteria required
But Jones refutes Grant's claims, pointing out that the rule, which requires a three-star coach to be in the ring for international fights, was changed by AIBA years ago. He says that holding a three-star badge does not guarantee any coach a job with the national team, as there are other criteria required by the JBB.
"It doesn't mean that because you have the badge you are the most qualified coach," Jones said. "We have our coaches and we give them opportunities to be a part of the boxing fraternity.
"If we no longer think they represent the best choice to lead the national team, then they won't get the chance to lead."
Jones said instilling discipline in the boxers and showing respect to the sport are other important requirements. He also mentioned that Grant has led national teams in the past, but the results were not satisfactory.
"If it is that the criteria are not being met in terms of discipline and results, then we will look for others," Jones said. "Right now, coach Vaz is doing well. He has gotten results, whether it is Pan Am, Caribbean championships or high school. We have come back with more medals than ever and we were about to field the best team for an Olympics, and that is based on the discipline that has been charged by the national coaches at the helm," he said.
"We go by the results, and many times Mr Grant has gone away and come back without even a win, so compare that to where we are now and what we are doing.
"But the sport is bigger than any coach or any athlete, and we have to stick with the coaches the athletes respond to best," he reasoned.
Jones said the closing of the Bruising Gym will leave a void in the development and exposure of boxers in the region. But he believes the gym may just be short of boxers to keep it going.
Bruising Gym is noted for producing boxers such as Richard 'Frog' Holmes, Sakima 'Mr Smooth' Mullings, Michael 'Wasp' Gardner, Kesna Davis, and up comers Omar Campbell and Sanjay Williams.
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The Disease of Moral Intolerance
by Granny "D"
The light and soul of America is respect .
Given on the steps of the Peterborough Town Hall, after a walk to town with her townspeople. Peterborough was the town where Thornton Wilder wrote "Our Town."
I would like to share two thoughts with you today. The first regards the special character of the American community that makes us strong and, indeed, very special in the world. The second idea regards the special moment in time where we find ourselves right now.
The special character of the American people isn’t the fact that we have a Constitution and its Bill of Rights, although we are blessed by that document and blessed by the way it has been improved by wisdom and humanity over the centuries.
The words of our Constitution and its Bill of Rights, while special indeed, only reflect something that was already deep in the emerging world dream that America is.
Here is a hint of that special aspect: Let me ask you a question—why is it that the first ten amendments to the Constitution are the Bill of Rights? Why didn’t they just put the Ten Commandments in there from the Bible?
Why, indeed, did they go to so much trouble writing this new Constitution when they already had a guide book to living--their Bible? For they were, most of them, religious people.
Why did they create a strong and well-stated separation between their religious lives and their civic lives?
The word that gets to the answer is the word Respect.
They understood that different people have different belief systems, and that the civic square is where we come together to make our lives work well together in spite of our different beliefs.
That respect for our differences is the key to understanding the genius of America. They certainly had not perfected a notion of the brotherhood of all people, as it took us, as a people, another century to eliminate human slavery on our shores, and generations more to accept the equality of all people. But the seed was there, and it remains—though it is now under attack as if by a serious disease.
If we look around the world at the most frightening and dangerous places, we see, first of all, the failure of respect for differences. The Taliban perhaps represent that in the American mind. But we do not have to look that far to see the disease of moral intolerance infecting cultures and governments. It is all around us now. It has sprung from our own soil, as it has elsewhere.
In its most fatal form, the disease of moral intolerance somehow bestows the power of heaven on our humble human institutions of government. And so, where in a previous generation we might have been willing to let some great moral issues be decided between a person and his or her God or conscience, we now demand that institutions of government represent themselves as God’s attorneys. The problem with that, of course, is that government institutions are what we share across the entire community, and religious beliefs are not. So the only way that government can speak for God is if large parts of our community have a religion not of their choosing forced upon them, not as beliefs, but as oppressions.
This is easy for the women of Afghanistan to understand precisely. But it is not far away from us now, as an immoral element of our society, cloaked in false morality, move hard on us to destroy that word that underpins our Constitution and its Bill of Rights and that is the bright little light that shines in the American soul and can be found in the torch of the Statue of Liberty. It is the flame of freedom, yes, but its truer name is the flame of respect for others and their beliefs, for that is where our freedom comes from, and that is where our nation comes from.
If there is one idea we must not tolerate, it is intolerance. If there is one position we must not respect, it is disrespectfulness itself. It is, in short, not acceptable for people to push their own religious beliefs onto our civic institutions, and they must please look in the mirror and see if they do not see some image more from an Afghan desert staring back at them. We do not tolerate intolerance here. We do not respect disrespect on these shores, where the world is still having a dream of a better life for itself.
Now, you fight fear and intolerance with courage and love, but it is not always a matter of sticking flowers in the muzzles of their guns. Sometimes we must act with strength and force, as we do with laws against hate crimes, and so we should. Sometimes love means you lock somebody up, or take them outside for a little discussion. But it should never be a battle between two different belief systems, it is a struggle to preserve the civic square as a place where all people and beliefs cooperate in a better kind of world, and where bullies to the contrary are dealt with.
It is my personal opinion that bullies to the contrary are what this political season is all about. It is my view that a wildly unamerican intolerance has infected the far right wing of American politics and, as with any tumor in a body, it endangers the entire American system. The coming election is an opportunity to escort the bullies outside.
Just as a disease will attack the weakest part of the body, the moral bullies come in through the issues we are least comfortable defending. But if we do not defend even these areas, we will soon find the entire body infected.
So lend your support to those who do that defending. They are people like the ACLU, the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, and the organizations that protect the individual freedoms of women, gays, ethnic and racial minorities, and others on the first line of defense against moral bullies.
Do not be afraid to be intolerant of intolerance; show no respect for disrespect; be the bouncer at the door of the better world we are dreaming and working for, and do not be afraid to do what bouncers do. But whatever you do, do it in love and for love, not in hatred for hate, and do it in defense of our mutual respect, the beautiful light of the American soul.
What I have just said could have been said at any time in our national history. But it has greater meaning to say such things at this moment, for we are assembled here as people who are bracing for battle on the eve of great changes in our history. For many of us, the coming election means much. But the struggle for America’s soul and for our shared dream is just beginning, as it always is, and you all are the warriors in this struggle, which is the greatest struggle on the planet. So many lives are at stake, so much happiness is in the balance. If you like to think of yourself as the hero of a book or movie, I tell you that no book or movie is a dramatic or as meaningful as the story you now find yourself living. This life is perhaps a moral stage for the acting out of great struggles between the forces of light and the forces of fear. There are no sidelines, only those who fight for love and those who fight for fear. Only those who stand up for tolerance and respect and love, and those whose sad fate is to stand on the other side.
If you look around this gathering, you cannot see where we all are going. To demonstrations? To Congress? To courtrooms where we will fight for respect and justice? To prison camps? The young to great universities where they will help keep ideas advancing to serve our people? We go from this place and this moment onward to great lives in a great time. But let us always know who we are—remember who we are. We are Americans, and we are for freedom, and for respect, and for love.
Going to take a break for a while. Family, pregnancy of wife, personal health (need to lose weight and get into shape after hospital visit) and guiding second floor addition to a satisfactory conclusion preclude continued regular blogging. I recommend the following blogs:
Good Reading Regardless of Political Affiliation
Xoff Files
Wigderson Library and Pub
folkbum
Shark and Shepherd
Texas Hold 'em Blogger
Milwaukee ID10T
Spotted Horse 2
Mixter's Mix
Patrick McIlheran
Annoying and Not Very Bright
Jessica McBride
I'll come back here and there and eventually full-time again. Ta ta.
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BrownstoneRestaurants.com
All the news that's fit to print...
A Brief History Of Brownstones
January 11, 2015 by brownstone
Ahhh brownstones. They are iconic, but how did they originate, and what gives them their beautiful reddish brown color? Hopefully this post will be able to answer any questions you may have.
Brownstone refers to sandstone with a red-brown hue. Brownstone rocks contain dissolved iron oxides which accounts for the stone’s distinctive reddish brown shade.
Buildings constructed from this material are called brownstones. The material was first used to simply front or sheath townhouses which were constructed using cheap bricks. It was considerably less expensive than limestone, marble, and granite. It was also easy to extract from large deep pits. It also lent itself to pretty straightforward carving.
In the beginning, however, brownstone was considered to be of poorer quality compared to other stones like granite, limestone, and marble. The latter were considered more refined and desirable, although they were also more expensive.
The middle of the nineteenth century, the Romantic era, brought in a preference for dark material for buildings. Brownstone became popular, acquiring a reputation as being chic and stylish. It became the construction stone of choice the world over, particularly in large cities in industrialized nations. Europe has its share of brownstones. So does the United States. History shows that in the later part of the Triassic period, large deposits of the stone were found in New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. Boston, Brooklyn, Park Slope, and Harlem all have many brownstone homes and buildings.
New York in particular is especially associated with brownstones. Brownstones are a distinct part of its consciousness. Dotting New York, an inimitable part of its landscape, brownstones are as ubiquitous as the city’s yellow cabs and high rises.
New York started constructing brownstones long before the stone became the latest thing in architecture following its popularity in the mid-nineteenth century. In Lower Manhattan, the St. Paul Chapel of the Trinity Church stands as one of the city’s historical and charming landmarks. Constructed in 1796, the chapel is made from a lovely blend of brownstone and local stone.
These days, everybody easily recognizes the Upper West Side by the many brownstones it has. There are many places defined by brownstones, many of them considered grand, highly wrought, and truly splendid.
[VIDEO] Watch This Neglected Brownstone Restored To It’s Former Glory
April 15, 2016 by brownstone
For those of you who dream of rehabbing a neglected piece of American brownstone history here’s a video of the This Old House gang fixing up a real beauty from 1904.
Don’t kid yourself though, even a brownstone like this one which has fallen into disrepair is still likely to run close to a million bucks – or more in Brooklyn’s rather insane housing market. Those looking to snatch up a real bargain may fair better setting their sights on considerably cheaper properties in markets like Philadelphia and Chicago. While these cities aren’t known for their brownstones the way that Brooklyn is there are some real good deals that you can find in these parts. In particular, the Rittenhouse Square and Fairmount neighborhoods in Philly offer opportunities for brownstone ownership at a fraction of the price of what can be had in NYC.
The Brownstone From Breakfast at Tiffany’s Sells for $7.4 Million!
July 18, 2015 by brownstone
In recent brownstone news, it turns out that the brownstone that was featured the in iconic 1961 Audrey Hepburn film “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” has just been sold for a whopping 7.4 Million dollar payday.
The film, which was based on Truman Capote’s popular novel (also entitled Breakfast at Tiffany’s) won 2 academy awards, and has since gone on the achieve cult status. People still talk about this movie all the time, and my wife keeps leaving the LOGO channel on cable (that’s the LGBT channel) and they keep showing that movie over and over again so I think it must be very popular within that demographic as well.
It kind of makes sense. I mean Audrey Hepburn was a total babe in that movie. She was so feminine. Honestly I think that women who are looking for a husband, and have trouble finding one, would be well advised to study Hepburn’s character “Holly Golightly” and try modeling her behavior. This sort of classic femininity, is surly lacking in today’s modern society.
Now before I get a pack of blood thirsty feminist chasing after me for handing out free advice on how to get a man, I must point out that I am also quick to offer men advice on this same topic of mate selection and procurement. Indeed, there’s a website NanoMagazine.com I highly recommend for men looking to improve their success with not only Forex trading and personal development, but with their dating skills as well.
But I’m getting off topic here. The point is brownstones are iconic buildings, just like Breakfast At Tiffany’s is an iconic film, and Audrey Hepburn is an iconic actress. And, I think that we can all improve our success in life, business, and romance by embracing these sorts of icons and incorporating them into our lives to the best of our abilities.
Copyright © 2021 · BrownstoneRestaurants.com
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Bills Mafia — #BillsMafia
A movement created by the fans and embraced by the players. Join the #FAMbase.
What is #BillsMafia?
Buffalo Bills’ Doug Marrone Continues Proving That He’s Perfect For Buffalo
Posted on December 5, 2013 by Robert Quinn
The Buffalo Bills’ 2013 offseason was one of the most exciting, yet nerve-wrecking periods the fanbase endured for quite some time. The front office relieved the entire coaching staff, while Russ Brandon was promoted to team president.
(Photo by USA Today)
Chip Kelly, the offensive mastermind that forced opponents to tap out with his innovative, fast-paced offense, was a hot name that was linked to several teams, including the Bills.
Lovie Smith, another relatively successful defensive minded coach was fired from the Chicago Bears after the team failed to reach the postseason, and became another name linked to the Bills, while receiving a lot of support from Bills fans.
However, the Bills quietly approached then-Syracuse head coach Doug Marrone, and the two sides reached an agreement that anointed Marrone as Buffalo’s Head Coach for the near future.
Marrone quickly because a beloved figure of the team’s fanbase. Coach Marrone grew up in the Bronx, a blue-collar area similar to Buffalo. He understands the people and they can relate to him.
Tracking Doug Marrone’s Growth As A Coach
Doug Marrone was named the New York Jets’ Offensive Line Coach in 2002, serving under offensive coordinator Paul Hackett, the father of current Buffalo Bills’ offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett. Hmmmm.
The Jets ran a west coast offense under Hackett, who had had great success at the University of Southern California operating the same scheme. The Jets’ defensive coordinator at the time was Donnie Henderson. Coach Marrone spent four seasons with the Jets’, where running back Curtis Martin had some of his best years.
Doug Marrone served as the New Orleans Saints’ Offensive coordinator from 2006-2008 (Photo by Ann Heisenfelt/AP)
Following the 2005 season, the New Orleans Saints brought on Marrone as the team’s offensive coordinator. This would prove a big test for Marrone, as the Saints’ offense, based off Air Coryell concepts, rather than the west coast concepts that he was familiarized with during his time with the Jets.
However, Marrone and the Saints operated with a two back offense, utilizing Reggie Bush and Deuce McCallister, two polar opposites in terms of playing style. Each thrived in their individual roles, as the complementary duo combined for 3,277 yards and 53 carries during the three seasons under Coach Marrone’s watch.
Doug Marrone was an offensive lineman in the National Football League, and during his time with the Saints, the lineman he coached have had nothing but gratitude towards him. Jahri Evans, an All-Pro guard in the NFL had this to say about his experiences with Marrone, considering that he was a rookie when the new offensive coordinator was hired.
“He got me in the right direction and got me going,” Evans said. “He’s a great coach and that’s why he moved up so fast.”
Evans said that Marrone continuously stressed technique when coaching the offensive line in New Orleans and that never left the perennial All-Pro guard’s mindset.
Following the 2008 season, Syracuse University gave Marrone his first opportunity to be the head coach of a football team, where he took a program that posted a 10-37 win-loss record over the previous four seasons, turned it around, and managed to finish 25-25 in the five years that he coached there.
(Photo by Sports Illustrated)
What Makes Marrone Such a Great Addition?
Unless Coach Marrone has Academy Award-level acting skills, he is one of the most realistic and down-to-earth coaches I’ve seen in my life. He’s everything a kid looks for in a coach. He takes the game personally, accepting responsibility when things don’t work out the way he’d hoped.
But at the same time, he’s seemingly a fun guy with a great sense of humor and this trait has been shown publicly, in the form of the “Slam Cam,” a game that was played by the Bills’ players throughout training camp.
@me The impossible! Freddy J Amazing slam on DM! #SlamCam Got em! …. COACH! (Buffalo Bills) https://t.co/0hj4N2XUeL
— Rob Quinn (@RQUINN619) December 6, 2013
Marrone, in his first year removed from coaching all college players, to a young team with a roster that contained 27 players who were three years or less removed from college.
He engaged with his players and always appeared to be upbeat, even lining up at center multiple times throughout training camp practices.
Doug Marrone isn’t the type of man to place blame on others. He’s ultimately in charge of the team, and he fully accepts responsibility for not only great performances, but the bad ones as well.
The Bills have been downright awful for the past 13 years. The 2013 season was expected to be a rocky end to an eventual rise. Without facing any pressure from fans, media or the front office, this was a season for Marrone to experiment.
(Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)
Instead, Marrone has turned those problems inward.
“My expectations are extremely high,” Marrone said, via the Buffalo News. “I’m very disappointed in myself, with where we are, and it starts with me.”
“I’ve got to find a way to get it better because I really believe that if I come across as the head coach and don’t have those expectations, then we’ll fall short of our goals at the end. I want to make sure that we’re accountable, starting with myself, and keeping those things extremely high and keep fighting for that. We can do that.
This coach is selfless and it seems like he’s all about winning, and doing it the right way. For the first time in my 22-year old life, I feel like the Buffalo Bills are finally headed in the right direction. Doug Marrone is a major part of that.
This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged Buffalo Bills, Doug Marrone by Robert Quinn. Bookmark the permalink.
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Economy-Finance-Markets
Finance-Business
US durable goods orders fall as dollar strength weighs »
« German consumer morale edges down going into April
AIB and BoI repaid 31% of bailout funds by end of 2015
Published 25.03.2016 | By Alex76
Total value of Irish Strategic Investment Fund rose almost 11% over first year
Cliff Taylor, Ciara O’Brien
The value of the Irish Strategic Investment Fund rose almost 11% in 2015.
AIB and Bank of Ireland had repaid 31 per cent of the bailout funds that they received from the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund by the end of last year, according to figures published yesterday.
Isif’s fourth quarter performance and portfolio update shows that the two banks had returned €6.4 billion in receipts to the State agency, by the end of last year, of the €20.7 billion they received between 2009 and 2011 from the former National Pensions Reserve Fund, which Isif has replaced.
Bank of Ireland had repaid €4.2 billion of the €4.7 billion it received while AIB had paid €2.2 billion out of €16 billion it was given. The funds from AIB were received last year and related to €1.9 billion for the conversion of some of the State’s preference shares and a dividend payment on those shares.
Isif said the State’s holding in AIB was worth €11.7 billion at the end of 2015. This was the same figure as the previous year but the mix was different.
Preference shares
The 2014 valuation included the value of the preference shares – breaking down as €7.2 billion for the ordinary stock and the balance in preference shares.
A reorganisation of AIB’s capital last year has altered that mix. In addition to receiving a cheque from AIB the State also received 155 billion ordinary shares as part payment for the conversion of the preference stock. This resulted in its holding in the bank increasing marginally to 99.9 per cent.
AIB also consolidated the number of shares in issue, as a precursor to a potential flotation this year. Taking this consolidation into account, AIB’s shares were worth€3.43 each in 2014 with Isif valuing them at €4.33 at the end of last year, an increase of 26 per cent.
The Isif figures estimate that, in total, the remaining stakes in AIB and Bank of Ireland are worth €13.5 billion. This compares with €15 billion in the previous year when the AIB preference shares were still in issue.
The payment from AIB for the preference shares was remitted to the exchequer under direction by the Minister for Finance Michael Noonan and will be used to pay down the State’s national debt in due course.
The AIB holding is part of the €13.5 billion directed portfolio of investments made by Isif, which is under the direction of the minister and also includes public policy investments in Bank of Ireland (the State still owns close to 14 per cent of its shares) and Strategic Banking Corporation, which has received €240 million.
The portfolio generated a 15.3 per cent return on its investment over the year.
Discretionary portfolio
The fund also includes a discretionary portfolio that comprises equity investments, government bonds and has €7.9 billion at its disposal.
That generated a 1.5 per cent return since the fund’s investment on December 22nd 2014.
Overall, the value of the fund’s holdings rose almost 11 per cent in its first year since taking over from the National Pensions Reserve Fund.
Isif is also developing a connectivity fund that will work to enhance physical and virtual connectivity both within and for the State, with €335 million at its disposal.
Isif was set up as a successor to the National Pensions Reserve Fund in 2014, aimed at investing on a commercial basis to support economic activity and employment in the State. By December 2015, it had committed €2 billion to investments in Ireland, and was close to completing on six investments with a value of €200 million.
http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/aib-and-boi-repaid-31-of-bailout-funds-by-end-of-2015-1.2585690
Economy-Finance-Markets © 2015 Business
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...we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain ... Remember Dec. 7th!
Flags; Propaganda; Patriotism; War posters
Tattered and torn U.S. flag flies at half-staff as dark smoke billows in the background.
1895, Postal Guide Issued by the Letter Carriers of San Jose
An 1895 guide to the postal services offered to the City of San Jose.
1899, Jubilee Celebration: San Jose, Dec 20, Address of Elisha W. McKinstry
Speechwriting; Public speaking;
Address of Elisha W. McKinstry, Vice President of the Society of California Pioneers. As part of the Jubilee Celebration in San Jose on December 20, 1899.
The Bell (1908 January)
The Bell. San Jose High School Yearbook.
The Bell (1910 June)
1912 Cyrus Jones' party of pioneer friends
Pioneers;
A photograph of local pioneer family members with guest minister of the First Presbyterian Church. Names, dates of birth and the year of the subjects arrival to San Jose is listed on the back.
1915 San Jose, Seventeenth Street Improvements
This is a map of Seventeenth Street from Washington Street to Julian Street that the City of San Jose had planned on improving including; San Jose, Seventeenth Street, 17th Street, Washington Street, Julian Street
1915 San Jose, William Street Improvements
This is a map of William Street between Eighth Street and Ninth Street that the City of San Jose had planned on improving; includes William Street, 8th Street, Eighth Street, 9th Street, Ninth Street.
This is a map of William Street between Fifth Street and Sixth Street that the City of San Jose had planned on improving including; William Street, Fifth Street, 5th Street, 6th Street, Sixth Street.
This is a map of William Street between Eighth Street and Ninth Street that the City of San Jose had planned on improving including; William Street, 8th Street, Eighth Street, 9th Street, Ninth Street
This is a map of William Street between Sixth Street and Ninth Street that the City of San Jose had planned on improving including; William Street, 6th Street, Sixth Street, 7th Street, Seventh Street, 8th Street, Eighth Street, 9th Street, Ninth...
The Bell (1915 February)
1916 San Jose, San Carlos Street Improvements
This is a map of San Carlos Street from Dupont Street to Delmas Avenue that the City of San Jose had planned on improving. Includes; San Carlos Street, Dupont Street, Delmas Avenue, Lorraine Avenue, Josefa Street, Columbia Avenue, Gifford Ave,...
1916 San Jose, Seventeenth Street at Washington
This is a map of Seventeenth Street at Washington Street that the City of San Jose had planned on improving. Including; Seventeenth Street, 17th Street, Washington Street
This is a map of Seventeenth Street at Julian Street that the City of San Jose had planned on improving including San Jose, Seventeenth Street, 17th Street, Julian Street
This is a map of Seventeenth Street at Empire Street that the City of San Jose had planned on improving including; San Jose, Seventeenth Street, 17th Street, Empire Street
The February 1916 school yearbook for San Jose High School, titled 'The Bell.'
Bronze statue of John Steinbeck
Art; Authors; Sculpture
The bronze statue of John Steinbeck located in front of the John Steinbeck Library, in Salinas, California. The Soroptomist Club of Salinas donated the statue which has been on display since Dec. 1971.
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EU-Latin America Summit in Vienna
The Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) told journalists that when the Prime Minister arrived in Vienna, he had met the Taoiseach informally. He then went to a session with Prime Minister Bachelet of Chile, and he then met President Lula of Brazil. The Prime Minister would also meet President Fox of Mexico, as well as Chancellor Merkel. The Prime Minister had attended the first working session on climate change and energy this morning, and he would have informal discussions with several other leaders over a lunch. This afternoon, the Prime Minister would attend a working session on trade, and there would also be a session with President Barosso of the European Commission as well. The PMOS said that as people could see, he had also done a short press conference, with the main focus being on trade, and pensions.
Briefing took place at 12:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)
Asked what the Prime Minister had said about pensions, the PMOS replied that what reflected the Prime Minister's view was that we needed to take a step back and recognise that deciding the future of pensions was one of the biggest decisions and issues that the Government could face. With the help of Lord Turner, however, we did now have a basis for moving forward within Government. The basis was that the Prime Minister believed this would form the core of the consensus in the country as a whole about the way to move forward on pensions. The final details were being worked out, but we would see again the link with earnings within the broad timescale as outlined by Lord Turner. The PMOS said that he was not going to get into further details, as the final details were still being arranged, but there was a broad agreement within Government, and it was a significant achievement by any standard.
Human Rights Act
Asked if the Human Rights Act had been abused by some criminals and lawyers, the PMOS replied that as he had said yesterday afternoon, first and foremost, we had to address the question that had been raised by legal experts, that we should not mix up the Human Rights Act and the European Convention, and we had to be careful about that. Secondly, we should recognise that other countries in Europe were signatories to both, and they did not have the problems that we had. These were matters that in particular cases were being tested before the courts, and the Prime Minister had made clear his determination to do everything to ensure that public safety and public concern on these matters was addressed, and he would continue to do so.
President Chavez-Latin America
Put that last time President Chavez visited in 2001 he saw The Queen and the Prime Minister, but this time, he was not doing so, and was the complete breakdown of communication with a major oil producer a good thing, the PMOS replied that in terms of the visit, it was a private visit, and he was not going to comment on private visits. With regards to Latin America as a whole, yes, countries like Venezuela were important countries, but we should not lose sight of the overall picture in Latin America, and the overall direction there. If people looked at the role President Lula, or President Fox, for example, was playing, it was a vitally important role. The dialogue took place at many different levels throughout Latin America, and we should not lose sight of that picture.
Briefing took place at 12:00 | Read whole briefing | Comment (1)
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Cryin' (Joe Satriani song)
"Cryin'" is a song by American hard rock band Aerosmith. It was written by Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, and Taylor Rhodes. It was released by Geffen Records on June 20, 1993 as a single from their April release, Get a Grip. The single went gold and sold 600,000 copies. The song's music video features Alicia Silverstone, Stephen Dorff and Josh Holloway.
The music video for the song, directed by Marty Callner, features the first appearance of Alicia Silverstone in the band's videos, as well as the band performing in the Central Congregational Church in Fall River, Massachusetts. The Central Congregational Church also happens to be the same church that Lizzie Borden attended. The song flashes back and forth between the band and Alicia Silverstone, who plays a teen who has a falling out with her boyfriend (played by Stephen Dorff) after catching him cheating. She feigns an attempt to kiss him, but instead leans away annoying him. She then punches him and shoves him out of the car leaving him in the dust. She begins a phase of rebellion and individuality and gets a navel piercing, which has largely been credited as introducing navel piercing to mainstream culture. After having her purse stolen by another young man (played by then-unknown Josh Holloway of Lost), she chases him down and knocks him to the ground. The video then cuts to her standing on the edge of an overpass bridge, contemplating jumping. Her ex-boyfriend arrives on the scene, along with numerous police officers, encouraging her to come down from the overpass. She jumps, but a rope is revealed, arresting her fall and leaving her dangling over the freeway, laughing at Dorff's character. The video ends with the dangling Silverstone looking up at Dorff and giving him the finger.
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - https://wn.com/Cryin'
Crying is the shedding of tears in response to an emotional state. The act of crying has been defined as "a complex secretomotor phenomenon characterized by the shedding of tears from the lacrimal apparatus, without any irritation of the ocular structures". A related medical term is lacrimation, which also refers to non-emotional shedding of tears. Crying is also known as weeping, wailing, whimpering, and bawling.
For crying to be described as sobbing, it usually has to be accompanied by a set of other symptoms, such as slow but erratic inhalation, occasional instances of breath holding and muscular tremor.
A neuronal connection between the lacrimal gland (tear duct) and the areas of the human brain involved with emotion has been established. There is debate among scientists over whether or not humans are the only animals that produce tears in response to emotional states.Charles Darwin wrote in The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals that the keepers of Indian elephants in the London Zoo told him that their charges shed tears in sorrow.
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - https://wn.com/Crying
"Cryin'" is a single by guitarist Joe Satriani, released in 1992 through Relativity Records. The single contains two instrumental tracks from his Grammy-nominated fourth studio album The Extremist, with "Cryin'" reaching No. 24 on the U.S. Billboard Mainstream Rock chart.
All music composed by Joe Satriani.
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - https://wn.com/Cryin'_(Joe_Satriani_song)
Cryin', Great White
Cryin', Chris Isaak
Cryin', K-Otic
Cryin', VON BONDIES
Cryin', Jeff Paris
Cryin', Eric Clapton
Cryin', Doro Pesch
Cryin', Ringo Starr
Cryin', Aerosmith
Cryin', The Von Bondies
Cryin', Boston
Cryin', Doro
Cryin', Jeff Scott Soto
Cryin', Vixen
Lately I've been tryin'
To have a word or two
Waitin' for a moment
To get to you
As I've been restrainin'
What I need to say
Silence gets misunderstood
Some way
Now it's time to sit right down
And make my point of view
Otherwise, oh, love of mine
I'll fall away from you
Woman, I'm a singer
That's all I'll ever be
Give n' take n' don't complicate
The simple harmonies
There's nothing I need from you
That you should keep from me
Nothing that you hold
Sets you free
And all I have, these simple words
That I will give to you
He's the fool who won't reach out
And tries to play it cool
I'm cryin'
Baby, I'm cryin'
And it feels like I'm dyin'
'Cause I can't get next to you
Darlin', come on and hold me
I need a one and only
Baby, hear me when I say
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Tag Archives: GRI Gold Community
Stepping Up in the Virus Crisis: Leaders in the Oil & Gas Sector
Posted on April 14, 2020 by Hank Boerner
G&A Institute Team Note
We continue to bring you news of private (corporate and business), public and social sector developments as organizations in the three societal sectors adjust to the emergency. This is post #16 in the series, “Excellence in Corporate Citizenship on Display in the Coronavirus Crisis”.
13 April 2020 #WeRise2FightCOVID-19 “Corporate Purpose – Virus Crisis”
By Sarah El-Miligy – Sustainability Reporting Analyst-Intern, G&A Institute
The Oil and Gas Sector has already taken strong hits due to the OPEC+ conflict and the Saudi-Russian oil price war prior to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic.
The worldwide pandemic was the second hit this year that has dramatically affected the oil and gas industry, causing significant disruption with long-term harmful consequences.
According to the IEA, for the 1st time since 2009 the global demand for oil is expected to fall by 2.5 million barrels per day in the 1st quarter of 2020.
These negative consequences are expected to extend out to 2022.
However, the industry’s recovery given the amount of damage caused by the virus can’t be predicted at this stage, given the evolving nature of the coronavirus and the widespread impact on the global society.
The oil and gas industry has had to take a major step back — as have many different industries across the globe – due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Largest of the Oil & Gas Companies
The top industry players are found to be ready to fight back and help to mitigate the drastic effects of the pandemic and to support their communities through a strong global response.
Despite being financially-affected due to the decline in production, travel restrictions, drop in oil demand and lower oil prices resulting from the pandemic, many companies in the industry have contributed to the global efforts taken in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
For example, some by directing considerable amount of funds to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund as a part of their demonstration of social responsibility towards their employees, customers and the communities where they operate.
Looking at the top 10 O&G companies, some of them have invested in research and innovation, even shifting their production lines and putting their technical knowledge and financial resources in use in order to help fighting the battle against the virus. Other companies had a quick response and supplied key protection products used by the healthcare professionals.
On the internal front, the oil and gas companies have shown immediate responses to guarantee the safety of their employees and customers.
This begins with updating their health and safety protocols and constantly introducing new, up-to-date protection policies in order to ensure the safety of their dispersed staff.
Social distancing measures have been one of the premier precautionary actions adopted and stressed upon industry-wide.
In response to the many negative impacts of the pandemic, the major players in the oil and gas industry — such as BP, ExxonMobil, Total, Chevron — have demonstrated significant Corporate Citizenship practices while dealing with the current crisis at all levels.
I’ve compiled 10 corporate examples for you:
1- ExxonMobil
ExxonMobil Global Response to the COVID-19 Crisis
According to the company’s official website the efforts by the Oil & Gas giant in fighting COVID-19 include:
Supporting vulnerable communities, specially in the most infected countries through financial donations, subsidized fuel supply and providing other significant products required to address the COVID-19 challenges.
Investing in research and development, producing an innovative reusable personal protection equipment to the healthcare staff and other consumers.
Taking a number of measures to slow the spread of the virus in many European and Asian countries.
Directing operations to focus on manufacturing ingredients such as isopropyl alcohol, which is used in the production of hand sanitizers, alcohol wipes and disinfectant sprays.
Implementing health and safety precautionary actions in order to protect the employees such as applying restrictions on business travel, as well as applying working from home and social distancing policies.
In terms of customer safety, ExxonMobil has increased the safety and hygiene levels in all their stations and stores. As well as applying online payment where available in order to limit the money transactions.
Implementing a 14-day work-from-home policy for individuals traveling from locations with sustained community transmission, as defined by the U.S. NIH and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
West Texas Food Bank Initiative
ExxonMobil is supporting hunger relief in the Midland-Odessa area and across West Texas with a US$100,000 donation to the West Texas Food Bank to help those facing difficult economic circumstances resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Supporting Online Education
ExxonMobil supports Online Education with $100,000 funds for Carlsbad Municipal Schools in response to the distance-based education policies due to the coronavirus outbreak. 14 schools in the district have been closed affecting 7,000 students. This funding will support providing low-income students with the needed equipment and internet connectivity facilitating the transition to online learning.
The Global Center for Medical Innovation Partnership
ExxonMobil is aware of the scarcity of protective masks and responded by manufacturing reusable protective masks to help solve the problem, in collaboration with the Global Centre for Medical Innovation (GCMI).
The mask would use disposable cartridges containing filter fabrics and would withstand sterilization. Because of this, it would not need to be replaced. The company and center stated that the new mask design covered the mouth and nose even better than existing N95 masks.
Prototypes are currently being tested and reviewed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
If/when approved, production will begin immediately, with ExxonMobil supporting the identification of manufacturers familiar with the materials and process to quickly deliver the masks to doctors, nurses and health care providers.
Once approved, manufacturers indicate they will be able to produce as many as 40,000 ready-to-use masks and filter cartridges per hour
https://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/my-business-wire/
https://corporate.exxonmobil.com/
2- BP
The Corporation Supporting Communities
The BP Foundation will donate $2 million USD to the WHO COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund to support medical professionals and patients worldwide by providing critical aid and supplies. The Solidarity Response Fund also helps track and understand the spread of the COVID-19 virus and supports efforts to develop tests, treatments, and ultimately, a vaccine.
In Brazil, BP is following a different approach, allocating their own resources (ethanol from sugarcane used normally in fuel) to use them as a disinfectant, not only for their employees use but also distributing it to local health services to help close to 1.4 million people in danger and risk of infection.
BP also started offering free fuel to emergency service vehicles in the United Kingdom, as well as supplying free fuel to jets that serve as air ambulances there, along with their continuous support to the efforts in Australia, Spain, Turkey and Poland to control the pandemic.
In the UK, emergency service vehicles can refuel for free at BP retail stations as well as supplying free fuel to air ambulances. In additional, supporting similar efforts in Spain, Turkey, Poland, and Australia.
And in Germany where they have provided fuel cards to health care workers.
BP Turkey will provide free fuel to ambulances operated by the Ministry of Health Istanbul Directorate to support the fight against COVID-19
Source https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/news-and-insights/covid-19-bp-response.html
3- Total Group
France today is one of the most affected countries with high numbers of coronavirus cases, and the nation’s companies are responding to the pandemic spreading.
The French oil & gas player “Total Group” has been consulting with the French health authorities to supply the healthcare staff in France with gasoline vouchers worth up to 50 million Euros that can be used at Total stations across the country.
The company has provided the hospitals’ professionals with a telephone number and an email published on their website in order to receive their vouchers.
“In this period of crisis, Total’s teams remain mobilized to enable French people to make all their necessary travel arrangements. With its nationwide network, Total is working alongside those who are fighting the epidemic everywhere. Which is why the Group has decided to make this practical gesture of support for our hospital staff, who are working to ensure the health of patients.” – Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and CEO of Total
Moreover, the Total Foundation will contribute €5 million to the Pasteur Institute and to hospital and health associations involved in the fight against COVID-19.
Source https://www.total.com
4- Shell
Shell is doing many things to keep their customers, colleagues and communities safe. These include carrying out enhanced cleaning operations, increasing stocks of sanitation products and other essential goods, social distancing, working from home policies and health monitoring for teams at retail sites
Caring for the community:
Shell has also increased the production of some of the key products which is used in manufacturing soaps and sanitizers in response to COVID-19
Shell Manufacturing plants in the Netherlands and Canada are diverting their resources to produce isopropyl alcohol (IPA) as fast as they can. IPA makes up about half the content of the hand-sanitizing liquids being used to keep the virus down around the world.
The Shell team is also working closely with governments to keep track of and help meet evolving needs. On March 20, Shell announced that it would make 2.5 million liters of IPA — roughly equivalent to an Olympic-sized swimming pool — available free of charge for the Dutch healthcare sector.
On March 31, the Government of Canada listed Shell Canada as one of the Canadian companies that has stepped up to help during this crisis. Shell is donating 125,000 litres of IPA to the Government of Canada free of charge over the next three months to help the Canadian healthcare sector.
5- Chevron Corporation
US operator Chevron has also donated $7 million to food banks, education and health services, and is matching employee donations two-to-one, in an initiative to integrate their employees in the world goal in fighting the pandemic. Actions:
$500,000 has been allocated to purchase the required equipment of online learning to the Donors Choose program, “Keep Kids Learning”.
Helping to fund emergency services in remote parts of Western Australia and providing medical supplies to hospitals in Thailand.
More than $2 million has been granted to the American relief efforts in several U.S./ states and an additional $2 million to match 2:1 employee contribution to U.S.-based nonprofits.
6- Valero
In a similar effort, the large refining company Valero has elected to donate $1.8m to fight the virus in the cities where it operates.
7- OMV
Austrian oil, gas and petrochemical company OMV is donating $1.09m of fuel cards to the Austrian Red Cross and Caritas Austria, a food and shelter charity.
OMV Chairman and CEO Rainer Seele said: “These aid workers accomplish great things. We are helping them get around, which is an essential factor in delivering provisions and support to people in need as well as emergency aid”.
8- Sinopec
Sinopec Corp., China’s leading energy and chemical company, has shown support and solidarity to the international community by supplying 10,256 tones of “much-needed bleaching powder” to more than 10 affected countries including Italy, France, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand and Vietnam.
The company has allocated limited time in their Yanshan Factory in Beijing to manufacture fabrics that are put in use to make the N95 disposable masks. They got this assembly line running in just 12 days in order to cover the shortage in fabrics required to manufacture these masks to help give back to the society.
Source http://www.sinopecgroup.com/group/en/Sinopecnews/20200327/news_20200327_696607861362.shtml
9- Southern Company Gas
Atlanta-based Southern Company Gas and its subsidiaries have committed a total of $4.85 million in support of communities affected by the coronavirus outbreak.
The Southern Company Gas Charitable Foundation will award $2.5 million in support of several human services organizations — including Meals on Wheels, American Red Cross, the Salvation Army, and United Way, in seven states,.
The Alabama Power Foundation and Georgia Power Foundation have each pledged $1 million and the Mississippi Power Foundation has pledged $350,000 to the effort.
Source https://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=257009
https://scgcares.org/
10- Sempra Energy
In San Diego, California, Sempra Energy Foundation has established a $1.75 million Nonprofit Hardship Fund to provide expedited grants ranging from $500 to $50,000 to small and midsize nonprofits serving the health, education, welfare, or social services in response to COVID-19 to the individuals and families in California, Texas, and Louisiana impacted by the coronavirus.
Source https://www.sempraenergyfoundation.org/pages/areas-of-giving/health-and-safety.shtml
This COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented worldwide crisis that not only affecting the oil & gas industry but every industry and household around the globe. In response, many of the top oil and gas players concluded that to help overcome the affects of this horrific crisis they have to give back to their communities, employees and customers and unit to do their part in supporting and mitigating these negative effects of the pandemic.
https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/03/covid19-fear-oil-market-mideast-coronavirus.html
https://www.offshore-technology.com/features/coronavirus-fight-charity-help-covid-19/
S arah El-Miligy is a Sustainability Reporting Analyst-Intern with G&A Institute. She was was graduated from the Faculty of Economic studies and Political science at Alexandria University, holding a bachelor degree in Political science and she is currently acting as a Teacher Assistant in scientific research methodologies and Diplomatic and Consular Relations in the political section department and a former international diplomacy coordinator with Ambassador Sameh Abu- El Enien – Deputy Foreign Minister and Director of the Egyptian Diplomatic Academy at Universidad Oberta de Cataluña.
Sarah El-Miligy is also a Sustainability Research Analyst in Egypt at DCarbon for Environmental and Sustainability Consultancy, the first and sole Certified Global Reporting Initiative Training Partner in Egypt and a member of the GRI Gold Community.
She has a broad experience in volunteering and working abroad with the European Union, United Nations and the League of Arab States — specifically in the fields of Sustainable Development, Climate Change, Peacebuilding and Women and Youth Empowerment.
This is another in our series – “Excellence in Corporate Citizenship on Display in the Coronavirus:. We bring you news of private (corporate and business), public and social sector developments as organizations in the three societal sectors adjust to the emergency.
New items will be posted at the top of the blog post and the items posted today will move down the queue.
We created the tag “Corporate Purpose – Virus Crisis” for this continuing series – and the hashtag #WeRise2FightCOVID-19 for our Twitter posts. Do join the conversation and contribute your views and news.
Do send us news about your organization – info@ga-institute.com so we can share. Stay safe – be well — keep in touch!
Posted in Business & Society, Cities & Sustainability, Corporate Citizenship, Corporate Governance, Corporate Purpose, Corporate Responsibility, Corporate Sustainability, The Corporate Citizen and Society | Tagged #WeRise2FightCOVID-19, #WeRise2FightCOVID19, "Keep Kids Learning", Alexandria University, Ambassador Sameh Abu- El Enien, American Red Cross, Australia, Austrian Red Cross, Beijing, BP, Brazil, Caritas Austria, Carlsbad Municipal Schools, CDC, CEO Patrick Pouyanne, CEO Rainer Seele, Chevron, Chevron Corporation, climate change, Corporate Purpose - Virus Crisis, DCarbon for Environmental and Sustainability Consultancy, Donors Choose, Excellence in Corporate Citizenship on Display, ExxonMobil, Food & Drug Administration, France, GCMI, Georgia Power Foundation, Global Centre for Medical Innovation, Government of Canada, GRI, GRI Gold Community, IEA, Italy, League of Arab States, Meals on Wheels, Mississippi Power Foundation, N95, NIH, Nonprofit Hardship Fund, Oil & Gas Sector, OMV, OPEC, Pasteur Institute, Poland, Russia, Salvation Army, Sarah El-Miligy, Saudi Arabia, Sempra Energy, Sempra Energy Foundation, Shell, Shell Canada, Sinopec, Southern Company Gas, Southern Company Gas Charitable Foundatino, Spain, Sustainable Development, Thailand, The Alabama Power Foundation, The Netherlands, Total, Total Foundation, Total Group, Turkey, Turkey Ministry of Health Instanbul Directorate, U.S. FDA, United Kingdom, United Way, Universidad Oberta de Cataluña, Valero, Vietnam, West Texas Food Bank Initiative, WHO, WHO COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, Women and Youth Empowerment, World Health Organization, Yanshan | 1 Reply
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Former GSA President Judith Kimble to chair National Medal of Science committee
Former GSA President Judith Kimble has been appointed by President Obama to chair the President’s Committee on the National Medal of Science. Established by Congress in 1959, the medal is considered to be the nation’s highest scientific honor and is “awarded to individuals deserving special recognition by reason of outstanding contributions to knowledge or the total impact of their work on the current state of the chemical, physical, biological, social or behavioral sciences; mathematics; or engineering.”
Judith Kimble, professor of biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
©UW-Madison University Communications
Photo by: Bryce Richter
Judith Kimble, PhD
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Vilas Professor of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Medical Genetics, and Cell and Regenerative Biology
University of Wisconsin–MadisonGSA President, 2000
Member, GSA Public Policy Committee, 2013–present
Member, GSA Nominating Committee, 2012
GENETICS Author, 2014, 2009, 2006, 2004, 2004, 2001, 2001, 2000, 1997, 1995, 1995, 1993, 1993, 1990, 1990, 1989, 1988, 1987
G3 Author, 2014
A number of GSA members have been honored with the National Medal of Science in past years.
The White House, “President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts,” July 28, 2015.
National Medal of Science
Worm CRISPR Workshop at the International C. elegans Meeting
GSA member Denise Montell gives Capitol Hill briefing
Genes to Genomes: a blog from the Genetics Society of America says:
[…] GSA president Judith Kimble currently serves as chair of the President’s Committee on the National Medal of […]
GSA Community in the News
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Kosachev: the success of the Islamic coalition depends on the ability to unite
MOSCOW, December 15. Islamic military coalition led by Saudi Arabia may be useful in the fight against terrorism in the case that the participants will leave aside the foreign policy strife, caused by ideological contradictions, and unite in the fight against radical Islamism. Such opinion on Tuesday was expressed by the Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on international Affairs Konstantin Kosachev.
Saudi Arabia announced the creation of an Islamic coalition against terrorism
In the Islamic military coalition under the leadership of Saudi Arabia to combat terrorism, included 34 States. In addition to Saudi Arabia, the coalition includes, in particular, Jordan, UAE, Pakistan, Bahrain, Turkey, Tunisia, Sudan, Somalia, Palestine, Qatar, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Egypt, Nigeria, Yemen. More than a dozen Islamic countries, including Indonesia, supported this Association.
“The stated attempt is to unite the Islamic countries against radical Islam, to dissociate, to separate, to oppose his religion with the threat of monopolization and discrediting extremist tendencies. If possible, if this coalition will allow its members to leave aside foreign policy strife, largely due to ideological contradictions, it can be useful in the context of anti-terrorist fight,” Senator wrote on his page on the social network Facebook.
Kosachev stressed that although, “the coalition invited not only Sunni, but some Shiite countries (e.g., Yemen, Lebanon and Bahrain),” without Iran and Iraq “to talk about a functioning and effective coalition in any case not necessary”.
According to the head of the international Committee of the Federation Council, the fight against international terrorism “depends now on the willingness and ability of countries facing a common threat, to act jointly for the purpose stated and not blame the sly single “hostile” regimes”. “While not explicitly so, and not because of anything, although attempts to write off all the failures the last time more than enough,” he said.
Kosachev believes that “the fact that the unification initiatives are multiplying, can be both good and bad sign”. “The whole question of match or mismatch of the declared slogans and real problems. Time will put everything in its place. If you have enough time,” he wrote.
PreviousKazakhstani tenge on Tuesday updated the record
NextSands: the Kremlin has not evaluated the Islamic coalition intends to review the details
The presidential Council discussed the conflict of interest of senior officials
Kudrin said the balance of Putin’s message to Fedarene
“Apple” the Congress will elect new party leadership
Medvedev will hold a meeting on control and supervision
Zhuravlev: “homeland” until Rutskoi promised support in the elections to the state Duma
Photo exhibition dedicated to the 20th anniversary of Russia’s membership in the Council of Europe was opened in Strasbourg
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Finland will buy a package of Gazprom in Gasum for 251,3 million euros
Moscow. December 18. Finland will buy a 25 percent package of Gazprom in Gasum for 251,3 million Euro, is spoken in the message of the government. The closing of the transaction is expected in early 2016.
As a result, the Finnish government consolidates 100% of Gasum.
Gazprom was going to sell their 25% in Gasum (75% owned by the Finnish government), but in early June the Deputy Chairman of Board of concern Alexander Medvedev explained the lack of news about the sale that “there were some issues with the owner, who hadn’t had a chance to settle”. The question of the sale of shares in Gasum even was submitted to the Board of Directors of “Gazprom”.
Gasum, for its part, said Friday that it has agreed with “Gazprom” on the revision of the contract terms on gas supplies before the start of the proceedings in the Stockholm arbitration.
Gasum Oy is engaged in import and distribution of natural gas in Finland. Last year the country bought in Russia 3,11 billion cubic meters of natural gas.
PreviousAliExpress has restored service of the Crimea
NextIn the Kremlin will study the business of children-headed Gulls, but can test for a conflict of interest
The Bank of Russia revoked the license of Ergobank
Exchange the Asia-Pacific region are rising on the news from the fed
The Central Bank of Iran: SWIFT announced the lifting of sanctions against Iranian banks
The speaker believes that the reduction of the key rate of the Central Bank in 2016
Crimea is implementing 75% of projects of the Federal program, said Aksenov
In Ukraine said that the train, sent by the “silk road”, reached the border of China
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B: major contractors of Turkey will stay in Russia to complete contracts
The Russian authorities have prepared a list of Turkish builders who carry out long-term contracts and can remain in the country despite restrictive measures imposed against Turkey.
MOSCOW, 24 Dec. The authorities of the Russian Federation made the list of Turkish construction companies will continue to work in Russia prior to the completion of existing contracts, among them Enka, Renaissance Construction, Odak Group, writes in Thursday newspaper “Kommersant”.
Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets said on Wednesday that Turkish formed a list of developers who will continue working in Russia after the introduction of Moscow’s restrictive measures against Ankara. According to Golodets, it included, first of all, those companies that have long-term contracts with Russia.
While there is a preliminary list that is not yet formally approved, told the newspaper one of the Federal officials. According to him, in the list are Enka, IC Ictas, Renaissance Construction, Ant Yapi and the number of companies operating not only in Moscow and the Moscow region, but in regions, among them Mebe and Odak Group. Another source in the government claims that these builders will leave Russia when I finish existing contracts. “New contracts to sign with them will not be”,— he said. The Ministry of construction refused to comment.
Relations of Russia and Turkey is experiencing a crisis after November 24, Turkish F-16 shot down in Syria, the Russian bomber su-24. The Russian President Vladimir Putin called it a “stab in the back” by the accomplices of terrorists. Ankara claims that the su-24 entered its airspace. The General staff of the Russian Federation stated that the plane boundary is not crossed, confirmed by Syrian air defenses. After the incident, the President signed a decree on measures to ensure national security and the special economic measures against Turkey.
Simultaneously to refuse the services of Turkish developers is impossible, says the interlocutor of the newspaper from among Federal officials. According to preliminary data, the total annual turnover is 30-50 billion rubles, of which 25-30% falls on Moscow and the Moscow region, another third in the cities. About 70% of the turnover of Turkish constructors account for revenue from contract works, the rest is the share of real estate development.
PreviousThe US company signed the first contract for the export of oil since the 70-ies
NextOil exports from Russia by the end of 2015 will grow by 7.5%
Sechin: Rosneft has no plans to reduce stake in Saras refinery below 12%
The first enterprise in Russia in the framework of the TOR started in Primorye
“Transneft” plans in the first quarter to sell subsidiary in Ukraine
Moscow credit Bank and Raiffeisen Bank United their ATM networks
Putin: the main macroeconomic indicators in Russia stable
Medvedev will hold a meeting on prospects of development of transport mechanical engineering
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Canon Fire and Gender Trouble
Christopher J. Lukasik
We all know the course. Survey of Literature in America to 1865. Or at least that’s what I call it. It goes by different names and assumes other shapes of course—as longstanding institutional forces tend to do–, but for many of us, it remains, for better or worse, a staple of our undergraduate teaching lives. And this is where I decided to teach The Story of Constantius and Pulchera.
I was worried at first. Perhaps I was asking too much of it. But there it stood on the syllabus. Taking its place–or shall I say–shoved into line alongside the usual suspects; all those authors my students had already learned to associate with the first half of the undergraduate American literature survey: Franklin. Emerson. Poe. Hawthorne. Douglass. Melville. Whitman. Dickinson. I tried to take it easy on Constantius and Pulchera by creating a “unit” on the culture of performance and the limitations of self-fashioning (pairing it with texts by Franklin, Equiano, and Occom among others). Little did I know how unnecessary this would be. The Story of Constantius and Pulchera more than held its own.
My students embraced this text almost as much as my other class refused Amelia (yes, I taught that one too!). In fact, many chose to write a two-page response on it for extra credit. They immediately identified its resonances with the other texts and subjects discussed in the course: comparing Pulchera’s captivity to those depicted in Rowlandson’s Narrative and The Female American); identifying the centrality of performance to its depiction of gender; struggling with the narrative’s simultaneous abandonment of probability and fidelity to a conventional hetero-normative marriage plot resolution. One particularly perceptive student noted how the novel departed from “the typical didactic, seduction narrative which advocates fidelity to patriarchy and convention.” Patriarchy, this student explained, is the very force that separates the lovers in the first place leaving only chance and an audience willing to suspend their belief to bring them back together. Its improbability, she argues, is the very substance of its critique.
Yet, perhaps the most surprising turn of our class discussion of The Story of Constantius and Pulchera was when the class began to reflect on their own conversation, on the emerging opposition between the responses of male and female students in the class which transformed our discussion of gender in the text to one about gender and texts. Most (but not all) of the women in the class—and they were also the majority of students in the course—defended the text’s improbable plot and embraced its picaresque moments in ways that the less generous male imagination—at least for this semester—seemed reluctant to do.
The women in the course were also, unsurprisingly, far more sensitive to how the novel challenged conventional gender roles. One woman found Pulchera’s defiance of her father almost more shocking than her months cross-dressing as a man and this student speculated that late eighteenth-century female readers (to whom the novel is addressed) were even more likely to have felt the same way. Another remarked that “during the time Pulchera spends dressed as a male, she is more of the conventional male hero than Constantius is throughout the text.” In fact, as the student above suggested, the novel’s improbability—its generic departure from norms—is what might open up a space for its critique. By the time the bell rung, the class had gone so far as to debate whether there was something “feminine” about the romance as a genre, one whose positive value—however it might be understood, overlooked, or misrepresented–would be criticized historically (in favor of more normative/patriarchal texts) and whose legacies might continue to inform reading and writing practices today (especially with respect to the enormous popularity and yet continued critical denigration of the romance, the soap opera/telenovella, and, yes, 50 Shades of Grey even entered into the discussion at this point!).
In sum, The Story of Constantius and Pulchera proved to be a wonderful addition to the standard first half of American literature survey course as it complicates in very productive and provocative ways how students have come to understand gender, authorship, the genre of the novel, and the canon. I found it works well with both familiar survey texts by Rowlandson, Franklin and Equiano as well as less canonical works such as The Female American.
Many thanks to Duncan and Ed for their splendid edition of this text and the opportunity to share it with my students!
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Georgy Ketoev
(Redirected from Georgy Ketoyev)
Georgy Ketoyev (Ossetian: Четиты Важайы фырт Геуæрги; born 19 November 1985 in Tbilisi, Georgian SSR) is a Russian naturalized Armenian freestyle wrestler of Ossetian descent. He won a bronze medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics, beaten by Revaz Mindorashvili of Georgia whom Ketoev had previously beaten.
Ketoev in 2012
Representing Armenia
2017 Paris 97 kg
Representing Russia
Men's Freestyle wrestling
2008 Beijing 84 kg
2007 Baku 84 kg
2008 Tampere 84 kg
2009 Vilnius 96 kg
The Russian took the gold medal at the World Championship in Baku (2007) in the 84 kg category, by defeating Jousop Abdusalomov of Tajikistan. It was Ketoev's first time as a world teamer. He won the spot on the Russian team over past World Champions Sazhid Sazhidov and Adam Saitiev. Ketoev won the Junior World Championship in 2005 and had only one finish below first in world-level competition, which was a second-place finish in 2005 at the World Cup.
Ketoev took the silver medal at the European Championship in Vilnius (2009) in the 96 kg weight class, losing to Khetag Gazyumov from Azerbaijan in the finals.
The Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games
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This biographical article relating to a Russian sport wrestler or wrestling coach is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
This article about a Russian Olympic medalist is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Georgy_Ketoev&oldid=952442220"
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Pierre Renoir
For the Canadian painter, see Pierre Roland Renoir.
Pierre Renoir (21 March 1885 – 11 March 1952) was a French stage and film actor. He was the son of the impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir and elder brother of the film director Jean Renoir. He is also noted for being the first actor to play Georges Simenon's character Inspector Jules Maigret.
Pierre Renoir in the American trailer for Children of Paradise (1945)
(1885-03-21)21 March 1885
11 March 1952(1952-03-11) (aged 66)
Véra Sergine
1 Life and career
Life and careerEdit
Pierre Renoir was born on 21 March 1885 in Paris, at 18 rue Houdon, about a hundred meters from place Pigalle, to painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Aline Charigot.[1] He was married to actress Véra Sergine from 1914 to 1925.
For his best remembered role, as Jėricho the ragman in Children of Paradise (Les Enfants du Paradis,1945), he was cast at short notice to replace the collaborator Robert Le Vigan; Jėricho's scenes had to be reshot after Le Vigan fled. Renoir was briefly the director of the Théâtre de l'Athénée in Paris, taking over after the death of Louis Jouvet in 1951. Pierre Renoir's son was the cinematographer Claude Renoir (1913–93)[2]—not to be confused with Pierre's brother Claude Renoir, known as 'Coco' (1901–69).[3]
La Digue (1911)
Marion Delorme (1918)
The Whirlpool of Fate (1925)
Morgane, the Enchantress (1928)
The Agony of the Eagles (1933)
Veille d'armes (1935)
The Citadel of Silence (1937)
La Marseillaise (1938)
Mollenard (1938)
The Lafarge Case (1938)
The Patriot (1938)
Personal Column (1939)
Coral Reefs (1939)
Serge Panine (1939)
The Pavilion Burns (1941)
The Trump Card (1942)
Traveling Light (1944)
St. Val's Mystery (1945)
Les Enfants du paradis (1945)
Special Mission (1946)
The Farm of Seven Sins (1949)
The Ferret (1950)
Dr. Knock (1951)
Judgement of God (1952)
^ Pharisien, Bernard (November 2003). Pierre Renoir (in French). Bar-sur-Aube: Némont. ISBN 978-2-913163-10-2. OCLC 70158287. Archived from the original on 5 December 2008. Retrieved 24 April 2010.
^ Eric Pace "Claude Renoir, 79, A Cinematographer With a Painter's Eye", New York Times, 13 September 1993
^ "Renoir mss., ca. 1913-1968", Indiana University Online Archives
Pierre Renoir on IMDb
This article about a French stage actor is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
This article about a French film actor is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pierre_Renoir&oldid=990455234"
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Electric Problem
I just got an electric bill for a little under $300 a few days ago.
Up to this point, I'd been paying about $60 a month. According to my bills, I'd used around 180 kilowatt-hours a month. This time, my bill says I've used 1,170 kWh in the last 34 days.
Let me give you a picture of my electricity use. I use an electric oven, refrigerator, and hot water heater. I have about five ceiling lights, the two I use most often are CFL bulbs. I have a laptop, printer, speaker, external hard drive and cell phone charger all plugged into a power strip, which I switch off when I'm not using any of the devices. I have two halogen reading lamps I use sparingly.
There was only one thing I thought could change my bill this much: electric heaters.
True, I had used electric heaters once or twice, about half an hour every couple of days. At first I assumed that must be the culprit. They're big power drainers.
But after running around to make sure they were all unplugged, I stopped to think for a second. According to these bills, they would be responsible for roughly 1,000 kilowatt hours. Now lets do some math and physics.
One kilowatt hour is equal to 1000 watts times one hour. For example, a 100 watt bulb switched on for ten hours.
My heaters are rated at 1,500 watts each. That means it takes one 40 minutes to burn through one kilowatt hour. To make the math easier, lets say I had them on for 40 minutes at a time instead of 20 or 30. In fact, lets say I had them on for that long every day for the last thirty days. That would put an additional 30 kWh on my bill.
My usage didn't increase by 30 kWh. It increased by 1,000 kWh.
I talked to my friends. One told me that the highest bill they ever had was in the middle of the summer when they had two air conditioners running roughly twenty hours a day every day. They used something around 350 kWh. Another set of friends has electric heaters on most hours of the day, plus two computers and countless electronic devices always on. Their last bill was for 300 kWh.
So I thought the reading must have been a mistake. Maybe I'd used 170 instead of 1,170. I called my apartment super and asked him to take a look. He just did.
Not only was the meter reading correct on my bill, but in the five days since it was taken, my apartment has apparently burned through almost 50 more kWh. I wasn't even home most of that time.
Something is seriously wrong here.
When he took the reading, we had switched off all the circuit breakers in my apartment. The meter wasn't moving. I'm leaving for Seattle tomorrow, and on my way out, I'm going to switch them all off again. He's going to take another reading tomorrow, then yet another when I get back on New Years Eve.
Either someone is stealing my electricity, or starting mid November there is now something very, very wrong with my wiring.
Posted by Joel R. Putnam at 8:53 AM 3 comments
The Santa Claus Army
I've been a in a few places where crowds of people have drunkenly started to sing their national anthem for no apparent reason. This weekend was the first time I'd seen it happen in my own country.
There was something strangely appropriate about it. It was inside of a packed bar in Greenwich Village, New York City. About 90% of the people inside were dressed as Santa Claus. Most of them were highly inebriated. The bar was about as big as the pizza shop pictured to the left, only with about 90+ more people inside. A random dozen decided this was the perfect moment to start singing The Star Spangled Banner. Most of the rest joined in.
It was a bunch of young Americans getting terrifically drunk off of cheap light beer in America's most trendy neighborhoods in its biggest city dressed as the non-religious image of the biggest holiday in American culture, and coincidentally the biggest corporate spending and consuming season. All in the spirit of goodwill towards all. With a slight hint of irony, because, after all, this is New York, and Williamsburg (aka Hipstertown, USA) is only four stops away on the L train. Does it get more American than that?
Well, yes, probably, but only because "American" is such a fluid term these days.
The cause of all this? Santacon 2010. As organizers describe it, "non-denominational, non-commercial, non-political and non-sensical Santa Claus convention that occurs once a year for absolutely no reason."
If you were anywhere in the West Village after about 2:30pm yesterday, you could not have tossed a candy cane without hitting someone in a Santa outfit. Sometimes they had beards. Sometimes they had dresses. I'm pretty sure I saw at least one with both. I even saw two Jewish Santas, one in a blue Santa outfit with a star of David pendant at least two feet across, the other in a completely normal Santa costume, except for instead of the normal hat, he was wearing a huge, red, hasidic-style shtreimel. Most Santas around town were drinking, and occasionally making out with Mrs. Claus, elves, reindeer, and other Santas. Also smoking. There's something really funny about watching a dude in a Santa outfit light up a cigarette.
While I accept that this sort of event happens in many other places aside from New York City, I don't know of any place else where, the very next day, on my way to work I would end up running into two city blocks shut down for a Shiite celebration of Ashura. The Santas were hilarious, but the Shiia gave me free pizza. Shoukran and Salaam Alekum, folks.
Posted by Joel R. Putnam at 7:13 PM 0 comments
You know what's really comfortable? Sleeping under a white goose feather down comforter. A nice big one.
My brother sent me one as an early Christmas present. He read what I said here about my apartment building not having a central heating unit, and decided I could use something like that. I brought it home from the post office yesterday. A certain generous, highly intelligent, and attractive writer had given me her old futon the day before. I put away the leaky air mattress and the frame I saved from the trash heap, and set up my new bed.
I may be barely making my rent with my meager hours in my multiple day jobs, but that does mean I have a great deal of time on my hands. I'm pretty insistent on getting eight hours of sleep every night. I'm not behind. I thought I'd just get that again when I went to bed a little before midnight.
I woke up again well after 11am. That was a good night's sleep.
I rolled around and stretched, feeling like a happy, warm cat. Then I reached for my phone. I'd just been redesigning my sister's website and had found out very late last night that through a miscommunication, we'd cut off her new email. I wanted to see how urgent it was. I'd told her to call if it was, but with that comforter, I thought there was probably a good chance she'd called and I had slept right through it.
No missed calls. I flipped open my email. Tons of new messages. Naturally. Three got my attention right away, they were all from Actor's Access, my main platform for getting auditions. I submit a headshot and resume, and if the casting director likes me, they send me a message via something called "Cmail." The three messages' subject lines each read as follows:
3:03am- Cmail Notification
6:03am- Cmail Reminder
9:03am- Cmail- Final Reminder
I still can't believe how often showbiz expects you to check and respond to all messages. I followed the link from Email to Cmail and found an audition invitation. SAG short film agreement pending. They want me to read for the lead. Wow, fantastic. The catch? This lead character is a high school senior.
I vividly remember watching Back to the Future for the first time, and assuming the Michael J. Fox was playing the dad. When I realized he was supposed to be a high school kid, I was stunned, and almost offended. He looked thirty.
When I was sixteen, some friends of friends once mistook me for "somebody's dad or something." Now, I'm twenty-four. Dark hair and sensitive pale skin have given me a semi-permanent five-o-clock shadow. Leaving even my collar shirt button open often prompts other guys to joke pretend I'm challenging them to a chest hair competition. They usually lose. When I told the calculus student I tutor (an actual high school senior) today that these people want me to read for the part of a seventeen year old, she nearly fell on the floor laughing.
So, potentially, I might be following in some very famous footsteps. They just happen to be footsteps I once treated with disbelief and mild derision. Well, if they think I can act like a convincing high school senior next week, I'll be a high school senior again for them. Either way, I'll just have fun with this reading.
That's next week. Before that, tomorrow, I've got a callback with the Independent Actors Theater. After lunch with an old college friend, before a holiday party at Edge Studio, a birthday party for another college friend, and maybe a cast party for a hilarious stage adaptation of Tommy Wisseau's The Room. Life's still pretty good out here.
A couple months ago I came out here with a sublet, a bunch of college credits on my resume, a black and white photo taken by the father of a friend for my headshot (see the little one in the above?), and no job.
You are looking at my new acting headshot photo, to the left. I now have that, a professional acting credit on my resume from a New York theater in the middle of the Broadway theater district, a gig blogging for the most important entertainment industry publication in the city if not the country, four part time jobs that pay me and a fifth that compensates me in voiceover training, an agent that's interested in representing me, and my own one-bedroom apartment.
Cue giant nerdiness: I used to play a lot of video games where you would run around the first level doing tasks, fighting enemies etc until there'd be a little flash and you'd see the words "Level up!" and then a little summary about how all of your attributes have improved, and maybe you've developed some new skills, enabling you to progress further into the game. That's kinda what's happened here. I have levelled up from "Aspiring Actor" to "Beginning Professional Actor."
So. Next steps. My potential agent wants me to get some commercial credits or training on my resume, and will then feel comfortable sending me in for commercial auditions. I may stick with her-- the agency just moved here from Philly and is open about the fact that they'd be sending us back there for most of their auditions. Fine, except we have to foot the bill for travel expenses. I'm thinking I might be able to do better-- I haven't actually put any effort into finding an agent, these people just happened to get my resume from the showbiz expo thing I went to. So if I actually start marketing myself...
My one room apartment is actually the same sublet, only now it's in my name. It's actually grown on me a lot since I last wrote about it. With any luck I'll soon be sleeping on a full-size futon soon, instead of the air mattress plus frame found in the garbage pile. My jobs are all picking up so I think I'll soon be making more than I spend on rent and food, which is exciting. I've got a list tacked next to my desk of things to buy when I start making more than that. Probably half of it is furniture. Oh and I've got two little electric fan heaters from Target that heat the place up quickly and efficiently, plus my brother is giving me an early birthday present of a down comforter, so I'll be plenty warm at home this winter.
I'll complete my voiceover training and soon be able to submit myself with a professionally produced demo for jobs in that front. It's almost as competitive as general acting, but the pay is a lot better. So ideally someday I'll be able to support my "real" acting with my voice acting. In the meantime I'm tutoring a few students in calculus and physics, serving banquets, occasionally moving furniture, and soon, catering.
And as for acting, I just need to keep hitting up Actors Access, Backstage, and Mandy for breakdowns and auditions. And one of these days I'll saunter over to the equity cattle calls for kicks while I'm at it. I've got two different crews who told me before thanksgiving that they wanted me to audition in December, so I'm waiting to hear back from them. So a lot of waiting around, really. Submitting photos and waiting and hoping.
In the meantime, I'll just keep having fun in the city.
This is who it's for
This weekend was great reminder of one of my favorite things about being an actor. It's not quite on stage.
Almost four years ago, I was in a show called "Carthaginians" with University Theater. My character, Hark, spent a good amount of time downstage left, a foot or so from the front row seats. Our third performance, I crossed to the space and immediately recognized who was sitting in the two closest seats. I couldn't look at the faces, but I recognized the shoes. Sitting in front of me in the audience, near enough to reach out and touch, were one of my best friends in University Theater, and my girlfriend who had flown to Chicago from Seattle to see me. I teased them about being a distraction later, but I kind of loved it.
Just this last summer, at ReAct Theater in Seattle, my first professional gig, I was running late to one of my shows. I ran through the lobby about half an hour later than I should have been, and almost shot right past one of my mother's best friends from college. He was one of a huge gang of family friends there, and he told me that they had the entire third row. I didn't look directly, but I knew their laughs, and I could occasionally sneak in a glance. Just for kicks.
Then this last Saturday was the big night. I knew I had a couple people coming. But when I hit the stage, I immediately realized that the entire front row was filled with some of my best friends. From one of my college roommates, another two college friends, one of which I acted with twice and even traveled through a chunk of Europe with, to two of my best friends in New York in the CouchSurfing community, to one of my castmates from back on out reality show with NBC about studying abroad with his girlfriend.
Maybe someday, if I'm incredibly lucky, I'll be playing to big audiences in Broadway theaters or in a major motion picture. But even then, when I know that I've got friends and family in the audience, that will be more of a joy than the fame ever could be. Performing for the ones who really know me, and then getting to meet them after the show.
And this time, Saturday, I could look them right in the face.
You see, this wasn't quite like any show I'd ever done before. This had no respect for the fourth wall. This was laughing by audience interaction. It wasn't just sketch comedy, it was clowning. That meant that sometimes we picked people in the audience and picked on them until they and everyone around them laughed. It was... something outrageous.
What kind of outrageous? Well, aside from a lot of small roles in sketches, I had two major parts, both monologues, directed straight at the audience. Now, I don't get type cast much, luckily, but if I ever am wedged to a type, it's usually the brainy, slightly neurotic, lovable nerd. I've occasionally played tougher, more serious roles. An ex IRA terrorist/freedom fighter, for example. But I knew I was in for something different when, on the first day of rehearsal, I was one of the very few people immediately assigned a role and a script. The script began as follows:
"I've been a whore, gigolo, prostitute, whatever you want to call it for so long it seems to be the only thing I've ever been good at. My first client was one of my mother's friend's. I was 14. My mother was having a big dinner party, and Mrs McKenzie, the pastor's wife asked me to go down with her to the wine cellar. She said she needed some help from a strong, young man..."
That was the tame monologue. The other one starts out with me, surrounded by four dancing girls, declaring to the audience: "I love it when my girlfriend has an orgasm! Especially when I caused it!" You don't get away with saying that kind of anywhere but onstage. Especially when it evolves into playing yourself up as the famous superhero, Orgasm Man (flying from house to house, rescuing women from their mundane sex lives!).
I got to do four shows this last weekend. Two of them had big audiences. One of them was the first show on Saturday, when I had the most parts and when all my friends came this time. Easily my favorite show of the run. There's nothing quite like having all so many of your friends from completely different parts of your life come up after the show to laugh and congratulate you. Even after, or maybe especially after, you've just spent a good chunk of their time telling them all about how you've been a whore.
Posted by Joel R. Putnam at 10:35 PM 3 comments
So, How Did That First Show Go?
One week ago, I was in one of the performing casts of Something Outrageous at the 45th st theater, slated to perform Saturday at 7:30pm. By Tuesday, I was a member of two of the performing casts, Saturday at 7:30, and also at 9:30. On Friday I called my director-in-everything-but-title at 3pm and told him I'd finally gotten headshots for their press kits and sandwich boards, and asked if I could drop them off.
"Yeah. Great. Sure. Actually... can you perform tonight?"
I stopped in my tracks on the sidewalk.
"Um... I guess so. What time?"
"8:30 and 9:30. You'd need to be here at 5pm."
"...Okay."
"Great. See you then."
I was now a member of four performing casts.
The show is made up of comedic scenes and monologues. No two casts do exactly the same set of scenes, but they all draw form the same pool. So I could come in and do the scenes I did for one show easily for the other shows. Not only that, but I saw and heard multiple other actors doing my scenes. Each doing them slightly differently.
The first show had a packed but quiet house. I wish I could tell you exactly what I said, but I know a few more of you are coming to see the show, so I'll save the surprise for later. I'll post a couple highlights after the run is over. I got a few people to laugh, silently, but if there's one thing that scares the living daylights out of a comedy cast, it's an audience that does not laugh out loud. Morale backstage was not good.
Next show, we had three people in the audience. All women. Several scenes call for messing (very gently) with men in the front row. So I and the other two men of the Sunday cast were planted alongside the audience members until we were called upon to do our scenes. The three women laughed and catcalled more than the entire previous audience combined. So while the ticket sales freaked out the people in charge of the theater, we as a cast had the time of our lives.
Then came Saturday. Five shows in one night. Five casts in one tiny little Off-Off Broadway theater, each running through a last minute cue-to-cue with the feeling of an army regiment doing drills in basic training. Fortunately nobody was asked to do pushups. I was in the first and last shows, so I was in that theater from 3pm, when I'd first been asked in to run my biggest monologue with the director until well after 11pm, when the last show ended.
It was a bit of a comedy blur. The people running the open bar were taking every opportunity they could to promote double-fisting among audience members. The audiences were thin, unfortunately. Funnily enough this happens when the theater doesn't do any publicity. But, with the exception of the penultimate show (I wasn't in that cast, so I'm not sure what happened), they all loved it. Except for one particular writer who later gave me an earful about the style and the audience participation bits, but I think everyone else had a pretty good time (and even she said the acting was great).
And if you come next week, so will you. Here's the rundown if you want to see me.
Friday is not the night to see me unless you absolutely can't come on Saturday. If we do the same thing as last week (no promises, it could very easily change) I am featured in one scene at 8:30 on Friday, and have two bit parts at 9:30.
Saturday is much better. I've got two major roles and five cameos at 7:30, and one major role with five cameos at 9:30. The 7:30 show starts promptly on time. Last week, the "9:30" show went on a little after 10pm. Keep in mind that there is an open bar included in the ticket price, and it opens at 7:15. So if you come for the 9:30 show on time, that means a good half hour or more of drinking, if you're into that sort of thing. Seems most of this city is.
So, to recap, if you are in New York and have not yet seen me onstage, come to Something Outrageous at the 45th St Theater, at 354 45th Street, Saturday the 20th at 7:30pm or 9:30pm (or, failing that, Friday the 19th at 8:30pm or 9:30pm). Tickets are $25 and include open bar. Bring a crowd of 10 or more and you get a discount on the tickets. Come, watch, laugh loudly.
In New York? Come See My Show!
This is not the actual image for my show. this is just the first thing that comes up when you put "Outrageous" into Google image search. And therefore it quickly became the graphic for the Facebook event. Which is really all the publicity my show has had so far, and probably will have, beyond word of mouth.
The show is Something Outrageous and it's happening at the 45th Street Theater, 354 W 45th St, and it's opening this Saturday with performances at 7:30pm and 9:30pm.
If you've been paying attention, you'll notice that has some new information-- I'm now appearing not in one performance each night, but two. One of the guys in the 9:30 cast had to drop out because of an unspecified personal conflict. So I'm stepping in.
Both shows are $25, and include an open bar. Both shows are going to be hilarious. I'm slightly more heavily featured in the 7:30 one. That said, if you're coming mainly for the open bar, come for the 9:30 show. It will start at least 20 minutes late, and the bar will be open that whole night. The 7:30 will start promptly on time, and I'm not sure how much earlier the bar will be open, probably not much.
So, that's the vital info. But what is the show exactly? So glad that I pretended you asked! It's a sketch comedy show. Think Second City or Saturday Night Live. It's not improvised, but it's very similar in nature to improv. Most of the material is based on sex and dating, and the hilarity therein. If you bring the kids, they just won't get it. If you're offended by any of the following words: Orgasm, Breasts, Balls, Ass, or Corned Beef, then you probably shouldn't come either. Still reading? You'll love it.
Home Sweet Freezer
This is about half of my apartment's main living space. I wrote before that I was looking for places to move to. But the place has really started to grow on me. The neighborhood isn't fantastic, but it's better than I'd originally given it credit for. And the subway is just a couple minutes away. It will feel much better once I have some actual furniture in there. It faces away from the street, so it's quiet, yet the windows are big enough to let in a lot of natural light in the main room and bedroom. And besides, it is a one bedroom apartment in Manhattan for $1075, a price you couldn't get a studio for in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. That's cheap.
Now over the last week I've started to understand why it's so cheap.
In my month-to-month lease was strange rider. One of the clauses was that the tenant would be responsible for the costs of heating the place. When I called and asked about it, the landlord told me it was because each tenant had control over the heating system in their apartment, and therefore paid depending on how much they used. They said it would come out of the electrical bill.
I was dumb. I was also desperate, because I had only ten days to either sign back on with this place or find a new one, and finding a new one would be next to impossible because of my income. In New York City, almost all landlords expect documentation of annual income equal to or exceeding 30 times the rent to prove you can afford the place. Since my income is all as an independent contractor instead of a wage earning employee, that's almost impossible. Plus it was still hot enough in the apartment that I was spending most of my time in it wandering around shirtless. So I signed the lease and rider.
What should have occurred to me is that, if I was responsible for paying for heat, and that that heat came in through the electrical bill, then the three baseboard space heaters in my apartment just might be the only sources of heat in the place. As in the ones that we're pretty sure are fire hazards if you put anything near them.
It is now about forty degrees outside. When I wake up in the morning, my nose sometimes feels like it's an ice cube about to fall off my face. And it's only going to get colder. By at least another 20 degrees in January and February.
Since this unit was one my friend lived in before, I asked her how she managed. She said it was just by the baseboard heaters, and that it was still pretty cold. Not only that, but when she used the heaters only when she was at home, her electric bill in February went all the way up to $150.
NY housing law mandates central heating systems in all apartments unless a permit is granted to allow an electric heating system. That appears to be what I have. But I looked on the Department of Buildings website and found that my building doesn't seem to have any permits. It also has a dozen or so violations that have all been dismissed by inspectors, no details available online except for one in 1995: it has the note"NO BOILER, ELECTRIC HEAT ONLY."
I haven't called the landlords to ask about it yet because I'm not sure what to tell them or ask them. They've been really nice so far... Anyway I'm not sure there's much they or I can do-- installing a central heating system would be quite an undertaking, I assume. But I'm going to be investigating. I don't feel like freezing this winter.
Another Milestone in My Acting Career.
Question: What the best thing to yell if you want to get an actor's attention?
Answer: "Waiter!"
There's some truth to the stereotype. Not all actors are waiters, but it is a job with flexible hours that, if you are good at getting tips, can pay significantly more than an entry-level, 9-5 desk job. When your acting doesn't pay the bills (almost always for 99.9% of us), waiting tables is a good way to make enough cash to pay rent.
Some actors are very proud of the fact that they have never waited tables. As of tonight, I am no longer one of them.
A lot of actors/waiters will look down on me a bit for this because I'm not actually working as a waiter, bartender, or even busboy. Thanks to a friend (who's back in the states after working as a fashion model in Milan), I've landed a job a banquet server. Instead of tips, I get paid a flat rate. It still works out to be more than double what I got as a legal assistant back in Seattle. The hours are sporadic and limited, so it might not be quite enough to pay Manhattan rent, but it's a good start.
They asked me for a resume and a picture of myself. I gave both to my friend, Lauren. She told me a couple days later that they wanted to hire me. No interview. Just a call a day or two later asking me to come in at 6, wearing black pants, black shoes, and a black collared shirt, and to bring my passport.
I came in, filled out a form with my contact info, checked the box that said "male", and handed over my passport for a photocopy. Then I was told to go into the other room and find Geno. Geno didn't have anything for me, so I just milled around the lounge with all the other people in black.
For some odd reason, everybody in the room seemed to think the correct answer to "What is it exactly that we do?" was "Don't worry it's easy." I mean, I'm glad to know it's easy, but... what is it? It was a bit like being a toddler handed a bike with training wheels and told to go ride it in circles. Nobody bothers to tell you how, what part your supposed to sit on, which way you face, or what part you hold onto. They just assume it's obvious. So you just try a few things, see if anyone yells at you, and try not to look like an idiot in the process.
So what I ended up doing was mingling for about two hours with a tray full of drinks to offer a party of 300 venture capitalists. Then another hour collecting empty glasses, toothpicks, napkins, etc. Like they said, easy. And they fed us afterwards.
That was yesterday. Today was a little trickier. Today we actually waited tables at a sit-down banquet.
"What do I do?" I ask. "Don't worry, it's easy." They say.
I'll admit, the pressure was a little off, since I wasn't working for tips, and I was surrounded by other people working other tables who had my back. I had two tables, one with 10 people, another with 11. Only two choices of dish to serve: steak or salmon. To any experienced waiter, it would have been the easiest job in the world. I am not an experienced waiter.
Because of this, there was a lot of bumping of objects, a couple of times I nearly spilled drinks, at least one drink served to the wrong person, and probably slower service than anywhere else in the room. But the only ridiculously bad moment was when I found that someone had served one of my guests the salmon, after he had ordered steak. I was lucky-- he was in the bathroom and I was able to switch it out for a steak just as he got back to his seat. The only problem was that he had lost his steak knife.
Simple enough. I went to the kitchen. No steak knives. I asked about them, and they told me to go to the lounge where they were plating the food. The lounge told me to ask the manager. the manager told me to go to the kitchen, then ran off before I could answer. A second glance in the kitchen didn't yield anything the first hadn't. I checked the bar, the other corner where I'd spotted knifes at one point, the kitchen and serving area again, and asked two more managers. Nobody knew where the steak knives, and all were busy with other issues. I finally scanned the tables near mine, spotted someone who had finished his steak, asked to take his knife, washed it by hand in the kitchen, and brought it back out to my guest, just in time to see that he had managed to finish the thing with his butter knife. Glad I wasn't working that table for tips.
The other thing I'm not yet good at it carrying lots of breakable things containing liquids and leftover food. I was very careful, so no spills, but whenever I was bringing things to or away from a table, I had about half the things any of my colleagues were carrying at any given time, and I was moving about half their speed.
It'll all come with practice.
In the meantime, I just have to get a second set of all black clothing-- what I've been wearing the last couple nights is going to be half my costume for my show. Besides, I really shouldn't work in an environment where spills are so frequent wearing the dry-clean only pants of my black suit. But, neither my show nor my employer has a budget for getting us uniforms/costumes. So it's off to the thrift stores we go!
By the by, completely unrelated, but if you want to help me out with something that will take 30 seconds, I'm choosing a new headshot. I've got my five favorites on this Facebook album: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2158785&id=2904064. Comment on the ones you like the most! If you have a little extra time and want to glance through the whole album, you can find it here:http://donjephoto.zenfolio.com/joel_putnam. The password is "joelputnam". Thank you...
The Big Ruly Mob
Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert held a rally in DC yesterday. They prepared for an attendance of 60,000. They got over 200,000. Have you ever thrown a party where you expected twelve people to come to your house and instead got more than forty? That's one packed living room.
The rally was due to start at noon. Around 10am, I left my friend's place in Vienna, Virginia, to get on to the second to last stop on the orange subway line to DC. I found a line of people for the subway ticket machine that stretched roughly fifty yards out the subway station entrance, doubled back around a corner and then went another sixty or so yards the other direction, going halfway across a highway overpass. I waited half an hour, moved about ten feet, called my host and asked if I could pay him to use his pass for the day. He drove over, and I bypassed the line.
Next came the subway. Luckily there had only been one stop ahead of us. The subway cars were only moderately full. When we got in, it started looking like a Seattle bus at rush hour. Two stops later it looked like a New York subway at rush hour. By the next stop, the only cities I'd been to that I could still compare it to were Bombay and Beijing. One woman behind me asked for help because her feet weren't touching the ground anymore. By the way, we were still in the suburbs at this point, and had at least six more stops to go before we'd reach walking distance of the rally.
But we did get there, right on time, at noon. And we got to see what might have been my favorite part of the rally: the signs. If anyone had ever watched a rally of some sort and thought of a funny thing to put on a sign, this was their first opportunity to actually do it. This includes signs saying things like "Ideas I disagree with may still be constitutional," "My arms are tired," "I don't know what this sign says but daddy said there would be ice cream," "FYI, Hitler's been dead since 1945" "My ideas are too complicated to fit on a si," and perhaps my favorite and the most simple of all: "Meh."
The crowd was somewhat large and dense in the way the the pope is somewhat religious. There were speakers and Diamondvision screens set up, roughly enough to deal with the 60,000 they had predicted in their permit. I didn't know that yet, but I did know they they clearly didn't have enough. I spent half and hour squeezing my way forward, hoping to get a view of the stage, while The Roots and John Legend performed as openers. By the time the guys from Mythbusters came on, I had almost reached the front, but was way off to the sides, and I couldn't hear or see a thing. So I joined the oozing throng going the other direction, backwards, in time to hear a huge chant at the back: "Lou-DER! Lou-DER! Lou-DER!" A somewhat self-defeating chant because, by it's very nature, it had to stop completely every few seconds to see if it had had any effect.
So I changed tactics and instead of going for a good view, I tried my hardest to get in front of some speakers. I succeeded just in time for Jon Stewart to start talking (he asked everybody to leave the place cleaner than we found it, possibly, if there were any landscapers in attendance, with a few extra topiaries that had not been there before). I could see one screen in front of me, 3/4 of which was obscured by tree branches, another screen to my left at an angle which made viewing anything on it impractical, and the stage in the distance if I annoyed the small family behind me and stood up on my toes. Two people to my immediate left, who had each come separately and did not know each other, turned out to be from Seattle.
The rally stayed safe, a bit aimless for the most part, but mildly amusing. Just not quite as biting as the show of either person. There were a lot of unexpected musical guests which were fun to see, like Cat Stevens and Ozzy Osbourne. At the same time. Seriously, they were trying to play over each other, were interrupted several times, and then left in feigned disgust. Honestly, it's funnier to write about than it was to watch.
Then came a series of funny awards for sanity and fear mongering including an award for fear awarded to Facebook, though Mark Zuckerberg himself was not there to accept it because, as Colbert put it, he values his privacy a lot more than he values yours.
Then a debate: Stewart (accompanied by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, R2D2, and a hotel TV remote) vs Colbert (accompanied by a gigantic paper-mache Colbert torso and waving arms, video montages from major news networks, and a mysterious voiceover dude named "Chuck"). Somehow the debate ended with John Oliver showing up in a Peter Pan outfit. Don't ask me, I don't understand either.
The final ten minutes of the rally left the actual rally part, when Jon asked for a little sincerity. My friend Ryan later summed up the next few minutes as "a set of cliches." But I thought there was more to it than that. It was a good speech (transcript available on several news websites, including the bottom of this one) The main point was that people may disagree with each other politically, but we still get stuff done every day. Best take-away quote, in my opinion? "If we amplify everything, we hear nothing."
The crowd milled around and the then slowly dispersed. It takes a long time for a crowd of hundreds of thousands of people to do that.
Stewart at one point very early on in the rally said that the only thing that really mattered about the rally, really, was what people said about it afterwards. After having read a few of the news reports online, I have one piece of advice for the folks who didn't get to see it up close: find reports written by people who were obviously there. The hour-by-hour summaries and live blogs and "my day at the rally" articles I've seen appear to be much more accurate than the regular news reports. The New York Times report in particular reads like it was written by someone who had not been there at all, and had possibly written it about a day before the rally actually happened, filling in a few choice blanks after the fact. You can do better than that.
So, was it a good time? Yes, it certainly was. And, in my opinion, that was the real point. And now I'm off to a slightly different kind of good time: the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade.
Sanity/Fear
I know this is supposed to be a blog about New York City and acting. But I'm gonna take some liberties since I know that the vast majority of people reading this are personal friends of mine. So you won't mind a slight change of subject, will you? I'm pretty sure all the people reading this will enjoy what I'm going to write for the next entry or two.
I'm not in New York City right now. Right now, I'm writing this on my netbook on a bus to Washington DC. I'm going to to the rally being held by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert tomorrow.
If I don't have something from this worth writing an entry about in a couple days, I will be sorely disappointed.
Eastern State of Mind
When I was in places as diverse as Syria, New Zealand, and South Korea, people would always ask me where I was from. I'd say Seattle. There was a standard list of responses I would get from people all over. It usually included at least one of the following: Microsoft, Starbucks, Boeing, Grey's Anatomy, Frasier, Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana, and Pearl Jam. They'd have a pretty good idea of where the place was. Once, when I preemptively started explaining where Seattle was, the Kiwi woman I was talking to told me (somewhat indignantly) that New Zealand schools taught their students all about where different American cities were.
Strangely, that doesn't seem to have happened around here in New York City.
When I was out getting a haircut a couple weeks ago, my stylist asked me where I usually went to get my haircut. I told him I'd just moved here. He asked where from. I said Seattle.
"Is that near Atlanta?" He asked.
To be fair, he was born in Uzbekistan. But he'd moved the USA as a small child and had been in New York for sixteen years.
The banker I sat down with a couple days at a Chase branch later did not appear to have any such excuse. He swiped my debit card to pull up my account information, and we made small talk. He asked if the address I had on file was the one I wanted to keep. I said yes, as I wasn't yet sure that my current New York address would be my permanent, long-term one. So he looked again at the address ending in "Seattle, WA."
"So," he said, making more small talk. "What brings you here from Wisconsin?"
Out on the west coast, we tend to think of the two coasts with pretty much equal weight. We've got San Francisco, they have Boston. We have Portland, they have Baltimore. We have Los Angeles, they have New York City. The plane rides between them are long and expensive, but sometimes part of life if you're working in the kind of profession that requires travel.
But the sense I get out here is that anything "out west" is somewhere far, far away where little happens and nobody is really known. Except for LA, which people have heard of and regard with a certain amount of awe and suspicion.
And that's how I ended up in the one place in the world where people both speak some English and don't know where my hometown is.
Then again, in a city where the main part of town is an island and where the other people from other parts of town or the suburbs are referred to derisively as the "Bridge and Tunnel Folk," I don't suppose I should be that surprised. After all, it is the center of the universe, right? ...right?
Shaking the Floor
When my friend said he had two free tickets to go see Two Door Cinema Club, I jumped at the chance. The show was at Webster Hall, one of the big old venues in the Village. I'd spent half my summer listening to their album, and had no expectation of actually getting to see them perform live. The concert was fantastic. The floor was literally bouncing like a taut trampoline. If you ever stopped jumping or bobbing with the music, you could feel at least a couple inches of give, up and down with the beat, because the crowd was just that into it.
Every once in a while, it will really just hit me where I am and what I'm doing. Usually this would be when I was traveling somewhere. But this time, in the middle of an excellent encore, it really hit me full force: there I was, a young twenty-something starving artist in New York City, seeing an up and coming rock band in concert, a few hours after rehearsing my own show for the first time. I don't know who or what is responsible, but whoever it is, thank you!
I got the tickets right after taking the stage myself for the first time in town, the night before. But that's a slightly different story. It starts as follows:
We got out of the subway stop at Penn Station and started our way around Madison Square Garden. Three bottled up text messages frantically jangled my cell phone as soon as I was enough above ground to get a signal. I read them, and started to pick up the pace.
My Chilean guest behind me kept pausing to take pictures. I couldn't really blame him, but we were going to be late, and four of my friends (two of which I'll probably be living with sometime soon) were waiting for us.
We were headed for Magnet Theater. Home of the Magnet Mixer. I didn't honestly know what exactly this was or what it meant. But Barry had told me two things that had me hooked: first, it was improv, and second, I could get on stage and do it with them. I hadn't done any improv onstage since high school. That's too long.
We found the place, hooked up with where I should be, and I went back to sign myself up on the list. The guy in charge asked me what my background was.
"I'm a professional actor, I took two years of improv classes in high school, and I'm currently in a sketch comedy show at the 45th st Theater."
He clearly got the idea, and made a little note next to my name. He warned me that, since I'd come in well after the 11:00 call, I probably wouldn't make it on set. I said I understood, and we took our seats.
The show runs as follows: two MCs have a list of names. They call down two or three people on the list, who then come on stage. The lights turn down low, and a 10-second clip of music plays. The lights come back up, and the people onstage improvise a scene based on the music. The lights cut them off at the appropriate moment, and then the MCs call out two or three more names. Lather, rinse, repeat.
We saw some hilarious stuff. I don't even know how to describe it properly. I didn't expect them to call me up, because I was late. So when they did, I was a little surprised. They played an old time jazz number, so I immediately think film noir, grab two chairs and make like a private eye with my feet on the desk. Then my scene partner opened with the line "That was the best senior prom ever!" What's an improviser to do but to simply act like a Chicago gangster from the 50s who's just come back from his senior prom with his buddy? I put my arm across his shoulders and tell him confidently that yeah, the band did it right, and the night was something, and that when that dame smacked him one, I thought she meant it in a nice way. And we were off to the races.
After the scene was over, we bowed, shook hands with the MCs, who then yelled "wait a minute!" Half the audience echoed this. One MC mimed a microphone, and handed it to me. I took it, tapped it, and looked nervous.
"Joel? Tell us, is this your first time performing at the Magnet Mixer?"
"...yes."
That would be when the dance party erupted. the DJ blasted, of all things, Barbie Girl, by Aqua (I'm ashamed that I even know the artist's name), and everybody got up and danced. It was only half a minute long, but still.
I made my way back to my seat, and my Chilean buddy held up his iPhone. "I recorded the whole thing!" he told me, in Spanish.
After the show, the MCs and regulars introduced themselves, asked me if I was coming to more of these (yes I hope to), and invited me to come with them to a bar down the street. That's when Barry told me about the tickets to Two Door Cinema Club.
I'd say life's pretty good right now.
Blog Alert: Backstage Unscripted
I've just begun to write for Backstage on their blog by actors, Backstage Unscripted. My first post is right here. I'll be posting there about once a week, and it'll be different material form what you find here on Constant Audition (because it says so in my contract ;p). Enjoy!
Announcing My Stage Debut in New York City
I've been cast Something Outrageous.
I mean that literally. With intentional capital letters. The sketch comedy show called "Something Outrageous" goes up November 20th at the 45th st Theater. First rehearsal is next Thursday, where I'll get my script, and we'll divvy up the parts. Rehearsals are in the middle of the day, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.
I'd like to note at this point that my cell phone has developed the odd habit of playing music, unprompted. A week ago, while I was in the middle of listening of an NPR report on the latest in Israel and Palestine, a song from American Idiot by Green Day started playing (right in the middle of the song when they say something about not believing everything you hear).
This time, just now, when I was looking up whether or not the 45th st Theater falls within the contractual borders of Broadway (it does, but doesn't qualify as Broadway in terms of size), Death Cab For Cutie's "Different Names for the Same Thing" came on. I don't know who or what is making this happen, but whoever it is has a very subtle sense of humor.
Oh and by the way, I was also called back for the part of Scrooge for A Christmas Carol. Supposedly callback auditions are tomorrow, but while they've phoned me to say they'd email me the details, I haven't gotten the email yet.
Finally, as long as I'm announcing good news, here's another item I've mentioned to a few people but not yet on Constant Audition. I've been invited to blog for Backstage. They have a special blog called Backstage: Unscripted for working actors. I'll be posting different things there than you'd find here (it says so in my contract) but I'll give links back and forth, so it'll be easy to follow.
Some Wednesday
What a day. Rolled out of bed at 8:30. Didn't get back home until 3am. First a meeting to register with a temp agency. Then a meeting with a potential fourth roommate and their four-bedroom in Lefferts Garden. Then meeting with my original potential roommate to be drug around by the nose by a realtor who just didn't have what he'd claimed to have in his ads. Then an audition. Cancelled another apartment viewing. Then home for the first bite to eat since the bagel at 9am. Then out for yet another apartment viewing, this time with both my likely future roommates. Break for a burger at the Shake Shack. Then to Penn Station to pick up a French couchsurfer and get her to my place. Then finally change into formal clothes and go downtown for a job as an extra in a music video.
I'd gotten the call for the music video the night before, while I was with some friends at a pub trivia night in Williamsburg. A simple, non-union gig. three or four hours, starting 9pm, $50. I figured why not. I got an email the next day with the details. The artist was someone I'd never heard of (not surprising, given that it was only a $50 job), and the theme was "red carpet event," and we were supposed to dress accordingly.
I came down in a black suit, with sunglasses hanging from my pocket. At night. Karma decided that sunglasses at night was too pretentious, and would later make sure that they got stepped on before the shoot was over.
But before that, I called the background wrangler and told her I was running late, due to having to pick someone up from the train station. The shoot had been delayed one hour already anyway, so when I got there at 10:30, I hadn't actually missed much. In fact, all I'd missed was half an hour of my thirty-odd fellow extras standing on a ninth floor balcony sipping soda and munching trail mix.
We watched the artist singing. Well, lip-syncing, anyway. The music was a good, catchy R&B number. I pulled out my phone and decided to look this person up.
Turns out Chrisette Michele is a Grammy-award winning singer, signed by Def Jam Records. Shows what I know. Listening to conversations around us, it became pretty obvious that the white extras had no idea who she was, and that the black extras knew all about her.
I'd read a quote earlier that day from Alfred Hitchcock. It went something like "I never said actors were cows. I just said you should treat them like cows!" Hitchcock would have been proud. We were herded from location to location for three hours, without actually doing anything for the camera. Most of the time we were outside, and the lady extras in their red-carpet dresses were clearly freezing. I met some really interesting actors and got some great tips, but none of us were too happy by the time we were finally called upon to do something en masse for the camera around 1:30am. Still, we did it. So if you see Chrisette Michele's new music video sometime in the next couple of months, when it gets to the paparazzi scene, look for a guy on the left with a black suit and red shirt.
In the meantime, the auditions keep going, and they keep surprising me. I submit headshots and resumes for several things every day, and sometimes get invited in to an audition as a result. The two latest were from a theater with a nice flash website who were putting on a Christmas Carol, and something that listed almost no information except for the title "Something Outrageous" and a call for 20-something actors who will do something comedic in a bar. I figured the former would be a formal, reputable theater gig, and the latter a sketchy internet video.
I had it completely wrong. I showed up for the Christmas Carol audition, and found it was in a church basement in Brooklyn, near the expressway. Most people auditioning looked like they were fresh out of high school. I'd signed up for Fred, the Nephew, figuring it was the only age-appropriate part I could audition for. But by the time I got up there and heard the massive stutter on a fellow auditioning actor, I ended up reading for Scrooge as well.
I told the name of the theater company to some friends after, and they cringed. It was a community theater they'd seen a performance of before, and hadn't liked. Rumor has it they cast according to favorites, who they know, rather than what they see in the actors. Possibly this isn't that different from the big leagues?
I next went to the "Something Outrageous" audition. It was in a theater just off of Broadway, with a professional setup, and a producer currently working in LA. The guy running the auditions turned out to be the son of one of the original founders of Second City (a.k.a. the Compass Players at the time), and almost certainly had run into my father at some point in college. The show would rehearse in the daytime, three days a week, has two confirmed Saturday performances, and will likely extend.
At both auditions, women actors outnumbered men at least ten to one. Such is the industry, apparently.
I'll hear back from both within the next couple days. But now, I'm off to show my couchsurfer around town. More to come later...
If there's one thing I miss in New York City, it's nature. But that was before I discovered two things: The Ramble and The North Woods.
I started my day in a conference room of the Hilton, in Midtown Manhattan. I dropped off a few resumes, met a few people, wowed onlookers at a voiceover academy booth, and entered in a couple free raffles for a free set of headshots and other assorted goodies. After picking up an inside tip on a work-exchange deal with one particular class, I headed out into the street, a couple hours earlier than I'd expected to finish.
There was a big street fair with food from all over the world. Tacos, Kebabs, and more. I spotted a sign for Colombian arepas, but, they were five dollars. To anyone who's been to Colombia, that's a bit like charging five dollars for a bagel with cream cheese. I passed. I turned uptown and started walking, towards Central Park.
I was at 55th street. Central park runs from 59th st at the downtown end to 110th at the uptown end. I'd never walked the full length of the park before. I had a few hours free. So I decided to go for it.
At first, it was the central park I'd seen, up to this point. Clipped grass, trees placed strategically, tourists and street performers walking concrete paths, and the occasional statue. But once I got a little ways past the boathouse, I passed a sign warning of rabies and animal bites, and I was in the woods. That was The Ramble.
It's not a hiking trail in the Pacific Northwest, but it was the closest I'd seen in months. According to signs I passed, it's some of the best bird watching space in the country. If the quiet older couples with camera lenses the length of my forearm were anything to go by, it lives up to its reputation. It's a woodland space of dirt, animals, birds, and plants that naturally grow there, instead of being planted by blueprint. Feeling my feet walk on uneven rocks and roots made me feel much more at home than the smooth concrete paths ever did.
The North Woods were the same way. There's a hidden entrance near the northern baseball fields. A dip into the landscape takes you into a small tunnel, echoing with burbling water. On the other side is a small forest with a wood-chip and rock path next to a stream. And the leaves are just now starting to change color.
Two hours after I'd first entered the park from midtown Manhattan, I was out again in Harlem. I needed to swing by my place before heading to a housewarming party in New Jersey. The same party where I would later get a phone call telling me I'd won the raffle for those headshots.
Smoked that Audition
This photo has absolutely nothing to do with what I want to write about tonight. But it is hilariously New York, and deserves to be shared.
Moving right along, you might remember my first jaunt online looking for auditions. I went to craigslist. One of the gigs was the film project I was part of (and still will be part of when my director gets around to emailing us with call times to the next shoot). The other, I described thusly: 'a play staged by "The Unknown Artists" looking for a 20-something male, amusing, slightly geeky sidekick character.'
Well, I wasn't totally sure what to expect. I read the description of the character, named Adam Elsis III, which didn't ring any bells. It was a funny sidekick who is chasing after the woman of his dreams and his favorite holiday, and then something about a random year in the middle ages. Then it got confusing. despite the fact that the year only has three digits, Adam apparently enjoys video games and can draw a movie parallel to any situation.
Well, I figured it would make more sense later. So I prepped a couple of monologues, double-checked the address of the studio, printed out my resume and headshot, and caught the subway to my first professional stage audition in New York City.
I felt confident. 'Funny, geeky sidekick' is almost exactly what I played in my last show in Seattle, and I had a good monologue straight out of that. I'd picked up a great dramatic monologue to pair it with out of a play nobody seemed to know. I felt good.
I got from Times Square to Pearl Studios on 8th Avenue in plenty of time. I checked in on the fourth floor, met the stage manager, handed off the resume and headshot, and collected a sheet with a few questions to fill out. At the very top was the title of the play: 420.
It wasn't until then that it clicked. 420 wasn't the random year in the middle ages. 420 was the holiday Adam was chasing after. I was auditioning for the part of funny sidekick stoner.
Any of you who know me personally probably know that, while a huge chunk of my friends partake, and I actually favor the legalization of marijuana, I've never smoked anything in my life, and never intend to. Not cigarettes, not weed, not even hookah. It's a personal thing, going back to a family I saw get ripped apart by drugs. I treat it the way most vegetarians do when it comes to friends who eat meat. I don't make a thing out of it, and I have no real problem with other people's preferences. I just happen to have my own on the matter.
And there I was, about to audition for a play called 420.
Well, I thought, I'm not there to play me onstage. I'm there to play a character. And I think, weirdly, this is one I can play.
They called me in. I gave my monologue. It felt.... okay. Not terrific. They asked me to wait outside. A few minutes later, I was handed a "side" (set of lines to read with a scene partner). In this case, I would read for Adam, while someone else would read for another character named Ryan. These were a couple of Adam's real lines:
"Well, we gotta get her drunk. Not 'there's vomit in my hair' drunk b****, just "I love nine because three times three is nine and I love three times three" drunk b****!"
"I was dreaming that is was 4/20 and that we had gotten apartment 420, and that it was 4:20pm and that that bag of peanuts cost $4.20 and that we were having a small gathering of 4 to 20 people and that we toked up and watched half baked, then toked up again and Watched super Troopers."
I don't care if I'm a straight edge in real life. This was going to be fun. Besides, this is a cold reading. Monologues are a challenge, but I eat cold readings for breakfast.
They called me back in, and I read with the guy already cast as Ryan. By the end, I got him to break character and burst out laughing, even though I'm sure he'd read and heard my lines at least half a dozen times that night alone. At that moment, I didn't care whether I got cast or not. That audition was a definite victory.
So, in my email inbox the next morning, I read this from the company:
Hey Joel. I wanted to say that you gave a really wonderful audition tonight. We have, however, decided to go in a different direction. BUT... I keep a very special file of actors that stood out and call them again for upcoming Unknown Artists projects all the time. I definitely see us working together in the future ;)
Thanks again. Great audition!
Like I said. Victory. Besides... for all I say about how much fun it would be to play a total stoner, I don't know how well I'd actually fit in with a show called 420.
Actor's Convention
"Mr. R----- has been in the business for years." The assistant next to the table told me. He was in his forties, dressed like he was trying to be in his twenties. The man next to him, clearly the higher-status gentleman of the stage and screen, in his sixties or so, stood in his fitted jacket and fixed silver hair, his attention on something else.
"His classes are the best," the assistant continued "but they're limited. We only have a few slots and we send them out by invitation only. I sent my daughter to him for-"
The assistant was cut off by Mr. R----- himself looking up from the last people he'd been talking to (without much enthusiasm) and lighting on me. I introduced myself. He asked me about myself. I stayed professional as I could. Relaxed, honest. Mr. R----- perked up visibly.
"Do you have a resume and headshot with you?"
I hesitated.
"Yes, I'm looking around for a more professional headshot, though."
"Well, well let's see it."
I handed it over.
"That's not bad, this is a good picture." They nodded seriously at the headshot, flipping it over to see my resume." Mr R----- leaned over and gestured me his way, pointing to his flyer.
"You have a good resume here. I'm very interested in you. I have this class that I'm offering, by invitation. It fills up fairly quickly..." And he went on to explain that, like many other such "classes" in his town, three casting directors would be there. And they would be looking for new talent. He had one class in November and one in December. He wanted to know if I was interested. He jotted down a quick note about December on my resume, and made sure I got the class description and his card. He nodded confidently.
"I've got a good feeling about you."
I thanked him, and walked past the table, squeezing through the crowd. Mr. R----- watched me and waved as I left, then he turned back to some of his notes, while his assistant handled the other actors that were lining up in front of their table.
Sometimes, I think my life would be happier or more interesting if I were just a little more gullible.
I pulled out another copy of my headshot and resume. The resume, aside from one small theater in Seattle, and a web exclusive show with NBC was almost all student plays. It's a beginning actor's resume. The headshot is a black and white job I got for free with a family friend. Until this Mr. R-----, every single person in New York who had seen it told me that I needed to get a color headshot instead.
One of the funny things about people is that we all know we're special. You especially. No I don't mean just anyone, I know who is reading this right now, and you're special. Seriously. Don't think I'd just write this to anybody. I know exactly who reads this, and I have good feeling about you. You're different.
...aren't you? Well, I'd like to think I am. and anyone who tells me that sure makes me want to trust them. And pay them hundreds of dollars to take a class from them.
I made my way around the end of the row, squeezing between the other headshot-toting actors on the floor of Backstage's Actorfest 2010 convention. The table I had just left was one among four rows of tables of acting coaches, studios, unions, websites, photographers, and agencies represented that day, all vying for actors' business. I took a u-turn and headed for a name I recognized: Actors Connection.
Actors Connection is one of a handful of recognized groups that specializes in the "classes" I'd just described. They technically do teach you things, but most people signing up for them don't sign up just to be taught. You see, in the United States of America, it is illegal to charge money for a job interview of any kind. This includes auditions. So, some people figured out that if you call something a "class" instead of an "interview" or "audition," you can get away with charging. So they get some interested casting directors and agents into a room, and charge actors a small fee to take a "class" with them that just happens to end in an audition in front of them. Some actors are above taking such "classes." Other actors happen to like getting cast.
I walked up to the table and started talking to one of the women there. She was short, several months pregnant, and didn't waste anybody's time.
"Let's see your headshot and resume."
I pulled mine out.
"Okay, first of all, you need a color headshot. You can't come take our classes with this." She flipped the black-and-white print over, "Don't put your address on your resume. It's dangerous. Can I write on this?" I agreed, and she quickly made three changes, calling what I had written "cute" but not what should be there. Then she went on to describe her class catalog.
While another actor asked her a bit more about details, I got the attention of a tall, male colleague of hers. I asked about Mr. R-----. He had never heard of him. I started describing what he had told me. He quickly adopted a forced, blank expression, and I could almost hear the inner mantra in his head of 'thou shalt not speak ill of anyone else presenting at Actorfest,'
But when I repeated the words 'I have a good feeling about you,' he winced and murmured "I'd turn and run as fast as I could." He backtracked a bit, looking over Mr. R-----'s flyer, but still concluded. "I've never heard of this guy. I don't mean he isn't for real but.... buyer beware. That's all I'm saying."
"That's what I needed to hear." I said, "Thanks."
I dropped my resume off in a few casting directors' drop boxes, and went back to mingling and picking up business cards and brochures.
Then, because this is New York, I ended up several hours later and ten blocks north, watching a crowd of 4,000 strangers calmly wrap each other in toilet paper and start dancing to music that only they could hear.
And then I was at an afterparty swapping zodiac and graffiti stories with a Brazilian dancer and a New York independent filmmaker. And then I was on the upper west side at a party in the nicest apartment I've yet seen in the city, hosted by a friend I had run into for the first time in almost three years hours previously. Followed the next morning by meeting the man responsible for my being an actor at all for brunch.
The problem with blogging in this town is that you get enough material to fill a book before you've spent two consecutive nights in your own bed.
My Saturday
I was going to this.
Then I found out about this.
Tomorrow is going to be an interesting day.
Posted by Joel R. Putnam at 11:27 AM 0 comments
Partial Credit
It's been nearly a month, and I'm doing pretty well in New York City. Sort of.
I'm acting. Sort of. And living in Manhattan. Sort of. I'm gainfully employed. Sort of. I might even be on the way to a book deal. Sort of.
I think we may see a pattern here.
Filming today was an experience. It was a student gig. Everybody looked, talked, and acted like students. Because they are students. It's been two years since I graduated, and it feels very strange to be a) among students, and b) not feel like I'm one of them. While the two guys holding boom mics were making fun of each other and the cameraman focused on me was getting tips from a professor, we could clearly hear the lines of the exact scene we were doing being delivered in the studio next door by a different set of actors, directed by a someone in the same class as our director.
"Why is that door open? Should somebody close that door?" Said one of the other camera students "I don't know if we need to tell somebody if there is a reason, because we can clearly hear the other actors in the--" he was cut off by one of the boom mic students putting down his boom, walking over and closing the door himself. "...oh." he said.
As for me, acting on camera was weird, but fun. It took a couple takes to settle into it. I'm used to projecting everything for an audience, performing. I had to be told to turn it all down a bit. The Camera and Microphone are much more sensitive and aware than a live audience. So I turned it down.
By the second of four planned takes. I recognized what I was doing. It had a name I liked to call it when I saw it in B movies. It was called Bad Acting.
So I made a subtle change, slowly bringing back the energy and intensity, but focusing it on detail and being rather than performing, if that makes sense. It was like drawing a straight line on a chalkboard instead of carving it into stone. I don't know how it came out, but it sure felt better, and my directing student seemed pleased.
Now for living in Manhattan. I'm subletting a one-bedroom in East Harlem. Regular rent is $1075, which thanks to a generous offer from a friend, I'm paying for a month and a half worth of living there. I might be paying a bit more in electric bills since I just today switched to an electricity provider that uses 100% renewable resources (mostly wind power in NY state)*, but it ends Oct 15th. Because it ends October 15th, I haven't really bothered to furnish the place.
The result is a very spare and slightly overheated one bedroom apartment consisting of a bookcase or three, a desk for my laptop, a card table and chairs, and a leaky twin size air mattress. Just today I picked up a slatted frame for the bed that had been tossed outside my apartment onto some trash bags. Before that, my mattress had been on the floor. Since the mattress has to be re-inflated every few hours, I'll find out soon whether the slats are actually more comfortable to sleep on than the floor.
Once the sublease ends, I have a few options: stay and become the official tenant for a year, try to negotiate a month-to-month lease, sign a lease elsewhere, or sublet/look for temporary housing elsewhere.
I do like being in Manhattan, on principle. But the neighborhood... well, this may be the city that doesn't sleep, but around here everything except for a fried chicken joint and a corner store seems to shut down at 8pm because of safety concerns. It's more safe than you'd guess from that. As a 6 foot tall guy who knows where he's going, I don't feel threatened, but there is a certain amount of bullet proof glass around. So far the only things that make me want to stay are volunteer opportunities (which I'm sure I can find elsewhere in town) and the fact that there's a Costco/Target/Best Buy shopping center about five blocks away. Honestly, I don't feel like saying I chose the New York neighborhood I live in because of how easily I can get to Target.
So I'm looking for a new place. But looking for a new place means knowing how much you can afford. And right now, that's a little complicated.
Like I said, I've got a day job. Two, actually. Sort of. I've been hired as a private tutor, and the pay rate is phenomenal. I've also got a job as a mover. The pay is... less phenomenal. But it does come with tips, lets me see parts of the city I wouldn't ordinarily see, and might have the perk of free furniture from things people want to get rid of.
But I don't get paid for either job if I don't work. And I don't work if nobody calls in asking my bosses for movers or tutors. So far, in my time here, I've had one day of work moving. I have had zilch tutoring.
So, in theory, I could be living comfortably off in a nice place of my own in Williamsburg, or maybe even a small place in the village. But in practice... I have no realistic idea of what I can afford to rent, because I can't predict what my income is going to be.
So. Sort of acting, sort of living in Manhattan, sort of employed.
Oh yeah. Book deal in progress. Sort of.
I wrote a query letter (a letter to literary agents and publishers explaining your idea for a book you'd write) about a book about my travel. I shopped it around a bit asking for proofreading and tips on how to improve it, and through one channel or another, it came to the attention of someone at Harper Collins. She now wants to read my book proposal (a formal 15+ page document with the marketing details and sample chapters of said book). I doubt she'll get me a book deal herself, but it's certainly a step in the right direction. I'm hammering out the draft now, reading a book I pulled from the New York Public Library on how to write one of these things. It's taking a long time.
Maybe that's because I get distracted into doing things like blogging at 2:30am. When I really should be going to sleep on my air mattress and recovering from the cold I came down with last week.
I think I'll go do that now.
*New York State deregulated electricity providers about years ago, so you can choose your provider. Green Mountain Energy is one of those options, and if you're a New York City resident with a ConEdison electric bill, you can switch to these guys to use 100% renewable energy for about $5 more per month, depending on your electricity usage.
First Audition
This week I had my first audition as an actor in New York City. It wasn't a big audition, just an unpaid student film project at NYU. They compensate you for your time with a DVD copy of your performance (useful for making a demo reel-- something you submit to professional film/TV jobs that want to see how you act on camera).
I don't have any real acting experience on camera. Aside from sword fighting with cucumbers as an extra on a Japanese movie in Pioneer Square and filming myself for an online reality show/documentary about studying abroad in India. Or the time some friends from high school got a shot of me and another guy in suits, standing still and staring at a wall two inches from our faces for about five seconds. Long story. My point is, if I want to act in movies or on TV (an open question), I'm going to need more on-camera credits. To get them, I needed to find auditions.
There are a lot of websites online that claim to help New York actors find auditions, so long as you pay them. Last Monday, I sent a few addresses off to established actors I know in town, to see which ones were legit and actually got them work.
In the meantime, I went to Craigslist.
Most of the "gigs" listed in Craigslist were things like "hiring women for foot fetish parties" or "Female Model Needed for Topless Beach Photo shoot $$$." But, after some searching, I found two that stood out. One was the student film, looking for two male actors who could play business executives aged 20-40. The other was a play staged by "The Unknown Artists" looking for a 20-something male, amusing, slightly geeky sidekick character. I sent off resumes and headshots to both, and had enthusiastic responses from both. The Unknown Artists gave me an early evening audition slot on Oct 5th, asking me to prepare a comic and a dramatic contemporary monologue, each less than two minutes. The NYU students asked me to come in the next day, Tuesday.
So, there I was, in a greenroom on NYU campus, trying to figure out my strategy for converting everything I know about stage craft to camera acting. I'd done a quick search online for tips and mostly found people screaming at each other on forums about whether stage was harder than film or way harder than film. Which was reassuring. My favorite bit was a quote someone claimed was from Al Pacino: "Acting on stage is like walking a high wire with no safety net. Acting for a camera is like walking a line drawn on the ground."
In walked the director. He greeted me, handed me two "sides" (snippits of a scene where I perform one character's part and another actor or line reader reads the other's), and gave me a few minutes. This is what's called a "cold reading." You perform something from a script that's been handed to you for the first time only a few minutes earlier. This kind of audition was my bread and butter, back in college.
After a few minutes, the director asked if I was ready, and I was led in into what was either a very small room or a large converted closet. Three other guys were sitting behind a folding table. They introduced themselves, smiled, shook my hand. I repeated all their names and promptly forgot them. I read the first side, took a little direction, re-read it differently, and then read the second one. I thought I'd done well. I knew it when they asked, in complete seriousness if I was a member of Actors Equity or the Screen Actors Guild, though neither was listed on my resume. They thanked me and said they'd be in touch within a day or two.
Two days later, Thursday, I was sat outside the Roasting Plant Coffee company with my friend Emily, another actor from the University of Chicago. She gave me a thorough breakdown of how be a professional actor in New York City. Headshot tips, where to find auditions, what books to read on monologue choices, classes and fake classes you should take (fake classes will probably come up in a later post), tips on finding an agent, possible shortcuts into the Actors Equity Association if you want it, the works. Then she sent me an email with all the details of what she'd just told me, the addresses of the best drama bookshops in town, and the places I'd most likely need to know for coming to auditions.
She had to run off to meet a friend, so I glanced at my email. There was a new message from the NYU guys. I got the part. Rehearsal starts Sunday. Filming with be next Wednesday, and then again on Oct 15th.
So I'm batting 1.000 for acting auditions in New York City. Maybe I should quit now, while I'm ahead.
...Nah.
International City
I exited the subway at Grand Central station and nearly steamrolled a 5-foot-tall lady selling Mexican flags. 'Of course,' I realized. 'Mexican Independence Day.' People like this woman were all over midtown chanting 'Bandera, bandera!' and waving flags for sale. Men, women and children were sporting green national soccer jerseys and waving flags.
Two blocks later, I'd walked into a Turkish street fair. Baklava, cured meats, and photos of Cappadocia, Istanbul, and Ephesus everywhere. Turkish music on the loudspeakers.
Five minutes after that, I was buying computer parts from a man in a yarmulke, in a long line of men wearing yarmulkes, comparing notes on the exchange rate between the US Dollar and the Israeli Shekel. After making my purchase, the attendant noticed the Seattle billing zip code.
"What brings you to New York?"
"I just moved here, actually."
"Really? Welcome to New York! This city will chew you up and spit you out again."
I grinned. We'll just have to wait and see, won't we?
Those of you who already know me can skip this paragraph. I've traveled a bit in my relatively short lifetime. And by a bit, I mean around 70 countries, spread across all of the continents on the planet. Most of those came during a 19-month journey I took after I graduated from college. Except for a brief stay acting in my native Seattle, that was what I had been doing immediately before moving to New York.
I came to this city because, among other reasons, it seems like the most natural place for a world traveler to settle for a bit. Everyone from everywhere comes to New York if they can, and they always they bring a little of their home with them. So you can walk three blocks and cross a Mexican parade, a Turkish Street fair, and then emerge on the other end right onto Broadway. The one all the other "Broadway"s are named after. I can see echoes of the world everywhere in this town. It's like noticing an author hiding Easter Egg references to past books in a later story. A bonus for those who know the other parts.
But while I'm enjoying the throwbacks to everywhere else, I'm still having fun with the classic New York moments. Walking back from my free* yoga class, my first ever, I came up Broadway and saw that I was behind two very very drunk guys, straight out of a frat party. They staggered across a street against a red light. One was slightly ahead of the other, and a taxi coming up at speed honked at him.
The first guy kept going, but the second guy stepped in front of the cab, turned unsteadily to face it, and stopped. The taxi skidded to a halt about half a foot from his legs. The man looked the driver in the eye, then very slowly and deliberately bent over and kissed the hood. Then he walked away.
Maybe you can find that somewhere else, but I've only ever seen it here.
*and by free we mean $2 mat rental. Plus donation. (Plus, in my case, $2 extra because the route between the studio and my subway stop is intersected by The Strand bookstore's $1 book racks outside). Check it out: Yoga to the People. I wanted something cheap to correct my posture and make me more flexible. I think I just might become a regular.
This post cross-posted to Joel's Travel blog, JTrek.
And We're Back.
I flew out of LaGuardia last Friday to go to Philadelphia, then to Seattle, where I was witness to a chunk of the following chain of events:
Monday (Labor Day): my 72-year-old father is T-boned by a man running a red light. The man was arguing with father-in-law at the time, possibly on his cell phone. We're not sure. What we are sure of is that due to the crash my father has a compound fracture in a vertebrae, and has also broken seven ribs, his sternum, his scapula, and one of his toes.
Friday: my father, is diagnosed with serious pulmonary embolism, and nearly dies. I buy a plane ticket to Seattle.
Saturday: I meet my father in the ICU, where he is on an IV and a mask hooked up to pure oxygen.
Monday: My father is moved from the ICU to the acute care floor.
Wednesday: My father is discharged from the hospital altogether. We drive him home.
Thursday: My father asks to be driven to his office so that he can drop off the coffee he's supposed to drop off every week, and then to the Ford, Nissan, and Toyota dealerships so that he can test drive replacements for his totaled car. We make it to the office and the Ford dealership, where he test drives a hybrid.
Friday: I fly back to New York City. My father buys the Ford hybrid.
All I can say is that I hope I'm that tough when I get to be his age. Thank you very much to all those who called and sent emails, Facebook and text messages. Even if I wasn't able to reply to everyone, we all appreciate it very much.
In the meantime, I'm back, and I'll have more stories from my adventures in the Big Apple soon!
About Constant Audition
Did you ever have a dream of doing something like running away and becoming an actor in New York City?
Well, I did. So, after some traveling, I came to New York to act. This blog is where you can find some of the stories fit to print. Enjoy!
Joel's Other Work
JTrek- The blog of a trip across every continent.
Junior Year Abroad- Blog accompanying NBC Universal's Online show about American college students studying abroad.
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Lier les hommes, les territoires, les convictions...
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EXPERIENCE - experiential tourism to extend the visitor season
EXPERIENCE is a €23.3 million project co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund(ERDF) to the amount of €16 million as part of the Interreg VA France (Channel) England Programme 2014-2020. Norfolk County Council is the lead partner, working with 13 other organisations across 6 pilot regions in France and England : Norfolk - Kent - Cornouailles (région de Penzance) - Pas-de-Calais - Compiègne - Bretagne (Baie de Morlaix and Côtes d’Armor).
Over the next 3.8 years, this project will harness the experiential tourism trend to extend the season (October – March), generating 20 million new visitors outside high season, and delivering sustainable economic growth across the Channel region.
Together, project partners will reinvent the way the economy, environment, communities and brands interact - focusing on sustainable, low-impact tourism activities to secure the future resilience of our natural and cultural assets.
The objectives of the EXPERIENCE project are fully consistent with Brittany Ferries’ development strategy. As part of the company’s new brand positioning, which will be based more on the destinations served than on the mode of transport alone, Brittany Ferries is particularly interested in developing experiential destination marketing: promoting live experiences, creating emotions, revealing hidden gems, and investing in innovative promotional material to bring us closer to the needs and communication methods of its customers. At the same time, the company always seeks to better target its audiences in marketing campaigns, as not all customers are looking for the same type of holiday. Finally, Brittany Ferries’ participation in the EXPERIENCE project is an excellent opportunity for inter-regional cooperation that extends beyond its traditional hinterlands, and strengthens its partnerships.
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Ever aware of the growing importance of environmental issues, Brittany Ferries participates in many research projects, working closely with a range of scientific organisations.
Conserving the marine environment (in partnership with ORCA)
Our company is supporting ORCA – a charity working to protect whales, dolphins and other marine life. ORCA wildlife officers live and work on board during crossings to Spain in spring and autumn. They inform and entertain passengers with presentations on cetaceans, and the delicate ecosystem these fascinating creatures inhabit.
The effect of climate change on the sea (in partnership with the Sir Alister Hardy Foundation)
For 30 years, we have been assisting the Sir Alister Hardy Foundation For Ocean Science (SAHFOS) by towing measuring devices behind our ships. These monitor vital parameters including plankton levels and sea temperatures. The data we collect is used by marine scientists and policy makers to address marine environmental management issues such as harmful algae blooms, pollution, climate change and fishing.
Monitoring changes in the marine ecosystems of the Channel (in partnership with Marinexus)
Marinexus identifies and monitors changes in the marine ecosystems of the Western Channel, with a particular focus on those related to human activity. Project partners in France are La Station Biologique de Roscoff (Roscoff Biological Station), and Le Centre de Découverte des Algues (the Seaweed Discovery Centre). In the UK we’re working with the Marine Biological Association, the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, the Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science, and the National Marine Aquarium. With Brittany Ferries’ support, Marinexus provides marine biology workshops aimed at children aged 8-12 year olds. These take place on the Plymouth-Roscoff route during the summer months, and their aim is to raise their awareness of the marine environment and the need to conserve natural resources. Seminars and shore excursions in Roscoff are also offered.
Working in partnership with French tourism stakeholders: The Western France Destination Campaign
Brittany Ferries has brought together 20 tourism bodies and travel companies in order to mount a 3-year destination campaign (2012-2015), aimed at inspiring the British to rediscover France. Three regional and 14 local tourist boards, 2 ferry operators (LD Lines and P&O Ferries), together with ATOUT France – the French tourist development agency and Brittany Ferries have made a commitment for closer coordination with tourism stakeholders in three regions: Brittany, Normandy and Pays de la Loire. The aim is not only to attract British holidaymakers to Western France, but also to ensure that they receive the best possible welcome once they arrive. This is being achieved in several ways: by establishing a network of greeters, by providing technical support and translation services to tourism professionals, by mounting a communication campaign aimed at the British market, showcasing France as a destination which is ideal not only for short stays with the family or as a couple–but for longer holidays too (Spring 2012).
Brittany Ferries and VisitBritain, the tourist board of Great Britain, are teaming up to launch a campaign which aims to attract more French tourists across the Channel
Inspire French visitors to discover the British region. In the last few years, London has become the unrivalled flagship destination for French visitors to Great Britain. This new partnership with VisitBritain aims to achieve a more balanced pattern of French visits throughout Great Britain. It emphasises the regions, in particular those of Southern England such as Hampshire, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall, all of which are easily accessible from Brittany Ferries’ ports, and which have a lot to offer in terms of landscapes, history, heritage and gastronomy. Above all, the campaign is about getting French visitors to explore Great Britain more deeply. The partnership between Brittany Ferries and VisitBritain was signed on the 5th November 2013, and includes a full communications plan bringing together the Brittany Ferries and VisitBritain brands, and promoting new products and destinations for tourists throughout the south of England.
Working with the educational sector
Each year we sign training agreements with educational establishments and the Region of Brittany. We work with 18 Breton vocational colleges specialising in hospitality and tourism. Since 1993, 4,650 students have taken part. We enrol more than 100 trainees each year, and we pay the vocational educational tax on behalf of the colleges. 2007 saw the creation of a professional qualification for restaurant waiting staff, recognised by all catering professionals. Brittany Ferries’ participation has so far allowed 29 waiters and waitresses to qualify.
Each year for over two decades, Brittany Ferries has provided 50 seasonal jobs for students training to work within the hospitality sector.
Brittany Ferries sailings connecting Cherbourg and Rosslare will commence Monday 18 January – two months earlier than originally planned
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Psychology Issues and Debates
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Emotional Problems / December 22, 2018
Kurt Lewin, one of the most outstanding figures of social psychology, is the most quoted author when one discusses the topic of the applications of the discipline or when one speaks of an applied social psychology. His famous “There is nothing so practical as a good theory” (Lewin, 1951, p. 169) is probably one of the most well-known quotations in social psychology handbooks and indisputably in applied social psychology. Yet the use of this quotation often misrepresents Lewin’s view, which advocated a genuine cooperation of the theoretical and empirical sides of the discipline, a true dialogue between its basic and applied aspects. This point becomes clear when what Lewin wrote in a paper entitled “Problems of research in social psychology”, is not truncated: “Many psychologists working today in an applied field are keenly aware of the need for close cooperation between theoretical and applied psychology. This can be accomplished in psychology, as it has been accomplished in physics, if the theorist does not look toward applied problems with highbrow aversion or with fear of social problems, and if the applied psychologist realizes that there is nothing so practical as a good theory” (Lewin, 1951, p. 169). Lewin was advocating the removal of the barrier between the theorist and the practitioner. If this is acknowledged then two ways of facing social issues with an applied social psychology appear.
First, the way of theorists who analyse a problem or an intervention field in the light of their theories. Their approach is certainly the most widespread within the discipline, and the drastic cut to which Lewin’s words are usually subjected reflects it. It tends to call for the delimitation of specific application fields, which are likely to become so many fields of specialization and expertise for the social psychologist. In this perspective, social psychologists will praise the usefulness and the relevance of their theories to meet the demand of those fields. It sometimes results in the same research appearing in different specialized journals – modified only to suit the conventions of that publication. If some theories are robust and have been empirically tested with success in different fields, others are more specific and can be transferred to a different field only artificially. Most of those fields are classic (health, education, law, work, organizations, etc) and usually form handbooks of applied social psychology, together with their methodological specifics. However, in addition to these traditional fields, there now appear more occasional fields, such as environment, economy and finance, media and new technologies, diversity, etc, which pertain to new social needs or preoccupations. This expansion or this renewal of application fields for established theories mirrors the other way of using social psychology to tackle social issues.
The second way consists in taking the problem as a starting point; even if it means neglecting for a while one’s own theories and research topics, in order to understand it and to try to provide an improvement, if not a solution. This second approach is differentiated from the first insofar as the problem is no longer at the service of the researcher, but the researcher begins to serve the problem. Unlike the first approach, it is no longer a question of showing that a theory or a model is strong enough to be applied to a problem for which it was not originally elaborated. On the contrary, the second approach requires the researchers to be rather cautious and potentially theoretically eclectic. Nothing indeed guarantees that an existing theory could be applied to a specific issue nor even that it can be assumed that a solution to a problem can be found. It could be the reason why the first approach often appeared as more scientific and why the second one is widely neglected by researchers aiming at a quick outstanding academic career. Yet, it should not arouse such aversion, according to Lewin, because it could widen the application range of a robust theory or give birth to new models of analysis, even new theories. Furthermore, it could help to provide real solutions to real social problems.
Amongst existing handbooks, the one edited by Brewer and Hewstone (2004) is a good example of the first approach, as well as the one edited by Semin and Fiedler (1996). On the contrary, the Buunk and Van Vugt’s handbook (2008), with its “PATH” model (Problem, Analysis, Test, and Help) reflects the second approach, and so do, to a lesser extent, the handbooks edited by Schneider, Gruman, and Coutts (2005) or by Steg, Buunk, and Rothengatter (2008). The classic handbook edited by Oskamp and Schultz (1998) or the one edited by Sadava and McCreary (1997) fall midway between both approaches.
Source: www.cairn.info
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Niamh White
@DillMartin4 @mollyfff Sorry I don't have any psychological problems, we do not have that in common
Tuesday 20, June 2017 12:04 PM
Mirr™
@Mirr™: See you never know if it's jinn or psychological problems. It's scary.
Tuesday 20, June 2017 10:17 AM
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WASKER, SILLEMAN ABAJEE (SOLOMON ABRAHAM):
By: Joseph Jacobs
Beni-Israel soldier; died about 1850. He enlisted in the Third Regiment Native (Indian) Light Infantry, Jan. 1, 1809, and was present at the battles of Puna, Rusood, Khur, Multan, Kittoor, and Gujarat, rising ultimately to the highest rank open to a native soldier, that of sirdar bahadur; he was also decorated with the first class Order of the Star of British India. He retired from the army in March, 1846, after a service of thirty seven years, during twenty-five of which he was native commander of the Beni-Israel regiment.
H. Samuel, Sketch of Beni-Israel, pp. 24-25.
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