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Reviews > Garbage Day
Friday, Jan 15, 2010 by Andrew "Garbage Day" Miller and Daryl "Fucking" Hall
With the release of Vampire Weekend's Contra, there's finally a 2010 album readers want to see destroyed. Not me, though. I think it's weird to see people get so worked up about this benign little group, with its polysyllabic lyrics and loping polyrhythms. Why not enjoy a cultural safari with these friendly-looking lads? Hakuna matata.
It's still officially the season of the light's bane in Missouri, with weeks-unmelted snow smothering everything: The perfect landscape for reveling in bleak music composed in some faraway forest. And despite opening with a song about drinking a chilled beverage when "winter's cold is too much to handle," Contra sounds too goddamn warm, like it's going to spark a beer-commercial heatwave or summon a giddy stampede of animated animals. It's too early in the year for that shit. Still, I wanted to mark the release of Contra somehow without actually having to listen to it, so I passed the assignment to fellow music expert Daryl "Fucking" Hall. He didn't listen to it, either, but he did explain the bizarre furor regarding Vampire Weekend, which, at this point, is more compelling than its music could ever be.
How could anyone get angry at these guys?
As long as there has been art, there have been people to take a cursory look at that art and declare it uninspired crap. In ancient Greece, there was probably some asshole calling out Homer, muttering to his friends, "He's blind, how does he even know what a shield looks like?" In modern times, these kinds of people were mostly confined to Freshman English seminars and Pantera concerts. Then, the Internet rolled around, and everybody collectively lost any sense of shame or decorum. Nowadays, you don't have to look very far to find a bunch of goons decrying the death of modern music, what with the Lady GaGas and the Animal Collectives and the fucking Vampire Weekends.
What makes these nerds so vindictive is that the source of these bands' popularity is the Internet itself, once a sanctuary for the musically unhip to discuss Todd Rundgren CD-ROMs and whatever the hell Queensryche is up to. Now music blogs engage in serious hyperbole and worship in order to attract traffic and attain "tastemaker" status. The result is an incredible backlash, characterized by feckless exaggerations. These highly touted bands aren't just mediocre or unworthy, they're "actively raping your eardrums" or "shitting on their guitars instead of making music."
Vampire Weekend isn't particularly offensive. (Or, at least, they're not offensive musically. Dubbing your aesthetic "Upper West Side Soweto" is pretty terrible.) But for Vampire Weekend's most vocal critics, the real evil isn't the band itself, but rather the monstrous Hipster Hype Machine. Suddenly, a band whose debut album sold more than 500,000 copies becomes elitist hipster trash, enjoyed only by mythical skinny assholes in tight jeans taking swigs from cans of PBR between lines of cocaine. If you like it, you only like it because you think it makes you look cool.
Upper West Side/ Soweto. See! They were being ironic!
There are two kinds of people who react to over-hyped bands with this kind of vigor. The first is proudly ignorant - he'll jump into discussions of new music just to brag about his unfamiliarity with contemporary acts, declaring that music reached its peak before John Bonham died and that hip-hop is just black guys talking fast over other peoples' music. Like "cool" kids ("cool" in the high school sense of the word -- bros, quarterbacks, etc.), this angry nerd looks upon hipsters with hazily rationalized scorn, but instead of just calling them "faggots," he calls them "pretentious faggots."
The second sort is almost his exact opposite. He's very informed - possibly too informed. He reads music blogs incessantly, and then whines when any three of them mention the same band in a positive light. Suddenly, they're over-hyped and he's tired of hearing about them. Never mind that he could fix this by cutting out one completely redundant blog, he doesn't want to miss out on bitching about the next big thing. For a lot of people, this fits the definition of "hipster," but real hipsters actually go out and see live music, instead of just reading about it all the time.
Despite their differences, these groups have one thing in common - they're both nerdy as hell and both very upset about "hipsters" listening to music they don't like. Basically, you've got a bunch of insecure nerds who want to kick slightly less insecure nerds off their lawn. They conduct battle using adverb-adjective combinations, with bloggers firing "devastatingly transcendent" missiles in defense of bands while getting "cocksuckingly miserable" bombs dropped on them. If you're not quite sure which side you're on, I've written a small quiz that can help you figure it out.
The lyric "I just want/Four walls and adobe slats/For my girls":
a) Deftly highlights the contrast between Animal Collective's heavily electronic music and its nature-minded subject matter.
b) Sounds like some bullshit a hippie stoner wrote to impress his girlfriend.
Kanye West's 808s and Heartbreaks:
a) Redefines what hip-hop is while also returning to its roots through the use of the vocoder, a staple of early hip-hop beats.
b) Was the result of some no-talent egotistical asshole pressing a button marked "drums" and "singing" into an auto-tuner.
That guy from the "I'm a Mac" commercials is:
a) A pathetic attempt to market to a specific demographic while missing the point entirely.
b) A hipster faggot.
Congratulations! If you answered mostly A, you're an asshole. Same if you answered mostly B. If you thought to yourself "well, neither is really true," you see the problem with discussing music on the Internet. There's a vacuum in the middle, where you would normally find "reasonable, well-explained criticism." This probably exists somewhere on the Web, but the people behind it are either ignored or flamed into oblivion for not choosing one side or the other.
Lay down your arms. Stop and smell the flowers.
So there it is. If you've ever wondered why you see tons of chatter on the Internet about a few bands, but never hear people talk about them in real life, you've got your answer. What you're witnessing is essentially a secret war between bloggers eager to make a name for themselves and message board posters vehemently opposed to being exposed on their own turf as the out-of-touch shut-ins they are. Except it's not a cool secret war, because instead of being covered up by conspiracies and espionage, it's secret in the way Webcomics are secret - no one gives a shit.
If you're not sure whether Vampire Weekend's Contra is going to be the greatest record of all time or if it will make you want to end your own life, I'd recommend actually picking up the album and giving it a listen before choosing sides, but be warned - you'll be called some combination of a curse word and an animal for doing so. Squirrel dick.
– Andrew "Garbage Day" Miller and Daryl "Fucking" Hall
Previous More Garbage Day Next
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Share this Story: Jazz Fest: SLĀV isn't cultural appropriation, singer Bonifassi says
Jazz Fest: SLĀV isn't cultural appropriation, singer Bonifassi says
SLĀV, "a theatrical odyssey based on slave songs," is the most popular ticketed show at the 39th Montreal International Jazz Festival.
T'Cha Dunlevy • Montreal Gazette
Jun 25, 2018 • July 4, 2018 • 3 minute read
Director Robert Lepage and singer Betty Bonifassi, who are teaming up for SLÃV, "a theatrical odyssey based on slave songs," as part of the Montreal International Jazz Festival at L'Astral in Montreal on Wednesday, June 20, 2018. Photo by Dave Sidaway /Dave Sidaway / Montreal Gazette
Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through our links on this page.
Betty Bonifassi was on edge on Friday.
"I'm so scared," she confided. "It's something very big for me, what's happening. It's the culmination of years of work. I'm nervous. I want people to like it, and understand what we tried to express."
Jazz Fest: SLĀV isn't cultural appropriation, singer Bonifassi says Back to video
Bonifassi realizes this is not a given. She is the lead vocalist of the most popular ticketed show at the 39th Montreal International Jazz Festival. SLĀV, "a theatrical odyssey based on slave songs," directed by Quebec theatre/Cirque du Soleil luminary Robert Lepage, runs Tuesday through July 14 at Théâtre du nouveau monde. The first five nights are sold out. In all, more than 8,000 tickets have been sold for 16 performances.
Bonifassi came to the director with 200 pages of research and ideas, which he synthesized into a single narrative thread. SLĀV, five years in the making, follows a young black woman on a voyage of discovery.
"That's the grandeur of his genius of mise-en-scène," she said. "He wanted to bring this character to the source."
But at the heart of SLĀV — one of the key selling points of the show — is Bonifassi, who is white, singing black slave songs, under the prestigious direction of Lepage, who is also white. And that's where things get complicated.
In November, I wrote a column asking whether Bonifassi should be singing songs created by and recounting the experiences of black slaves.
"These songs were and are not merely an ordinary form of expressive culture," said Charmaine Nelson, a McGill art history professor and author of the book Slavery, Geography and Empire in Nineteenth-Century Marine Landscapes of Montreal and Jamaica, who spent the past year as a visiting professor of Canadian Studies at Harvard University.
"They were ways for enslaved Africans to express mourning for lost loved ones, homes and cultures under extraordinarily oppressive regimes with corporal punishment at their core."
Bonifassi rejects the notion that by performing these songs she could be seen as engaging in cultural appropriation. She has been singing slave songs for more than 15 years, rising to prominence as a guest vocalist for Montreal party maestro DJ Champion. She released two solo albums since 2014, featuring reworked slave songs and black work songs originally recorded in the 1930s by American ethnomusicologists John and Alan Lomax.
In SLĀV, she and Lepage explore the history of slavery, oppression, migration and mass incarceration.
Bonifassi spoke of her mother's background as a Serbian immigrant from the former Yugoslavia; of the life education she received from Congolese, Malian and Senegalese friends she made at university in Nice, France; of Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad; of America's historical subjugation of Irish, Chinese and other immigrants; and of modern-day sweatshops in Asia.
"I don't feel badly at all," she said. "I'm doing this with such a big heart, dignity, precision and research. I waited a long time to find the right way to make this work. I don't see colour; to me, it doesn't exist, physically or in music.
"People talk about whites taking black songs. Uniting two colours is modern. We don't talk about black and white in the show. We talk about human pain, experienced together. All cultures and ethnicities suffer the same."
Asked what message she and Lepage hope to convey in SLĀV, Bonifassi replied: "We want to open a dialogue. … What I wanted profoundly was to bring people together, to create a show where we feel united, no matter who is talking, where there is no more colour or origin."
McGill's Nelson warns of the danger in taking colour out of the equation, and in the theory we are living in a post-racial society.
"The jazz festival's desire to spotlight a white singer and producer, however accomplished," Nelson said, "is part of a larger and ongoing problem of a Canadian desire to whitewash certain deeply troubling colonial histories. This collective amnesia goes hand-in-hand with a rhetoric of colour blindness which allows … institutions to withhold certain opportunities from black Canadians and other black people."
Though hesitant to pronounce herself on SLĀV's merits before seeing the show, Nelson had reservations about the premise.
"My initial feeling," she said, "is that regardless of the calibre and reputation of the singer, the jazz festival should have extended such an opportunity first to a black singer and more specifically one whose ancestry is rooted in transatlantic slavery."
AT A GLANCE:The Montreal International Jazz Festival presents SLĀV, Tuesday through July 14 at Théâtre du nouveau monde. Tickets cost $60.50 to $90.50, available atmontrealjazzfest.com
tdunlevy@postmedia.com
twitter.com/TChaDunlevy
Protesters denounce predominantly white performance at Montreal jazz festival
Montreal International Jazz Festival cancels all remaining SLĀV shows

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One simple and easy way to get detoxifying nutrients into your diet and help your body get back to its optimal health, is with this simple green juice recipe.
Detoxifying and alkalising are important processes for your body, as they help your blood and liver to rid themselves of toxins and foreign bodies. When detoxing, the body eliminates toxins through the kidneys, intestines, lungs, lymphatic system, and skin, which allows us to regain our fitness and health much faster.
Alkalising is also an important process, as you must balance out the pH levels of your body with alkalising foods. This helps to balance the acidity in your body from foods such as heavy carbs and sugar.
This detoxifying green juice is particularly powerful thanks to one ingredients - the freeze-dried greens powder, Bare Greens.
The organic fruit and vegetables in Bare Greens, including chlorella, spirulina, matcha, spinach and wheatgrass are freshly harvested, then freeze-dried straight away, which removes the water content from the greens and locks in the nutrients. What we are left with is a concentrated greens powder that is bursting with potent vitamins, minerals, chlorophyll, and phytonutrients.
Bare Greens will help to cleanse, alkalise and oxygenate your blood, and it contains essential phytonutrients to help improve brain function, enhance immunity and strengthen the blood vessels of the cardiovascular system.
How to nail the detox juice?
We suggest having this drink first thing every morning to help your body cleanse itself of toxins and promote optimal health.
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Not only is Bare Greens useful as a green juice, it also makes the perfect green smoothie, and can be used in many raw treat recipe.
Get your daily dose of greens in these raw, energy-dense bars! We've crammed Bare Greens and our decadent Organic Cacao WPI (or our Peruvian Power Protein for a vegan alternative) into one portable, nutrient rich bar.


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Mario Williams sidelined at start of Bills' camp
This isn't the start of training camp that veteran defensive end Mario Williams had envisioned.
Williams has a foot injury that prevented him from practicing, according to the Buffalo News.
"Mario reported to our athletic training staff that he had a sore foot," coach Doug Marrone said. "So what we wanted to do was hold him out of practice and let our medical staff evaluate him."
No information was disclosed on how Williams injured his foot. The former top overall pick of the draft with the Houston Texans, Williams dealt with a wrist injury last season while playing in every game. His impact hasn't been quite what was expected, but the Bills don't sound like they're having buyer's remorse just yet.
"It's not a disappointment from a standpoint of, 'Gosh, I wish the player was out here for the rest of the team.' It's more of a disappointment for the individual," Marrone said. "Mario's put in a lot of hard work, went in the playbook and did a lot of work this offseason."
Follow me on Twitter: @RavensInsider
Aaron Wilson covers the Ravens for The Baltimore Sun


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Margunn Bjørnholt (born 9 October 1958 in Bø, Telemark) is a Norwegian sociologist and economist. She is a research professor at the Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies (NKVTS) and a professor of sociology at the University of Bergen.

Her research focuses on gender-based violence, migrants and refugees, gender equality, men and masculinities, policy studies, and several other topics. Her most recent research explores questions of gender, violence and power, including sexual and gender-based violence against women migrants and refugees and violence in indigenous Sámi communities. Her earlier research focused on ethical banking, money, monetary systems, management and organisational change in the public sector.

She has also worked as a consultant, a civil servant, served as an expert to the European Commission and been president of the Norwegian Association for Women's Rights.

Background and career

She studied economics, regional planning, politics and contemporary history; she holds a cand.mag. degree from the University of Tromsø (1981), an MA in European economic studies from the College of Europe (1982), a mag.art. (PhD) in economic sociology from the University of Oslo (1995), with a dissertation on microfinance, ethical and interest-free banking, and a PhD in the field of men's studies from Örebro University (2014), with the dissertation Modern Men. The dissertation, influenced and advised by psychologist Margot Bengtsson, employs social psychological and sociological perspectives on intergenerational transmission and social change. She was awarded full professor competence in 2015.

In the 1980s and early 1990s she worked at the Regional Development Fund, the National Institute of Technology, and as a partner in a consultancy, promoting regional development and women's entrepreneurship and leadership. From 1993 she was affiliated with the Project for an Alternative Future, a research program at what is now the Centre for Development and the Environment at the University of Oslo. Since 1997 she has worked as a researcher and professor at a number of research institutions including the Work Research Institute, the University of Oslo and the University of Bergen. In 2016 she became a Research Professor at the Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies (NKVTS) at the University of Oslo. In 2021 she also became a professor of sociology at the University of Bergen.

She has served as an independent expert on gender equality to the European Commission, and has been a visiting scholar at the Feminism and Legal Theory Project (led by Martha Albertson Fineman) at Emory Law, the GEXcel Center of Gender Excellence and the Centre for Law and Social Justice at the University of Leeds. She was a member of Anne Hellum's research group Rights, Individuals, Culture and Society at the University of Oslo Faculty of Law and is a member of the expert committee of Rethinking Economics in Norway. She is a global affiliate of Fineman's research group, the Vulnerability and the Human Condition Initiative at Emory Law, and of the WiSE Centre for Economic Justice at the Glasgow School for Business and Society. She has taught students in sociology and psychology at the University of Oslo, and students in peace and conflict studies, governance, criminology, health policy and family therapy at other universities.

Research
Her research interests include gender-based violence, migration, gender equality, men and masculinities, organisation, policy studies and several other topics. She has published papers in The Sociological Review, the Journal of European Social Policy, Qualitative Research, Retfærd, the Nordic Journal of Criminology, the Journal of Gender-Based Violence, Norma, Fathering, Central and Eastern European Migration Review, and other journals.

Her research in the 1990s focused on ethical banking, money and monetary systems. From the late 1990s she focused on management and organisational change in the public sector, particularly organisational and spatial flexibility. Her research on working life led her to work–family issues and men's studies, and from the 2000s she has published widely on changes over time and generations in men's work–family practices and gender relations, employing social psychological and sociological perspectives on intergenerational transmission and social change. She has also studied the cultural adaptations and transnational practices of Polish migrants to Norway, and has been involved in several projects in Central and Eastern Europe.

Since the 2010s her research has focused on questions of gender, violence and power. She has led several research projects at NKVTS funded by the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, including a project on intimate partner violence with a focus on the importance of gender and power relations and a project on violence in indigenous Sámi communities. She currently heads the Norwegian part of an EU-funded research project on sexual and gender-based violence against women migrants and refugees, in cooperation with Jane Freedman, Ruth Halperin-Kaddari and researchers in six other countries in Europe, the Middle East and Canada. The aim of the project is to make policy recommendations for reducing women's vulnerability to sexual and gender-based violence. She co-edited a book on Men, Masculinities and Intimate Partner Violence with Lucas Gottzén and Floretta Boonzaier, and a book on violence in close relations with Kristin Skjørten and others.

Other research fields include theories of social justice, the welfare state, human rights, and feminist economics. She has cooperated with the American legal theorist Martha Albertson Fineman for a number of years and edited an issue of the journal Retfærd on Fineman's vulnerability theory in 2013. She was co-editor, with the Scottish economist Ailsa McKay, of the 2014 book Counting on Marilyn Waring: New Advances in Feminist Economics. She has also published works on the contemporary use of intangible cultural heritage, the relationship between learning and architecture, and research methods.

Civic and political activities

In the early 1980s she was a journalist for the feminist radio station radiOrakel. She was involved in the ethical banking movement in the early 1990s as chair of a working group attempting to start a bank in Norway modelled after, and in cooperation with, JAK Members Bank in Sweden. She has been president of the Norwegian Association for Women's Rights (2013–2016), President of the Norwegian Women's Lobby (2014–2016) and a board member of the International Alliance of Women (2013–2017). She was appointed by the Norwegian government as a member of the Norwegian delegation to the 59th and 60th sessions of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). She was a candidate for the Green Party in the 2015 elections.

Honours
Article of the Year – Scandinavian University Press Academic Journal Prize (2021).

References

External links

1958 births
Living people
Norwegian sociologists
Norwegian economists
Social psychologists
Economic sociologists
Family sociologists
Sociologists of law
Men and masculinities scholars
Feminist economists
Norwegian feminists
Norwegian civil servants
Academic staff of the University of Oslo
Academic staff of the University of Bergen
Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies people
Work Research Institute people
Innovation Norway people
College of Europe alumni
University of Tromsø alumni
University of Oslo alumni
Norwegian expatriates in Belgium
Norwegian women academics
Norwegian women sociologists
HuffPost writers and columnists
Norwegian women's rights activists
People from Bø, Telemark
People from Bærum
20th-century Norwegian politicians
21st-century Norwegian politicians
20th-century Norwegian women politicians
21st-century Norwegian women politicians

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Make sure you start each day by walking your dog at 7 a.m. so it can go to the bathroom. Stay outside for as long as it takes until they go. Then make sure to play with your pup until about 8 a.m. Stay outside for as long as it takes until they go.... THOU SHALT SUPERVISE YOUR DOG'S FREE TIME IN THE HOUSE. If your dog isn't housebroken, he shouldn't have unsupervised time in your house. It takes only seconds for him to have an accident, so in the early stages of your housebreaking program, he must be directly supervised the entire time he's in the house.
The new book from celebrity dog trainer and Emmy-winning star of the CBS show Lucky Dog, Brandon McMillan! Available October 4th. Available October 4th. Celebrity dog trainer and Emmy-winning star of the CBS show Lucky Dog shares his training system to transform any dog into a model companion in just seven days.


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GE Varroa Control No Santa Claus
Thursday, 23 December 2010, 2:03 pm
Press Release: SOIL and HEALTH Assn of NZ
GE Varroa Control No Santa Claus For New Zealand Beekeepers.
Genetically engineering varroa (Varroa destructor) mites to self destruct is no Christmas present for New Zealand's beekeepers, according to Soil & Health Association of NZ.
"Any future for New Zealand does not include genetically engineered mites being carried around New Zealand on the back of honey bees, any more than a real Santa Claus with reindeer," said Soil & Health – Organic NZ spokesperson Steffan Browning.
"News today that Aberdeen University's Dr Alan Bowman has announced a potential mechanism for the inoculation of mites, in a way that silences a gene in the mite, damaging its immune system, is being overstated. The research is in its infancy and potential hazards appear not to have been considered at all." (1)
"Aberdeen University's research needs to be seen in a broader ecological context of risk and actual potential success. Certainty would be needed that tampering with the DNA of the mite would not for example sport a mite or virus that is worse than the existing varroa, or have other unintended effects on bees, or affect mites naturally part of an indigenous ecosystem."
"A more useful curative to varroa than what is currently available would save considerable angst and cost to New Zealand beekeepers, and more benign alternatives than genetic engineering are being researched continuously which would not impact on New Zealand's largely GE Free status."
"Pest control in New Zealand using genetic engineering is no more acceptable than growing GE food, forages or forests would be to Aotearoa New Zealand's clean green 100% Pure trading and tourism brand."
"The 5 to 10 years of further research and development that Aberdeen suggests is necessary for their postulated GE solution, allows for significant development in less risky alternatives, and research dollars would do well to be directed to those."
"GE pest control research should always include scientists that are independently capable of imaging the very real risks that go hand in glove with such technology. Too often, research such as from Aberdeen claims potential solutions as part of touting for further research dollars, while completely ignoring the ecological risks," said Mr Browning.
Soil & Health – Organic NZ wishes for research spending be directed to a GE free and organic varroa solution for Christmas 2011.
(1) http://www.abdn.ac.uk/news/details-9669.php
Find more from SOIL and HEALTH Assn of NZ on InfoPages.


Low temperatures reduce the circulation of insects, but the Chicago cold weather drives rodents to look for warmer places to nest, and your home is a perfect target. According to experts in residential pest control services chicago il is ranked the "rattiest" city, and with temperatures dropping residents find it becomes even more challenging to eradicate rodents.
Rodents seek heat. That is why, during the summer they scurry around the streets, living within dumpsters and vacant lots, but in the winter season they dig into the nearest houses where they find protection from the cold and free food. And apartments are not exempt; rodents can climb up through the walls, moving from floor to floor, and settle around warm pipes. And mice and rats can take advantage of any small crack or gap to infiltrate your space.
Most homeowners try to eradicate rodents with bait, however, experts say rodents multiply so quickly that it's difficult for residents to really eradicate the bunch. Where one has been caught, another one or three are hiding. Rats are famous for their great reproductive capacity. The females can go into heat throughout the year every 4 or 5 days, in short periods of a few hours. Normally each litter of rats usually has a number between 8 and 12, although they can reach 24.
Each rat is sexually fertile at five weeks, so some estimates indicate that in a year and a half a couple of rats can have a million descendants, so it becomes impossible to get a hold of this problem before it quickly turns into an infestation. With their presence, rodents spread diseases and cause serious damage once they are inside. They transmit bacteria and germs, carry fleas, lice and mites, pollute the environments and can cause serious diseases. Even the accumulation of their feces favors the development of bacteria and triggers allergic reactions in humans.
Additionally, just their droppings can spread a host of diseases and viruses. In turn, the material damage rodents cause is usually in the hundreds. Due to their continuous need to chew, and deteriorate all kinds of materials such as plastic, wood, fabric and wiring, paralyzing buildings because of short circuits or lack of voltage, breakdowns in telephone lines and even causing fires.
For all the reasons mentioned, it is essential to combat rodents. The lack of cleanliness of your home or neighboring houses, or nearby abandoned buildings encourage the proliferation of mice and rats. Experts in pest control say pay attention to changes in the home. Holes or cracks that enlarge in different spaces or elements need to be sealed, and clean spaces with water and bleach. Bottom line is that it's not easy to control rodents once they infiltrate your home. The best defense against mice and rats is having pest control professionals walk through your premises to check for easy access points and telltale signs of any infestation.


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Journal of ART in SOCIETY
Art book and film reviews
Reviews of art books
Reviews of art films
Top art tweets of the month
Cultural trends and changes
The Two Women in White
Elsheimer's Flight into Egypt: how it changed the boundaries between art, religion and science
The rescue of the fabulous lost library of Deir al-Surian
Feathers, fashion and animal rights
Lost masterpieces of ancient Egyptian art from the Nebamun tomb-chapel
On the Trail of the Last Supper
Floating pleasure worlds of Paris and Edo
The emergence of the winter landscape
Toulouse-Lautrec, the bicycle and the women's movement
From the Rokeby Venus to Fascism Pt 1: Why did suffragettes attack artworks?
From the Rokeby Venus to Fascism Pt 2: the Strange Allure of Fascism
The Futurists declare war on pasta
The art of giraffe diplomacy
Science becomes Art
Catastrophes and scandals
The Controversies of Constantin Brancusi: Princess X and the boundaries of art
Bernardo Bellotto and the reconstruction of Warsaw
Surviving the Black Death
Julie Manet, Renoir and the Dreyfus Affair
Art and Survival in Patagonia
The Isenheim Altarpiece Pt 1: Pestilence and the Concert of Angels
The Isenheim Altarpiece Pt 2: Nationalism, Nazism and Degeneracy
The shocking birth and amazing career of Guernica
Forgotten Women Artists
Forgotten Women Artists: introduction
Forgotten Women Artists: #1 Arcangela Paladini: The Rapid Rise and Fall of a Prodigy
Forgotten Women Artists: #2 Jane Loudon
Forgotten Women Artists: #3 Marie-Gabrielle Capet: Stepping out from the Shadows
Forgotten Women Artists #4: Michaelina Wautier: entering the limelight after 300 years
Lives and livelihoods
Rose-Marie Ormond: Sargent's muse and "the most charming girl that ever lived"
The extraordinary career of Granville Redmond, deaf artist and silent movie actor
Dr Jekyll, Frankenstein and Shelley's Heart
The Adventures of Nadar: photography, ballooning, invention & the Impressionists
Colonial artist, thief, forger and mutineer: Thomas Barrett's amazing career
Watchmen, goldfinders and the plague bearers of the night
Sarka of the South Seas
The discovery of an early graphic novel
Should artists get royalties?
Strange encounters: the collector, the artist and the philosopher
Techniques and technology
Art as a barometer of climate changes
The life and death of Mummy Brown
Egyptian blue: the colour of technology
Prussian blue and its partner in crime
Why wasn't photography invented earlier?
Comets in Art
Art in a Speeded Up World >
Pt 1: Changing concepts of time
Pt 2: The 'new' time in literature
Pt 3: The 'new' time in painting
Early influences of photography >
Pt 1: Initial impacts
Pt 2: Photography as a working aid
Pt 3: Photographic effects
Pt 4: New approaches to reality
Authenticity and meaning
Lost in Translation: Bruegel's Tower of Babel new page
Perception and Blindness in the 16th Century
"All life is here": Bruegel's 'Way to Calvary'
Carpaccio's double enigma: Hunting on the Lagoon and the Two Venetian Ladies
Bruegel's Icarus and the perils of flight
Michelangelo's disputed Entombment
Titian, Prudence and the three-headed beast
The origins of an Australian art icon
Country-by-country guide
What you say about the Journal
Lost in Translation: Bruegel's Tower of Babel
By Philip McCouat For comments on this article, see here
The Tower that reached to heaven
According to the Old Testament story, God punished humankind in three ways. The first was the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden, following their discovery of Original Sin. Then came the Great Flood, the punishment for humans' multiplicity of iniquities. And the third was when God, wary of the pride and presumption of the citizens of the thrusting new city of Babylon, "confused the whole world's speech, and scattered them far away over the wide face of earth" [1].
So, what had the Babylonians done that was so inflammatory? In God's eyes, they had challenged the order of things by their stated desire to become a "great people", signified by their construction of a huge tower, "with a top that reaches to heaven" [2]. Humans were not supposed to aspire to such lofty heights, whether physical or metaphorical. God's chosen punishment for this was to put an end to the common language that had previously united all peoples, and to create a multiplicity of different languages, "so that they will not be able to understand each other". The resulting confusion meant that "the building of the city came to an end". According to the Bible, "that is why the city was called Babel" or Babylon [3].
Of all the depictions of this great tower that had so offended God, the most memorable is Pieter Bruegel the Elder's Tower of Babel (1563). It is this painting, and its multiplicity of possible meanings, that we will explore in this article.
Fig 1: Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Tower of Babel (1563), Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
The Tower in history
In human history, the building of large tower-temples dates back some 5,000 years. The ancient Sumerians built large, mountain-like temple structures ("ziggurats") as a method of connecting with their gods [4]. This tradition was later carried on in the cities of Assyria (broadly, present-day Iraq), and the tower at Babylon, the Etemenanki, was reputed to be the highest of them all. Here is how the ancient Greek writer Herodotus described it 458 BC:
"The temple is a square building, two furlongs in each way, with bronze gates, and was still in existence in my time; it has a solid central tower, one furlong square, with a second erected on top of it and then a third, and so on up to eight. All eight towers can be climbed by a spiral way running around the outside, and about half-way up there are seats and a shelter for those who make the ascent to rest on. On the summit of the topmost tower stands a great temple …"[5].
Fig 2: Ancient city of Babylon, engraving https://wellcomecollection.org/works/w3pvq7ag/items
Within 130 years after this description, however, when Alexander the Great visited Babylon, the Babylon tower was already in ruins [6].
Bruegel's distinctive version of the Tower
In the Christian account, the Tower at Babylon is not regarded as a temple or monument to God at all, but simply as an example of unacceptable human aspiration. This secularisation of the Tower's meaning may have its origin in the views taken of it by the Jews who had been forced to settle in Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC. They considered the Tower as the ultimate in presumption and blasphemy [7].
The Tower itself proved to be a popular subject for artists, appearing as a woodcut in German Bibles (Fig 3) or as illuminations in French or Netherlandish texts [8]. But none of these give the impression of colossal size that Bruegel was able to achieve.
Fig 3: Gerard Horenbout, Tower of Babel, from Grimani Breviary Folio 206 (c1505-20)
Bruegel himself depicted the Tower three times, once in an ivory miniature (now lost), and twice in panel paintings, both completed in 1563, including the one we are discussing here, housed at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna [9].
Bruegel's massive tapering structure (see Fig 1) is made from pale ochre stone, and reaches so high that, shockingly, it actually pierces the clouds in the summery blue sky. To appreciate its size, one needs simply to compare it with the four-story fort that adjoins it at the dock (lower right, fig 4) and whose top barely surpasses the base level of the Tower; or with the almost-literally microscopic size of the individual workers.
Fig 4: Detail of harbour, fort and landscape, from Bruegel's Tower of Babel
The Tower is encircled by an upward-spiralling ramp, from which multiple arched entrances lead to the dark interior. It teems with workers and construction machinery. Towards the top, the terracotta-coloured inner brick structure is revealed, angling upwards to what seems to be a smaller, more conventional structure at the pinnacle. The building appears to be in a very advanced but uneven state of completion. Indeed, it seems that people are actually living inside, as they would do in modern high-rise apartments, even hanging out their washing, while construction is being carried on all round them.
Fig 5: Detail of arches, living quarters, from Bruegel's Tower of Babel
The structure appears to be based on solid rock, and the large, centrally-placed outcrop of rock has remained undressed [10]. It stands close upon the waterfront of a large, busy harbour, where sailing ships and water vessels are moored or ply their trade, chiefly in building materials. Oddly, the entire structure appears to be teetering to the left [11]. In the lower left corner of the painting, among a jumble of stone blocks, workers are paying their respects to a visiting dignitary. And beyond the encircling city, rendered by the artist in extraordinary detail (Fig 5A), there stretches a vast landscape, crossed by rivers, with a low range of hills on the horizon.
Fig 5A: Detail of life in the town, from Bruegel's Tower of Babel
A morality tale?
At its simplest level, the painting can be seen a straightforward, dispassionate depiction of the Biblical episode, as the physical setting and reason for God's punishment of the Babylonians' pride.
Of course, Biblical stories naturally tend to contain or acquire a moral significance beyond the immediate circumstances in which they are set. So, if the Bible account has God punishing the Tower builders, this would typically be interpreted as a more general warning against over-arching human ambition, and against an approach to life based on material, rather than spiritual, concerns. Bruegel's longstanding interest in depicting the Tower suggests that it is certainly possible that he shared these concerns, or at least that he appreciated that his audience could be receptive to them.
This interpretation is supported by the likelihood that the size and structure of Bruegel's Tower was influenced by the structure of the Colosseum in Rome (Fig 6}, with which Bruegel would have been well familiar from his travels in Italy, and from the availability of prints. By Bruegel's time, the Colosseum, once a shockingly huge symbol of human magnificence in a supposedly-"eternal" city of Rome [12], was in partial ruin. Basing the Tower on it, in the context of a modern 16th century urban setting, was therefore a reminder of the transience of human endeavour, a characteristic that writers at the time frequently associated with ancient ruins in general [13].
Fig 6: Hieronymous Cock, View of the Colosseum, Rome (1550)
Further evidence that the Tower was intended as a warning about the sins of human vanity are provided in the previously-mentioned vignette in the lower left of the painting. This shows a luxuriously-dressed, larger-than-life crowned dignitary with his entourage, and is presumably intended to represent King Nimrod, grandson of Noah, who had become a mighty ruler and builder of cities, and who had supposedly commissioned the Tower. The king is visiting on a tour of inspection, and is being greeted by a group of stone-masons. Interestingly, the most prominent mason is not just bending on one knee, the usual gesture of fealty, but is actually on both knees, as if before a representative of God.
Fig 7: Detail of visiting dignitary, from Bruegel's Tower of Babel
Viewers of the painting in 16th century Flanders would presumably interpret this as a totally inappropriate, particularly in the case of someone like King Nimrod, who was described by St Augustine in his City of God as a deceiver and an oppressor, and who, according to one account, had built the tower specifically as revenge for God's destruction of humanity in the Great Flood [14]. Bruegel's disapproval is also perhaps suggested by the tiny detail of a peasant or worker, who has turned away from the scene, and is squatting on the ground, his bare buttocks pointing in the King's general direction as he defecates [15].
Fig 8: Detail of resting workers and squatting man, from Bruegel's Tower of Babel
A warning about development….
It has also been suggested that Bruegel was drawing attention to a specific contemporary example of these concerns, by likening the position of Babylon to that of another bustling port city, his home city Antwerp.
Of course, the setting of the Tower in what is obviously an incongruously European setting, rather than a Middle Eastern one, does not in itself signify that Bruegel is using the story to make any more general comment about current affairs; rather, it may simply reflect the current fashion in Protestant countries for depicting Biblical incidents in everyday modern settings [16], and the obvious fact that Bruegel may not have had much idea of how to portray an accurate version of a Middle Eastern city in any event.
Nevertheless, there do appear to be some significant parallels between the two cities. At the time Bruegel was painting, Antwerp, like Babylon. was in the midst of a building boom, with massive influxes of people, threatening to transform what was previously a small port into the "most crowded town in Europe" [17]. The discovery of new sea-routes round the Cape of Good Hope to Asia [18], and across the Atlantic to the recently-discovered Americas [19] had led to a re-orientation of world trade, with Venice and Genoa losing their leading positions as trade shifted to the west of Europe [20]. Cities such as Antwerp were therefore well-placed for transatlantic ship trade, for traffic between north and south, and for imports of spices from the Orient, which had become less accessible since the fall of Constantinople. The combination of its growing population, a building boom and material advancement meant that Antwerp had advanced to become the centre of Western European trade, just as Babylon had been prominent in its own era.
The similarities did not end there. Antwerp's foreign trade had attracted foreigners to the city, with their foreign languages and customs. The city therefore was faced with potentially the same problem as Babylon ultimately experienced as a result of God's punishment – a decline in social cohesion due to multiplicity of languages -- which in Babylon's case ultimately proved to be its downfall. In Antwerp's case, this risk was even more marked, as the city was also subject to splintering on religious lines.
…. or a critique of religious oppression
In a 1568 letter, the Duke of Alba described Antwerp as "a Babylon, a confusion and receptacle of all sects indifferently" [21]. These religious tensions were further exacerbated by the unsympathetic rule of the Catholic Spanish king Phillip II. Indeed, some commentators have argued that the King Nimrod figure in the painting was intended to be seen as code for Phillip, who was forcing the Spanish language upon the unwilling occupants, and attempting to forcibly suppress Protestant or foreign religious beliefs and persecute their followers. This situation was causing considerable alarm in humanist circles, with which Bruegel may have been associated [22]. Some commentators have developed this point further, suggesting that Bruegel is using the Tower story as a means of attacking the Church of Rome itself. On this interpretation, the Colosseum-based Tower is identified with the Church, with both being built upon a rock [23] and both being identified with Rome; the teachings of the Church are seen as confusing the true message of Christ, creating a "babble" of competing creeds; and the Tower's future crumbling is suggestive of a forecasted waning of the Church's power.
A call for considered action
Of course, just because Bruegel may be likening Antwerp to Babylon does not mean that he believed that Antwerp was likewise headed for destruction, or even that he is necessarily opposed to its development or diversity. But it is arguable that by depicting a prime example of human transience and vanity, and linking it to Antwerp, he is drawing attention to trends that will require attention if Antwerp's future is to be secured. This could include ensuring that its rapid development and diversification did not lead to Babylonian miscommunication and disunity, while ensuring that the welfare of the whole community was given priority over individuals' own private gains [24]. And all this needed to be achieved despite the political, linguistic, cultural and religious tensions that we have described.
In this connection, it has been argued that the painting served as an active backdrop for dinner parties hosted by Niclaes Jonghelinck, the prosperous Antwerp banker in whose home the painting was hung. It could thus act to stimulate discussion among engaged citizens of "the dangers of miscommunication, urging those participating in a meal gathering to answer the question of how to maintain prosperity in a community characterized by extraordinary pluralism''. It could present "an open-ended visual argument, which stimulated discussion and self-examination" [25].
But has the Tower already failed?
This raises another fundamental question. We know that in the Biblical version of the story, the magnificent Tower ultimately fails. But what stage in the story has Bruegel depicted? And is it even possible that its fate could still be reversed?
It is suggested that Bruegel has shown the Tower at a point before any actual failure takes place. Indeed, the painting provides what has generally been accepted to be an accurate depiction of properly functioning building machinery and methods. Close examination reveals an enormous level of activity being conducted over large parts of the site, including the harbour. All types of trade are represented -- stonemasons, carpenters, plasterers, bricklayers, mortar mixers and tinsmiths – each with their own guild hut. Various pulleys and cranes are being used to transport building materials [26]. The crane on the second level, for example, is shown to be lifting a block of stone, powered by three men in a circular treadmill. Below the ledge, another worker holding a long pole to make sure the stone stays stable [27]. Masons are cutting the stone that has probably been transported to the site by sea. Scaffolding and ladders support workers at high levels. Horses are being used to move heavy loads along the ramps. Bricks are being carried up the Tower [28].
Fig 9: Detail of cranes and building construction work, from Bruegel's Tower of Babel
So, while the Tower is obviously unfinished, there little obvious sign in the painting that the workers have been thrown into confusion, or are failing to cooperate. However, Bruegel has given us some clues that the seeds of possible destruction may already have been built into the structure. For one thing, it has been built unnervingly close to the water. Further, despite some disagreement on the issue [29], the Tower, although built on rock, appears to be clearly tilting to the left, with the result that if it is pushed higher it might eventually topple under its own weight. This is accentuated by the fact that the arches are built at right angles to the sloping ramp. The whole structure therefore seems physically unbalanced and out of kilter, possibly reflecting the lack of balance between the physical and the spiritual in the Babylonians' approach to life.
In one sense, depicting the Tower before the moment when God has decided its fate, or actually imposed his punishment, can be seen as reflecting a view that a counter-action, or a change in behaviour to correct the errors, still might be possible, difficult though that may be. Some commentators, however, have adopted a rather more critical view of the construction of the Tower, and of whether progress is still being made. So, they suggest that it is not just that the seeds of possible failure have been sown, but that the failure has already, inevitably and irretrievably, begun.
So, for example, these commentators note that the work does not appear to be proceeding in a coordinated way according to some logical plan. Wied says that the picture depicts the moment at which construction has become completely bogged down and is coming to an end; and cites the view directed at the Rotterdam version that at the very top "chaos reigns" [30]. Foote comments that the Tower's mere appearance suggests that it "will clearly never be finished" [31]. Similarly, the Roberts-Joneses say that the architecture is unrealistic, not functional and absurd, and that the construction techniques being used are incompatible [32].
Are these commentators reading too much into this? We may never know whether Bruegel actually intended that aspects such as these should be taken as signs of failure. For example, the fact that everything appears to be being done at different stages may not be intended as a sign of a failure of coordination, but simply be because Bruegel is aiming to show off as many construction techniques as possible in the one painting. Similarly, although he was well-versed in construction methods, Bruegel may not have intended that a proper appreciation of the painting should require viewers to have an erudite appreciation of the compatibility or otherwise of various architectural styles. The painting is, after all, a sustained feat of imagination on his part.
The Biblical story is that the Tower failed because of a lack of communication, caused by the God-inspired outbreak of a multiplicity of languages. In a real sense, therefore, the Tower became lost in translation. When we look at Bruegel's painting, and attempt to interpret it, we are also engaged in an exercise in translation -- was he simply giving visual expression to the Biblical story? Or was he attempting to make some wider point? Or a combination of both?
We should not be surprised that there is not necessarily agreement about Bruegel's intentions. It may well be that Bruegel was being deliberately ambiguous, as free expression of controversial political or religious views was not welcomed in his era. Instead of being openly polemic, he has therefore embedded his work with signs, and leaves it up to us, the viewers, to interpret them for ourselves ■
© Philip McCouat 2019. First published October 2019.
This article may be cited as Philip McCouat, "Lost in Translation: Bruegel's Tower of Babel", Journal of Art in Society www.artinsociety.com
For other articles on Bruegel in this Journal, see:
Perception and Blindness in the 16th Century: Pieter Bruegel's 'The Blind leading the Blind'
The Emergence of the Winter Landscape: Bruegel and his Predecessors
"All Life is Here": Bruegel's 'Way to Calvary'
Bruegel's 'Icarus' and the Perils of Flight
1. Holy Bible, Genesis 11:9; Rose-Marie and Rainer Hagen, chapter "The Antwerp Building Boom", What Great Paintings Say. Vol 1, Taschen, Cologne, 2003 at 158.
2. Genesis 11:4.
3. The name is evidently based on a Hebrew word for confusion. The English word "babble" is often assumed to have a similar derivation, but the evidence for this is lacking.
4. Hagen, op cit at 162.
5. Quoted in Justin Marozzi, "Lost cities #1: Babylon – how war almost erased 'mankind's greatest heritage site" The Guardian (Australian edn), 8 August 2016 (accessed October 2019)
7. Alexander Wied, Bruegel, English edn, Bay Books, Sydney 1980 at 120.
8. Wied, ibid.
9. The other version, undated, unsigned and smaller, is at Rotterdam, at Museum Boijmans van Beuningen. That version shows a more ordered Tower, but lacks the vignette of the visiting dignitary: see the entry for the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen.
10. This rocky outcrop is reminiscent of Bruegel's Way to Calvary: see our article here.
11. See end note 29.
12. Once described by St Augustine "that other Babylon of the west": quoted in Vytas Narusevicius, "The labours of translation: towards Utopia in Bruegel's Tower of Babel", Wreck, volume 4, number 1 (2013) 30.
13. Wied, op cit at 120.
14. S. A. Mansbach, "Pieter Bruegel's Towers of Babel", Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte Vol 45 no 1 (1982) 43, at 44.
15. A similar defecating figure appears in Bruegel's The Magpie on the Gallows, and possibly in his Fall of Icarus: see Robert L Bonn, Painting Life: The Art of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Chaucer Press Books, New York, 2006, page xiv; and our article on Bruegel's Fall of Icarus.
16. Timothy Foote et al, The World of Bruegel, Time-Life International, The Netherlands, 1971, at 95.
17. Hagen, op cit at 160.
18. Vasco da Gama, 1498.
19. Columbus, 1492.
21. The Duke was the governor of the Netherlands. Extract quoted in Barbara A. Kaminska, "Come, let us make a city and a tower: Pieter Bruegel the Elder's Tower of Babel and the Creation of a Harmonious Community in Antwerp", Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art, Vol 6, issue 2 (Summer 2014).
22. Mansbach, op cit at 46. On Bruegel's religious beliefs, see also Jürgen Muller and Thomas Schauerte, Pieter Bruegel: The Complete Works, Taschen, Cologne, 2018 at 18.
23. Matthew 16:18, where Jesus says, "it is upon this rock that I will build my church".
24. Kaminska, op cit.
26. Narusevicius, op cit at 37.
27. A very similar crane actually operated on the Antwerp waterfront: Hagen, op cit at 161.
28. Bruegel's evident expertise in depicting construction methods was presumably a factor in his late being commissioned to depict the stages in the building of the Antwerp-Brussels Canal. He died before this could be finished. See generally H. Arthur Klein, "Pieter Bruegel the Elder as a Guide to 16th-Century Technology", Scientific American, Vol. 238, No. 3 (March 1978), pp. 134-141.
29. Wied, op cit at 124 attributes it to an optical illusion.
31. Foote, op cit at 96.
32. Philippe and Françoise Roberts-Jones, Bruegel, Flammarion, Paris 2012, at 249.


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I performed at the 2015 Summer K-pop Festival
Infinite closes out the 2015 Summer K-pop Festival with a performance of their recent single, "Bad." SCREAMfmLondon
I hear the roaring applause of thousands of k-pop fans as I'm nailing every moment of my chicken-inspired choreography. I land my final jumps, and the crowd goes wild. Then, I have to hurry off the stage because world-renowned pop superstar Psy is up next.
That's (basically) (more or less) how it went down when I performed as a backup dancer for Korean comedian Kim Young-chul's set at the 2015 Summer K-pop Festival on Aug. 4. The four-hour concert boasted performances from artists such as GOT7, Infinite, T-ara, Crayon Pop and Psy.
And me, of course.
SM Entertainment, sign me up
The adventure began around 7 p.m. the night before the concert, when the dancers were all herded en masse through several crowded subway transfers until we reached our stage at Seoul City Hall.
At the venue, we were quickly taught the moves and positioned onstage, where we ran the dance until 9 p.m. We had no idea what song we were dancing to until the next day, but, boy, were we dancing. We danced and danced, were given disapproving looks, and then we danced some more.
The choreographer seemed quite exasperated every time we failed to perform our dance in perfect synchronization, but I'm pretty sure that the steps were different every time we ran through it. I'm also pretty sure that they were making it up as we went along.
He was terribly intimidating (even when he congratulated us on a job well done at the end of the concert). I felt like I was in an audition for a Very Serious entertainment agency. Which was actually super fun for me. I was having a blast. I could do that all day every day. SM Entertainment, sign me up!
SM Entertainment, don't call me — I'll call you
The next day, we arrived bright and early to our dance team holding tent backstage while fans were already staking out spots on the lawn to watch their favorite groups.
"We just saw some k-pop stars!" one of the girls exclaimed excitedly as she ran up to our group. "I think it was Infinite!"
'No way,' I thought. 'I am sitting around in this sweltering tent backstage for six hours because I don't actually have a life, and what else would I be doing? If I was an actual k-pop star, I'd show up like five minutes before I had to be onstage. And I'd demand a dressing room or something.'
Super Junior's Zhou Mi gets ready backstage before emceeing the concert on Aug. 4. SCREAMfmLondon
But no sooner had the thought occurred to me than Infinite themselves popped out of their own black tarp tent and made the glamorous journey toward a shared porta-potty. Along the way, they resignedly waved at the jittery fans who were intently watching said journey to the porta-potty.
Amazing! Not only were they, in fact, sitting around in their backstage tent longer than I was, but they also had a lot more pressure surrounding the general porta-potty experience than I have ever dealt with. Possibly, I do not want to be a k-pop star after all. SM Entertainment, don't call me — I'll call you.
Once the seats were beginning to fill, we went onstage for our soundcheck. This was the first time we'd heard the song we'd be dancing to — a remix of Kim Young-chul saying "Cheer up, superpower" on an episode of "Infinity Challenge." It was also the first time we'd met him, but we were pumped. I was pumped. I was ready to roll, ready to party, ready to dance on the very floor where Nam Woo-hyun would also dance.
I felt even better when we came off the stage from our soundcheck, hurrying down the right side of the staircase because Infinite was making their way up the left for their own soundcheck. 'Yes, this feels right. This is where I belong. Me and Psy — we're like peers, really.'
Finally, the time came for our official, broadcast-ready performance. We waited patiently in the wings while MCs Zhou Mi of Super Junior, Lee Hong-bin of VIXX and Park Ji-yeon of T-ara gave an introduction. As they passed us on the stairs, Zhou Mi gave us a thumbs-up and whispered, "Fighting!" I grinned. We're totally peers.
Why aren't there any better-quality videos of my moment?! Yours truly, second from the left. SCREAMfmLondon
I felt so alive with all of those confused eyes on me as I wildly flapped my arms in tune to the song. 'Yep, this is the life,' I thought. My face was projected on the screens at both sides of the stage as I danced my heart out. I hope Psy saw it, and I hope he appreciates my passion. My face was broadcast on SBS MTV throughout South Korea as I danced my heart out. I hope everybody saw it, and I hope they appreciate my passion.
It went great. The crowd didn't know what to do with themselves. It was the greatest thing they'd ever seen, I assume.
The Summer K-pop Concert
Exhilarated from the performance, we eventually took our seats in the audience to watch the rest of the concert clutching towels and posters painted with the phrase "I LOVE K-POP."
It was awesome. Psy was electrifying, and he got the entire crowd up and dancing to "Gentleman" (such a jam) and other hits that shall not be named. He played an unprecedented four songs, and I loved every moment of it. He's such an incredible entertainer — I'm absolutely certain that I screamed louder for him than any of the boy bands.
GOT7 was awfully super adorable with "Just Right," which was tragically the only song they performed at the show. The bubbly you're-perfect-just-the-way-you-are vibe is the cutest and will never fail to warm my heart. I also love the accompanying dance. Watching professionals like GOT7 command the stage really reminded me what dancing is supposed to look like after spending so much time looking at myself dance (or try to, anyway).
Infinite was wonderful, as always. They performed "Bad" from the recently-released mini-album "Reality," and then closed the show with a more somber ballad. "Bad" is a really awesome song with a theatrical, Hans Zimmer-style introduction and a dark, sexy overtone. It shows off the strengths of several band members — namely Dongwoo, whose rap verse and featured dance were some of the highlights of the performance.
Altogether, I had a blast at the concert. It was one of the most entertaining strange situations I've ever inserted myself into. I sincerely hope I get to do it again. SM Entertainment, I'm back onboard.
Psy performs at the 2015 Summer K-pop Festival. SCREAMfmLondon
This entry was posted in Korea, live music, Music, Seoul, Television and tagged 2015 Summer K-pop Festival, backup dancer, bad, celebrity, choreography, comedy, concert, concert review, Crayon Pop, dance, gentleman, got7, hans zimmer, hongbin, infinite, Infinity Challenge, jang dongwoo, jiyeon, just right, k-pop, Kim Young-chul, korea, Lee Hong-bin, live music, mtv, music, Nam Woo-hyun, paid audience, Park Ji-yeon, Psy, reality, sbs mtv, seat-filler, seoul, Seoul City Hall, seoul plaza, SM Entertainment, super junior, superpower, t-ara, television, tv, vixx, Zhou Mi on August 11, 2015 by screamfmlondon.
Album review: Gerard Way, 'Hesitant Alien'
"Do you miss me? 'Cause I miss you."
— Gerard Way, 'Action Cat'
Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Records/Reprise Records.
It's been ten years since I spent my nights listening to "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)" on a loop using my dial-up Internet connection. My Chemical Romance was a big thing for me. To say the least. In fact, when the band officially announced its separation in March 2013 coinciding with this year's release of a greatest hits album, "May Death Never Stop You," I received a number of consolation messages.
I'm okay now. (Trust me.)
But I still found myself waiting in line for five hours outside of the Hot Topic where former My Chem frontman Gerard Way was signing copies of his solo debut, "Hesitant Alien." There, I made fast friends with my linemates, who ranged from a sophomore at Beverly Hills High School who came with his parents (but made them stand a distance away from us because embarrassing!) to a woman who has a five-year-old child of her own. Most of us are now in our 20s, wearing more color than we used to but still able to get a good harmony going as we sang "Welcome to the Black Parade" a cappella out back of the Hollywood & Highland Center. The MCRmy has grown up.
And the comic book nerd-cum-rockstar who helped us get through high school in one piece is now asserting himself as a solo artist: "Hesitant Alien" showcases what life is like for the now-37-year-old Gerard Way, who is more self-assured and stable but nonetheless a weird outsider.
If we're being honest, My Chemical Romance was also more or less Gerard Way's solo project all along. He just happened to be able to assemble a group of musicians who, bless their hearts, let him dress them up in silly outfits and played along with his grandiose visions of serial killers with Catholic guilt and Technicolor dystopias and personifications of death.
One of Gerard's greatest strengths as an artist has always been his holistic thinking: each release arrives fully-formed, complete with a consistent and strong sense of setting, backstory and personality.
My prized possessions. SCREAMfmLondon
"Hesitant Alien" is another well-rounded creation. The overall vibe is sort of that of a '70s glam rock group trying to predict what music would sound like in 2014. It's all retro-futuristic with fuzzy modulation, music videos reminiscent of MTV's 1980s debut era, and an obvious Britpop influence in lyrics that could have been penned by Blur or Pulp.
"No Shows" is by far the best track on the album. It is vibrant noise-pop perfected with slick, reverberating lyrics like, "Weak knees from the level, I'm sick from the treble, I'm your type of metal." The instrumental breakdown near the end of the song is an excellent touch, and the song as a whole is a great representation of the direction taken on "Hesitant Alien."
"Brother," a slower track, offers some insight into the final days of My Chemical Romance. Backed by a rhythmic beat, echoing vocals and his own minimalistic piano accompaniment, Gerard sings, "Does anyone have the guts to shut me up? / 'Cause I believe that every night / There's a chance we can walk away."
Other standout tracks include "Maya the Psychic," "Action Cat" and "Juarez" ("I can't swim, don't rub it in," Gerard reminds us on the latter in a weirdly catchy hook). On "Millions," Gerard's younger brother and former My Chemical Romance bassist Mikey features as a backup vocalist.
Altogether, "Hesitant Alien" is a solid album and a sign that Gerard made the right move in going solo. There are a few skippable tracks ("The Bureau," "How It's Going to Be," etc.), but they all work together well regardless.
Had My Chemical Romance not released 2010's "Danger Days" and had instead released the "Conventional Weapons" EP as a formal album (as they should have), "Hesitant Alien" would seem like a completely separate musical style from Gerard's work with the band. However, as it is, it seems like a natural continuation of the music he's created in the past and is an easy transition to accept.
Onwards and upwards, Gerard. Unleash the fucking bats. Again.
Hesitant Alien
Release Date: Sept. 30
Genre: Alternative Rock
This entry was posted in Los Angeles, Music, music review and tagged action cat, album review, album signing, alternative rock, beverly hills high school, blur, britpop, brother, comic books, conventional weapons, danger days, Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, gerard way, glam rock, hesitant alien, hollywood, Hollywood & Highland Center, hollywood boulevard, hot topic, how it's going to be, I'm Not Okay (I Promise), juarez, los angeles, may death never stop you, maya the psychic, MCRmy, mikey way, millions, mtv, music, music review, my chemical romance, no shows, pulp, the bureau, Welcome to the Black Parade on October 8, 2014 by screamfmlondon.
I was a seat-filler at the 2014 MTV Movie Awards
It's possible that I am in this picture. Via AP Images/Invision
"Come with me, right now!" our wrangler commands, one hand on her walkie-talkie, before she takes off into the auditorium.
A voice announces over loudspeakers that the show will resume taping in a few moments.
I try to keep the wrangler in my line of vision as I hurry after her over the uneven flooring — hastily-laid carpet covering clusters of wires and power cords, some sort of plywood functioning as speed bumps, and a very sharp incline. I am hyper-aware that if I trip over my six-inch heels and faceplant, I will be doing so directly in front of Channing Tatum.
I was a seat-filler for the 2014 MTV Movie Awards on April 13.
Seat-fillers exist to fill in gaps when a guest gets up to perform onstage, hang out at the bar, use the bathroom or go home because they're bored, so there are no empty seats when the show is aired on TV. I am well-suited to this particularly glamorous Hollywood job because filling seats is basically my strongest talent. I've been training my entire life, and I was really excited for the opportunity to finally take sitting in chairs to the professional level.
Here's how it went down:
My day as a seat-filler began at 10 a.m., when I had to assemble the red carpet look I was going to wear that day (by "red carpet," I mean the Metro Red Line I would take from Hollywood to Downtown Los Angeles, where the event was taking place inside the Nokia Theatre).
Our meeting location was outside of a parking structure underneath the Santa Monica Freeway. There, they separated us into three groups: the "pit fans" (who stood for the duration of the event closest to the stage), the "red carpet fans" (who sat in bleachers to watch the procession) and the seat-fillers.
We weren't allowed to bring our cellphones along, so we had no way to judge the passing of time. I can only estimate that we stood around approximately forever, and then we moved to another waiting area where we sat down forever.
Finally, we made the long trek across LA Live toward the venue in rows of four, passing Lakers fans and tourists shooting confused stares at the parade of weirdos looking ready for a long night of clubbing in our "hip and trendy" best in broad daylight. Once we passed through a security checkpoint and were finally inside the Nokia Theatre, we got to, well, stand around some more before they brought us to the holding areas on either side of the stage.
From there, we were moved around a lot. If someone returned to their seat, the seat-filler had to go back to the holding area for their next assignment. This resulted in a lot of sprinting across the room at a moment's notice and, in one fantastic instance, a fellow seat-filler getting stuck crouching on the floor between two seats when someone came to sit down after the show had already resumed.
Here are the coolest parts:
When seat-fillers are not filling important celebrity seats, they fill significantly less important regular ol' seats in a holding area at the very front of the auditorium. My holding area was in the path leading from the auditorium to the backstage area, where everyone was entering carrying popcorn and champagne. I didn't get to partake — in fact, I didn't get to eat or drink anything all day because I'd been busy with all that standing around I was doing. But I did get to watch a lot of people make their entrance: Max Joseph and Nev Schulman from "Catfish," the entire cast of "Teen Wolf," Snooki and JWoww, etc. And that is how I learned that Nicki Minaj is incredibly tiny – she's apparently only 5'2"! Who knew!
Zac Efron took off his shirt onstage. Actually, Rita Ora forcibly removed his shirt onstage, but the result was achieved. And I was in the same room as that.
Being in the front row for the musical performances was not a bad time. Twenty One Pilots, an all-Christian kind of indie rock-rap group, started off with the song "Car Radio." About two seconds before they began, lead singer Tyler Joseph passed masks into the audience and gave everyone an incredibly speedy rundown of the complicated choreography we were supposed to perform. It turned out alright, though, and the song and performance were both great. I also enjoyed being in the front row for Eminem and Rihanna's "Monster" duet because that's a situation I can't imagine I would find myself in under any other circumstance.
Here are the worst parts:
I ended up sitting a short distance behind Grumpy Cat, who was slumped over in her chair (a front row seat) in what looked like a heavily-sedated stupor, living a pretty crummy life as a newly-minted feline celebrity. I disagree with cats-as-celebrities anyway because that's ridiculous, but after seeing Grumpy Cat in action at one of her many public events, I just felt really bad for her.
She barely moved, aside from her head lolling lethargically as she was grabbed, petted and held up for photos with nearly every guest in attendance. Otherwise, she was kept in her seat and subjected to pyrotechnics, loud music, explosions, flashing lights and fog machines, which I'm sure she loved because cats love being famous. Everybody knows that.
Also, no one seemed to know what they were doing. Amanda Seyfried couldn't read her lines. Chris Pratt didn't get a microphone when he went onstage. Someone promoted the upcoming "Godzilla" movie (an actor, probably), but nobody could see him through the excessively thick fog from the fog machine. It was a bit of a mess, but, to be fair, it's just the MTV Movie Awards. I don't think anyone was watching anyway.
Afterwards:
As the show ended, I awkwardly realized that I didn't know what I was supposed to do with myself. I was lost in the crowd: Shailene Woodley was trying to squeeze past me toward the exit and Holland Roden was leaning onto my chair to take a selfie. I figured my job was complete. I sat like a pro. I was proud. I headed off into the night.
My feet hurt, and I deeply regret not trying harder to sneak into an after-party. But will I sit again professionally? I really, really hope so.
This entry was posted in Film, live music, Los Angeles, Music, Television and tagged 2014, Amanda Seyfried, award show, car radio, Catfish, celebrity, Channing Tatum, Chris Pratt, conan o'brien, downtown los angeles, dtla, Eminem, Godzilla, grumpy cat, holland roden, hollywood, indie rock, JWoww, la live, live music, los angeles, Max Joseph, Monster, movies, mtv, mtv movie awards, music, Nev Schulman, Nicki Minaj, nokia theatre, paid audience, rap, reality tv, red carpet, Rihanna, rita ora, santa monica freeway, seat-filler, shailene woodley, Snooki, teen wolf, television, tv, Twenty One Pilots, tyler joseph, zac efron on May 2, 2014 by screamfmlondon.


Capable of storing lightsabers, secret plans for moon-sized space stations and now your favourite hot drink, is there anything that R2-D2 can't carry- This awesome ceramic mug looks just like everyone's favourite astromech droid from the Star Wars Saga, but remove his swivelling head and you can fill him up with a hot brew! Not ready to drink it just yet- Replace R2's head and it acts as a lid to keep your drink warmer for longer. Star Wars and sci-fi fans of any age will go crazy for this amazing R2-D2 mug. This is the droid you've been looking for!


text:
Q: How to use DISTINCT in VIEWS correctly I have two tables from which I want to make a join with some columns to provide a view for my java/hibernate application. It looks like this:
CREATE VIEW customer_contacts AS cc
SELECT DISTINCT ON (cust.id) cust.id
  cust.company
  cust.zip
  ...
  con.name
  con.forename
  ...
FROM contacts con
LEFT JOIN customer cust ON con.customer = cust.id
ORDER BY cust.id

So far so good. Very simple.
If I make a SELECT on the view like:
SELECT *
FROM cc
WHERE name ilike '%schult%'

I get 13 results.
If I make the same query directly with the view statement
SELECT DISTINCT ON (cust.id) cust.id
  cust.company
  cust.zip
  ...
  con.name
  con.forename
  ...
FROM contacts con
LEFT JOIN customer cust ON con.customer = cust.id
WHERE name ilike '%schult%'
ORDER BY cust.id

I got 75 results!
I figured out that it is the DISTINCT that corrupts the result. But why?
And how can I use it correctly?

A: Your queries (view based and direct) have different order of applying condition:

*

*direct query searches for %shult% and then applies distinct on

*view applies distinct on and then searches for %shult%
Are you aware how distinct on works?
It selects first row (it may be undeterministic if proper sort is not defined) for given attributes and leaves other.
For instance:
Let's say we have customer with id=1 and two connected contacts one with name='Schultz' and one with name='Schmidt'.
Now view based select will apply distinct on and select customer with some contact (first one, undeterministic in this case), then name ilike '%schult%' will be applied - it may happen that Schultz will be removed by distinct on.

Recommended reading:
https://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.0/static/sql-select.html#SQL-DISTINCT

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


When is the new Bozeman Hockey Rink going up? When are they breaking ground? It's happening Monday night y'all!
The Gallatin Ice Foundation is breaking ground on a 36,000-square-foot building that will eventually house Bozeman's second ice arena on Aug. 11.
Join the GIF (Gallatin Ice Foundation) as we celebrate this important milestone of the "Raise the Ice Barn" project and raise money for Step 2,which get's Bozeman that much needed second sheet of ice.
406 Brewing Co. will generously be donating $1 of every pint sold to Step 2 of our fundraising efforts!


Prof. John Struthers: Director - Centre for African Research on Enterprise and Economic Development (CAREED), School of Business and Enterprise, University of West of Scotland (UWS).
Professor John Struthers is an experienced academic and economist with over 35 years working in a variety of universities in the UK and in Africa. He has worked in Nigeria and Sierra Leone, and carried out research on Ghana and Ethiopia. He has extensive publications in a range of economics journals, principally in the field of development economics, especially on "soft" commodities such as coffee and cocoa. He has previously been a Director of a leading Scottish Chamber of Commerce as well as a Local Enterprise Trust (both in Renfrewshire). He was also a member of Waterwatch Scotland, a water industry consumer body. He is a current member of the Westminster Africa Business Group in London. In academia he has been Dean of a Business Faculty at UWS, Head of Department of Economics and Enterprise, and founding Head of UWS' Graduate School. In November 2015 he set up CAREED at UWS, a unique research centre which specialises in a range of key economic issues across the continent of Africa. For the last 10 or more years he has been researching, along with other UWS colleagues, in the area of commodity price volatility in developing countries. In this context he has collaborated with a number of UN organisations such as the FAO in Rome and UNCTAD in Geneva in the area of commodities research. His publications (some-co-authored) have appeared in the following journals: Development and Change; Journal of Energy and Development; Journal of Economic Studies; Journal of International Development; Oxford Development Studies, among others. His recent research has been funded by the British Academy. During 2015 he was appointed Honorary Consul for Ethiopia in Scotland. He has supervised 18 PhD students to completion, many of whom came from a variety of African countries and has been external examiner for more than 30 doctorates at a number of UK universities. He is also a Visiting Professor of Economics at the University of Glasgow within the Adam Smith Business School.
Currently my primary area of research is Commodities in Developing Countries. Previous areas included: inflation in developing countries (eg Ghana);Dutch Disease in oil producing countries (eg Nigeria); Economics of Voting, rational expectations, and exchange rate analysis in developing countries.
I have also recently commenced researching in the area of female entrepreneurship in developing countries, along with a UWS colleague, Dr Dina Nziku.
I have carried out various editorial and refeereing roles for a range of academic journals including: Journal of International Development, Journal of Development Studies, Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Developing Areas, Journal of African Economies, among others.
I am a research grant application reviewer for the Carnegie Trust for Research Incentives Grants.
I am also editor of the International Journal of Social Business and Lead Editor and a Founding Editor of The Journal of Social Business.
My recent research has been in the area of commodities in develoiping countries and I wish to continue in this area in terms of high level publications. Other areas that I have begun to research include: socal business, microfinance, and enterpreneurship, especially in Africa. I also have a longstanding interest in exchange rate issues in developing countries.
These will include companies that have the desire and potential to invest in developing countries, especially in the African continent. These also include NGO and other companies that have a social objective.
These involvments include conferences and publications. I also have good contacts with a number of diaspora organisations within the Uk African community, especially with regard to Ethiopia and Ghana. This will be an increasingly important role for CAREED in partnership with other Africa focused organisations in Scotland such as Africa Forum Scotland.
CAREED is developing partnerships with a number of universities in Africa, eg Mount Kenya University, among others. CAREED is also developing good relationships with other UK based Africa research centres eg Centre for African Studies at Edinburgh University.
Through my Honorary Consul role I also have strong contacts with various African diplomatic missions in the UK, eg Ethiopia; Ghana; Cameroon, as well as with the Internationl Development section of the Scottish Government.
In addition to my research experience, I also have extensive networking experience with a wide variety of organisations both in the UK and overseas. Over a number of years this has allowed me to carry our a range of economic impact studies (eg cost-benefit analysis) for individual clients. Such contributions might be referred to as enterprise activities, though during my career I have always tried to convert such work into research publications, where possible.


text:
MORE JET. LESS SET.
The BMW X6.
Driving dynamics highlight
Start movie
MORE JET. LESS SET.The BMW X6.
Max. output in kW (hp) at 1/min (50i)
330 (450)/5,500-6,000
Acceleration 0–100 km/h in s (50i)
Top speed in km/h (50i)
Luggage compartment capacity in litres (50i)
580-1,525
Powerful and athletic. With the presence of an X model and the sportiness of a coupé, the BMW X6 transcends all limits. Its BMW TwinPower Turbo engines are a potent mixture of dynamics and efficiency, and BMW xDrive helps to bring this power to the street. Outstanding equipment such as the Design Pure Extravagance package as well as top-quality materials characterise a vehicle that is sure to take centre stage – and, at the same time, is astonishingly functional.
DISCOVER THE BMW X6.
Driving Dynamics.
Time for you to take control: The BMW X6 is built to move. With energetic, forward-thrusting contours, the BMW X6 exudes irrepressible dynamics and purposefulness. Its broad shoulders and solid stance reflect its X genes, while the coupé-like roof line underpins the unmistakable character of the BMW X6. A combination that makes this Sports Activity Coupé so unique.
The striking design of the BMW X6 is truly unmistakable. However, in the end, one factor above all else is absolutely crucial: What does moving this powerhouse actually feel like? The chassis of the BMW X6 sets new standards. BMW xDrive guarantees outstanding traction – whatever the weather, whatever the road surface. This is accompanied by excellent directional stability and an agility that instantly enthralls. Options include adaptive suspension packages – for even more driving pleasure.
The best leading actor: the BMW X6. With its energetic presence, this Sports Activity Coupé causes a stir wherever it goes. Which role does it play? That's up to you. The Design Pure Extravagance package is brimming with unique details. The M Sport package makes the BMW X6 look even more athletic. With BMW Individual, you can give the vehicle an air of luxurious exclusiveness. And if you need anything else to perfect the appearance, then look no further than Original BMW Accessories.
330 KW.
The top-of-the-range engine for the BMW X6 unleashes its concentrated power of 330 kW (450 hp) in the BMW X6 xDrive50i. With maximum torque of 650 Nm between 2,000 and 4,500 rpm, this engine catapults the BMW X6 from 0 to 100 km/h in 4.8 seconds. The top speed is 250 km/h.
The effectiveness of BMW EfficientDynamics technologies is reflected by moderate values of the BMW X6 xDrive50i: Combined fuel consumption is 9.7 l/100 km, with CO2 emissions between 227 and 225 g/km.
Discover Efficiency
Discover Technical Data
THE BMW X6 AT A GLANCE.
Discover Exterior Design
Discover Interior Design
Discover Design Pure Extravagance
Discover M Sport package


text:
Tuesday Weld Net Worth
How much is Tuesday Weld Worth?
Tuesday Weld Net Worth:
Tuesday Weld net worth: Tuesday Weld is an American actress who has a net worth of $5 million. Tuesday Weld was born in New York City, New York in August 1943. From 1959 to 1962 she starred as Thalia Menninger in the television series The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. Weld has starred in the movies Rock, Rock, Rock, Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys!, The Five Pennies, Because They're Young, Sex Kittens Go to College, High Time, The Private Lives of Adam and Eve, Return to Peyton Place, Wild in the Country, Soldier in the Rain, I'll Take Sweden, The Cincinnati Kid, Lord Love a Duck, Pretty Poison, I Walk the Line, A Safe Place, Play It As It Lays, Reflections of Murder, Looking for Mr. Goodbar, Who'll Stop the Rain, Serial, Thief, Author! Author!, Once Upon a Time in America, Circle of Violence, Heartbreak Hotel, Falling Down, Feeling Minnesota, Investigating Sex, and Chelsea Walls. Weld won a Golden Globe Award in 1960 for Most Promising Newcomer – Female for The Five Pennies. In 1978 she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Looking for Mr. Goodbar.
The Net Worths Of The 2015 Oscar Nominees
Brenda Vaccaro Net Worth
Walter Matthau Net Worth
Tuesday Weld
Profession: Actor, Child model
Linda Cristal Net Worth
Jayne Mansfield Net Worth
Why We Should Abolish The Penny
Jane Wyman Net Worth
Hugh O'Brian Net Worth


Aims: In women's life, menopause is characterized by significant physiological changes often associated with an increase in body mass and obesity-associated sicknesses. Numerous researches described interdependencies of estrogen deficiency, aging, and resting energy expenditure (REE) downfall in the obesity correlated with the menopause. The aim of this study was to determining whether healthy, obese menopausal women underwent HRT treatment, showed changes in their REE, autonomic asset, and assessment of oxidative stress in comparison with obese pre- and post-menopausal women. Methodology: In this study, we measured the body composition, the REE, the oxidative stress, the diet assimilation, and the autonomic nervous system activity in three groups: pre-menopause women (n = 50), post-menopause women following hormone-replacement therapy (HRT; n = 50), and post-menopause women not following HRT (n = 50). Results: In the group with HRT a significant increase of the sympathetic activity and REE was described. Finally this group showed a notable increment of oxidative stress compared with the others, and utilizing BIA instrument, the free fat mass was increased respect to the fat mass of obese women. Conclusion: The study highlights the importance of the HRT-related physiological changes that influence body weight in menopause women. This results are important because have a practical implications for prevention and/or treatment of the obesity.


You may have tried your hand at using a vision board to bring a desire to life without much success. As a result you may have decided that vision boards don't work.
I once made a vision board to address some changes I wanted to make in my life.
Part of the board dealt with a business idea that involved top-parisian luxury brands, celebrities and high-end luxury products.
Very prestigious and exciting (on paper)!
In practice, whenever I used the board I felt psyched about everything but as soon as I got to the part about the business things kind of flat-lined.
Maybe because I'm indifferent to celebrities.
Maybe because the deal involved my ex-husband (hmmm, go figure…).
In case, something wasn't clicking.
Ultimately, everything on the board manifested except that deal.
The whole thing fizzled and nothing ever came out of it.
We tend to think that vision boards are magical.
You can just paste things on a board and they'll appear in your life.
Vision boards are about creating an alignment and deep emotion connection to a specific vision and allowing universal laws to bring them to you.
Manifestation taps into your belief system and your emotions.
It's not just about thinking happy thoughts and repeating positive affirmations.
It's about creating a deep energetic alignment and sending out a pure vibration that synchronizes you with similar frequencies, which in turn attracts certain outcomes to you.
If you don't feel, you don't get!
Most people don't know how to do this synchronization.
That's why manifestation doesn't work for them.
If you have any doubts, fears, negative associations, memories (conscious or subconscious) surrounding a certain desire you're trying to manifest, it creates blocks.
You may find yourself attracting the opposite of what you want.
You may find yourself just not getting anything even though you're religiously using your vision board and doing your visualizations.
Clearing work is essential when you create a vision board, otherwise the board won't work for you.
Clearing work is a topic onto itself. However there are few things you can do which are a mix of identifying what the block is and working around or release this block.
Say you're toying with the idea of manifesting a trip to the tropics but you have had problems with the sun before, you might feel resistant about the trip. You could work around the resistance by either coming up with a bullet-proof plan to protect your skin from the scorching tropical sun or choosing a less sunny destination.
In this case, it's probably easier to adapt things.
You need to switch career but your concerned that your gender or your ethnicity will get in the way of you being hired and compensated fairly. Obviously, in this situation there a few non-negotiables like you needing a new career, your gender and your ethnicity.
In this case, it makes sense to upgrade your belief system to allow yourself to accept the fact that you can easily find a fair situation to your liking.
In both situations the aim is to allow yourself to feel 100% congruent with the vision you want to bring to life.
If you want to tap into the power of the vision boards to create a fantastic life in 2018, I'll be hosting a very special vision board training on January 6th 2018.
Vision boards are a powerful success hack, however they take a little more thought than clipping random magazines and making a pretty collage.
During this in-depth online workshop, I'll take you behind the scene and walk you through my unique process to create a powerful alignment and make a vision board that actually delivers so you can reach your goals with less work in the coming months.