2019-02-22 20:44:01 done Log events to all pages and users.
2019-02-22 09:28:10 done All pages, current versions only.
2019-02-21 00:45:48 done Articles, templates, media/file descriptions, and primary meta-pages.
2019-02-22 20:43:19 done Namespaces, namespace aliases, magic words.
2019-02-20 15:10:08 done Wiki category membership link records.
2019-02-20 15:15:05 done Tracks which pages use which Wikidata items or properties and what aspect (e.g. item label) is used.
2019-02-20 15:09:46 done User group assignments.
2019-02-20 15:11:30 done This contains the SiteMatrix information from meta.wikimedia.org provided as a table.
2019-02-20 15:17:12 done Metadata on current versions of uploaded media/files.
2019-02-20 15:12:41 done Nonexistent pages that have been protected.
2019-02-20 15:15:59 done Wiki page-to-page link records.
2019-02-20 15:15:35 done Wiki media/files usage records.
2019-02-20 15:09:23 done Wiki interlanguage link records.
2019-02-20 15:14:32 done Wiki template inclusion link records.
2019-02-20 15:11:08 done Name/value pairs for pages.
2019-02-20 15:16:43 done A few statistics such as the page count.
2019-02-20 15:13:51 done Wiki external URL link records.
2019-02-20 15:13:17 done Newer per-page restrictions table.
2019-02-20 15:10:29 done Category information.
2019-02-20 15:12:18 done Base per-page data (id, title, old restrictions, etc).


text:
Public Release: 21-Dec-2016
Music in the brain: The first imaging genetic study linking dopaminergic genes to music
Sounds, such as music and noise, are capable of reliably affecting individuals' moods and emotions, possibly by regulating brain dopamine, a neurotransmitter strongly involved in emotional behavior and mood regulation
Sounds, such as music and noise, are capable of reliably affecting individuals' moods and emotions, possibly by regulating brain dopamine, a neurotransmitter strongly involved in emotional behavior and mood regulation.
However, the relationship of sound environments with mood and emotions is highly variable across individuals. A putative source of variability is genetic background.
In this regard, a new imaging genetics study directed by Professor Elvira Brattico from Aarhus University and conducted in two Italian hospitals in collaboration with the University of Helsinki (Finland) has provided the first evidence that the effects of music and noise on affective behavior and brain physiology are associated with genetically determined dopamine functionality.
In particular, this study, published in the journal Neuroscience, revealed that a functional variation in dopamine D2 receptor gene (DRD2 rs1076560) modulates the impact of music as opposed to noise on mood states and emotion-related prefrontal and striatal brain activity, evidencing a differential susceptibility for the affect-modulatory effects of music and noise on the GG and GT genotypes.
In more details, results showed mood improvement after music exposure in GG subjects and mood deterioration after noise exposure in GT subjects. Moreover, the music as opposed to noise environment decreased the striatal activity of GT subjects as well as the prefrontal activity of GG subjects while processing emotional faces.
These results are novel in identifying a biological source of variability in the impact of sound environments on emotional responses. The first author of the study, Tiziana Quarto, Ph.D. student at University of Helsinki under supervision of Prof. Brattico, further comments:
"Our approach allowed the observation of the link between genes and phenotypes via a true biological path that goes from functional genetic variations (for which the effects on molecular function is known) to brain physiology subtending behavior. The use of this approach is especially important when the investigated behavior is complex and very variable across subjects, because this means that many biological factors are involved".
"This study represents the first use of the imaging genetics approach in the field of music and sounds in general. We are really excited about our results because they suggest that even a non-pharmacological intervention such as music, might regulate mood and emotional responses at both the behavioral and neuronal level," says Professor Elvira Brattico.
"More importantly, these findings encourage the search for personalized music-based interventions for the treatment of brain disorders associated with aberrant dopaminergic neurotransmission as well as abnormal mood and emotion-related brain activity".
Study design: basic research.
Principal Investigator on the study was: Professor Elvira Brattico, Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University.
The study was performed in collaboration with: Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Neuroscience, and Sense Organs, University of Bari 'Aldo Moro', Bari, Italy.
Elvira Brattico
elvira.brattico@clin.au.dk
@aarhusuni
http://www.au.dk
University of Helsinki, Academy of Finland, Danish National Research Foundation

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Togglz - Username Activation Strategy Implementation I am trying to implement UsernameActivation Startegy in Springboot using togglz, but due to insufficient example/documentation on this, I am unable to do so. It is a simple Poc in maven. Here are my classes:
public enum Features implements Feature{

     @Label("just a description")
        @EnabledByDefault
        HELLO_WORLD,

        @Label("Hello World Feature")
        @DefaultActivationStrategy(id = UsernameActivationStrategy.ID, parameters =
    {@ActivationParameter(name = UsernameActivationStrategy.PARAM_USERS, value = "suga")
        })
        HELLO,

        @Label("another descrition")
        @EnabledByDefault
        REVERSE_GREETING;

        public boolean isActive() {
            return FeatureContext.getFeatureManager().isActive(this);
        }

}

@Component
public class Togglz implements TogglzConfig {

     public Class<? extends Feature> getFeatureClass() {
            return Features.class;
        }

        public StateRepository getStateRepository() {
            return new FileBasedStateRepository(new File("/tmp/features.properties"));
        }

        public UserProvider getUserProvider() {
            return new SpringSecurityUserProvider("ADMIN_ROLE");
        }

}

I want to use UsernameActivation strategy but i am not sure what more code changes I need to do in order for it to work. I do know that it is somehow related to UserProvider. Also, I am not sure how will it compare the username value and how will it capture the current user value. Any idea around this will be of great help!

A: I had to override the getUserProvider method. Since I am using Spring for auto-configuration, and not extending ToggleConfig, I added this as a bean to load at startup.
@Bean
public UserProvider getUserProvider() {
        return new UserProvider() {

            @Override
            public FeatureUser getCurrentUser() {
                String username = <MyAppSecurityProvider>.getUserName();
                boolean isAdmin = "admin".equals(username);

                return new SimpleFeatureUser(username, isAdmin);

            }
        };
    }

Note: I had to do this as my app uses our inbuilt security mechanism. Reading the documentation, it looks like its easier if you are using standard security such as Spring or Servlet.
My config in application.yml(the same thing you have in the annotation)
togglz:
  features:
    FRIST_FEATURE:
      enabled: true
      strategy: username
      param:
        users: user1,user2
    SECOND_FEATURE:
      enabled: true
      strategy: username
      param:
        users: user2,user3

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Bohame Button down shirt with palazzo pants Look classy in this earthy toned pant set, it features a pair of palazzo pants and comes along with a button down shirt. Team it up with a pair of shoes to get a complete look.
Look classy in this earthy toned pant set, it features a pair of palazzo pants and comes along with a button down shirt. Team it up with a pair of shoes to get a complete look.


According to a detailed study undertaken by research firm Statista, global eCommerce sales are growing at an unprecedented rate with the industry predicted to be worth $4.8 trillion USD dollars by the end of 2021.
With this in mind, it may be surprising for you to learn that very few organisations take the time to do their own research as to what may be the best eCommerce platform for them, rather relying on the preference of the first digital agency or two they approach.
Now this may seem like a solid strategy, however in this article we're going to challenge this premise and delve deeper into what really makes a suitable eCommerce platform for specific business sizes, and how you can make a choice that will really work for you and your organisation over time.
You're in business to make money, so why shouldn't you be conservative when it comes to the initial price of your eCommerce build? Well, nobody's saying that, but when it comes to software development of any kind, it's the ongoing support costs that really matter.
Sure, if one provider is trying to sell you an eCommerce website for $40,000 and another for $30,000, you have every right to query why something that appears to be like-for-like is $10,000 more, but what you really should be looking at is the maintenance costs associated with each option.
At OSE we offer four different eCommerce CMS options, each tailored to a specific market sector with very different ongoing support costs. Not only this, but each of these platforms require considerably different levels of development expertise, therefore meaning providers will need to hire developers who can support those platforms at varying cost points, which will be passed on to you the consumer.
So, ask yourself this. Can you sustain a platform which sounds great, has all the bells and whistles, but might cost you way more to support? My advice, be very careful which platform you choose.
If your head is spinning or this information is completely new to you, it's important to recognise that these services, although seem like they can just be bolted on to work with any eCommerce system, definitely work better with some CMS' over others.
If you're thinking, "oh it's probably just the smaller providers that don't do the job", it's not that simple. Many of the major brands you know and love simply don't have extensions or plugins for eCommerce systems or are flawed in some way. So, when selecting your eCommerce system, check online for any known issues with your proposed CMS and the integration between that CMS and your external applications.
Unfortunately, web developers can't always provide you with the functionality you're looking for, and not for lack of expertise. Often the platform you choose simply won't allow them to complete mission-critical tasks for you, which can mean you may be left in a world of pain down the track.
To avoid this, do your research as to the flexibility of your eCommerce CMS. Some CMS' are extremely flexible, provide developers with unlimited capability to deliver custom functionality, whilst others are locked up like Fort Knox.
That being said, a more simplistic eCommerce CMS can be well suited to many small businesses who just want to sell products online and are not looking for a complex solution or are really in "Phase 1" of their online journey. These CMS' have all the basics, are flexible enough and generally have low maintenance costs. So, regardless of what stage your eCommerce business is at, take the time to step back and take a look at your business roadmap. Where do you want to be one or two years from now, and will a simpler CMS get the job done?
Did you know that if you host your website overseas and the majority of your business is in Australia, you could be waiting in excess of a second longer for each of your pages to load?
This may not sound like much, but if you're an eCommerce retailer, I encourage you to host your website locally because this really affects how your customers view your service (and whether they stay at all).
By hosting your website in any one of the major data centres here in Australia, you can really enhance your user experience in terms of improved load times, increased page responsiveness, and decrease your website bounce rates dramatically.
With up to 60% of eCommerce traffic coming from mobile devices these days, you need to be aware that the quality and location of your host matters. Just to be clear, this does not mean throwing money at expensive hosting is the solution, it means you should have an agency run a performance audit on your website to determine where you can optimise your service. More often than not, unsuitable hosting is only part of the problem, badly written code is just as bigger contributor to website performance issues and decreasing eCommerce sales.
There are many facets to choosing an eCommerce CMS that's suitable for your business, and these are just a few. However, if you gaze down the rabbit hole, you'll soon see how incredibly important this component of your business is, and can become a major asset or hindrance depending on your choice.
2019 is a great time to start an eCommerce business, but ensuring the engine that powers your business is working for you is a must. Taking the time to review the technical limitations and strengths of the market options is well worth it and can save you lots in the long-term, so don't just rely on the advice of others, back up their advice with your own research.


Regular readers know that I am a strong advocate of the role of the county historian as a promoter of historical education, community heritage, and cultural tourism. Although the position is a required by state law, the actual job requirements and benefits are left up to the individual counties.
Unfortunately some counties have no historians, some use an organization to fulfill the role, some have volunteers perhaps with some office support, some have part-time historians, and others have full-time positions where individuals take a leadership role.
Today, I'd like to focus on the example of Livingston County as a case study of what can be done. I do not mean to suggest that comparable work isn't being done elsewhere, but simply that I happen to meet Amie Alden, the Livingston County Historian, at a conference and had the opportunity to learn about what she is doing which is quite impressive.
Livingston County is located at the western edge of the Finger Lakes vacation region, but it also may be considered part of Western New York. It's population of around 65,000 is comparable to many other counties outside the New York City metropolitan area.
There are two simple ways of indicating the strong commitment of the County to County Historian. Is the position of County Historian is listed on the County website under the alphabetical listing of departments in the county? While that may seem trivial, I speak from experience in saying that the municipal historian position is not always listed on the municipality's webpage. In addition, the department is listed separately on the webpage- it is not part of another department such as records or archives or clerk.
Defining precisely what records are government and what are historical is a subjective decision and it is perfectly reasonable for a county to have one person in overall responsibility for both provided sufficient staff, space, and facilities for the maintenance of historical collections exist. The Livingston County Board of Supervisors and the County Administrator are to be commended for their support of the County Historian function.
What does the Livingston County Historian actually do? One easy to overlook task is to maintain a record of who all the municipal historians are in the county. As one who has organized county history conferences in the past, I can say that an up-to-date central repository of information at the county level of the municipal historians (and historical organizations) is not always easy to come by. In the case of Livingston County, there are 17 towns and Amie knows who they are because is in contact with them by phone and email.
Note: Some of the 17 town historians do double duty as village historians in the 9 villages, 8 of which have the same name as the town. Such double duty is common in many counties although it also is common for them to be two different individuals.
&#8220I coordinate quarterly meetings and out of the 17 towns in the county attendance is usually around 75-80% plus the historians will often bring a deputy, volunteer, or spouse. So together with my part time clerk, and a couple of long time volunteers we often have between 20 and 25 for the meeting. In addition I send out invitations to the town supervisor and former town historians. The meetings move around the county and sometimes we go to a restaurant (if they have a big room and I can negotiate lunch for $10 or less), or I have it catered (soup and sandwich or dish to pass) at a town hall, church, or historic site. Summertime I arrange a picnic in a park and a cookout. The meeting are very informal but I always bring the historians up to date on what's happening in my office, special events, etc. I communicate with most via emails throughout the year so there's no need to take up too much with announcements. I usually line up a special speaker but if not then I allow the historians to give brief updates on what they are doing. Given the size of the group, they have a couple of minutes each!
Whether it is a brown-bag lunch or an informal gathering at a restaurant, this is exactly what should be done. I remember writing about some county history conferences that in part were like reunions of people who hadn't seen each other in years: &#8220Your kids are in college now! Where has the time gone?&#8221 Regular get-togethers at locations throughout the county should be a requirement of the county historian position.
In addition to the face-to-face meetings, a newsletter of events, personal notes, and activities, is published at least annually. It is distributed to all county departments and Board of Supervisors so they know what is going on as well as to the town historians. All newsletters may be accessed through the on the County Historian page of the County website.
2. Superintendents need to know about anniversaries and exhibits underway and forthcoming so there can be a dialogue between the two groups of educators.
Amie also presented at a AP class and at a BOCES Career Day.
A new development is the attempt to create a regional group. Statewide conferences frequently rotate throughout the state. Even the MANY/Museumwise conference in Albany may be stretch for many historic organizations downstate as well as in western NY. While NYSHA in Niagara was not too far away this year for western historians, next year it will be in Poughkeepsie. There really is a need for a three-tier structure of state-wide, regional, and county conferences that bring together the history community including teachers, archaeologists, archivists, municipal historians, historic organizations, and scholars.
The Government Appointed Historians of Western New York (GAHWNY) represents an attempt to resolve this issue. Amie is a founding member and serves as treasurer, helped organized the spring meeting and attended the fall meeting last year. Another such effort was the creation of the Friends of Livingston County History by Amie in collaboration with Anna Kowalchuk, Livingston County Historical Society Museum Administrator (Amie has served on its Board), and Joan Schumaker, President of the Western New York Association of Historical Agencies with the purpose to establish a closer network with historical societies that operate museums and to provide assistance and training with biannual meetings.
As you can see from this brief snapshot into the world of one county historian, she is involved in a great many tasks at the county, regional and state levels and with education, tourism, and public events. I deliberately am not mentioning the archival and research duties because I prefer to focus on other themes. I have commented in past posts on the fractured history community in the state and on its inability to speak forcefully in Albany on critical issues such as the Common Core Curriculum (what will be taught on local and state schools), community heritage (how do we develop a sense of place, a sense of belonging, a sense of community among our residents), and cultural heritage tourism (how to we show off our role in American history). Amie Alden, Livingston County Historian, shows how one person can make a difference in her community and her example can serve as a model for counties that have yet to embrace or recognize the importance of the County Historian position. What are we the people of the state doing to ensure there are more people like her in the history community and that they have the resources and support they need to get this vital job done?
Illustration courtesy Harvest of History.
Peter, You hit the nail squarely on the head. When I was appointed County Historian here in Wayne County 8 years ago, Amie Alden was one of the people I looked to as a model and mentor and still value my friendship with her. I have visited her facility in Mt. Morris and every thing is as you describe it. One of the goals of APHNYS is to bring a greater degree of uniformity to the office of the county historian. Thank you for this piece.


text:
La Unió Liberal de Granollers va ser una associació creada el 1887 per iniciativa dels sectors progressistes de Granollers amb objectius mutualistes i de beneficència. Aviat les seves activitats es van ampliar a la promoció de la cultura i l'educació arribant a tenir una gran influència a la ciutat. A Granollers és molt recordat el local que l'entitat tenia al carrer Anselm Clavé on hi destacava una sala de teatre. Aquest local fou confiscat el 1939 per la FET y de las JONS, fet que va representar la fi de La Unió Liberal. El local fou enderrocat el 1970.

Història
A la fi del  es viu a Granollers una situació social en la que els sectors de caràcter més conservador (tant les autoritats religioses com els grans propietaris i industrials) tenen un gran control sobre les estructures polítiques i administratives. A Granollers té un paper especialment rellevant el Centre Catòlic, des d'on els grups conservadors exerceixen també una important influència social.

Aquest fet va començar a ser molt criticat a través de la publicació periòdica El Congost, impulsada per l'impressor Esteve Garrell, de clara ideologia liberal. Des d'aquesta revista es promovia el dret a l'educació de la dona, el laïcisme, l'abolició de la pena de mort, i altres principis liberals, alhora que s'exercia una important crítica sobre els sectors conservadors. Aquesta publicació va tenir doncs molt de ressò en els cercles progressistes de Granollers i al seu entorn es generaven tertúlies sobre temes d'actualitat.

És segurament en aquestes tertúlies, recollint les idees promogudes per Garrell i amb ell mateix com un dels promotors, que va sorgir la idea de la creació d'una entitat de caràcter liberal. Així doncs es van reunir el 3 d'abril de 1887 més de dues-centes persones «pertenecientes a los diversos partidos liberales» de Granollers, segons consta a l'acta fundacional.

Les finalitats de l'entitat segons els seus estatuts són les pròpies d'una germandat de socors mutu i beneficència, però també busca promoure l'educació i la cultura per a tota la població, sempre buscant la manera de contrarestar la gran influència que tenia en la societat el Centre Catòlic. La bona acollida de la nova associació es pot comprovar a les cròniques de la celebració del primer aniversari, per a la qual es va organitzar una gran festa amb l'assistència d'unes dues mil persones.

Inicialment la Unió Liberal no comptava amb un local propi i les reunions se celebraven de forma rotatòria en locals d'altres entitats. El 1890 van adquirir uns terrenys a la carretera i comença la construcció d'un local gràcies al treball desinteressat de molts dels socis així com les aportacions econòmiques dels mateixos. Es va inaugurar el 2 de setembre de 1891. El local destaca pel Teatre de la Unió Liberal, una sala teatral de grans dimensions, enderrocat el 1973.

A partir de 1897 hi ha una entrada de persones vinculades als sectors conservadors i caciquistes que exerceixen una forta influència en els òrgans directius de la Unió Liberal que va portar a conflictes interns i expulsions de socis. A partir de 1910 aproximadament els sectors progressistes reprenen la direcció de l'entitat.

Durant els primers anys del  s'estructuren les diverses seccions com la secció de teatre, una secció coral, una biblioteca i una caixa d'estalvis. El 1913 es crea l'Escola d'Ensenyament Lliure que garantia educació gratuïta a les famílies necessitades. També apareix l'Orfeó Granollerí, la secció artística i s'amplien les prestacions de la mútua.

El 1922 es porten a terme importants reformes a l'edifici de la Unió Liberal dirigides per l'arquitecte Manuel Joaquim Raspall i Mayol. També s'obre una escola de cinema i l'Esport Club Granollers estableix la seu social al local de la Unió Liberal.

Durant la dictadura de Primo de Rivera l'entitat va moderar la seva activitat i va poder evitar mesures repressives destacables i mantenir la seva activitat bàsica. Destaca d'aquesta època la creació d'una secció excursionista i l'organització de les primeres colònies escolars a Pineda de Mar.

Amb la fi de la dictadura hi ha també un canvi en la junta de l'entitat que serà ara formada per persones de clara tendència d'esquerres encapçalats per Valeri Mas i Casas. S'amplia el local i hi comencen algunes noves activitats com les classes d'esperanto.

En esclatar la Guerra Civil el local s'utilitza per a activitats de control obrer, tribunal popular i col·lectes per al front. Es paren les activitats culturals i recreatives però es mantenen els serveis socials. En acabar la guerra el local va ser saquejat i s'hi instal·la la Falange. Durant els anys de postguerra hi ha alguns intents tènues per part de socis de la Unió Liberal per recuperar l'edifici i reprendre l'activitat però sense èxit. El 1954 des de l'Ajuntament de Granollers es demana al Govern Civil la certificació de l'extinció de l'entitat per inactivitat.

El 1970 l'edifici passa a propietat municipal i el 1973 s'enderroca per a construir-hi l'actual museu de Granollers.

Després de la Guerra Civil Espanyola la documentació de La Unió Liberal es va perdre fins que el 2017 els descendents d'Esteve Duran Serra van donar a l'Ajuntament de Granollers els llibres d'actes de l'entitat que el seu pare havia conservat d'amagat durant dècades i que actualment es conserven a l'Arxiu Municipal que, a més, els ha digitalitzat i publicat a la secció "documents" de l'arxiu digital allotjat a la seva pàgina web. Aquesta donació va justificar també la creació del fons documental de La Unió Liberal.

Referències

Enllaços externs
 Notícia sobre la donació de la documentació de La Unió Liberal a l'Arxiu Municipal de Granollers
 Fons La Unió Liberal a l'Arxiu Municipal de Granollers

Entitats de Granollers

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
News Projects
Mary to Star in Netflix Thriller "Kate"
Mary Elizabeth Winstead to Star in Netflix Assassin Thriller 'Kate' (EXCLUSIVE)
VARIETY – Mary Elizabeth Winstead is set to star in the Netflix actioner "Kate," sources tell Variety.
"The Huntsman: Winter's War" director Cedric Nicolas-Troyan is helming from a script by Umair Aleem.
The story revolves around a female assassin, who, after being poisoned and given less than 24 hours to live, must go on a manhunt through the streets of Tokyo to take vengeance on her murderer before she dies.
The film will likely begin production this year.
The movie will be produced by Bryan Unkeless — who most recently worked with Winstead on the Harley Quinn spinoff, "Birds of Prey" — "Hobbs & Shaw" and "Deadpool 2" producer Kelly McCormick, and Patrick Newall. "Hobbs & Shaw" director David Leitch is exec producing with Scott Morgan.
Netflix landed the project in 2017 after winning an aggressive bidding war for the highly coveted property.
Winstead has gotten more and more comfortable with action-heavy roles after starring in "10 Cloverfield Lane," the upcoming Ang Lee pic "Gemini Man" and "Birds of Prey," where she will play Huntress opposite Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn. She also showed off her strong action chops in the most recent season of the FX series "Fargo."
She is repped by WME. Nicolas-Troyan is repped by CAA and Bloom Hergott. Aleem is repped by Verve, Lit Entertainment and Felker Toczek.
Gemini Man News
Exciting news! Mary is set to star opposite Will Smith in Gemini Man.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead to Star Opposite Will Smith in 'Gemini Man' (Exclusive)
Ang Lee is directing the unique action thriller
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER – Mary Elizabeth Winstead has nabbed the female lead in Gemini Man, the Will Smith action thriller that Ang Lee is directing.
Skydance and Paramount are behind the project, which is eyeing a February start.
The film sees Smith playing two opposing roles: one of Henry, an aging assassin who wants to get out of the business, and that of his ultimate opponent, a clone who is 25 years younger and at the peak of his abilities that has been tasked to kill him.
Winstead, who beat out Orphan Black star Tatiana Maslany for the role, will play an operative who works for the same company as Henry and has been ordered to surveil him. However, she soon teams up with him.
Clive Owen is currently in talks to play one of the villains of the movie, the head of the cloning program.
Jerry Bruckheimer is producing along with Skydance's David Ellison and Dana Goldberg. Don Murphy is executive producing.
Winstead, whose last movie turn was in the hit 10 Cloverfield Lane, is coming off a co-starring run in season three of FX's acclaimed Fargo. She is repped by WME.
News The Parts You Lose
Exciting news! Mary will co-star opposite Aaron Paul in the thriller, The Parts You Lose. A (mini) Smashed reunion!
'Fargo's Mary Elizabeth Winstead Joins Aaron Paul In 'The Parts You Lose' From The H Collective
DEADLINE – EXCLUSIVE: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who starred on the most recent third season of FX's Fargo, will co-star opposite Aaron Paul and newcomer Danny Murphy in thriller The Parts You Lose, which started production today in Canada. Written by Darren Lemke, the pic has Halt and Catch Fire co-creator Christopher Cantwell attached to direct.
It's about the unlikely friendship formed between a young deaf boy, Wesley, and a fugitive criminal who takes refuge in an abandoned barn on the family's rural North Dakota farm. Winstead will play Wesley's mother Gail.
Mark Johnson, who won the Oscar for the 1988 Barry Levinson-directed film, Rain Man, is producing under his Gran Via banner with Tom Williams and Paul. The H Collective is fully financing the project.
Winstead, who recently wrapped production on Eva Vives' All About Nina opposite Common, is repped by WME.
Fargo Screen Captures
Fargo: 3×10 – "Somebody to Love" Screen Captures
Sunday, Jun 25, 2017
Television Productions > Fargo > Season Three > Screen Captures > 3×10 – Somebody to Love
Fargo News
"Fargo" Season 3 Finale: Mary on Nikki's Ending
Mary talked with The Daily Beast to discuss Fargo. Check out the interview below (or click here)! Warning: the interview contains spoilers. What did you think of the season finale?
'Fargo' Season 3 Finale: Mary Elizabeth Winstead on Nikki Swango's Tragic Ending
The actress who brought Nikki Swango to life explains how her quest for 'vengeance' went so wrong. Warning: Major spoilers for the Season 3 finale.
After nearly two decades of important television dominated by "difficult men," we may finally have the 21st century's first truly great TV antiheroine.
From the moment Mary Elizabeth Winstead appeared on screen in Fargo's third season as Nikki Swango, bridge-playing parolee to Ewan McGregor's down-and-out parole officer Ray Stussy, it has been impossible to look away. When, in episode two, she spontaneously decided to leave her bloody tampon in the desk drawer of Ray's brother Emmit, also played by McGregor, she was seared in our memory forever.
The third—and possibly final—season of Noah Hawley's Coen brothers-inspired anthology series may not have been as exhilarating as the first or as beautifully constructed as the second, but it did have its standout moments. And many of them belonged to Winstead, who emerged as the unexpected protagonist by the end, seeking vengeance for the untimely death of her beloved Ray and teaming up with Russell Harvard's Mr. Wrench (the only character to appear in all three seasons of the show) in an attempt to take down David Thewlis' terrifying V. M. Varga.
Months after braving the "Calgary cold" of Fargo's shoot, Winstead is back home in Los Angeles, where she caught up with The Daily Beast ahead of Wednesday night's finale. She says the experience of playing the indomitable Nikki Swango has "spoiled her" to the point that she's taking her time to look for the next project. And she's not quite ready to say goodbye.
Below is an edited and condensed version of our conversation, including major spoilers from Fargo's season three finale.
Continue reading "Fargo" Season 3 Finale: Mary on Nikki's Ending
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Your gift will help further the ministry of Gary and Sandy Rock with Global Training Network, as they seek to encourage and equip church planters, pastors and Christian leaders throughout the Majority World.
Gary Rock retired in 2015 after serving 11 years as Director of Ministries at Calvary Fellowship Church. He also has been involved in and led Men's ministry for over 15 years and continues being engaged in Marked Men for Christ. Gary previously worked for Unisys corporation for 24 years with various responsibilities for building and developing organizations. He has been a volunteer serving with GTN since 2013 and has a heart for training pastors. Sandy worked in public education for several years in the field of special education. Gary and Sandy have been married 36 years and have two grown children and 1 grandchild with a second one due in April 2017. They reside in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and enjoy spending time with their family.


text:
Wooden able to cheer from home
By Jill Painter | jill.painter@dailynews.com |
John Wooden can watch UCLA's game today from the comforts of his Encino home.
Wooden was released from a local rehabilitation center on Friday afternoon, his daughter, Nan Muehlhausen told a UCLA official. Four weeks ago, Wooden sustained a broken collarbone and wrist in a fall at his home.
Wooden, 97, was released from a hospital on March 11. He was at a rehabilitation center doing daily exercises to regain his strength.
He planned to watch the game on television. His family requested that people continue to respect his privacy.
UCLA power forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute said his injured left ankle was feeling fine Friday and he expects to start against Texas A&M.
"I was in a gold shirt today, so I think I'm starting," Mbah a Moute said. "(The ankle) is good. I was able to shoot on it this morning and go through the walk-through, so it feels good."
He did not play in Thursday's first-round game.
Luc to start?
Still slumping
UCLA wing Josh Shipp was 0-for-4 from 3-point range in the NCAA opener and is 5-of-19 (26.3 percent) from 3-point range in the postseason (Pac-10 Tournament and NCAAs).
Of course, that is an improvement over how Shipp ended the regular season shooting the ball. In his final 10 regular season games, Shipp shot 17 percent (8 of 47) from beyond the arc.
"The 3-point shooting, there for a stretch, was really below what he was capable of," Bruins coach Ben Howland said. "He since has picked it back up. … I think it's really hard when you're asking a shooter to play 36, 37 minutes a game and play great defense and really bust your butt every position on defense."
Jill Painter


Highly rated in the world banking scenario, Barclays Bank has been working towards a global banking scenario, where individuals and corporate sectors can have huge impetus in their banking solutions. Barclays has its headquarters in London, but branches across the world, and is truly a global bank, with its range of services. Especially with the Barclays Corporate Banking, this particular bank has been able to get the capital flow from serving various companies and corporate houses, which are operating on a global platform. Corporate and investment banking is therefore one of the strongest features of Barclays and it has gone with lots of activities in this field.
The cash management facilities by Barclays Corporate Banking have helped many businesses to keep a tab on their deposits. The good thing about such facilities is the number of options that the corporate houses get from the bank, in the way they can make their deposits, along with a range of electronic payment methods. Besides cash management, there are various options of deposits and liquidity, which work in the favour of corporate houses. This extends to the surplus funds that companies need to keep with Barclays. Such deposits are associated with liquidity and good interest rates, allowing them to fulfil their business needs. Variety of accounts provided through Barclays Corporate Banking is another good feature for large scale businesses.
Facilities in the field of trade and working capital are one of the great things about Barclays Corporate Banking. It helps in different trading interests in the domestic and international markets. Trade solutions involved are the provisions of supplier financing, loans for trading, guarantees and credit letters. Companies can even go for over-drafting and invoice discounting, if they have accounts with Barclays. Financing solutions for corporate clients are highly appreciated by corporate houses as they find it easy for getting credits and loans for financing their business. These are done with interest rates that are quite flexible, especially for those companies, having higher turnover rates. Investment deals are brokered by the bank on behalf of these large companies through multi-currency features.
Corporate banking facilities by Barclays are supposedly operated on a global basis, thereby facilitating large conglomerates. Those companies with huge multination presence are highly benefited as they get to enjoy facilities in the same manner across countries because Barclays Corporate Banking gives the due facilities in a uniform manner. As a result, companies are benefited even though they have their offices in a particular country and have the same policies applicable everywhere.


text:
Cosmophasis laticlavia är en spindelart som först beskrevs av Tord Tamerlan Teodor Thorell 1892.  Cosmophasis laticlavia ingår i släktet Cosmophasis och familjen hoppspindlar. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

Källor

Hoppspindlar
laticlavia


text:
from __future__ import unicode_literals

from django.db import migrations, models

class Migration(migrations.Migration):

    initial = True

    dependencies = [
    ]

    operations = [
        migrations.CreateModel(
            name='Person',
            fields=[
                ('id', models.AutoField(auto_created=True, primary_key=True, serialize=False, verbose_name='ID')),
                ('sex', models.CharField(choices=[('men', 'mężczyzna'), ('women', 'kobieta')], max_length=20)),
                ('weight', models.FloatField()),
                ('height', models.FloatField()),
            ],
        ),
    ]

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Beginning 2018-19 school year, bus passes and replacement bus passes are ONLY available for purchase ONLINE and no longer available for purchase at the District's Central Office. Click on the link below to purchase.
Bus passes purchased online will be sent to school site(s) the same day if they are purchased before 8:00AM. If they are purchased after 8:00AM they may be picked up at the Central Office (Bldg B). Passes not picked up will be sent to school site(s) the following morning with courier.
NOTE: District paid application will be accepted at the Central Office (Building B) beginning August 27, 2018 between the hours of 7:30 am-12:00 pm and 1:00 pm-4:00 pm. Click and print the downloadable bus pass application above. Only completed applications with copies of required documents will be accepted.
TYPES OF PASSES: Annual Round Trip (ART), Annual One Way; morning or afternoon (AOW-AM or AOW-PM), Semi-Annual Round Trip (SRT), Semi-Annual One Way; morning or afternoon (SOW-AM or SOW-PM), Occasional Use COUPONS (25 or 50 passes per pack) and (FRI-AM) for Friday zero period Thurston students only. Families with more than two K-8 students utilizing the District Transportation are eligible for a discount: the first two students are full fare; the third student receives a 50% discount on the least valued pass, four or more student passes are District paid, at the lowest value pass. NOTE: The 1st Semi-Annual bus pass begins the first day of school and expires January 31st. The 2nd Semi-Annual bus pass begins February 1st and expires the last day of school in June.
BUS COUPONS: Coupons are available for infrequent, one-way transportation. Coupons are $2.00 each and can be purchased at the school site or district office. In addition, coupons are sold in packs of 25 or 50 and may be purchased at the district office. An application must be on file, with a Designated Bus Stop number and parent/guardian signature, to purchase a bus coupon. Coupons expire at the end of the school year.
Bus Passes are considered the property of LBUSD. Accordingly, each student is expected to safeguard his or her bus pass, and must show it to the driver upon boarding the bus each day. LBUSD assumes no responsibility for lost or stolen passes.
There will be a $5.00 replacement fee for lost bus passes. Readable but damaged passes are replaced upon payment of a $3.00 service charge. DBS# Changes/Additions are completed at the District Office, for a $3.00 service charge. You must forfeit the original pass when a change is processed. Misuse of a bus pass may result in the suspension or termination of home-to-school transportation privileges without a refund.
Refunds are approved ONLY if a student MOVES out of the District, or MOVES to a non-transportable area. All requests for refund must be directed to the Business Services Department. Refunds are prorated based on full, unused months. In addition, a $10.00 processing fee is charged. The District DOES NOT refund fares for students who are suspended or expelled from transportation or school for disciplinary reasons. The bus pass must be forfeited upon refund request.
Use only the designated bus stop and bus assigned. Any change requires signed parental permission before end of school day.
Arrive at bus stop ten minutes before bus is due. Behave in an orderly manner at bus stop. As bus arrives, form a line and stand at least six feet back from curb. Do not move toward bus until it has come to a complete stop and door is open.
Be respectful of neighbors while walking to and from the bus stop and while waiting for the bus.
Use only public access on the way to and from the bus stop. Always obey all traffic laws.
Display bus pass to the driver upon boarding the bus.
Board the bus, find a seat quickly and remain seated at all times, facing front, while bus is in motion.
Follow instructions of the driver. Drivers may assign seats, assign three to a seat, assign seat mates, and take other actions needed for safe passage of the students.
Talk quietly. Do not shout, yell, use profane language or gestures, fight, or behave in a boisterous manner.
Keep all body parts inside the bus.
Not eat, drink, or chew gum, while on the bus.
Not bring animals, glass objects, or large bulky or hazardous articles of any kind on the bus. This includes boogie boards, bike wheels, and skateboards.
Not litter the bus or engage in vandalism, destruction of property, or graffiti. Costs will be billed to the student and their parent.
Not possess or use tobacco, drugs or alcohol, firearms, knives, explosives, or other dangerous objects abroad the bus.
Not light matches, lighters or firecrackers aboard the bus.
Not play or tamper with any part of the bus.
Not ask driver to discharge students anywhere but at a designated bus stops, in accordance with the law.
Remain quiet at the bus stops.
When existing the bus, follow the drviers' instructions. If crossing on the opposite side of the street, always cross in front of the bus, and utilize the crosswalk, obeying all traffic laws.
This section is pursuant to Ed. Code Sections 39831.3-39831.5 and Vehicle Code Section 22112.
All policies and rules regarding safety, behavior, and discipline on the school bus remain in effect. Parents are encouraged to review the student responsibilities and Durham's rules and regulations with their student(s). With parent assistance the cooperation of all student riders, the District is able to continue to provide safe transportation.
The following standards of progressive action regarding abuse/misuse of bus transportation are established and are separate from school disciplinary measures.
1st Offense: Driver confiscates pass, and privileges are suspended for ten (10) days.
2nd Offense: Bus privileges suspended for remainder of school year.
1st Offense: Bus Pass confiscated, attached to bus conduct report, and turned in to school.
1st Offense: Driver confiscates Bus Pass and issues bus conduct report.
2nd Offense: Bus privileges suspended for five (5) days.
3rd Offense: Bus privileges suspended for ten (10) days.
4th Offense: Bus privileges suspended for remainder of school year.
Possession of any pass which is not the property of the possessor, shall constitute evidence of improper possession and use, or attempted use, and is reason to exercise disciplinary measures.
If the student is not listed on the designated bus stop list and is at the bus stop, student is transported to school, and the driver notifies the school office.
The school office contacts the parent(s) to explain the Transportation Fee Program.
Students without a bus pass or one-way bus coupon will not be allowed to ride the bus home from school.


text:
Offbeat — 11 December 2013
Oscar dos Santos Emboaba Junior is a young Brazilian footballer who is lovingly called Oscar by his followers. At the age of 22, Oscar has achieved remarkable feats in the game of football. Beginning his career with Sao Paulo FC, Oscar now plays for the Chelsea club. He also plays for the Brazilian national team at his preferred winger or attacking midfielder positions. People like him for the way he positively came out of the controversies faced at Sao Paulo FC. He was a star player at that club and even remained so after he got associated with Chelsea in 2012.
Oscar played marvelously at 2012 London Olympics where he represented Brazil at the under-20 level. He took his performance as an opportunity to gain advancement in the game. After playing wonderfully at the Champions League, he shared with his fans that he felt really proud to have realized the dream of playing in the Champions League. According to him, young footballers take it as a dream to play in this league and he has achieved that feat. Playing against Juventus, his extraordinary strike was later adjudged as the Chelsea "Goal of the Season."
Displaying a good performance over a short time period has made Oscar impress thousands of people who have started comparing him with some established footballers like Kaka and Özil. Oscar has shown creativity and flexibility in his game. He is considered to be a nice playmaker with superb dribbling and passing skills. His clever runs are hard to assess, and that offers advantage to his team against any opponent. Observers of his game tell that Oscar is very innovative under difficult situations, as he can carve out chances very well. Receiving so much appreciation from established players and seniors has really made Oscar special in the eyes of all soccer lovers.
Why Do We Think About the Past
Why do a large number of tourists travel to Lebanon
Why Do People Like FIFA World Cup
Why do Eagles Fly Alone
Why do we shop on Black Friday
Why do we celebrate Black Friday
Why do we use pronouns
← Why Do People Like Michel Platini


The Columbia Alumni Community portal provides a way for you to stay connected with the College of Dental Medicine and communicate with your classmates and other alumni across schools. You can search the directory, send a message, update your profile, join or start a discussion group, and much, much more!
Join the conversation by logging into the Alumni Community. You'll need your Columbia ID or UNI to log in. All Alumni have a UNI assigned to them; if you don't know yours, find it here.
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Begin a discussion on a topic that interests you or join an existing discussion.
Create your online profile and customize your privacy settings. Share your achievements and help your classmates find you.
Share your professional and personal news and discover what your classmates are sharing by visiting class notes.
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Ongoing: 24-week multicenter, double-blinded, placebo-controlled dose range finding Phase 2b study to determine if multiple doses of RTB101 alone or in combination with RAD001 decrease the incidence of respiratory tract infections (RTI) in elderly patients at increased risk of RTI-related morbidity and mortality. resTORbio plans to complete the study during the second half of 2018.
Keep checking back with us for updates on ongoing and new clinical studies.


text:
Celtic: Why not try for Rafa Benitez?
By Uttiyo Sarkar
Neil Lennon's return to Celtic's been quite eventful, as he's achieved quite a lot of success since taking on from Brendan Rodgers. However, in order to show ambition, the Hoops need to target better.
Indeed, Peter Lawwell and the rest of the Hoops' brain trust need to be ambitious here and think outside the box if the Scottish champions are going to hold off Rangers in the long-term.
So, as per reports (via the Daily Record), odds have suggested the club are keen on making Rafa Benitez their new manager from next season. Out of contract on Tyneside next season, no one is quite sure what will happen in regard to his future, considering the rather fraught relationship he's had with Mike Ashley over the course of his three years in charge.
While looking for a new challenge, Parkhead could be an appealing option for him.
What the Magpies could lose would definitely Celtic's gain. Not only will they be able to withhold their stronghold in the Premiership, but Benitez's stature and experience can make them a force to be reckoned with. The Hoops have been disappointing in European competitions in recent seasons, but with Benitez's arrival, that can change.
The Spaniard is a rare manager to have won the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Super Cup during his celebrated managerial career. When it comes to European competition, he knows what ingredients are required to make the Hoops a commendable team outside their country.
With the correct signing and time to learn his philosophy, Rafa could weave his magic at Celtic. Not only would he drastically improve their style into a more attractive form of football, but he'll also help the Hoops regain their reputation in pulling off surprises in European competitions.
Celtic fans, would you accept Benitez as your new permanent manager? Join the discussion by commenting bel0w…
Related Items:Celtic Football Club, Newcastle United, Rafa Benitez
Newcastle United: Steve Wraith identifies Rafa Benitez as possible Steve Bruce successor
Newcastle United: Steve Bruce discusses club's pursuit of Joshua King
Newcastle United: Club emerges as candidate in the race for Fredrik Andre Bjorkan
Article title: Celtic: Why not try for Rafa Benitez?


text:
Ernst: "It is critical that Congress have a zero-tolerance policy"
Bipartisan Anti-Sexual Harassment Bill Passes the Senate
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA), released the following statement following the Senate passage of a congressional anti-sexual harassment bill by unanimous consent:
"There is no place for sexual harassment in our schools, workplaces, military or anywhere else. It is critical that Congress have zero-tolerance for this type of behavior. The bipartisan anti-sexual harassment bill passed by the Senate today will ensure that members of Congress hold themselves to the same standards as the rest of the country," said Senator Joni Ernst.
This bipartisan Congressional Accountability Act (CAA) of 1995 Reform Act will ensure that members of Congress hold themselves to the same standards as businesses and individuals across the country. The legislation ensures that members of Congress, their staffs and all employees of the Legislative Branch are provided with the necessary training on prevention and reporting procedures to combat sexual harassment in the workplace.
Additional details on the CAA Reform Act include:
The Congressional Accountability Act of 1995 Reform Act would update and strengthen the procedures available to victims of harassment and discrimination and other violations of the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995.
The legislation holds members of the Senate and the House personally accountable by requiring them to pay for acts of harassment, intimidation or reprisal they personally commit against an employee based on any protected class including race, color, religion, sex, national origin, genetic information, age, disability or veteran's status.
The CAA ensures Members who leave office will still be responsible for repayment, including garnishing non- government wages and retirement annuities to ensure full accountability.
The bill provides employees with immediate access to a dedicated advocate who will provide confidential consultation and assistance throughout any proceedings before the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights, including assistance with drafting of a claim.
Share This: https://www.ernst.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2018/12/ernst-it-is-critical-that-congress-have-a-zero-tolerance-policy


I'm new to the Chineham area in Basingstoke and was wondering if anyone could recommend a good nursery in the area for under 2year olds. I will be needing it next year but the earlier I do my research, the better!
Kids Unlimited: Big company. Food not very child friendly. Short on some equipment. Lovely staff.
Busy Bees: The Lidl of the nursery chains. You can always do better than Bust Bees, although that one is better than many of their others.


text:
This essay is not currently available online.
Granddaddy Zoby visited us exactly one time each year. It was always at the end of summer, he and my grandmother driving fifteen miles an hour below the speed limit, backing up the Hampton Roads Tunnel, leaving a path of stalling traffic in their wake.
Letters to David
This essay is not currently available online
All through my twenties, those playful, makeshift years when nothing seemed serious or settled, my friendship with David was the most important constant. I was building what I thought of as my teaching career, those young days, and I moved to a new place every two or three years: I worked in a daycare center in Live Oaks, California, first, then in a school for teenaged mothers in Ogden, Utah; next I taught English as a second language at a Catholic college…
Poetry Feature: Sascha Feinstein
Featuring the poems:
Shook Up
Swedish Sleds
Lust Letters
Recovery Mission
Poetry Feature: Laura Kasischke
My father's mansion
More and tinier [Featured as Poem of the Week, May 8, 2008]
Prayer on bus
The Suicide
Rural husband
More and tinier
A long green thread unraveled from a dress, picked up by the wind, caught in the branch of a tree:
Not even my aging body belongs to me.
My heart made of strangeness and cells. The sleeping salamander of my spleen. That miraculous, ancient needle threading a dress through a tree. It is one kind of difficulty to be the thread. Another to be the needle. Hardest of all, the tree.
Every day, I become more and tinier. Eat less. Think before I speak. On Sunday, after sex, I remember the boats speeding across the water, propelled wildly by the lightest breeze, their sails swollen with it, still blowing on a summer Sunday through my memory. Oh, those boats, this is what they mean.
Like Graceland
This story is not currently available online.
Harrison Miller's wife stood in the shallow end of the pool surrounded by her admirers. From his chaise on the deck, Harrison could see the men's chests and shoulders, their heads bent toward her, faces expectant.
A Conversation with David Sedaris
Interviewer: I've heard you say that you're not the funny person in your family. Amy's funny. Your brother's funny. When did you figure out that you were funny?
Sedaris: Oh, I'm not really. I can do things with paper sometimes, if you give me some time. But no, I'm observant. I know how to tell a story. You meet some people who don't know how, and they'll say, "It was me and Philip and Elizabeth, and we were at dinner. No, wait, wait, 'cause Mark was there. Was Mark there? Or did Mark come later? I think Mark came later, with Tony . . ." And the audience is already gone. Hugh and I argue about storytelling. He'll say, "Now, that's not true. You left out half the room. . ." He's talking about people who didn't contribute to the story. I would get rid of a lot, so we can move there quicker.
Interviewer: Is writing plays with your sister Amy similar to writing your own essays and stories?
Sedaris: No. When you're writing a story, it's completely private. You're struggling with it on your own. The way my sister and I work on a play is like this: three weeks before opening, we get together with a cast; we have a script, we read the script out loud and then throw the script away. And then say, "Fuck. We're opening in three weeks." Then you just start from the ground up all over again. You write a brand-new act and, practically still wet from the typewriter, you're bringing it to the theater and a group of people are reading it aloud. It's important to listen to people when you're working on a play. There's a part of you that wants to say, "I stayed up all night writing that, goddamnit, and you're going to say it." But then someone like David Rakoff comes up with a line, and so what if you stayed up all night. Sorry you wasted your night. What he just said is funnier than—
Interviewer: —what's on the page.
Sedaris: Right. So that wins. We're going to go with that. We call ourselves "the Talent Family," and Hugh's a member, too. It's a "Let's-Put-on-a-Show" kind of family. Hugh does the sets, and he directs. He directed the show at Lincoln Center, and he directed the last one we did with the Drama Department in New York. I'm never in the plays. I would never want to be, but writing them is a form of excitement that isn't matched by writing books or reading out loud.
Interviewer: Collaborative?
Sedaris: Oh, very much. And, there's nothing better than being in an audience and having people laugh at your lines. I'm never in myaudience when I'm reading out loud. Plus, I'm just some guy on stage reading and looking up every now and then. This is people moving around and dressed up in costumes. It's a completely different feeling. Lately I have this idea that you're supposed to say something when you write a play. I've been hung up on that lately.
Interviewer: Something political?
Sedaris: Something to say. Maybe I'm just going through a phase, and I'll drop this in a while. I'm so hung up on it that I can't think of anything I'd have to say.
Interviewer: That's a lot of pressure.
Sedaris: I never wanted to be false about it. When I went to art school, there were teachers who would say, "Now, all art is political, and your work needs to be political." So there'd be a show about U.S. intervention in Central America, and all of these people would be submitting self-portraits with "U.S. out of Nicaragua" written at the bottom. But it wasn't natural to them. They were faking it. That really stuck with me, the faking, and I don't want to fake it. My sister and I lucked out one time. We were always interested in welfare, and we had seen Frederick Weisman's documentary, Welfare, around the time Clinton was talking about initiating welfare reform. Amy started hanging out in a welfare office, and we wrote a play in which the government now says that if you're a woman you cannot collect welfare or SSI or food stamps unless you learn to put on a one-woman show. The play was called "One Woman Shoe" because they live in a housing project of all shoes. Soon after the play opened, Clinton announced his welfare reform. Politically it worked out well for us, but it was just an accident. I'm not apolitical; I just don't consider myself an original thinker. I know people who are, and I love to listen to them, but I'm more the kind of person who might read something and then try to pass it off as my own.
Interviewer: Like leaving a page in a typewriter of someone else's writing?
Sedaris: Have you ever done that? I have this friend named Lily, and she had a brother, Oscar. When we visited him, he was teaching at Princeton, and what I found on his desk was a Hart Crane poem. I'd never read any Hart Crane, and I thought Oscar wrote it. One of the lines was "Bone from infant bone," and I had so much respect for Oscar for years and years for this poem that he wrote. It wasn't until a couple of years ago that he said, "That's Hart Crane. I was, like, copying that down for a class." If I had a page of Alice Munro's writing in my typewriter and someone broke into my apartment, wouldn't they say, "This person's phenomenal. Shit! I can't steal from him"? But of course, they'd just steal the typewriter and never think twice about it. Because it's the sort of thing I would notice, I tend to think everybody would. But everybody has an eye for different things. My sister Lisa and I could go somewhere, and the things that we would each notice would be completely different. What she would notice would be much more entertaining than what I would notice. Everybody's got an eye for something. The only difference is that I carry around a notebook in my front pocket. I write everything down, and it helps me recall things. Later I write them in my diary, and sometimes they show up in a story.
Interviewer: You do other things a little differently than most people, such as not driving or using the Internet or a cell phone.
Sedaris: I've always been convinced I would hit and kill a child, so I don't drive because I'm afraid. Where I grew up, in Raleigh, North Carolina, you needed a car. I stayed at home a lot, and I had to entertain myself. Ultimately, I think not driving was good for me. And I never learned to type; I type with one finger. So I've never worked in an office, which was also probably good for me. As for the Internet, everyone tells me it makes you lose a year. A bread truck will go by, and on the side it says, "If you want to learn more about our products, go to www.breadtruck.com." Then you'll go to a computer and look that up. But who cares about bread? Then there's something else, and something else. I don't want to lose a year like that. The world is already full of books and magazines. I have a friend who gives me hell because I don't have a cell phone or an e-mail address. At this point, I think I can say that doing without those things isn't holding me back. I've actually done fine not knowing how to do certain things. So much of e-mail is about people wanting you to do stuff. My lecture agent will forward things to me. They always involve me doing something. I don't want more of that. People will say, "What's your e-mail address?" I'll say, "I don't have one," and then they think that I'm lying. And with e-mail, once you get it, you never get another letter. I've written Hugh nine letters since this trip. He sent a letter to the hotel in Louisville. It was waiting for me when I got to the hotel. There's a fellow who's producing a lot of these shows that I'm on, and he was waiting for me outside the airport last week, and I didn't know where he was. I figured I'd find him. The next day he got me a cell phone, but I haven't turned it on. I haven't given anyone the number. I would be embarrassed to be seen with it, talking in the airport, the baggage claim or anywhere. It's just another thing to carry around. I'll give it back to him at the end of the tour. I have a friend in Paris who also gets after me for not having a cell phone. I've just never needed one. People don't call me that often. Most of my calls in Paris don't come until ten, eleven, twelve o'clock at night because of the time difference. People know that it's fine to call me at midnight. And then I'm at home, so I don't need a cell phone. The New Yorker wants their stories e-mailed, so Hugh does it for me because he has e-mail. If I were him, I'd say, "You better pay attention and learn how to do this because this is the last time I'm doing it." But I think he kind of enjoys me being helpless. And he's perfectly happy doing it for me, so why should I learn it myself? Or you can always pay somebody. If The New Yorker said they wanted me to e-mail a story today, I could just bring my computer to the theater tonight and pay somebody to do it for me. I'd say, "Does anybody in here know how to send e-mail? Do it for me and I'll give you twenty bucks."
Interviewer: So you have a computer.
Sedaris: Yeah. I used a typewriter for years, and then Hugh bought me a computer, but I didn't want one. After September 11, it became really hard to travel. They weren't used to seeing typewriters in the airport. My lecture agent finally said, "You don't have to carry your typewriter. We'll just make everyone give you one and have it waiting in your hotel room. What kind of typewriter would you like?" I said, "IBM Wheel Writer, 1, 2 or 3," and then I'd show up and it's some piece-of-shit Cannon that they found in the office with this much dust on it. You type three words, and then the ribbon breaks. Hugh gave me this computer, and I know how to make letters big, and that's about it. And I can change the font. But mainly I just use it as a typewriter and a DVD player.
Interviewer: Do you ever feel you need to wait before you can write about certain events, or about things in your own life?
Sedaris: Definitely. I generally have to wait until I can laugh about something or put it into some kind of perspective. There are stories that I try to write every summer. I turn back to these stories and I wind up thinking, "Nope, not time yet." There's this woman named Helen who lived across the hall from us in New York, and I wrote about her for Esquire seven years ago. I worked on it really hard, but it just wasn't right. It's not time to write about Helen yet. The first magazine thing I ever did at Esquire was to spend a week at the morgue in Phoenix. I'm not a reporter, and I felt this pressure to flatter the people who worked there. They were very kind to me. Every summer I think, okay, maybe now I can write that story, but it's not time yet. Sometimes I'll try to force it. Then other times, wham, all of a sudden I'm able and the time is right. I tried to write about going to the Anne Frank House right after I went, but it took me two years. Was it Flannery O'Connor who said that a writer's job is not to have an experience but to contemplate experiences? That seems right to me—trying to make sense of it all. Then, too, it's all about finding the first line.
Interviewer: Is that all you need?
Sedaris: It used to be. But I've got a lot of things that have a first line and then two pages, and then pshhh . . . oops. Then it just sort of dies. Sometimes I can go back to things like that and I make them work later on.
Interviewer: Have you ever made substantial changes or put something away because of your family's response to it?
Sedaris: Generally I'm pretty good at guessing what they would be opposed to. Once, my dad wanted me to change something in a story about my brother, and it was a really good call. I wouldn't have seen it.
Interviewer: Would it have hurt your brother's feelings?
Sedaris: Oh, no. Paul was absolutely fine with it. But Dad was really good at foretelling how an audience would have interpreted it. One night in Germany, someone said, "Well, what was it?" And I said what it was Paul had done, and I'll never say it again. My father was so right. Even telling people about the thing I took out changed their feelings about my brother. To me it was no big deal. And to Paul it was nothing at all. When I read a story about my brother in the South, he's everybody's brother. And then, if you read about it in another part of the country, people will say, "Read the story about your white-trash brother!" White trash? What are you talking about? "Read the story about your trailer-trash brother!" Trailer trash? What are you talking about? Because he lives in North Carolina and he speaks a certain way, this is what they've decided. That's one of those words like "dysfunctional." I can't believe that people are still attached to that word. To me it's like when people say, "Don't go there." The phrase is so over. "Dysfunctional" is so over and so meaningless. And "trailer trash" is so over and so meaningless. People still say it all the time, and you think, Man, you wouldn't wear your hair and you wouldn't have bushy eyebrows like you did in 1984. Right? So, why are you still wearing words from the '80s? Why are you still using those?
Interviewer: Earlier, we were talking about writing fiction and nonfiction. What do you feel are the most important differences between those two genres?
Sedaris: I've been asked that a lot on this trip during question-and-answer sessions, and I love it. Okay, James Frey wrote a book saying, "I'm a fucked-up alcoholic." And then people read the book, and now they're saying, "That drunk lied to us!" Well, he kind of warned you in advance that he was a fucked-up alcoholic. I can't understand the self-righteousness that goes along with that anger. You can let the truth slide when it comes to the president, but if it's a first-time memoirist, how dare he? How dare he lead us on? I loved Angela's Ashes, but if I found out tomorrow that Frank McCourt was born in Dublin instead of Limerick and that his family was wealthy, it wouldn't change my feelings about the book at all. I think autobiography is the last place you would look for truth. Biography, maybe, but not autobiography. Ever since that business with him [James Frey], fact-checkers are in overdrive. It's made my life miserable. Like, the fact-checker fromThe New Yorker will say, "We talked to your father, and he said that the grandfather clock is made out of oak, and you say it was made out of cherry." And it's not a story about a grandfather clock. It doesn't really matter. It's important to me that the people I love aren't hurt. If I write about anyone in my family, I give it to them first and say, "Do you have any problem with the way you're portrayed? Is there anything written here that you don't want people to know?" That's important to me, but the clock being oak or walnut is not important to me.
Interviewer: Do you collaborate with any other writers besides your sister?
Sedaris: No. Someone told me that collaborations only last for seven years. Writing plays together with Amy lasted that amount of time, and now it sort of feels over to me. This might be because I don't live in the United States anymore.
Interviewer: Are the logistics difficult?
Sedaris: Yes. It's amazing when you can collaborate with somebody, but it has to be organic. A couple of years ago, the Sundance Festival invited me to participate one summer. They were going to put me in a cabin somewhere with a screenwriter. Aside from the fact that I never wanted to write a movie, the thought of sharing a cabin—they didn't say Four Seasons, they said cabin—and expecting to meet a stranger and be able to collaborate with them seemed completely illogical to me.
Interviewer: So you didn't go?
Sedaris: Oh, no. Aside from being in a cabin with a stranger, there would be people waiting for the results.
Interviewer: Outside the windows?
Sedaris: Right. When Amy and I were working on the plays together, it was almost like we were one person. There wasn't a lot of fussing about "That's my line" or "When's it my turn" or anything like that. It was partly because she doesn't write. She doesn't type.
Interviewer: So you were doing the typing?
Sedaris: Yes. That makes it easier to not have those arguments. And the goal was to serve the audience, not just to keep those people in their seats, but to have them want more.
Interviewer: When we were talking earlier, I told you I first found your books in the gay and lesbian section of a bookstore. From what I've read about you, though, it seems important for your work not to be put into a category, such as humor or gay writing.
Sedaris: I don't think that you can avoid it. In terms of the gay and lesbian section, whenever I see one in a bookstore, I think, "What's that doing there? What's that section doing there? Why are these books segregated? Why are we deciding this? What are they so afraid of? I use the word "boyfriend," so I go next to the fisting manual? Because I use the word "boyfriend"? It's not that I'm ashamed of being gay. It's just that first on my list right now is that I'm foreign. If my average day-to-day life said one thing, if it said, "What are you?" I'd say a foreigner. Living in France, I feel like a foreigner more than anything else. I started writing when I was twenty. I just started one day, mainly keeping a diary, and it was around that same time that I started reading voraciously.
Interviewer: Do you bring back some of that feeling of being a foreigner when you come to the United States?
Sedaris: I've always managed to come back twice a year to do these tours, and they're usually during pivotal times. I was here three weeks after September 11, and I was here during the last two elections. Every time I come back, things are a bit different. If you're living here, things become different but you don't notice it that much because of your day-to-day life, whereas if you go somewhere and you come back, you think, "Wow, that's fucked up."
Interviewer: Have you always read a lot?
Sedaris: When I was in high school, I took a world lit class where I had to read Candide and things like that, but I never did much reading beyond what was required. I started writing when I was twenty. I just started one day, mainly keeping a diary, and it was around that same time that I started reading voraciously. They go hand in hand, especially for a young person who's trying to write. I have tried to make art, but I didn't know how to make what I was doing look like art. Even conceptual stuff. Somebody else could defecate on a shingle and it would look magnificent, but I would defecate on a shingle and it would just look like shit on a shingle. People ask me to look over things that they've written. I often want to say to them, "This doesn't look like how things in books look." Reading is important when you're trying to write because then you can look at what's in a book and remind yourself, "Hey, I'm young; I just started, and it's gonna take me a long time, but boy, look at the difference between this and that. How, in the book, every sentence doesn't start with the word 'I.' Look how in the book the sentences aren't all choppy, how there's not Joni Mitchell written all over it sideways in the margins." Reading is one of those things that changes your life. I didn't know when I was nineteen that a year from then, 90 percent of my joy was going to come from library books. Well, there was always pot. So, let's say 70 percent of my joy was going to come from library books. That wouldn't have occurred to me. I'm in awe of people who read a lot and who don't write. I thank God for them, people who never wanted to be writers themselves and they just love to read. When you write yourself, you're always reading with that—
Interviewer: Critical eye?
Sedaris: Right.
Interviewer: Do you remember why you started a diary when you were twenty?
Sedaris: I was hitchhiking around and picking apples, and I didn't have an address. I would write to people, but they couldn't write me back. That was frustrating, so I just started writing for myself. I found a bunch of those early diaries in my dad's closet, and I mailed them to France last summer. When I started going through them, cataloguing what was in each one, it was really painful. Really painful. No one was worse than me. No one.
Interviewer: A worse writer?
Sedaris: No one was a worse writer than me. No one was more false. No one was more pretentious. It was just absolute garbage. And what frustrated me was that I would find myself writing in the margins, "Just state it."
Interviewer: Just state what?
Sedaris: What color was the landlady's hair? What did she look like? Was there a tub? Or a shower? All of this crap I'd been writing didn't really say anything about anything. Like a lot of young people, I guess I was thinking, "Well, that's obvious. That's what other people would write. So I'm just going to transcribe all of the sounds that I hear when I'm in bed at night." That doesn't really tell me anything. There are some artifacts that tell me more than what I had written down during that time, like the rent receipt from the boarding house and the fact that I paid eighty dollars a month. There's nothing to be had in those diaries, really.
Interviewer: Can you identify when your writing got better?
Sedaris: It came in different phases. I started writing stories when I was twenty-seven, and that made everything better because then I had less time to write in my diary. When I started going to art school, I tried different things. We had these critiques—painting critiques—that were exhausting. You would put up your work and talk about it. A lot of people talked the way they would to a psychiatrist.
Interviewer: Defending their work?
Sedaris: Yes. And there was nothing entertaining about it. Absolutely nothing entertaining. That's when I started writing little stories. I would put up my work and then read a story out loud, maybe a page and a half long, written in the first person. I would be the character who had done this work. And people laughed. It was quick, and it wasn't boring. Later I took writing classes. Again, you'd put up your work and then talk—like you're talking to a psychiatrist—for forty-five minutes. You don't care about the person that follows. You're the important one. It was like walking into a situation and saying, "How can I make the most of it?" I think that was the very first time I ever read out loud. And I thought, Oh, I could make this work. When I started writing [longer] stories, I wrote in the third person. At that point, I was trying to be other people. What do you do? I wasn't that young, but I was twenty-seven, and I was a late starter. I have more respect for things that are written in the third person than in the first person. It allows you to write in a different way because you're not writing as if you yourself were speaking. If I write in first person, it tends to be more how that character would speak. These days I'm writing stories about animals, and they're in third person. I set up rules for myself. One is that no one can have a name. It's "the squirrel" and "the chipmunk." I don't want to get into anything too human. They can have jobs and stuff, but I don't want to put that humanness on them of a name. It's hard because, see, the chipmunk has a sister. You've got two chipmunks. One is the chipmunk, and one is the sister, but you can't do the things that you would do in regular third-person writing, where you could use "she" and then you could use "Elizabeth." You're denied that. I wrote something about a leech, and I had a lot of animals in that. I read it out loud, and it didn't seem to work, so I'm going to take a few of the characters out. Plus, it took place in Africa. There's a certain kind of leech that only lives in the anus of a hippopotamus. There's another variety that only lives in the noses of camels. I read this in The New Yorker, and then I started writing about a leech who lives in the asshole of a hippopotamus. I read the story to an audience last week, and I decided to move it to America. I had all these African animals, but it didn't seem right. I started rewriting it last week. He still lives in a hippo's asshole, but the hippo is taken to the United States shortly after the story opens. The hippopotamus needs another one, to make the Friend. It can't be Hippopotamus Number Two. The mechanics of the writing gets difficult. Your editor will call you and remind you that you have a particular word ten times in a paragraph, and you'll think, "How did that slip by me?" So, it's just the math of writing, or the sudoko of writing, the headachy part of it that becomes difficult when you don't have names.
Interviewer: What prompted you to use a formal restraint in writing these stories?
Sedaris: In fables, generally, you've got the mouse and the crocodile and the crow, and they don't have names. In The Wind in the Willows, the animals have names, but the thing about fables is that the moral is very obvious. You can't miss it. My stories wander a bit, so I don't know that I have the right to call them fables. "Little stories about animals" doesn't sound terribly compelling, but I'm afraid that's what they are. "Little" being the operative word. They're all four or five pages long.
Interviewer: Do you have a goal for how many you want to write? Of forming a collection?
Sedaris: I was thinking about a collection, but there are only so many you'd want to read. It would be all right if I could get thirty. I'd be happy. There's a precedent for illustrations in books like that. If you look at old books of Aesop's fables or The Wind in the Willows, it makes sense that there would be illustrations and that those would take up a lot of space. That's what excites me. Those little illustrations take up pages. Most of these stories are inspired by things that people tell me. There's a sheep farmer across the street from us in Normandy, and he told me last summer that you always want your lambs to be born in the barn. When they're born in the field, crows will come and pluck the eyes out of the newborn babies and eat them. I wrote a fable about that. In that illustration you would just see the etching of a crow, and you'd think, "Is that an olive in his mouth?" Then you would read the story, and you would realize that it's a lamb's eyeball. This is completely new for me, so I can't tell how queer they are. They could be completely queer, and no one's told me, and I can't see for myself. Normally I can see for myself.
Interviewer: How do you see for yourself if something is working? One of the things that fascinates me about your process is that you read your work out loud to live audiences before it's actually published.
Sedaris: When you read a story on paper, you don't realize you've already said something before, or that you're just treading water, or that something's a cheap laugh. When you read a story out loud, you realize—I, anyway, realize— those things. On this tour, I'm going to thirty-six cities and I'll be reading ten new stories. Two of them have been in The New Yorker already. Two more are scheduled to come out, and I'm changing them all the time. I wish I could go back to the ones that have already been published and have a week to read those out loud. I like learning as much as I can on my own before I give a story to an editor. Reading new stories out loud helps me to do that. There've been times when I've gotten a few pages into reading a story out loud and I've thought, This is really bad. I should stop right now. But that seems unprofessional. I make myself read until the end. Maybe the audience doesn't think it's as horrible as I do, but if people don't laugh, then I tend to panic. The worst is people coughing. That's like a hammer driving a nail into your coffin.
Interviewer: What does coughing mean?
Sedaris: Coughing means that I, the audience member, wish I wasn't here. There's a story I had in The New Yorker last month about collecting art, and I think on paper it's fine. When I read it out loud, I heard a lot of coughing. Then when I got to the end and people laughed, I was shocked. I was thinking, "You're still here? I thought you left. You were coughing." Sometimes I can't tell the difference between listening and wanting to be home.
Interviewer: Where did you come up with the idea that a story that works out loud is also a story that's going to work inside of a reader's head?
Sedaris: That's the hard part. Sometimes your biggest laugh when the story is read out loud comes from a pause, or from looking up. To imitate that on paper—putting five double spaces to indicate a pause—looks unprofessional. There are two different versions of a story: the story out loud and the story on paper. Last week, I had a story in The New Yorker. My editor very wisely suggested cutting things out. On paper, the reader would be stacked too much against this character. The story is being told by a twelve-year-old. I can take care of that out loud. I can read it in such a way, not with a baby voice, but in such a way that the audience understands not to believe everything that I say. On paper it's different. As far as a reader's head is concerned, my test subject is Hugh. He's a serious person. If I'm working on something, I never mention it. If I talk about it, it dies. I keep it completely to myself, and when the magazine comes out and Hugh gets the magazine, I hide. Or I sit in my office waiting for the sound of his laughter. He's my test subject.
Interviewer: How did you get involved with putting together the anthology for 826NYC?
Sedaris: My friend Sarah Vowell told me about it. They wanted me to help raise money and proposed putting a book together like Nick Hornby had done, where I would get my favorite authors to write an original story. I wanted to do something different, so I asked if I could collect my favorite short stories. Whenever you write about yourself, real people live in the world, and characters live on the page, and you become a character.
Interviewer: How did you pick the stories?
Sedaris: Whenever I go on a lecture tour I choose one book to promote not written by me but by someone else. Right now it's a collection of short stories by Jean Thompson called Who Do You Love?I included a story of hers in Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules. It's interesting putting together an anthology because to last, it's got to be in schools. That isn't going to happen unless the book has writers representing all different groups. You've got to have your races covered. So one way to put together an anthology is to think, "How could I do this so the book will find its way into schools?" That didn't interest me. What I wanted was to pick my favorite stories. I listen to a lot of books on tape, and I have this magnificent recording of "The Garden Party," by Katherine Mansfield. If you listen to it, there's no way on earth it won't be one of your favorite stories. I chose "The Garden Party" mainly based on the audio of it. The Joyce Carol Oates story as well. I'd heard that before I had actually read it. I saw this anthology as a great opportunity. A lot of the people who buy my books aren't big readers. I've heard from people who've bought the anthology, and then they've gone on to read the Tobias Wolfe story, or they've started reading Lorrie Moore. That's what you always hope for in an anthology. Interviewer: It opens the door for them to read more. Sedaris : Right. I check out lots of anthologies from the library. That's how I discovered everyone in Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules. I read a story by Lorrie Moore in The Best American Short Stories, and I thought, "Oh, who is she?" I had to read everything that she'd written. For Richard Yates, and most of the writers in the anthology, it was the same.
Interviewer: In the introduction, you talk about not having any backbone. How are you able to do the things that take so much courage as a writer, especially a writer of nonfiction, like revealing yourself, and being in front of live audiences?
Sedaris: That's the illusion of courage. I just give the illusion of exposing myself, but really, I'm not exposed at all. There's a real me that lives inside my diary, and then there's a character of me. Whenever you write about yourself, real people live in the world, and characters live on the page, and you become a character. So, I don't think that I expose that much about myself. That said, I've never written about sex. Partly, it's because I don't want anyone I've ever had sex with writing about me in bed. The other part is that when you're out in front of an audience, you're the model. If you write about yourself scratching your babysitter's back, they're going to picture you scratching your babysitter's back. If you read about yourself in your underpants at the hospital, then they're imagining you in your underpants. But I'm not going to take those underpants off. I wrote something, just a glorified diary entry, and it's in one of the books. Really, it's just a diary entry with a little ending tacked on: I went to this guy's house for Easter dinner. And when I went to use the bathroom, there was this huge turd in the toilet and it wouldn't go away. It was huge. Sometimes during book signings people will come up and say they love that story, and they'll say, "One time, I took this shit, and it was like . . ." And I'm thinking, "No, no, no. See there's a difference. I'm talking about something I found. You're talking about something you made." But they couldn't see the difference. Which is formidable.
The wind lifted. The sky above Sandro's head was filled with a flurry of little yellow leaves. Frantically airborne, they resisted for one last instant the inevitability of the fall. Sandro sat on a wooden bench, his elbows resting on the picnic table behind him, and gazed up at the sudden pandemonium.
Strangers Among Us
Here she was again, in a strange apartment, at a party, alone. The first glass of wine gulped too quickly. Later, she would be certain it was the backless couch that had caused her to drink too much.
Winner of the 2006 Jeffrey E. Smith Editors' Prize for fiction
The woman who was not my mother was named Sheila Stanton, and at the age of nineteen she was held captive for ninety-one days by the Red Ribbon Strangler. That was during 1967, the Summer of Love. After she was freed by a swat team, Stanton found herself the nation's celebrity du jour.
Poetry Feature: Jonathan Fink
The Captive


text:
Redlands East Valley's Ray Reed's raps aspirations and gratitude
By JASMYN GONZALEZ
Hobbies, talents, desires and dreams are all aspirations for one's future. Their career or general path in life is derived from an interest in a certain subject or habit. Rap is one of these many arts, and is something that not many students can say is their dedicated hobby. Ray Reed, a junior at Rev has been known for his aspiration to become a professional rapper.
He has rapped for six years and now he has been given the opportunity to show his former high school students his talent by performing at Rev's next pep rally on Friday April 7. With this huge opportunity, Reed states:
" I feel really great and pumped about performing at [the rally]; this is the third year I wanted to do it and I finally get my first opportunity. I just stayed patient, made the right moves, talked to the right people and it happened… It'll boost my level of confidence when I first perform on stage In front of a lot of people. Everyone needs to put this on social media, record it, post it to get my name out there…I plan to perform a little freestyle then a tribute to Lil Snupe I'm doing his verse in the song outro but I redid the words to make it clean and after that a little something I wrote so the students can get hyped for my next mixtape, The Amazing Twisted Mind Of Ray. It's gonna be fun."
The opportunity that Reed has been given is proof that hard work pays off. His consistency in practice and belief that his passion could get him somewhere pushed him into the next step off his road as a rapper. Reed further states:
" I go by the saying 'When there's struggle there will be success; you have to struggle at one point in your life before you become successful in what you want to do'…The saying goes with rapping, especially with rappers like Kanye and Eminem. Kanye moved to Chicago with his mom after his dad left and he told his mom that one day she wasn't going to have to work anymore and he became successful and put his mom in a big house and took care of her. Eminem lived in a trailer park with his mom who was doing drugs, dropped out of high school in the 9th grade and now he's the greatest rapper alive. Because they worked hard and stayed focused on what they wanted to do and did it, they have inspired me to do more and I became known at REV for freestyling as a freshman; now I am performing at a rally and singing the national anthem at every home basketball game and hope to inspire everybody else to do more than me."
Reed has faced much discrimination and doubt from other people throughout his life when it comes to his hopes to become a professional rapper. He shares the quote, "words that are hateful are like flies; they come in numbers but die quickly" meaning that anything trying to put one down will come and go, it is up to the artist who is facing the discrimination to use it as motivation or as an anchor to push down their aspirations.
Reed will perform at the next pep rally, it has become an opportunity that he has worked hard for and this chance alone shows that hard work, faith and dedication can go a long way. Perseverance through the hard times and through the good times will pay off with unexpected opportunities.
Categories A&E, Redlands East Valley High School
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One thought on "Redlands East Valley's Ray Reed's raps aspirations and gratitude "
Christian Butler says:
darn ray, that's some good stuff!!