Hi, Lionheart! My cover of Frankie Valli's / Lauryn Hill's "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" on SoundCloud is blowing up! I worked really hard on it. Take a listen and follow me on SoundCloud if you support my music. Thank you - you're the best. Couldn't and wouldn't do it withoutcha. You know I love you!
Check it out here, and if you like it, please support my music by liking, reposting, and following me on SoundCloud.
Lionheart, this past summer, I worked at a Syrian refugee camp in Greece as the music director for an Arabic adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest alongside my colleagues, who are leading film, tv, and Broadway talent and crew, Syrian film stars, Italian documentary filmmakers, Middle Eastern scholars and diplomatic professionals.
While I was starstruck working with this incredible kind-hearted team, I was also struck by the stories of the beautiful residents of the camp. These stories touched on themes of hope, positivity in spite of darkness, deep and hollow pain, and laughter and light.
Part of my reason for commiting to the project is why I create music, perform, and teach singing and songwriting.
Imagine if someone had just one moment of freedom and joy, forgetting everything and just singing and playing music.
I still keep in touch with some of the residents today.
This short documentary clip shares the story of our Ritsona summer residency.
When the Campfire Project returns this summer, our new and improved agenda will be to reach an additional community. We will also donate wellness and education services to the Oinofyta tent camp 10 miles from our host camp, Ritsona.
Our aim remains, as always, to create a performance with the Ritsona residents, while providing ESL classes, psychological support and Arabic translators for the 1000 residents of this diverse and isolated camp.
This year, we will shape our residency with an integrated approach that combines ESL with playwriting so that the residents have the power to tell their own stories. We recognize that we can be agents of change, structuring endless days and building creative and educational habits for the hundreds of refugees who wait there indefinitely.
They desperately count on NGOs like The Campfire Project for all services of physical and emotional survival.
Your support makes all the difference. Will you help us to keep going?
I realized from the residents at Ritsona that all we have are our relationships. My theme for 2019 is just that: relationships.
In 2016, I had a wakeup call to start pulling myself together. I had successes here and there, but it wasn't in alignment with what I dreamed of. 2017 was a year of radical positive changes. Then in 2018, I realized that if I wanted to continue with the positive changes, I'd have to look within. My theme last year was spirituality.
And now, based on my learnings from the refugee camp and life in general, my theme is relationships. I'm focusing on relationships with myself; the universe; friends and family; love; YOU, Alarke; health; time; and money. Maybe I forgot something in there.
Just looking at this, it seems all-expansive. How can I narrow it down to relationships themselves? I guess it means cultivating healthy dynamics and interplay between things. It'll be a new observation and, frankly, I'm a bit hesitant to go there.
However, looking back at January 2018, I wrote that I was afraid of looking within because I was afraid of what I would find. I was afraid of losing myself. In reality, what I had been holding onto was my ego's fear, keeping me playing small on so many levels. Simply put, I was afraid of losing a sense of loss.
Going within turned out to be better than anything I could have imagined. I left 2018 feeling like I accessed my spirit with a quantum leap, bending time and space, past and future. I realized that I'm alive throughout all eternity, this time is a perceived construct, and that I can release my fears and go after what I want because I already have everything I want.
I hope this quote leaves you with courage.
With this, although I don't know yet what a theme on relationships will turn out to be, I'm looking forward to the discovery.
If you're also curious about taking singing and/or songwriting lessons, check out my teaching at setyourlifetomusic.com. I have free tutorials and exercises, as well as private lessons in-person in New York City or online.
There's a lot of fun happenings that I post about on social media stories. Follow me on Instagram and Facebook to come hang out with me behind the scenes.
I couldn't and wouldn't do it withoutcha, Lionheart.
Throughout her 25-year professional career, Alouette has mesmerized audiences from the Kennedy Center, the Rainbow Room, and Carnegie Hall to Fabrica Del Arte in Havana, Cuba, Gypsy caravans in Samois sur Seine, France, and castles in the Italian Alps.


For some reason Yorkshire folk have been known to refer to their home county as "God's Own Country". Well, if truth be told, they have very good reason to call it that.
Not only does Yorkshire collectively (North, South, and West Yorkshire, and the East Riding of Yorkshire, and all the Metropolitan Borough Councils and the Unitary Authorities) comprise the biggest county in the UK, but it also has a vast range of landscapes, cityscapes, and some of the best beaches and coastal features anywhere in - dare I say it - the world.
Yorkshire has some of the largest, yet most accessible, wild areas in the UK in the two National Parks which straddle the northern end of the county - the North York Moors National Park and the Yorkshire Dales National Park.
Yorkshire has some fine cities, with stunning architecture - ancient and modern - and vibrant nightlife. And good food and drink - it's no secret that Yorkshire has some excellent breweries in the county. Almost every village of any size has a pub, serving good ale and fine food (including the renowned traditional Yorkshire breakfast).
And Yorkshire people are rightly known for the generous welcome they extend to visitors to this marvellous part of the country.
If you haven't been to Yorkshire before, come and see what you've missed out on. If you've been before, come back soon, and get another warm welcome.


Submissions to the ongoing Australian Public Service review indicate enthusiasm for fundamental changes rather than just a few tweaks and adjustments, says panel member Glyn Davis.
Davis notes the major change from a generation ago is clear: now, nearly all of the federal government's core services are contracted out, meaning the taxes that fund them flow out into a large and growing group of for-profit and non-profit service providers, whose staff are not subject to the same level of accountability as public servants.
The former University of Melbourne vice-chancellor, now a Distinguished Professor at the Australian National University's Crawford School of Public Policy, discussed the review with Crawford School director Helen Sullivan in a podcast published on Friday.
Some of the most bold proposals and interesting arguments have come from non-government organisations and representative bodies like the Australian Council of Social Service, he comments, and these demonstrate significant support for a "fundamental re-conceptualisation" of not just the APS, but the relationship between citizens, civil society and government representatives.
"And that's quite a challenging set of arguments because it starts from a different point from all traditional reviews – it forces you to ask the question of why we're doing this," Davis observes in the latest Policy Forum Pod.
Sullivan agrees the submissions suggest growing momentum behind a sense that something more than mere "tinkering" is needed, and she sees that as a positive sign amid all the concern about surveys and election data showing public trust in government dropping away sharply in recent years.
"I think there's an appetite for people wanting things to be different – 'let's do things differently,' or 'let's focus on what the real problem is' – in a way that perhaps some people might have been surprised by, given that we're all supposed to be now so apathetic about government and have no trust in our institutions," she comments.
The two professors also observe that public servants as a group and the work they do are often criticised in Australia, and their individual views could be a valuable addition to the conversation. Sullivan cites recent comments from a former head of the APS, Terry Moran, that the private sector had leapt ahead of the public sector in terms of management and leadership skills, and suggests two potential conclusions.
The hosts had received a very similar question from another professor in the public administration field, Janine O'Flynn from the University of Melbourne: is there a strong factual basis for the capability-decline narrative, or is it more an example of an Australian tendency to talk down the public sector, despite its fairly good international standing?
"I take Terry Moran very seriously, but Janine's right, we are very hard on public servants in this country," Davis diplomatically replies, adding that Moran is far from alone.
"I think what Terry is talking about is declining capability across the sector and there's no doubt that is coming through strongly in the submissions.
The review panel would be remiss to buy into the narrative completely, he adds, because these sorts of views are often bolstered by a rose-tinted view of the good old days, but there is clearly something in it.
Davis points to Treasury as a key example. He says it is much smaller than it used to be, and not because it has automated a large amount of administrative work. It simply does less policy work than it once did, and is a less attractive employer to graduates in the relevant fields as a result.
There has been a drop in the prestige of APS grad programs across the board, in Davis's view.
Ethics and integrity are another topic that has come up in the review submissions, with two contrary positions emerging. Some say the federal integrity regime is relatively good, and accept that if there was significant, systemic corruption, it would be exposed.
Others argue the opposite: the controls are so weak, nobody knows what level of corruption really exists around the expenditure of Commonwealth funds.
Davis says there is a link between these integrity concerns and outsourcing; those with the latter view feel integrity risks have increased with so much public service work being contracted out, and he thinks they have a point.
Without a federal integrity commission like the state-based anti-corruption agencies that investigate these things, he says it is very hard to know empirically how much corruption affects the Commonwealth.
"But you'd have to say, you'd want to be confident if you're going to contract out billions of dollars at a time, that you knew what you were doing, and we've had a series of clear public disasters with this, of which the vocational education one is the one that most people have lived through, endured, watched with horror," he continues.
Davis observes that while contract terms could be used to enforce accountability and integrity to some extent, a large and growing number of people are nevertheless doing public service work, under contract, without government taking responsibility for their training or imposing the same ethical code. And, he adds, the more public service staffing is constrained, the more the workforce "on the other side of the equation" grows.
This is not the fault of that growing external workforce pursuing public purposes under contract, he adds.
"But the truth is we've taken money that was in one stream and was fairly carefully subject to the [auditor-general's oversight] and all that, and we've shifted it out and put it into a different format.
Sullivan notes the federal system is also quite reactive — problems only come to light well after they occur, whether through a scandal or a formal mechanism like an independent audit.
"We're not very good at accountability as a sort of productive, positive, future-oriented activity," she says.
Davis points to one specific area where the federal integrity system could be tightened up: the rules about where former ministers can go to work after they leave government, which do not apply to public servants.
As a member of the panel, he acknowledges cynical perspectives on the review are understandable since it has a very long line of predecessors, a few of which led to "profound change" while many others did not. He quips that he had worked on one that did not, referring to the 1983 Reid inquiry, which employed him as a researcher while he took a break from doctoral studies.
On the other hand, says Sullivan, the stack of reports from past reviews at least provide a body of evidence that could help sort the "perennial problems" for the public service from the newer and emerging challenges, although she suspects these resources are largely untapped. The newest addition to the canon arrives in the first half of 2019.
The full hour-long discussion is available below, and is hosted by the Asia and the Pacific Policy Society's web page, where there are links to five relevant articles mentioned by the speakers.


Pashtuns are the ethnically unique tribe residing in mountain terrains of North Western Bharatiya subcontinent and in Afghanistan. They are a unique ethnic tribal group with a rich history and culture. There are around 50 million Pashtuns throughout the world, majority of them residing in their traditional homeland of Pashtunistan (Pakhtunistan) consisting areas from south of Amu Darya to west of Indus river.
They are the largest and most dominant ethnic group in Afghanistan with around 42 – 60% share in total population and are second largest ethnic group in Pakistan comprising about 15.4% of population according to a CIA estimate.
Majority of Pashtuns in Pakistan live in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province while substantial and ascertainable of them being in Northern Balochistan, Karachi and Lahore. The Pashtuns are the world's largest segmentary lineage ethnic group with the number of Pashtun tribes and clans range from about 350 to over 400.
Much like every other non-Punjabi ethnicity in Pakistan, Pashtuns have also suffered at the hands of Punjabi interests. Despite being a strong and dominant tribal group of Pakhtunkhwa, Pashtuns have been oppressed at large extent by Pakistan's most powerful institution – The Pakistan Security Forces.
The collective punishment to all villagers for the crime of one person was the most frequent tactic of forces in Pashtunistan, particularly in the Waziristan of FATA. Pakistani Army, which was meant to protect them from extremism and terrorism in the Taliban's hot bed area, has turned out to be worse than the Taliban.
In suspicion of any Taliban links in the village, the Pakistani Army completely decimates the entire village, bulldozing the homes of family members of suspected militants and inflicting collective punishments to entire community/village.
No Pashtunwali practices including Jirga are allowed by Pakistan forces in these cases. Landmines were installed in village and community areas of Pashtuns in villages in Waziristan of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Instead of Taliban militants, these landmines used to affect average civilians, children and women.
Pakistani forces practices a well-used tactic of abduction, arrest, kidnapping and extra-judicial killings of people who raise voice against them. Pakistan has a history of using these tactics and inflicting severe punishments on Pashtuns. One such heinous incident from the history was 'Babrra Massacre' of 12th August, 1948, when 600 unarmed Pashtuns supporters of Khudai Khidmatgar Movement, gathered on Babrra ground Hashtnagar, were brutally killed on the orders of Muslim League leader Abdul Qayyum Khan Kashmiri (the then C.M. of NWFP).
In May 2014, a small group of students (eight students) of Gomal University from Dera Ismail Khan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa took up the initiative to fight against discrimination and human rights violations of Pashtuns and triggered a movement initially called as 'Mehsud Tahafuz Movement'. At the start, the small group lacked prevalence in en masse and their primary demand was removal of landmines from Waziristan and other areas of formerly FATA.
The movement rose to prominence in January 2018 when a young aspiring Pashtun model Naqeebullah Mehsud (of Mehsud tribes of Waziristan) was extra judicially killed, on January 20, in a fake encounter staged by Karachi police officer Rao Anwar. The movement made long march to demand justice for Naqeebullah and thousands of Pashtuns joined the movement.
The name of movement 'Mehsud Tahafuz Movement' was changed to 'Pashtun Tahafuz Movement' indicating a greater cooperation of all Pashtuns. "Mehsud's death sparked national outrage and it soon became a metaphor for the historic injustices meted out to residents of tribal areas", writes Raza Rumi.
'Pashtun Tahafuz Movement' (PTM) lead by a young dynamic leader Manzoor Pashteen carried out protest against Pakistan forces for their crimes. PTM presented several demands to Pakistan government and military including apprehension of Officer Rao Anwar as early as possible, formation of a 'truth and reconciliation commission' for cases of extra judicial killings and missing persons, presenting missing persons before the court, removal of mines from Pashtun tribal areas and torture and collective punishment against entire villages be stopped.
Pashtun leader Manzoor Pashteen bats for a non-violent movement for protection of Pashtun human rights and he has emerged as a very popular leader with immense support particularly in FATA area. PTM has carried out several long marches and protest rallies in spite of adverse conditions created by Pakistani authorities. PTM rallies are attended by Pashtun hoi polloi throughout the country.
On April 08, 2018, 60,000 people gathered at Peshawar, the largest city of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Lahore gathering on 22 April 2018 was attended by 8000 people despite Lahore administration rejecting permission for rally and arresting PTM leaders. Another gathering of Pashtuns in the Swat was attended by 10,000 people. Many protest have been held and rallies have been carried out by PTM giving strong signal to Pakistan that their oppressive regime cannot force the entire community to back down.
There have been punishments meted out to students who support PTM and professors are forced to identify students attending rallies so authorities can take actions. Pashteen has been called a 'traitor' and a 'terrorist' by Pakistani establishments and PTM has been labelled as foreign funded organization. Media coverage of PTM and Pashteen has been blocked and no media is allowed to air news about them.
"Punishment is all about sending a message to keep silent" told Pashteen to the Associated Press. Pashteen told "One thousand percent we were sure we would be killed". Pakistan authorities are hegemonic undemocratic establishment especially the Army. Criticism of Army attracts severe punishments and sometimes extra judicial killings also.
"The military has become a state within a state". "PTM leader Pashteen doesn't mince his words and has made it clear who he holds responsible for the Pashtun suffering: "We have to identify the place that destroyed us," Pashteen said at a recent rally. "It is GHQ!" he said, referring to the Pakistani military headquarters in Rawalpindi, cites a DW article.
One slogan that PTM regularly uses to highlight the misdeed of Pakistani forces is "Yeh jo dehshatgardi hai, is ke peechay wardi hai" (behind this terrorism, is the [military] uniform).
The rise of PTM in this particular way to fight forces for Pashteen Human Rights is described by senior Pakistani journalist Taha Siddiqui as "another Bangladesh in the making". PTM and Manzoor Pashteen have indicated an awakening in the Pashtun community.
What started as a 'Mehsud Tahafuz Movement' for clearing landmines in Waziristan has become a Pakhtunkhwa-wide movement for Pashtun rights. This journey has been a tremendous Rise of Pashtuns in Pakistan.


Walking – healthy for the body and the mind, easy on the environment – it's a great way to move around a city. Or at least it should be. Walking Saskatoon was established two years ago to advocate for better pedestrian infrastructure and development.
Walking Saskatoon held its first public meeting on May 28, 2017, and highlighted three pressing issues. More information on all these topics is available on their website.
The City of Saskatoon's Active Transportation Plan Final Report highlights the benefits of walking and cycling. However, 25% of major and minor arterial streets have no sidewalks, which leaves some pretty big gaps, as demonstrated on the map on page 22 of the report.
There is no ongoing budget item assigned to sidewalk infill; however, in 2016 and 2017, City Council allocated funds from the Traffic Safety Reserve (money from traffic cameras) to improve walkability (pedestrian crossings, new sidewalks). Locations with no sidewalks on either side of the road; sidewalks connecting to schools, parks, and bus stops; and locations identified through a Neighbourhood Traffic Review are the priority. Only a fraction of the missing sidewalks can be replaced in a given year, and there is no guarantee of ongoing funding.
Walking Saskatoon is advocating for increased funding and greater transparency of the process and the choice of priorities in order to ensure that pedestrians can walk safely on sidewalks throughout the city. They are currently profiling missing sidewalks on their Facebook and Twitter feeds with the hashtag #sidewhere.
The bridge is scheduled for extensive maintenance work in the next few years, but current plans do not include any additions or improvements to the pedestrian crossing. Walking Saskatoon has been talking to City Councillors and planners, and several plans have been drawn up to improve the pedestrian crossing. One calls for wide walkways on both sides of the bridge, while the other would widen the existing walkway and provide a higher divider. Both proposals would come with a significantly lower price tag than the current long-term plan for a pedestrian bridge and would further the City's goal to support active transportation. The advocacy group plans to take its proposal to the June 12 meeting of the City of Saskatoon's Standing Committee on Transportation.
Have you ever stood at a crossing and wondered why there's a green light for vehicles but the signage for pedestrians says Don't Walk? The signalling mismatch is caused by beg buttons; pedestrians need to hit the button to get a walk signal and extend the amount of time available to cross the street. The problem is that nobody knows how the walk signals work and they only affect some crossings. You'll get a walk signal in downtown Saskatoon without pressing a button. If you want to cross Broadway Avenue, you'll have to press the button. On top of that, you have to press the button at just the right time, or it won't work.
Walking Saskatoon welcomes new members. You can follow their activities on their website, Facebook, or Twitter.
If you live in Regina, you can follow Sidewalks of Regina on Facebook or on Twitter.
You can follow EcoFriendly Sask by liking us on Facebook, following us on Twitter, or by subscribing to our postings by email from the top right hand corner of our website.


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Would you like to be rich – really rich? Would you like to be able to turn what seems like nothing into something of great value? Then come make a withdrawal from the Treasury of Unearned Gifts. Combining timeless wisdom with contemporary insight, Rebbe Nachman illuminates the way to happiness and contentment in life. Unlock the untold treasuries within yourself, and live like a millionaire for eternity! This book tells you how.


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Anything for a blue badge
Fran Macilvey acceptance, choosing, conditions and diseases, disability, learning, patience, politeness, travel, truth, welfare	cerebral palsy, Fran's School of Hard Knocks	3 Comments
Anything for a blue badge.
Now the Local Council had got in on the act, sending her a forty page form to renew her blue badge. She sighed. Such bureaucratic heavy handedness used to be reserved for the alphabet people, the DLA, PIP, WTC, HMRC, TLA agencies. But now, even the suits in the downtown offices seemed to approach parked cars with a cudgel. Since when had parking become so contentious?
Yes, she qualified for a DLA exemption, and here was a copy of her current letter of award.
Yes, she had a disability, although when asked to indicate its precise nature and extent within the boundaries of the small box provided, she was unable, sorry, to provide the entire requisite details.
Yes, she had always had a disability, still had it and always would have, God save her soul from its crushing drudgery. She would have loved to lose it, say, or leave it behind unclaimed at a lost property somewhere, but no. Perhaps it would be fairer to indicate how, in her own words, her disability had had her.
No, her disability was not progressive, but Yes, its effects did vary though again, she was unable to indicate the full nature and extent of its variableness even within the box outlined or on the extra space provided overleaf. How does one articulate loss, sorrow, heaviness, isolation, poverty, pain, humiliation and sheer boredom? She did her best, indicating that there were days she didn't feel like getting out of bed, but she had to, nonetheless; that there were times when she had to crawl, because walking was impossible. That the wind and rain often put paid to her plans for some fresh air. That the complexities of driving into town were only made possible because she knew a place to park nearby.
She filled in the form, doing her best to suppress mounting irritation. She posted it off and within a few weeks her new badge came, all shiny and laminated, and with a picture of her unhappy visage on the back. It was a valuable, vital piece of kit for travel into town, her badge of freedom. Such a pity that she had to reveal so many personal details in order to get it.
The Soundbox and the String
Fran Macilvey choices, choosing, communication, desert, gratitude, heat, hope, music, story, travel, water, writing	Flash Fiction & Short Stories	0 Comments
Ahmed hefted his satchel higher. His shoulder winced with the rigidity of a long-held pain. Wiping his left hand across his forehead, eyes shielded behind his palm, he could just see the particular dip in the dunes that meant he was walking the right way home: over to his right, the clouds, knowing that water was closer, kept nearer the ground, and he could navigate from here on a good day, using his sense of smell and the sounds that drifted to him like the notes from an ancient, sacred text. Drifts of music, bellows and bells, sang to him in the desert breezes and gave him as much direction as he needed.
He would have liked a drink, though. He had only enough left in his water bag for a couple of careful mouthfuls. He would keep that awhile and swallow its warmth with the remains of his food for his evening meal. As the heat of the day became intense, even his sandals were scorched. It would be time to rest soon.
Not much further to go.
Starting awake from his walking stupor, he noticed a small, dark snake sliding towards him, smelling water. Or perhaps just slipping from one hole to another…. He watched, and the snake was gone, leaving him feeling alone. Uneasy in the drifting sand, he moved more carefully. Out here, it would be too easy to fall asleep and bake oneself dry. Best to keep moving.
Time passed in a slipstream painted blue. Perhaps he had gone wrong, after all, when suddenly he heard shards of music. His feet took possession of his body and turned towards it easily. Up ahead, as if it had crawled there and stood itself upright, was a tent. A boy was concealed within shadows to the side, where a thin, ageing camel was tethered uneasily. His face carefully expressionless, Ahmed approached slowly, carefully noting the strange tilt of this bivouac, the ropes pegged at unusual angles. From the usual polite distance he dipped his head and signalled his approach while the other boy, hunched over a tall stick of some polished wood, watched warily, flapping his hand in a movement that suggested he should move on.
Ahmed tilted his head: all visitors had the right to ask for rest and a drink, for shade at the height of day, and the boy's posture made him curious. Why should he not hope to wait here through the heat of day? It was either a woman, or some other private business he had chanced upon: trade in rifles, an argument over a water hole or negotiations for marriage…whatever it was, he assumed he was being invited to move on. He flashed anger at the boy, who smiled sheepishly. Looking again, Ahmed saw the guardian's face blank, his eyes still and unseeing. But, held propped up in the sand, the polished wood staff vibrated, sending a sound like breathing music into the air beyond. Arrested by something he had never seen before, Ahmed now waited, politely standing back. The instrument, whatever it was, had been fashioned as a crude sound box strapped with leather strips to a staff, a bridge and strings fastened above with wire or something like plastic string. It had taken a long time to make, but out here, that would not be a problem.
Low notes and trills reached his ears as he stood still, rooted to his place, watching the boy's fingers dancing over the wires, then heard a slower, broader melody coaxed with a bow. Audience of one, Ahmed waited, listened and hoped he had not missed most of it.
There was a sensation round his ankles. He looked down to see a small cat winding itself around his legs, looking up at him with a peaceful, hopeful face. Uncorking his water bottle he dipped his fingers in and allowed the cat to lick them dry, its rough tongue rasping greedily.
"You like my music?" the boy called.
"Very – very much." He groped for words to describe musical breezes. "It is very beautiful."
"I will play some more, if you like."
Ahmed approached slowly, saw a grin and reached down to clasp the boy's big hands in greeting. Beneath the long tunic which only partly covered his neck and shoulders, Ahmed saw crossed legs and worn slippers. From the eyes there was no glimpse of recognition, just a smile that shone.
"My father is away searching for firewood. He will be back after dark. If you like, there is a little food in the tent. You are welcome to have some, and to fill your water bottle from the large gourd." He went on playing as Ahmed lifted the flap, crouched and went behind his host into the tent. A small cushion, old and frayed with use, lay towards the rear, with a scrap of blue carpet beneath. Poverty was not masked by the large gun, an old flintlock, which hung at the back of the tent, well-oiled.
Beneath the canvas, the light was diffused, as if by shining, the sun painted the cloth a deep pale yellow. There was a small pot resting up against the cushion, which presumably contained the boy's meal. Ahmed knew that he could not eat that, but he gratefully filled his gourd with water and took a few extra mouthfuls, letting a small trickle of water run down his neck. The urge to sleep was overpowering, but he shook it aside, crossly. I must not fall asleep now he thought, I have only a kilometre or two before I am home, and then Fatima will be waiting for me, with some warm milk and a piece of flatbread. I must press on.
"Where are we?" he asked the other boy lazily, as much to make conversation as to know the answer.
"Not far from the water, is my guess. About a day's travel at the most, I should say. Can you not smell it?"
"No, not that. I smell other things, of course. Camel dung, smoking fires, even tobacco, but not the sea." Ahmed chuckled.
"Well, it is not far. My father is there, and will be coming back today. He said he would…."
"I am sure he will. Peace be upon him."
Ahmed sat companionably, listening to the plaintive music rising up from the bow that the boy was sawing gently. Resting, he waited until the sun was dipping at the horizon and turning the sand a flaming red before continuing on his journey. Of the boy's father there was no sign; the playing continued until Ahmed was out of earshot and the sky was quite dark.
Esther – short story
Fran Macilvey asylum, choices, communication, daughter, escape, fatigue, fgm, politeness, refugee, travel, truth	Flash Fiction & Short Stories	2 Comments
"So, my dear, you want to stay, do you?" The unpleasant, oily tone said more than the words, and the sneer left no room for doubt. Esther Alambe was unwelcome.
"I have fled from my home because…" the woman's words came slowly, one at a time. Not only was she unused to speaking the English she had learnt at school, but having a conversation, understanding what the man was saying, considering a reply, all took time. And there was the question of why. Why had she run away, concealing only her identity papers in her cleavage and disappearing into the night wearing her thin, evening clothes and light sandals?
"I was soon to be married and, well, in my culture, it is often that a woman is -" Unsure how to reveal what was so very private, she whispered to the woman sitting next to her "Do I have to tell him, now?" The quiet nod was enough, and Esther's hopes sank, just when she needed her courage most. "In my village it is the custom to cut her before she is married!" She spoke more loudly than she intended, her cheeks flaring with embarrassment.
"All right, all right, no need to shout. Keep yer hair on. In your country…" there was a pause while the gentleman shuffled through a thin dossier that was at his right elbow. "In your country, it is illegal to cut a woman, according to your penal code. Is that not so?"
"I suppose it may be, but…"
"Well then, there was no reason to leave, was there?" The man shut the file and sat back, lacing his hands over his stomach.
"Yes, but you see, where I live, in my village, all the girls are cut before they marry. It is the custom and I cannot go against it. I am just a daughter. I saw what happened to my sisters. My two older sisters died soon after, from so much bleeding, there was so much blood on their clothes, on the bed. My uncle was negotiating for my marriage and the man who was to marry me was insisting that I should be cut, you see."
"You could just have refused, or run away to the city?"
It seemed obvious when he spoke like that, so that Esther was silenced. She could feel the woman beside her urging her to speak, because silence now might be taken for agreement, and that might signal capitulation. But Esther looked at the man before her and understood. He was pale, too broad around the stomach. His legs looked thin and his hair was thin too, from lack of exercise, from sitting at the desk all day, shuffling papers to one side and then the other. Bizarrely, she felt sorry for him and for his glib cruelty, his deliberate unkindness. He did not want to understand, and everything she managed to tell him would be twisted around the wrong way.
But why, she wondered, why the hostility? What had she done to deserve such stupidity? Was it because she was a woman, a black woman? A black woman from Africa who did not have any rights? I do not fit here, she was thinking.
"They would have found me and taken me home again. If I had run away to Accra they would have found me, reported me missing or – something like that. Afterwards they would always be looking for me. In our families everyone can find out. It is the way."
"Well, our way is a bit different, I think you will find."
Shifting uncomfortably in his seat, her questioner wanted Esther to leave. "Is there anything you would like to add to your statement before the end of our interview?"
"I miss my country and my family. I would not have fled at night unless I was very frightened. Cutting and bleeding and such pain would have brought only sorrow to me. But, in our culture, because I am a woman, whatever I could do would bring pain. It is the way."
He eyed her speculatively, wondering what to say next. "Well, you see my dear, your country's penal code makes it clear that cutting is illegal and anyone involved in it can expect to go to prison." He spoke the last words with deliberate slowness. "We accept that your government has a policy against. So officially, there is little we can do, see? If the law was different, it would be easier…"
"But women live in the villages, with their fathers, husbands…even going to school is difficult. Unless our fathers protect us, we will be given in marriage….like cattle, she was thinking. "My father died."
Esther sat back, exhausted with emotion and memories. "Have you seen a woman being cut?" she asked, unexpectedly impatient. "They tie a little girl to a table, or they hold her down, two up top and two below, so that she does not move. They take an old knife, and they cut away all her private parts. Just like that. No stopping for the screams, or mercy. She is stitched up with a needle and thread and wrapped and left to heal all alone. That is what they call "cutting". Make it polite so that no-one knows what happens." Esther's eyes sparkled defiance as she waited for him to close the file. But he looked up, straight into her eyes, and she saw new respect. So, he was a bully, he liked women to talk back, eh? Esther was glad she had spoken out. "I hope you wrote that down, what I said?" she asked more politely. The woman clutching a shorthand notebook beside her nodded sharply, her mouth set in a grim line.
"I'll defer a decision on your case. Meantime, see if you can rustle up some representation."
Esther nodded. She saved the small, grim smile until her back was turned. She had not been cut. She had escaped. Now, for now, there was a small window of light, a breath of air she might breathe. Someday, she might be safe. It was a hope she held close to her heart.
Fran Macilvey books, i-pads, learning, reading, students, travel	Flash Fiction & Short Stories	0 Comments
Forty-six years old, I sat on the bus, on the seat over from a Japanese student, and watched. How did I know she was a student? She had that eager, industrious look, clean, new clothes, the uplifted face earnestly checking. She had her dark backpack, neatly pulled and knotted tight, buckled down and held under her arm. And she looked about nineteen, though her smooth skin and elegant lines would stay with her for decades. Her dark, shiny hair was loose, streaming smoothly over her shoulders and down her back. I remembered portraits of maidens, their heads uncovered.
The student had a palm pad that she glanced at, that she poked, looking for ideas, directions. Finding something, she turned it off and threw it carelessly into a net pocket at the front of her rucksack. It had no cover, and I feared the screen might get scratched or smashed, but she had no such apprehensions. I could see it was covered in smudges and finger marks, a much-used appliance.
Then she gently opened the top of her satchel and from its depths retrieved a cloth bag, also corded tight at the neck, from within which she retrieved a parcel in fabric folds. Slowly, she unwrapped a book, moving the page divider to read the words of her new purchase carefully. She was just at the start of a tome, something like "Sophie's World" or "The English Patient", I supposed. I didn't catch the title, but from the reverent turning of the pages, I could tell that the girl loved her discoveries, inching her finger down each page as she read. She cherished her books, and treated this one with a thoughtfulness that would not have been amiss in a fifteenth century household.
I watched this sign of the generation gap, pleased that the girl loved books, puzzled that she should treat her electronic appliance so carelessly. I wondered what she could teach me, as she was learning to read English and navigate her way around a cold, foreign city.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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This month in history: Samuel Beckett wins the Nobel Prize for Literature
The famed Irish novelist, playwright, theater director, and poet Samuel Beckett won the Nobel Prize for Literature in October 1969.
Frances Mulraney
@FrancesMulraney
They were written during a troubled time in the playwright's life. Wikimedia Commons
Samuel Beckett was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in October 1969. Here we look back at the Irish man's life and his most famous quotes.
Born in Foxrock, Dublin, in 1906, Beckett spent most of his adult life in France, writing in both English and French. He became one of the main writers associated with "The Theatre of the Absurd," a selection of mainly European playwrights known for their particular plays of absurdist fiction.
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Works within "The Theatre of the Absurd" explore what happens when human existence has no meaning or purpose, showing the progression from logical communication, to the irrational and illogical, eventually leading to silence. Much of Beckett's work focused on man's failure to overcome absurdity in life, in particular.
Among his most famous works are Murphy (1938), Waiting for Godot (1953), Krapp's Last Tape (1958), and Happy Days (1961).
He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969, with the selection committee naming him "for his writing, which--in forms for the novel and drama--in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation."
In celebration of one of the most influential writers of the 20th century and one of the last modernists, we've compiled some of his best quotes, often coupling a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, with black comedy and gallows humor.
Best Samuel Beckett quotes:
1. "The end is in the beginning and yet you go on."
2. "There's man all over for you, blaming on his boots the fault of his feet."
(Waiting for Godot, 1953.)
3. "No, I regret nothing, all I regret is having been born, dying is such a long tiresome business I always found."
(From an abandoned work.)
4. "We are all born mad. Some remain so."
5. "I can't go on. I'll go on."
6. "All of old. Nothing else ever. Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
(Worstward Ho, 1983.)
7. "You're on Earth, there's no cure for that!"
(Endgame, 1957.)
8. "Birth was the death of him."
(A Piece of Monologue, "Three Occasional Pieces", 1982.)
9. "Any fool can turn a blind eye but who knows what the ostrich sees in the sand."
(Murphy, 1938.)
10. "Words are the clothes thoughts wear."
*Originally published in December 2015, updated in October 2020.
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'All things come to an end': A last meeting with Samuel Beckett
The Samuel Beckett, Irish republican link – a secret Irish rebel?
How one man brought Samuel Beckett to America
Have we missed your favorite Samuel Beckett quote? Let us know in the comments section, below.
Related: Books, Dublin


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Bohdanów (biał. Багданаў, ros. Богданов) – stacja kolejowa w miejscowości Bohdanów, w rejonie wołożyńskim, w obwodzie mińskim, na Białorusi.

Stacja istniała przed II wojną światową.

Przypisy

Bibliografia
 Фотолинии БЧ

Stacje i przystanki kolejowe w rejonie wołożyńskim

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


The exhibition presented a series of easel engravings of the palace and park landscapes in Gatchina, Peterhof and Stone Island - the favourite places of Emperor Paul I (1796-1801), who originally commissioned the series. The engravings were made between 1800 and 1813 by masters of the Imperial Academy of Arts. The series was based on the landscapes of Semyon Schedrin, who painted numerous views of Tsarskoe Selo, Peterhof, Pavlovsk and Gatchina. The artist initiated the foundation of the studio of landscape engraving at the Imperial Academy of Arts, and headed it from 1799 to 1804. The main task of the studio was to fulfill the commission of Emperor Paul I. Ignatius Sebastian Clauber, a famous Paris engraver, contributed much to the development of engraving in Russia while working on this unique series. An admirer of the English school of landscape painting, Clauber headed the engraving class from 1796 to 1817.


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Wait, Do I Need to Write a Query Letter?
By L.L. Barkat 17 Comments
"It sounds like you might be the kind of writer who needs to write her way into something instead of trying to plan it up front." I just said this to someone who's working on an article idea.
And I understand this dynamic, intimately.
If, before I'd actually written the pieces, I'd had to query The Curator for all the weave-it-this-way-and-that musings I crafted for them over the years, I'd have been sunk. How do you say, in a way that enamors an editor (plus, makes sense), "I will write about feeling the pressure of cabbage, as a way to discuss writer's block. It will be poetic and meandering. I'm thinking you'll like it."
Or, how do you encapsulate yet another vegetable angle, that, in the middle of things claims, "It could have been ten lima beans or it could have been twenty-seven or maybe a hundred and four. I never counted. That is the measure of comfortable love—those numbers we cannot remember…"
You might be hard pressed to find a way to cut to the chase, especially before the piece even exists. I feel your query letter pain.
Solution?
You may want to write the piece first. Then craft your query letter. This will take longer. You will have written a piece, which might feel "wasted" if the editor doesn't accept it or if they want you to change it more than you'd be happy with. But at least your words won't be crushed before they even have a chance to poke their way out the earth. And, if you have a blog, you can always publish the piece there if it's not a fit for the venue for which you crafted the piece.
Depending on the type of writing I'm attempting, I sometimes use this approach—write first, craft the query later.
Crafting a query honors an editor's time, so even if they don't require it from me, I try to provide one instead of sending along a finished piece for them to consider. (Exception: Once you become a Contributing Writer somewhere, you might get to act almost like your own editor, deciding if a piece will be a good fit for a venue—topic-wise, style-wise, and timing-wise. This is marvelous, though it's still a good idea to query your editor if you think a piece might be controversial or represent a risky departure from the venue's usual fare.)
If I'm going to write a more journalistic piece, I rarely write the whole thing before crafting a query. Instead, I play with ideas until they feel like they're bursting with energy and possibility. Then I craft a query and send it off first. This is good discipline. It compels me to think things through and encapsulate them. It can also save my time and mental bandwidth, since, if a query isn't accepted, I often choose not to write the piece and instead move on to other things.
But you want to see what worked, yes?
Here's an example of a query I sent, that resulted in this published article:
[Editor's Name], hi there.
Here's an idea that I thought might work for Edutopia for the upcoming end of the school year. It's especially applicable at the K-3 level.
"5 Great Reasons to Make It a Fairy Tale Summer"
The phenomenon of summer slide is well established. At its core, it relates to a number of factors that are not always simple to reverse or handle. Making it a "fairy tale summer" is a great way to deal with the issue—whether you're a classroom teacher, a librarian, or a parent.
For this article, I'd like to explore 5 ways choosing a fairy tale focus for summer reading helps handle summer slide, including:
-a strong and simple way to help students continue to develop their sense of narrative structure (this sense is so vital for story-reading in general, but also for contributing to the ability to persist when facing longer texts during independent reading)
-a way to connect the generations, through texts that are familiar in structure and partial content, which creates and easy "in" for parents and grandparents to read and discuss and extend the stories; the easier the "in," the more likely it is that shared reading will happen
-a way to preserve reader confidence (so important for developing independent reading), as familiar themes and language conventions create a dependable scaffold
-with the dependable scaffold in place, the fairy tale also presents a great opportunity for new learning to occur, by using fairy tales that add a slight narrative twist or use new and interesting vocabulary
-a way to keep students engaged (many, many students enjoy a sense of magic or enchantment), which helps ensure that more shared and independent reading will occur
Thanks, [Editor's Name]. I look forward to hearing if this is something that would work for your team. 🙂
As you can see, Edutopia likes to have a fairly specific query. They evaluate queries on a weekly basis and they're an extremely busy team, so they want to know exactly what's coming before they agree to let you write a piece. It's got to be a fit. And it's got to be something they really, really need.
Compare this to a query I sent to Jane Friedman, who I have a long and trusting relationship with and who has always been happy to share my work with the world via her venue. The query, which is less extensive and specific, still makes a promise, which I (mostly) kept and she published the result, here.
Happy Friday, Jane. I hope you are well this lovely spring day. 🙂
I was thinking it might be a nice followup to the introversion focus of my last piece at your place, to maybe do an article something like "The Introvert's Guide to Launching a Book."
As an example, I'd use The Golden Dress, which is publishing next week.
I'm thinking of maybe a "What I'm Doing/ What I'm Not Doing" format, the way I've seen some of the articles at your place do. As always, I'd include the useful and a little of the unexpected.
The timing would be basically open, though I think it would be good if a Shelf Awareness piece I'd like to link to is published first, which I'm guessing will be sometime not too long after May 15.
Let me know if this fits your needs (and, if not, of course I understand). 🙂
The Query Bottom Line
Do you have to write a query?
Many editors prefer it. Some require it. I recommend it—even if you're the kind of writer who has to write his or her way into a piece, instead of planning it up front; you can always craft the query after-the-fact. Either way, the editor will be none the wiser.
When you write a query, even for an editor who doesn't strictly require it, they'll most likely thank you for it. And? You might thank yourself. Besides strengthening your thinking process, it's a practice that can pave the way to a richer working relationship, notwithstanding an editor's taste for cabbage, lima beans, or golden dresses.
Photo by Shawn Campbell, Creative Commons, via Flickr. Post by L.L. Barkat, author of Rumors of Water: Thoughts on Creativity & Writing.
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L.L. Barkat
L.L. Barkat is the Managing Editor of Tweetspeak Poetry and the author of six books for grown-ups and four for children, including the popular 'Rumors of Water: Thoughts on Creativity & Writing.' She has also served as a writer for The Huffington Post blog and is a freelance writer for Edutopia. Her poetry has appeared on NPR and at VQR and The Best American Poetry.
Latest posts by L.L. Barkat (see all)
Where Poetry Lives—Interview with Beekeeper & Poet Sara Eddy - August 16, 2022
Tell the Bees: A Little Chat Highlight - August 9, 2022
Tell the Bees—Event This Friday, August 5 + Prompt! - July 11, 2022
Filed Under: Blog, Poets and Writers Toolkit, Writing Business Tips, Writing Life, Writing Tips
About L.L. Barkat
Donna Falcone says
Thanks. This is helpful, and I'm glad you shared some examples.
L.L. Barkat says
You're very welcome. 🙂 Query letters used to feel, to me, like something of a barricade. Now I view them as twofold: first, a sandbox; later, a gentle gate.
It really makes them feel less threatening to think of the varying needs of the actual human being reading them.
I love that. 🙂
For the human being reading them, a few things are generally at play…
• editors *want* to publish you; a strong query in the direction of the publication's needs and style is a joy to receive
• editors tend to have a heavy work load; reading a query instead of a full piece lightens that load—both up front and often once the editing stage is reached
• editors need to work within the parameters, for the most part, of the publication they represent—its style, its editorial needs, its seasons—so when they need to let an idea pass by, it's not personal. It's for the sake of both the publication and the writer (that latter thought took me a while to understand, but once I did, it felt like a relief instead of a disappointment)
Were there other things you were thinking of in addition to these kinds of realities? 🙂 (I always love to hear your thoughts.)
No, not really anything beyond that. I don't have enough experience to offer any more.
Those two images–of a sandbox and a gentle gate–are so much more inviting.
I think something that gets overlooked by unpublished writers is how collaborative writing for publication really is. When a good relationship is established between editor and writer, it makes for better work in which both publisher and author can take pride.
Sometimes the publishing effort can become so fraught that we forget why we started this effort in the first place. For me, anyway, it really is about play—even when the topic is a hard one. So, yes, sandbox. 🙂
The gate—it feels so much more gentle to have a query process versus having a writer put his everything into something only to find that it isn't going to work for the publication (which can still happen if the piece departs too much from the promise in the query). It's also gentler on the editor's time and eye. 🙂
It makes me so happy to hear you say that about collaborative writing. Yes! Tweetspeak and T.S. Poetry Press take particular joy in this—again, even though it's not always a simple process. (You have such a great story about this with The Joy of Poetry. I never tire of hearing it. 🙂 And, sometimes, oddly, collaboration becomes a mutual process of saying, "This particular piece would be better served—and serve the world better—by being offered at a different venue.")
Kimberly Knowle-Zeller says
Thank you! This is hopeful and inspiring – and full of practical nuggets of wisdom. Now I'll get back to writing!
Kimberly, I'd love to know what makes it hopeful and inspiring (so we can provide more of that kind of hope and inspiration in the future 🙂 )
Wishing you the best as you write.
I love that you're so welcoming in the whole process of writing – sharing your wisdom and reminding the writer that this whole venture is about sharing words and we're all in it together. I started writing queries with no idea what I was doing and have been so grateful for the editors who have encouraged me along the way and taught me. This post is inspiring in its reminder to do the work. Showing up to the page day after day. Thanks for your words and this space!
Sandra Heska King says
"But at least your words won't be crushed before they even have a chance to poke their way out the earth."
I like the idea of writing one's way into a piece before writing the query–says the one who likes to follow rabbit trails.
I also like the reminder that the editor is not the writer's enemy–something you alluded to in your comments to Donna and Megan. That the writer and editor are both really on the same team caring for each other while they both care for words in order serve them to those who need them most.
I think, at times, the writer & editor relationship is less than satisfying, and that's maybe where we get that sense in the first place that it's adversarial. I know I've been edited graciously and not-so-graciously. Both experiences exist.
But? The way you describe it… that's what we believe and try to practice at Tweetspeak. It's a team effort, an editorial conversation between writer and editor, ultimately part of the community experience that infuses all we do here. 🙂
I find this and especially your linked "pressure of cabbage" article interesting and encouraging, L.L. Thanks for sharing your experience and expertise. I'm thinking for poetry a query "note" may be adequate as most (of my) poems would be shorter than the letter explaining them! Is it okay to post on one's blog and later choose to also submit elsewhere? Or best to send "fresh" material?
Poetry queries are, yes, a little different. It's good to…
• show familiarity with the publication
• make a brief statement about why the attached poems seem to therefore fit with the publication
• make note of any other places your poems have been published (if they have)
Regarding reprints, this is publication specific. Some take only never-published-before. Some accept reprints. Some will consider blog posts to constitute "already published," so, in those cases, you'd want to hold back material you'd want to get published in those journals or magazines.
Thank you for responding to my questions, L.L. Your answers are helpful!
Callie Feyen says
Thank you for giving me a chance (for opening the gate to the sandbox) to write my way into things. I am having so much fun in this sandbox.
You're very welcome. We love having you here! 🙂
And, actually, I'm glad you bring this up. Sometimes a writer will end up writing for a place not because they query but because they spend time getting to know the editors and participating in the community. Your first piece here was that reprint (from your blog) we requested, about the treasure hunt you did with your girls in the library for Take Your Poet to Work Day.
Which is to say, sometimes a gate swings fairly naturally. I do recommend that to writers, too: find a few publications you love and spend time with them (and their editors and community, if that's possible). That's how I ended up becoming a Managing Editor at another large publication before Tweetspeak and it's how I ended up writing for The Curator. 🙂 (Of course, then there are the really strange paths, like when I spoke on a panel with someone at a small conference and they invited me to a networking group and someone in the group asked for queries on LifeStyle pieces for Huffington Post, and I queried and instead of accepting the query they offered me a Contributing Writer position on the HuffPo blog. Okay, but that has similarities to the other stories: meet people, network, share your ideas via queries or otherwise.)
Tangent officially over. 😉 Again, Callie, we're so glad you write your way into things here.


text:
Nitchevo may refer to:

 Nitchevo (1926 film), a French silent film
 Nitchevo (1936 film), a French sound remake


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text:
"He's one of my favorite musicians in Southern Illinois and such a perfect example of the kind of talent that can be found around here." -Sad Max, River to River Community Records
Acoustic instruments and vocal harmonies
Banjo Joe and Danielle are a bluegrass/folk duet from southern Illinois performing original songs and old time classics on banjo and upright bass. Banjo Joe's powerful tenor voice is strong and clear, sweetened by Danielle's harmonies. Banjo Joe is also the lead singer for Whistle Pigs and has been a singer/songwriter/banjo player for over 15 years. The talented Danielle makes her debut with this duo.
Banjo Joe and Danielle have been sweethearts since they met in 2011. They both come from musical families and are self taught. They first started creating together as vloggers on their YouTube channel, The Banjo Joe Show. Then, in the summer of 2021, they decided to combine their musical talents with Danielle now on upright bass. Danielle had always dreamed of playing with him and now that the duet is formed it is proving to be just the right thing, providing the basis for old time music-the natural tone of acoustic instruments accompanied by vocal harmonies.
Banjo Joe was given a banjo by his grandpa in the early 2000's along with the advice to "make it ring" and began writing songs about southern Illinois, being broke, drinking and his new friend, the banjo. In 2007 he helped form the band Whistle Pigs as the lead singer and his songs became their first two albums, Long Term Plan, 2009 and Bless Your Hearts and Livers, Mudstomp Records 2010. They toured extensively through 31 states for several years playing thousands of shows at venues large and small. In 2014 he made the difficult decision to step back from performing and writing and went on to successfully face the demons of alcohol abuse and depression. Four years later he made his comeback and released his first solo album, Im Just an Old Hobo (River to River Community Records, 2020)
Banjo Joe and Danielle are currently converting a school bus into a home on wheels, creating videos, writing and making music, and playing gigs as much as possible. They are part time nomads and have travelled over 100,000 miles together around the USA, mostly in their self converted solar powered camper van. Check it out on https://www.youtube.com/c/TheBanjoJoeShow.
Banjo Joe Interview w/ Activator Magazine!


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The Insane Amount Of Training Joseph Gordon-Levitt Did For Basically One Inception Stunt
Sarah El-Mahmoud
Published: Jun. 30. 2020 6:05 PM
It's no secret Christopher Nolan is morally opposed to green screens, CGI and 3D technology. He shoots solely on film and won't settle for anything less than a summer big-screen release for his next film, Tenet. And according to his frequent collaborator Anne Hathaway, who worked with him for The Dark Knight Rises and Interstellar, the filmmaker revealed an incredible amount of training Joseph Gordon-Levitt had to do for Inception ahead of her taking on Catwoman. The actress recalled the director telling her:
'When we did Inception, Joseph Gordon-Levitt trained for 12 weeks to do a four-day stunt sequence because he wanted to do every shot. I want you to do as much of the stunt work as you can. So, I need you to be strong enough to do that. I can't have you be one of those actors that does one take, two takes and then you're too tired. I want you to do everything.' So, like that was what he told me to get me to embrace the physical side of the character.
Whoa, back up.... three months of training for a single scene? We cannot be sure what sequence Anne Hathaway is referring to from Inception or whether she'd exaggerated the numbers in her head years later, but it's a known fact that Joseph Gordon-Levitt trained hard for that movie. His most rigorous scene was the gravity-defying hotel hallway scene, which saw the crew constructing a 100-foot rotating corridor and the actor having to nail the choreography and timing.
The hallway scene reportedly took three weeks to shoot even though the footage itself makes for less than a minute of the movie. The technical team behind Inception used a lot of insane practical approaches to the film, including taking inspiration from 2001: A Space Odyssey's scope when crafting that jaw-dropping scene as the crew of dreamers tumble in the van holding them. Take a look:
Anne Hathaway spoke about the mind-blowing behind-the-scenes details of Christopher Nolan movies while speaking with her Les Miserables co-star Hugh Jackman for Variety's Actors on Actors series, with Jackman having also worked with Nolan for The Prestige. Hathaway revealed the director does not allow phones on set or chairs, because of the belief that if people are sitting they are not working. She said his methods are effective because he always finishes a film "under schedule" and "under budget."
Hugh Jackman jumped in and explained how his experience with Christopher Nolan included him being asked to share a trailer with his co-star Christian Bale and a promise from the filmmaker that he'd scarcely use his trailer because he'd be put to work all day, but get to go home by 7 p.m. every night. As the Wolverine actor remembered, the director was true to his word. Based on these few stories about working with Nolan, it's no wonder his movies stand out and apart from other big-budget releases these days.
Christopher Nolan's next film, Tenet, is currently scheduled to hit theaters on August 12, coinciding with movie theater plans to reopen this summer. Stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for more updates on what films are coming next. You can start with our 2020 movie releases calendar.
The Cool Reason Joseph Gordon-Levitt Chose 7500 For His Return To Acting
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YA genre tribute. Horror May Queen. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor's Terminator 2 voice over.
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The Curious Case of The Curious Case of Sidd Finch
By Conor Mc Keon
The notion of a significant portion of a magazine's readership buying a very obviously fabricated story, on April Fools' Day, no less, is so antiquated that the idea itself is practically unbelievable.
But it was only a little more than a quarter century ago that our country's pre-eminent sports publication and sportswriter teamed up to craft what would go on to become the Museum Of Hoaxes second greatest April Fools' Day Hoaxes of all time, and serve as a cultural time capsule of America before the Internet.
By the time Sports Illustrated ran George Plimpton's the Curious Case of Sidd Finch, a 15-page bio of an unknown New York Mets pitching prospect, both magazine and writer had amassed enough literary clout to ward off universally immediate suspicions of, as Plimpton's therapist character in Good Will Hunting would say, "tomfoolery" or "ballyhoo."
And so Plimpton was given free reign to concoct as fantastical a character as the sports journalism — or any journalism for that matter — has ever seen. Which is precisely what he did, detailing the life of a 28-year-old orphan, which included stops at Harvard and a Tibetan monastery, a single hiking boot, a food bowl, a rug, and a French Horn. His fastball was clocked 168 miles per hour, 65 mph faster than the fastest ever recorded.
He produced fictional quotes from real people, including Mets pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre and young third basemen, and eventual Hall-of-Famer Lenny Dykstra, Finch's Harvard roommate. (Plimpton, founder of The Paris Review and member of the New York social elite, was close friends with then Mets owner Nelson Doubleday, who signed off on the no-quotes-barred idea.)
The story was 15 pages of pure, unadulterated deadpanned bullshit, and left to its own devices, would surely have not had reached its full impact of 'authenticity' without some help. Which is where the photos came in.
To put a face to Finch, SI turned to award winning photographer Layne Stewart, who turned to his friend Joe Berton, an Illinois junior high art teacher who resembled something like if Michael Cera was put through a medieval limb-stretching torture device. In an interview with The New York Times on the publication's 20th anniversary, Berton recalled the initial conversation:
"Joe, the Mets have this pitcher down in Florida I have to go shoot," Stewart said. "He plays the French horn, his only possessions are a rug and food bowl, and he pitches in one work boot. And he's got this 168-mile-an-hour fastball. Can you come with me?""Great!" Berton said."There's only one catch - you're going to be him.""Huh?"
Stewart and Berton went down to the Mets spring training facility, creating an entirely feasible visual narrative, including photos with Mets players and brass. It was these photos that gave him life. Stewart assumed the piece would include 5 photos. There were 13.
Despite the obviously fantasticalness of the account, as well as hidden clues — the first letters of the story's sub-header read : HAPPY APRIL FOOLS DAY — many fell for the hoax, including Life Magazine, the St. Petersburg Times, several Major league general managers, and then-New York senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
"It's interesting see who believed that story and who didn't, who fell for it and who didn't," Stewart told journalist John Strubel. "I had a real theory at the time, the people that really did believe it were the professional readers. The people who didn't believe it were the kids, because they read the whole thing. If you read the whole thing, you didn't believe it. If you just went through it and picked up the quotes, who the hell thinks Sports Illustrated is going to make up quotes from, of all people, Mel Stottlemyre? Who's gonna put words in his mouth?"
48 hours after the magazine hit newsstands, Sports Illustrated announced that the story was in fact a hoax. But that did little to stop Finch fever: A themed restaurant, Sidd Finch Day at the Mets stadium, t-shirts, souvenirs, everything you could monetize was monetized in the name of this fictional character.
Everyone in America was now in on the joke, and no one seemed to mind. Berton was asked to pitch, his fastball reached 68 mph, a full century below Finches. To this day, Berton is regularly approached by fans. "I was at one of the Cubs' playoff games in 2003," he explained to the Times, " I'm lining up for a beer, and this guy goes: 'You're Sidd Finch! I can't believe it!' "
It's remarkable to think of how our consumption of culture and news has evolved (or devolved) since The Curious Case Of Sidd Finch first ran 27 years ago today. We live in an age of almost complete un-gullibility, where April Fools Day hijinks are not only expected, but ranked. It's difficult to fathom an April Fools hoax occurring today that would actually befuddle the majority of the Internet, really.But so perhaps, then, the best April Fools Day Prank would be an entire day completely devoid of pranks, where everyone just agreed that we're all in on the joke. No inconspicuous links or surreal site redesigns, just complete and total reality. Only then, I suppose, will I have seen everything.
Conor McKeon is a Webby-Honored writer/editor living in Brooklyn. In addition to being a former CollegeHumor staff writer, he has contributed to The Onion, Yankee Pot Roast, Mental_Floss, and CNBC.com. He tweets here and blogs here.
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