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Bill Russo discusses his commedia dell'arte production
BROADCAST: Jul. 26, 1974 | DURATION: 00:34:11
Bill Russo talks about the commedia dell'arte production being staged at the Center for New Music at Columbia College Chicago. The production includes two pieces, "Pedrolino's Revenge" and "Isabella's Fortune".
Studs Terkel How does a raggy music fit with the commedia dell'arte technique of 16th century Italy? And this is one of the challenges of Bill Russo, one of the creative spirits of Chicago, Bill, you know, is the--he's the, you're the director of the School of Music Columbia College.
Bill Russo I'm the Chairperson of the School of the Music Department, I'm also the Director of the Center for New Music, which is the performing arm of the school.
Studs Terkel Yeah. And Bill is, I first knew Bill when he wrote music as a member of Stan Kenton's band, he's written music for Leonard Bernstein and for the Chicago Symphony as well, and the London Jazz Orchestra, and the work you're doing now, this work that's opening tomorrow night at the new center of music, the two, how--two comic operas, aren't there?
Bill Russo There are two comic operas, we got two--we went through a bunch of scenarios by Flaminio Scala, which were written in 1611, the first written-down scenarios which were kind of like the plots but a little more fulsome. And we chose two: Jonathan Abarbanel wrote the text for "Pedrolino's Revenge", and Bill Williams wrote the text for "Isabella's Fortune". We chose the two, they're both short works and there's a short intermission between them and they constitute a two-hour evening. And we wrote full works using rag, rock, jazz and classical.
Studs Terkel You know, Bill, I think can be good if we talked about the whole basis, about what is commedia dell'arte, and how it affected audiences in Italy in the 15th, 16th century and the changes that occurred and what it meant, you know.
Bill Russo I suppose that they were gypsies, they were roving musicians and performers, actors, but they were professionals. That's where the term "commedia dell'arte" originates, that means they were the professionals, they professed the art. They ad-libbed. They had standard scenarios, which they talked about before they went on, then they pasted them on the back of the flats so they could refresh their memories as they made their entrances and they were divided into categories. There were four types: The lovers, who were nice and always came together in the end; the masters, who were always cruel, lecherous, avaricious, incredibly demeaning in their behavior who almost always lost; and then there were the servants who manipulated the entire plot and the entire story, were always in control of the masters and usually helped the lovers find themselves; and the last category is the capitanos. Now, the capitanos were usually Spanish. They represented--as a matter of fact, when Italy was invaded and they were controlled by Spanish influences, the capitanos were the people who came, who were satires on the Spanish braggadocio soldiers, and of course, the capitanos go back to Plautus and Miles Gloriosus, the plots in a way are irrelevant. The characters are the same. It's like the Marx Brothers and Margaret Dumont.
Studs Terkel Margaret Dumont, the people will recall, was a very distinguished dowager who was a foil, particularly for Groucho.
Bill Russo Right. And the people were the same. Arlecchino, one of the principal servants, for example, was always Arlecchino, he always did the same things. He had different lines, different lazzi, different routines. Lazzi are numbers, a shtick, that each of them had, and they used them interchangeably. Sometimes they'd use the same lazzi in an absolutely different show.
Studs Terkel But always the big shot was always, a mickey was put on him, the big shot was always taken off on.
Bill Russo He was always crucified, and with reason. He was incredibly vain, stupid, in love with younger women, made attempts to control, was ungenerous to his own children, represented probably the worst aspects of the monied classes.
Studs Terkel Probably also was asserting his rights of droit de seigneur, too, probably.
Bill Russo As much as possible.
Studs Terkel So in a way this, the commedia dell'arte was almost a pro, a prelude
Bill Russo to Beaumarchais' "Marriage of Figaro" and Mozart's. Absolutely. Absolutely. Figaro comes clearly out of the servant types from--
Studs Terkel Yeah.
Bill Russo The marriage,
Studs Terkel from the commedia. Now, who were the--this is a technique that you use in the two comic operas in which you did the music and Al Williams and Jonathan Abarbanel the lyrics. Who? Just the history again, who were the audiences back in those days for?
Bill Russo The basic audiences were the poor people. These works were mostly done out of doors. But then ironically, the aristocracy became interested even though some of the commedia skits or the added materials were very derogatory toward particular members of the aristocracy, especially mistresses of kings and dukes.
Bill Russo So they got in a lot of trouble, they were kicked out of many towns. One famous company was I Gelosi, The Jealous Ones, and that was the company that we think Scala, from whom we drew much of this, headed. His company was filled with women who argued continuously and troubles of all sorts.
Studs Terkel By the way, these actors, the performers that took part, these were the vagabonds, the, you know, the tinkers, the traveling people--
Bill Russo Yeah, but very well-trained.
Studs Terkel Very well-trained, but in every way they were--they do everything, wouldn't they? Dancing, juggling, talking, singing--
Bill Russo Singing, yes. Improvising also.
Bill Russo It was everything. Improvising also. They made their own costumes, too, is the most obvious example of that is the Harlequin, or Arlecchino costume, which was made up of bits and pieces that the Arlecchino player was able to get from tailors around town. Harlequin, we don't know how the name came about, but Isabella was Isabella in the Gelosi company, and her part was played by other women whose name was not Isabella, she gave her name to the part, just like Flavio gave his name to the part.
Studs Terkel By the way, women did take part, it wasn't in the early Shakespearean days of boys in women's roles.
Bill Russo It was pre-Shakespearean, as a matter of fact, which I wasn't clear about, because the influence on Shakespeare was extraordinary, but the taboo against women performing was not in effect in Italy or France at this time.
Studs Terkel That's interesting, so on the continent, in Italy and France, you did have women performers, though you did not in Britain, in England.
Bill Russo Yeah, and there are potentially arcane explanations for that as well.
Studs Terkel So the audiences then, did they improvise, because we're leading up to your two comic operas, "Pedrolino's Revenge" and "Isabella's Fortune". They improvise also on local, contemporary situations, of course.
Bill Russo They always, when they went into a town, would like Bob Hope change the names of the locales to fit the neighborhood. If they were talking about how tough things were, they'd refer to Skokie. If they were doing a chow in Chicago, we haven't done that, but they did. They are the pre, the forerunners of all the popular arts of the 20th century. I mean, Chaplin obviously owes a lot to the pantomimic aspects. The Marx Brothers, the Three Stooges, who had the same numbers they did in all the movies.
Studs Terkel Laurel and Hardy.
Bill Russo Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello.
Bill Russo That pie in the face is connected with commedia dell'arte.
Studs Terkel So commedia dell'arte leads to Mack Sennett, in a way.
Bill Russo Of course, yeah, of course.
Studs Terkel So how did you--now, what did you do, you, Bill Russo? Then you're well-versed in the history of commedia dell'arte and the technique and all, and you got the idea then of what? Making it contemporary? Is that it?
Bill Russo But I didn't make it contemporary, I made the music contemporary, but I kept the story really old-fashioned. I had hidden a--I stayed away from that. Mort Sahl had a, I think, a detrimental influence on me in that respect. He and I were very close friends for a long time, and he said, "Don't do things in the past, because people won't understand the contemporary implications." But I finally decided I really want to go way back to 1611, the language sometimes, the language sometimes moves into 1974, and the music certainly is not Renaissance music in any way. But I really got excited about the idea of dealing with the colorfulness, the costumes, the vagabond quality. And we started on these works in January, December of 1973 and they were finished during the last two or three months.
Studs Terkel "Pedrolino's Revenge". This is--we heard a passage from it, the very beginning that opened the program. There was--now you had some ragtime music here, as it--and who was singing?
Bill Russo The singers were Bill [Lubry?], who's the old man, Magnifico, and his servant, Pedrolino, after whom the work was named, is Doug Hoekstra, and then there's some choral singing at the end. Now it should be pointed out that one cast has 10 people and the other cast has nine people, and the band plays 30-odd instruments, so there are 50, 60 tasks. But all these people double. So that Bill [Lubry?], who is the Magnifico in this work, is the horn player in "Isabella's Fortune", he plays horn absolutely beautifully.
Studs Terkel So you have combin-- So you have the performers themselves multi-talented?
Bill Russo As yeah, as well as doing staff work.
Studs Terkel Well, now, Jack Hafferkamp interviewed you in last weekend's "Daily News" and he asked you to explain the nature and, of course, quite complicated. What is "Pedrolino's Revenge"? Al Williams, he with you, he wrote the lyrics for "Isabella's Fortune" and Jonathan Abarbanel for "Isabella's"--[well, let's start with?] "Pedrolino's Revenge", even though it closes your show since we heard the music from it, you know.
Bill Russo Yeah, I--"Pedrolino's Revenge" is the story, is about father and son, the story is the whole Oedipal conflict, A, B, it's moment to moment, you see things happen now, and you see things happen there, you see one man in love with one woman, and you see two people fighting, you know what's going on at all times. The story as a whole is complicated and I think, in a way, almost irrelevant. What I'm trying to say is the real story is the battle of the sexes. The real story is the battle between young and old, and the real, real story is the war between the classes.
Studs Terkel So you have conflict then in triple dimension.
Bill Russo Yeah. There's a lot of conflict. I think almost everybody is made fun of. But as in Brecht, some people emerge a little better, and those people who emerge better are the servants.
Studs Terkel So, again, we come to "The Caucasian Chalk Circle".
Bill Russo Right.
Studs Terkel The servant girl and that. So I'm thinking also, did something happen before you and Al Williams is here, who wrote the lyrics for "Isabella's Fortune", before you read little passages from it, you know, just sight read little passages in the technique and style, I can't help but think of that film that many people may have seen who are listening, "Les Enfants du Paradis", "The Children of Paradise", that French film, that dealt with sort of the end of commedia dell'arte and the beginning of the spoken word theater, and how the classes changed to a visiting theater from a popular theater, the working people, the lower classes, and then the bourgeois stepped in.
Bill Russo Well, the paradise was the galleries, of course, that's the whole point, that's where the true understanding of what Barrault, whose name is--
Bill Russo
Studs Terkel Jean-Louis Barrault-- Who played the part of-- Deburau! He was known as Deburau the mime.
Bill Russo Yeah.
Studs Terkel And the other actor was Pierre Brasseur, who did the spoken-word guy, and they both competed for, I guess she represented all life, Arletty.
Bill Russo They competed for her. Oh, what a beautiful woman.
Studs Terkel So--
Bill Russo The funny thing about that is that that's the famous story about Deburau going to the doctor to find out what he should do to get to cure his melancholy and being told by the doctor that what he needed was a good night out on the town to see the clown Deburau. And he said, "I am Deburau."
Studs Terkel "I am Deburau." By the way, did a change take place in commedia dell'arte, too, as it did in the French theater that we saw, and did it alter from the popular theater, working people, the peasants, the farmers seeing it and then become middle-class?
Bill Russo Right. And the villain was ironically Goldoni, for whom I have a lot of respect. But Goldoni came in and smoothed out the work. He made it much more bourgeois. The servants were not as conniving, he took out the vulgarity, certainly all the sexual stuff he was opposed to, and he made the masters cruel but not as unrepentantly ugly as they were in the originals, although when he wrote the librettos for Galuppi and Piccioni, he exerted in music a very positive revolutionary force in the course of theater. He was essentially reactionary because he took away from this great form in its essence. He smoothed that out.
Studs Terkel Funny how it parallels, so theater once, the theater, as you say, these were the wandering people did everything, was once also street theater, in a way.
Bill Russo That's right. That's right. That's right. Must have been beautiful.
Studs Terkel So you do, you're saying that the plot is really irrelevant because it's the kick of the moment, isn't it? The--while we're watching acrobatics and everything.
Bill Russo It's the moments, the juggling, it's the dancing, it's the costumes, and I think at the end you certainly get an idea of what the story is, you know that somebody wants somebody and that things are resolved and that whatever resolution is potential is possible in life does occur. But story in the sense of a realistic, naturalistic play, no, but, of course, that's the advantage of commedia.
Bill Russo That's the advantage of music, I suppose, over strict theater. I think that's what's so great about Stravinsk-- Shakespeare, to whom Wagner referred once as that great improviser, because the improvisational quality.
Studs Terkel Which leads to a question, is I'm sure I'm premature, during these performances that you'll be doing, will it be, will things alter on occasion now and then due to circumstance and happenstance?
Bill Russo We're not going to, we really thought about that a long time because I've done improvisation in all my works going back 20 or 30 years. We decided that we would improvise our way into everything, but once we got there we would lock it.
Bill Russo And I don't know whether we made the right decision but it's exciting. For instance, we would improvise scenes time after time, and then when we found something that was perfect, we would just grab on to and say that that's ours.
Studs Terkel As an example, Al Williams is here, and Al, would you come a little close to the mike, [unintelligible] and Al wrote, even though--is this "Pedrolino's Revenge" we're going to read from?
Bill Russo This is an example from "Isabella's Fortune" we're going to show the precursor from its--in a play, in a scenario that comes out of that time.
Studs Terkel In sort of the style of--
Bill Russo Yeah, this is a dialogue of scorn and reconciliation between two lovers. Some of the stuff was written down. I don't know how it happened. There were scribes around who got some of the stuff down, and generally as I said, there are no intact texts. So here's what it sounds like in the original form. Al is going to be the capitano and I'm going to be the woman.
Al Williams "Go!
Bill Russo Disappear!
Al Williams From my eyes.
Bill Russo From my sight.
Al Williams Fury with the face of heaven.
Bill Russo Demon with the mask of love.
Al Williams I curse.
Bill Russo I shudder.
Al Williams The day that I set eyes on you.
Bill Russo At the thought that I ever adored you.
Al Williams How can you dare?
Bill Russo Have you the insolence?
Al Williams To look at me again.
Bill Russo To remain in my presence.
Al Williams Don't you remember?
Bill Russo Don't you ever think of?
Al Williams Your shortcomings?
Bill Russo Your villainy?
Al Williams Can you believe?
Bill Russo Can you think?
Al Williams That I remain here just to look at you?
Bill Russo That I am still here just to gaze fondly on you?
Al Williams I cannot deny that you are beautiful.
Bill Russo I must confess that you are pleasing.
Al Williams But of what worth is beauty?
Bill Russo But one can enjoy charm.
Al Williams If it is defaced by falsehood.
Bill Russo If it is accompanied by deceit.
Al Williams I could never have imagined.
Bill Russo I could never have been persuaded.
Al Williams That a heaven could become a hell.
Bill Russo That Cupid could become Lucifer." Anyway, back and forth they argue. Their Beatrice, Beatrice and Benedict quality found in many Shakespearean plays is here, and in addition there's this this business of one person finishing the other's sentence so, we did a similar thing in "Isabella's Fortune". This is between the capitano, the braggadocio bully and Isabella, that woman who's come to find him. He has let her down, as he always lets women down when he achieves success with them, which is not very often, and she starts off by saying, you must notice in this that he manipulates her fantastically. "Where did you?
Al Williams Where were you?
Bill Russo Run to.
Al Williams Hiding.
Bill Russo Where did you?
Al Williams Where did you?
Bill Russo Hide.
Al Williams Seek.
Bill Russo What of your?
Al Williams What of your?
Bill Russo Promises.
Al Williams Trust.
Bill Russo I trusted.
Al Williams I promise.
Bill Russo You promised.
Al Williams I promised nothing.
Bill Russo Nothing.
Al Williams Nothing is left.
Bill Russo For us now.
Al Williams But to part.
Bill Russo Oh, the ache.
Al Williams Oh, my heart.
Bill Russo Oh, my heart.
Al Williams I forgive you.
Bill Russo Capitano.
Al Williams Isabella.
Bill Russo Oh, my fortune.
Al Williams Bitter fortune.
Bill Russo Where did I?
Al Williams Go wrong?"
Bill Russo And we see how he is.
Studs Terkel Also in hearing, of course, the question of tempo, timing is, timing is very important, isn't it? Rhythm? It's almost as though it were jazz or music of some sort.
Bill Russo I never understood timing until I did this work. I had backed off from becoming a director until I did this work and I really took on a big job and it's been very exciting. The timing is unbelievable. These stories about the Yiddish theater, about these old men staying up until five o'clock in the morning just to rehearse a handshake, are true, are absolutely true, it has to be on the end of one, not on the downbeat of two, or the audience doesn't laugh, and the audience is unbelievably sensitive to what's right and what's wrong.
Studs Terkel I'm thinking about you as a music man, as a composer and, you know, a musician, the idea that here's the, here's timing with words, but close to--the idea it's music, too.
Bill Russo That's right.
Al Williams Yeah.
Bill Russo That's right. That's right. Well, the advantage of writing a play in music is that you have a greater degree of control over what the actor does than any playwright/director could ever have because you put it right there, it's specifically designated.
Studs Terkel I'm thinking, Al, since you did "Isabella's Fortune", the titles, "Isabella's Fortune", "Pedrolino's Revenge"--it's something quite specific and to the point. Fortune. Revenge. There's no bland word involved here at all.
Al Williams The original title of this scenario that the dentist is based on, that "Pedrolino's Revenge" is based on, is the dentist, and we thought it was too bland. We wanted something that struck out at you and the works are all about fortune and revenge.
Studs Terkel What'd you do, just Al, since you did the lyrics, the libretto, I should say, you and Jonathan Abarbanel, did you do a lot of research in commedia dell'arte?
Al Williams Yeah. We--it was Bill's initial idea. Bill Russo's initial idea to do the whole thing, and he suggested places, and Jonathan and I, you know, did our own research and we found a lot of things, and some of the scripts in my show and also in Jonathan's work, are completely taken from the historical sources and then a punch line added, like the whole, this Capitano goes into this whole line about "Patroness of my heart, Princess of my breast, Countess of my virility," all these things which are straight out of it, and then he says, "You may marry me."
Bill Russo And take your name and address.
Al Williams Take your name and address.
Studs Terkel Now was there a change--I'm curious, just for the two comic operas. I suppose we--for want of a better phrase, comic opera would be it.
Bill Russo We call them commedia song plays, but they certainly are comic operas as well.
Studs Terkel I think it was called "opera buffo," I was--
Bill Russo Right, "opera buffo" was the whole thing that was then reformed and became "opera seria," under the mistaken notion that it's more intellectual to be serious and tragic than it is to be comic, but I have found that it's much more intellectual to be comic.
Studs Terkel Is there a difference, is there a pace difference between the two, between "Isabella's Fortune" and "Pedrolino's Revenge", will we be seeing two the same evening?
Bill Russo There's a lot of difference. I think "Isabella's Fortune" has a constant motion. It's more grandiose. It's, perhaps, more classical. The first movement, for example, which we're going to play later, the first section is a sonata allegro form, in fact, an idea that I got from the famous number 13 in Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro". "Pedrolino's Revenge", on the other hand, has many more tableaux, the defined story plot of "Pedrolino's Revenge" is more a characteristic of it. "Isabella's Fortune" is more absurdist, more, I suppose, without being sexist, feminine. "Pedrolino's Revenge" is more direct, if those terms have any meaning any more.
Studs Terkel Musically, since, at the very beginning, we heard kind of a raggy, ragtime music. You have a lot of options, don't you? In working this you can have
Bill Russo several formats. You really, really can. You know, I'd get--Picasso gave me a great deal of strength. I used to worry about, people said, "Well, now you're writing rock. You used to write jazz, you've written symphonies," and I realize that other people have done the same thing, and why shouldn't one move back and forth according to where it feels best at that time? I never thought I'd do anything in rag, I thought the rag stuff was appalling and all voguish and faddish, and suddenly I wrote this piece and we started to play it and we realized it was a rag piece.
Studs Terkel Yeah. You know it occurred to me as I am talking now, the performances will begin of the comic operas tomorrow night. So this is Monday, Tuesday night at the--we've got to get these vital statistics. It's going to begin tomorrow night at the Center for New Music, it's 3257 North Sheffield.
Bill Russo Right. And then we run Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and we do eight o'clock shows and then an extra show on Saturday at ten-thirty.
Studs Terkel It leads to a question: Talent. We come to the matter of, you know, way back. You go back to 16th century Italy, Elizabethan days and the talents, the wandering actors, the whole performers who did everything, juggling, dancing, singing, talking, in Chicago you found performers.
Bill Russo I really did. For the first time I did all city auditions, and I got people, youngish, 18 to 30. I got some marvelous people. I think these are people on the edge of a brilliant career as much like the people who began in "New Faces" or the people in "Hair" or "Godspell". There are 19 people, and some of the comments are that each person is better than the next. It's hard to get favorites. It's hard to find somebody who is especially fantastic. I'm really very proud of this group of people and I really hope that we manage to get to New York. We're having trouble raising money now because money is so tight, but I really want to get to New York because I think New York deserves to see this show and I think Chicago has the capability and these people have worked harder. I mean, these people have worked unbelievably hard, because not only do they have to sing, they have to dance and they have to do the band stuff and they're in two different works. I'm very proud, I'm really proud of them and I feel they're extraordinarily brilliant.
Studs Terkel I do think they're, you know, with all the groups and I've been very remiss, by the way, in not having enough local artists on the program in the theatrical form. We know, for example, the Free Street Theater, too, has young performers in a variety of--by the way, do you play with the audience in the comic opera?
Bill Russo We do a little bit. We do more so when we're outside. We did a performance in Grant Park and then the day after tomorrow, Wednesday, we're performing at the Illinois Civic Center.
Al Williams No, One Illinois Center.
Bill Russo One Illinois Center, that new plaza on Wacker Drive.
Studs Terkel Is this also, is it possible you'd do outdoors as well?
Bill Russo Yeah, we're thinking about touring. I talked to Bruce Sagan about that, as a matter of fact. I really would like to do it that way. It would take some redoing, it would allow some more connection between the audience and the performers, especially with the kids. Kids are enchanted by it, by the way, because they're not so worried about whether they can hear every word. You're not supposed to hear every word. Why do you need to hear every word? Strasberg says that if you have--that you shouldn't be able to hear the words and still be able to understand the play. I agree.
Studs Terkel It's very funny you're saying that, I'm thinking, the thought occurs to me, free association, in Robert Altman films, Robert Altman, you don't hear, I must have been, I'm a little disturbed now and then, but knowing the idea comes through. It's almost as though it were happening, as though you were eavesdropping.
Bill Russo Right. Right.
Studs Terkel Or peeking through a transom.
Bill Russo Right. Well, we're all a little too literal, I th-- For me, I suppose this work represents a way of getting away from that whole middle-class upward mobility past and assuming the part of the befooled rather than the knave, saying yes, I am the jester, we're all in this together, we're all fools in the sense that Lear's fool was a fool. We had to speak the truth, we don't have the money, we don't have the security, we're confined to singing for our supper for our whole lives and that's it.
Studs Terkel Is it true--by the way, before we take a slight pause, slight break, the fact is the fools, the jesters, were the truth-sayers, weren't they? And they tell the court off. So in a sense this was commedia dell'arte telling off the big shots. And this is what the sense you're doing here in some tangential way.
Bill Russo We certainly are.
Studs Terkel Do you think audience will see connections? Are this just--this is just fun, humor that we see that might experience.
Bill Russo I think it's fantastically entertaining and people need to be entertained, the world is so crazy. But also, what I suppose I've come to learn is that entertainment is so serious that you can deal with some serious things that you can't face head-on. There's some horrible things going on. If you get a chance to laugh about them, at least maybe then refreshed you can go back and do something about them. It's not merely escapist, although a little escape is not so bad.
Studs Terkel We're talking to Bill Russo, and with him is Bill Williams and Al Williams, called him Bill Williams, who wrote the libretto for one of the comic operas, "Pedrolino's Revenge", and Jonathan Abarbanel wrote the libretto for "Isabella's Fortune", and Bill music and the direction impresario and all-around. We'll take a slight pause and again remind the audience where it'll be, too, opening tomorrow night after this message from our sponsors. Resuming the conversation and we'll hear some of the music, too, in a moment, with Bill Russo and with Bill Williams here, too. The two comic operas based on commediate dell'arte. It's also good, I suppose, in knowing something of what happened in the past. This is also part of it. I mean, the techniques that were used in the past, the forms that were used in the past. It's funny. On BBC not too long ago, at the Masterpiece Theater, they had a music hall, an hour and a half.
Bill Russo Wasn't it fascinating? I followed that whole thing. It was very appropriate to me, because they were dealing with that forming a union among the entertainers.
Studs Terkel Yeah, and they were talking about the terrible conditions. At the same time, they were connected with that audience, which, by the way, was a working-class audience primarily. And so, here we have, as though there's a new interest now in what happened way back, and the old forms become suddenly very contemporary, don't they? So, before--we should remind the audience that the group--what do you call the group? It's the--
Bill Russo We're going to call it the Performing Ensemble of the Center for New Music. It is cumbersome, but I can't think of anything better and you have to have a name these days.
Studs Terkel So tomorrow night it opens.
Bill Russo Tomorrow night we open, and it's a big night for us. One thing you mentioned, you mentioned Altman, by the way. Altman doesn't tell his audiences what to think. The trouble about most movies is that they tell--they show the audience what they're going to see and they give them the response, and the nice thing about living theater, live theater, is the audience gets a chance to make up its own mind, has a wider panoply of--I mean, actually visually, and it's dealing with real people on the one hand, and on the other hand, it's not necessarily realistic. You're not stuck with that deadly realistic literal-minded thing that seems to overcome Americans.
Studs Terkel Also, you know, to accept the word literally today will drive you mad, wouldn't it? The literal world being as cockeyed as far as values is concerned as it is. You have to have, because the fantasy it's a fantasy anyway. So you have to have some kind of a extra dimension to keep from going nuts, don't you?
Bill Russo "Isabella's Fortune" is, I guess, if somebody were to ask the story of that, I suppose we'd describe it as the pain of compromise. Isabella goes through her entire life trying to find the right man. She finds Capitano, he is obviously no good, and she doesn't know what to do and she has all sorts of dreams about what he should be like, and finally she finds the right man, but he's only a servant and she is a gentlewoman. And so she has to shed the fantasies like we all do when we grow up whether it occurs at the age of 20 or 40 or 60. So the pain of making that compromise, that good adjustment in the best sense, the most acceptable sense of the word, is I suppose what "Isabella's Fortune" is about, in addition to the fight between rich and poor and the way that the poor have to fight back in any manner available to them.
Studs Terkel Well, could we hear a passage? You have a passage here from "Isabella's Fortune", suppose you describe it, the form and content.
Bill Russo Well, this is the after an overture which consists only of the names of the characters, so the audience gets a much more secure feeling. This is the first number of "Isabella's Fortune" and it sets the whole scene. The lights come up on Argentina, who's a servant. She's scrubbing the tiles outside the inn in a very lazy and sensual manner. She's a healthy good-looking young woman, a serving maid in the inn that she and her husband keep. She's a budding earth mother. She exudes sex, but it's always playful and a little theatrical. This is her weapon; with it she keeps her husband and most other men right where she wants them. And Pantalone, the old man, much like Corvino and Volpone or Brabantio in "Otello" or Shylock or even better, Polonius, enters. He's old, very rich, very foolish old satyr, he's pompous, prone to malapropisms, and he pants all the time, which is part of his characteristic, easily flustered, and he goes and ogles Argentina and then he creeps up behind her and begins to fondle her. She teases him and leads him on. And then the son comes in and tells the father how frustrated he is. First of all, Pantalone's behavior shocks and bewilders the son Flavio. He is a very correct and frustrated naïve young man, and Flavio the son says, "I want to find a wife. I want to be married, too, and what are you doing fooling around with women at your age, especially a married woman? And that sets the scene for the whole first part of "Isabella's Fortune", which is a sonata allegro for those of you who are interested in those things.
Studs Terkel Can we hear it?
Bill Russo Please. [content removed, see catalog listing].
Studs Terkel And so we have a combination here: the timing, the music, good musicians, obviously, and also, I guess, it's clear that you worked on enunciation, tell by the clarity, the clarity. By the way, clarity is part of the commedia dell'arte technique, too, isn't it?
Bill Russo Sure, it's sharing with the audience, it's not being private, avoiding that sort of narcissism. We had great speech teacher, David Avocalli from Goodman who's--bases his technique on the Leszek method, which we've had success with now for six or seven years. Incidentally, all our fights and chases and jewels were staged by Joseph Martinez, who did a brilliant job with Stewart Gordon in "Bloody Bess", one of these martial arts guys that are really wonderful to have around, now he's working with Gordon on "Rashomon", a brilliant young man.
Studs Terkel By the way, we're also, we're listening to this, this is radio, of course, but there are the visual aspects of this, too.
Bill Russo Well, the visual stuff is just--it's really gorgeous, it's glorious. You know, when you're hot, you're hot, Studs. And I feel very good.
Studs Terkel You feel pretty creative at this moment.
Bill Russo Yeah, I feel great.
Studs Terkel So Al, how did--I'm curious, Al, you and Jonathan and Bill, how you got together, how'd this come about?
Al Williams Well, I had studied with Bill. I'm a composer, primarily. The lyrics is just sort of a sidelight, and I'd studied with Bill, and Jonathan, Jonathan's been the most supportive critic of our work. So we finally hired him, so now we don't have him any more to write about us.
Bill Russo He used to say to us, "Why don't you do something funny?" and so we said, "Okay, write us a libretto."
Studs Terkel So we have different musical forms here, but you yourself are the working in different form. I think there's something you said before you have to take off and we take off, we'll continue the program with maybe music related to this. The fact that there was nothing hidden to playing to the audience directly. You--I'm thinking about your jazz experience, there was that period when the jazzmen, you know, post-World War II, you know, some of the guys were hiding. Woody Herman had the trouble with the guys in the band. You know? They were kind of back to the audience type for a period of time.
Bill Russo Miles Davis. For a period. Although in a way with affection.
Bill Russo Yeah, but there was a movement. The cool movement was connected with, I suppose, with drugs. I mean, there was a tendency to keep the music from the people, and I think it hurt jazz terribly, I think it had a lot to do with jazz being pushed aside for so long.
Studs Terkel This is a parenthetical comment since you've been so deeply involved with jazz as well as classical music. I was about to say serious music, jazz is serious, too. Of course, you worked with Ellington. Ellington never got a, he never got a Guggenheim, ironically enough.
Bill Russo He never, and didn't get the Pulitzer, either, that horrible thing that happened when the three of the members of the committee resigned.
Studs Terkel Yeah. You feel that jazz, this is a side comment, because this is improvisation based on improvisation.
Studs Terkel The comic operas, commedia dell'arte, of course, jazz. It's almost as if this were jazz of another time. In a way.
Bill Russo You know, you're really on something. It's like what Duke did with his players. Duke wrote for his players a lot more than people think. But he wrote for the player whose personality, temperament, tone quality he really knew. So I was able to work with people that I had, that I--write for people that I had worked with since last September, October. So I knew their tone colors.
Studs Terkel So you knew their tone colors and it's right. Duke did say if something was for Johnny Hodges, it wasn't right, he'd give it to Harry Carney. Isn't that so?
Studs Terkel And so you worked with the performers, the artists.
Bill Russo The same way.
Studs Terkel Well, this should be a very, you know, very entertaining in the best sense experience for Chicagoans. And you say kids get a kick out of this, too.
Bill Russo It's PG. It's PG. I mean PG, there's no violence but there are a few sexual remarks which I think are perfectly acceptable. I don't have any trouble with my kids seeing and there's no nudity. But kids love it. Yeah.
Studs Terkel Because of the humor that's involved.
Bill Russo The humor.
Studs Terkel Visual humor, slapstick and everything. And so it's at the New Center for Music opening tomorrow night. That's tomorrow night, July 30th at 3257 North Sheffield. I assume eight-thirty?
Bill Russo Eight o'clock curtain.
Studs Terkel Eight o'clock curtain.
Bill Russo A little earlier.
Studs Terkel And from then on, into the rest of the week, and then on the remaining, which will be Wednesday through Sundays.
Bill Russo Right. At eight and an extra show on Saturday at ten-thirty, later.
Studs Terkel That's fantastic. And I say fantastic, that's a good word to use, fantastic.
Bill Russo Fantasy, right.
Studs Terkel Fantasy is reality, so commedia dell'arte from 16th century Italy to 20th century Chicago. Bill Russo my guest, and not the first time, nor I trust will be the last, and Al Williams, the librettist of "Isabella's Fortune", "Pedrolino's Revenge", and what's a good commedia dell'arte signoff for us right now? How do you say? Something pantomimically, so the audience won't see it. We say, well, I think "Take it easy, but take it" would be kind of good.
Bill Russo It's so true, I can't tell you, the work is so revolutionary. Take it easy, but take it.
Studs Terkel But take it. Thank you very much.
1 sound tape reel (ca. 42 min.) : 10 1/2 in.
Music - Classical Music & Opera Theater Music Music - Jazz
Music personnel
WFMT (Radio station : Chicago, Ill.) Russo, William Operas Audiotapes Composers Radio programs Commedia dell'arte Comic operas Williams, Al Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 Isabella's Fortune- William Russo Pedrolino's Revenge-William Russo Scala, Flaminio, active 1620 Improvisation Aristocracy Jazz Ellington, Duke, 1899-1974 Opera performers Costumes Berlioz, Hector, 1803-1869. Béatrice et Bénédict Class system Social class Abarbanel, Jonathan Center for New Music
Jonathan Miller discusses Shakespeare
Interviewing guitarist Sila Godoy
Interview with Win Stracke, Henry Glass and Ann Karen
Interviewing jazz and classical clarinetist Richard Stoltzman
Joan Littlewood in conversation with Studs Terkel
Marilyn Horne and Henry Lewis discuss their careers and opera music, part 1


text:
Halachos of the Daf
Halachos regarding Bikkurim
Halachos on the Daf - Bava Basra 80
Halachos of the Daf - Bava Basra 78
Included in a Sale
Agadata
Halachos on the Daf - 71
Assets Discovered Posthumously
What Furnishings are Included in the Sale of Prope...
Comparing Slaves and Land
Giving Generously
Judges Decision
Rav did not Reveal the "Sod"
A Roof
The Gemora attempts to prove that a standard house sale does not include airspace from the statement in the Mishna that a roof with a fence ten tefachim high is not included.
The Rashbam (as explained by Tosfos 64a v'hee) says that the Gemora understood the exclusion of such a roof to be in a case where no inclusion of airspace was made. The Gemora concludes that airspace is not included in a standard sale, because it is illogical for one to own the house under the roof, as well as the airspace above the roof, but not the roof. The Gemora's answer is that since the roof is substantial enough to have a fence of ten tefachim, this is the way the sale works.
The R"i challenges this explanation, since the Gemora's answer does not address the assumption of the question. The R"i instead explains that the Gemora was stating that if it is so easy to acquire extensions of the house (such as depth and airspace), that the acquisition takes effect even if not explicitly included, then a roof should be included, even if it has a ten tefachim fence. The Gemora's answer is that such a roof is so substantial, that it is still not included in a sale, even one that is expansive enough to implicitly include airspace and depth.
A Roof's Dimensions
The Rambam (Mechira 25:2) says that a roof with a ten tefachim fence, and a width of four amos is excluded from a house sale. The Kesef Mishnah quotes the Magid Mishnah who asks what's the Rambam's source for the minimum width of four amos. The Kesef Mishnah points out that the Rambam does not specify any such minimum dimensions for an inner room, which is also excluded from a house sale. The Kesef Mishnah explains that an inner room is excluded, since it serves a different purpose than the house – whereas the house is for living, the room is for storage. Therefore, no matter how small the room is, it is excluded. However, a roof is excluded since it is substantial, and therefore considered a different domain than the house. To be a different domain, it must be a minimum width of four amos.
A Generous Gift
The Gemora explains the dispute of Rabbi Akiva and the Sages to be whether a seller is generous or stingy in his sale. The Rashba (Responsa 3:116) rules that all agree in the case of a gift that the giver is generous. Therefore, if one gave his friend a pit or house on his property, that gift included access rights to the given property as well.
Another Path
The Rama (HM 214:2) rules that although we rule that one who bought a pit or house on someone else's property is assumed to have acquired the access rights to it, if he already owns a path to it, we do not give him a new access route.
Types of Pits
The Mishna lists two types of pits that are excluded from a home sale – an earthen pit, and a paved pit. The Rashbam explains that both types of pits have to be explicitly listed. If only an earthen pit was listed, we may have thought that a paved pit, which is similar to the house, which is not land, but built on land, would be included. If only a paved pit was listed, we may have thought that such a pit is significant, and is therefore not ancillary to the house. However, an earthen pit would be considered ancillary to the house, and included in its sale.
No Path?
The Sages say that if one sells a house, he retains his pit, and a pathway, while if he sells his pit, the buyer must buy access rights. Rabbi Akiva says that if one sells a house, he retains his pit, but not access rights, while if he sells his pit, the buyer gets access rights. The Reshash says that even when one does not get access rights, this simply means that he does not own a path four amos wide to his pit. However, he does have a narrow path to his pit.
The Yad Ramah asks what the buyer of a pit bought according to the Sages, if he does not have access rights. The Yad Ramah says that all the buyer bought was the right to be a bar matzra – a neighbor, with first rights to purchase adjoining land.
The Reshash is inconsistent with this Yad Ramah, since according to the Reshash, the buyer does have access to his pit, albeit in a less comfortable manner.
Labels: Gemora Bava Basra 64

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Are Kotlin data types built off primitive or non-primitive Java data types? I am new to Kotlin and was playing around with the data types. I took an Int type and then tried to cast it as a Double by saying num as Double, a call that is valid in java (non syntactically but you get the point). However, this failed, saying that Int cannot be cast to Double. I am assuming this is because it is built off the Integer class rather than the raw int data type. Am I correct, and what is the most efficient way to cast values? There is a .toDouble() function, but this seems inefficient and unwieldy.

A:
I took an Int type and then tried to cast it as a Double by saying num as Double <...> However, this failed, saying that Int cannot be cast to Double. I am assuming this is because it is built off the Integer class rather than the raw int data type.

No, and there are two important points to note:

*

*Kotlin positions its numeric types (Int, Long, Double etc.) as not being nested into each other, there is no subtyping relationship between these types. That's why the cast intNum as Double does not succeed in Kotlin. That's also why there's no implicit conversions between these types. Instead, the numeric conversion is done with the corresponding functions (e.g. .toDouble())

*The numeric type usages in Kotlin are compiled into JVM primitives where possible. Some usages require boxed types (e.g. a nullable Int? requires boxing, and so does a generic type implementation with an Int as a type argument), but the compiler decides whether they are necessary for each case.

<...> What is the most efficient way to cast values? There is a .toDouble() function, but this seems inefficient and unwieldy.

The most efficient way is to use the numeric conversion functions like .toDouble(). In fact, these functions are intrinsified, and there is no function call overhead when you use them. They are compiled closely to what javac would produce for a Java numeric cast or an implicit conversion. You can inspect the bytecode that the Kotlin compiler produces to find out what it's under the hood and whether a specific conversion introduces any overhead.
See also: an answer to a similar question, (link)

A: This is because Kotlin does not work like Java in widening numbers.
There are no implicit widening conversions for numbers in Kotlin. for example, you can write something in Java as below:
int a = 1;
double b = a;

However, you can't write something in Kotlin. for example:
val a:Int = 1
//             v--- can't be widening
val b:Double = a

This is because everything in Kotlin is object, there is no primitive types, so you should convert an Int to a Double explicitly, for example:
val a:Int = 1
//               v--- convert it explicitly by `toDouble()` method
val b:Double = a.toDouble()

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Mantashe leads media to his E Cape premises for inspection - SABC News - Breaking news, special reports, world, business, sport coverage of all South African current events. Africa's news leader.
ANC Chairperson, Gwede Mantashe, says he's determined to clear his name when he appears before the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture.
He has shown his Eastern Cape properties to the media following the testimony of an employee of Bosasa, which is now trading as African Global Group, Richard Le Roux, to the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture that a team of technicians worked on a special project to install security upgrades at three of Mantashe's properties.
Le Roux said the installation cost R300 000.
While it's reported that eight cameras at each of Mantashe's Eastern Cape properties have been installed, but there are neither electric fences nor alarm systems as was reported.
Mantashe says cameras at his home still have serial numbers. Le Roux said they removed serial numbers so that nothing could be traced back to Bosasa.
Mantashe says he'll give the commission his side of the story.
On Saturday, Mantashe led the media on a tour of his home in Boksburg, east of Johannesburg.
This entry was posted on 10 Feb 2019,01:25PM at 1:25 PM and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.


text:
package com.benromberg.cordonbleu.main.config;

import static com.benromberg.cordonbleu.util.ExceptionUtil.convertException;
import com.benromberg.cordonbleu.data.model.NamedEntity;
import com.benromberg.cordonbleu.data.util.jackson.JsonMapper;
import com.benromberg.cordonbleu.data.validation.NameValidation;
import com.benromberg.cordonbleu.data.validation.UserValidation;
import com.benromberg.cordonbleu.service.user.PasswordValidation;
import com.benromberg.cordonbleu.util.ClasspathUtil;

import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonCreator;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonProperty;

public class SharedConfig implements UserValidation, PasswordValidation {
    private static final SharedConfig INSTANCE = convertException(() -> JsonMapper.getInstance().readValue(
            ClasspathUtil.readFileFromClasspath("webpack/sharedConfig.json"), SharedConfig.class));

    public static SharedConfig sharedConfig() {
        return INSTANCE;
    }

    @JsonProperty
    private final int passwordMinimumLength;

    @JsonProperty
    private final int nameMaximumLength;

    @JsonProperty
    private final String namePattern;

    @JsonCreator
    private SharedConfig(int passwordMinimumLength, int nameMaximumLength, String namePattern) {
        this.passwordMinimumLength = passwordMinimumLength;
        this.nameMaximumLength = nameMaximumLength;
        this.namePattern = namePattern;
    }

    @Override
    public int getPasswordMinimumLength() {
        return passwordMinimumLength;
    }

    @Override
    public int getNameMaximumLength() {
        return nameMaximumLength;
    }

    @Override
    public String getNamePattern() {
        return namePattern;
    }

    public NameValidation<NamedEntity> getNameValidation() {
        return new NameValidation<NamedEntity>() {
            @Override
            public int getNameMaximumLength() {
                return nameMaximumLength;
            }

            @Override
            public String getNamePattern() {
                return namePattern;
            }
        };
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
'All bets are off': Why brands are seizing the opportunity to launch under lockdown
The coronavrius has left many companies ripping up carefully laid plans with the intention of starting all over again later in the year. But could this actually be the best time to go to market?
By Matt Barker	 7 May 2020 7:05 am
Spring, the season of fresh starts, has traditionally been one of the favoured times of the year for a product launch.
Not in 2020. With the coronavirus continuing to force the majority of society into lockdown, some businesses have been putting everything on the back-burner, cancelling campaigns and events with a view to late summer or even winter.
However, others have opted to go ahead with their original launch plans, spotting a chance with the right messaging and tone to connect with a ready and willing marketplace.
Natural energy drink company Tenzing had originally intended to launch its plant-based blackberry and açaí product during the summer, working with partners and ambassadors from the world of fitness.
"We'd already started a lot of the groundwork," says Tenzing head of PR, Emily Gander.
Analysis Coronavirus Crisis Product & Service Innovation
Why one snack brand launched its first outdoor campaign during a lockdown
Faced with the realisation that not many people would see its first outdoor ad campaign, Emily Crisps had to find ways to ensure it had impact in other media.
Aldi launches first online grocery service in response to Covid-19
Aldi's first move to sell groceries online will see it offer food parcels for £24.99 that include 22 items as standard such as tinned soup, rice, pasta, antibacterial handwash and toilet roll.


Due to the increasingly aging population and the dynamism of structural changes in the clinical care, the number of patients in intensive care is steadily increasing. At the same time, less qualified nurses are available for an increasing number of multimorbid and complex patients. Telemedicine procedures can significantly increase the medical and medical presence and thus support the necessary decision-making processes in a time-optimised and cost-effective manner.


text:
Charles Green Shaw's Wrigley's
Wrigley's, 1937, Charles Green Shaw, Art Institute of Chicago, image: poulwebb
The banner on J.S. Marcus's WSJ story about American painting in the 1930s is Charles Green Shaw's Wrigley's, which is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. Also, it is awesome.
With its unafraid abstraction mixed with proto-Pop, it reminds me of Gerald Murphy's paintings from the 1920s. Shaw and Murphy both enjoyed privileged, Manhattan-based, continental lifestyles that involved painting, and according to Adam Weinberg's 1997 exhibition brochure, they were friends in Europe.
But his AAA history doesn't mention Murphy at all. Shaw didn't get into abstraction until he came back to New York, well after Murphy stopped painting. And Shaw doesn't seem to have been very involved in the artist community of New York in the 30s, despite having a couple of gallery shows, and being on some committees at The Modern. He was more a writer.
Which makes it tricky to gauge the quality/influence/familiarity of his work. It's nice, some of it, like Wrigley's, even looks great, but it doesn't seem to have been important or impactful. The historical upside is limited, is how it feels. This, even though he was apparently friends with Ad Reinhardt. I guess it's complicated?
Still, it's good to see this photo of a pack of gum sitting on a postcard, which looks like source material for the painting. It's among the digitized collection of Shaw's papers at the Archives of American Art. As the larger version of the image so ably informs us:
Maybe it's hard to put an emphasis on Shaw's painting because he had so much else going on. He wrote for the New Yorker, did slim books of verse, cranked out some children's books, took photographs.
Charles Green Shaw, photo of NYC harness store, c.1940s?, collection aaa.si.edu
We might call Shaw an artist fluent in multiple mediums today, but his is the kind of peripatetic practice that we're conditioned to look askance at when we see it in the past. Or maybe it feels like he did not take much of anything seriously, except for mixing drinks. Maybe it's because he was rich and a "bachelor" in a time and art world where that didn't help?
I don't really know, but I like the work.
Oh here we go. In 2007 Roberta Smith also called him peripatetic and wondered, more clearly than I, about his legacy. His group of well-heeled colleagues, the American Abstract Artists, who were abstract when abstraction was un-American, "were often called — and not always benignly — the Park Avenue Cubists."
When he died in 1974, Shaw left his art to a surprised friend, the collector Charles H. Carpenter, who became its posthumous shepherd. A bunch of paintings went to the Whitney, and the Art Institute bought Wrigley's. And apparently, he's been an overlooked American minor master ever since.
Charles Green Shaw papers [aaa.si.edu]
Charles G. Shaw's artist page at Michael Rosenfeld Gallery [michaelrosenfeldart]
[nyt]
Author gregPosted on June 9, 2016 Categories art, dc
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The location for the WTHS Meetings is still the same: Memphis University School, 6191 Park Ave., Memphis in Wunderlich Auditorium. The entrance to the meetings on campus has changed.
For the safety of all campus visitors we will no longer use the Park Ave entrance. Please enter campus from the Ridgeway Road entrance (guard house entrance).
Signs will be posted to help you find your way. Please see map of campus for route to Wunderlich Auditorium (#14 on the map).


Gems, gold, silver and other precious items worn as personal accessories. Jewelry is often worn on a daily basis, and is also kept as a family heirloom (and worn rarely). Because jewelry is both small and expensive, it is a target for thieves and may easily be lost. Some jewelry owners purchase jewelry insurance, which protects against these possibilities.
No doubt, the relative high values, ease of concealment, and untraceable attributes of diamonds, gemstones, and jewelry prove quite appealing to criminals.
Consumers can ask for Kimberley Process certification on a retail diamond, but a recent survey in London showed that fewer than 20 percent of jewelry shops were able to provide documentation.
A spokeswoman for a jewelry trade group in New York applauded his ingenuity.
But a recent survey of 21 insurers to which jewelry appraisals were submitted found that only 1% of diamond appraisals mentioned cut, which includes the shape of the diamond; its finish; and the symmetry of its facets.
Venturelli's initial chapters are particularly fine concerned as they are with a consideration of the luxury arts at the court of Ludovico ii Moro; the importance of hard-stone workshops in sixteenth-century Milan; and the use of jewelry and gemstones in banking, where the Jews played an important role.
At the same time, she had boosted her homeowner's policy with additional jewelry coverage for another $75 a year.
My wife's got enough real diamonds, but she loves jewelry, both real and fake.
This according to Unity Marketing's latest Jewelry Report 2011, a new market research study based upon surveys conducted among recent jewelry buyers.
He had planned to close up and work with his brother at a North Hollywood jewelry store.
Police believe the victim was targeted boarding his flight in Atlanta, with his canvas bags filled with gold jewelry.
com, the leading online providers of high quality jewelry, are proud to announce that their companies' jewelry will be showcased at a new, glamorous red carpet affair for celebrities and movie industry insiders during Hollywood's high-profile Academy Awards week.


text:
Israel's Netanyahu names new Golan settlement 'Trump Heights'
Israel's cabinet has visited the Golan Heights to inaugurate the country's controversial new settlement. In March, Trump recognized the territory that Israel seized from Syria in 1967 as belonging to the Jewish state.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday unveiled a gold-trimmed sign naming a proposed new community on the disputed Golan Heights after US President Donald Trump.
The label is a gesture of appreciation for Washington's recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the territory that the Jewish-majority state seized from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed without international recognition.
The new settlement will be called Ramat Trump, Hebrew for "Trump Heights."
Products from Israeli-occupied areas and settlements should be labeled — EU court adviser
Trump town in the Golan Heights
Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3KXbg
Israeli Golan Heights residents look ahead to Trump town
Israel's cabinet convened in Golan on Sunday for the naming of the neighborhood currently occupied by four settler families.
Addressing the ceremony, Netanyahu called Trump a "great friend" of Israel and described the Golan, which overlooks northern Israel, as an important strategic asset.
"The Golan Heights was and will always be an inseparable part of our country and homeland," he said.
Condemned as a PR stunt
Opposition MPs quickly denounced the naming ceremony as a "cheap PR stunt" by Netanyahu's interim government, which failed to form a coalition following an April election victory and now awaits a new September vote.
"It's a non-binding, fake policy," lawmaker Zvi Hauser was quoted by The Times of Israel as saying. "There is no budgeting, no planning, no location for a settlement, and there is no binding decision to implement the project. But at least they insisted on a name," he said
The significance of the Golan heights
Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3Ferb
Some 23,000 Druze — an Arabic-speaking religious minority also present in Syria and Lebanon — live in the occupied and annexed portion of the Golan Heights, while 25,000 Israeli settlers have arrived there since 1967.
Trump's recognition of the area as Israeli followed last year's relocation of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which sparked anger across the Muslim world.
Read more: Arab leaders slam Trump's recognition of Golan Heights as Israeli
Developing Ramat Trump will not be easy. Ringed by high yellow grass and landmines, it is roughly 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the Syrian border and a half-hour drive from the nearest Israeli town, Kiryat Shmona, a community of about 20,000 people near the Lebanese border.
mm/jm (AFP, AP, dpa)
Israel's Netanyahu wants to name new Golan settlement after Trump
Benjamin Netanyahu intends to name a new settlement in the Golan Heights after Donald Trump. The US president has recognized Israeli sovereignty in the region, which is occupied Syrian territory under international law. (24.04.2019)
Trump's Golan recognition: A dangerous precedent?
US President Donald Trump's support for Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights serves no obvious strategic goals. And experts say the move could incite more land grabs — even Israel's annexation of the West Bank. (25.03.2019)
Trump's Golan proclamation gathers international condemnation
Arab states, Iran and the UN Security Council have voiced outrage over the US president's declaration that Israel should have sovereignty over the disputed Golan Heights. Israel annexed the territory from Syria in 1981. (26.03.2019)
Arab leaders slam Trump's recognition of Golan Heights as Israeli
Presenting a united front at the Arab League summit, leaders of Arab states have "absolutely" rejected US recognition of occupied Golan Heights as Israeli territory. A Qatari emir unexpectedly left the Tunisia meeting. (31.03.2019)
The adviser has said that labeling must take "ethical considerations" into account. The advice was given as the top EU court is set to review a labeling policy put in place by France in 2016. (13.06.2019)
DW's top stories by email
Related Subjects Israel, Fatah
Keywords Israel, Golan Heights, Israeli settlements, Trump Heights
Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3KYTC
Products from Israeli-occupied areas and settlements should be labeled — EU court adviser 13.06.2019
The adviser has said that labeling must take "ethical considerations" into account. The advice was given as the top EU court is set to review a labeling policy put in place by France in 2016.
The significance of the Golan heights 26.03.2019
The United States reversed decades of policy in the Middle East by officially recognizing the Golan Heights as Israeli territory. Israel seized it from Syria in the Arab Israeli War in 1967, and then annexed the Golan heights in 1981.
Golan Heights Recognition 21.03.2019
As US President Trump urges US recognition of the disputed Golan Heights as Israeli territory, Brent Goff asks Mideast expert Michael Friedson how big a political gift this is for Benjamin Netanyahu, with elections just two weeks away.


text:
Fan Club Game Abyss Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus
Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus
Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus (known as Ratchet & Clank: Nexus in Europe) is a 2013 platform video game developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3. It is the fourth and final installment in the "Future" series. The series is noted for the inclusion of exotic and unique locations and over the top gadgets, a concept of the traditional Ratchet & Clank experience, that returns in this game.
Franchise: Ratchet & Clank
Platforms: Sony Playstation 3
Part of the Ratchet & Clank Fan Club
Ratchet & Clank Fan Club 86 Wallpapers 5 Art 37 Images 29 Avatars 21 Games 1 Movies


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Lufthansa A321 near Hamburg on Jul 15th 2015, loss of cabin pressure
Last Update: July 16, 2015 / 13:47:39 GMT/Zulu time
Lufthansa D-AIRT, Airbus A321 (Photo credit: Andy_Mitchell_UK / Flickr / License: CC by-sa)
Loss of cabin pressure
LH-804
D-AIRT
A Lufthansa Airbus A321-100, registration D-AIRT performing flight LH-804 from Frankfurt (Germany) to Stockholm (Sweden) with 176 passengers and 6 crew, was enroute at FL350 about 80nm south of Hamburg (Germany) when the crew initiated an emergency descent due to the loss of cabin pressure as result of both air conditioning systems failing. The aircraft levelled off at FL080 and diverted to Hamburg for a safe landing about 35 minutes after leaving FL350.
The remainder of the flight was postponed to the following day.
The airline confirmed a loss of cabin pressure after both air conditioning systems failed.
Lufthansa A321 at Moscow on Apr 26th 2012, fumes on board
A Lufthansa Airbus A321-200, registration D-AIRT performing flight LH-1447 from Moscow Domodedovo (Russia) to Frankfurt/Main (Germany), was climbing…
Lufthansa A320 at Munich on Jan 17th 2023, slat problem
A Lufthansa Airbus A320-200, registration D-AIZB performing flight LH-2041 from Dusseldorf to Munich (Germany) with 158 people on board, was on…
Lufthansa Cityline A319 near Munich on Jan 13th 2023, failure of weather radar
A Lufthansa Cityline Airbus A319-100, registration D-AIBP performing flight LH-1814 from Munich (Germany) to Barcelona,SP (Spain), was enroute at…
A Lufthansa Cityline Airbus A319-100, registration D-AIBP performing flight LH-2284 from Munich (Germany) to Brussels (Belgium), was enroute at FL360…
Lufthansa B748 near Chicago on Dec 26th 2022, laptop fire
A Lufthansa Boeing 747-8, registration D-ABYJ performing flight LH-457 from Los Angeles,CA (USA) to Frankfurt/Main (Germany), was enroute at FL350…
Lufthansa B748 at Chicago on Dec 4th 2022, pressurization problems
A Lufthansa Boeing 747-8, registration D-ABYD performing flight LH-431 from Chicago O'Hare,IL (USA) to Frankfurt/Main (Germany), was climbing out of…


Information on other alloys available upon request.
Foot Notes: Alloy designation p = prime s = secondary. * 300KG load. ** Free cutting brass = 100 Machinability ratings for aluminum based on ease of cutting,chip characteristics,quality of finish,and tool life. "1" indicates best and "5" indicates poorest.


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How to explain (non-/anti-) aromaticity in fulvene with the help of resonance structures?
Can someone please explain why the resonance structures of fulvene 1 is non-aromatic and 2 is anti-aromatic?
Why is fulvene non-aromatic, even though it has $4\pi$-electrons and no $\mathrm{sp^3}$ carbons?
organic-chemistry aromatic-compounds resonance
Martin - マーチン♦
Bang to the tanBang to the tan
$\begingroup$ Well just apply the Huckel rules and see there's 4 electrons in conjugation in (2) while (1) is not fully conjugated. $\endgroup$ – Sawarnik Sep 10 '17 at 9:46
$\begingroup$ Structure 1 has pendant pi bonding. The Huckel rules require a cycle of conjugated electrons and that does not go with pendant pi bonds. $\endgroup$ – Oscar Lanzi Sep 14 '17 at 1:11
TL;DR: You cannot assign aromaticity based on a couple of resonance structures. Penta-fulvene has negligible (anti)aromatic character, which is supported by computational and experimental investigations.
Aromaticity is a complex and still not fully understood phenomenon. Active investigations are experimentally and computationally challenging. Unfortunately in schools and university it is often taught as something quite simple to fathom, which can be explained by looking at Lewis structures and counting electrons. This maybe true for many common compounds, but when you dig deeper you'll very soon find the limitations. (See the notes below.) It is certainly not helpful in the case of fulvenes.
Penta-fulvene's resonance and (anti)aromaticity
The resonance structures you have drawn are correct, but the set is missing one member, coincidentally the more important one. (Please see the notes below on resonance.) There are more, but those are with more charge separation and likely have only little contribution.
In general you cannot judge one resonance structure on its own. In this case it is not helpful at all. In all resonance structures, the π-system is fully conjugated, and delocalised over the whole molecule.
Penta-fulvene has C2v symmetry, and we see deviations in the single and double bond lengths. The values are from a quite extensive study on substituted fulvenes: K. Najafian, P. von Rague Schleyer, and T. T. Tidwell, Org. Biomol. Chem. 2003, 1, 3410-3417 (DOI: 10.1039/B304718K). Unfortunately, they use the unsubstituted fulvenes as comparison. From the abstract:
The fulvenes (1a–4a) have modest aromatic or antiaromatic character, and are used as standards for comparison.
Another study basically comes to the same conclusion, see E. Kleinpeter, and A. Fettke, Tetrahedron Lett. 2008, 49 (17), 2776-2781 (DOI: 10.1016/j.tetlet.2008.02.137). Citing quite liberally from various parts and omitting any literature references:
Fulvenes 1–4 have previously been synthesized (triafulvene 1, pentafulvene 2, heptafulvene 3 and nonafulvene 4), and were studied with respect to their dipole moments and NMR spectra. The 1H and 13C NMR spectra of triafulvene 1 (both protons and carbon atoms of the 3-membered ring moiety display resonances in the region of aromatic compounds) evidence a significant contribution of the resonance form 1b [aromatic charge separation]; the corresponding NMR spectra of 2–4, however, display typical olefinic compounds with strongly alternating bond lengths and only a small extent of charge separation (corroborated by the relatively small dipole moments).
Dependent on the criterion employed, 1–4 were reported as partially aromatic, non- or even antiaromatic.
[...] However, the expected partial aromaticity of the 3-membered ring moiety of 1 was not observed (vide supra).
Similar conclusions can be drawn for the presence of partial aromaticity in 2: even if the occupation of πC=C of the exocyclic double bond is lowest in the series (which can be realized with the participation of 2a, corroborated by the correct direction of the dipole moment), both ICSSs [iso-chemical-shielding surfaces] at ±0.1 ppm [2: ICSS = −0.1 ppm (5.0); ICSS = +0.1 ppm (6.2)] are far away from reference benzene 7 [7: ICSS = −0.1 ppm (7.2); ICSS = +0.1 ppm (8.9)] or even from cyclopropenylium cation 6 [6: ICSS = −0.1 ppm (5.9); ICSS = +0.1 ppm (7.2)]—pointing to 2π electron aromaticity. Again, if there is partial 6π electron aromaticity in 2, due to the contribution of 2a, then it is only very small.
Compared with the corresponding fulvalenes, studied previously, which are genuine push–pull olefins and exhibit partial (anti)aromaticity in the corresponding 3-, 5- and 7-membered ring moieties (in the latter if structurally planar), the 3-, 5- and 7-membered ring moieties in fulvenes 1–4 reveal very small, if not negligible (anti)aromaticity only.
From all of the above I hope I was able to make clear how complex the concept of aromaticity is. Only because of thoughtful investigation and interplay between experiment and theory, penta-fulvene can be described as having negligible (anto)aromatic character.
Notes on aromaticity
The original definition of aromatic (gold book) only states is very broad and may include any and no compounds:
In the traditional sense, 'having a chemistry typified by benzene'.
A cyclically conjugated molecular entity with a stability (due to delocalization ) significantly greater than that of a hypothetical localized structure (e.g. Kekulé structure ) is said to possess aromatic character. If the structure is of higher energy (less stable) than such a hypothetical classical structure, the molecular entity is 'antiaromatic'. The most widely used method for determining aromaticity is the observation of diatropicity in the 1HNMR spectrum.
See also: Hückel (4n + 2) rule, Möbius aromaticity
The terms aromatic and antiaromatic have been extended to describe the stabilization or destabilization of transition states of pericyclic reactions The hypothetical reference structure is here less clearly defined, and use of the term is based on application of the Hückel (4n + 2) rule and on consideration of the topology of orbital overlap in the transition state. Reactions of molecules in the ground state involving antiaromatic transition states proceed, if at all, much less easily than those involving aromatic transition states.
Much more rigorous is Hückel's (4n + 2) rule and therefore includes much less compounds. The main problem here is, that its application is often taught carelessly or even wrong. When one considers whether a compound is aromatic or not, it is probably one of the worst rules to follow. For fulvenes it certainly leads to the wrong conclusions.
The main problem is that this rule often gets reduced to counting π-electrons, but that is only a small part of it. Even if we include more recent developments and extensions of the rule, there is a lot more to it. (Originally only valid for a couple of hydrocarbons from which it was derived.) I like to encourage you to read up on the full definition (and links within) in the gold book:
Monocyclic planar (or almost planar) systems of trigonally (or sometimes digonally) hybridized atoms that contain (4n + 2) π-electrons (where n is a non-negative integer) will exhibit aromatic character. The rule is generally limited to n = 0–5. This rule is derived from the Hückel MO calculation on planar monocyclic conjugated hydrocarbons (CH)m where m is an integer equal to or greater than 3 according to which (4n + 2) π-electrons are contained in a closed-shell system. [...]
There is a more updated version on aromaticity in the gold book, which allows a more rigorous approach to the whole subject. Unfortunately it is not as simple as what was there before. You will need to understand a lot more about quantum chemistry, especially how to construct molecular orbitals. While Hückel MO calculations (which you could probably still do with a pencil and a [few] paper[s]) still provide a good entry point and approximation, it is more convenient using modern electronic structure programs and density functional theory (or similar) to elucidate aromaticity.
For the sake of completeness, here is the newer definition:
The concept of spatial and electronic structure of cyclic molecular systems displaying the effects of cyclic electron delocalization which provide for their enhanced thermodynamic stability (relative to acyclic structural analogues) and tendency to retain the structural type in the course of chemical transformations. A quantitative assessment of the degree of aromaticity is given by the value of the resonance energy. It may also be evaluated by the energies of relevant isodesmic and homodesmotic reactions. Along with energetic criteria of aromaticity, important and complementary are also a structural criterion (the lesser the alternation of bond lengths in the rings, the greater is the aromaticity of the molecule) and a magnetic criterion (existence of the diamagnetic ring current induced in a conjugated cyclic molecule by an external magnetic field and manifested by an exaltation and anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility). Although originally introduced for characterization of peculiar properties of cyclic conjugated hydrocarbons and their ions, the concept of aromaticity has been extended to their homoderivatives (see homoaromaticity), conjugated heterocyclic compounds (heteroaromaticity), saturated cyclic compounds (σ-aromaticity) as well as to three-dimensional organic and organometallic compounds (three-dimensional aromaticity). A common feature of the electronic structure inherent in all aromatic molecules is the close nature of their valence electron shells, i.e., double electron occupation of all bonding MOs with all antibonding and delocalized nonbonding MOs unfilled. The notion of aromaticity is applied also to transition states.
Notes on resonance
I will not go into a lot of detail here, because bon did an excellent job explaining it in: What is resonance, and are resonance structures real? However, allow me to make one point very clear: You cannot treat resonance structures on their own. You always have to treat them as a set, a superposition. There is no such thing as a most stable resonance structure, as well as there is no such thing as one of these structures dictating the reactivity. From a pencil and paper approach you hardly ever can judge which structure is most important for the description of the total bonding. Also, from a simple Lewis-type drawing you can almost never judge the properties of the compound.
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The Beatles' first contract with Brian Epstein sells for £275k
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Some people have been saying that there is a decline of book readers.
That's not true. I know what people have been suggesting about book readers, but I have never found that to be the case. I believe that probably the biggest group of 'non-readers' can be found at the end of primary school and the beginning of secondary school among students who are 11-15 years old. But then they rediscover books towards the end of high school and at a university.
When you were starting your project 'Book's Calling' back in 2014, you were not a massive reader either. How do you perceive your reading evolution in the last four years, now belonging to one of the most informed people in the world of books in the Czech Republic?
I was starting with a clean sheet, tabula rasa. I had absolutely no idea about who was reading and what. Nowadays I am definitely more informed and I have been also noticing more people from the reading community on Instagram, although that keeps me in a certain social media bubble.
The social media bubble in which you have more than 13.000 followers on Instagram.
Having this amount of followers is also slightly egoistic because you start having an impression that you are actually influencing something! You pay more attention to the content you share so you don't end up posting something stupid or simply negative, at least that's my case. I always try to post only positive stuff. So when it comes to my short book reviews, for example, they are hardly ever negative. I don't mention things I don't like. I do the same on my YouTube channel where I upload two types of videos - the first one is with books I've just bought and I'm about to read and the second one with books I actually read. In between making these videos I go through all of the new books, find out which I like and ignore those that I find for some reason uninteresting.
In regards to our hectic online world, if someone really wants to read he will always find time to do so.
Alongside the positive vibe, how do you make your Instagram profile stand out?
I still stick to my initial concept with photos of me sitting and reading books at completely random places, trying to prove that you can really read everywhere (if I exaggerate it a little bit, of course). But I have to admit that it is really difficult to come up with your own style that is original as well as interesting and which you can apply on your Instagram over the years! So although my profile is mainly about my perception of the literary world, overall it is a bit of a mix. I try to 'spice it up' with photos from bookshops and libraries and I have also mentioned the National Gallery in Prague or coffee shops across the Czech Republic. However, except the photo of me on my birthday I have not posted a single photograph without a book in it.
What is then your process of taking photos for Instagram?
Usually my friends take photos of me, especially the ones in which I am sitting and reading a book. Most of my them also had really good cameras so the photos were looking better. But now I got a new phone with better camera so I'm not so dependent on my friends anymore.
As you are mentioning your friends, how do they react to your bookish passion?
I think that all of them are aware of it as 'Book's Calling' has become a part of my life now. I think about the project automatically, always planning a new content. Whenever I travel, the first thing I plan before the journey is not what I will wear but which books I should pack so I could make some nice photos with interesting background. My friends usually do not comment on it. But then I have a group of friends with the same passion for books and together we always discuss the literary world because that's how we got to know each other. When I'm thinking about it, I am actually having quite a lot of these bookish people around me!
Do you buy or borrow books?
Back at high school I used to get the books from my local library - it all started when I got my first library ID so I could borrow a book about elves and orcs. But nowadays I do not visit it as much as I used to. I also do not buy that many books, only some specific I need for my studies at the university. So I mostly get them - I either ask a publishing house for a particular book or the publishing houses send them to me directly. I think that's the most incredible thing about what I am doing - the fact that I get a book as a gift, which never ceases to amaze me. Yet, getting books from publishing houses also creates certain obligations. Of course that nobody forces me but there is the unwritten rule that if you receive a book, you will post a photo of it on your social media. Some publishing houses are more relaxed about it than others. But obviously if they send me a book I will not be able to publish its review within three days! Right now I'm having about forty books on my reading list, some of them have been there since the last year. To sum it up, if I want to have a book of which I don't want to take a photo I simply buy it myself.
How about your storage space for all these books?
Oh I have absolutely no space! Whenever I bring a new book into our flat they look at me like I'm actually crazy! Some time ago I used up the last spot in my library and now I'm just piling books on each other, which I never wanted because it looks awful! But I came across wooden boxes which are practical and look really nice at the same time. So in my new flat I'm planning to build up a library with these boxes, which will be both functional and easy to change and move around.
Based on your experience, what can make somebody read?
I think that primarily it is marketing. Because if you have never heard about certain book you will have no reason to buy it. And when you don't know what you want, even once you come to a bookshop you have no idea where to begin looking as bookshops are offering thousands of titles. Although some of them have shelves with top 10 books of the month/week, it is still quite difficult to decide on the right book that would be perfect for you. When this happens, it is handy to follow a good bookstagrammer who is close to you with his style and preferences of genres and who can then help you to navigate yourself in the literary world. Or follow directly the bookshops' profiles on social media, which sometimes post videos and share photos with the newest releases. In the Czech Republic, the online bookshop Martinus does that on its Instagram and is not biased when it comes to promoting books.
I always try to post only positive stuff. So when it comes to my short book reviews, they are hardly ever negative. I don't mention things I don't like.
The owners of Czech publishing house Albatros, the Horákovis, say in an interview for the magazine Forbes that people do not read less, on the contrary, they use books as a way of slowing down in this hectic online world.
I think they definitely have a point. A great example of this fast-paced age is Instagram itself. Whenever I share a photo there, I only add a short description based on an upside down pyramid that is often used by journalists - you write everything important on the top of your post and the less interesting details can be found in the end of the caption. But in regards to our hectic online world, if someone really wants to read he will always find some time to do so. Besides, nowadays there are more possibilities that can make reading easier for you.
Personally I'm against e-books, but if they help some people to actually read then I'm glad. In the end it is still the same book just in a different form. However, recently I have noticed a new trend, audiobooks. I tried my first one last summer when I was in a gym on treadmill, but that was not a big success. Then I came across Death in Venice by Thomas Mann, which was read by my favourite Jiří Hromada, an activist in Czech LGBT community and an actor with a brilliant voice. I don't think that I would have enjoyed the plot in the same way if I had only read it as a paper book because it isn't exactly an easy read. But listening to it was great! From my own experience I think that audiobooks are easier to absorb and can actually help you to devour literature which you would otherwise struggle to read. Thanks to their fluidity they are also easier to 'digest'. But it is also about who reads them. Once I was trying to listen to an audiobook but the voice was too annoying that I gave up on it. So I think that when it comes to audiobooks, it is mainly about the voice of the person reading the book and then about the actual plot, rather than the other way around.
So now you are not reading but listening to books?
Well, not exactly. But I listened to the audiobook The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishigura, Saturnin by Czech writer Zdeněk Jirotka and The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, which was the longest I have listened to so far. And I just finished listening to Stephan Hawking's A Brief History of Time.
I think that audiobooks are easier to absorb and can actually help you to devour literature which you would otherwise struggle to read.
How long is an audiobook?
Usually about ten hours. In the beginning I was struggling to find time to listen to it because I don't drive a car or go to the gym anymore. But in the end it all happened rather naturally, so now I'm listening to audiobooks when I'm walking on a street or when I'm shaving my beard in the morning. I also used to listen to music in the shower, now it has been replaced by audiobooks. You need to try it and not immediately give up on it.
You have created an online book club on Goodreads, but you also organize its offline version in Prague, when each month you invite a group of readers and a writer to discuss his/her book. What is its goal?
The idea was to put together people so they would not only know each other online on social media but offline as well. And I also wanted to promote Czech literature because a lot of people who are coming now were barely reading Czech authors before. And it has been thanks to this book club that they have realised that the literature published in their own country is just as good as any other.
In general, I think that Czech literature has become much more popular among Czech people in the last couple of years.
I believe that could be true. And that's exactly the point of my offline book club - to show that our literature has something to offer to its readers. Besides, the reader who comes to my offline book club will also appreciate the chance of meeting the actual author of the book. Many times people came to the book club just to tell the writer that they had not enjoyed his book at all. But in the end this is exactly what starts an interesting debate! Plus sometimes, if you are not convinced by the plot but then you get to meet its author who explains to you why he decided to write in this and not that way, in the end of the night you realise that after all the book is a good read! That is to say, getting to talk to the actual writer makes you experience the plot from a whole different angle.
The original idea of your project was to promote books and reading online, and now you are trying to get people to meet offline to discuss the books.
You are right, however, the idea remains the same - share my passion for books and promote reading on social media. But that naturally leads to meeting people offline. Because without Instagram we would never get to know each other and I would never have an idea to invite a bunch of booklovers and a writer for a soirée. So I'm still showing people the beauty of reading online, but at the same time I'm running from it into the real, offline world.
Right now I'm having about forty books on my reading list, some of them have been there since the last year.
Alongside Czech authors you also invited some foreign writers to your book club.
We got the chance to talk to B. A. Paris and discuss her thriller The Breakdown or to Denis Thériault and talk about his book The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman. This was thanks to the publishing house Albatros, which can afford inviting such big names to Prague. But one evening we also had two book translators, which was absolutely brilliant.
I believe that the importance of translators is still quite overlooked.
I think that their work is not valued at all! There are barely any translated books into Czech that would have on their covers both the name of the author as well as of its translator! Only the publishing house Paseka has been doing this for some time now but still, that is not enough.
So after giving more credits to book translators, what else would you recommend to book lovers and readers, to both those who are online and who are offline?
I would like to conclude by saying that you should expand on your literary bubble by reading a variety of books. Do not stick only to one literary genre and instead try to read a genre that is completely new to you! Don't be afraid of discovering new writers whom you would not normally read just because of stereotypes. Right now I'm catching up, really slowly, on classics but I have also tried reading some Young Adult, The Diabolic by S.J. Kincaid to be precise, and I really enjoyed it! That doesn't mean that I will be focusing only on Young Adult from now on, but sometimes it is nice to read it for a change. Or I have been discovering manga, the Japanese comics. And comics in general. But my problem is that I keep reading the newest releases and I'm only slowly getting through all the essential classics. Which actually made me start the online book club on Goodreads, where I try to put classics like To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and another books that have been on my reading list for a long time but I've been avoiding reading them.