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Swampflix
New Orleans film blog & podcast
Agents of S.W.A.M.P.F.L.I.X.
Camp Stamp
Roger Ebert Film School
The Late Great Planet Mirth
The Swampflix Canon
Wrestling Cinema
Reviews by Alli Hobbs
Reviews By Brandon Ledet
Reviews By Britnee Lombas
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Reviews By James Cohn
Reviews by Mark "Boomer" Redmond
Lists & Articles
Articles by Alli Hobbs
Articles by Brandon Ledet
Articles by Britnee Lombas
Articles by CC Chapman
Articles by Erin Kinchen
Articles by Hanna Räsänen
Articles By James Cohn
Articles by Mark "Boomer" Redmond
Krewe Divine
Movies to Stream at Home This Week 7/16/20 – 7/22/20
July 16, 2020 July 16, 2020 / swampflix	/ Leave a comment
For the past few months, I've shifted our weekly "What's Playing in Local Theaters" report to a list of Swampflix-recommended movies you can stream at home. This choice was initially a no-brainer, as the governor had ordered the closure of all Louisiana movie theaters in response to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. More recently, cinemas are allowed to operate again as part of the state's gradual re-opening strategy, but I'm personally not confident that's such a great idea yet. So, I'm still going to stick with Online Streaming options as a moviegoing substitute for the time being.
In that spirit, here are some suggestions for movies that you can stream at home while under quarantine: a grab bag of movies Swampflix has rated highly that are currently available for home viewing.
Streaming with Subscription
Wolf Devil Woman (1983) – From my review: "A disorienting Pure Cinema indulgence that makes for some very loopy late-night viewing despite its limited means as a cheap-o production. It can't pretend to be as controlled or as accomplished in its far-out psychedelia as triumphs like King Hu's A Touch of Zen, but its bootleg quality as a VHS-era indie knockoff from the fringes of the genre only make it feel stranger, like a found object that tumbled far outside the boundaries of a proper wuxia canon." Currently streaming on Amazon Prime.
Playtime (1967): From our Movie of the Month discussion: "What I like most about this film's dystopia is that human connection does persevere sometimes, especially in the latter half: restaurant patrons sing old songs together amid the restaurant's wreckage, pipelayers collaborate to sneak a glass of beer in the morning, and life goes on. It's nice (and naïve, given the current moment) to imagine that technological, bureaucratic, and capitalist systems around us might just be baffling, as opposed to actively toxic and harmful." Currently streaming on The Criterion Channel or for free (with a library subscription) on Kanopy.
Blow the Man Down (2020) – From my review: "Frequently brutal & cold, following bone-tired characters as they trudge through the blue hues & white snows of coastal Maine as if they were walking corpses just waiting to be chopped up & shoved into fishing coolers. It's also a warmly human movie about a silent system of tough, shrewd women, each with their own morbid senses of humor and touches of whimsy." Currently streaming on Amazon Prime.
Streaming VOD
Fried Green Tomatoes (1991) – From our Movie of the Month discussion: "Looks & acts like a Normal movie on the surface, but constantly veers into absurdist humor, grisly violence, and straight-up Gay Stuff that you don't normally get to see in a Hollywood picture of this flavor." A $4 rental on all major VOD platforms.
My Life in Pink (1997) – From my review: "Very much feels like an echo of the New Queer Cinema era, with a particular debt to how Todd Haynes explored real-world gay crises through a stylized fantasy lens (particularly recalling the segment of Poison about the boy who flew out the window)." A $3 rental on all major VOD platforms.
Family (2019) – From my review: "Reminded me a lot of The Bronze in how it looks & acts like a normal mainstream comedy in all ways except in how it allows its lead to be incredibly selfish & cruel without worrying about whether audiences will find her 'likeable.'" A $4 rental on all major VOD platforms.
-Brandon Ledet
Movies to Stream at Home This Week 7/9/20 – 7/15/20
July 9, 2020 / swampflix	/ Leave a comment
Hail, Ceasar! (2016) – From my review: "Loaded with beautiful tributes to every Old Hollywood genre I can think of and pretty damn hilarious in a subtle, quirky way that I think ranks up there with the very best of the Coen Brothers' work, an accolade I wouldn't use lightly. If you need a litmus test for whether or not you'll enjoy the film yourself, Barton Fink might be a good place to start. If you hold Barton Fink in high regard, I encourage you to give Hail, Caesar! a chance." Currently streaming on Netflix.
Tourist Trap (1979)– From Britnee's review: "Tourist Trap instantly became one of my favorite horror films of all-time. I literally got goosebumps several times throughout the film, and I'm not one who gets scared easily. I highly recommend Tourist Trap for anyone remotely disturbed by mannequins or psychopaths." Currently streaming on Shudder and for free (with ads) on TubiTV.
Big Business (1988) – From our Movie of the Month discussion: "The swapped-twins plot of Big Business feels like it's straight out of an Old Hollywood comedy, the kind that Fred & Ginger might've starred in if it had been released 50 years earlier. The nature-over-nurture value system of the movie is very much an antiquated line of thinking and (although there's some confusion about who winds up with whom at the end) the film's intense concern with finding each sister a potential mate is very much in line with the structure of a traditional comedy. Instead of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Big Business is more like A Million Beaus for Four Sisters." Currently streaming on Disney+.
To Die For (1995) – From my review: "By 1995, neither celebrating nor satirizing the attention-seeking narcissism of tabloid-friendly criminals were especially novel; John Waters alone was nine features deep on the topic with Serial Mom the year before. Still, the specific textures of Pamela Smart's bizarre circumstances, Nicole Kidman's sweetly cruel performance, and Gus Van Sant's playfully ironic (and, frankly, patronizing) tone make the film a sadistic delight." A $3 rental on all major VOD platforms.
Little Women (2019) – From Boomer's review: "This is a beautiful film, a timeless piece of literature made fresh once more with a cast overbrimming with talent and filmed with an eye for chromatic storytelling and such beautiful Northeast scenery that when I tell you I was there, I was there. This is also such a talented cast that they breathe a new life into characters that, in the original text and in previous film incarnations, were at times sullen, unlikable, or intolerable." A $5 rental on all major VOD platforms.
Violence Voyager (2019) – From my review: "Feels as if it were made entirely by one loner-creep in some far-off basement, as if he were racing to publish his work before being raided by the authorities for crimes against society & good taste. It's the rare work of modern outsider filmmaking that feels genuinely dangerous, with all the excitement & unease that descriptor implies." A $4 rental on all major VOD platforms.
Movies to Stream at Home This Week 7/2/20 – 7/8/20
Jubilee (1978) – From my review: "Its sci-fi vision of London's cracked concrete future is essentially just a portrait of its present-day moment in punk discontent, snapshotting the female teen degenerates, queer burnouts, and hedonistic vandals who defined the scene at its purest. Crass already declared that 'Punk is dead' in 1978, only a year after the scene had broken out of its urban subculture dungeons to reach a wider audience through proper record distribution (and magazine-promoted fashion trends). Jarman seems to be on the same page but finds his own sense of beauty while gazing at the movement's rotting corpse." Currently streaming on The Criterion Channel and for free (with a library membership) on Kanopy.
Citizen Ruth (1996) – From our Movie of the Month discussion: "The balance between emotional devastation and (pitch black) comedy is a major part of what struck me about Citizen Ruth (besides Laura Dern's career-consistent brilliance, obviously). Ruth's not a 'bad' person, necessarily. She's just been turned into something of a feral animal by her addiction, making her play onscreen like a hyper-realistic version of Jerri Blank (who is a bad person, I should add) in her more amusing moments." Currently streaming for free (with a library membership) on Hoopla.
Boy (2012) – From my review: "Boy is by every measurement a triumph. It's at times hilarious, devastating, life-affirming, brutally cold, etc. Taika Waititi risked taking his time to deliver a fully-realized, personal work on his own terms and the final product moves you in the way only the best cinema can." Currently streaming for free (with library membership) on Kanopy & Hoopla and for free (with ads) on Vudu.
Birds of Prey (2020) – From my review: "More superhero movies could stand to be this excessive in their violence, this shamelessly broad in their humor, and this fabulous in their costuming. We'd all be better off." A $6 rental on all major VOD platforms.
Shazam! (2019) – From Boomer's review: "A whole hell of a lot of fun, a modern day kid's wish fulfillment film that harkens back to a time when it was still possible for such a thing to be dark, vulgar, and tongue-in-cheek. I was surprised at how much it was able to manipulate my emotions – I mean 'move me' – in its emotional moments. It has a lot of heart, is what I'm saying, but manages to avoid getting treacly by balancing its emotionality with good jokes and the occasional supernatural murder." A $10 rental on all major VOD platforms (and for free with a subscription to HBOGo).
Darkman (1990) – From my review: "A comic book-inspired noir riding on the coattails of Tim Burton's Batman, Darkman is a masterfully goofy work of genre cinema. Its comic book framing, over-the-top performances, and stray Ken Russell-esque freakouts were all perfection in terms of trashy entertainment value, pushing the lowest-common-denominator of trash media into the realm of high art. Darkman is not only the finest Sam Raimi film I've ever encountered, it's also one of the most striking comic book movies ever made … which is saying a lot considering that it wasn't even based off of a comic book." A $3 rental on all major VOD platforms.
Movies to Stream at Home This Week 6/25/20 – 7/1/20
June 25, 2020 June 25, 2020 / swampflix	/ Leave a comment
The Duke of Burgundy (2015) – From my review: "The Duke of Burgundy's varied shots of a butterfly & moth filled specimen room sets a tone for how the film operates. It's a narrative that relies on repetition & ritual, much like the repetition of a specific butterfly specimen is repeated within the display cases. Similarly, each image is tacked to the wall, hovering to be appreciated like a precious, organic object. Strickland finds emotional resonance in the film's central relationship, but he also spends inordinate amounts of time reveling in the textures of the world that surrounds them. Filming the couple through mirrors, fringes, and fabrics, Strickland finds the same reverence for the sense of touch here that he did for sound in his 2013 ode to giallo, Berberian Sound Studio. It's a challenging prospect for viewers, but the rewards are glorious." Currently streaming on Hulu.
Blood and Black Lace (1964) – From our Movie of the Month discussion: "A landmark in horror cinema and one of the earliest giallo films in existence. It's also considered to be the first 'body count' horror film, so we can thank Bava for all of those campy, raunchy 80s slasher flicks. Watching this film is like taking a walk through an art gallery. It's chock-full of rich colors, eerie scenery, deep shadows, and impressive camera angles. The outstanding cinematography alone is a good reason to watch the film." Currently streaming on Amazon Prime.
Pieces (1982)– From Boomer's review: "The film is at once a celebration of the horror genre as a cruel, ritualistic blood sport that serves a significant purpose in the lives of its audience and a condemnation of that very same audience for participating in the ritual in the first place. An ambitious, self-reflective work of criticism in action, Cabin in the Woods in one of the best horror films I've seen in recent years, not least of all for the way it makes me rethink the basic structure & intent of horror as an art from in the first place." Currently streaming on Amazon Prime and Hulu.
BlacKkKlansman (2018) – From my review: "It's been a while since a movie had me ping-ponging from such extremes of pure pleasure & stomach-churning nausea. What's brilliant about BlacKkKlansman is that it often achieves both effects using the same genre tools. Even when it's taking the structure of an absurdist farce, its humor can be genuinely funny or caustically sickening. Racism is delivered kindly & with a wholesome American smile here, without apology; shamelessly evil bigotry is presented in the cadence & appearance of a joke, but lands with appropriate horror instead of humor. Lee only further complicates his genre subversion by mixing that horror with actual, genuine jokes, so that the film overall maintains the structure of a comedy." A $10 rental on all major VOD platforms (and for free with a subscription to HBOGo).
Body Double (1984) – From Boomer's review: "It's a product of its time, a sleazy De Palma take on a Hitchcock classic, and as such it's an oddity that I can't recommend more highly. It's definitely not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but I haven't been able to stop thinking about it for months. There's a new 4k restoration making the rounds, and it's well worth the price of admission. And, as Halloween approaches, if you generally like your scares a little more cerebral than slashy but still want to feel a little bit dirty, Body Double could be your new go-to." A $3 rental on all major VOD platforms.
Basket Case 2 (1990) – From Boomer's review: "For all of its cheap thrills and corny gore, Basket Case could never be accused of having a character arc, which Basket Case 2 actually does. The extent to which Belial could be developed is pretty limited, but Duane moves from being merely Belial's enabler/assistant to committing his own crimes and even self-identifying as a freak despite being the most normal (looking) person in the house." A $2 rental on all major VOD platforms.
Class of 1999 (1989)– From our Movie of the Month discussion: "I love this movie. It's a perfect encapsulation of worst case, slippery slope thinking with regards to teen violence, a misplaced jeremiad warning of dark days to come–won't someone please, please think of the children? Bradley Gregg, star of many of my adolescent fantasies (and one of the dream warriors from Nightmare on Elm Street 3), parades around in an outfit that manages to be both utterly ridiculous and strangely sexy, featuring skin-tight leather pants emblazoned with the word 'war' over and over again and a form-fitting tee under an oversized babydoll jacket. He has nothing on Keach, of course, who struts around in this film with a platinum ponytail and matching (painful looking) contact lenses, while still somehow managing to play this ludicrous role as straight as possible. Throw in the other stars in the cast, like Grier and McDowell, and it's a surprise that this Terminator ripoff made barely half of its relatively low budget back in ticket sales." Currently streaming for free (with ads) on Vudu & TubiTV.
Phenomena (1985) – From Boomer's review: "Not a giallo picture in the way that many of Argento's works definitively are or even Suspiria arguably is; although there is a mystery at its core, the crimes cannot be solved by the audience, making this much more of a slasher movie than other entries in the director's canon, which may have contained elements of the slasher genre but were narratively focused on investigation. Running throughout the film is an undercurrent of terror, which is paired with distinctly beautiful imagery to create a film experience that is more haunting than inquisitive." Currently streaming on Amazon Prime, Shudder, and for free (with a library membership) on Kanopy.
Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994) – From my review: "My personal favorite Wes Craven film. It's not his scariest, nor his most tightly-controlled work, but it is an incredibly smart picture that manages to bridge the gap between the dream-logic horror of A Nightmare on Elm Street with the meta genre reflection of the soon-to-come Scream franchise. Wes Craven's New Nightmare is a perfect way to remember the filmmaker for all he accomplished, not only because it marries those two defining moments of his career in a single picture, but also because he plays a role in the film as a fictionalized version of himself." Currently streaming on Shudder.
Knives Out (2019) – From Boomer's review: "I've long been a fan of comedy pastiches and homages of genres that function perfectly as examples of those genres despite humorous overtones; my go-to example is Hot Fuzz, which I always tout as having a more sophisticated murder mystery plot than most films than most straightforward criminal investigation media (our lead comes to a logical conclusion that fits all of the clues, but still turns out to be wrong). Knives Out is another rare gem of this type, a whodunnit comedy in the mold of Clue that has a sophisticated and winding plot." A $5 rental on all major VOD platforms.
42nd Street (1933) – From my review: "I entered 42nd Street expecting a respectable, traditional backstage musical with some early glimpses at the extravagant choreography that made Busby Berkeley a legend. What I found was a technically gorgeous porno about women's stockinged legs, a film that was much more interested in the infinite potential ways those body parts could be displayed & arranged than it was in the inner lives of the women attached to them. It's shameless smut hiding behind an artistic pretense and has been historically lauded due to its Depression Era context; in other words, it's a gem." A $4 rental on all major VOD platforms.
Dangerous Liaisons (1988) – From my review: "Just as overtly horny & sadistic as its soft-remake Cruel Intentions, but combines those impulses with the meticulously staged pomp of lush costume dramas – recalling the peculiar tone of genre outliers like Barry Lyndon & The Favourite. Characters peeping through keyholes, foppishly being dressed & perfumed by their servants, and firing off barbed phrases like "I've always known that I was born to dominate your sex and to avenge my own" feel like they're getting away with something you can only do in period films, and Dangerous Liaisons benefits greatly from that setting." A $3 rental on all major VOD platforms (or for free with a subscription to HBOGo).
May 28, 2020 May 28, 2020 / swampflix	/ 1 Comment
For the past couple months, I've shifted our weekly "What's Playing in Local Theaters" report to a list of Swampflix-recommended movies you can stream at home. This choice was initially a no-brainer, as the governor had ordered the closure of all Louisiana movie theaters in response to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. As of two weeks ago, cinemas are allowed to operate again as part of Phase One of the state's re-opening strategy, but I'm personally not confident that's such a great idea. So, I'm still going to stick with Online Streaming options as a moviegoing substitute for the time being.
In that spirit, here are some suggestions for movies that you can stream at home while under quarantine: a grab bag of movies Swampflix has rated 5-stars that are currently available for home viewing.
The Cabin in the Woods (2012)– From my review: "The film is at once a celebration of the horror genre as a cruel, ritualistic blood sport that serves a significant purpose in the lives of its audience and a condemnation of that very same audience for participating in the ritual in the first place. An ambitious, self-reflective work of criticism in action, Cabin in the Woods in one of the best horror films I've seen in recent years, not least of all for the way it makes me rethink the basic structure & intent of horror as an art from in the first place." Currently streaming on Amazon Prime and Hulu.
Black Moon (1975) – From our Movie of the Month discussion: "Black Moon is extremely surreal. It has the rare quality of having the most dream-like logic of any movie I've ever seen. I frequently have sort of stressful dreams where I'm running in and out of buildings and rooms struggling to find something. The something is always vague. Watching this movie kind of put me into a familiar, trance-like state, which I'm not entirely sure if that's a positive or negative attribute. In a way I think is dreamlike surrealism finds its own kind of horror whether intentionally or not." Currently streaming on The Criterion Channel and for free (with a library membership) on Kanopy.
The Neon Demon (2016) – From my review: "I'm caught transfixed by its wicked spell & its bottomless wealth of surface pleasures, even as I wrestle with their implications. This is where the stylized form of high art meets the juvenile id of low trash and that exact intersection is why I go to the movies in the first place. The Neon Demon may not be great social commentary, but it's certainly great cinema." Currently streaming on Amazon Prime and for free (with library membership) on Hoopla.
The Masque of the Red Death (1964) – From our Movie of the Month discussion: "A lot of what we think of as the hippie-dippie 60s came very late in the decade. The era-defining Summer of Love was in 1967, the same year Roger Corman dropped acid for the first time and fictionalized his experience in the film The Trip. The Masque of the Red Death's 1964 release positions the film as years ahead of its time. Corman was pulling off the Satanic psychedelia vibe the same year that Mary Poppins & My Fair Lady were huge cultural hits. I'm not saying Masque was particularly a major influence on the countercultural swell that was to come, but it at least was somewhat visually intuitive. And Corman himself did have direct influence on the later films that typified that counterculture, films like Easy Rider and Bonnie & Clyde. Even back then, when 'Don't trust anyone over 30' was a motto to live by, he was the hippest geezer in the room and a filmmaking rebel." A $4 rental on all major VOD platforms.
Peeping Tom (1960) – From my review: "It's near impossible to gauge just how shocking or morally incongruous Peeping Tom must've been in 1960, especially in the opening scenes where old men are shown purchasing pornography in the same corner stores where young girls buy themselves candy for comedic effect & the protagonist/killer is introduced secretly filming a sex worker under his trench coat before moving in for his first kill. Premiering the same year as Hitchcock's Psycho and predating the birth of giallo & the slasher in 1962's Blood & Black Lace, Peeping Tom was undeniably ahead of its time. A prescient ancestor to the countless slashers to follow, Powell's classic is a sleek, beautifully crafted work that should've been met with accolades & rapturous applause instead of the prudish dismissal it sadly received." A $4 rental on all major VOD platforms.
Crimes of Passion (1984) – From our Movie of the Month discussion: "In some ways Crimes of Passion, a 1984 sex thriller starring Kathleen 'Serial Mom' Turner as a fashion designer by day & prostitute by night, is the prime example of Russell's self-conflicting nature. It's a visually stunning work that uses a Bava-esque attention to lighting to create an otherworldly playground of sexual fantasy & escapism, but it's also just pure smut. It occasionally attempts to laud the virtues of sex work, but also uses the profession as a means to leer at naked bodies. It reads like an intentionally cruel vilification of marriage & monogamy that also has a lot to say about the hypocrisy of self-righteous religious piety, but it's also just a long string of dirty one-liners like 'Don't think you're getting back in these panties; there's already one asshole in there.' Crimes of Passion is thoroughly bewildering in its refusal to be engaged with as either high art or low trash, but instead insists that audiences simultaneously appreciate it as both. In other words, it's pure Ken Russell." A $2 rental on all major VOD platforms.
May 21, 2020 May 21, 2020 / swampflix	/ Leave a comment
For the past couple months, I've shifted our weekly "What's Playing in Local Theaters" report to a list of Swampflix-recommended movies you can stream at home. This choice was initially a no-brainer, as the governor had ordered the closure of all Louisiana movie theaters in response to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. As of last week, cinemas are allowed to operate again as part of Phase One of the state's re-opening strategy, but I'm personally not confident that's such a great idea. So, I'm still going to stick with Online Streaming options as a moviegoing substitute for the time being.
Society (1992)– From our Movie of the Month discussion: "Society was largely panned in its time for this disinterest in thematic subtlety, struggling for three years after its initial release in 1989 to earn a proper US distribution deal. Treating its class politics as a flimsy excuse for the disturbing practical effects orgy in its final act seems like a mistake to me, though, and I'm delighted that the film has been reassessed as a cult classic in the decades since its humble beginnings. The way it explores class divisions in the most literal & grotesque terms possible is highly amusing to me in an almost cathartic way." Currently streaming on Shudder, Amazon Prime, Kanopy, and Tubi.
20th Century Women (2016) – From my review: "Although 20th Century Women is constructed on the foundation of small, intimate performances, it commands an all-encompassing scope that pulls back to cover topics as wide as punk culture solidarity, what it means to be a 'good' man in modern times, the shifts in status of the American woman in the decades since the Great Depression, the 1980s as a tipping point for consumer culture, the history of life on the planet Earth, and our insignificance as a species in the face of the immensity of the Universe. For me, this film was the transcendent, transformative cinematic experience people found in titles like Tree of Life & Boyhood that I never 'got.' Although it does succeed as an intimate, character-driven drama & an actors' showcase, it means so much more than that to me on a downright spiritual level." Currently streaming on Netflix and for free (with a library membership) on Hoopla & Kanopy.
I Married a Witch (1942) – From Britnee's review: "It's very cliché to say that a film is 'ahead of its time,' but I can't think of a better way to describe Rene Clair's comedy, I Married a Witch. For a film that debuted in the early 1940s, it's got a very different style of humor when compared to other comedies that came about during that era. When I think of films of the 1940s, I think of Casablanca, It's a Wonderful Life, and Meet Me in St. Louis, so watching a film that is about a resurrected witch that preys on a soon-to-be-married man just feels so scandalous!" Currently streaming on The Criterion Channel and for free (with library membership) on Kanopy.
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) – From my review: "It's difficult to put into words exactly what Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is or what it's about, so I'll just tell you how Ebert described the film's genre: 'It's a camp sexploitation action horror musical that ends in a quadruple murder & a triple wedding.' Does that about clear it up? At times it feels like the only thing Beyond the Valley of the Dolls isn't is a sequel to Valley of the Dolls, which is what Meyer was initially hired to direct. At least the film warns you of that outright in a prologue that distances itself from the melodrama original. What quickly follows is one of Meyer's trademark industrial/sex montages, this time combatively pointed at Los Angeles & set to an inane slam-poetry style monologue about hippie culture. The difference is that the montage never ends this time, adopting Mondo Topless's frantic energy for a full-length narrative feature. As Meyer put it, he wanted the film to establish "a punishing rhythm, pummeling the audience." Boy, did he succeed." A $4 rental on all major VOD platforms.
Queen of Earth (2015) – From Boomer's review: "As rare as it is to see a film that so unabashedly stares into the face of mental illness, it's even rarer to see a film that understands and appreciates that, from the outside, the behaviors of an irrational person can be objectively humorous even if they are subjectively heartbreaking, and Queen of Earth manages to tread that line in an insightful and deft way. More than just adding more scenes to Moss's career highlight reel, this movie is the most honest portrayal of unhealthy bonds I've seen in as long as I can remember. It will break your heart and then make it sing, and you'll be haunted by the images and their emotional resonance for weeks." A $4 rental on all major VOD platforms.
Innocent Blood (1992) – From our Movie of the Month discussion: "A decade after An American Werewolf in London, John Landis brought the public Innocent Blood, a movie about a French vampire in … Pittsburgh. Marie, the fey French vampire, decides to help herself to Pittsburgh's criminal element. Mistakes are made, spinal cords are left intact, and before too long Marie and ousted undercover cop Joe are duking it out with a proliferating vampire Mob. There's something for everybody! Stunts! Grotesque special effects! Gallons of blood! Strippers! Don Rickles! Innocent Blood is entertaining, weird, and a little self-conscious." A $2 rental on all major VOD platforms.
For the past couple months, I've shifted our weekly "What's Playing in Local Theaters" report to a list of Swampflix-recommended movies you can stream at home. This choice was initially a no-brainer, as the governor had ordered the closure of all Louisiana movie theaters in response to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. As of this week, cinemas are allowed to operate again as part of Phase One of the state's re-opening strategy, but I'm personally not confident that's such a great idea. So, I'm still going to stick with Online Streaming options as a moviegoing substitute for the time being.
Orlando (1992)– From my review: "Initially masquerading as a costume drama with a prankish dry wit, Orlando gradually develops into the transcendent pure cinema hypnosis I'm always searching for in my movie choices. It pulls this off in such a casual, unintimidating way that it's not until the final scene that the full impact of its joys as a playful masterpiece becomes apparent. This is the exact kind of visual and tonal achievement that could only ever be captured in the form of a feature film, a cinematic reverie that's nothing short of real world magic." Currently streaming on The Criterion Channel.
Mikey and Nicky (1976) – From our Movie of the Month discussion: "I was also struck by how well May captured the dirty, pre-Giuliani era of NYC, the type of New York we're used to seeing in early Scorsese pictures like Mean Streets & Taxi Driver. The late-night setting, funky blaxploitation soundtrack, guerilla-style handheld camera work, and genuine background characters of real life barroom drunks & creeps all afford the film an authentic, unnerving New York City grime. The only film I can think to compare it to in terms of narrative structure & visual craft is the recent release Tangerine, which gives a whirlwind tour of L.A. sunshine similar to the way Mikey and Nicky tears through NYC streetlights. With those two films being released four decades apart and Scorsese's most similar contemporary works being praised at the time for being the cutting edge, I think it's fair to say May was in some ways ahead of her time, even if her basic visual aesthetic resembles a general 70s exploitation cinema aesthetic." Currently streaming on The Criterion Channel and for free (with library membership) on Kanopy.
The Lure (2017) – From my review: "The Lure is a mermaid-themed horror musical that's equal parts MTV & Hans Christian Andersen in its modernized fairy tale folklore. Far from the Disnified retelling of The Little Mermaid that arrived in the late 1980s, this blood-soaked disco fantasy is much more convincing in its attempts to draw a dividing line between mermaid animality & the (mostly) more civilized nature of humanity while still recounting an abstract version of the same story. As a genre film with a striking hook in its basic premise, it's the kind of work that invites glib descriptors & points of comparison like An Aquatic Ginger Snaps Musical or La La Land of the Damned, but there's much more going on in its basic appeal than that sense of genre mash-up novelty." Currently streaming on The Criterion Channel and for free (with library membership) on Kanopy.
My Demon Lover (1987) – From our Movie of the Month discussion: "I honestly didn't expect My Demon Lover to be much different than the other hundreds of campy 80s comedies out there, but it actually does a great job standing out on its own. At first, the film didn't seem like it was going to be anything but a cheeseball comedy about a fruit burger-eating airhead that falls for a perverted homeless guy who may or may not be a killer demon. Thankfully, things become much more interesting as the film goes on. The monster movie and romcom elements of My Demon Lover come together to create a rare combination that makes for one hell of a memorable flick." A $2 rental on all major VOD platforms.
Mrs. Winterbourne (1996) – From our Movie of the Month discussion: "Mrs. Winterbourne is a romantic comedy about a pregnant teenager escaping her scummy, abusive boyfriend, surviving a train wreck that kills another pregnant woman and her kind husband, and being mistakenly taken in by the in-laws of the dead woman as they attempt to put their hearts back together. That's only the first act. In the second act, just as Connie is starting to connect to the Winterbournes and is struggling with the decision of either revealing her true identity or keeping up the charade indefinitely, her slimy ex-boyfriend comes back to blackmail her. There's singing! Dancing! A makeover montage! Murder! Although I really enjoy Mrs. Winterbourne, the incongruity between the gritty (and bizarre) premise and the lighthearted style in which it is presented makes for a weird movie-watching experience. There's a lot of whiplash as the film attempts tell a gritty noir story through the lens of a quirky romcom." A $3 rental on all major VOD platforms.
Mary and Max (2009) – "The sole feature film credit of stop motion animator Adam Elliot, Mary and Max adopts the visual format & storybook narration of a children's film, but it's, at heart, an emotionally merciless drama that touches upon, among other things: mental illness, alcoholism, unwanted pregnancy, atheism, war crimes, repressed homosexuality, obesity, and the endless cycle of poverty. It's likely that the film didn't do particularly well at the box office because it's difficult to market an animated feature about heartbreaking loneliness, depression, despair, and the search for human connection among the disenfranchised. I'm getting choked up right now just mulling over the film's themes, so easy to see why it might've been a difficult sell as a comedy (however black) & a fun night at the movies." A $3 rental on all major VOD platforms.
Movies to Stream in New Orleans This Week 5/7/20 – 5/13/20
May 7, 2020 May 7, 2020 / swampflix	/ Leave a comment
As you likely already know, the governor has ordered the indefinite closure of all Louisiana movie theaters in response to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. That decree makes our weekly What's Playing in Town report something of a sham, but I thought I'd continue to share weekly movie recommendations anyway (all in an effort to maintain the fictional veneer of Normalcy). I'll just be shifting into Online Streaming options as a substitute for the time being.
Schizopolis (1996)– From our Movie of the Month discussion: "The stand-out centerpiece of the film might be the unbroken shot of Soderbergh (as Munson) making goofy Jim Carrey faces in the bathroom mirror immediately after masturbating at work, just because. As big as Schizopolis's ideas can be in a larger scope, its scene to scene rhythms function as a series of half-assed pranks, like a highbrow version of Jackass." Currently streaming on The Criterion Channel.
Funeral Parade of Roses (1969)– From my review: "I wish more movies being made in the 2010s, queer or otherwise, we're half as adventurous or as unapologetic as this transgressive masterwork. It's not only the best possible version of itself, but also a welcome glimpse of a convention -defiant realm most films would benefit by exploring. To say Funeral Parade of Roses was ahead of its time is a given. In fact, I'm not sure its time has even arrived to this date." Currently streaming on The Criterion Channel.
We Are the Flesh (2017) – From my review: "I'm in love with the way We Are the Flesh disorients the eye by making its grotesque displays of bloodshed & taboo sexuality both aesthetically pleasing and difficult to pin down. The subtle psychedelia of its colored lights, art instillation sets, and unexplained provocative imagery (a pregnant child, close-up shots of genitals, an excess of eggs, etc.) detach the film from a knowable, relatable world to carve out its own setting without the context of place or time. Its shock value sexuality & gore seem to be broadcasting directly from director Emiliano Rocha Minter's subconscious, attacking both the viewer & the creator with a tangible, physical representation of fears & desires the conscious mind typically compartmentalizes or ignores (like a poetically surreal distortion of Cronenberg's Videodrome)." Currently streaming on Shudder.
The Box (2009) – From our Movie of the Month discussion: "As Kelly put it himself, The Box was an attempt 'to make a film that's incredibly suspenseful and broadly commercial, while still retaining [his] artistic sensibility.' I'd say it's almost successful in that way, tempering Kelly's bottomless wealth of bizarre ideas with a familiar realm of cinematic tones that lands somewhere between Hitchcock suspense and the Spielbergian throwback horror of titles like Super 8 & Stranger Things. I honestly believe The Box is his best work to date. However, if Kelly thinks that this overwhelming tale of deadly ultimatums, alien invasions, mind control, interdimensional gateways, and spiritual ascension has 'broad commercial appeal' he's gotta be out of his fucking mind (and I'm sure there's more than a little truth to that)." A $4 rental on all major VOD platforms.
Citizen Kane (1941)– From my review: "While I'm not exactly shocked that Citizen Kane's radical sea change was misunderstood upon its initial release, I'm thankful that it's been championed as a pinnacle of the medium in the decades since. We're extremely lucky to have its massive presence towering over us is a modern audience. It came a lot closer to disappearing into obscurity than a lot of people realize." A $4 rental on all major VOD platforms.
Darkman (1990) –From my review: "A comic book-inspired noir riding on the coattails of Tim Burton's Batman, Darkman is a masterfully goofy work of genre cinema. Its comic book framing, over-the-top performances, and stray Ken Russell-esque freakouts were all perfection in terms of trashy entertainment value, pushing the lowest-common-denominator of trash media into the realm of high art. Darkman is not only the finest Sam Raimi film I've ever encountered, it's also one of the most striking comic book movies ever made … which is saying a lot considering that it wasn't even based off of a comic book." A $4 rental on all major VOD platforms.
Movies to Stream in New Orleans this Week 4/30/20 – 5/6/20
April 30, 2020 April 30, 2020 / swampflix	/ Leave a comment
Parasite (2019) – From Boomer's review: "Money is an iron. For the Parks, it is the metaphorical iron that makes life smooth and effortless, and the iron strength of the walls that separate them from the riffraff below. For the Kims, it is the iron of prison bars that keep them in a metaphorical prison of society and, perhaps, a literal one; it is the weight that drags them down, a millstone to prevent them from ever escaping the trap of stratified social classes." Currently streaming on Hulu.
Marjorie Prime (2017) – From Boomer's review: "If you search for the film online, it's defined as a drama/mystery, but that's not entirely accurate. There is a dark family secret that slowly unscrolls and unspools over the course of the movie's runtime, recounted in different ways by different people (some of whom aren't people at all), but it's not a mystery that you want to solve. The characters in the film don't want to remember, and that affects the viewer as well; once you know the truth, you remember that the urge to expunge is often as powerful as the urge to record, that the desire to remember is counterposed by all the things we wish we could forget. Marjorie Prime is at turns celebratory and solemn, weaving back and forth through different perspectives and memories that seem at times false and sometimes too real, and occasionally both." Currently streaming on Amazon Prime, for free (with a library card) on Hoopla, and for free (with ads) on Vudu & Tubi.
Unfriended (2015)– From our Movie of the Month discussion: "I'm starting to feel like somewhat of a phony fan of this movie even though I often go out of my way to promote its legacy. I've now watched it on the big screen and on my living room television, but I've never bothered to screen it with headphones on my laptop for the Pure Unfriended experience, the way I assume it was intended to be seen. This feels like the inverse of the blasphemy of a young brat watching Lawrence of Arabia for the first time on a smartphone. It's also further implication that I'm an out of touch old man who has no business taking as much pleasure in these teen-oriented, social media-obsessed genre film frivolities as I do." Currently streaming on HBO Go.
Raw (2017) – From Boomer's review: "I was beaten to the punch by Catherine Bray of Variety in the comparisons that were most evident to me, as she called Raw 'Suspiria meets Ginger Snaps,' which was my thought exactly while sitting in the theater. The school setting lends itself to the former allusion, as does the stunningly saturated color pallette and the viscerality of the gore (which is less present than one would expect from either the marketing or the oft-cited fainting of several audience members at the Toronto premier), while the coming-of-age narrative as explored by two sisters with a complex relationship makes the latter reference apparent. Make no mistake, however: even for the strongest stomachs amongst us, there will be something in this film that turns that organ inside out." A $4 rental on all major VOD platforms.
Paperhouse (1988) – From our Movie of the Month discussion: "After two smaller films that are largely forgotten, Rose directed Paperhouse, which was a perennial favorite on IFC in the early 2000s, before moving on to direct cult classic (and his only other truly great film) Candyman released in 1992. Candyman is undeniably a horror film, and Paperhouse was largely lumped in with the horror genre upon home video release as well, despite not strictly deserving that distinction. It's much more of a mood piece, with a relatively simple story elevated by striking visuals and a moodily beautiful score by Stanley Myers and Hans Zimmer." A $4 rental on all major VOD platforms.
The Funhouse (1981) –From our Movie of the Month discussion: "The Funhouse comes across as a run-of-the-mill B-movie because it follows the generic B-horror movie storyline; a group of teens get high and decide to get crazy & spend the night in their local carnival's funhouse. It really doesn't get cheesier than that, but somehow The Funhouse manages to be seriously scary. […] The gruesome murders that take place in the funhouse filled with horrifying animatronic clowns and evil dolls will haunt your dreams forever, or at least for a day or two." A $4 rental on all major VOD platforms.


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Saint John's Magazine Summer/Fall 2014
View from Collegeville
True Originals The end of the school year marked the retirements of nine faculty members with a combined 266 years of teaching at Saint John's and Saint Ben's. We welcome these nine originals into our virtual Hall of Fame.
Dave Bennetts
Margaret Cook Annette Atkins History "The schools' emphasis on teaching has encouraged my own passion for being in the classroom and for making important connections with our students." When she was hired, there was one woman for every seven men on the faculty. She brought change to the faculty and the classroom. Her masterful storytelling has made her an esteemed speaker and author.
Classics "I wanted to be at a liberal arts institution that valued strong undergraduate education." After graduating in physics, she discovered Greek and fell in love with the Greek language and culture. Her love was contagious, and she taught classics and ancient history to countless students.
History "Contact with and immersion in Asian cultures significantly changed and improved my understanding of American history and culture." This beloved history professor is well known for caring about his students as individuals. He played a key role in establishing CSB/ SJU partnerships in Asia, including the long-standing relationship with Bunkyo Gakuin University in Japan.
Larry Davis Geology "I will miss working with my colleagues on integrated science programs." His 15-year teaching stint here brought an interdisciplinary background to natural sciences and made Davis a sought-after adviser and mentor. Davis and his students assembled the most complete T-Rex ever found at the Stearns History Museum in St. Cloud.
4 csbsju.edu/news
Published on Aug 26, 2014
Saint John's Magazine is published in the fall and winter for alumni, parents, friends and the Saint John's University campus community.
CSB+SJU

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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AU Watch
AU Watch at a Glance
Constitution (PDF)
Independence and integrity policies
Associate Staff
Experts & Advisors
AU Watch CEO – Dr Feyi Ogunade
AU Watch Chairperson – Hon. BTN Nyanduga
Why is our Work Important
AU Watch Q and A
Investing in People and Ideas
Why Invest in AU Watch
AU Watch News
Anti-Corruption Centre
Pan-African Institute For AU Studies
Nelson Mandela Academy
Africa United
"Our children may learn about the heroes of the past. Our task is to make ourselves the architects of the future."
President Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya
A Brief History of AU Watch
History gives you a look at where you have been, but it also paves the path to where you are going. Our history began in 2005/6, when Drs Feyi Ogunade and Chafi Bakari, joined the African Union as Senior Legal Advisors. Responding with compassion and care, we realized there was a lot to do for the people of Africa. It was a challenge we gladly accepted. At AU Watch, our mission, broadly conceived, is to serve the African people. We monitor the activities of the AU and AU Member States and hold them to account using the standard of the Constitutive Act and the legal instruments of its various institutions. We act as instruments of empowerment and are a voice for the voiceless. We are inspired and encouraged by you. You — as a volunteer, supporter, partner, staff, donor, or program participant — are the reason why AU Watch was set up, as the first private organization devoted to analysing public policy issues at the AU.
Early Begininngs
Feyi and Chafi worked at the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (the Commission) for nearly a decade. They came to the conclusion that the AU is a good organisation and could be a force for good for Africa. But like millions of Africans they were equally frustrated that the AU has not made enough efforts to articulate itself despite some of the very good work it has been doing and continues to do. It became quite obvious to them that millions of Africans in the continent and in the Diaspora, and probably billions more people around the world had little or no idea of what the AU is, let alone understand what it is doing.
The Role of the Commission
AU Watch Volunteers at the 63rd Ordinary Session in Banjul The Gambia
As senior officers in charge of promoting the Commission their exasperation grew when it became clear that some senior officials within the institution, as incredulous as it may sound, did not consider it important to explain to the general African population what the organization was doing. For example, even though the Commission had been in Banjul for over twenty years, apart from a few people in the Ministries Foreign Affairs and Justice, who had to ensure that the rent is paid for the building that housed the Commission, it was virtually unknown, even by Members of the Government or lawyers in The Gambia. It was even worse outside The Gambia. That is true for all of the organs of the AU. In a discussion on knowledge about the AU, its institutions and programs, people always some hazy idea about what a particular institution of the AU is supposed to be doing, and beyond scratching their head to remember more, whilst wearing a wry smile, will most likely have no idea what that body is doing.
AU Watch Polls
A scientific poll conducted by AU Watch in ten African countries and in two European countries revealed the shocking extent of the ignorance about the AU, its institutions and its programs. Even for those with some knowledge about the AU, including very highly educated people, the level of distrust and cynicism about the AU is lamentable. For example, the survey revealed that nearly ninety-one per cent of the people polled thought the AU is not a useful organization, and is nothing more than a bureaucratic talking shop for some of Africa's dictators. Many called it "spineless". Asked whether they trust the AU or if it is fit for purpose, eighty per cent of those polled want to see it abolished, as it had no meaningful effect in their lives. Ninety-seven per cent had no idea what the various bodies or programs of the AU are doing. Seventy-four per cent did not even know where the headquarters of the AU is located.
What was surprising for the two researchers was the level of mistrust and lack of belief about the work program of the AU even amongst AU staff. Of the AU staff polled, sixty-nine per cent believed it could be a force for good, eighty-seven per cent, however, did not believe that the organization in its present form and with the current leaders in place, can resolve Africa's problems. Cynicism about the AU could not be more evident, as was demonstrated by the question if they thought the AU could oversee the unification of Africa. A hundred per cent of the recipient replied that it will not happen even in their grandchildren's life-time. Interestingly, ninety-eight per cent of those polled knew quite a lot about the EU. Ninety-five per cent of the Europeans polled have never heard of the AU, and of those who knew about the AU, ninety-eight per cent thought it was not fit for purpose.
Not Fit for Purpose?
So, why do so many Africans have such a very negative image of their own continental organization? Why are so many people disillusioned about the AU? It can hardly be argued, even by the most ardent of AU bureaucrat that there is a perception that the AU lacks clarity, and transparency. Clearly, the AU has enormous problems. But the twin challenges of reconstructing its image and gaining the confidence of the people of Africa for whom it is supposed to be working are, in the view of AU Watch, the most urgent that needs to be addressed. Our view is that the AU has been unable to articulate itself properly. One of the long-term objectives of AU Watch is to contribute to a more transparent AU, and help the world understand what the AU is, what its institutions and programs are doing by providing timely and critical information and analysis on the AU, its decisions and activities. We want to start a dialogue amongst ordinary Africans and with civil society organizations, on the AU, and also within the institutions and structures of the AU.
AU Watch recognizes and accepts that the AU is an organization that Africa and the world needs and is here to stay. It further recognizes and is convinced that the AU is the best political forum Africans have for multilateral dialogue and concerted action. We Africans should not only treasure it, but wherever we are, should assist it in ensuring that it fulfils its mandate for the greater good of the continent and the entire world.
An Independent Non-profit Organization
On 8 March 2015, AU Watch started operating in Banjul, The Gambia. The organisation was fully registered on 11 July 2018 as a non-profit corporation under the laws of The Gambia. The articles of incorporation set forth AU Watch's purpose in language that was both remarkably brief and breathtakingly broad.
A Commitment to An Effective AU and AUMS System
Dr Feyi Ogunade explaining the vision of AU Watch at the 63rd Ordinary Session of the African Commission
After "recalling the heroic struggles waged by our peoples and our countries for political independence, human dignity and economic emancipation", AU Watch is of the view that the matters falling under the purview of the AU are too important to be left only to politicians and AU technocrats to deliberate and decide upon. We share the sentiment that the price to be paid for indifference to public affairs is bad governance and poor leaders. That price is too high to contemplate indifference. Of crucial importance in the establishment of the organs of the Union was the challenge to move away from the overly state-centric character of the O/AU, and its concomitant lack of civil participation. When the Union was being designed, the cooperation of African NGOs, civil societies, labour unions, business organisations were thought to be essential for the process of cooperation and implementation of the Abuja Treaty, as was expressed in the Ouagadougou Declaration and provided for in the Sirte Declaration.
In recognition of the contribution that individuals and civil society can have on the AU itself, the Constitutive Act of the Union seeks to create "a people-oriented community" in the Union based on a partnership between governments and all segments of society. To ensure the realization of that objective, it established the Citizens and Diaspora Organizations Directorate (CIDO) for mainstreaming the participation of non-state actors in civil society affairs of the Union. With a broad mandate to mobilize the energy and contribution of all of Africa, and harness their collective efforts in promoting the development and integration agenda of Africa and its people, AU Watch believes all of Africa and its friends should assist CIDO and indeed the AU, to create that dynamic people-centred community within the Union. In that regard we provide insight, generates ideas, and promote collaboration to address present challenges and create a shared future.
How AU Watch Makes the Difference
Operation Attend AU Meetings
AU Watch and Migration
Death at Sea (a play)
AU Watch Media Centre
AU Watch TV and Radio
AU Watch Studios
Project know the AU
Strategy to Lobby the AUMS…
AU Watch Education Directorate
Project Build & Equip All Schools
AU Watch Project Africa Education
Project Get Every Child into School
Project Feed Every Child in School
Project Link All African Schools and CSOs to the WWW
AU Watch Research
Equality & Human Rights
Justice and Rule of Law
Climate & Risk
Gender Issue
Conflict Management & Security
Political Governance &
Democratic Consolidation
Natural Resource Governance
Understanding Agenda 2063
Anti-Corruption Course
Agenda 2063 Workshop
AUW 2063 Media, Communication Project
AU Watch's 2063 Women's HR Project
Anti-Corruption Documentary & Films
AU Watch's "Project Keep Your Word
Anti-corruption Documentaries
The Vultures have Landed
The Hyena & the Goat
AU Watch Projects
Project Assist the Over 70's"
Project Participate in the AGA
Project Assist Small Businesses
Mandela Leadership Programme
AU Watch's APAS Programme
Climate Change Centre
Implementing Low Carbon Development
Sustainable Development Agenda
More About AU Watch
Learn More About AU Watch
Institutional Principles
Diversity and Inclusion at AU Watch
How We're Funded
AU Watch monitors the activities and policies of the AU by the standards of its Constitutive Act and the standards of the legal instruments of its various institutions. It challenges and holds to account the AU and States Parties to the Constitutive Act to live up to those standards and ideals they have set for themselves. AU Watch is based in The Gambia, with chapters in Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone, UK, US and Canada. AU Watch is a non-partisan, non-profit organization and committed to the public interest.
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Know what we know. Sign up for regular updates on our research, AU Watch news and events.
2019 AU Watch. All rights reserved.


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Arthur Foote
A Musician in the Frame of Time and Place
Nicholas E. Tawa
Arthur Foote (1853-1937) was one of the most important American composers who worked creatively in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His musical style was at first Germanic in orientation, soon changing to include Anglo-Americanisms and modifications derived from French and Russian composers. His compositions were highly esteemed by his contemporaries. Moreover, today's listeners continue to be struck by the coherency of his music, both in its general form and in its details. They note a command of craft, an integration of tone with desired expression, and an honest straightforward sound that brooks no pretentious complexities or enigmas of meaning.
In addition, he was admired as an educator, musical theorist, keyboard performer, and choral music director. His books and articles on keyboard pedagogy and those containing his insightful contemplation of aspects of modulation and third-relationships in musical structures are still of great value.
Assiduous as he was in preserving various aspects of his public life in his several scrapbooks, Foote strove to keep his private life out of the public eye. He discouraged the publication of his more personal letters, and late in life even desired their destruction. This book attempts to gather all the available information in order to give information about the man, his life, and his thinking. Lastly, it looks into the music, what it is, why and where it was written, and what its significance is. With bibliography and musical examples.
Scarecrow Press
Series: Composers of North America
Subjects: Music / Genres & Styles / Classical
Nicholas E. Tawa is Professor Emeritus, University of Massachusetts and the co-founder and first vice president of the Sonneck Society. He is the author of eleven books, including American Composers and Their Public (Scarecrow, 1995), and Art Music in the American Society (Scarecrow, 1987), as well as numerous articles.
...he has provided valuable information about musical life in New England...
— Music & Letters
...provides a superb insight into the scope and purpose of this scholarshippppp
— University Of Glasgow
The musical analysis is amply supported by 94 examples drawn from 41 compositions spanning Foote's career...thoroughly documented...recommended.
...provides a superb insight into the scope and purpose of this scholarship


Camp Verde Community Library (CVCL) houses a collection of over 30,000 books, magazines, audiobooks and DVDs. CVCL's membership in Yavapai Library Network gives patrons access to over one million titles. The Network maintains an online catalog searchable from the library or any Internet connected computer or device. Library patrons can place material on hold and pick it up at Camp Verde Community Library. Items not available in Yavapai County may be obtained through Interlibrary loan.
Online services include a variety of research and informational databases, thousands of downloadable eBook titles, and free WiFi inside and adjacent to the building. The library has 16 Internet connected computers, 2 catalog computers for public use, a Virtual Workforce station for job seekers, early literacy computers/tablets for preschoolers and a variety of tablets for patrons to use.
Check the Library Calendar for a schedule of programs for preschoolers through adults, including computer classes, writing groups, reading clubs, one-on-one assistance with e-readers, special programs and more. Reference and readers advisory assistance is available by phone or in person.
Most items owned by our library can be renewed one time online or by telephone if there is no Hold on the item.
When a Hold item arrives for you, you have 10 days to pick it up. You have the option to be notified of available Holds by email, through a text message to your smartphone, or you can call the library at 554-8380 and ask if your item is here.
If you place a lot of material on Hold, we recommend that you check to see if you have something to pick up whenever you visit the library.
The purpose of the Camp Verde Community Library (LIBRARY) is to provide library services that satisfy the diverse needs of the citizens of Camp Verde and surrounding communities. It is vitally important that citizens have convenient and free access to the expanding world of ideas, information and creative experiences.
The long-term goal of the LIBRARY is the maximum use of its resources by the greatest number of people. The LIBRARY'S objectives are to select, acquire, organize and preserve materials and resources that will aid individuals in the pursuit of information, education, and cultural/recreational interests.
The LIBRARY serves as a community resource and referral center by providing free access to comprehensive and quality print, media and online informational materials and resources.
In addition to meeting the needs of regular patrons, the LIBRARY employs methods of service that may attract members of the community who have not traditionally been library users.
The policies stated herein will serve as guidelines for the day-to-day operation and function of the LIBRARY. All Library staff and volunteers shall be informed of these policies. Library staff will render services relevant to these expressed objectives.
The LIBRARY policies herein may be revised, as circumstances require, by the Library Director and enforced when adopted by the Town Council. View the Camp Verde Community Library Policies & Practices.
Camp Verde Community Library dedicates its resources to providing library services that are forward-looking while honoring the tradition of a welcoming, hospitable place and the can-do attitude that built the library and the Town of Camp Verde.


Valentine the Porcupine Dances Funny, written by Derrick C. Brown, was the first published children's book I got to work on. Because Write Fuzzy–the children's division of Write Bloody Publishing–was a fairly small operation, I was able to try my hand at page layout and cover design as well. Working on this fun, quirky story allowed me to play and stretch my illustration skills at the same time.


Applications for our Orphans Refuge mission trip to Ethiopia are due Monday, March 9th.
Russell Moore, general session speaker for both the upcoming Summit V and Together for Adoption conferences, answers the question, "When did you first begin to think theologically about adoption?" Note: This video was originally used in preparation for our November 1, 2008 Together for Adoption conference.
What a Stupendous Wonder Adoption Is!
Orphans Refuge, the mission trip arm of Together for Adoption, is now on Twitter. Follow Orphans Refuge's tweets for updates about our upcoming mission trip to Ethiopia and for brief thoughts about orphan care and social justice.


Drupal's core search module is pretty good for a simple website, but when it comes to ecommerce, it just doesn't cut it. The solution we use around here is Apache Solr, an open-source search platform packed full of customizable features. It gets your customers to the right products, quickly and easily.
Drupal Core — Why does it fail?
Drupal's core search is really only good for small, text content based websites. Anything more and it's pitfalls start to become noticeable.
How the core search indexes a website is pretty basic — it assigns an importance value to content titles based on the HTML heading tag (H1, H2, etc. - H1 being the most important), then it filters through the text of content to try and match keywords. It's smart in that it will try to fix simple misspellings, such as removing letter accents (i.e. Québec City > Quebec City), but that's about it.
These basic filtering techniques start to fall apart when unique, customized content is added. Take an ecommerce website for instance, if your website sells clothing you most likely have a variety of clothing styles — t-shirts, hats, shoes, etc. Each article of clothing is priced differently, and probably has options such as size, colour, material, etc. There's no way the core Drupal search is going to be able to break out or filter this information in a way that's useful.
No cost to use or modify on any site.
Much smarter than default by recognizing phrases, wildcards, word groupings, etc.
As you type, query suggestions, auto-completion, spell checking, and more dynamically narrow down results before you even hit search.
Makes new content searchable quickly with little delay.
A nice administration interface helps you set faceted search parameters and filters for any data type (colours, price ranges, categories, A-Z, etc.).
Setup multiple search configurations for different use-cases. You're not limited to one search for all.
Makes location-based search and results possible.
From small to massive. Apache Solr is extremely fast in both cases.
Caching of search queries, filters, etc. to optimize performance and save user's search options.
Search result monitoring and logging to provide insight into user search habits.
Supports JSON, CSV, XML and other common data types, no conversions needed.
Plugins further enhance Apache Solr for indexings rich content (i.e. PDFs, Word docs), language detections, result clustering, and more.
As you can see, Apache Solr rocks! It's fully featured and powerful. Having these options at our fingertips lets us fine-tune how ecommerce stores are searchable, getting your customers to the right products quickly and easily, increasing sales. Good filtering options also create an overall better experience for your website visitors, making it more likely that customer would come back.
Does your ecommerce site take advantage of good search and filtering techniques? If not, you might be missing out on some serious profit. We have a tonne of experience building ecommerce websites and would love to share that experience with you. Contact us if you'd like to talk!


Mathematicians can not solve third grade equations?
In these talks we started with polynomial equations in one variable, and moved from degree one (like 2x+1=5) and quadratic (with the well-known formula that so many students have been taught to memorize), to cubic, quartic and quintic. The point was to make them realize that before "solving" an equation we need to decide in what set will we seek for solutions (be it the natural numbers, the rationals, the reals,…) and what kind of answer do we look for. Changing these parameters can turn the problem from "trivial" to "impossible", and the different choices are applied in different situations. The second part of the talk was on equations in two variables (still polynomial) and how the problems here are much harder. We ended with results that have been proven during the 20th century, and with problems that are still open nowadays.


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The Effects of Natural Selection, Drift, and Genetic Background on Phenotypic Variation and Correlation in E. coli
Phenotypic evolution is an essential topic within the general field of evolution. Theoretically, the outcome of phenotypic evolution may be influenced by factors such as genetic background and the interaction of natural selection and genetic drift. To gain empirical evidence…
Phenotypic evolution is an essential topic within the general field of evolution. Theoretically, the outcome of phenotypic evolution may be influenced by factors such as genetic background and the interaction of natural selection and genetic drift. To gain empirical evidence for testing the effects of those factors, we used eight long-term evolved Escherichia coli populations as a model system. These populations differ in terms of genetic background (different mutation rates) as well as bottleneck size (small- and large-magnitude). Specifically, we used a plate reader to measure three growth-related traits: maximum growth rate (umax), carrying capacity (Kc), and lag time (Lt) for 40 clones within each population. For each trait we quantified the change in mean per generation, the change in variance per generation, and the correlation coefficient between pairs of traits. Interestingly, we found that the small and large bottleneck populations of one background displayed clear, distinguishing trends that were not present within the populations of the other background. This leads to the conclusion that the influence of selection and drift on a population's phenotypic outcomes is itself influenced by the genetic background of that population. Additionally, we found a strong positive correlation between umax and Kc within each of the high-mutation populations that was not consistent with our neutral expectation. However, the other two pairs did not exhibit a similar pattern. Our results provide a novel understanding in the relationship between the evolution of E. coli growth-related phenotypes and the population-genetic environment.
Gonzales, Jadon (Co-author, Co-author)
Lynch, Michael (Thesis director)
Ho, Wei-Chin (Committee member)
Geiler-Samerotte, Kerry (Committee member)
School of Life Sciences (Contributor, Contributor)
Correlation between Larvicide Susceptibility and Quiescence in Aedes aegypti
Mosquitoes are estimated to kill roughly 700,000 people each year through the transmission of vector-borne diseases. Vector control via insecticides is a widely used method in order to combat the spread of mosquito populations; however, this comes at a cost.…
Mosquitoes are estimated to kill roughly 700,000 people each year through the transmission of vector-borne diseases. Vector control via insecticides is a widely used method in order to combat the spread of mosquito populations; however, this comes at a cost. Resistance to insecticides has the potential to increase vector-borne disease rates. Aedes aegypti is an invasive mosquito species in Arizona and is a known potential vector for a variety of infectious diseases including dengue, chikungunya, Zika, and yellow fever. In contrast to many other mosquito species Ae. aegypti mosquito eggs can undergo quiescence, an active state of dormancy, over long periods of time. Variation in quiescent periods correlates to climatic rainfall alterations and can ultimately influence hatching and mating between multiple generations. I have studied the effect of quiescence on larvicide (i.e., temephos) susceptibility using mosquito eggs collected from a susceptible lab strain and stored under optimal temperature and humidity conditions. After undergoing various quiescent periods (3, 7, 14, 28, 84, and 182 days), the experimental eggs as well as 7-day quiescent control eggs were hatched and reared to 3rd instar larvae. Temephos susceptibility was tested using the WHO bioassay procedure at lethal concentration (LC) 20, LC50, LC80, diagnostic dose (twice LC99), plus an untreated control. Each concentration dose was replicated four times with 20 larvae each. The 3-day experimental group was excluded from analysis because the mortality was significantly lower than the 7-day for both the experimental and control groups. The 3 day experimental eggs displayed decreased mortality which did not align with the hypothesis, as the quiescence period elongates under optimal conditions, susceptibility to insecticides decreases, and this could have likely resulted from unintentional selection for increased fitness and faster developing eggs because the larvae that developed to 3rd instar first were those used for larvicide testing. ANOVA testing demonstrates variability in the LC80 experimental group which suggests the need for further investigation into high dose temephos concentrations. For the experimental LC20 linear regression, there were significant differences in mortality. The results indicate mortality gradually decreases when the quiescence period elongates, therefore there are significant differences in insecticide susceptibility when quiescence is 182 days (or longer), compared to when quiescence is 7 days. Further investigation into field mosquito's genetic diversity, insecticide resistance profile, and environmental conditions should be considered.
Kayce, Brenna Jean (Author)
Huijben, Silvie (Thesis director)
Paaijmans, Krijn (Committee member)
Jensen, Brook (Committee member)
Plasmodium Cost of Resistance and Life Stage Development within the Mosquito Vector
Hundreds of thousands of people die annually from malaria; a protozoan of the genus Plasmodium is responsible for this mortality. The Plasmodium parasite undergoes several life stages within the mosquito vector, the transition between which require passage across the lumen…
Hundreds of thousands of people die annually from malaria; a protozoan of the genus Plasmodium is responsible for this mortality. The Plasmodium parasite undergoes several life stages within the mosquito vector, the transition between which require passage across the lumen of the mosquito midgut. It has been observed that in about 15% of parasites that develop ookinetes in the mosquito abdomen, sporozoites never develop in the salivary glands, indicating that passage across the midgut lumen is a significant barrier in parasite development (Gamage-Mendis et al., 1993). We aim to investigate a possible correlation between passage through the midgut lumen and drug-resistance trends in Plasmodium falciparum parasites. This study contains a total of 1024 Anopheles mosquitoes: 187 Anopheles gambiae and 837 Anopheles funestus samples collected in high malaria transmission areas of Mozambique between March and June of 2016. Sanger sequencing will be used to determine the prevalence of known resistance alleles for anti-malarial drugs: chloroquine resistance transporter (pfcrt), multidrug resistance (pfmdr1) gene, dihydropteroate synthase (pfdhps) and dihydrofolate reductase (pfdhfr). We compare prevalence of resistance between abdomen and head/thorax in order to determine whether drug resistant parasites are disproportionately hindered during their passage through the midgut lumen. A statistically significant difference between resistance alleles in the two studied body sections supports the efficacy of new anti-malarial gene surveillance strategies in areas of high malaria transmission.
Phillips, Keeley Isabella (Author)
Gile, Gillian (Committee member)
Young, Steven (Committee member)
School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Conservation of m6A in evolving long-term E. coli populations
Many factors are at play within the genome of an organism, contributing to much of the diversity and variation across the tree of life. While the genome is generally encoded by four nucleotides, A, C, T, and G, this code…
Many factors are at play within the genome of an organism, contributing to much of the diversity and variation across the tree of life. While the genome is generally encoded by four nucleotides, A, C, T, and G, this code can be expanded. One particular mechanism that we examine in this thesis is modification of bases—more specifically, methylation of Adenine (m6A) within the GATC motif of Escherichia coli. These methylated adenines are especially important in a process called methyl-directed mismatch repair (MMR), a pathway responsible for repairing errors in the DNA sequence produced by replication. In this pathway, methylated adenines identify the parent strand and direct the repair proteins to correct the erroneous base in the daughter strand. While the primary role of methylated adenines at GATC sites is to direct the MMR pathway, this methylation has also been found to affect other processes, such as gene expression, the activity of transposable elements, and the timing of DNA replication. However, in the absence of MMR, the ability of these other processes to maintain adenine methylation and its targets is unknown.
To determine if the disruption of the MMR pathway results in the reduced conservation of methylated adenines as well as an increased tolerance for mutations that result in the loss or gain of new GATC sites, we surveyed individual clones isolated from experimentally evolving wild-type and MMR-deficient (mutL- ;conferring an 150x increase in mutation rate) populations of E. coli with whole-genome sequencing. Initial analysis revealed a lack of mutations affecting methylation sites (GATC tetranucleotides) in wild-type clones. However, the inherent low mutation rates conferred by the wild-type background render this result inconclusive, due to a lack of statistical power, and reveal a need for a more direct measure of changes in methylation status. Thus as a first step to comparative methylomics, we benchmarked four different methylation-calling pipelines on three biological replicates of the wildtype progenitor strain for our evolved populations.
While it is understood that these methylated sites play a role in the MMR pathway, it is not fully understood the full extent of their effect on the genome. Thus the goal of this thesis was to better understand the forces which maintain the genome, specifically concerning m6A within the GATC motif.
Boyer, Gwyneth (Author)
Behringer, Megan (Committee member)
Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Evaluating the Effects of Temperature on the Toxicity of Insecticides That Target Arbovirus Vectors in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area
Despite its well-documented preference for much more humid climates, the yellow fever mosquito, or Aedes aegypti, has inhabited Arizona since 1951. Their presence is of great concern as they can transmit many deadly diseases, including yellow fever, chikungunya, Zika, and…
Despite its well-documented preference for much more humid climates, the yellow fever mosquito, or Aedes aegypti, has inhabited Arizona since 1951. Their presence is of great concern as they can transmit many deadly diseases, including yellow fever, chikungunya, Zika, and dengue fever, putting the residents of the Phoenix Metropolitan Area at risk. Maricopa County Vector Control has made an extensive effort to reduce this risk mainly through the act of fogging insecticides during the night in areas where mosquito numbers exceed a threshold. However, given the well-known temperature-toxicity relationships in insect species, fogging at night may be less or more effective —depending on the relationship— due to the colder temperatures at these times. Additionally, insecticide resistance testing has always been performed at temperatures not usually experienced during fogging, adding to the uncertainty on how useful those test outcomes are. This study took the first steps in determining the effects of temperature on the toxicity of a commonly used insecticide, deltamethrin, on Aedes aegypti by developing a dose response curve on a lab strain at a standard lab temperature of 25°C by performing a CDC bottle bioassay. The diagnostic dose was found to be 50 μg/mL and the lethal dose, 50% (LD50, the dose required to kill half of the test mosquitoes) was found to be 9 μg/mL. Future testing would need to be completed to compare the deltamethrin dose response curve developed in this study with deltamethrin dose response curves at various different temperatures.
El Sheikha, Mariam D (Co-author)
El Sheikha, Mariam (Co-author)
Paaijmans, Krijn (Thesis director)
Huijben, Silvie (Committee member)
Kalmouni, Joshua (Committee member)
Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor, Contributor)
Phage Therapy: Saguaro Cactus Soft Rot Treatment
Phage therapy has been around for more than a century, but has regained interest in the field of medicine and holds significant potential to act as a treatment against a deadly bacterial infection in various cactus species. It was discovered…
Phage therapy has been around for more than a century, but has regained interest in the field of medicine and holds significant potential to act as a treatment against a deadly bacterial infection in various cactus species. It was discovered that bacteriophages isolated from soil samples of potato plants were able to suppress Pectobacterium carotovorum, 'Pectobacterium' being within the family Pectobacteriaceae which contains the 'Erwinia' genus that causes soft rot diseases in various plants (Jones, 2012). The two scientists had co-inoculated "... the phage with the phytobacterium" (Jones, 2012) in order to suppress the growth and prevent the infection from occurring.
Fry, Danielle Elizabeth (Author)
Geiler-Samerotte, Kerry (Thesis director)
Pfeifer, Susanne (Committee member)
Varsani, Arvind (Committee member)
College of Health Solutions (Contributor)
Quantifying the Evolution of Fluconazole Resistance in S. Cerevisiae Using Molecular Barcodes
One of the largest problems facing modern medicine is drug resistance. Many classes of drugs can be rendered ineffective if their target is able to acquire beneficial mutations. While this is an excellent showcase of the power of evolution, it…
One of the largest problems facing modern medicine is drug resistance. Many classes of drugs can be rendered ineffective if their target is able to acquire beneficial mutations. While this is an excellent showcase of the power of evolution, it necessitates the development of increasingly stronger drugs to combat resistant pathogens. Not only is this strategy costly and time consuming, it is also unsustainable. To contend with this problem, many multi-drug treatment strategies are being explored. Previous studies have shown that resistance to some drug combinations is not possible, for example, resistance to a common antifungal drug, fluconazole, seems impossible in the presence of radicicol. We believe that in order to understand the viability of multi-drug strategies in combating drug resistance, we must understand the full spectrum of resistance mutations that an organism can develop, not just the most common ones. It is possible that rare mutations exist that are resistant to both drugs. Knowing the frequency of such mutations is important for making predictions about how problematic they will be when multi-drug strategies are used to treat human disease. This experiment aims to expand on previous research on the evolution of drug resistance in S. cerevisiae by using molecular barcodes to track ~100,000 evolving lineages simultaneously. The barcoded cells were evolved with serial transfers for seven weeks (200 generations) in three concentrations of the antifungal Fluconazole, three concentrations of the Hsp90 inhibitor Radicicol, and in four combinations of Fluconazole and Radicicol. Sequencing data was used to track barcode frequencies over the course of the evolution, allowing us to observe resistant lineages as they rise and quantify differences in resistance evolution across the different conditions. We were able to successfully observe over 100,000 replicates simultaneously, revealing many adaptive lineages in all conditions. Our results also show clear differences across drug concentrations and combinations, with the highest drug concentrations exhibiting distinct behaviors.
Apodaca, Samuel (Author)
Schmidlin, Kara (Committee member)
School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor)
Discovery of Novel Viruses in Arachnids
Arachnids belong to the phylum Arthropoda, the largest phylum in the animal kingdom. Ticks are blood-feeding arachnids that vector numerous pathogens of significant medical and veterinary importance, while scorpions have become a common concern in urban desert cities due to…
Arachnids belong to the phylum Arthropoda, the largest phylum in the animal kingdom. Ticks are blood-feeding arachnids that vector numerous pathogens of significant medical and veterinary importance, while scorpions have become a common concern in urban desert cities due to the high level of toxicity in their venom. To date, viruses associated with arachnids have been under sampled and understudied. Here viral metagenomics was used to explore the diversity of viruses present in ticks and scorpions. American dog ticks (Dermacentor variabilis) and blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis) were collected in Pennsylvania while one hairy scorpion (Hadrurus arizonensis) and four bark scorpions (Centruroides sculpturatus) were collected in Phoenix. Novel viral genomes described here belong to the families Polyomaviridae, Anelloviridae, Genomoviridae, and a newly proposed family, Arthropolviridae.
Polyomaviruses are non-enveloped viruses with a small, circular double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) genomes that have been identified in a variety of mammals, birds and fish and are known to cause various diseases. Arthropolviridae is a proposed family of circular, large tumor antigen encoding dsDNA viruses that have a unidirectional genome organization. Genomoviruses and anelloviruses are ssDNA viruses that have circular genomes ranging in size from 2–2.4 kb and 2.1–3.8 kb, respectively. Genomoviruses are ubiquitous in the environment, having been identified in a wide range of animal, plant and environmental samples, while anelloviruses have been associated with a plethora of animals.
Here, 16 novel viruses are reported that span four viral families. Eight novel polyomaviruses were recovered from bark scorpions, three arthropolviruses were recovered from dog ticks and one arthropolvirus from a hairy scorpion. Viruses belonging to the families Polyomaviridae and Arthropolviridae are highly divergent. This is the first more extensive study of these viruses in arachnids. Three genomoviruses were recovered from both dog and deer ticks and one anellovirus was recovered from deer ticks, which are the first records of these viruses being recovered from ticks. This work highlights the diversity of dsDNA and ssDNA viruses in the arachnid population and emphasizes the importance of performing viral surveys on these populations.
Schmidlin, Kara (Author)
Varsani, Arvind (Thesis advisor)
Van Doorslaer, Koenraad (Committee member)
Stenglein, Mark (Committee member)
Arizona State University (Publisher)
Theses and Dissertations 8
Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection 7
ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations 1
Arboviral Vector Control 1
Bacteriophage 1
Cell Biology 1
Drug Resistance 1
Erwinia Cacticida 1
Genome 1
Insecticide Resistance 1
Insecticide Toxicity 1
Molecular Biology 1
Phage Therapy 1
Phenotype 1
Saguaro 1
Soft Rot 1
Temperature 1
Virology 1
Academic theses 1
Masters Thesis 1


Tea Is For Turtle: Competition! Turtle's New Shell.
Don't tell him, but frankly Zebra just can't take Turtle's plain old ways any longer.
So Zebra's running a sneaky competition to give Turtle a new look.
Zebra wants you to help him decorate Turtle's shell.
Take a photo of your entry and upload it to the It Belongs To Turtle Flickr Pool.
The competition closes at midnight on Thursday 29th July.
There will be 3 winners chosen by a special guest judge and they will be announced on Friday 30th July.
What's up for the win?
Have fun, and leave a comment with a link to your picture.
It might look familiar, but it's a fine shell.
Wow! Do you mind if your picture gets added to the Flickr pool?
Sure, that's why it's there.
There's also this one now.
They can both go in, multiple entries are welcome! I love the raised eyebrow in that second one.
Just added my Spotty N Stripy entry!
Turtle is most pleased. Most pleased indeed.
I have just sent an entry to design your new shell to Tiger's email.
I hope you like my design?


text:
Q: MakeRasterLayer failing with error codes 000622 and 000628? I am importing a raster file and then saving the layer file. This script has worked fine previously, but after changing some input file paths, it has stopped working. Arc finds the inputs, but then has an error code at the make raster layer point related to the input parameters: error codes 000622 and 000628. After making the raster layer I save the layer file, and do other steps, but I have only included the script to the point where it fails.
    # Import arcpy module
    import arcpy

    # Import system modules
    import sys, string, os, arcgisscripting

    # Create the Geoprocessor object
    gp = arcgisscripting.create()
    gp.Overwriteoutput = 1

    # Set Workspace
    arcpy.env.workspace = r"S:\Map_Creation"

    # Set overwrite option
    arcpy.env.overwriteOutput = True

    # Local variables:
    InputRaster = "C:\\Asc_Conversion\\rasters\\r001d1b1_dr0"
    ExtentFile = "S:\\01.RIM\\Final_Extent_Outputs\\r001d1b1_ext_r0.shp"
    RasLayerTemp = "Depth"

    # Process: Make Raster Layer
    arcpy.MakeRasterLayer_management(InputRaster, RasLayerTemp, "", ExtentFile, "")

A: The ERROR 000628: Cannot set input into parameter envelope. Failed to execute error indicates that the wrong data type is being used for a parameter, specifically the envelope parameter for this tool.
On at least one code example (in version 9.3) the envelope is a set of extent numbers separated by spaces. Try to either modify to use specific numbers or get the extent of that shapefile via Describe. Pass the extent to Make Raster Layer.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Riding the Kawasaki ZX-10R, the Lincolnshire rider completed the first lap in 13th place but by the third lap, half race distance, he was up into tenth place and closing in on the group of riders in front of him. Indeed, as the race entered its second half, he was part of a thrilling four-rider battle for sixth place.
On the fourth lap, he posted a new personal best lap of the 7.4-mile public road circuit at 131.072mph, comfortably quicker than his previous best, and he was circulating in close company with former Ulster Grand Prix winners William Dunlop and Keith Amor as well as former RC Express Racing rider Dean Harrison.
Going into the final lap, less than a second covered the quartet and the battle for sixth was wide open but long time race leader Guy Martin crashed out at Ireland's which brought out the reg flag, thus ending the race prematurely. With the result going back to the end of the fifth lap, it meant Ivan was awarded eighth place, a great start to his week at Dundrod.
Ivan has a busy day in Saturday's Ulster Grand Prix with outings in the Superbike, Supersport, Superstock and Supertwin races.


All Are Precious In His Sight: Merry Christmas!
Please forgive me for not posting blog updates throughout most of 2014. Around Easter, God asked me to enter a season of quiet with regards to this blog. He didn't tell me to shut the blog down, just to enter a season of rest with Him. I wasn't sure if that would be a temporary season or a permanent thing, and I still don't have clear direction from Him.
One thing I've really struggled with is how this blog can be both encouraging and discouraging. So many of you have contacted me to urge me to update our blog because you have been so encouraged and inspired by our family and our updates.
However, I've also received many messages that have led me to believe our blog and updates can actually be a discouragement to families who compare their family to ours. Don't get me wrong, no one has outright said anything about our family being discouraging in any way, I've just been pondering some of the comments of followers and asking God to show me if this blog season is finished, as I would never want our family to become a measuring stick for another family. (For example, there are many families who have left comments sharing how they want their family to be larger, to have more internationally adopted children, to have more children with special needs, etc.) I just don't want to become anyone's measuring stick or idol, and I want God to show me His will for this blog.
In the meantime, as I wait for God's direction for this blog, I want to let all of you know our family is doing well. Many of you have contacted me privately to let me know you're praying for us, and to inquire about us to make sure we're doing okay. Thank you all so much for your prayers and support. We're so blessed by you! I've tried to respond to each individual message I've received to let you know our family is doing well, but I may have missed some. Please forgive me if you contacted me and didn't hear back from me; I truly have intended to reply to each message and I truly appreciate each of you who have taken the time to track me down and ask how our family is doing!
As you know, God called us to adopt two children in 2014. If you'll notice in our family picture, there's a precious new bundle of love who joined our family this year--Ruby Jean (pictured between Mommy and Daddy in our family photo above).
The other child God called us to adopt, should be joining our family January 2015! We have worked diligently to adopt our Lillie Pearl before she ages out Feb. 9, 2015, and Satan has worked just as diligently to try to delay and derail her adoption. I was even carjacked on the way to FedEx our adoption dossier in September! So crazy, but no weapon formed against us shall prosper (Isaiah 54:17), and we trust God in ALL situations. He rarely calls us to easy, and He writes such amazing testimonies for each of our adoption journeys. What a joy it is to follow Him in this journey He's called us to!
We would greatly appreciate your prayers for Lillie Pearl's adoption to be finalized before her 14th birthday (Feb 9, 2015--the day she would age out of the adoption system in China and not be eligible for adoption once she turns 14). We are at the very end stages of all approvals, but Satan continues to throw his fiery darts to try to delay this adoption. I am so excited to see what world-changing plans God must have for our Lillie Pearl since the enemy has been trying so hard to delay and derail her adoption.
We have some AWESOME shirt fundraisers friends put together to help us raise the remaining funds for Lillie Pear's adoption, but you'll have to hurry and order because this fundraiser ends THIS Sunday, December 7, 2014.
Click HERE to order your shirts--hurry and order by Dec. 7! All proceeds from each sale will go directly into Lillie Pearl's adoption fund.
We also have short-sleeved unisex Comfort Colors tees sporting a message customized for our Lillie PEARL. :-) These tees are super high quality, thick garment-dyed cotton shirts that hold up to wash after wash, wear after wear. These are also available in youth and adult sizes. Click HERE to order.
Or if you don't want a shirt, but want to support our adoption of Lillie Pearl, you may make a tax-deductible donation HERE (be sure to select "The Patterson Family").
Also, I'm excited to announce our orphan ministry in memory of our beloved daughter, Chrissie, is now an official non-profit 501(c)3 organization! If you'd like to make a tax-deductible donation to Boss Your Heart Orphan Ministries, you may do so HERE. Or see the right sidebar of this blog for a link to make a monthly tax-deductible donation. All donations help orphans in memory of Chrissie.
And, last, but not least, Boss Your Heart Orphan Ministries is now a charity featured on Amazon Smile! Click HERE to shop via Amazon Smile and 0.5% of your purchases will be donated to Boss Your Heart Orphan Ministries, to help orphans in memory of Chrissie! This is the SAME Amazon you know and love--same products, same prices, only better because your purchases give back and help make a difference in the lives of orphans! Once you select Boss Your Heart Orphan Ministries as the charity you'd like to support, every time you shop via Amazon Smile, your purchases will help support our ministry! It's so easy and now your purchases can make a difference for an orphan! Can't get better than that!
So that's about all I have for now. So grateful for each of you! May you and yours have a very merry Christmas and most abundantly blessed 2015!


De Broglie's 1922 doctoral thesis introduced his theory of electron waves, including the wave-particle theory based on the work of Einstein and Planck. In 1924 he speculated that all matter, not just light, has the properties of both particles and waves (wave-particle duality). His theories, which were later confirmed by the discovery of electron diffraction by crystals in 1927 by Davisson and Germer, were later used by Erwin Schrodinger as the basis for the development of wave mechanics, a new field in physics. Between 1930 and 1950, his work was mainly concerned with the study of various extensions of wave mechanics such as Dirac's theory of the electron, the new theory of light, spin particles and the application of wave mechanics to nuclear physics. He also worked to develop a causal explanation of wave mechanics.
In 1952 UNESCO awarded him the first Kalinga Prize for his efforts to explain aspects of modern physics to the general public. In 1956 he received the gold medal of the French National Scientific Research Centre. He was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences of the French Institute in 1933, and in 1942 became its Permanent Secretary for the mathematical sciences. De Broglie held the Grand Cross of the Légion d'Honneur and was an Officer of the Order of Leopold of Belgium. He was an honorary doctor of the Universities of Warsaw, Bucharest, Athens, Lausanne, Quebec, and Brussels, and a member of 18 foreign academies in Europe, India, and the USA.
Some of the information on this page is based on content at Nobelprize.org © The Nobel Foundation.