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NATIONAL POETRY MONTH E-NEWSLETTER
Hello, all, It's national poetry month, and so there are many events, too many to list here. We have workshops, readings, and two poetry festivals to look forward to. I am also constantly adding new links. Just in the past few days I have linked to David Ronen, Full of Crow Press, Portland's Writers Dojo, and others. Tammy Robacker is holding things down in Tacoma. If you'd like to read her National Poetry Month blog, go to http://weeklyvolcano.typepad.com/spew/2009/04/welcome-to-poematacoma.html In May, the Vancouver, WA poetry community will welcome California poets Joanne Kyger, David Meltzer, and Michael Rothenberg. We will be one stop on a poetry road trip. Kyger, Meltzer, and Rothenberg will appear at Clark College and cover to Cover Books. This is an event that is not to be missed. Please contact me if you are able to donate any money toward their expenses. Meltzer and Rothenberg are also scheduled to be at the WPA Spring Festival (see below). If enough people don't sign up, these great workshops will have to be canceled. April's featured reader at Cover to Cover will be the Spare Room Collective's David Abel, one of Portland's most active poetry event organizers. Info below: Open Mic Poetry hosted by Christopher Luna 7:00pm Thursday, April 9, 2009 (and every second Thursday) Cover to Cover Books 1817 Main Street, Vancouver (McLoughlin Blvd. & Main Street) For more info call 514-0358 or 694-9653 or email christopherjluna@gmail.com "always all ages and uncensored" Featuring David Abel: David Abel is a writer, performer, and multidisciplinary artist, as well as an editor, bookseller, and curator/organizer. Born in Salt Lake City in 1956, he has lived in Utah, Florida, New York, California, New Mexico, and Oregon. As an undergraduate at Deep Springs College, Bard College, and New Mexico State University, he studied language, literature, and music; in 1984 he was a member of the first class to graduate from the interdisciplinary MFA program of the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, where he pursued studies in poetry, music, and video. Abel was involved in the "downtown" literary and music communities in New York City in the 1980s, appearing often with composers and artists such as Jackson Mac Low, Franz Kamin, Charlie Morrow, and others. He edited the newsletter for the New Wilderness Ocarina Orchestra and assembled the book-and-media store for the 12th Annual International Sound Poetry Festival in 1980; opened and operated the Bridge Bookshop from 1987–89; and co-directed Granary Books gallery and shop in 1990–91. From 1994–96 Abel maintained Passages Bookshop and Gallery in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he also organized the Tangents Reading Series. In 1997, he moved to Portland, Oregon. In Portland, he has collaborated with many individuals and organizations on literary, music, film, theater, and intermedia projects. Abel was a member of the Four Wall Cinema Collective (2002–03), and is a founder and member of the Spare Room reading series (www.flim.com/spareroom), now in its eighth year. Abel is the author of numerous chapbooks and artist's books including Twenty- (Crane's Bill Books), Let Us Repair (with Anna Daedalus; wax paper scissors), Black Valentine (Chax), and Threnos (with Katherine Kuehn). In the spring of 2007 he curated the exhibition By All Means: Artist's Books and Objects for the New American Art Union (www.newamericanartunion.com), and produced and edited the collection of artists' multiples that served as the catalogue of the exhibition. He has also contribued poems, essays, and reviews to magazines, anthologies, and exhibition catalogues. This is the word before the word is by David Abel There is no word before this; that is, before this is the word nothing like the word is. The words before the word is become the words after the word after the word is. Before before the word was after this is. After the word before the word before the word is before before the word is. After the words after the word is are the words before the words before the word is.
Poetry for the people, Christopher Luna APRIL POETRY E-NEWSLETTER TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Upcoming readings featuring Judith Arcana (Portland) 2. Austrian poet Lilian Faschinger at the Univ. of Portland's Buckley Center April 8 3. Dan Fisher & Rodney Koeneke at The Waypost (Portland) April 11 4. David Ronen reads from "Your Face Is a Kiss" at Mint Tea (Vancouver) April 11 5. BRAVE NEW WORDS POETRY FESTIVAL on Whidbey Island April 18 6. WPA Spring Festival at the Hugo House April 25 7. DOWNSTREAM: WRITING WITH THE CURRENT workshop with Paulann Petersen Sundays, 12-3 pm, April 26-May 31 SUBMISSION CALLS: ProtestPoems.org, The Chiron Review, The Other Journal 1. From Judith Arcana Hello Everybody ........ I trust you all are planning to be even more lyrical than usual in APRIL, National Poetry Month. There'll be many occasions to celebrate by committing poetry; this note is about a few of them. On April 1st, the day annually consecrated to fools (and therefore poets, I guess), I'll be part of a quartet: Verlena Orr, Valentina Gnup, Liz Nakazawa & I are reading at the Blackbird Wineshop in Portland at 7pm ....... On April 7th, I'll be part of a duet: at Broadway Books in Portland, Judith Barrington and I will read from Grace Paley's last book, FIDELITY, first published seven months after her death and right this minute coming out in paperback .....with the aid of remarkable devices, we'll also play a recording of Grace herself, reading one of her best-loved poems. On April 24th, I'll be one of this year's featured poets at the excellent & delightful Silverton Poetry Festival at 7pm ..... join us in Silverton! Check my website EVENTS page for info/details on these + other stuff: http://juditharcana.com/index.php/arc/events/ 2. From Laura McLary: A reading by Lilian Faschinger Wednesday, April 8 4:30 p.m. Buckley Center, Room 310 5000 N. Willamette Blvd. University of Portland www.up.edu Free and open to the public Austrian writer Lilian Faschinger is a prolific author, poet, and translator. Faschinger typically incorporates into her works a rigorous critique of Austrian society and customs, as viewed from a woman's perspective. She will read from her most recent work. Faschinger has written three novels, two radio plays, two volumes of short stories, a volume of poetry, and completed multiple translations from English-speaking authors. Her first novel "Die Neue Scheherazade" (The New Scheherazade, 1985) attracted considerable critical recognition. Her 2007 novel, "Stadt der Verlierer," (Town Full of Losers), written in 2007, won the Friedrich Glauser Prize for best (German) crime novel of the year in 2008. Presented by the University's Foreign Languages Department. For more information, call professor Laura McLary at 503.943.7264 or email mclary@up.edu. 3. from Jesse Morse: Smorg presents a reading by Dan Fisher & Rodney Koeneke Saturday, April 11 7:30 pm The Waypost 3120 N. Williams Ave. Free Food, beer, wine, and espresso all available at The Waypost. http://www.smorgreadingseries.blogspot.com http://www.thewaypost.com Dan Fisher lives on the island in the East Bay. An island that has 4 bridges and a tunnel. He makes poems and some of them have appeared in Bay Poetics, Viz, Work, Cricket Online Review, Lament, and some other places too. He also makes collages under the name Fish Fishtofferson. He works for Upward Bound at Mills College in Oakland. He's never been to Portland. Rodney Koeneke is the author of the poetry collections Musee Mechanique (BlazeVOX, 2006) and Rouge State (Pavement Saw, 2003). A new chapbook, Rules for Drinking Forties, is just out from Cy Press. His poems have been included in Abraham Lincoln, Jacket, New American Writing, ZYZZYVA, and other publications, and in the anthologies Bay Poetics and the Flarf primer due out this fall. He lives in Portland, where he curates the Tangent Reading Series with poets Kaia Sand and Jules Boykoff. This reading will be the Portland launch for Rules for Drinking Forties. 4. Poetry Reading, Singing, and Book Signing with Afternoon Tea with David Ronen reading from "Your Face Is a Kiss" Saturday, April 11, 3-4pm Mint Tea 2014 Main St., Uptown Village Vancouver, WA ATTN PDX'ers: Very Easy to get to from Portland! :-) Just 3 minutes from the I-5 Bridge!!! Here's the write-up: You're invited to you enjoy David Ronen, local author, healer, and creative mystic share selections from his inspiring book of poem-meditations, "Your Face Is a Kiss : Discovering the Miracles of Being". David (and perhaps a mystery guest!) will read selected poems with flair and passion - requests welcome. David has also written some lovely and engaging music to go with some of his poems and will sing them accompanied by acoustic guitar. Signed books will be available for purchase from Mint Tea, as well a wonderful selection of organic and ethically harvested teas and yummy sweet and savory treats. Some of the poems include: "Who's Going to Tell You You're Beautiful" "At the Gate of My Beloved" "Blue Chains (Anchor into Nothing)" "We Both Doubt and Secretly Cherish Our Divinity" and more! "David shares his heart in a joyful and loving manner that inspires self-reflection and self-acceptance. Lyrical and moving!" Rick Marshall All welcome, including kids. The reading is Free. Tea and treats available for purchase from Mint Tea Restaurant. 5. Brave New Words Saturday April 18, 2009 The Celebration of Inspiration! All-Day, All-Event Tickets Only $15 for Adults, $5 for Students! At Whidbey Island's historic Greenbank Farm. An exceptional event in an exceptional location! Performers in Order of Appearance Morning and Early Afternoon 10:00 AM - 1 PM 10 AM to 11:30 AM "Page to the Stage" Workshop taught by Matt Gano 11:30 AM to 1 PM Open Mic - Hosted by David Ossman, Judith Walcutt & Preston Ossman ----------------------- 30 Minute Break 1 PM to 1:45 PM A break to mingle, eat, and stretch ----------------------- Mid-Afternoon Performers 1:45 PM - 4 PM … Emcee Molly Cook … Swil Kamin … Arianne Bergman … Terry Martin … Kim-An Lieberman … Whidbey Youth Poetry Idol Winners … Michael Daley ----------------------- Late-Afternoon Performers 4 PM - 6 PM … Tim McNulty … MC John Burgess … Whidbey Youth Poetry Idol Winners … "La Jefa": Pesha Gertler, Felicia Gonzalez, Jourdan Keith, and JT Stewart ----------------------- Evening Performers 6 PM - 8:00 PM … Stephen Roxborough … Lorraine Healy … Oleh Lysiak … Colleen McElroy … Suheir Hammad Brave New Words operates under the auspices of Greenbank Farm, a qualified 501 C-3. All donations to BNW are tax deductible. Please send donations to: Brave New Words 765 Wonn Road - #C-103 Greenbank, WA 98253 … Please make out checks to: "Greenbank Farm / BNW" … Under "memo" please write: "For Brave New Words" Greenbank Farm, is located on Whidbey Island, at the corner of State Highway 525 and Wonn Road in Greenbank, 18 miles north of the Clinton Ferry dock. Accommodations: (Langley, Freeland and Greenbank Addresses will be closest to the festival site) For more information: Victory Lee Schouten 360-331-7099 or 360-222-3070 victory@robschoutengallery.com 6. WPA Spring Festival at the Hugo House Around the World in Poetry: A Translation Experiment Saturday 25 April 10am – 10pm On Saturday 25 April 2009, the WPA brings its annual Spring Festival to The Richard Hugo House in Seattle with a full day of workshops – a morning workshop in translation and two afternoon workshops in poetry - followed by a participatory, main-stage event showcasing poetry in multiple languages and a multi-genre translation experiment, mixing poetry, performance, drawing, dance, sound and floral arts. Don't miss this experiment! Pre-register for all morning and afternoon workshops online at Brown Paper Tickets or by calling (206) 225-6555. The main-stage event begins at 8pm. Cost is $10 at the door. All are welcome to attend a very special, pre-show reading & panel discussion on translation, moderated by literary journalist Dave Jarcki, with visiting guests David Meltzer and Michael Rothenberg and with local literary translator Andrea Lingenfelter. The pre-show, at 7pm in the Hugo House Theatre, is included in your evening ticket cost. Please join us! Festival Activities & Fees 10am 2-hr Translation Workshop Andrea Lingenfelter Meet at Hugo House 9:45am Pre-Registration required / Register now $60 workshop There are at least as many ways to translate a poem as there are readers of that poem. Work through a poem from the source language (Chinese) to English with an experienced translator of Chinese poetry. We will look at different aspects of the poem and the discuss some of the problems, both practical and theoretical, that translators encounter in the course of the translation process. No knowledge of a foreign language required. Instructor will bring materials. Supplies: students should bring paper and something to write with. This class will meet at Hugo House at 9:45am on Saturday 25 April. This is the first workshop of the 2009 Spring Poetry Festival. Afterward this class, students are invited to return to The Hugo House for a welcome message and a social with poets Sam Green, David Meltzer and Michael Rothenberg. They are also welcome at the 4pm open mic. 12pm Welcome & Social Hour Sam Green, David Meltzer & Michael Rothenberg Hugo House Cabaret / Refreshments / Address by WPA president Angel Latterell Open to the public 1pm 3-hr Poetry Workshop with Sam Green Meet at Hugo House Pre-Registration required / Register now $100 per workshop This workshop will concentrate on the intimate art of observation in the every day. How do we translate the abstract preoccupations of our lives (love, anger, political estrangement, grief) into concrete terms? How do we translate our relationship with the physical world into comprehensible order? The workshop will explore both methodology and forms for approaching these and other concerns. We will be looking at African forms, Irish forms, the small forms of Japanese and Chinese poets, as well as certain contemporary Americans. 1pm 3-hr Poetry Workshop with David Meltzer Meet at Hugo House Pre-Registration required / Register now $100 per workshop 1pm 3-hr Poetry Workshop with Michael Rothenberg Meet at Hugo House Pre-Registration required / Register now $100 per workshop 4pm Open Mic (Featuring workshop students & teachers) Hugo House Cabaret Open to the public 7pm PRE-SHOW Meltzer / Rothenberg Reading & Translation Panel Discussion moderated by Dave Jarecki Hugo House Theatre Open to the public 8-10pm THE MAIN EVENT Around the World of Poetry: An Experiment in Translation Christian Swenson, Keely Isaak Meehan, Linden Ontjes & Barbara Ann Allin Hugo House Theatre $10 at the door / Reserve a ticket MAIN EVENT Around the World of Poetry: An Experiment in Translation Featuring: Christian Swenson, Keely Isaak Meehan, Linden Ontjes & Barbara Ann Allin 8-10 pm/Hugo House Theatre $10 at the door or at Brown Paper Tickets Pre-purchase recommended "The words on paper are only a tool, they are only a medium, they are only something that is meant to help me get to the original language, to the original poem" -Kai Nieminen On Translation a lecture a Naropa University Sit back and listen to the sounds of poetry as we bring you a stage full of international readers (Mongolian poetry, Mandarin poetry, Italian poetry…) followed by a cross-genre experimentation in translation (movement, voice, sound, flowers…). Our aim will be to carry a single poem across multiple genres. How many times can you translate a thing without losing its meaning? The source-poem, chosen in secret by our performers, will be revealed to you at the end of the evening. If someone were to dance you a poem, or draw one, or make it into a floral arrangement, would you be able to write it again? Would its message carry across? We want to know. Come listen, watch and feel a poem as it moves across genres with artists Christian Swenson, Keely Isaak Meehan and Linden Ontjes. Afterwards, we'll ask you to rewrite that poem and contribute it to a 3-d poetry sculpture. Special "whispering" appearances by David Meltzer and Michael Rothenberg. This event produced by A. K. "Mimi" Allin. Open to the public for a fee of $10. Wine bar. WORKSHOP TEACHER BIOS Samuel Green, Washington State Poet Laureate SAMUEL GREEN was born in Sedro-Woolley, Washington, and raised in the nearby fishing and mill town of Anacortes. After four years in the military, including service in Antarctica and South Vietnam, he attended college under the Veterans Vocational Rehabilitation Program, earning degrees from Highline Community College and Western Washington University (B.A. & M.A.). A 30-year veteran of the Poetry-in-the-Schools program, he has taught in literally hundreds of classrooms. He has also taught at Southern Utah University, Western Wyoming Community College, and served six terms as Distinguished Visiting Northwest Writer at Seattle University, including six summers in Ireland. Poems have appeared in hundreds of journals, including Poetry, Poetry Northwest, Poet & Critic, Poetry East, Southern Poetry Review, Prairie Schooner, and Puerto del Sol. Among his ten collections of poems are Vertebrae: Poems 1972-1994 (Eastern Washington University Press) and The Grace of Necessity (Carnegie-Mellon University Press), which won the 2008 Washington State Book Award for Poetry. He has lived for 26 years off the grid on remote Waldron Island off the Washington coast in a log house he built himself, and is, with his wife, Sally, Co-Editor of the award-winning Brooding Heron Press. In December, 2007, he was named by Governor Christine Gregoire to a two-year term as the first Poet Laureate for the State of Washington, and in January of 2009, he was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry. David Meltzer DAVID MELTZER is one of the key poets of the Beat generation. Meltzer is also a jazz guitarist and Cabalist scholar and the author of more than 50 books of poetry and prose. 2005 saw the publication of David's Copy: The Selected Poems of David Meltzer (edited by Michael Rothenberg, with an introduction by Jerome Rothenberg), which provides a current "overview" of Meltzer's work. Meltzer's Beat Thing (La Alameda Press) is his epic poem on the Beat generation. Meltzer teaches at the New College of California in the Poetics Program, which was originally founded by Duncan. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Michael Rothenberg MICHAEL ROTHENBERG is an American poet, songwriter, editor, and active environmentalist in the San Francisco Bay Area. Born in Miami Beach, Florida, Rothenberg received his Bachelor of Arts in English at UNC-Chapel Hill. Afterward, he moved to California in 1976, where he began "Shelldance Nursery", an orchid and bromeliad nursery. In 1993 he received his MA in Poetics at New College of California. In 1989, Rothenberg and artist Nancy Davis began Big Bridge Press, a fine print literary press, publishing works by Jim Harrison, Joanne Kyger, Allen Ginsberg, Philip Whalen and others. Rothenberg is co-editor and co-founder of Jack Magazine. His books include Unhurried Vision, Paris Journals, What The Fish Saw, Nightmare Of The Violins, Man/Woman w/Joanne Kyger, and Favorite Songs. Andrea Lingenfelter ANDREA LINGENFELTER is a poet and translator of contemporary Chinese poetry, fiction and film subtitles. She has lived and worked in China and travels there regularly to meet with writers and buy books. Her translations of contemporary Chinese poetry have appeared in a number of literary journals and anthologies. She is the translator of the novels Candy by Mian Mian (Back Bay Books), and Farewell My Concubine by Lilian Lee (William Morrow and Company). In the spring of 2008, she received a Pen Translation Fund Grant to translate Annie Baobei's 2006 novel, Padma. She is currently working on a collection of translations of poetry by Zhai Yongming for Zephyr Press. Future projects include Wang Anyi's novel Qimeng shidai (The Age of Enlightenment) and a volume of translations of work by Shanghai poet Wang Yin. MAIN EVENT ARTIST BIOS BARBARA ANN ALLIN is an artist, designer and gardener specializing in found and stolen materials. She has the knack for composing pieces that impact entire communities. Her work is often small and random, some might say a gift. She lives in Pennsylvania. KEELY ISAAK MEEHAN is a Seattle-based movement and video artist and the founding artistic director of Manifold Motion. Focusing on collaborative and interdisciplinary temporal art, her work is frequently improvisational, exploring the use of structure and fluidity as a means to draw great performance out of the moment. Keely has earned a Professional Diploma in Dance Studies from the Laban Centre: London, a BA in Dance from Oberlin College, and a Certificate in Arts Management from the University of Washington. She is currently studying to become a Certified Movement Analyst with Laban/Bartenieff & Somatic Studies International. In addition to her work with Manifold Motion, Keely works as a solo movement artist and has performed recently with the Asterisk Project and Kate Watson-Wallace/anonymous bodies. Her newest production with Manifold Motion, Woolgatherer, premieres May 2-10, 2009 at the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center. LINDEN ONTJES creates poetry installations that include visual, theatrical, and literary elements. Her most recent poetry installations include: Three Confessional Poets and the Dirty Laundry Machine at Artopia; Alfred Jarry's Interior Designs and Window Treatments at the Smoke Farm Festival; A Cup o' Joe at Bumbershoot; Miss Fortune and the Misfortune Cookies at Synchronicity: An Indie Press Sideshow; The National Grilled Cheese Poetry Booth at the Seattle Poetry Festival at the Richard Hugo House; and Limericks on Sticks, an installation of John Haines' political protest limericks on ersatz Burma Shave signs along the route to the Dredge Festival in Fairbanks, Alaska. Linden served as General Director of Eleventh Hour Productions, a literary arts nonprofit from 2005 – 2008; as Arts Representative on the Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce from 2006 – 2007; and as a current member of the Smoke Farm steering committee COW. From 2004 -2006, she served as the Poetry Editor of the Seattle Review. Currently, she teaches poetry at the Hutch School for Seattle Arts & Lectures' WITS program. Linden received individual artist awards in 2008 from 4Culture and Poets & Writers. Her many poetry publication credits include Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, Nimrod, Arcade, Phoebe, The Louisville Review, The Exquisite Corpse, Poetry Daily, Cranky, Filter, The Comstock Review, RE:AL, and Atlanta Review. She has published literary criticism in The Writer's Chronicle, the Seattle Review, Cranky, Fairbanks Daily News Mine, and Page to Page: Retrospectives of Writers from the Seattle Review. She is the author of an illustrated novel-in-verse, Muluc. For more information. www.mulucthehero.com. CHRISTIAN SWENSON has an extensive background in dance, mime, voice and improvisation. He is known for his pioneering work in what he calls "Human Jazz", a global fusion of dance/drama/music for body and voice. In 1977 he received a BA in Theater from the University of New Hampshire and moved to Seattle to work with the Bill Evans Dance Company. Further training has included work with Tony Montanaro; Diane Schenker; Ruth Zapora; Korean shaman, Hi-ah Park, and with the late Pakistani master-singer, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. He has performed with Bill Irwin, The Seattle Symphony Orchestra, and The Jay Clayton/Jim Knapp Collective and in Europe with Jim Nollman of Interspecies Communication Inc. He presently teaches in the Theater programs at Seattle University. For the past 25 years he has been performing creations for the body and voice searching for a more global aesthetic. Since 1980 he has been a touring artist visiting communities and schools in the Northwest and beyond. He has performed and taught throughout North America and in Europe, and Asia. Christian released his first compact disc, "Off-Road Vocals" in 2000. As a guest artist he has been seen as: The Monster in The Minnesota Opera's production of "Frankenstein", at New York's "Serious Fun at Lincoln Center" and "The New York Improvisation Festival", with The Flying Karamazov Brother's "New Old Time Chautauqua " and the 2002 "Rolling Thunder Down Home Democracy Tour" and has been heard on National Public Radio's "Sandy Bradley's Potluck. He was a teacher/ performer at the 2005 American College Dance Festival in Buffalo, NY and at the 1998 "Body & Soul Northwest" Conference. For three years he has been a Vocalist with the Integrated Music Program at two Seattle hospitals and is a founding member of the improvisational ensemble Molten Vocals. He is also a member of the PlayBack Theater group, Threshold Ensemble. Christian has received Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Washington State Arts Commission and Artist Trust of Washington. He resides happily in Seattle with his wife, Abigail, and two children. 7. DOWNSTREAM: WRITING WITH THE CURRENT Join Paulann Petersen in a poetry workshop dedicated to creation, reflection, and craft. Using notable poems as springboards, we'll turn ourselves loose in the river of words, letting language carry us along in its current. Each session, we'll generate some new work. We'll also look at your poems (either ones you've written in our workshop, or earlier ones you've brought with you) for possible ways to strengthen them through revision. The word "revision" offers us a bracing truth. To truly revise is to do much more than mere editing and tinkering: it's learning to see our poems anew, moving them toward their strengths. I'll use critiques as opportunities for short lessons, addressing issues of craft raised by the particular poem we're looking at. We'll be lingering in a few eddies, examining significant elements of craft such as line integrity, dramatic strategy, voice and trope. My goal is to have each participant leave the workshop with both an outpouring of new material, and some new--or newly honed--tools for revision. This workshop is open to writers of all levels of experience. Sundays, 12-3 pm, April 26th to May 31st Please go to http://atticwritersworkshop.com/workshop/downstream-writing-current SUBMISSION CALLS 1. Call for poems: protestpoems.org http://web.mac.com/renkat/Site/Protest_Poems.html About us: protestpoems.org is a poetry journal entirely devoted to, and fully committed to, new poetry that tackles human rights issues worldwide. The journal strives to present the best poems of protest written to promote freedom of speech and human rights. It is updated fortnightly. We publish a maximum six poems a month to keep a steady flow of relevant protests. Although we update the journal often, we are very selective. We are looking for edge. The website and mailing lists provide information about persecuted writers, along with letters of protest ready for our subscribers to cut and paste. To receive emails (once a month, on average) with protest information focused on a specific persecuted writer, send an email to (replace (at) with @). Please write SUBSCRIBE in your subject line. Submission guidelines: It's simple. We're not looking for partisan propganda. We're not looking for party-political mouthings. We're not looking for sentimental depictions of what you see on the TV. We're not looking for rhyming greetings card verses. We want you to champion, not yourselves, but human rights; the rights of those who don't have the freedom to write and speak as we do. Rage. Celebrate. Mourn. Demand. Scream. Dance. Formal complaints are especially exciting. There's something wonderfully subversive about a villanelle that attacks a government deliberately making the same mistake over and over again. If you need to be inspired, read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Then check out any objective newsfeed or news site. Paste your poems (a maximum of 3 one-page poems), into the body of an email and send to write(at)protestpoems.org. If necessary, you can email a single .doc or .rtf file containing all the poems you are submitting. Include a brief bio. We will accept poems previously published on paper, as long as you hold the copyright. We will not accept poems which are already (or have previously been) published online (including blogs). We will publish a poet only once a year. If your poem deals with a specific call for action, or commemorates a specific person, please let us know. Publication dates for the first half of 2009 are : 11 Apr 25 Apr 09 May 23 May 06 Jun 20 Jun 2. The editors of CHIRON REVIEW are reading submissions for an "All Punk Poetry" issue to be published Dec. 2009. Poetry, fiction, b/w line art, comics/cartoons, photos, nonfiction, whatever should be sent via snailmail with self-addressed, stamped envelope for reply/return to: Chiron Review, Attn: PUNK, 522 E. South Ave., St. John, KS 67576. Name and complete mailing address should appear on every poem, story, etc. Deadline: Sept. 1, 2009. Material is copyrighted in author's/artist's name. Payment: one contributor's copy with 50% discount on additional copies. http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Nook/1748/chiron1.htm Chiron Review is open for submissions year-round. Postal submissions with name, complete mailing address (on every poem), and SASE are welcome at Chiron Review, 522 E. South Ave., St. John, KS 67576-2212. Writers are invited to send up to 5 poems, 1 long poem, or 1 short-story. We're also open to reviews, interviews, black and white art and photography, and essays of interest to writers and the small press literary community. We ask writers to limit submissions to four times a year or less. We do not consider simultaneous or previously published submissions; nor do we consider e-mail submissions though exception is made for book reviews and foreign/overseas submissions. CR copyrights in author's name, all rights revert to author upon publication. Pay is one contributor's copy. 3. The Other Journal seeks submissions of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction for our upcoming issue on Beauty and Aesthetics. http://www.theotherjournal.com/ Deadline has been extended from March 15 to April 10, 2009 We seek poems, short stories, and creative nonfiction that explore the beauty, especially its cultural and theological incarnations. As we navigate the many faces of beauty, we will explore the nature, function, and end of beauty. We expect this issue to address such questions as How is the body understood in Western culture? Why does beauty matter? And what does beauty have to do with issues of justice and reconciliation? All submissions should be sent via email to (replace (at) with @) with "TOJ Submission" written in the subject line. Please indicate the genre of your submission in the subject line of your email and submit your work as Microsoft Word or rich text format documents. Submissions that are pasted directly into the text of an email rather than an attached document may not be considered. Send up to six poems or one piece of prose at a time. Fiction submissions may include short stories or self-contained novel excerpts, and creative nonfiction submissions may include personal essays or memoirs. Because we are an online journal, we take a special interest in short prose submissions, especially pieces that are less than 2,500 words. We will consider simultaneous submissions, but please indicate they have been simultaneously submitted elsewhere and let us know right away if you are withdrawing them from consideration. For more info: http://theotherjournal.com/info.php?page=submissions Editorial statement: The Other Journal welcomes the submission of critical essays, reviews, creative writing, and visual or performance art that encounter life through the lens of theology and culture; we seek pieces that consider the interaction of faith with contemporary life, art, politics, sexuality, technology, economics, and social justice. We are particularly interested in works which present creative, alternative views that may otherwise fall outside the margins of mainstream narratives. And although we primarily focus on perspectives within the Christian tradition, we invite dialogue with all who are interested in exploring the ongoing role of faith and spirituality in the world. The Other Journal Mars Hill Graduate School 2501 Elliott Ave Seattle, WA 98121
Labels: poetry readings, Portland (OR), Seattle (WA), submission calls, Tacoma (WA), Vancouver (WA), Whidbey Island, workshop
Children's Poetry/Diverse Voices at Giddens School...
Christine Eagon at Angst Gallery May 1-30
Collaboration between Paulann Petersen and Barbara...
California Poets David Meltzer and Michael Rothenb...
Alex Appella's Artist's Books created from Alaska ...
Contemporary Artist's Books and Broadsides at Coll...
Christopher Luna, Laura Winter, and Leanne Grabel ...
Christopher Luna featured in the Weekly Volcano (T...
Poems and collage art by Christopher Luna on Full ...
Mid-April Poetry Newsletter
David Abel at Cover to Cover Books TONIGHT at 7
Shawn Sorensen reviews Sage Cohen's Writing the Li...
Sage Cohen discusses "Writing the Life Poetic" in ...


1. Ebola: We were all going to die of it.
2. Bird Flu: We were all going to die of it.
3. Y2K: Our computers were all going to die of it.
4. Global Warming: We're still going to die of it, but it 's a more long term thing so only a few people are still on it. As a panic, it's SO yesterday.
5. Japan will take over the world: Until their economy went blooey.
6. China will take over the world: Still a working paranoid concept, but again, collective ADD has moved on.
7. Mad cow disease: We were all going to die of it as our brains leaked out of our ears.
8. AIDS: Anybody who ate in an upscale restaurant would probably get it.
9. Russsia would bury us: They said they would!
10. Nuclear War: The jury is still out on that one.
11. The recession will last for 10 years: As soon as we get over this swine flu thing, that could well be back, given the number of shorts who stand to profit by it.
Look, I gotta go. The day is young out here in California. We still have time for three or four mini-panics before our first martini. Have a calm weekend, huh?


"Annabelle Cooks Healthy" is Annabelle White's latest collection of recipes brining you more great cooking in the tradition of "Best Recipes", "Simply the Best" and "Annabelle Cooks". This title offers: light and refreshing breakfast ideas - buttermilk waffles with fruits salsa, bircher muesli and fresh fruit; brunch suggestions - seafood kedgeree, tuna, spinach and feta panini; inspired lunch ideas - Greek salad with tuna, salmon cakes; afternoon pick-me-ups - glazed lemon and buttermilk cake, deliciously reviving juices; and, fresh and vibrant dinners and desserts - slow cooker lamb shanks, steamed fish in white wine, wok-style vegetables and stir-fries, warm fruit salad. This title is presented in Annabelle's easy, can-do style using the latest appliances to save time and energy in the kitchen.


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Q: Which is better practice in regexp? So, I am writing a short (and simple) regular expression, but I can think of two possible ways to do it. They both seem like good conventions, but I am not sure which one is better.
What I want to achieve with this pattern (ordered hierarchically):

*

*Speed

*Readability

*Sexyness

The regexp needs to match for one of two characters(let's say they are # and ~) at the beginning of each line:

*

*^[#~]

*^(#|~) Edit: since ^#|~ didn't do what I wanted it, I corrected it.

I like both of them for different reasons (out of which most are aesthetic reasons); the bonus with the second one is that it's a byte shorter.
Thanks!

A: ^#|~ is not the same as ^[#~]. ^#|~ will match a ~ in the middle of the string because | has a lower precedence than ^. The correct way to express that is ^(?:#|~) or ^(#|~) if you don't mind about the extra capture group.
Comparing ^[#~]  to the corrected regex ^(?:#|~), I'd say the former totally wins out. (Normally a character class is more efficient than | because the latter is less specialized.)

A: This question has a false premise.  The two provided regex`s are not equivalent on all regex engines.

*

*^[#~]: This will match a # or ~ only at the start of a line

*^#|~: This will match a # at the start of the line and ~ anywhere in the string

Hence i would go with the first as it has the semantics you are looking for.
For Regex's, and really code in general, always prefer the more readable / expressive solution over a perceived performance benefit.  Only make performance choices when a profiler has demonstrated that the performance does indeed matter.

A: The fact that the second one is a byte shorter is, as you can imagine, not exactly relevant. I myself would use the first one (^[#~]) since a character class is very easy to understand.
(Also, as mentioned, the second one is not equivalent to the first one. But even if you could rewrite the second one, don't :p)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Summit Health Ltd v. J Pinhas
Summit Health Ltd v. J Pinhas by John Paul Stevens
663431Summit Health Ltd v. J Pinhas — SyllabusJohn Paul Stevens
Scalia
No. 89-1679 Argued: Nov. 26, 1990. --- Decided: May 28, 1991
Respondent Pinhas, an ophthalmologist on the staff of petitioner Midway Hospital Medical Center, filed a suit in the District Court, asserting a violation, inter alia, of § 1 of the Sherman Act by Midway and other petitioners, including several doctors. The amended complaint alleged, among other things, that petitioners conspired to exclude Pinhas from the Los Angeles ophthalmological services market when he refused to follow an unnecessarily costly surgical procedure used at Midway; that petitioners initiated peer-review proceedings against him which did not conform to congressional requirements and which resulted in the termination of his Midway staff privileges; that at the time he filed suit, petitioners were preparing to distribute an adverse report about him based on the peer-review proceedings; that the provision of ophthalmological services affects interstate commerce because both physicians and hospitals serve nonresident patients and receive reimbursement from Medicare; and that reports from peer-review proceedings are routinely distributed across state lines and affect doctors' employment opportunities throughout the Nation. The District Court dismissed the amended complaint, but the Court of Appeals reversed, rejecting petitioners' argument that the Act's jurisdictional requirements were not met because there was no allegation that interstate commerce would be affected by Pinhas' removal from Midway's staff. Rather, the court found that Midway's peer-review proceedings obviously affected the hospital's interstate commerce because they affected its entire staff, and that Pinhas need not make a particularized showing of the effect on interstate commerce caused by the alleged conspiracy.
Held: Pinhas' allegations satisfy the Act's jurisdictional requirements. To be successful, Pinhas need not allege an actual effect on interstate commerce. Because the essence of any § 1 violation is the illegal agreement itself, the proper analysis focuses upon the potential harm that would ensue if the conspiracy were successful, not upon actual consequences. And if the conspiracy alleged in the complaint is successful, as a matter of practical economics there will be a reduction in the provision of ophthalmological services in the Los Angeles market. Thus, petitioners erroneously contend that a boycott of a single surgeon, unlike a conspiracy to destroy a hospital department or a hospital, has no effect on interstate commerce because there remains an adequate supply of others to perform services for his patients. This case involves an alleged restraint on the practice of ophthalmological services accomplished by an alleged misuse of a congressionally regulated peer-review process, which has been characterized as the gateway controlling access to the market for Pinhas' services. When the competitive significance of respondent's exclusion from the market is measured, not by a particularized evaluation of his practice, but by a general evaluation of the restraint's impact on other participants and potential participants in that market, the restraint is covered by the Act. Pp. 328-333.
894 F.2d 1024 (CA 9 1989), affirmed.
STEVENS, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which REHNQUIST, C.J., and WHITE, MARSHALL, and BLACKMUN, JJ., joined. SCALIA, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which O'CONNOR, KENNEDY, and SOUTER, JJ., joined.
J. Mark Waxman, Los Angeles, Cal., for petitioners.
Lawrence Silver, Los Angeles, Cal., for respondent.
Lawrence G. Wallace, Washington, D.C., for the U.S. as amicus curiae, in support of respondent, by special leave of Court.
Justice STEVENS delivered the opinion of the Court.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Summit_Health_Ltd_v._J_Pinhas&oldid=2979087"

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Coalition Wages War on Brick Sidewalks in Old Town
Group calls for action now, before more brick sidewalks are installed in new development.
Many people see brick sidewalks as a danger, calling on city officials to create a new policy to prevent new brick sidewalks in future development. Photo by Michael Lee Pope.
By Michael Lee Pope
They may be charming, but many people say Alexandria's brick sidewalks have become a dangerous burden. Now they are asking City Hall to do something about it.
"I was with my 19-year-old niece here in Old Town yesterday, and she tripped," said former School Board chairwoman Mollie Danforth. "So it isn't just older disabled people who have problems."
Last weekend, Danforth spoke to City Council members in her capacity as a member of the Commission for Persons with Disabilities. Along with members of the Commission on Aging, the coalition is calling on City Council to pave the way for a new policy on brick sidewalks. Together, they are calling for action now, before new brick sidewalks are created along in the Eisenhower Valley and near the Braddock Road Metro.
"Any rough textured surface for sidewalks is an inconvenience at best and a safety hazard at worst." said Bob Eiffert, a member of the Commission on Aging. "They become maintenance nightmares with holes, dips and rises throughout."
OLD TOWN IS ALREADY full of brick sidewalks in the historic district, a feature dating back to the earliest days of the city as a colonial seaport. Nobody is asking for all those historic bricks to be removed. For members of the coalition, the concern is future development. The East Eisenhower Small Area plan calls for several new brick sidewalks, for example. And the Braddock Small Area plan calls for new brick sidewalks leading to the Metro station.
"I don't know what the answer is because brick is a big part of Old Town," said Vice Mayor Allison Silberberg. "But we should discuss it."
The issue has been gaining momentum for years, and recent projects have included a discussion of the issue. When council members considered a development special-use permit for a new hotel at the intersection of Prince Street and Daingerfield Street, for example, council members called for a concrete sidewalk with decorative brick banding at the edges.
"We are pursuing that in every area we can," said Councilman Paul Smedberg. "But we need to consider codifying it."
DANFORTH CALLED on City Council members to adopt a policy similar to one in Boston, which calls for a moratorium on new brick sidewalks. The Bean Town policy says existing concrete paving cannot be replaced with brick, although brick outside a minimum five-foot-wide concrete travel path is allowed. Although existing brick sidewalks can be repaired, old pavers must be replaced with wire-cut brick.
"I know I had an exciting walk from the back City Hall to the front this morning over the rough brick," said Danforth, who suffered a stroke several years ago. "I would love to be able to get around better, especially in the winter."
Danforth pointed out that the Americans with Disabilities Act requires Alexandria sidewalks to have a five-foot wide continuous smooth surface for walkers — a requirement that many sidewalks will probably never meet. For new construction, though, Danforth says that city leaders should adopt a policy of having decorative brick on the outside of a five-foot wide smooth surface.
"You can count on me to help you as we proceed with this," said Councilwoman Del Pepper, who is known for her preference for brick architecture.
CITY OFFICIALS say they will look into the issue and prepare a memorandum for City Council members, who may end up considering the issue as a docket item or taking up the matter in a work session. That means future brick sidewalks may be dismantled before the mortar is mixed.
"There are ways that I think we can address the aesthetics and balance the form and function issues," said Rich Baier, director of the Department of Transportation and Environmental Services.
Fairfax: Improving a Major City Intersection
Grasscrete Coming to Vienna
Bike to the Future: Alexandria Rewrites Rulebook for Cyclists
Council gives go-ahead to Rust Curve project.
Scooting into 2020


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DJ Colonel Sanders Performs at Ultra
By A-Rich	 On Mar 31, 2019
I never thought I would see Colonel Sanders throw down a DJ set. DJ Colonel Sanders made an appearance at one of the biggest DJ music festivals Ultra with other acts like Marshmello, Alesso and Tiesto and more. A lot of people did not know what to expect and by the look of the crowd, it was meh. Dj's did take to social as did fans and it wasn't good. Check out the full set from Colonel Sanders and let us know what you think.
One thing a lot of people don't know about me is that I have been a huge fan of electronic music for the last few days, and I can't wait to show off the DJ skills I've developed in that time. SEE ME LIVE AT ULTRA on 3/29! pic.twitter.com/vZKBsPTB3q
— KFC (@kfc) March 27, 2019
.@KFC bought Colonel Sanders a slot on the @Ultra main stage, and this happened. 🐔🥚😂 | 📹: @1001TLtv pic.twitter.com/8qZfUZ7G4K
— Festive Owl (@TheFestiveOwl) March 29, 2019
Slim & DJ Bedz – 5 O'Clock Mix Block (Friday, March 29th. 2019)
Rapper Nipsey Hussle has died after being shot outside his clothing company in Los Angeles.


text:
Feb. 17, 2018 12 AM PT
Pitcher charged: In the Feb. 15 Sports section, a brief news item about former All-Star pitcher Esteban Loaiza facing drug charges in San Diego County Superior Court said he had entered a guilty plea. He pleaded not guilty.
Florida shooting: In the Feb. 16 Section A, an article on the Florida high school shooting this week said that YouTube user Ben Bennight lives in Alabama. He lives in Mississippi.
Student choir: In the Feb. 16 Calendar section, an article about an oratorio collaboration between the Van Nuys High School choir and the Los Angeles Master Chorale misspelled the last name of student Clara Pierone as Pirone.
Traveling in Britain: In the Feb. 11 Travel section, the "On the Spot" column said that Britain is a Schengen country, which means visitors must have at least six months of validity remaining on their passport to be admitted. Britain is not a Schengen country, but six months of validity for your U.S. passport is recommended, according to the U.S. State Department website.
If you believe that we have made an error, or you have questions about The Times' journalistic standards and practices, you may contact Deirdre Edgar, readers' representative, by email at readers.representative@latimes.com, by phone at (877) 554-4000, by fax at (213) 237-3535 or by mail at 202 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012. The readers' representative office is online at latimes.com/readersrep.


"In the coming years, baby boomers will be moving on (inching further through the python, if you will). "They will want to sell their homes, and they're hoping there are people behind them to buy their homes," says Nelson, director of the Metropolitan Research Center at the University of Utah. He expects that in growing metros like Atlanta and Dallas, those buyers will be waiting. But elsewhere, in shrinking and stagnant cities across the country, the story will be quite different. Nelson calls what's coming the "great senior sell-off." It'll start sometime later this decade (Nelson is defining baby boomers as those people born between 1946 and 1964). And he predicts that it could cause our next real housing crisis."
Interesting. I have a real estate agent friend who recently declared her specialty as a "senior expert". She's doing the full service package of evaluating what people want/need, arranging for movers, estate sales, etc. She's doing quite well. I'll tell her she may want to escalate her efforts before this bubble bursts.
Maybe. All real estate is subject to local conditions.
Right. The author's point being perhaps that if your paid-for home is in fly-over country and you're looking to it as a bank account to cash out in your golden years -- perhaps that strategy might be difficult to implement based on projected demographics.
The last housing bubble was caused by speculation and greed. IF this were to happen, it wouldn't effect the market as greatly. You could say the same about the stock market...boomers selling stocks and getting out of the market all at the same time. Would the stock market be stagnant as well? I don't believe so.
As an example, there have been numerous co-workers that retired from my place of work. All of them waited until they got offers close to or above their asking price for their homes before ther retired. The longest wait was one year.
We live in a large house (fully paid for). We already pay to have the lawn mowed and the house cleaned and I don't regret a penny of it. I can't physically do those things any more. I can't imagine moving from this house to a smaller one until I'm in my 80s. So... hopefully when /if it becomes necessary, we'll sell it for under value if we have to. If you drop the price enough, someone always will buy it. Unless it's 12K square feet... ours is more reasonable!
Seems like most people have preferred to stay in their homes as they aged. And it's a long 18 year period, not all at once. Won't be a crisis, but it might keep prices from rising as fast as they might have otherwise. I don't think it's something worth worrying about now unless you're a journalist.
Not the 1st time either US population or regional real estate markets have experienced shifts. Some areas (e.g. Detroit) lose while other areas (e.g. metro Phoenix) continue to expand. Overall US population is still increasing as immigration exceeds overall mortality of aging Boomers. IMHO any new "Housing Crisis" will much more likely be due to economic/financial issues vs structural population changes (e.g. aging or whatever).
I agree. Being born in 1964 and technically a "Boomer", I feel a few aches and pains, but come on, don't stick me in the nursing home yet!
LOL! Well when you get a little older you may find unexpected aches and pains that you don't have at 49 - I certainly have them. And hate them all! But I pay to have stuff done that we can't manage - and it's worth it.
Anyhow why'd we spend money to get this nice house if not to enjoy living in it?
I think the article is theory. obviously if it's just the 2 of you and you have a 4 bedroom house it's larger than you need.
it does not mean you want or have to leave it-just that you really don't need it.
My experience is that older folks stay in their homes long past their abilities to maintain them. The government has taken a lot of flack for taxing the seniors out of their home. Now the pendulum has swung the other way. There are all the programs that help seniors stay put.
I bought my modest, 1600 square foot house in 2002. I admit that at that time, I thought a smaller easy-care house like this one would be in great demand when the boomers started to retire.
Well, surprise, it's not, really! That's OK, because I am happy here. Like quite a few other older baby boomers, I am tentatively thinking of staying where I am for now.
That would be great! I'd sell it for lots of $$$ and go from there. You're right, maybe it's too early to tell.
if you sold it what would you go to-small easy care house-you already did it.
On the demand side of the equation: I used to think that us boomers would be trying to sell our 4 bedroom homes to the X's and Y's when they were buying their first homes. I thought, "gee, those young kids won't want all these 4-5 bedroom homes we raised our kids in. They'll need something smaller". Therefore perhaps agreeing with the article that there might be a glut of big houses on the market that first time buyers wouldn't want or couldn't afford.


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THAT'LL MAKE YOU SMILLIE
Who is Jodie Knight? The Voice 2018 contestant from Glasgow and daughter of Carol Smillie
Scottish singer Jodie Knight is hoping to impress the judges with her rendition of Iris
By Emma Clarke
THE Voice UK is back with its seventh series, with judges will.i.am, Tom Jones, Jennifer Hudson and newbie Olly Murs.
One of this year's contestants to wow the public and the panel is Glasgow's very own Jodie Knight - here's everything you need to know...
17-year-old Jodie Knight hopes to impress the judges on The VoiceCredit: �ITV Plc
Who is The Voice UK's Jodie Knight?
Jodie Knight is the 17-year-old contestant on The Voice UK.
The teen is a singer-songwriter and has been performing in local venues for years.
Scots singer Jodie Knight says she's more than just Carol Smillie's daughter as she dreams of winning The Voice
Jodie is also the daughter of TV personality Carol Smillie, who formerly presented Changing Rooms.
The contestant chose to sing Goo Goo Dolls' "Iris" at her first audition, wowing the audience and the judges.
Jodie is also the daughter of TV presenter Carol Smillie
Who else from Scotland is competing in The Voice UK?
Scots busker Ross Anderson was snapped up in last week's blind auditions with his rendition of One Direction's Drag Me Down track.
The talented 17-year-old from Old Kilpatrick, Dunbartonshire – who was spotted by teen singing sensation Shawn Mendes – wowed Jennifer Hudson so much that she picked him almost immediately.
Talented Ross Anderson has been picked by Jennifer HudsonCredit: Handout
It was good news for fellow Scot Saskia Eng on the show too.
The 16-year-old qualified for the next stage after Tom Jones loved her version of London Grammar's Strong.
When is The Voice 2018 on ITV?
The Voice is back for a brand new series in 2018.
The much-anticipated series continues on Saturdays at 8.15pm on ITV.
Who are The Voice 2018 team coaches?
Olly Murs has replaced Gavin Rossdale on the panelCredit: �ITV Plc
Olly was named as a brand new addition to the show, replacing Gavin Rossdale.
After weeks of speculation, the Troublemaker singer was finally announced as a coach for The Voice 2018.
Speaking about his new role, he said: "I'm absolutely buzzing about being a coach on The Voice UK and can't wait to sit in the big red chair alongside will, Jennifer and Tom.
"I'm excited to mentor new artists and without doubt, I'm in it to WIN!"
Sir Tom Jones
Welsh legend Sir Tom Jones made his welcome return in 2017Credit: �ITV Plc
Welsh warbler Sir Tom returned in 2017 and was vocally upset about being replaced on the panel in 2016 by Boy George, who was joined by will.i.am, Ricky Wilson and Paloma Faith.
Prior to that he had been on the show for three years and claimed the very first winner's title with Leanne Mitchell.
Speaking abou the new series he said: "I'm really looking forward to getting back into my big red chair alongside the other coaches for the next The Voice.
"I'm so proud of my discovery from last season, Into the Ark, so I'm excited to hear and see what undiscovered talent the UK has to offer this series."
Jennifer Hudson tasted victory as a mentor in her debut season on the showCredit: �ITV Plc
Oscar-winner Jennifer first rose to prominence in another TV talent show – American Idol.
She has since made a name for herself as a Broadway performer and film actress.
She made her The Voice debut in 2017, and won the show with her act Mo Adeniran.
Watch the moment Scots busker Ross Anderson wows judges on The Voice as he performs duet with Jennifer Hudson
Jennifer said: "I am so excited to be returning to The Voice UK alongside this talented group of coaches!
"I loved my time as a coach last season and was so proud of Team JHUD and our winner Mo Adeniran – it was an incredible journey.
"The UK has always felt like a home away from home for me and I can't wait to be back discovering new talent on season 7!"
Black Eyed Peas star will.i.am is the only existing coach who has been on the show since the startCredit: ©ITV Plc
Black Eyed Peas star will.i.am is back again.
He is the only existing coach who has been on the show since the start.
He won the show with his act Jermain Jackman in 2014.
Inside Molly-Mae and Tommy's romantic weekend following podcast backlash
RUBBISH PATTER
Kevin Bridges hits out at Glasgow City Council over unemptied bin chaos
Speaking about the new series he said: "There was some amazing talent on The Voice Kids during the summer and now it's time for the grown-ups auditioning for The Voice season 7 to really step up their game.
"I'm excited to sit alongside Jennifer and Tom again this year, and I know that Olly will add a fun new twist to this year's coaches team."
We pay for your stories and videos! Do you have a story or video for The Scottish Sun? Email us at scoop@thesun.co.uk or call 0141 420 5200
Scottish explainers
The Voice 2018
YOUNG LOOK
Scots Hollywood hunk looks unrecognisable in film debut 25 years ago


text:
Non-Government
Federal Government Woody Biomass Utilization Roles and Activity
The Department of the Interior (DOI)
The Department of the Interior is the nation's principal conservation agency, managing 500 million acres of surface land, or about one-fifth of the land in the United States. The DOI role in woody biomass is principally in providing feedstocks from wildfire hazard reduction, forest and woodland restoration, and other land management activities. Experts estimate that about 100 million acres of forest and rangeland managed by the Department of the Interior contain large quantities of brush and small trees that provide fuel for wildfires. Removal of this material could provide enough electricity to supply 400,000 households for a year.
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) - Bureau of Land Management, an agency in the Department of the Interior, is responsible for carrying out a variety of programs for the management and conservation of resources on 258 million surface acres, as well as 700 million acres of subsurface mineral estate. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) authorizes the removal of biomass from public lands using stewardship contracting which allows contractors to keep biomass products in exchange for the service of thinning trees and brush, removing dead wood and performing other types of forest and woodland restoration.
Selected Department of the Interior Lands (PDF, 1.1 MB) - A map displaying lands administered by the different DOI agencies.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), National Wildlife Refuge System (Refuge System), continues to support, develop, and implement a Biomass Utilization Strategy. The Refuge System Draft Biomass Utilization Strategy has five general focus areas:
Identify locations within the Refuge System and among Refuge System partners, that focus on refuges for which biomass utilization has been identified as a significant management opportunity.
Ensuring that Refuge System personnel know and understand the "Option for Woody Biomass Utilization in Procurement Contract" policies.
Pursuant to the National Fire Plan, the Refuge System refers appropriate personnel to the internet-based information system developed by the DOI. This website provides technical information about biomass utilization and identifies DOI programs and other federal programs involved in biomass utilization.
The FWS continues to coordinate biomass utilization efforts with the Biomass and Forest Health Program Manager, DOI Office of Wildland Fire Coordination and other agencies and partners, to increase the possibilities and knowledge of biomass utilization.
Identify and rectify management alternatives in Management Plans that may inappropriately impede effective biomass utilization. These efforts will assist Refuge Systems and partners in helping our country meet the needs for alternative energy sources. FWS is committed to taking care of both human and biological communities.
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
The USDA provides leadership regarding food, agriculture, natural resources, and related issues to expand markets for agricultural products and support international economic development; further develop alternative markets for agricultural products and activities; provide financing needed to help expand job opportunities, improve housing, utilities and infrastructure in rural America; and, manage and protect America's public and private lands.
U.S. Forest Service Woody Biomass Utilization - The Forest Service Woody Biomass Utilization Strategy promotes and guides the removal of woody biomass from agency and partner lands to achieve Forest Service strategic goals, and a variety of critical benefits. The strategy adheres to three guiding principles: pursue sustainability, empower entrepreneurial action, and build on science-based information and new technology. The Strategy contains four major goals: 1) Assure reliable and sustainable supply of biomass from forest lands; 2) Identify and build partnerships through collaboration; 3) Develop and deploy the needed science and technology; and 4) Help develop new and expanded markets for bioenergy and biobased products.
USDA Forest Service Research & Development: Emerging Research Areas: Biomass & Bioenergy
U.S. Forest Service Stewardship Contracting Training - Stewardship Contracting training resources available on the Forest Service's Stewardship Contracting website.
U.S. Department of Energy Office (DOE)
The two primary goals of the Biomass Program are to (1) reduce dependence on foreign oil and (2) to spur creation of the domestic biomass industry.
U.S. Department of Energy Office (DOE) of Biomass Program
U.S. Department of Energy Biomass Feedstocks - supports woody biomass research and development in sustainable harvest and collection technologies, developing feedstock infrastructure technologies, and developing feedstock forecasts, models, and analyses.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) mission is to achieve measurable results in protecting human health and the environment. EPA's five over-arching goals of: Clean Air and Global Climate Change, Clean and Safe Water, Land Preservation and Restoration, Healthy Communities and Ecosystems, and Compliance and Environmental Stewardship all have relevance to the goals of the Woody Biomass Utilization Workgroup. EPA recognizes that optimization of woody biomass management contributes to the production of clean energy, improves water quality, preserves land, protects ecosystems, and encourages environmental stewardship. EPA voluntary programs, (e.g., Combined Heat and Power Partnership, Greenscapes, WasteWise, AgSTAR, Green Power Partnership, Pulp and Paper Sector Strategy, Great American Woodstove Changeout Campaign, Sustainable Futures, and the Green Suppliers Network) encourage woody biomass utilization that leads to clean energy, diversion of waste from landfills, increased energy efficiency, and stewardship of the land resulting in clean water, air, and land. EPA regulates air and water emissions (including those from technologies capable of converting biomass to useful bioproducts) and conducts research in basic and applied science and technology to assess the environmental impacts of woody biomass conversion technologies and practices.
Interagency Woody Biomass Utilization Group
The Woody Biomass Utilization Group (WBUG) is a federal working group that is open to all agencies and departments who have an interest in working together to encourage the beneficial use of woody biomass, which is typically the by-product of land management activities, commercial activities or other natural events. The Group reports to the Biomass Research and Development Board, established by the Biomass Research and Development Act of 2000, as amended.
Non-federal groups are encouraged to participate in the Group and their Vision. The Annual Work Plan, agreed to by the Group, may include non-federal partners. However, policy and budget recommendations to the Biomass Research and Development Board will only reflect those actions agreed to by the federal participants.
Read more about Woody Biomass Utilization and the WBUG…


2017 was a life changing year for me as I lost my mum to both dementia and cancer. Early in 2017 we discovered hat my mother had vascular dementia.
It was a terrible time for my mum and our family and, in June, mum went to live in a residential home. We had talked a lot about what would happen when she got older and going into a home was her greatest fear. It worked out very well for her.
Mum died at the end of October 2017 of cancer.
During the time she was suffering dementia I discovered the huge, often hidden, amount of work done by people who work with the elderly and in particularly with dementia sufferers. I also found that there were hardly any accounts of the journey of loved ones alongside their mum, dad, sister, brother, husband, wife or friend.
If you or a loved one are suffering, talk to an Admiral Nurse, call the Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline on 0800 888 6678 or email helpline@dementiauk.org. The helpline is open Mon-Fri from 9am to 9pm; Sat-Sun from 9am to 5pm.
The helpline is a free service for carers, people with dementia, and health and social care professionals.
Here is my story, in the hope that you will read it and it will help you. Mum knew that I was writing this story, and agreed to me publishing it and pictures of her. I waited until she was gone out of respect. Please consider a donation to a dementia charity.


I don't do many blog posts that are just thin links to somebody else's blog posts. I generally like to do my own work.
But this post is just too spot-on. It's eerie. The guy could be writing about me. Same era, same dreams, same disappointments, same compromises. Some of the details are different (he's had way more musical success than I have), but fundamentally it's the same story.
This, my friends, is what it's like to be a lifelong amateur/semi-pro musician.
Why Can't Everything Be As Good As My Tent?


text:
Nagorno- Karabakh peace deal is the chance to achieve peace in the region, says Turkish FM
15:46 03 December 2020 Read: 481
Recent events have shown that the occupation of Azerbaijani territories cannot last forever, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in his speech at the 27th meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council, AzVision.az reports.
"As a member of the OSCE Minsk Group, we are always ready to achieve a lasting solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. We have always said that the conflict must be solved in accordance with international law, the UN Security Council resolutions and OSCE principles based on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan", Turkish FM stated.
Cavusoglu called the peace agreement reached between Azerbaijan and Armenia, brokered by Russia, a real chance for peace after 30 years.
"This fact can have a positive impact on regional stability, especially on Azerbaijan-Armenia and Turkey-Armenia ties. We call on other OSCE Minsk Group member states, as well as the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, to refrain from politically motivated actions that could jeopardize the settlement", Cavusoglu added.
Armenian Armed Forces launched a large-scale military attack on positions of Azerbaijani army on the front line, using large-caliber weapons, mortars and artillery on Sept. 27. Azerbaijan responded with a counter-offensive along the entire front.
On November 10, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia signed an agreement to end six weeks of fierce fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Under the agreement, Russian peacekeepers were deployed along the front line in Nagorno-Karabakh and the corridor between the region and Armenia.
A total of 1,960 Russian peacekeepers were deployed in Nagorno-Karabakh under a five-year mandate.
Also, according to the agreement, on 20 November, Armenia handed over the Aghdam region which lies to the east of Nagorno-Karabakh, to Azerbaijan. This followed on 25 November by the Kalbajar region to the northwest of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Finally, on 1 December, Armenia handed over the Lachin District, over which the Lachin pass connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia passes.
Azerbaijani servicemen to take part in military drills in Turkey - VIDEO
President Ilham Aliyev visits Khojavend district – VIDEO
President Aliyev: "The road to Shusha is the road to victory"
Moscow says it will support establishment of Baku-Yerevan dialogue


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Main page University Search United Kingdom London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), University of London
London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), University of London
The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a research university specialised in social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society LSE joined the University of London in 1900 and first issued degrees to its students in 1902. LSE conducts teaching and research across a range of social sciences, as well as in mathematics and statistics.
Admission to LSE is highly competitive. In 2012, the school received 17,500 applications for 1,200 undergraduate places. LSE is ranked third overall in the Sunday Times University Guide cumulative ranking of British universities over a ten-year period (1997–2007), and third in the Complete University Guide 2014. LSE is often referred to as the leading centre for the study of social sciences in the world.
To date, there have been 16 Nobel Prize winners amongst its alumni and current and former staff, at least 37 world leaders, 6 Pulitzer Prize winners and countless fellows of the British Academy.
LSE offers courses not only in economics and political science, but also in a wide range of social science subjects, taught within a number of departments and interdisciplinary institutes. It is the only university in the UK specialising in the study of the social sciences, and has a worldwide reputation in the field. LSE particularly excels in the sphere of economics and economic history.
By providing your details you are consenting to Education Index sending you information about its services and the university that is relevant to your interests, such as: courses and subjects, events, funding, student life, accommodation and careers. Education Index will never sell, rent, or give away your data for third-party marketing, however they may work with partner organisations to send you relevant information about London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), University of London. If you do not wish to receive further information, you can opt-out at any time using links provided in their communications. Education Index privacy policy applies.
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International in flavour, London is an unparalleled environment in which to live and study. It is a centre for government and law, Europe's leading financial market and a style setting centre of cultural life. Educational benefits include libraries, professional institutes and all the resources of the University of London. The LSE campus is situated just off Aldwych in central London. It is easy to get to anywhere from such a central location using London's public transport networks.


One of the top celebrity weddings of 2012 saw star of The Inbetweeners James Buckley marry his sweetheart Clair Meek, and now the couple have announced another reason for celebration; Clair is pregnant with their second child.
James and Clair already have a son together, 1-year-old Harrison, and have told the press that they do not know if he will be having a little brother or little sister yet.
James has said that he would love a "daddy's little princess", but also joked that if they were to have another boy then he could soon create half the cast of The Inbetweeners.
The pair took the red carpet for the premiere of new Danny Boyle film Trance, and although they only announced the pregnancy recently, the size of Clair's bump showed that there is not long to go. In fact, the baby is due in mid-August.
If you are expecting big changes in your life, why not take a psychic reading and see what lies around the corner for you?


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Dorchester Middle School
Queen, DT1 2HS, UK Dorchester
www: http://www.dorchestermid.dorset.sch.uk e-mail: office@dorchestermid.dorset.sch.uk
WELCOME TO OUR SCHOOL!
In partnership with parents/guardians, the School's broad aim is to provide opportunities for self-development and self-fulfilment for the children here. All pupils are valued equally.
The School seeks to enable every child to develop high standards in every aspect of their work and an independence of mind and spirit upon which success and happiness in the future can depend.
Society and the world of education have changed dramatically in recent years; however, self discipline, good manners, concern for others, hard work and a determination to succeed are firmly embedded within our school philosophy. Within this framework of traditional values and expectations the School fosters personal and social responsibility.
The School offers a caring and stimulating environment in which a wide variety of curricular and extra curricular activities are planned by a talented and committed staff. All staff work closely with parents and value their partnership and support in securing the very best education for our children.
To ensure that all. children secure a thorough grounding in the basic skills.
To ensure that the children's learning via the curriculum has breadth, balance and progression.
To provide suitable specialist teaching to the highest standards possible.
To provide opportunities for the development of children's interests through extra� curricular activities.
To develop the existing liaison with First Schools and the Upper School with regard to both pastoral care and curricular continuity.
TEACHING GROUPS AND ORGANISATION
The school is split into four National Curriculum year groups, 5, 6, 7 and 8 covering the age ranges of 9 -10, 10 -11, 11-12 and 12 -13. Each child has a designated tutor who has responsibility for his/her welfare.
In Years 5 and 6 the vast majority of time is spent with one teacher in order to create an effective link between the pupil, the parents and the teacher.
In Years 7 and 8 pupils are taught by a greater number of subject teachers. However, the close relationship formed in earlier years, may be maintained by the personal tutor through subject teaching and extra-curricular activities. In common with the rest of the school most lessons are taught in mixed ability groups though there is setting in Maths and French.
Children will need the following equipment for School:
Pen (not biros - we prefer fibre tip pens such as a Berol handwriting pen, or roller ball to cartridge pens)
Coloured pencils (not felt tip pens)
Pair of compasses
Small glue stick is a useful extra
The school continues to live long after the final bell. A great variety of enriching activities and clubs take place which provide an opportunity for developing new skills and extending talents. Among those programmed at present include:
Dance, Drama Club, preparing for productions and musicals, Choirs, Orchestras, Ensembles, Recorders, Art, Technology, Reading, French, God-Squad, Prayer Group, Homework Tennis, Hockey, Football, Rugby, Basketball, Cricket, and Rounders.
Educational visits, both day and residential, are a strong feature of the curriculum. Children also benefit from visits from travelling theatre companies, science exhibitions and speakers.
Parents are frequently sent Newsletters, which outline the term's curriculum, extra curricular activities and proposed visits.
primary schools in Dorchester, secondary schools in Dorchester, schools in Dorchester


Top Location: 8 Min - Center, 10 min - DOM, 10 min - Messe/Exibition. Just outside the door: train stop number 3 and 4 with directly connection to the city center. S-Bahn (Cologne Ehrenfeld) is 800 meters away. From here you can reach the airport and main station Dusseldorf.
All kinds of shops, restaurants, pubs, located around the corner. Each Wednesday and Saturday can you visit a weekly market in about 400 feet away.
The 26 square meter apartment is located in building with elevator and has a kitchenette, bathroom and balcony overlooking the tranquil courtyard garden. Despite the central location means you are very quiet here. The apartment is fully furnished and ready to move in, including linen and towels. There is a bed 140 x 200 cm and a couch with relaxation function, a wardrobe and a table with chairs. Amenities include: stove, microwave, coffee maker, kettle, crockery, TV, bed linen, hair dryer.
Private parking space in the underground garage of the house with wheelchair lift access to the apartment is reserved for you and costs 10 € / 24 hour or 70 €/month.
3 km from the Wadden Sea, pets ok, friendly.


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Safalya 2
Real life stories about ordinary people empowered to seize the opportunities that came their way, thanks to Manappuram Gold Loans.
Dynamic entrepreneur, with finger in many pies
Pulla Madhu, 30, is a talented young man from Mandi Bazaar of Warangal. Married, and with two school going kids, his main source of income is from his mobile shop in the city called SH Mobiles. He sells and services a variety of mobile phones and his advice to customers is that touch-screen phones are not sturdy.
Not content with the earnings from his mobile shop, Pulla Madhu is involved in three more ventures. There's a chit-funds business, a travel agency, and a business dealing in daily finance. "My travel agency can very well cater to your needs when you come next time to Warangal", he tells us with evident pride.
The Chits business has 80 members divided into three groups with subscriptions of Rs.10,000, Rs.50,000 and Rs.1 lakh each. The chits run for a term of three years and the annual turnover is about Rs.15 Lakhs which enables him to make a profit of Rs.1.5 Lakhs. Besides, there is the income from daily finance and the travel agency. All put together, his earnings permit him the luxury of a decent lifestyle, with ownership of a house and car.
How has Madhu, a 10th standard dropout, found the resources to run all these ventures for the past 12 years? Initially, he reveals, he used to depend on local moneylenders, but they were costly. His profits were low and he was on the lookout for some other source when he came across Manappuram Finance. For the past three years, he has been a regular customer of its Desaipet branch which he visits often, for pledging or releasing gold as required.
A small ad agency holds its own
Anil Kumar M.R., 45, has been running "Edit Creations", an advertising firm in Thrissur, for the past eight years. He has a small office in the town from where he runs the show. He has two school going children. He earns about Rs 50,000 per month and his venture clocks an annual turnover of over fifteen lakh rupees a year.
The business comes from 200 odd customers for whom Anil Kumar designs and delivers the art-work for advertisement in the print media.
Anil Kumar is an active member of the Small-scale Merchants' and Manufacturers' Association. He points out that in the ad agency business it is most important pay your service providers on time. He has to deal often with artists, photographers, printing press owners, creative writers etc. And he is required to clear their bills well before customers make the payments for his services. Not surprisingly then, he is frequently in need of cash for short periods, and it has to be readily available.
He affirms that the Manappuram branch is an excellent place to raise cash free of hassles which he can repay at his convenience. In fact, over the past two years he has approached Manappuram more than 50 times, though presently he has only two live pledges. On Nov.30, 2012, the Economic Times had carried a news report on its front page with the title, "Gold Helps Fund a Thousand Entrepreneurial Dreams". It was about how gold loans were helping ordinary people become entrepreneurs and it carried this quote from Anilkumar: "I have been taking gold loan for the last seven years," says MR Anilkumar, who runs an advertising unit in Thrissur, also in Kerala. "Unlike banks where there are a lot of procedures, the process here is fast. Since these are sudden requirements, I don't bother much about the interest rate," he adds.
A modern day farmer keeps pace with technology
Viswanatha Babu, 39, is a high school dropout who took up farming following in the footsteps of his father and elder brother.
A resident of a remote village eight kilometers away from the nearest township of Malur in the Kolar District of Karnataka, Viswanatha Babu has been in the field for the past 1Oyears. He cultivates five acres of land irrigated by ground water, where he grows grapes, gherkins (a variety of small cucumbers), brinjals, tomatoes and corn.
He uses modern technology for farming, viz. hybrid seeds, mechanized operations, and integrated pest and disease management. Intensive farming requires investment and working capital and Viswanatha Babu, like other farmers of Kolar, used to rely on local money lenders. With their interest rates being high, farming was not a particularly remunerative business. Sharp fluctuations in prices for the produce added fuel to the fire.
However, for the past two years, Viswanatha Babu has been a regular customer of the Malur branch of Manappuram Finance Ltd. He approaches the branch as and when he requires cash, and has had transactions with the branch worth more than 15 lakhs rupees during the past two years. He has since expanded the area under cultivation, introduced crops like gherkins, built a new house and now plans to send his only daughter to an English medium school.
"I owe a part of my success to Manappuram, for their quick and easy service", he says, while talking to Manappuram's study team over a cup of tea in his newly constructed house.
Viswanatha Babu is a customer of Manappuram's Bangalore Road, Malur Branch, Kolar District, Karnataka
A Manappuram customer makes national news
On Nov.30, 2012, the Economic Times carried a news report on its front pages about how gold loans were helping ordinary people become entrepreneurs. It featured very prominently the example of Aneesha Binu, a housewife belonging to Rajakumari in the hilly district ldukki, who runs a beauty parlour. Aneesha, 40, had set up her business with money obtained by pledging her gold jewellery at Manappuram's Rajakumari Branch. Her story is interesting and worth recounting. A graduate in Commerce, Aneesha was born and brought up in Perumbavoor. She underwent a beautician's course and started a beauty parlour in Perumbavoor. When she got married to a spices dealer in Rajakumari, she shut down her beauty parlour choosing to become a traditional housewife.
After her children began going to school, Aneesha had more free time on hand and was keen to engage herself in a productive vocation. The thought of a starting a beauty parlour in Rajakumari came to her mind. Her close friend Preetha Joy joined hands with her to combine a tailoring unit with the beauty parlour. However, to make her dreams come true she needed money, and it was not easy to come by.
That was when she saw an advertisement for Manappuram Gold loan, and she knew she had an answer. This was the time a new branch of Manappuram Finance had come up in Rajakumari. Aneesha went to the branch and pledged her personal jewellery to raise capital for her venture. She hired a shop just below the Manappuram branch and launched her beauty parlour. Hard work, dedication, and a customer friendly attitude have enabled her to clear 80 percent of the loan within months. Today, she's grateful to Manappuram, that she was able to take advantage of the gold lying idle at home, and seek out a meaningful alternative in her life.
Aneesha Binu is a customer of Manappuram's Rajakumari Branch, Idukki District, Kerala
AGold loan gives birth to Adimali's green city bakery
Adimali, in ldukki District, is where the central high ranges start. It is a hub for the spices trade in Kerala and a transit point for tourists. As the Taluka HQ, there is also a large floating population thanks to which the hotels, restaurants and fast food joints do good business.
That was one reason why Ms. Muneera M.P., 31, decided to start a bakery in the town. Hailing from the well-known Panakkad family in Malappuram, Muneera came to Adimali10 years back because her husband was running a wholesale shop in spices here. As her children grew up, Muneera was left with free time and she was keen to get going with some business of her own.
Back in Malappuram, her relatives are running a bakery business. Therefore, she too decided to venture into bakery business in Adimali. However, she needed money to start the business. She made a round of the banks first. They were willing to give her a loan but they wanted a project report and financial feasibility statements.
That is when her thoughts went to the gold she possessed. Muneera boldly approached Manappuram Finance and converted her gold jewellery into cash. It is now four years since the bakery was set up. She gets good quality sweetmeats from Manjery that have a predominantly north Kerala taste and which have a high demand in Adimali.
She has already repaid over 60 percent of the loan and is confident that within a few years her business will become debt free. What is more, she is able to contribute nearly Rs. 50,000 from the bakery to the household kitty every month.
As an entrepreneur lucky to have got off to a good start, Muneera has no hesitation in thanking Manappuram Finance for timely support and fully expects to continue her association with the company.
Muneera M.P. is a customer of Manappuram's Adimali Branch, ldukki District, Kerala
In the shoes of a footwear retailer
Up in the high ranges of ldukki, in the cardamom county of Rajakkad, the Manappuram Study Team ran into Samson Jose, 40, a farmer turned merchant. He had inherited his father's land and was cultivating cardamom and coffee for many years. The returns from the farm were not sufficient to take care of family needs once he got married and became a father.
Rajakkad township was expanding rapidly and Samson decided to establish a retail footwear outlet. And thus was born "Mary Matha Shoe Mart", which soon became one of the two leading shoe marts in Rajakkad. Today, Samson's shop has a turnover of Rs.40 lakhs per year for which he has to maintain a stock worth at least one crore rupees.
The business has frequent requirements for cash, and often the money is required immediately. In such a situation, dealing with banks was not advisable, while falling back on the money lenders in the unorganised sector was both risky and costly.
Manappuram's branch at Rajakkad opened in 2010 and it came to his rescue.
Samson is a regular and valued customer who has already approached the branch more than 50 times during the last two years for business.
"I am on very good terms with Manappuram's Rajakkad branch". says Samson, with a smile of satisfaction when our study team bid good bye to him.
Samson Jose is a customer of Manappuram's Rajakkad Branch, Idukki District, Kerala
A farmer who also sells jeans
Chandrasekhar K. V., 29, is an enterprising young man from Kottiganhally, an agricultural village located about 20 kilometres awayfrom Kolar.
Chandrasekhar is an unusual graduate who combines agriculture with a retail business. He is the owner of a clothing shop at Kolar, Venkiteshwar Textiles, which deals mainly in jeans and denim clothing. In his farm, one is face to face with modernity amidst a rural setting. It boasts of greenhouses where high yielding tomato, capsicum and hybrid corn varieties are cultivated. He buys the best quality seeds and combines it with modern fertilization methods and technology like drip irrigation.
The crop is sold on the spot to bulk buyers like Reliance and Godrej Agrovet. With an annual turnover of over 30 lakh rupees from both ventures, Chandrasekhar frequently requires ready cash to pay off suppliers of various services. During the past two years he has transacted over Rs. 37 lakh of business with the Clock Tower Branch of Manappuram (nearly 50% of his annual turnover). Chandrasekhar's farm produces tons of tomatoes and capsicum, a worthy contribution to the national economy that he can be proud of
And Manappuram Finance can claim to have had a small but critical say in that.
Chandrasekhar K.V. is a customer of Manappuram's Clock Tower Branch, Kolar, Kamataka
A farm labourer becomes a tailor
Ramanji Chikredappa, 27, belongs to the remote village of Royalpad that lies 18 kilometers off Gownipalli, a small town in the Kolar District of Karnataka.
Agriculture is the dominant activity in this village on the border with Andhra Pradesh. There are no banks and no institutions of higher education. Only a lower primary school is to be seen.
Ramanji is a matriculate who failed to clear his PUC. He is married with one child and his parents live with him. Although Ramanji belongs to the farming and farm labour community, he has now taken up tailoring as a better means of livelihood. He runs "Rama Tailoring Shop", where he is supported by his wife. To keep the business running and to purchase necessary tools and spares, he frequently requires cash.
Initially, he used to depend on informal loans or tried to manage without. But, business flourished when he modernised his shop with a gold loan from Manappuram. The shop provides him with a monthly income of about seven thousand rupees. Easy availability and the relatively low interest rate for gold loans from Manappuram Finance compared to the loans from moneylenders has improved life for Ramanji and his family.
Ramanji Chikredappa is a customer of Manappuram's Gownipally Branch, Kolar District, Karnataka
Supermarket, Jewellery and farming
Venkataramana G.V., 35, is a customer of the Gownippalli branch of Manappuram Finance located in Kolar District near the Andhra Pradesh border.
Gownippalli is an underdeveloped rural area that boasts of just one high school in the vicinity. Venkataramana stays one kilometre off Gownippalli and has three school going kids. Agriculture is the major activity here, mainly cultivation of pulses and cereals.
The area has a few shops and tea stalls and the only supermarket in town, "Chinthamani", is owned by Venkataramana. He also owns a jewellery shop that he inherited from his father. Besides, off and on, he takes to farming on his six acre plot.
Venkataramana has been in business for over eight years and, in the past, depended on local money lenders for his financial needs. But these days, he is a priority customer of Manappuram branch where his aggregate borrowings in the last year alone stand at nearly Rs.40 lakhs. The cash is used mainly for the supermarket and jewellery business and also for the education of children. He is a regular visitor to the branch, marking his presence there at least once a month.
As interest rates have come down with the coming of Manappuram's branch, Venkataramana' s business has flourished. He relies on gold loans from Manappuram for immediate financial needs like paying off clients, bulk purchase of grocery and stationery, and also for meeting expenses related to his farm.
Venkataramana G.V. is a customer of Manappuram's Gownippalli Branch,Kolar District, Karnataka
A medical store thrives on gold loans
Suresh Kumar hails from Thodupuzha (ldukki District) and owns "Matha Medicals". A medical store right in the heart of the town.
At 39 years of age, Suresh comes across as a man with boundless energy. He is married and has two school going kids. He depends wholly on the medical store for his Iivelihood. The shop has a monthly turnover of over Rs 3 lakhs rupees and provides him with a net income of 30 to 40,000 rupees per month. However, to run the business smoothly, he has to keep a ready stock of medicines to the tune of Rs.6 to 7 lakhs. Moreover, he is often required to make immediate payments in cash to the wholesale dealers in medicine besides meeting other expenses viz., salary to staff. electricity etc.
Suresh Kumar asserts that he cannot always depend on his bank for such purposes. A delay in payments to the wholesale dealers can get his firm black listed, and once such a thing happens, the whole business can easily go off-track.
Therefore, for a ready and dependable source of credit, he has been dealing with the local Manappuram Finance branch located just a stone's throw from his medical store. He is a regular customer of the branch and frequently avails gold loans.
He is impressed with their service and he readily acknowledges that at least a part of his success is owed to Manappuram.
Suresh Kumaris a customer of Manappuram's Thodupuzha Branch, ldukki District, Kerala
A soda maker fizzes with gold loans
Madhu M.C., 32, owns a factory making carbonated beverages like soda, leman soda, ginger soda and "jeera" soda under the brand name MVC Soda. He inherited the business from his father and the factory is located within his residential compound near Mullasery in the Thrissur District of Kerala.
The factory employs two and it has two soda making machines along with a bottle washing unit. He also owns a transport vehicle and an old Ambassador car.
Madhu's factory produces an average of 40 crates of soft drinks and the wholesale rate is three rupees per bottle. He is a regular customer of the Mullasery branch of Manappuram Finance and uses the money availed from pledging gold for the day-to-day requirements of the business, especially for meeting immediate needs like payments to suppliers of Carbon dioxide cylinders etc.
While the emergency and short term requirements are met through gold loans, the long-term needs are taken care of by borrowing from a bank. Thanks to the business, he earns an income of over 20,000 rupees per month on an average. In fact, during the peak season, his earnings often go up by half the amount.
Madhu M.C.is a customer of Manappuram's Mullasery Branch, Thrissur District, Kerala
A prudent farmer diversifies into poultry
Ramesh C.M., 42, hails from the Chittanalli village in Kolar District. He is a farmer who, of late, has taken up the poultry business with the help of a gold loan from Manappuram Finance. His venture bears the name of Sri Baireshwari Poultry Farm.
Ramesh maintains two rows of long cages where over 10,000 broiler chicks are reared on behalf of Godrej Agrovet Ltd. The Company provides the chicks and the feed free of cost. The farmer is required to spend on the upkeep and lighting charges besides the labour costs involved. By the 60th day, the company takes back the fully grown birds and pays him three rupees per kilogram.
Ramesh found Manappuram Gold loan Schemes most suitable for this business as he is able to release the pledged gold within 60days.
Sri Baireswari Poultry Farm fetches him an annual income of over two and a half lakh rupees with which he is able to maintain his family-wife. two school-going children and aged parents in reasonable comfort.
Ramesh C.M.is a customer of Manappuram's Brahmins Street Branch, Kolar, Karnataka
A general merchandise retailer improves his margins
Abdul Rahman's family has been residing in the Andaman Islands for more than three generations.
Abdul Rahman, 53, has a family tradition in retail general merchandise. He owns three shops in Bamboo Flat town. His wife and the elder son are in charge of one shop each while Abdul Rahman manages the third. The shift from local pawn brokers to Manappuram Finance has improved his returns.
Abdul Rahman was a victim of the 2004 tsunami, but since then has managed to recover his ground. As is to be expected, he is quite happy to deal with Manappuram Finance.
Abdul Rahmanis a customer of Manappuram's Bamboo Flat Branch, Port Blair
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