My sewing machine was in the shop for a tune-up and I just picked it up this morning!
Now, I can get busy and catch up on all the projects I have left since before Christmas.
However....before I start sewing, I had one project that needed attending to.
I use this hard as rock chair in my sewing room that I borrowed from my kitchen. Not comfortable for prolonged sitting, and the cushion I have on it keeps landing on the floor.
So, last week I rescued an old aluminum kitchen chair probably from the 60's! It was on it's way to the dump!
Initially, I though about just giving it a good scrubbing and be done with it. But, no amount of cleaning could ever make this baby look good!
It's red vinyl. I actually like the colour!
Then I went shopping, and found just the right amount of red vinyl. I didn't particularly care what colour is was, but the red was what they had.
Not exactly a thing of beauty, but it works for me.
I had some fun with the back though!
Yup! It's the Keep Calm fabric! I have the same thing on my ironing table in my sewing room, so I thought it would look kinda cool!
I also laminated it just for the heck of it, and because I had this stuff and wanted to try it on something!
I used this product called Therm O Web iron on vinyl, and it was really easy. Then, I cut some batting to use because the cardboard backing was wrecked, reused the nails, and called it a finish!
The curved back of the chair was a bit of a pain, but overall, not too bad.
As I said, not beautiful, but it is functional and only cost me $15.00 for the fabric!
The Chair looks great! I really like the back with the keep calm fabric too...so appropriate.
Very cool! I used that fabric to make a sewing bag for a friend, but I have enough left to back my chair. Just what I need - another project! Thanks for sharing.
Love the chair! I have a chrome set in my kitchen now and have one seat that needs to be redone.....I just keep pushing it back under the table....haha...I think you have inspired me to soldier on and get it done. Thanks!
great job!!! love the back too!
Fabulous! You are sure to produce some amazing work in 2013 with this lovely seat to smile at! Happy New Year.
I think it's great! Love the red, too. Great work!
What a score!! Great job, Patti!
Looks great Patti, I love the back very apt!
Have never tried the iron-on vinyl but would definitely like to, glad to hear it is straightforward to use. Will be adding it to my shopping list soon.
Fab! And the perfect place for the Keep Calm fabric!
I love it. What a happy room you must have.
Thank you for visiting today Patti. I appreciate your comments.


In MasterCard's ads, two men hop from ballpark to ballpark around the country.
Toward the end of the 1998 baseball season, David Hoch and Joseph Marble of Minneapolis bought a 1977 Volkswagen van and embarked on a 10-day swing through five cities with sparkling new ballparks. They made a documentary of the journey in the orange-and-red clunker as part of the campaign they're waging to get a new baseball stadium for the Minnesota Twins.
It was deja vu this summer for Hoch and Marble when they saw a series of television commercials for MasterCard: two guys in an orange-and-red Volkswagen van cruise the country seeing baseball games, collecting souvenirs and memories. The tag line for the ads: "Priceless."
The use of a VW van isn't the only coincidence between the documentary and the ad campaign, Hoch and Marble contend. In a lawsuit alleging copyright infringement against MasterCard International and its ad agency, McCann- Erickson USA, exhibits A through S show what the plaintiffs claim are remarkable similarities. These include shots of directional road signs, similar camera angles, shots of players warming up on the field, a look at Camden Yards in Baltimore, one of two fellows waiting to enter parks and more.
"Coincidences?" asked Marble, a real estate broker. "We don't know how many coincidences can be piled up and still be considered coincidences."
In the complaint filed last month in U.S. District Court in Minnesota, Hoch and Marble allege that MasterCard and McCann-Erickson lifted not the idea of a road trip for baseball fans but the expression of the idea, and they claim that they've suffered irreparable harm. They ask for unspecified damages.
At McCann-Erickson headquarters in New York, spokeswoman Susan Irwin said, "MasterCard's sponsorship of Major League Baseball led logically to the concept of focusing on the 'Priceless' experience of a road trip to major league stadiums, an idea arrived at independently. We believe the suit is without basis or merit."
MasterCard also considers the suit without merit, said spokesman Chris Monteiro at the Purchase, N.Y., headquarters. He added that there have been more than 75 commercials in the "Priceless" campaign since it began in 1997. They have been very successful "and will last into the foreseeable future," said Monteiro.
Hoch and Marble did not obtain a copyright on the "Twins -- Now and Forever" documentary until July 17, and so there will be a battle in court over whether they are entitled to statutory damages, said Ronald Schutz, the plaintiffs' lawyer, with the Minneapolis law firm of Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi.
The two fans, both 41, are elementary school and high school classmates and devoted baseball fans. They took it upon themselves in 1997 to begin a campaign for a baseball-only ballpark for the Twins, a team that plays indoors at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis.
with a rented movie camera, they shot eight hours of film that included interviews with people involved with the new ballparks, and a lot of scenes of Hoch and Marble.
Hoch and Marble say they would have loved to have made it to Pacific Bell Park in San Francisco, but it was not completed at the time.
Some 300 copies were made of the Hoch-Marble 30-minute creation, "Twins -- Now and Forever," and were handed out to politicians, reporters and anyone else with an interest. The documentarians guess they spent $10,000 on the van, hotels, food and film processing.
"We put our hearts and souls and time and money into this project, and we did it for the love of the game," said Hoch, a mortgage broker, who said that in 1984 he had a 93-mph fastball and pitched for a semipro team in Chicago until his arm failed him. "I looked like Nolan Ryan one day and couldn't raise my arm the next," he said.
"Joe and I are not fringe lunatics who get painted up for the game," Hoch said. "We were both raised in big Catholic families and our parents instilled in us traditions. You have to keep alive traditions, and that's the driving force behind all of this," he said.
"Of course, the case won't be easy," Hoch said. "We're taking on some very big corporations."
Since hearing about the Hoch-Marble case, a number of people have told Irwin, McCann-Erickson's spokeswoman, that once upon a time they took a road trip seeing baseball games in the summer -- that it's a rite of passage. Hoch and Marble took their trip "just as many have done before them," she said.
More importantly, she said, there are key differences between the documentary and the ads: The actors in the ads are younger than Hoch and Marble, and the documentary's purpose is to try to ensure the Twins' franchise stays in Minneapolis given a new ballpark. In contrast, the ads -- by way of promoting MasterCard -- show two guys just out for a good time.
"They used a red bus, but so does Kevin Kosner in 'Field of Dreams,' " said Irwin.
The "Priceless" campaign began in 1997 with a baseball-themed ad in which a man and his 11-year-old grandson attend a game that costs a few dollars for tickets and hot dogs, but the time spent together is "priceless."
"The concept of the campaign is to take a moment that people can relate to, " said Irwin. "A lot of people have taken a road trip or would love to take a road trip" to see baseball games around the country, she said.
an attorney with the Minneapolis firm of Faegre & Benson, said the advertisements are not similar, let alone substantially similar (as the copyright law requires) to plaintiffs' work "and do not copy from it or take any protected or copyrightable expression from it."
The five commercials in the "Priceless" road trip ad campaign ran from April through the end of the World Series, much to the dismay of Hoch and Marble, they said. "My wife was furious when she saw it," said Hoch. "She's the gentlest person on earth, but I had to settle her down."
Schutz, the plaintiffs' lawyer, who heads his firm's intellectual property department, said "When you start to look at the similarities, how you characterize the road trip, that's where copyright infringement comes in."
Hoch and Marble began their campaign with a sleep-over protest on the steps of the state Capitol one chilly night in November 1997, after a failed vote on a Twins ballpark funding proposal. The problem facing the Minnesota Twins franchise, however, has grown much worse than lacking a new ballpark. The franchise may be eliminated altogether under proposed Major League Baseball contraction plans. Team owner Carl R. Pohlad says he will listen to offers to buy the franchise, and the Twins are under no obligation to play at the Metrodome past 2002.
"We would like to sneak into Camden Yards and airlift it out of there," said Hoch. "But I have to admit, a baseball stadium is not on the fast track here."


Focus on student achievement by allotting resources to improve the quality of instruction through innovative teaching methods, professional development, and technology.
Encourage staff to seek out presentation opportunities to tell the story of the District's innovative initiatives.
Expand student opportunities via trades programs.
Provide a continuum of services to include a Life Skills program to grades 4-8.


When it comes to attractiveness and confidence, the proportions of the face can make a huge impact. In fact, it's proportion, more than any individual element, which defines our features and our look. Chin augmentations are generally performed to increase the size of the chin in proportion to the rest of the face. This is usually accomplished by inserting an implant into the chin, resulting in a more balanced, more defined jaw line.
If you're curious what you'd look like with a stronger, more proportional jawline, contact Dr. Polsen today and schedule a low-key meeting in the Houston Clear Lake Area. Or, call our Clear Lake office at (281) 538-6600.
Candidates who seek out chin augmentation in the Houston Area usually have weak or receding chins. But candidates should also be in good health and have realistic expectations of what the surgery can and will accomplish.
Before any incision is made, Dr. Polsen will work with you to determine the optimal chin size for the result you're looking for. Obviously, a more athletic look can be achieved with a larger implant, but it's important that everything work in harmony with the rest of your face. Once the end result is determined, incisions are made either through the inside of the mouth or the outside of the chin and surgeons may choose from a variety of materials for implants. Most often, the incision is made under the chin, so as to hide any scarring. Incisions made on the inside of the mouth have a history of higher rates of infection, due to the general hygiene of the mouth.
This procedure makes for a strong, long-term implant that looks and feels as natural as your old chin. However, every chin augmentation patient in Houston is different, and Dr. Polsen will calibrate his approach to ensure your desired results.
Because the nature of chin augmentation depends so heavily on proportions, patients will often elect to also undergo rhinoplasty for optimal results.
Every chin augmentation is different, and recovery will depend on the extent of work done. Generally, patients can return to work in a number of days. Male patients may need to avoid shaving for up to two weeks in order to avoid infection, irritating the skin, or irritating the implant. As your Houston plastic surgeon Dr. Polsen will work with you to develop an individualized recovery plan that will ensure best results.


text:
Niemcy:
 Römhild – miasto w kraju związkowym Turyngia, w powiecie Hildburghausen

Osoby:
 Inge-Susann Römhild – niemiecka muzyk

Zobacz też:
 Saksonia-Römhild
 Schmidt-Römhild

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Thank you Carole for the feature in "World Landscape Lovers of Art"
Thank you Mary Ann for the feature in "Snow-Ice-Frost including Mountain Tops"
Thank you Jane - make it happen to travel to Iceland!!
Thank you John for the feature in "Images That Excite You"
Thank you Michelle for the feature in "Collectors Gallery"
Thank you Beth for the feature in "All Natural Beauty of This World"
Thank you Nina for the feature in"Polar Regions"
This is a tongue of the Vatnajskull glacier also known as the Vatna Glacier in English, which is the largest and most voluminous ice cap in Iceland, and one of the largest in area in Europe. It is the second largest glacier in area after Austfonna on Svalbard in Norway. It is located in the south-east of the island, covering more than 8 percent of the country.Some of the scenes in Game of Thrones were filmed in this area including the ice wall. FEATURED 9/9/16 in "Polar Regions" FEATURED 9/16/16 in "Collectors Gallery" FEATURED 9/17/16 in "All Natural Beauty of This World" FEATURED 9/17/16 in "Images That Excite You" FEATURED 5/20/17 in "Snow Ice Frost Including Mountain Tops" FEATURED 5/21/17 in "Word Landscape Lovers of Art"


Carbonization furnace is the ideal equipment for making charcoal briquettes. It is the key equipment for the whole charcoal making process. The carbonizing furnace adopts the latest technology and reasonable structure which increases the carbonizing ratio and shorten the carbonizing time.
The carbonization furnaces are widely used for processing charcoal with biomass briquettes, woods and forestry residues. The biomass briquettes are made from the sawdust and other agriculture residues such as crop straws, rice husks, bamboo shavings, grasses by using a charcoal briquette machine. And woods and forestry residues such as pine wood, willow wood, bamboo can also used as raw materials of carbonization furnaces which directly enter the carbonization furnace and been carbonized into wood charcoal without crushing powering and briquetting process. The charcoal briquettes made by the carbonization furnaces are with the features of high density, low volume, easy to burn and suitable for family and industry use.
Carbonizing furnace contains three different styles, namely the airflow carbonization furnace, self ignite carbonization furnace, hoist carbonization furnace. Self ignite adopts unique mobile steel plate structure and the exhaust pipes are connected with the tar separator and induced draft fan. The airflow carbonization furnace is made of refractory material and adopts advanced hot air carbonizing technology. While Hoist type energy-saving carbonization furnace is a type of carbonization furnace suitable for family-based charcoal briquette carbonizing. The inner pot can be hanged outside which will save a lot cooling time, so the productivity increases a lot.
1. Though the three type carbonizing furnaces are different in structures and have some differences in volume and carbonizing time, they all have the following common features.
2. Easy operation and labor saving. A man can operate 3-5 carbonizing furnaces at the same time .
3. Adopt unique smoke decontamination equipment so that the furnace is environmental-friendly.
4. High carbonization rate and high efficient. The carbonization rate is about 40-60% and the rate of finished production is above 95%.
5. Durable. The furnace are made of specific materials and can be used for 4 or 5 years.
6. Equipped with tar storage device, which can get the tar and carbonizing at the same time.
It is the carbonizing technology and the carbonization furnace that influence the quality of the charcoal. Earth kiln and steel carbonization furnaces can both make charcoals, then why we choose steel carbonization furnaces?
☆ With high quality. Compared with charcoal made by earth kiln, the charcoal made by steel carbonizing furnaces are with higher quality.
☆ Time saving. Usually the carbonizing time of steel carbonization furnaces are about 2-7 days while it needs 15-20 days by using a earth kiln.
☆ Environmental friendly. Carbonization furnaces usually are less smoke or non-smoke, while earth kiln will cause air pollution.


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Shawn Levy is directing the ensemble, which also includes Tina Fey, Jane Fonda and Rose Byrne.
Abigail Spencer has joined the cast of This Is Where I Leave You, Warner Bros.' adaptation of the book by Jonathan Tropper.
Shawn Levy is directing the ensemble, which sees Jason Bateman leading a roll call that includes Tina Fey, Jane Fonda, Kathryn Hahn, Rose Byrne and Corey Stoll.
Where I Leave You, with a script by Tropper, centers on a man (Bateman) whose father dies and tasks his dysfunctional family of four grown siblings with one last request: to spend seven days after the funeral together under the same roof for first time in a decade.
Spencer will play the wife of Bateman, whom he catches sleeping with his boss.
Spencer, who also writes and produces, is currently onscreen opposite James Franco in Oz the Great and Powerful. She will next be seen starring in Rectify, Sundance Channel's first scripted series from the team behind Breaking Bad.
She is repped by ICM Partners and Untitled Entertainment.


For many of you, your health fund resets in January, so if you'd like to take advantage of your remaining rebates please book online ASAP. The limited times available until the end of the year traditionally fill up quickly!
Click here to make online bookings 24/7. This will be the best way to make appointments over the end of year period as our answering machine will be on for some of the time.
Also a reminder that we have 10% off all massage Gift Vouchers until the 24/12 – use the code GV10 at the checkout to take advantage of this discount.
Not surprisingly this has been our most popular gift voucher campaign and many clients are using them not only as gifts for loved ones but for themselves too!
Welcome to the fourth installment of things I've been talking about in the clinic – this month – giving up coffee!


text:
An Overview of Natural Hazard Planning
in the Pacific Island Region
John Campbell, Department of Geography, Tourism and Environmental Planning, University of Waikato, Hamilton , New Zealand. Email: jrc@waikato.ac.nz
Keywords: Pacific Islands, disaster risk reduction, relief, urbanisation
John Campbell
Tourism and Environmental Planning
University of Waikato
PICs are exposed to a wide range of natural hazards. Despite this it appears that traditionally communities coped relatively well and in many ways Pacific community remain remarkably resilient, especially in rural areas. Nevertheless, colonialism resulted in the decline of many activities that contributed to resilience. This was reinforced by the provision of disaster relief which has intensified in the post-colonial era. In this same period regional activities and steps by newly independent countries have seen the development of solid institutional arrangements for disaster management (mostly in the form of preparedness planning). However, measures to reduce disaster losses by incorporating risk reduction into national planning activities and decision-making have received little support to date from national governments. At the same time urbanisation is increasing rapidly in many PICs, but there has been a low level of implementation of effective urban planning and management, let alone disaster risk management. Moves are being made at the regional level to address these problems but are at an early stage.
The countries of the Pacific Islands region are often described as being among the most vulnerable in the world with small island states being singled out for special attention in the Hyogo Declaration on Natural Disaster Reduction, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and Agenda 21. There has now been approximately a quarter of a century of regional activity and a number of in-country programmes and projects to reduce the impacts of disasters in the region and this has been reflected in the improvement of national arrangements for disaster management. Nevertheless, Pacific Island Countries (PICs) remain profoundly dependent upon international disaster relief as a form of reactive post-disaster response. This is in considerable contrast to the relatively resilient communities that inhabited the islands prior to their 'discovery' and colonisation by foreign countries. Indeed many, particularly rural, communities remain remarkably resilient. However, several processes are working to undermine this characteristic. In this paper I outline three important influences on natural hazard management in PICs. These are the role of humanitarian assistance, urbanisation and institutional arrangements for disaster risk management.
The Pacific Island region
The Pacific Island region stretches across a vast area of the earth's surface although most of it is ocean (see Figure 1).
Figure 1. Map of the Pacific Islands region.
This paper does not include Hawaii, New Zealand, Australia or Easter Island, but all of the countries and territories that are under the auspices of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (excepting Pitcairn Island). Map drawn by Max Oulten.
Altogether there are 21 political entities (excluding Pitcairn Island) ranging in political status from colonial territories of metropolitan countries through to the majority (14) which are fully independent nations (see Table 1).
Table 1. Some characteristics of PICs and Territories
(km2) [a]
Highest Elev.
(m) [b]
Island Type
[c]
Popn.
Political Status
Colonial Govt.
V & A
Free Assoc.
Northern Mariana Is
UK/France
a - Source of data: SPC (2008)
b - Source of data: Pernetta (1990)
c - A=atoll(s); PB=plate-boundary or continental island(s); RL=raised limestone island(s); V=volcanic high island(s)
d - Territory refers to a range of arrangements for countries that are not independent. Free Assoc. stands for Self Governing in Free Association with a metropolitan country (either New Zealand or United States).
The region has a total population of around 9.5 million, although around two-thirds live in Papua New Guinea. The regional land area is around 550,000 km2, over 80 per cent of which is Papua New Guinea, and a total of almost 29 million km2 of EEZ ocean area. The independent countries tend to maintain strong relationships with their former colonial power, although Australia and New Zealand have tended to develop closer ties with some former UK colonies such as Fiji, Kiribati, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu, than does the UK itself. Former colonial linkages are important as flows of relief from metropolitan countries reflect, to a certain extent, these earlier connections. The settlement of the region covers a vast period of time from around 40,000 years ago in Papua New Guinea (Groube et al., 1986) to less than two thousand years ago for the more remote islands to the east (Kirch, 2000). The first European to land on a Pacific Island was Magellan who reached Guam in the early 14 th Century and by the beginning of the 20 th Century all of the islands in the Pacific region were under some kind of control by a foreign government (Chappell, 1999). The first independent country was Samoa in 1962 although most of the independent countries achieved that status in the 1970s and 1980s.
As Figure 1 and Table 1 both indicate, the countries and territories of the Pacific Island region are highly diverse. Papua New Guinea (independent since 1975) dominates in terms of population and land area. However, it also has huge cultural diversity with over 800 languages being spoken, a broader resource base than the other countries, and the widest exposure to natural hazards ranging from climatic hazards such as frosts in the highlands and tropical cyclones in some outer islands and coastal areas to drought across the country, and geological hazards including earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunami. At the other extreme, Tokelau, still a New Zealand territory, has a population of less than 1,500 people, is only a few metres above sea level, a land area of just a few square kilometres and exposure to tropical cyclones, droughts and high tide and wave events. Between these extremes lie a range of situations: single island countries, countries consisting of chains of atolls only a few metres above sea-level, those made up of various combinations of atolls and high islands, those comprised of volcanic high islands found in the central Pacific (sometimes in complex archipelagos spread over vast areas of ocean), and those which are made up of predominantly plate boundary islands (Nunn, 1994), which are sometimes referred to as continental type islands, along converging plate boundaries along the Pacific ring of fire. Thus there is a range of exposure to hazards (potential extreme events), potential for loss, and spatial complexity in disaster response (e.g. from isolated highland villages in Papua New Guinea and isolated outer islands in archipelagos to densely populated urban settings). These are all important issues for effective disaster response.
Many PICs are exposed to a wide range of natural hazards. Most lie in the zone north and south of the equator that is exposed to tropical cyclones, many islands in the western part of the region are located on the Pacific ring of fire and are subject to earthquakes and host a number of active volcanoes. Other hazards include tsunami, drought, land slides and frosts (in highland Papua New Guinea). Since 1990, ReliefWeb has recorded 88 'natural disasters' in the region, several of which impacted on more than one country. Of these, almost half (42) were tropical cyclones.
Brief Background: Traditional Disaster Risk Reduction
In this paper I use the term disaster risk management (DRM) to encapsulate both disaster management (DM) and disaster risk reduction (DRR). This is consistent with the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction terminology and DRM refers to both traditional disaster preparedness and measures that seek to reduce losses from disasters in the first place (ISDR, 2004). While there is considerable evidence that prior to western contact, some Pacific Island communities caused considerable environmental degradation (Kirch, 2000) it would appear that many island communities were thriving when first contacted by agents of the outside world, particularly from Europe. This suggests that they coped with the broad range of environmental extremes to which they were exposed with considerable success. It is likely that this was achieved through a number of means some of which may have been purposeful adjustments to environmental conditions but many of which may have been incidental, serving a myriad of other purposes but also contributing to community resilience. The main categories of disaster reduction were maintaining food security, having secure settlements and a variety of forms of intra- and inter- community cooperation (Campbell, 2006).
Food security was maintained through production of surpluses (which also facilitated inter-community linkages), having a high level of crop diversity, food storage and preservation, cultivation of resilient crops, having in ground stocks of famine foods and control of consumption. Secure settlements included locations in areas that were less hazardous – traditionally many communities lived on higher land, away from the sea – and building hazard resistant houses. The traditional bures and fales of Fiji, Tonga and Samoa, for example have a number of features that enhance their wind resistance. In Melanesia, along part of the earthquake prone 'ring of fire' many houses are of lighter structure, perhaps ensuring that damage from shaking will be limited. Inter community cooperation was sustained through the exchange of surplus production among communities. Quite often trading 'rings' covered considerable distances and enabled political and social alliances to be cemented. There is ample evidence that such networks were often called upon when food crops were devastated by natural disasters such as tropical cyclones and frosts (Campbell, 1990; Hocart, 1929; Waddell, 1983). Communities also coped by sharing losses and through rationing (Wilkes, 1845). This was facilitated by traditional political structures and kinship arrangements.
These measures came under different levels and types of pressure with the advent of contact and subsequent colonisation. New economic arrangements including the cash economy, social change including the introduction of a new religion, and changes to regimes of resource management all contributed to an erosion of many facets of disaster reduction. For example, traditional exchange systems became less important as the cash economy saw the introduction of new goods. Means of earning cash included migrating in search of employment or growing cash crops. The latter saw a reduction in subsistence crop production and in recent decades the more resistant taro and yam cultivars have been replaced by cassava (requiring lower soil fertility and labour inputs), a plant much more prone to damage from extreme winds. Many traditional networks and knowledge systems were challenged by the new religion and fell into disuse. Colonists and missionaries alike encouraged communities to move to the, more hazard prone, coast where they had easier access to, and control over, them. Today, many of the traditional activities that enabled communities to cope with disaster are no longer extant. The cash economy pervades the region and new social, cultural and political forms have been melded onto the traditional ones that remain. A key element in this transition has been the provision of disaster relief.
The Role of Relief
Examples of relief assistance can be found as early as the 1840s when the London Missionary Society sent provisions to the Cook Islands following two tropical cyclones. Most of the supplies turned out to be inappropriate and arrived long after the communities had recovered from the events (Lewis, 1999). A major tropical cyclone in northern and eastern Fiji in 1886 was followed by distribution of relief food supplies by the colonial government but the costs of the programme were charged against the tax refunds of the affected provinces (Campbell, 1985). It was not until the post World War Two era, however, that provision of relief by colonial governments became more regular and anticipated by affected communities (Campbell, 1985, 1990). By the time most PICs became independent, the provision of government assistance to affected communities had become commonplace. Whereas prior to colonisation, communities were, at least in combination with their neighbours, relatively self sufficient, they now had come to expect external assistance. As a result, a number of measures such as food storage and preservation and the use of famine foods had declined. It should be noted that disaster relief by colonial governments was often at the expense of other planned expenditure and rarely originated from additional revenue granted by metropolitan countries.
With independence a new set of relief arrangements emerged. A number of newly independent countries were soon affected by disasters and the new governments acted to ensure that communities were assisted. A pattern was established in which independent PICs would receive assistance from metropolitan countries (especially former colonisers). In some countries, such as Fiji, agencies were created to administer post-disaster response such as the Prime Minister's Hurricane Relief Committee which operated for well over a decade from 1972 into the 1980s. While initially various bilateral arrangements underpinned relief efforts multilateral assistance also grew in importance with a variety of United Nations Agencies providing various forms of relief. The most recent trend has been the growth of international non-governmental humanitarian organisations providing relief to disaster victims in the region. Moreover, these multilateral government and non-governmental organisations have become increasingly efficient and professionalised in the provision of humanitarian assistance. This is illustrated by the response to the Solomon Islands Tsunami of April, 2007. The mobilisation of international resources almost occurred within hours of the event, the internet enabling various organisations to launch appeals among their members. The event caused 52 deaths and 9000 people were affected (UNOCHA, 2007; IFRC, 2008a) and the total assistance given reported in the ReliefWeb Financial Tracking System (FTS) was US$5.6 million, though the amounts reported in ReliefWeb updates indicate that considerably more than this had been committed by various governments and agencies.
One of the problems with relief is that it is rarely given in an equitable manner. Different types of disasters, and disasters in different countries, receive different levels of international attention. An excellent example of this was the response to the 2007 tropical cyclone Guba which caused torrential rainfall and flooding in Oro Province, Papua New Guinea. The death toll (142) was almost three times that of the Solomon Island tsunami and 58,000 people required urgent assistance (IFRC, 2008b). This event was given limited international media attention and the FTS reported only US$1.6 million in assistance was made available.
But the biggest problems with relief lie in its effect upon the resilience of the communities that are assisted. In the Pacific region Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna, one of Fiji's greatest statesmen, expressed concern that communities should not be provided with relief as early as 1936 (McLean, 1977) and Waddell (1983) was particularly critical of the 1972-73 frost relief programme in Papua New Guinea which undermined local coping systems. At a broader global level Cuny (1983) also questioned the role of disaster relief. He felt that relief agencies downplayed local capacities and destroyed local coping mechanisms. More recently de Ville de Groyet (2000) observed that most international intervention occurs after neighbours and local agencies have already carried out most of the required assistance. Disaster relief has created perhaps a perpetual process in which resilience is reduced demanding even further provision of assistance. Unfortunately, resolving this problem is not easy as depriving assistance to those communities that have had their resilience weakened may have serious implications.
Urban Disaster Risk Reduction
A second important trend in relation to DRM in PICs is related to urbanisation. Figure 2 shows the trends in urbanisation in the region. By international standards the Pacific Region has a relatively low rate of urbanisation: 23 per cent of the population, or 2,155,000 people, reside in urban areas, but this represents quite rapid recent growth and 10 of the PICs have over half of their populations resident in urban areas (SPC, 2008). Rapid urban growth has seen the emergence of significant squatter populations with limited access to services, vulnerable housing, restricted livelihood opportunities and often located in hazardous areas. However, with only a very few exceptions, DRM activities in the region have tended to have a rural focus.
Figure 2. Urbanisation in PICs and Territories .
The bar graph shows the total numbers of urban residents in each country and the line graph shows the percentage of the population that is urban. Source of data: SPC (2008)
The development of urban hazard reduction through land-use planning has a number of limitations in PICs. A number of PICs have some form of urban planning and some of the larger urban areas have elected councils and municipal governments. But those planning mechanisms that exist are often characterised by limited levels of implementation (Connell & Lea, 2002). Most Pacific towns have restricted areas of freehold land and are built on or around villages with customary land rights which cannot be overridden. Moreover, many governments in PICs support traditions which are embedded in a rural ethos. The political incentive to engage with urban planning issues is further reduced in many countries where urban dwellers are registered to vote in their rural home areas (Commonwealth Local Government Forum et al., 2007). As well, in many countries it is perceived that the solution to urban growth is rural development and this has been emphasised in national planning priorities. A Pacific Urban Agenda (PUA) has been developed and incorporated into the Pacific Plan (the regional response to the Millennium Development Goals). Among its three main objectives the PUA seeks to integrate 'disaster management' into urban planning and governmental frameworks (Pacific Regional Workshop on Urban Management, 2003). To date, however, implementation has been slower than other elements of the Pacific Plan (Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, 2007).
It must be acknowledged that the vulnerability of many urban residents in PICs is a result of broader sets of processes for which there a few simple solutions. Improving access to livelihoods is to a large degree dependent upon sustainable economic development, to which there are many constraints. This would perhaps stem the rate of rural to urban migration and provide opportunities for urban dwellers to find sources of income. Such issues are however, also addressed in the PUA where emphasis is placed on ways in which the informal economy may be enhanced.
One exception to the pattern of neglected urban planning and disaster reduction may be found in the case of Samoa where a Planning and Urban Management Agency (PUMA) was established in 2002 and legislation passed in 2004 to enable and use planning (Jones & Lea, 2007). A comprehensive coastal hazard mapping project has been conducted in Samoa and an integrated disaster risk management project, involving both government and communities, was incorporated into a major four year sustainable development programme for the management of coastal infrastructure (Roberts & Daly, 2008). This appears to have been one of the most comprehensive DRM activities in the Pacific Region and it could be argued that the death toll from the 2009 tsunami may have been considerably higher were it not for nationwide evacuation training exercises. Urban communities also develop informal structures which may play important roles in disaster situations and urban agriculture plays an important role in maintaining urban food security (Thaman, 1993).
Institutional Arrangements
At the regional level, the first concerted effort to improve disaster management began at the Pacific Islands Development Programme in the early to mid-1980s. This programme produced manuals (disaster management, post-disaster assessment) and had a number of in-country projects on strengthening local housing, particularly to increase resistance to strong winds. It held several workshops. In the early 1990s UNDRO established a South Pacific Programme Office (SPPO) to assist in the development of disaster management in the region. The SPPO initiated the South Pacific Disaster Reduction Programme which comprised a number of activities including annual meetings for National Disaster Management Officers, a series of manuals and in-country programmes. While the Pacific Island Development Programme started the process, the SPPO certainly bedded it in and this was a time when countries developed institutional mechanisms for natural disaster management and a regional cadre of trained and knowledgeable disaster managers emerged. Most countries now have legislation for disaster management and National Disaster Management Offices. A distinction made in 1994 by the Programme Office was that institutional arrangements for disaster management in the region were of two types: one with a strong emergency management orientation and typically linked to police departments and the second with a broader range of activities and more likely to embrace a disaster risk reduction approach. However, the former tends to have a stronger level of support from governments than the latter (SPREP, 1994).
From its outset the intention was for the SPPO to become integrated within a regional body and the Disaster Reduction Programme was taken over by the Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC) in the late 1990s. SOPAC essentially provides scientific, particularly geological, services to the region. Under SOPAC the activities were placed in a Community Risk Programme, and a Comprehensive Hazard And Risk Management (CHARM) process was established. It is of interest that the disaster reduction programme was placed in this institution which has a largely science core (although its activities have broadened to encapsulate an overall sustainable development focus) to its activities. The current guiding document for SOPAC and the National Disaster Management Offices is the 'Framework for Action 2005 – 2015' which is the regional response to the Hyogo Framework for Action and the Mauritius Strategy, an international plan for sustainable development in small island developing states. The mission of the framework includes three elements: improved governance, mainstreaming of disaster risk management at all levels of governmental planning and decision making and strengthening partnerships among all stakeholders in disaster risk management (SOPAC, 2005). Steps are being taken to implement the framework: Regular 'Regional Disaster Managers Meetings' are now attended by large numbers of 'partners', mostly from the humanitarian sector (but with several committed to building DRR) and in 2008 a high level meeting of CEOs of Finance and Planning departments was held in conjunction with the Regional Disaster Managers Meeting to introduce them to the need for mainstreaming.
The other relevant regional programme is the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) which is more policy oriented and which has the climate change portfolio as one of its main activities. Interestingly, the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction has begun to promote the need to link climate change adaptation with natural disaster reduction which would require some integration between the two organisations.
Countries affiliated to the United States either as territories or as independent countries in free association with the United States have some differences from the other PICs. The three independent nations in particular (Palau, Federated States of Micronesia and Marshall Islands) have Compacts of Free Association with the USA. Until recently these compacts placed the three countries under the administration of the Federal Emergency Management Agency for post disaster assistance. Accordingly much larger amounts of relief have been made available to these countries than for the rest of the region. With the re-negotiation of the compacts these countries will now be under the ambit of the United States Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, although the quantum of assistance is not anticipated, at least initially, to change.
In assessing disaster risk management in PICs it is clear that certain trends have emerged. While traditional systems of resource management and social organisation appear to have been characterised by high levels of resilience, the occurrence of colonialism and the subsequent emergence of nation states has seen considerable modification of these traditional patterns. In general disaster risk management may be characterised by three sets of activities. The first of these are typically measures, such as stopbanks and seawalls, which seek to 'protect' communities from extreme events. Often they encourage development in 'protected areas' and lead to even greater losses when they fail or supra-design events occur. The second set of measures are those that seek to avoid losses by avoiding areas that are hazardous or developing social mechanisms that reduce the losses caused by disasters and the third include measures that seek to offset the impact of disasters after they occur such as relief, recovery and rehabilitation activities and, for those who can afford it, insurance. In most PICs the third measure is the one which has the greatest uptake although in a number of countries there has been investment in the first of the measures, particularly in the form of seawalls. The second set of measures, which mostly involve land use planning, has the least support.
These measures tend to focus on what Wisner et al. (2004) call the unsafe conditions which create vulnerability to extreme events. From their perspective, reducing vulnerability requires addressing the underlying causes that lead to the creation of these conditions. In the Pacific Island Region these underlying causes may be seen in the processes of colonialism that saw traditional resilience undermined. In the post-colonial setting, this process has been further enhanced. Even the most isolated Pacific Island communities are participants in the global capitalist economy and traditional patterns of resilience continue to decline. As we have seen post-disaster relief is becoming increasingly rapid and efficient, but at the cost of local independence. It is difficult to see how the implementation of a hazard planning regime can achieve reductions in vulnerability while these processes continue to reduce resilience.
The future of natural disaster reduction in the region and of the vulnerability of PIC communities to hazards is unclear. There have been significant improvements in natural disaster management in the region, particularly since the establishment of the UNDRO (at the time), South Pacific Programme Office, and a cadre of knowledgeable natural disaster managers has evolved. At the most recent annual meeting of national disaster managers the ISDR credo of disaster risk reduction took a central role and an effort was made to introduce the need for the 'mainstreaming' of DRR to senior treasury and planning officials from the region. There are other factors, too, that need to be considered. Most (though not all) PICS have relatively high rates of population growth which is likely to increase the numbers of people exposed to future natural extremes when they occur. As we have seen, there are high rates of urbanisation in many of the PICs but relatively little has been achieved in terms of urban disaster reduction. With some notable exceptions, it is likely that this trend will continue and urban exposure and vulnerability will increase. Poverty is coupled with urbanisation in many parts of the region and while poverty, per sê, is not the sole contributor to vulnerability, lack of access to adequate livelihoods is a significant indicator. A major contributor to growing urban vulnerability will be the increase in squatter settlements and their populations. As indicated above, PICs are becoming increasingly reliant on international humanitarian assistance following disaster events. A question may be asked as to whether or not such levels will be maintained in the future, particularly in times of economic stress. Many PICs are experiencing considerable levels of local environmental change including among other processes, destruction of mangroves and coral reefs which play a major role in protecting coastal areas from storm surge and flooding. These processes may increase the magnitude of damage from future events. In addition, global environmental change, particularly global warming may bring about changes in the magnitude and frequency of some climatic extremes. It is possible that some communities will need to relocate (a process that is not uncommon within countries but has had limited success on an international basis (Lieber, 1977; Campbell et al., 2007). Internal relocation from rural to urban areas may place additional stresses on the latter. Given these trends, it is likely that PICs will experience increased vulnerability to natural disasters together with greater exposure to hazardous events.
There have been three key historical stages in disaster risk management in PICs. Initially it would appear that Pacific island communities maintained local control over disaster response through maintaining food security, having resilient shelter and through local and regional social, political and economic interdependence. Many communities are still quite resilient, especially in rural areas. Nevertheless, contact and colonisation saw a reduction in many of these measures, marginalisation of communities and increasing control over disaster response by colonial governments. We have now reached a stage where control of disaster response is mediated through independent national governments which are in turn dependent upon foreign donors for assistance. The predominant response has become relief oriented. The test for the upcoming decades of the new millennium is to move the focus to DRM. Despite the good efforts of regional organisations and national disaster management officers who are well aware of such a need, most governments have not yet accepted this challenge.
Campbell, J. (1985). Dealing with disaster. Hurricane response in Fiji. Honolulu: Pacific Islands Development Program, East-West Center / Government of Fiji.
Campbell, J. (1990). Disasters and Development in Historical Context: Tropical Cyclone Response in the Banks Islands of Northern Vanuatu. International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, 8(3): 401-424.
Campbell, J. (2006) Traditional Disaster Reduction in Pacific Island Communities. GNS Science Report 2006/38.
Campbell, J., Goldsmith, M. & Koshy, K. (2007) Community Relocation as an Option for Adaptation to the Effects of Climate Change and Climate Variability in Pacific Island Countries. Final report for APN project 2005-14-NSY-Campbell. Tokyo, Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research.
Commonwealth Local Government Forum, Economic and Social Commission for Asia and The Pacific, and Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat. (2007). The Second Pacific Regional Workshop on Urban Management, 23-25 April 2007, Nadi, Fiji Islands. Report. Nadi: Commonwealth Local Government Forum, Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat.
Connell, J., & Lea, J. P. (2002). Urbanisation in the Island Pacific : Towards Sustainable Development. London: Routledge.
Chappell, D.A. (1999). The Postcontact Period. In Rapaport, M. (Ed.) The Pacific Islands Environment and Society. Honolulu, Bess Press.
Cuny, F. (1983). Disasters and Development. New York, Oxford University Press.
De Ville de Groyet, C. (2000). Stop Propagating Disaster Myths, Lancet. 356, 762-764.
Groube, L., Chappell, J., Muke, J. & Price, D. (1986). A 40,000-year-old human occupation site at Huon Peninsula, Papua New Guinea. Nature. 324, 453-455.
Hocart, A. M. (1929). Lau islands, Fiji. Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin. No. 62.
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) (2008a). Solomon Islands: Tsunami and Earthquake. Operations Update No. 7. 19 May, 2008. http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWFiles2008.nsf/FilesByRWDocUnidFilename/MUMA-7ES3GU-full_report.pdf/$File/full_report.pdf (Accessed 17 Sept 2008)
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) (2008c). Papua New Guinea: Cyclone Guba. Operations Update No.4. 31 July, 2008. http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWFiles2008.nsf/FilesByRWDocUnidFilename/YSAR-7H4LHZ-full_report.pdf/$File/full_report.pdf (Accessed 22 Sept 2008)
International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) (2004). Living with Risk: A global review of disaster reduction initiatives. Volume 2 Annexes. New York, United Nations.
Jones, P. & Lea, J. (2007). What has Happened to Urban Reform in the Pacific? Some Lessons from Kiribati and Samoa. Pacific Affairs. 80(3), 473-491.
Kirch, P. (2000). On the Road of the Winds. An Archaeological History of the Pacific Islands Before European Contact. Berkeley, University of California Press.
Lewis, J. (1999). Development in Disaster-prone Places. Studies of Vulnerability. London, Intermediate Technology Publications.
Lieber, M. (ed.) (1977). Exiles and Migrants in Oceania. Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania Monograph Series. Honolulu, The University Press of Hawaii.
McLean, R. (1977). The Hurricane Hazard in the Eastern Islands of Fiji: An Historical Analysis, 1875-1975. In H.C. Brookfield (Ed.) The Hurricane Hazard: Natural Disaster and Small Populations. UNESCO/UNFPA Population and Environment Project in the Eastern Islands of Fiji. Island Report No. 1. Canberra, Australian National University, Development Studies Centre.
Nunn, P. (1994). Oceanic Islands. Oxford, Blackwell.
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Pernetta, J. (1990). Projected Climate Change and Sea Level Rise: A Relative Impact Rating for the Countries of the Pacific Basin. In Pernetta, J. & Hughes, P. (Eds), Implications of Expected Climate Changes in the South Pacific Region: An Overview. UNEP Regional Seas Reports and Studies, No. 128. pp. 14-24.
Roberts, G. & Daly, M. (2008). A Practical Exercise in Mainstreaming DRM in the Pacific. A Case Study from Samoa. Paper presented at the 14 th Regional Disaster Managers Meeting, Nadi, 21-22 July, 2008.
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South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP). South Pacific Programme Office United Nations Department of Humanitarian Affairs, and Emergency Management Australia (1994) Natural Disaster Reduction in Pacific Island Countries. Report to the World Conference on Natural Disaster Reduction. Macedon, Emergency Management Australia.
Thaman, R. (1993). Pacific Island urban agroforestry. In Clarke, W. and Thaman, R. (eds), Pacific Island Agroforestry: Systems for Sustainability. Tokyo, United Nations University Press. pp. 145-156.
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) (2007). South Pacific Tsunami - April 2007. OCHA Situation Report No. 14. United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 16 Apr 2007. http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/YZHG-72BR94?OpenDocument&rc=5&emid=TS-2007-000042-SLB
Waddell, E. (1983). Coping with Frosts, Governments and Disaster Experts: Some Reflections Based on a New Guinea Experience and a Perusal of the Relevant Literature. In K. Hewitt (Ed.), Interpretations of Calamity From the Viewpoint of Human Ecology. Boston, Allan and Unwin. pp. 33-43.
Wilkes, C. (1845). Narrative of the United States' Exploring Expedition. Vol. III. Suva Reprinted Fiji Museum (1985). Original publication details: Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard.
Wisner, B., Blaikie, P., Cannon, T. & Davis, I. (2004). At Risk. Natural Hazards, People's Vulnerability and Disasters. London, Routledge.
John Campbell © 2010. The author assigns to the Australasian Journal of Disaster and Trauma Studies at Massey University a non-exclusive licence to use this document for personal use and in courses of instruction provided that the article is used in full and this copyright statement is reproduced. The authors also grant a non-exclusive licence to Massey University to publish this document in full on the World Wide Web and for the document to be published on mirrors on the World Wide Web. Any other usage is prohibited without the express permission of the author.
Last changed 5 February, 2010

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


This entry was posted on Thursday, June 17th, 2010at 9:34 am	and is filed under Keeper's Diary, Masks of Nyarlathotep. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Hi! Love love love how this game is unfolding, and I love listening to the Keeper's Diary, (no SAN loss for me yet).
Loved the addition of Paul McLane as an NPC. Very funny. I can't wait for them to go to Africa. Love the game!!!
Glad you're enjoying it. I'm using a LOT of material from the upcoming Masks of Nyarlathotep Companion, so if you want to see even more, be sure to pick it up when it comes out.


text:
India Tours 27
The Canadian 7
Taj Mahal 6
The Grand Canyon 3
Douro Cruise on the Spirit of Chartwell
Machu Picchu and the Andes
Sukie Chapman 92
Katie Shaw 31
Lorna Heatley 30
Jack Stacey 27
Persephone Hallow 22
Our Favourite Once-in-a-lifetime Destinations
By Jack Stacey
There are some destinations across the world which are so iconic, so magnificent and so well-known that they truly earned the often-overused title of once-in-a-lifetime destinations. These natural wonders, man-made masterpieces and ancient marvels have etched themselves into the global conscience in such a way that they will never be forgotten. Here are some of our favourites, listed in no particular order.
227 miles long, 1,800 metres deep and hundreds of millions of years old - the Grand Canyon is one of the seven natural wonders of the world and one of its most striking monuments. Found in the state of Colorado, and one of the USA's national parks, the Grand Canyon is a stark reminder of the immensity and sheer power of nature. Countless unseen natural influences have shaped every curve, every cliff and every rock of this glorious gorge, and it presence has become meshed with America's cultural identity, attracting thousands of visitors every year.
Like the pyramids of Egypt, what truly makes Machu Picchu exceptional is the ingenuity and manpower which must have gone into its creation. A stone estate built on behalf of Emperor Pachacuti around the 15th century at the height of the Incan Empire, the intricate stonework and its position atop Huayna Picchu must have made construction truly difficult. Many of the outer buildings are in excellent condition for their age, but it is the spectacular surroundings of mist-drenched green mountains rising above low cloud which makes Machu Picchu a once-in-a-lifetime destination.
The accolade of being the largest religious building in the world is quite the achievement and it is not a surprise that Angkor Wat takes this prestigious title. This massive Cambodian collection of temples, is dedicated to the Hindu religion and is over 162 hectares in size, featuring various ancient buildings in honour of various gods. Impressive stonework is in abundance, with intricate decorations making up different faces and deities. The advanced complex indicates the hand of a progressive civilisation, with the various shrines all connected to a well-engineered water system. Stepping across the bridge into the Angkor complex is very much a step back in time to the enormous power of the Khmer empire across the last millennium.
One of the largest waterfalls and one of the most impressive sights on the planet, the Victoria Falls is astonishing both in its beauty and crashing power. Located in Zimbabwe, Africa, these magnificent falls were the subject of a famous discovery by Scottish explorer David Livingstone. In his mission to discover the hitherto unknown source of the Nile River, Livingston came across the waterfalls which he christened the Victoria Falls in honour of his queen, Queen Victoria of the British Empire. His words to describe what he saw are better than anything anyone else could put down: 'No one can imagine the beauty of the view from anything witnessed in England. It had never been seen before by European eyes; but scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight'.
Stretching across the border of one of the largest nations on earth, the Great Wall of China certainly lives up to its title. Originally over 13,000 miles long, this mind-boggling structure was built by Emperor Qin Shi Huang to begin with, the same Emperor who was buried along with his famous guard of over 8,000 terracotta soldiers. Sections of the Great Wall of China were added later by members of the Ming Dynasty. The wall itself, which was designed to keep out the Steppe nomads of Eurasia, is in marvellous condition, and the scale of these walls is breathtaking as they seem to stretch on and on across the horizon. They cannot, however, be seen from outer space. This was in fact, an exaggerated myth spread by English visitors during the 18th and 19th centuries.
India's finest building, located near the city of Agra, the Taj Mahal is an architectural delight. Its onion dome, framed by four minarets on each side and preceded by a long stretch of fountains and grass is picture perfect, even more so with the rise and fall of the sun. Designed as a mosque and as a mausoleum for the favourite wife of a 17th century Mughal emperor, the Taj Mahal is a triumph of Islamic design and a delight for millions of visitors every year. It has rapidly become a symbol of India, enthralling travellers from across the globe with its ivory-white walls and reverent interiors. It is considered one of the new seven wonders of the world.
Few mountains have cast such a cultural shadow as that of Mount Fuji in Japan. Almost perfect, as if some unseen hand had pulled it up and crafted it from the landscape, Mount Fuji watches over Honshu Island from all of 12,389 feet, an ancient guardian and one of Japan's Three Holy Mountains. This natural marvel is an active stratovolcano, and its near-symmetrical shape and its snow lined summit make it exceptionally pleasing on the eye. Mount Fuji is best visited in spring, as the cherry blossom blooms on the trees, casting a peaceful pink hue on central Japan.
Musical Destinations around the Globe
05/06/2017 · By Lorna Heatley
Music is a splendid thing, and comes in many genres that can be appreciated at a variety of destinations around the world. Here are our picks for musical holiday spots, by genre.
Christmas Markets in the Harz Mountains
22/12/2017 · By Jack Stacey
It's the smell of Christmas more than anything. The puzzling fuzz of deep red glühwein, the sharp nostalgic crackle of a lit brazier, and the gentle waft of German incense.
Great Rail Journeys guide to travel in the UK and Ireland
01/07/2020 · By Guest Author
When it comes to our holiday plans, so often we overlook the incredible destinations on our doorstep. But with so many stunning landscapes, from the Lake District to the breathtaking Scottish Highlands, the UK and Ireland offers a whole host of great staycation options.
Your guide to French Barge Cruising
02/07/2020 · By Sukie Chapman
From grand châteaus to cobbled, homely streets, the waterways of France are bursting with sights of interest, and you can experience them the most relaxing way possible, on a barge cruise.


Veteran Hollywood photographer Matthew Rolston and award-winning journalist and film director Matt Tyrnauer engage in a lively discussion of Rolston's latest project—a book and exhibition of his works from the 1980s. Much of the work was commissioned by Andy Warhol for Interview magazine and Jann Wenner for Rolling Stone. More than just an examination of Rolston's work, the talk, video and accompanying slideshow presentation will encompass the meanings of Hollywood glamour, its origins and modern history.
Rolston is a well-established icon of Hollywood photography. Alongside such luminaries as Herb Ritts and Greg Gorman, Rolston was a member of an influential group of photographers (including Bruce Weber, Annie Leibovitz, and Steven Meisel) who came from the 1980s magazine scene. Rolston helped define the era's take on celebrity, gender bending, and more.
Hollywood Royale: Out of the School of Los Angeles presents a striking array of portraits that beautifully capture the decade and its myriad talents. From Michael Jackson and Madonna, to Prince, George Michael, and Cyndi Lauper, the selection of images presents a virtual "who's who" of '80s pop culture. Rolston's images recall the glamour of Old Hollywood with postmodern irony, helping to point the way toward the cult of fame we live with today.
Matthew Rolston's photography career began at Interview Magazine, where he was discovered by Andy Warhol.


TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 1,924, April 11, 2009.
April 11, 2009, Alert No. 1,924.
4/8. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted and released a Notice of Inquiry [59 pages in PDF] requesting comments regarding the FCC's drafting of a "national broadband plan". See also, FCC release.
The Congress mandated the drafting of this plan. See, Section 6001(k) of HR 1 [LOC | WW], the huge spending bill passed by the Congress in February. It is now Public Law No. 111-5. The full text of this section is at right.
This act conferred no new rulemaking, adjudicatory, or other authority on the FCC. Rather, it requires the FCC to conduct certain enumerated analyses, and write a "plan" for advancing certain enumerated goals.
The NOI begins, "We seek comment in this Notice from all interested parties on the elements that should go into a national broadband plan. Our plan must reflect an understanding of the problem, clear goals for the future, a route to those goals, and benchmarks along the way. Our plan must also allow for modification as we learn from our experience. And our plan must reflect the input of all stakeholders -- industry, American consumers; large and small businesses; federal, state, local, and tribal governments; nonprofits; and disabilities communities. With this Notice, we begin to make our plan."
The statute uses broad language. Nevertheless, it identifies certain topics for analysis and planning.
It identifies "ensuring broadband access" by "all people of the United States". However, it stops short of referencing either "universal service" or 47 U.S.C. § 254.
It also requires a "strategy" for achieving "affordability" and "maximum utilization".
It also requires "an evaluation of the status of deployment".
Finally, the statute requires a plan that addresses numerous goals: "advancing consumer welfare, civic participation, public safety and homeland security, community development, health care delivery, energy independence and efficiency, education, worker training, private sector investment, entrepreneurial activity, job creation and economic growth, and other national purposes."
This statutory enumeration does not include several policy goals frequently cited by others in debates over broadband policy. For example, this section does not require a study of, or set as goals the advancement or diminution of, network neutrality, privacy, cyber security, copyright protection, or patent protection. Nevertheless, the NOI asks for comments on some of these issues.
The NOI is broad, and reaches most of the major policy areas in which the FCC is involved.
The Congressional mandate, and this NOI, are premised on the argument that government planning will advance, rather than interfere with, such things as increasing the availability of broadband services, improving broadband technologies and transmission speeds, promoting competition, and reducing prices.
FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, wrote in his statement [PDF] that the U.S. broadband industry has already "made great strides in developing and deploying broadband infrastructure".
He elaborated that "The FCC's own data shows that since 2000, the number of high speed lines has increased more than 1600 percent". Also, "FCC data shows the number of lines with transmission speeds greater than or equal to 2.5 megabits per second grew from December 2005 to December 2007 by 70 percent, from approximately 27 million lines to over 45 million lines." He also praised the large scale of infrastructure investment in the broadband sector.
He argued that "it is critical that our plan be competitively and technologically neutral" and "essential that our plan give current and prospective broadband network and service providers the proper incentives to deploy new technologies".
He also argued that "we must not engage in rulemakings that produce whimsical regulatory arbitrage. Rather, we must allow market players to succeed or fail on their own merits and not due to the government picking winners and losers."
FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein wrote in his statement that he seeks a "public-private partnership". See also, statement of FCC Chairman Michael Copps.
Gigi Sohn, head of the Public Knowledge, stated in a release that "this is the first time a government agency will take a comprehensive look at the situation and recommend a course of action to remedy our rapidly declining broadband ranking."
She added that "We hope the Commission will use every means it has to produce a plan to bring more competition, more features, faster speeds and lower prices to consumers while making certain that no one is left behind."
Derek Turner, of the Free Press, stated in a release that "This plan, if done right, could serve as the foundation for telecommunications policymaking in the 21st century."
He continued that "Any new strategy must take into account how past policies failed to deliver the open, competitive broadband marketplace Congress intended. The blind deregulatory regime that we have today is a blueprint for what to avoid in the future. Under the last administration's wait-and-see approach, competition disappeared, speeds stagnated, prices went through the roof, and the open Internet was placed in jeopardy."
He added that he want a plan "that puts the public interest ahead of Wall Street's whims."
Walter McCormick, head of US Telecom, praised the broadband sector's investment in new facilities. He argued that the FCC should focus on "updating FCC programs and regulations" and consumer education.
He wrote in a release that "Today, many Americans still don't see the value in accessing high speed Internet services. Therefore, we hope the FCC will focus on launching tech literacy efforts, increasing access to Internet-enabled devices, and promoting policies that stimulate demand and ongoing private-sector investment."
Initial comments are due by June 8, 2009. Reply comments are due by July 7, 2009. The FCC opened a new proceeding, titled "In the Matter of A National Broadband Plan for Our Future", and numbered GN 09-51. This NOI is FCC 09-31.
4/8. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted and released a Notice of Inquiry [59 pages in PDF] requesting comments regarding the FCC's drafting of a "national broadband plan".
This NOI asks numerous questions related to broadband technology, deployment, affordability, demand, and related issues, as required by Section 6001 of HR 1 [LOC | WW].
This NOI also asks numerous questions about topics not mentioned in Section 6001. The following is a summary of some of these additional questions posed by this NOI.
Open Networks. Section 6001 does not address network neutrality mandates, open networks, the FCC's 2005 policy statement [3 pages in PDF], or the FCC's 2008 Comcast order [67 pages in PDF].
However, the NOI does seek comments on "the value of open networks as an effective and efficient mechanism for ensuring broadband access for all Americans, and specifically on how the term ``open´´ should be defined. For example, should it incorporate access, interconnection, nondiscrimination, or infrastructure sharing principles?"
FCC Chairman Michael Copps referenced "Ensuring broadband openness" in his written statement.
In contrast, Commission Robert McDowell wrote in his statement that "In order to attract investors to fund the buildout of new networks, we must not engage in rulemakings that produce whimsical regulatory arbitrage. Rather, we must allow market players to succeed or fail on their own merits and not due to the government picking winners and losers. In short, our rules must allow network operators to have a reasonable opportunity to pay back their investors. That's the only way to improve existing networks and build new ones."
McDowell (at left) added that "It is equally as important that consumers continue to have the freedom to pull -- or push -- the legal content of their choice anytime, anywhere, and on the device of their choosing within the physical limitations of the networks they use. The market is rushing to satisfy the latest consumer demand in this regard. Let's make sure the government does not get in the way of these developments."
The NOI asks numerous question regarding open networks, interconnection, and nondiscrimination, including for wireless networks. Should these "factor into development of a national broadband plan"? How do these affect "investment, innovation and entrepreneurship, content, competition and affordability of broadband"?
The NOI asks "has the private sector sufficiently produced open platforms, and if so, to what extent? Would further regulation encourage or discourage more open platform innovation?"
Should the FCC add a fifth item -- nondiscrimination -- to its policy statement? If so, what would it mean? What effect would it have?
Also, "With regard to applying open network policies to wireless networks, what are the costs and benefits, technical considerations, bandwidth constraints, or constraints associated with the capacity of mobile wireless devices or networks that should be given consideration?"
And, Chairman Copps mentioned "avoiding invasions of people's privacy" in his statement.
However, the NOI does not raise, and seeks no comments on, governmental activities that affect privacy, including surveillance, wiretaps, seizure of e-mail, seizure of stored data, and CALEA and CALEA like technology mandates.
The NOI does not explain why it seeks comments as to some, but not all, privacy related issues.
In the past, the FCC has exhibited some interest in protecting consumer privacy in the context carriers' use of data, pursuant to its statutory obligations under 47 U.S.C. § 222.
On the other hand, it has a history of sacrificing individual privacy to facilitate the goals of government, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies.
Chairman Copps mentioned "ensuring cybersecurity" in his statement.
The NOI treats cyber security as a public safety issue, and not as a consumer privacy and security issue. It seeks comments "with respect to those broadband networks critical to the nation's critical infrastructure, financial institutions, public safety and homeland security".
Intellectual Property Rights. The statute does not address intellectual property rights issues related to broadband services.
It does not address protection of proprietary rights, such as copyrights in music, movies and other works, that are distributed and infringed over broadband networks.
Notably, the NOI treats copyright as a broadband utilization issue, and not as a "job creation and economic growth" issue, which the statute establishes as an objective.
Neither the statute nor the NOI address patents that disclose inventions in information or communications technologies.
Universal Service Taxes and Subsidies. The statute merely references "ensuring broadband access" by "all people of the United States".
The NOI asks questions about existing FCC universal service programs and broadband.
Antitrust. Section 6001 does not address competition, antitrust, or antitrust enforcement.
This phrase is taken, almost verbatim, from the FCC's August 5, 2005, policy statement [3 pages in PDF], which states as one of its principles that "consumers are entitled to competition among network providers, application and service providers, and content providers".
In 2005 the FCC asserted that the policy statement was not enforceable. Tom Navin, then Chief of the Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB), stated at the public meeting on August 5, 2005, that the policy statement is "principles", and that "they are not enforceable".
See, stories titled "FCC Adopts a Policy Statement Regarding Network Neutrality" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 1,190, August 8, 2005, and "FCC Releases Policy Statement Regarding Internet Regulation" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 1,221, September 26, 2005.
The FCC reversed course in its 2008 Comcast order [67 pages in PDF]. In that order it asserted adjudicatory authority to enforce its policy statement to regulate the network management practices of broadband service provides. See, story titled "FCC Asserts Authority to Regulate Network Management Practices" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 1,805, August 4, 2008.
All this raises the question: if the FCC has adjudicatory authority to enforce one clause of its 2005 policy statement, does it also have adjudicatory authority to enforce the other clauses, including the competition clause?
The just released NOI asks for comments regarding the competition language in the 2005 policy statement.
However, the NOI stops short of expressly asking whether the FCC has adjudicatory competition enforcement authority, similar to that statutorily granted to the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in Title 15 of the U.S. Code, but arising under the 2005 policy statement.
The FCC has exercised antitrust merger review for over ten years exercised, in the absence of any statutory grant of authority.
It also asks if the FCC should "turn the principles into rules through a rulemaking".
4/9. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released a Notice of Inquiry [22 pages in PDF] regarding bringing the FCC back into conformity with its statutory obligation to prepare annual video competition reports.
The 1992 Cable Act, Public Law No. 102-385, imposed the requirement upon the FCC to prepare an annual report on the state of video competition. In recent years, the FCC did not release these reports in a timely manner. They would have disclosed data that was inconsistent with regulatory objectives being pursued by former FCC Chairman Kevin Martin.
One of the FCC's final actions under Martin's Chairmanship in January was the release of the video competition report for 2006 [PDF], and the notice of inquiry [PDF] for its 2007 report, with data for the year ending June 30, 2007. See, story titled "FCC Resumes Its Statutory Obligation to Study Video Competition" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 1,886, January 21, 2009.
The just released NOI states that the next report will be expanded to cover three years. Hence, the FCC also seeks data as of June 30, 2008, and as of June 30, 2009.
The FCC further extended the comment deadlines for the 2007 portion of the report. The new deadlines are May 20, 2009, for initial comments, and June 20, 2009, for reply comments.
The comment deadlines for the 2008 portion of the report are May 20, 2009, for initial comments, and June 20, 2009, for reply comments. The deadlines for the 2009 portion of the report are July 29, 2009, and August 28, 2009.
This NOI also addresses the types of data and comments sought by the FCC.
FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell wrote in his statement [PDF] that the FCC "is nearly three years behind in its statutory duty", and this supplemental NOI accelerates "our efforts to make amends".
McDowell add, "thankfully, the Supplemental Notice does not purport to take on any of the legal implications of the so-called ``70/70 text´´ under Section 612(g) of the Communications Act." See, story titled "FCC Commissioners Withhold Support for Martin's 70/70 Conclusion" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 1,680, November 30, 2007.
FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein wrote in his statement [PDF] that the FCC is "reintroducing some much needed integrity into our regulatory process concerning video providers".
The just released Supplemental NOI is FCC 09-32 in MB Docket No. 07-269.
The House will not meet the week of April 6-10 or 13-17. It will next meet at 2:00 PM on April 21, 2009. See, HConRes 93.
The Senate will not meet the week of April 6-10 or 13-17. It will next meet on April 20, 2009, at 2:00 PM, at which time it may begin consideration of S 386 [LOC | WW], the "Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act".
9:00 AM - 12:30 PM. The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) will host an event titled "Promoting Peace and Prosperity in Asia: The Taiwan Relations Act at Thirty". The speakers will be C.J. Chen (former foreign minister of the Republic of China), Arthur Brooks (AEI), John Bolton (AEI), Paul Wolfowitz (AEI), Danielle Pletka (AEI), Louisa Greve (National Endowment for Democracy), Christopher Griffin (office of Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT), Rupert Hammond-Chambers (U.S.-Taiwan Business Council), and Dan Blumenthal (AEI). See, notice. Location: AEI, 12t floor, 1150 17th St., NW.
Deadline to submit comments to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) regarding the broadband grant programs created by HR 1 [LOC | WW], the huge spending bill enacted in February, which programs are also known as the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP). See, notice in the Federal Register, March 12, 2009, Vol. 74, No. 47, at Pages 10716-10721, and notice in the Federal Register, March 18, 2009, Vol. 74, No. 51, at Page 11531.
Deadline to submit comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its Public Notice [4 pages in PDF] regarding the FCC's consultative role in implementing the broadband grants and loans provisions of HR 1, the huge spending bill enacted in February. This PN is DA 09-668 in GN Docket No. 09-40.
12:00 NOON - 2:00 PM. The DC Bar Association will host a closed event titled "Posters, Pictures and Portraits: Hot Issues Involving Copyrights in Images". The speakers will include James Astrachan (Astrachan Gunst & Thomas) and Victor Perlman (American Society of Media Photographers). The price to attend ranges from $25 to $50. See, notice. For more information, call 202-626-3463. Location: D.C. Bar Conference Center, B-1 Level, 1250 H St., NW.
2:00 - 3:30 PM. The Department of Justice's (DOJ) Antitrust Division will host a seminar conducted by Catherine de Fontenay (University of Melbourne) on her paper, co-authored with Joshua Gans, titled "Bilateral Bargaining with Externalities". This is a game theoretical paper about bargaining between agents in a network, including patent holders' negotiations with several potential licensors. To request permission to attend, contact Patrick Greenlee at 202-307-3745 or atr dot eag at usdoj dot gov. Location: Bicentennial Building, 600 E St., NW.
12:00 NOON - 1:30 PM. The Disruptive Women in Health Care (DWINC) will host a panel discussion titled "Health eGaming, Healthy Patients". The topic is the use of video games to inform patients about health topics, such as diabetes, nutrition, and weight loss. The speakers will include former Rep. Nancy Johnson (R-CT). Lunch will be served. RSVP to 202-263-2926. Location: Room B339, Rayburn Building, Capitol Hill.
9:30 AM. The U.S. Court of Appeals (DCCir) will hear oral argument in NCTA v. FCC, App. Ct. No. 08-1016 and 08-1017. Judges Tatel, Garland and Silberman will preside. This is the challenge by the NCTA and apartment owners to the FCC's MDU order, that asserts regulatory authority over the content of contracts negotiated by owners of multiple dwelling units (MDUs), such as apartment buildings, and cable companies. The FCC asserted authority under Subsection 628(b) of the Communications Act, which is codified at 47 U.S.C. § 548(b). The order, adopted on October 31, 2007, is FCC 07-189 in MB Docket No. 07-51. See, stories titled "FCC Adopts R&O Abrogating Contracts Between MDU Owners and Cable Companies" and "Commentary on FCC's R&O Regarding MDU Owners and Cable Companies" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 1,669, November 5, 2007. See, FCC's brief [68 pages in PDF]. Location: Courtroom 11, 333 Constitution Ave.
9:30 AM. The U.S. Court of Appeals (DCCir) will hear oral argument in Verizon Washington DC v. Communications Workers of America, App. Ct. No. 08-7092. Judges Ginsburg, Rogers and Kavanaugh will preside. Location: 333 Constitution Ave.
9:30 AM. The U.S. Court of Appeals (DCCir) will hear oral argument in Alvin Lou Media, Inc. v. FCC, App. Ct. No. 08-1067. Judges Ginsburg, Rogers and Kavanaugh will preside. See, FCC's brief [80 pages in PDF]. Location: 333 Constitution Ave.
Deadline to submit initial comments to the The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its Public Notice [4 pages in PDF] regarding its implementation of Subsections 103(b) and 103(c)(1) of the Broadband Data Improvement Act (BDIA). President Bush signed S 1492 [LOC | WW], the BDIA, into law on October 10, 2008. It is now Public Law No. 110-385.
Deadline to submit initial comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its notice of proposed rulemaking [25 pages in PDF] regarding extending until June 30, 2010, the freeze of Part 36 category relationships and jurisdictional cost allocation factors used in jurisdictional separations. This freeze is set to expire on June 30, 2009. This NPRM is FCC 09-24 in CC Docket No. 80-286. See, notice in the Federal Register, April 3, 2009, Vol. 74, No. 63, at Pages 15236-15239.
4/9. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released an Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking [44 pages in PDF] in its proceeding titled "In the Matter of Amendment of Part 90 of the Commission's Rules". See also, FCC release summarizing this item.
The FCC adopted this item on April 7, 2009, and released the text on April 9, 2009. It is FCC 09-29 in WP Docket No. 07-100.
FCC Chairman Michael Copps wrote in his statement that "The 4.9 GHz band holds great promise for enabling the use of new broadband applications in support of public safety, such as high-speed digital technologies and wireless local area networks for incident scene management."
He said that the Report and Order (R&O) portion of this item "provides more operational flexibility in the 4.9 GHz service rules in order to facilitate deployment of additional broadband network facilities in the service of public safety needs in communities throughout the country."
Initial comments in response to the FNPRM will be due within 60 days of publication of a notice in the Federal Register. Reply comments will be due within 90 days of such publication. As of the April 10, 2009, issue of the Federal Register, this notice had not yet been published.
4/8. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted, but did not release, a Order and a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FNRPM) regarding data collection pertaining to minority and female broadcast ownership. The FCC issued a short news release [PDF] describing this item. It is FCC 09-33 in MB Docket Nos. 07-294, 06-121, 02-277, 01-235, 01-317, 00-244, and 04-288.
4/8. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released a Notice of Inquiry [17 pages in PDF] in its proceeding titled " In the Matter of High-Cost Universal Service Support Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service ". The FCC requests comments to refresh its record regarding the issues raised in the 2005 opinion of the U.S. Court of Appeals (10thCir) in Qwest v. FCC, 398 F.3d 1222, which is also known as Qwest II. In that opinion the Court of Appeals invalidated the FCC's high cost universal service support mechanism for non-rural carriers. The FCC adopted this NOI on April 7, 2009, and released the text on April 8, 2009. It is FCC 09-28 in WC Docket No. 05-337 and CC Docket No. 96-45. The deadline to submit initial comments is May 8, 2009. The deadline to submit reply comments is June 8, 2009. See also, story titled "10th Circuit Rules in Qwest II" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 1,090, March 8, 2005.
4/3. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) filed an amicus curiae brief [PDF] with the U.S. Court of Appeals (6thCir) in Michigan Bell v. Covad, a case regarding unbundled network elements and 47 U.S.C. § 251(c). The FCC wrote in its brief that the question presented is whether "Whether an FCC rule relieving incumbent local exchange carriers (``LECs´´) of their duty under section 251(c)(3) of the Communications Act to make entrance facilities available to competitive carriers as unbundled network elements bars the Michigan Public Service Commission (``MPSC´´) from construing a different provision of the Act, section 251(c)(2), to require AT&T Michigan, an incumbent LEC, to provide its competitors with similar facilities at cost-based rates when they are used solely for interconnection." This case is Michigan Bell Telephone Company v. Covad Communications Company, et al., U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, App. Ct. Nos. 07-2469 and 07-2473, appeals from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
4/10. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein announced that Mark Stone "will be detailed to his office as Legal Advisor for wireline issues", and that Renée Crittendon (at right) "will be assuming the position and responsibilities of Senior Legal Advisor and Chief of Staff". Stone has worked at the FCC since 1994. Crittendon has been a legal advisor to Adelstein since June of 2007. See, FCC release [PDF].
4/10. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced in a release [PDF] that it wants nominations and expressions of interest for membership on its Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC). The deadline for submissions is May 11, 2009.
4/8. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced in a release that it wants nominations for membership on its Technological Advisory Council (TAC). The deadline for submissions is May 8, 2009.


text:
Ofcom Backs BBC On ATVOD Regulation
The Drum, Sunday, January 20, 2013 10:56 AM
Ofcom has ruled in favour of BBC Worldwide in a case regarding whether video-on-demand regulator ATVOD had the jurisdiction to rule on BBC Worldwide's YouTube channels. Ofcom had previously ruled against BBC Worldwide, finding that the YouTube channels were an on-demand service and therefore subject to regulation by ATVOD. BBC Worldwide appealed the decision, winning the case, meaning channels such as Top Gear and BBC Food do not fall under the ATVOD rules.
europe, media, online, regulation, tv, uk, video


Now, I'm a critic by nature. I can find something wrong with pretty much anything—I even have a couple quibbles with Hamilton—and tend to focus on the negative. So keep that in mind when reading this. This is how I talk about a movie a very much enjoyed, and wasn't for a minute bored.
The Bad: the music over the first half of the closing credits was jarringly off. If it was a callback to something earlier, I didn't recognize it. It didn't make me think of anything else in the movie, musical or otherwise, and was tonally at odds with everything I'd just watched. It felt like the closing music to Bridges of Madison County or the like. The music for the second half of the closing credits was great, however, and I didn't have any complaints about the soundtrack during the movie itself.
And that's it. That's the only truly bad thing.
All of the other negatives are common to lots of YA fare, and were in many cases handled better than a lot of other movies.
For the most part, the movie telegraphed who were the good guys and who were the bad guys. There were a couple exceptions but, as with most YA lit (in my experience), the twists are the exception.
You could immediately see which characters had plot immunity. Again, not uncommon with YA lit, particularly on the big screen. But that did mean that for about the first half, there wasn't much tension. It wasn't until the second half that any named characters without plot immunity showed up, and the tension immediately ramped up.
This is the best performance by Hugo Weaving since the original Matrix, I think. He blended seamlessly into the part (no "Tom Cruise in a hat" going on here) and played him quite well. As a villain, he had some nuance. The acting was generally good enough, and some of the actors were also quite naturalistic. But, really, "nobody yanked me out of the story" is better than many movies manage, and good enough for me.
Similarly, the pacing in general was quite good. Nothing dragged, nothing felt rushed or forced. We got to the ending at roughly the right time and I never was tempted to look at the time to see how much movie there was left. And the action scenes were at least good and in a few cases excellent (though, honestly, the chases were far better than the fights).
Honestly, if not for the worldbuilding, I'd say this was merely a good-enough movie—no glaring flaws, but not much exceptional, either. But paring a movie that doesn't have glaring flaws with a fascinating world gorgeously realized makes this a good movie, in my estimation. It's not an award-winner, but neither does it deserve to be in the company of Batman v Superman or Suicide Squad. There's nothing glaringly bad, and much that is quite good in Mortal Engines, all of which showcases great world-building.
My summary: I'll definitely see it again, and wouldn't rule out paying theater prices for a second time.
This entry was posted in Stories and tagged movies, review.
Putting this in a comment because here there be spoilers.
One complaint I've seen in several reviews is that in the book, the villain is the culmination of "municipal darwinism" and thematically represents their inherently self-destructive philosophy: that is, that he is showing that "doing it right" leads to what he's doing. While in the movie he's working against the status quo in a sense, and therefore he is no longer a critique that municipal darwinism inevitably leads to bad outcomes, but is instead an example of a bad outcome for unrelated reasons, leaving municipal darwinism unscathed.
I don't think those reviewers were paying attention. The movie spells out in visuals, plot, and dialogue that municipal darwinism is unsustainable, and makes it clear that Valentine's drive is in part because the system has failed—that the only way they can continue on is by expanding the prey supply, going after static cities, and if they can't breach the wall their society will soon collapse, even though they are at the top of the food change. This may be a change from his motivation and actions in the book, but I think it is still thematically a critique of municipal darwinism and is still saying that it is inherently unsustainable and that his actions are a natural culmination of it.