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North Whitehead, Alfred – The importance of new terms for new concepts in metaphysics
Invisible input - wisdom
Process and Reality - Part I The Speculative Scheme
Chapter I - Speculative Philosophy
Section V
Every science must devise its own instruments. The tool required for philosophy is language. Thus philosophy redesigns language in the same way that, in a physical science, pre-existing appliances are redesigned. It is exactly at this point that the appeal to facts is a difficult operation. This appeal is not solely to the expression of the facts in current verbal statements. The adequacy of such sentences is the main question at issue. It is true that the general agreement of mankind as to experienced facts is best expressed in language. But the language of literature breaks down precisely at the task of expressing in explicit form the larger generalities— the very generalities which metaphysics seeks to express.
The point is that every proposition refers to a universe exhibiting some general systematic metaphysical character. Apart from this background, the separate entities which go to form the proposition, and the proposition as a whole, are without determinate character.
Nothing has been defined, because every definite entity requires a systematic universe to supply its requisite status. Thus every proposition proposing a fact must, in its complete analysis, propose the general character of the universe required for that fact. There are no self-sustained facts, floating in nonentity.
North Whitehead, Alfred

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
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Craig Irvine, Ph.D.
Lecturer; Founder and Co-Director, CUIMC Division of Narrative Medicine
Craig Irvine, Ph.D., is a Founder and Co-Director of the CUIMC Division of Narrative Medicine at Columbia University. For more than 15 years, he has been designing and teaching cultural competency, ethics, Narrative Medicine, and Humanities and Medicine curricula for residents, medical students, physicians, nurses, social workers, chaplains, dentists, and other health professionals. He has over 20 years of experience researching the history of philosophy, phenomenology, and narrative ethics, and over 25 years of experience teaching ethics, humanities, the history of philosophy, logic, and narrative medicine at the graduate, undergraduate, and preparatory school levels. He has published articles in the areas of ethics, residency education, and literature and medicine and has presented at numerous national and international conferences on these and other topics.
The Principles and Practice of Narrative Medicine (Oxford University Press, 2017), co-author
Narrative Medicine CPA
"The Most Difficult Aspect of This Is the Unknown": Bioethics Leader Sameer Ladha Reflects on a Positive COVID-19 Diagnosis
Ladha shares the experience of a COVID-19 diagnosis with his colleague, Narrative Medicine Academic Director Craig Irvine.
Craig Irvine Writes an Appreciation of Rita Charon
Craig Irvine, who has known Dr. Rita Charon for 20 years, has written an appreciation of her life and career.
Columbia University School of Professional Studies


Soapbox | Platinum Age Comics!
Travel is always a creative exercise, the mind is attuned to the brain in active and constant generation of paradigm, every moment of travel highlighting something new, however minor, however inconsequential, a schism of experience in the crystalline bubble of our world view, shattered and reconstructed in a new subjective, a new sliver of self, ruptured & reborn in the next most insignificant impulse of experience. Travel keeps the mind and body sharp, keen, attuned to matter where being home gives to familiarity, presumption, and the body and mind grow comfortable and slovenly, secure in aggregate matters of the past, a home to read them their own history. Travel, defined in its unfamiliarity, awakens life to the creative investment of the world, to the shaping faculty of experience itself. Travel is good.


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Wonder Women: A Feminist Perspective on Superheroines
Posted on April 21, 2013 by The Disgruntled Haradrim
"AT LAST, in a world torn apart by the hatreds and wars of men, appears a woman to whom the problems and fears of men are mere child's play….As wise as Athena–with the speed of Mercury and the strength of Hercules–she is known only as WONDER WOMAN…." A recent documentary traces the history, influences and inspirations of the popular super heroine.
The words above appeared in a 1941 comic, the brainchild of William Moulton Marston, a lawyer, psychologist and inventor of the blood-pressure test that formed the basis for the lie detector (magic lasso anyone?). In Moulton's tale, there existed a secret island ruled by Amazonian women, fierce warriors pledged (ironically) to Aphrodite–the Greek goddess of love. When one of those young women, the princess Diana, rescues a downed American WWII pilot, she learns of the "hatreds and wars of men" in the wider world. Donning boots, a blue skirt with white stars, a red bustier with a gold eagle symbol, Diana becomes Wonder Woman–an anti-fascist freedom fighter, and one of the first great super heroines of the comic book world.
Since her inception, Wonder Woman has existed somewhere at the intersections of entertainment and politics. She has been both feminist icon and role model, a breaker of gendered barriers through inked pages and television. Yet her history has been fraught with attempts of constraint, to have her conform to status quo notions of gender, or become a purely sexualized object for masculine consumption. Through the decades Wonder Woman has had a complicated life, ranging from fighting Nazis, to losing her powers and opening up a clothing boutique, to becoming a martial arts fighter and even at one point gaining a black sister named Nubia. Wince. wince now.
Directed by Kristy Guevara-Flanagan and produced by Kelcey Edwards, the documentary Wonder Women! traces the famous super heroine from her radical WWII presence, the back lash and diminishing of her role through the later 1950s, her dramatic resurrection by feminist Gloria Steinem and the women of Ms. Magazine during Second Wave feminism, her groundbreaking television personification through actress Lynda Carter to her modern-day incarnation through writers like Gail Simone. The documentary slides between the real world and the fantastic–weaving together everything from the battle for reproductive rights and Anita Hill, to the Bionic Woman and the anti-feminist backlash of the 1980s, to new age heroines like Xena and Buffy, and continued issues of gendered representation and violence in comics (women in refrigerators) in one powerful narrative. It is both praiseworthy and critical, giving us a history of heroines in popular media–the good and the bad, the empowering and the demeaning, the very ugly, the utterly ridiculous and the truly inspiring.
There are some drawbacks to the documentary. Though focused on Wonder Woman, it sprawls into varied other women characters in speculative fiction. Yet it never manages to get around to the depiction of women of color in comics–from the more famous figures like Storm, or the lesser known Misty Knight, to numerous indie productions, especially many modern-day women of color creating their own representations. It's realized of course one documentary can't possibly discuss everything; and there is at least one lengthy interview of a fan woman of color. But given the impressive wider net the creators cast, it would have been a worthy addition, if only to make certain to avoid criticisms of subsuming such issues under a white woman's narrative.
Still, all in all an enjoyable and informative documentary. You can find it on the PBS series Independent Lens. Check local listings for viewings.
*Cover art (top) by Stanley Lau (aka Artgerm) at deviantart.
*Tail art (bottom) by by RNZZ
This entry was posted in Television and tagged DC Comics, Feminism, Gender, Heroine, Media Imagery, Politics, Super Hero, Wonder Woman by The Disgruntled Haradrim. Bookmark the permalink.
1 thought on "Wonder Women: A Feminist Perspective on Superheroines"
Omega Agent 1 on May 1, 2013 at 8:58 pm said:
Power to empowerment. But it's up to Black people to circulate Black heroes to Black people that don't know. And get behind said hero and heroin. http://thebronzetiger.blogspot.com/2012/04/paradise-island-nubia.html


Cash grants for personal needs - a myth?
Many people all over the country wonder if there are any real cash grants for personal needs that are given away by the federal or state government. First of all, it is time to bust the scams and myths. Cash grants are not given for individuals to help them meet their expenses, pay their credit card bills or start a business. On the other hand, a few grants are indeed available and are given by government to students and non-profit organizations. These grants are given as college aid(for instance,the pell grants) and for other purposes such as funding researches and specific types of businesses.
If you earn low income and are facing great financial need, you have plenty of doors open to get financial help. Here is a list that might help(The list here only provides brief information on how one can receive financial assistance. We urge readers to visit the links provided within the descriptions to get more details).
1. Got trouble paying rent?
Make use of the section 8 housing choice voucher program to get rental assistance from the government. This program will allow you to rent a home in the private market and then make use of the voucher to pay a considerable part of the rent. You can read details on the same in our article here:rental assistance for the needy. Another option for you is to apply for public housing. Because of the cons associated with public housing, many prefer the private market housing. Apply for a program that you deem fits the needs of your family. If you are a family with dependent kids, a safe and sanitary shelter must be one of your priorities.
Keep in mind that getting rental assistance might not happen in a day or a week because of lengthy waiting lists in both these programs. You will be better off joining the waiting list as soon as possible once the agency administering the program starts accepting applications.
Those facing difficulties with affording a qualify daycare facility can resort to the subsidized child care program. This will give you a helping hand with paying for the same. Get more details on requirements and application in this page:free daycare.
Debt grants are not given by the government. Do not fall for scams in the Internet that claim to help you with offering information on them. Although cash grants for personal needs are not in place, using the assistance programs offered by your state, you can weather a difficult patch in your life and rebuild your financial position.
how can i get an application for free online where i donot have to pay for it.i will like to knowhow cani get a personal grant to pay for college classes and housing.
William, there is no need to pay any website in order to get application forms. If you are looking for getting government grants, all you got to do is go to the official gov grants website – grants.gov. As for grants for college, you will have to look up pell grants and FSEOG for that. Other than that, scholarships can be a huge help.
Cash assistance is indeed available, Shaundreka but they are not available in the form of grants. You can try to apply for TANF. If you are in the need of some serious money right now, look up one-time TANF.
I cant get ANY kind help, especially TANF because in order to do that I Must have a vehicle and I dont have one of those either. I don't know what to do.. Any suggestions???


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Medulla is een plaats (census-designated place) in de Amerikaanse staat Florida, en valt bestuurlijk gezien onder Polk County.

Demografie
Bij de volkstelling in 2000 werd het aantal inwoners vastgesteld op 6637.

Geografie
Volgens het United States Census Bureau beslaat de plaats een oppervlakte van
14,7 km², geheel bestaande uit land.

Plaatsen in de nabije omgeving
De onderstaande figuur toont nabijgelegen plaatsen in een straal van 16 km rond Medulla.

Externe link

Plaats in Florida

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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X24 ou X-24  peut faire référence à :
 Contact avec des centipodes et myriapodes venimeux (tropicaux), d'après la classification internationale des maladies ;
 Martin Marietta X-24, un avion expérimental américain.

Voir aussi
 Sigles d'une lettre suivie de deux chiffres


text:
from pyramid.response import Response
from pyramid.view import view_config
from sqlalchemy import func
from sqlalchemy.exc import DBAPIError

from datatables import ColumnDT, DataTables

from .models import Address, DBSession, User

@view_config(route_name="home", renderer="templates/home.html")
def home(request):
    """Try to connect to database, and list available examples."""
    try:
        DBSession.query(User).first()
    except DBAPIError:
        return Response(conn_err_msg, content_type="text/plain", status_int=500,)

    return {"project": "pyramid_tut"}

@view_config(route_name="dt_110x", renderer="templates/dt_110x.html")
def dt_110x(request):
    """List users with DataTables >= 1.10.x."""
    return {"project": "dt_110x"}

@view_config(
    route_name="dt_110x_custom_column", renderer="templates/dt_110x_custom_column.html"
)
def dt_110x_custom_column(request):
    """Show a CRUD custom column."""
    return {"project": "dt_110x_custom_column"}

@view_config(
    route_name="dt_110x_basic_column_search",
    renderer="templates/dt_110x_basic_column_search.html",
)
def dt_110x_basic_column_search(request):
    """Text based per column search."""
    return {"project": "dt_110x_basic_column_search"}

@view_config(
    route_name="dt_110x_advanced_column_search",
    renderer="templates/dt_110x_advanced_column_search.html",
)
def dt_110x_advanced_column_search(request):
    """Advanced per column search."""
    return {"project": "dt_110x_advanced_column_search"}

@view_config(route_name="dt_110x_yadcf", renderer="templates/dt_110x_yadcf.html")
def dt_110x_yadcf(request):
    """Search with yadcf."""
    return {"project": "dt_110x_yadcf"}

@view_config(route_name="data", renderer="json")
def data(request):
    """Return server side data."""
    columns = [
        ColumnDT(User.id),
        ColumnDT(User.name),
        ColumnDT(Address.description),
        ColumnDT(func.strftime("%d-%m-%Y", User.birthday)),
        ColumnDT(User.age),
    ]

    query = DBSession.query().select_from(User).join(Address).filter(Address.id > 4)

    rowTable = DataTables(request.GET, query, columns)

    return rowTable.output_result()

@view_config(route_name="data_advanced", renderer="json_with_dates")
def data_advanced(request):
    """Return server side data."""
    columns = [
        ColumnDT(User.id, search_method="numeric"),
        ColumnDT(User.name),
        ColumnDT(Address.description),
        ColumnDT(User.birthday, search_method="date"),
        ColumnDT(User.age, search_method="numeric"),
    ]

    query = DBSession.query().select_from(User).join(Address).filter(Address.id > 4)

    rowTable = DataTables(request.GET, query, columns)

    return rowTable.output_result()

@view_config(route_name="data_yadcf", renderer="json_with_dates")
def data_yadcf(request):
    """Return server side data."""
    columns = [
        ColumnDT(User.id, search_method="yadcf_range_number"),
        ColumnDT(User.name, search_method="yadcf_multi_select"),
        ColumnDT(Address.description, search_method="yadcf_autocomplete"),
        ColumnDT(User.birthday, search_method="yadcf_range_date"),
        ColumnDT(User.age, search_method="yadcf_range_number_slider"),
    ]

    query = DBSession.query().select_from(User).join(Address).filter(Address.id > 4)

    rowTable = DataTables(request.GET, query, columns)

    return rowTable.output_result()

conn_err_msg = """\
Pyramid is having a problem using your SQL database.  The problem
might be caused by one of the following things:

1.  You may need to run the "initialize_pyramid_tut_db" script
    to initialize your database tables.  Check your virtual
    environment's "bin" directory for this script and try to run it.

2.  Your database server may not be running.  Check that the
    database server referred to by the "sqlalchemy.url" setting in
    your "development.ini" file is running.

After you fix the problem, please restart the Pyramid application to
try it again.
"""

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Home New Age Music When Did New Age Music Became Cool?
When Did New Age Music Became Cool?
The Guardian has an article called: "New age of new age music: 'It used to just be for hippies and unassuming types'"
Geeta Dayal asks:
When did new age music become cool? The mellow tones of new age were once the province of spas, wellness centers, yoga studios and hippie bookstores. These days, new age records – particularly the more rare LPs and cassettes released in the 1970s and 1980s – are a touchstone of cool. Younger record collectors have been rediscovering vintage new age records by musicians such as Iasos, Laraaji, Steven Halpern, Constance Demby, Michael Stearns and Suzanne Ciani. A wave of recent well-received reissues, coupled with a wave of younger musicians releasing brand new records in the genre, are keeping the flames of new age music alive.
I have a tape that's like subliminal sounds to erase someone from your mind, which is ludicrous, but I love it
Douglas MacGowan
Some record stores are finding it hard to keep new age albums in stock. At Amoeba Records in Berkeley, California, a new generation of listeners are cleaning out the dusty new age bins. "It used to just be old Berkeley hippies and quiet, unassuming, middle-age types, but now I see lots of millennials and folks in their 20s and 30s shopping it, especially the LPs," says Michael Henning, who has been in charge of Amoeba Berkeley's new age section for the past eight years. "The stigma that it is 'uncool' music has disappeared, and it is now even seen by many younger folks as very cool."
Read the article here. Highly recommended!
Matthewdavid


ayers will discover the many types of pokies that are supported in top Australian online casinos.
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It's our suggestion here at GlobalGamingFactory.com that players who are interested in playing pokies at online casinos visit sites that are dedicated to providing information about online pokies specifically. Two such great resources that we'd recommend as such are http://www.downloadonlinepokies.com and http://777onlinepokies.com where you'll find information that will benefit you in playing pokies online.


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Mike Glyer's news of science fiction fandom
2019 Recommended SF/F Page
About File770.com
Best Series, Editor, and Artist Hugos: Eligible Works from 2018
Brackets From The File 770 Honeycomb
Fourth of Sierra Madre
Glow-in-the-Dark Comedy
Is Your Club Dead Yet?
Kyra's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Brackets
Reflections on Field of Dreams
The Compleat Litter of Puppy Roundup Titles
Pixel Scroll 7/14/17 In The Country Of The Pixelated, The First-Fifth Man Is God(stalk)
Posted on July 14, 2017 by Mike Glyer
(1) GAME OF THRONES AND WORLDCON 75 MAKE NEWS. George R.R. Martin mentioned in his blog the other day ("Tick, Tick, Tick") that Game of Thrones' David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are coming to Worldcon 75 in Helsinki for the Hugo Awards ceremony.
Chair Jukka Halme confirmed it and the story made it into Finland's biggest newspaper (Helsingin Sanomat). You can get all the details there…if you read Finnish: "Game of Thrones -sarjan tekijät tulevat vierailulle Suomeen elokuuss".
(2) TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN. The July 2 New York Times Magazine has an article by Steven Johnson called "Greetings, E.T. (Please Don't Murder Us)" about the search for extraterrestrial life and the debate about whether we should wait for aliens to contact us (the "SETI" approach) or actively send messages to outer space (a method known as "METI"). Johnson interviews David Brin, who is fiercely opposed to actively broadcasting messages of our existence to other worlds:
Before Doug Vakoch had even filed the papers to form the METI nonprofit organization in July 2015, a dozen or so science-and-tech luminaries, including SpaceX's Elon Musk, signed a statement categorically opposing the project, at least without extensive further discussion, on a planetary scale. ''Intentionally signaling other civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy,'' the statement argued, ''raises concerns from all the people of Earth, about both the message and the consequences of contact. A worldwide scientific, political and humanitarian discussion must occur before any message is sent.''
One signatory to that statement was the astronomer and science-fiction author David Brin, who has been carrying on a spirited but collegial series of debates with Vakoch over the wisdom of his project. ''I just don't think anybody should give our children a fait accompli based on blithe assumptions and assertions that have been untested and not subjected to critical peer review,'' he told me over a Skype call from his home office in Southern California. ''If you are going to do something that is going to change some of the fundamental observable parameters of our solar system, then how about an environmental-impact statement?''
(3) KAISER. JoAnn Kaiser reopened The Magic Door within a week of the death of her husband, Dwain, reports David Allen in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin — "Pomona bookstore's reopening binds community after owner's death".
But Saturday she was revived, buoyed by her family and friends. A 12th anniversary sale that had been set to end July 5 instead continues, with all merchandise 30 percent off. The sale pricing may continue indefinitely.
Her goal is not to keep the store long-term. For one thing, she's 82. But she wasn't going to let the tragedy mark the end of Magic Door.
"I could have locked the door. I'm not a door-locker," JoAnn Kaiser told me firmly. "The plan is to get the books he loved to the people who want them, who need them. He didn't want his books dumped. He wanted them to go to somebody."
…The bookstore fit the Arts Colony like a glove. "It was just part of the ambience of downtown Pomona," customer Bill Martinez told me outside after buying two books. (I recognized "The Best of S.J. Perelman" as one I had sold Dwain Kaiser a few weeks ago.)
"Everybody knew them," Martinez said of the Kaisers. "They were part of the community, and one of the best parts."
Mayor Tim Sandoval has visited to offer his condolences and at Monday's City Council meeting asked for a moment of silence in Dwain Kaiser's memory.
…Not every customer knew of Dwain Kaiser's death. Monica Berrocal was saddened when I told her. She liked to bring her children there. Once JoAnn Kaiser gave her son a Thomas the Tank Engine book. "They were always so kind," she said.
Hino, a Pomona High graduate, greeted customers warmly from Dwain Kaiser's usual seat and thanked them for coming. A hospital executive, he confided that this was his first retail job. He'll be there helping out as he can, as will his sister, Kim.
"It's very different from what I normally do," Hino told me cheerfully. "I'm enjoying it. It's nice. And it's good being back in Pomona."
…"Pomona's resilient. I think tonight shows the best of Pomona," JoAnn Kaiser said.
The store has a lot of books, and there are more in storage that Dwain Kaiser, due to age and mobility issues, had not seen in years. JoAnn Kaiser, with help, hopes to dig them all out, put them on the shelves and get them homes before shutting the doors for good.
"He had a mad love affair with books," she said of her husband of 32 years.
"The support will fade. I know that. But I'm doing what he would have wanted."
(4) BEAU GESTE. Deadpool gracefully yielded his place on the box office record lists to Wonder Woman:
The Merc may be filthier, but her B.O. is stronger. Congrats #WonderWoman. pic.twitter.com/jhP1hRAKlY
— Deadpool Movie (@deadpoolmovie) July 11, 2017
(5) FOLLOW THE MONEY. What does John Scalzi have in common with Milo Yiannapoulos? Probably not much, except this one thing – Bookscan doesn't count all their sales. Scalzi explains in "How to Screw Up a Triumphant Bestselling Debut".
Here's the deal: Yiannopoulos has asserted his book's opening week sales were on the order of 100,000 copies. Contrasting this, Nielsen Bookscan, the service which tracks physical book sales via many (but not all) booksellers, including Amazon, has his first week sales as 18,268 in the US (and — heh — 152 in the UK). As most of us probably know, 18,000 is less than 100,000.
Or is it? Because here's the thing about Bookscan — it doesn't in fact track all sales of a book. It doesn't track eBook sales, for example, nor does it track audiobook sales. Nor does it track sales from some small independent booksellers, who might have not signed up to be Bookscan-reporting retailers. As a result, depending on how much you sell in other formats, and where you sell your books, Bookscan can massively underreport your total sales.
I know this because that's what Bookscan does with me. A couple of years ago I tracked the sales of the hardcover era of Lock In (which is to say, all the sales reported while the physical book was only available in hardcover). For the time it was in hardcover, Bookscan reported 11,175 hardcover sales in the US. However, overall the book sold about 22,500 copies in hardcover and about 87,500 copies across all formats (hardcover, ebook, audio).
In all, Bookscan recorded roughly 12.7% of my total sales. Which is not a lot! If Yiannopoulos were seeing a similar sort of ratio, based on his physical copy sales, he could indeed have sold something on the order of 100,000 copies of his book in the first week. He might not be lying.
With all that said, on further examination, this is why I very strongly suspect that Yiannopoulos has not, in fact, sold, 100,000 copies of his book in the first week…
(6) WE GET LETTERS. CBR.com tells you about "15 Times Fans Changed Comic Book History".
15. INVISIBLE WOMAN'S POWERS
Other comics had certainly had an element of fan interaction in them before Marvel Comics, but Stan Lee took things to a whole other level when he began the "Marvel Age of Comics" in the early 1960s. Lee made fan interaction a key element of the success of Marvel. In Fantastic Four #11, Lee and Jack Kirby even worked in actual letters to the series into the comic book, having the characters respond to frequently asked questions.
Infamously, though, that issue also included their attempts to defend the Invisible Girl from all the hate mail she got for being seemingly useless (their "defense" was hilariously conceived – "She inspires them! Like Lincoln's mother!" but still). They got enough of those complaints that they decided to give her invisible force fields in Fantastic Four #22, eventually leading to her becoming the most powerful member of the team!
(7) TODAY IN HISTORY
July 14, 1999 — Muppets From Space screened theatrically
(8) A KEY TO WRITING. Fantasy-Faction's Aaron Miles gives tips: "On Character Development".
An understanding of character development techniques can bring many benefits to your writing and help improve your work, so let's start by establishing what it is. In essence character development is the change in nature of a character brought about by events in the narrative, it can be subtle or pronounced, and it may happen over a long period or reasonably quickly. The difficult part is actually showing it on the page, and just as importantly, showing it's justified. For a character to change their whole nature for no apparent cause or just because the plot requires it is sloppy writing and obvious to the reader. While the methods and timeframe may very per character, a well-constructed piece of character development will follow a set formula.
In order to show change an author must first establish an original nature to change from. When the author introduces the character they must detail their personality, opinions and mannerisms in order to make us view them as a believable and realistic person, particular focus should be given to any traits that might be relevant to later development.
For example, if you're planning to have a cowardly character show a moment of bravery and save the day at the end of the novel, then you need at least a couple of scenes showing his cowardice in action. It could be crumbling in an argument with a shopkeeper, avoiding a hostile boss, or literally running away from a fight. Before the development even begins the author must cement a character's nature quickly in the reader's mind, this can be done with a variety of traditional characterisation methods and tricks and ideally is accomplished as quickly as possible. Without this establishment there is no baseline to measure development against and the change will lack meaning. Think about our introduction to Daenerys in A Game of Thrones as she is appraised and abused by her brother:
"You don't want to wake the dragon do you?" His fingers twisted her, the pinch cruelly hard through the rough fabric of her tunic. "Do you?" he repeated.
"No," Dany said meekly.
Without seeing the timid girl she was at the start of the story her later accomplishments and changes would be far less moving for the reader, but after Martin has shown us some early scenes of her life the reader gains a greater perspective to realise how pronounced her development is through several books.
(9) ECLIPSE VIEWING AND ECLIPSE CON. Hopkinsville, Kentucky is reputed to be the "point of greatest eclipse" for the 2017 Solar Eclipse. Just call them Eclipseville.
We're already planning for your visit; our southern hospitality will make you and your group welcome, and your Solar Eclipse experience memorable. So, whether you are a bona fide eclipse chaser, or just looking for the best place to experience Mother Nature's rare eclipse show, we invite you to be with us in Hoptown. Our community's big enough to provide everything you'll need and want for the 2017 Eclipse weekend experience… we're planning a big Friday-Sunday Eclipse celebration before the sun disappears – for two minutes and forty seconds – at 1:24:41 pm CT on Monday, August 21, 2017.
And that's where you'll find Eclipse Con "raising awareness and funds for the Boys & Girls Club" with nationally recognized celebrities and vendors in the genres of cartoons, comics, anime, cosplay, sci-fi and superheroes
James E. Bruce Convention Center
Currently Confirmed Guests:
Samantha Newark, best known for her beloved voice-over work as the speaking voices of "Jem" and "Jerrica" on the wildly popular cartoon series Jem and the Holograms;
The Walking Dead's Santiago Cirilo, who was also a member of the 101st Airborne Infantry and was stationed at Fort Campbell prior to his acting career;
and the award winning creator of sci-pulp series, VIC BOONE, Shawn Aldridge.
(10) IT'S DARK OUT. Mental Floss explains "How Eclipse Chasers Are Putting a Small Kentucky Town on the Map".
Today, James McClean is an eclipse chaser. That's not the name of some cute weekend hobby. It's a lifestyle. For the past two decades, McClean, a professional photographer, has given up everything resembling a normal life. He has no permanent home base, opting instead to trot the globe, work odd jobs, and live on tight budgets to see solar eclipses.
Every. Single. One.
McClean has made a living as a cartographer and an aurora borealis tour guide. He's lived on an island near Sitka, Alaska and taught photography. (When he needed Internet, he'd kayak an hour and a half to the nearest library.) He's spent summers in Germany doing archaeology and winters in Sweden constructing, and living in, a hotel made of ice. He's slept in bamboo huts on top of volcanic islands, backpacked through Egypt, and trudged the snows of Svalbard, Norway. One time, in Indonesia, he was invited to sip coffee in a sultan's palace.
(11) BERNECKER OBIT. The Walking Dead suffered another loss today when stuntman John Bernecker, seriously injured in a stunt (he reportedly missed the landing mattress while doing a 20-ft. fall), was declared brain-dead. There are many tweets with condolences from industry professionals included in the linked article.
(12) OUT, OUT DARNED SPOT. Nautilus interviews UC Berkeley's Philip Marcus, a computational physicist and a professor in the mechanical engineering department, about "Why Jupiter's Great Red Spot Refuses to Die". Turns out there's quite a bit of work been done on this.
Why did it start on Jupiter and not somewhere else?
Here on Earth, if you fly over the ocean, you can almost certainly tell when there's an island below you because there's a cloud hanging on top—topographic features often pin clouds to themselves. But there's no solid surface on Jupiter until you get down to a very small core. It's basically a ball of fluid. You don't have differential heating between continents and oceans. You don't have winds interrupted by mountain ranges. You don't have all that messy stuff, so it's got a really well organized set of jet streams on it. Once you've got jet streams, vortices just form naturally. You've got winds going in opposite directions, shearing against one another. Think of a ball bearing between two oppositely moving walls. The walls make the ball bearing spin, and the oppositely moving jet streams on Jupiter make the air between them spin. Vortices between jet streams are resistant to anything smashing into them. If I create a vortex in a bathtub and I smash it, the vortex is generally gone. If I do a simulation of a big Red Spot on Jupiter sitting between zonal winds and I smack it, try and break it in two, it'll come back together. So I think of jet streams as gardens in which you want to grow vortices.
(13) DO PANIC. Two Travelers from Galactic Journey praise a low-budget Roger Corman production. You know, somebody should make Roger a Worldcon guest of honor someday — "[July 14, 1962] Cause for Alarm (Panic in Year Zero – a surprise summer hit film!)".
The latest example is a tiny-budgeted film by schlockhouse American Independent Pictures, Panic in Year Zero. The Young Traveler and I saw Panic at opening night, July 5. There was a big promotional event headlined by Frankie Avalon, and I understand the picture made back its budget in just the evening L.A. showings! The film has already generated some positive buzz, and I suspect it'll be the surprise hit of the summer.
Produced by the master of the independents, Roger Corman, Panic opens with a literal bang: a typical Angelino family out on a drive toward a camping vacation sees a bright flash as their home town of Los Angeles is wiped out by Soviet bombs. It soon becomes clear that the attack is widespread and civilization is about to deteriorate. Our viewpoint family must brave its way to safety, securing adequate supplies and a defensible shelter, before the walls of society collapse.
(14) FORK YOU. The January 30 New Yorker article by Raffi Khatchadourian, "The Movie with a Thousand Plotlines", is about efforts in Hollywood to create films that have alternate endings that viewers can choose among. The article focuses on efforts by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, who directed Swiss Army Man, to come up with films that fit this template. The sf news is that both War Games and The Twilight Zone have had rights sold for interactive television series that are under development.
Treehouse is an intuitive program for a nonintuitive, nonlinear form of storytelling, and Bloch is adept at demonstrating it. In his office, he called up a series of video clips featuring the model Dree Hemingway sitting at a table. Below the clips, in a digital workspace resembling graph paper, he built a flowchart to map the forking narrative—how her story might divide into strands that branch outward, or loop backward, or converge. At first, the flowchart looked like a "Y" turned on its side: a story with just one node. "When you start, it is always 'To be, or not to be,' " he said. The choice here was whether Hemingway would serve herself coffee or tea. Bloch dragged and dropped video clips into the flowchart, then placed buttons for tea and coffee into the frame, and set the amount of time the system would allow viewers to decide. In less than a minute, he was previewing a tiny film: over a soundtrack of music fit for a Philippe Starck lobby, Hemingway smiled and poured the beverage Bloch had selected. He then returned to the graph paper and added a blizzard of hypothetical options: "You can decide that here it will branch again, here it goes into a loop until it knows what to do, and here it becomes a switching node where five things can happen at the same time—and so on."
As Bloch was getting his company off the ground, a small race was under way among like-minded startups looking for financial backing. In Switzerland, a company called CtrlMovie had developed technology similar to Interlude's, and was seeking money for a feature-length thriller….
The article also discusses Mr. Payback, a 1995 interactive film about a cyborg – script by Bob Gale! – that was panned by Roger Ebert.
Early experiments in interactive film were likewise marred by shtick. In 1995, a company called Interfilm collaborated with Sony to produce "Mr. Payback," based on a script by Bob Gale, who had worked on the "Back to the Future" trilogy. In the movie, a cyborg meted out punishment to baddies while the audience, voting with handheld controllers, chose the act of revenge. The film was released in forty-four theatres. Critics hated it. "The basic problem I had with the choices on the screen with 'Mr. Payback' is that they didn't have one called 'None of the above,' " Roger Ebert said, declaring the movie the worst of the year. "We don't want to interact with a movie. We want it to act on us. That's why we go, so we can lose ourselves in the experience."
(16) IN MOLT. Joe Sherry has reached the artist categories on his Hugo ballot: "Watching the Hugos: Professional and Fan Artist" at Nerds of a Feather. Too bad it includes a slam against Steve Stiles, one of the greatest fan artists of all time.
(17) PINCH HITTER. Tor.com's Emily Asher-Perrin discovered something at the movies: "Star Trek IV Now Exists in the Same Universe As All Marvel Films Thanks to a Special Cameo".
When nerds make movies, beautiful things can happen. In this case, the fact that MCU producer Kevin Feige happens to be a big fan of Star Trek IV led to a cameo that now places a character from The Voyage Home into Spider-Man: Homecoming.
I won't spoiler her spoiler – you'll have to click through.
(18) UNEXPECTED CASTING. The Big Bang Theory's Melissa Rauch will voice Harley Quinn in the upcoming Bruce Timm animated film Batman And Harley.
CinemaBlend is all in favor:
As far as casting decisions go, Melissa Rauch is a fairly pitch perfect choice for the role of Harley Quinn. Not only does she have a high-pitched voice that's very reminiscent of Arleen Sorkin and Tara Strong; she also has developed a reputation as an actress through her work in a show predicated on the passion and intensity of geek culture. Something tells us that all of those years on The Big Bang Theory have given her an understanding of how fans will respond to her performance, thus ensuring that she will deliver the best possible Harley Quinn.
(19) POETRY CORNER. Johnstick joined the throngs who have been raining limericks in the File 770 comments section.
As prophets of eld have foretold,
and pixels of all hues have scrolled,
Death takes the clever
and redshirts forever,
plus all those whose glister's not gold!
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, JJ, Cat Eldridge, Martin Morse Wooster, and Terhi for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Andrew.]
This entry was posted in Pixel Scroll and tagged Aaron Miles, Bob Gale, comics, David Brin, Dwain Kaiser, Emily Asher-Perrin, Galactic Journey, Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin, Joe Sherry, John Scalzi, Jukka Halme, Jupiter, Milo Yiannopolous, Roger Corman, Star Trek, Steve Stiles, zombies by Mike Glyer. Bookmark the permalink.
69 thoughts on "Pixel Scroll 7/14/17 In The Country Of The Pixelated, The First-Fifth Man Is God(stalk)"
Paul Weimer on July 15, 2017 at 5:24 pm said:
Cluck-stalk
Bruce Arthurs on July 15, 2017 at 5:52 pm said:
"pulchritude" is one of those words with a particular meaning, but that look like they should mean the opposite. "Pulchritude" looks like it should be the ugly baby born of "puke" and "decrepitude".
Should I be worried that I didn't need to look up any of the words used in that JCW extract?
Susana on July 15, 2017 at 5:54 pm said:
Thank you all for both explication and good wishes. Cassy, you got it in one, and saved me from ranking the above quoted monstrosity above all those no doubt wonderful short stories [*] I haven't read. (I know I have some more hours, but I'm not great at decisions, and dark o'clock is probably not the best time to try and make some). I'm gonna trust the voters like it's 2012.
[*] It's both puzzling and embarrassing that I managed to fail at shorts when I aced Best Series. I also failed at Editor, long-form, but I expected that. It's an impossible category. I want to use that No Award so bad I'm tempted to guesstimate a ranking. But it does feel a little skeevy.
@Xtifr:
I don't want my ambivalence or my preference to be restricted in any way.
'Zactly!
Mike Glyer on July 15, 2017 at 5:57 pm said:
Bruce Arthurs: Should I be worried that I didn't need to look up any of the words used in that JCW extract?
You only need to worry if you think you might use them in the same order.
Jake on July 15, 2017 at 6:12 pm said:
I don't think I had paid any attention to Steve Stiles before, and after poking around the internet for a bit I have to wonder if this is really 'best art produced by a member of organized fandom' or something because jeez I'm unimpressed.
Douglas Berry on July 15, 2017 at 6:55 pm said:
(17) Punk on the Bus is a Watcher.
Rob Thornton on July 15, 2017 at 7:59 pm said:
(17) Actually, the story behind Punk On The Bus is really interesting. You were wondering how he was talking to Kevin Feige? This will provide some insight:
https://www.wired.com/2016/09/punk-star-trek-iv-vulcan-nerve-pinch/
Meredith on July 15, 2017 at 8:32 pm said:
Ninefox Gambit is comfortably at the top of my Novel ballot. ACaCO is second.
The chicken sounded more like "DRAGONSDRAGONSDRAGONS" though so now I'm having second thoughts…
@ Cassy B
Does this make me a Bad Hugo Voter?
I don't see why it should. I did rank them, but I must be honest that I'd be nearly as happy for my fourth ranked Pro Artist to win as my first ranked, and I wouldn't be upset about any of them.
@ Steve Wright
But surely putting something under No Award is a declaration that something is obviously unworthy of an award (assuming the absence of other considerations, like slating or 'I don't think this category should exist')? Otherwise he could have just ranked them without putting No Award in, or left both No Award and the two artists he disliked off the ballot.
@ techgrrl1972
I forced my iBooks and Kindle iPad apps to have pale grey text on a black background because I find it easier on my eyes. 🙂
@ kathodus
I started reading out that JCW excerpt to my partner and he begged for mercy halfway through the third sentence.
@ Susana
I've been mostly-disappeared for life-crap reasons, too, so *solidarity fistbump*
JJ on July 15, 2017 at 8:59 pm said:
Meredith: But surely putting something under No Award is a declaration that something is obviously unworthy of an award? Otherwise he could have just ranked them without putting No Award in, or left both No Award and the two artists he disliked off the ballot.
I've got several things under No Award, and they're not all puppy poo. I think it is an entirely valid stance to say "I don't personally feel that this work is award-worthy, but I can respect that others do" — and I don't think that respect requires me to put it above No Award.
lauowolf on July 15, 2017 at 9:00 pm said:
I've got to stop messing with my ballot.
But, really, some of those decisions are resting on a hair's breadth of difference.
Not so much tossing a coin territory, more like really deciding between apples and oranges.
This stuff is HARD.
lurkertype on July 16, 2017 at 12:01 am said:
I No Awarded out the wazoo, and not all of it's puppy poo. I've got NA in 3rd place in one category!
I had a lot of jostling for 3/4/5th places.
Aaaand… it's closed now so I don't gots to mess with it any more.
Rev. Bob on July 16, 2017 at 1:56 am said:
I strongly suspect I'll be making a road trip for Eclipse Day, but not a particularly long one. Even if I stayed home (and went outside, due to the apartment's lack of windows), I'm close enough to the eclipse path that I'd almost experience full totality – something like 99.75%. So if all else fails, that's an option.
However, there's a highway intersection along a familiar route – one I used to travel to see a cousin and his family – that comes very close to the center of the path. Since it's a state road and not an interstate, I'm not expecting it to be a huge gathering spot; it's a rather rural area that merely happens to be easy to find on a map if one knows to look. I figure I'll go there for the afternoon. Seeing the relatives is not in the cards, though; he moved some time ago. (ObSF: There was a sign in the parking lot of his apartment complex that said "Tennant Parking Only." Got a few chuckles out of that one.)
Oh, and yes – I voted. Left a couple of categories off entirely (I don't really do podcasts), and trusted my instincts on some others (mainly artists – they're all generally good, but rather different), but I completed most of the categories. No Award did come into play a few times, of course, but I tried to judge things as honestly and fairly as I could.
Cassy B on July 16, 2017 at 7:27 am said:
I went back and filled in artists. Even though honestly there's a whisker's difference between #1 and #6 and I'll be perfectly delighted with ANY of them as winners. (I kept thinking of the jewelry entry in Fan Artist. And I'm not actually a jewelry sort of person, so I figured that meant something….)
kathodus on July 16, 2017 at 8:36 am said:
@Cassy B – I was surprised to see the jewelry entry, and thought it was very cool.
Lee on July 16, 2017 at 12:25 pm said:
14) Ebert didn't grow up with choose-your-own-adventure books. People who did are going to be much more open to the idea of extending that concept to films and TV shows. I predict that this form will have a strong audience among younger viewers.
Rail on July 16, 2017 at 12:30 pm said:
@techgrrl1972:
I love articles like this, but OMG white letters on a black background???
When I was working up a site for my last employer, we fought for weeks because my direct boss wanted white letters on a black site.
Some browsers have a "reading mode" feature that can help when the site owner's color choices are … unfortunate. The extension Stylish is also good.
Cassy B on July 16, 2017 at 1:00 pm said:
I visit a lot of corporate websites in the course of my job. (I need to get contact info for my bosses.) More and more, they're black-with-white lettering, and designed purely for mobile use. (Rather than a menu, they have the three-horizontal-bar symbol, for example.) In some cases they are so optimized for mobile use that they cannot be used on a standard PC. No scrollbar, and if you don't have a touchscreen you can't scroll around the homepage….
Irritates the heck out of me.
Cora on July 16, 2017 at 6:41 pm said:
Regarding the use of "No Award", if I don't personally like a finalist, but can see that it has merit, I don't no award it, though it will rank at the bottom of my ballot.
My personal policy is that I use "No Award":
– if a finalist isn't Hugo worthy (applies to 99% of puppy poo).
– if a finalist is in the wrong category
– if I so intensely dislike a finalist that I never want to see this sort of thing on the ballot again.
I used "No Award" very sparingly this year and only on puppy poo, because there were no miscategorised finalists or finalists I downright hated this year. However, in previous years I have no awarded non-puppy finalists. In 2014, I had "No Award" in third place for novel (and my second place only crossed the "No Award" threshold, because I had liked other books by the author, though I didn't like that one) and in second place for novella.
Kendall on July 16, 2017 at 9:35 pm said:
@Cassy B: If you have scroll-via-other means (like my touchpad), I'd hope that would work on those sites. Or possibly just clicking somewhere benign (to make sure focus is on the text) and then using your up/down arrows. Or not – I've never seen a site like that, so giant grains of salt apply to my comment! You've probably tried these things, in which case I'll feel foolish for suggesting them.
@Cora: I very rarely rank anything below No Award, but I have done this (twice this year!). I probably should've done it one more time (see below).
@Various: I realized looking at my ballot that I voted illogically in the Best Novel category. I mean, I'm happy with my first three picks, but I should've left the other three off (or done No Award, book I finished, then the other two off). Instead, I put two on and one off. This makes no sense, given my feelings about the one I finished (disliked a lot) and bouncing off the other two. I'm an idiot! I got confused or something, sorry. 🙁 Too much late-night clicking.
On the plus side, I squeezed in some very last-minute reading in the Not-a-Hugo-But-a-Campbell category, so I could vote there. Laurie Penny is kinda dark and twisted (mostly in a good way)! 🙂


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How can we prevent suicide and self-harm in NC?
Blog | November 30, 2021
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By Michelle Ries
An overarching theme of the North Carolina Institute of Medicine's 2021 annual meeting was that this time of COVID-19 recovery provides a unique opportunity to change things for the better, and that we don't have to start from scratch. Healthy North Carolina 2030 offers a road map, based on real data, to help us meet our state's health goals. The meeting allowed participants to attend breakout panels covering several of the Healthy North Carolina 2030 behavioral health indicators, including suicide rate.
As of the publication of HNC 2030 in January 2020, North Carolina's suicide rate was 13.8 per 100,000 people, ranking North Carolina 16th among all U.S. states. Creators of the report set a 2030 target of 11.1 per 100,000 people. In an annual meeting breakout session called "The Resources to Keep Going: Improving Mental Health Access and Treatment to Prevent Suicide and Self-Harm," panelists shared data on suicide deaths and suicide attempts in North Carolina and discussed risk factors for suicide.
The panel was moderated by NCDHHS Chief Health Equity Officer Victor Armstrong. Ames Simmons, policy director at the National Center for Transgender Equality, identified a real need for data development initiatives to understand the disparate impact of suicide across different populations – especially LGBTQ individuals. Lisa DeCiantis, adult mental health program director at NCDHHS, discussed North Carolina's intensive stakeholder-driven process to implement 9-8-8, a statewide suicide prevention hotline that will provide people with a centralized resource to get the help they need. Jason Nieuwsma, associate director of integrated mental health at the Durham VA Medical Center, discussed various primary prevention strategies to address suicide risk among military veterans and other groups at high risk, including community strategies to improve relationships, social connectivity, and individuals' sense of purpose.
Spotlight on Healthy North Carolina 2030 Indicator: Suicide Rate
Mental health and access to treatment services are often overlooked in our health care system. One indicator of mental health outcomes – suicide –has been on the rise for years. Some special populations, such as veterans and LGBTQ youth, have seen elevated rates of suicide that require targeted prevention strategies.
In North Carolina, suicide accounted for 1,463 deaths in 2018, and 1,348 deaths in 2019. This corresponds with a national trend of rising suicide rates during the last decade. The impact of suicide is felt on both the personal and community level. Family and friends of the deceased bear both emotional and financial burdens. The state also shoulders a financial burden, losing an average of $1.1 million in "lifetime medical and work loss cost" in 2017.
Suicide is inextricably linked to mental health care and well-being. Studies show that many persons who die of suicide either had diagnosed mental illnesses or experienced high-stress traumas such as financial insecurity, housing instability, or physical illness. Suicide is also connected with insurance status, as people who are uninsured or underinsured are less likely to seek mental health care and treatment for health conditions that may contribute to mental and financial strains. However, for those who are able to access care, one study has shown that suicide prevention strategies are not a large focus of mental health provider training. Rather, strategies to treat underlying mental health conditions are emphasized, without specific attention to suicidal ideation or patient safety planning. The suicide rate can be used as a downstream indicator of access to comprehensive high-quality health care.
Suicide affects populations disproportionally based on gender, age, racial or ethnic group, and geography. Men, adults over the age of 45, American Indians and Whites, and rural residents all face higher rates of suicide than their respective demographic counterparts. The suicide rate among veterans is 1.5 times that of the non-veteran population. Veterans face unique mental health, financial, and insurance coverage challenges that contribute to the increased rate within the population. Veterans are also more likely to have access to firearms, a factor that increases the likelihood of fatal self-harm. More than half of suicides in North Carolina in 2019 were by firearm.
Elevated suicide rates are also seen in LGBTQ populations. There is no comprehensive data source for the suicide rate amongst LGBTQ persons, as sexual identity is not a component of death records. However, survey data indicate that among LGBTQ youth, the rate of suicidal ideation is 4.5 times higher than their heterosexual peers. Additionally, 40% of transgender adults report a suicide attempt. This disparity is only magnified in the young adult population, and among racial and ethnic minorities. Ostracism, family rejection, financial barriers, and health care barriers all contribute to an increased mental health burden on this population that corresponds with an increased rate of suicidal behavior.
Suicide is also on the rise among children age 10-17 and is now the second leading cause of death among this age group with rates doubling over the past decade. In 2017, 8.2% of high schoolers reported they attempted suicide, with highest levels among African American high schoolers (11.1%), Hispanic high schoolers (9.3%), and high schoolers reporting their race as Other (17.9%).
Please see Healthy North Carolina2030 suicide rate info sheet for additional information and Healthy North Carolina 2030: A Path Toward Health for data sources.
COVID-19 and Suicide
While data is still incomplete on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on rates of suicide, researchers have noted some alarming trends. For example, among adolescents age 12-17, the number of mental-health-related emergency department visits increased 31% between 2019 and 2020. In February-March 2021, suspected suicide attempts presenting at the emergency department were 50.6% higher among 12-17-year-old girls than during the same period in 2019. Among boys age 12-17, suspected suicide attempt emergency department visits rose by 3.7%.
Some studies have also shown stark disparities in suicide rates during the pandemic: in a study of Maryland residents in the first half of 2020, researchers found an overall decrease in suicides compared with the same months over the previous three years. However, when researchers looked at this data by race, they found that while suicides by white residents decreased by 45% during early March to early May, suicides by Black residents went up by 94% in the same time period.
As communities continue to address the wide-ranging impacts of the pandemic on the health and well-being of their residents, it is imperative to ensure that people have access to the mental health support and treatment they need. The levers of change and needed resources identified in Healthy North Carolina 2030 will help our state and our communities provide this support.
2030 Target and Potential for Change
The HNC 2030 work group reviewed data across several years and projected the future trend of suicide rate to develop a target. The group chose 11.1 as the number of deaths per 100,000 population by 2030. As the age-adjusted suicide rate has risen steadily over the last decade in North Carolina, and is expected to continue rising, movement toward this target would represent a meaningful reversal in this trend.
Suicide Rate as of 2019. Source: HNC 2030
Characteristics of Uninsured North Carolinians: 2015 Data Snapshot
Press Release June 30, 2017
By Maggie Bailey
Claims Data to Improve Health in North Carolina: A Report from the NCIOM Task Force on All-Payer Claims Database
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Task Force on All-Payer Claims Database
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By Mari Moss
This issue of the NCMJ discusses aspects of the newly proposed system, potential challenges to implementation, and how this new Medicaid system might impact population health.
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Miles works as a freelance filmmaker and editor based in Devon. Armed with a BA in Media Arts and a BNUC-s Theory and RPQ-s Flight Assessment certificate, Miles has been shooting from the land and air for over 8 years. His creative eye has seen him film all manner of subjects all over the world, with his latest project taking him 2000ft up in the Fells of the Lake District.
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It's not Junior Varsity. These shots were taken August 23rd, 2011 by Portland, Maine photographer Jessica Verry. It was our first Portland performance of the new CD and a first with the full band.
As always, Terez from Blue on Congress St. was a gracious host. The show was sold out. We have wonderful friends.
Go have a look at Jessica's capitivating shots.


At Milledgeville, GA I met with artists and curators Juan Negroni, Beto Torrens and Anabel Vázquez, who brought to the Georgia College Museum the exhibitions Pie forzado.001 (Negroni) and Carry-On: Puerto Rico Inspected (Torrens and Vázquez). Both exhibitions are running now until May 10th, 2013.
I start the conversation with Juan Negroni, who explores the concept of active-passive in his exhibition Pie forzado.001, which he uses as an excuse to have fun with peers while exploring concepts and unconventional methods. In Puerto Rico he participates in many artist-generated efforts for collective work, exhibitions and events. He brought the work to Georgia as an auto-generated effort for exploring new scenes outside of Puerto Rico.
This trend for auto-generated work, or what I will later call autonomous management, proposes transformation of the artwork and of the audience through a dynamic offering. In Puerto Rico this trend is rising amongst artists who's work and proposals are not interested in the museum or gallery environments. To explore more about this and other implications of the current state of Puerto Rico's art scene, Beto Torrens joins the conversation.
In partnership with fellow artist and curator Anabel Vázquez, Beto brings to Georgia Carry-On: Puerto Rico Inspected. Similar to Negroni's experience, auto-generated efforts move his work and those of colleagues through his own space in San Juan, PR. Traveling through different cities around the U.S. with his curatorial works has become an enormous sacrifice which is very important to him because he is able to spread the word of what's Puerto Rican art today.
These artists and others back in Puerto Rico, in collaboration with fellow colleagues and supported by an evolving art scene, are diversifying their skills not only for survival but for spreading new ideas to peers and to the audience. As complex creative entities they are ambassadors for art, and change agents for the art community.
M- What is your creative process as an artist and as a curator? How are these difference and what are their encounters?
Negroni- It happens to me that when I am curating a project sometimes I can't find a way to include myself in the project. I am interested in what people can think, but I really don't see a problem if the project is mine that I can include myself in it. Sometimes a project can come from a form, material and content anxiety that I have. Sometimes there is something I want to solve at a material level but in the way I work, it might not let me discourse it properly. What I do is I invite friends and people I know to talk about how they would solve it, or how they would address these topics.
It happened to me once that I did an exhibition at the Art League that had to do with urban distribution in the metropolitan area of San Juan. I wanted to participate in the exhibition, but my work at that time did not let me accommodate myself in it. For that I worked with artists such as Martín Albarrán and Rafael Báez; people I knew whose approach would add a lot to the remark I wanted to convey about multiplicity of possibilities of addressing problems that affect us all.
Sometimes my creative processes have a relationship, sometimes not. At the same time my work is very willful; sometimes it comes from a personal comment, an idea that is very mine, or an internal joke with my brother. It can be very casual. I've been told my work seems like snapshots of very specific moments, moments of tension that are captured by a photo... maybe I have to revise what I think I'm doing, because I might be doing something else without noticing.
M- What contrasting situation do you find as a curator trying to take out projects from Puerto Rico and then bringing them back?
Negroni- It is very good that the Georgia College Museum accepted within their efforts, that sometimes have to do with budget and logistics, to make sure the pieces reach their destiny. This is very important because otherwise the project would not have been possible. If the artist was not willing to send the work I would have had to look for an alternate place for where to prepare the exhibition.
Having it be in Puerto Rico, would've not achieved as much. I think that having come all the way here is very important, and that you were able to came here to know the exhibition. It's very important that it happened here. If it happened in Puerto Rico it would be very different. In Puerto Rico the exhibitions are going unnoticed. They become a social event, people arrive in bicycles, they have a beer, and when the beer is finished they go.
The issue is that the museological term in that sense is very important; it is very important to me in my career as an artist and curator, as well as for other colleagues. I think that it is also satisfactory to be able to contribute, because there are a lot of talented people accumulating work in their workshops, and they do not know what to do with them because in Puerto Rico there is no culture for collecting. I don't think there has ever been. The efforts have not been sufficient, and also I think that the centralization of art in the metropolitan area has negatively affected the artists.
M- What does autonomous management mean for today's artist? How does the gallery culture affect or becomes affected by it?
Negroni- The art scene in Puerto Rico is affected by autonomous management. For example, Beto has his gallery and business. Yet, this is most of all a place for encounters where many of us have had a great opportunity to expose in a formal space, have had the opportunity to profit, but it is a project that comes from the effort of another artist.
Beto - The concept of autonomous management is very important in this context. In fact, all of this that we've been doing here in completely autonomous. In my case, bringing 35 contemporary artists from Puerto Rico to another place outside of Puerto Rico, who does that? I was invited to be a curator, and I was invited to a gallery. I could've done an exhibit with one person, I could've done something of mine, or three artists. But people have to find out what's going on out here, so I went with the idea of inviting a lot of people and suddenly there were 35 people. But everything has been autonomous even in the way it emerged.
Originally Carry-On was an exhibition for Boston. It is called this way because it literally went to Boston in carry-on bags. Between Anabel, friends and colleagues from Boston that went to Puerto Rico, we had assigned a carry-on bag to take back. The exhibition became an itinerant exhibition because of autonomous management, but also by itself. Someone came to see it and said it was interesting if we could take it somewhere else, so I literally packed everything, put in a car, and drove to New York; and then the same to another place.
Negroni- Its like a gypsy exhibition. Carry-On became more than an exhibition, it is a subject, like a separate individual that moves from place to place. To me it was great when Beto called me for it. I spent a couple of days thinking about the concept, because if you're talking about the concept of carry-on, I want to know what it means. I started research, and tried to find out what it meant to us. I went through a few objects, then went with the parachute. When I started working with the parachute, I gradually reached an image that was what I worked for the piece which is the soldier with the pigeons.
Autonomous management is what is moving things around in Puerto Rico.
We have the Museum of Puerto Rico, Museum of Contemporary Art, Ponce Art Museum. Even the Museum of Contemporary Art benefits from the artists self-management because they wait for the artist to do the work, and once they accommodate and acquire what they need, then the museum says OK you are worthy. The museum now only says here it is, like they've discovered something.
Beto- The most significant activity of the art community in Puerto Rico is done with autonomous management: Santurce en Ley. Galleries are convened and willing projects, and we do it ourselves. This is because big institutions do not fulfill our needs.
Negroni- To their purpose, they present the issue like it were us who do not fulfill the expectations. However, is the opposite. The museum doesn't have anything to offer me as an artist. What do they give me? Another line on my resume? That is not going to change my work. On the contrary, it could institutionalize it and damage it, because the museum does not have the vision. Museums are not exempt from a bureaucratic vision of the processes of art, then everything is mechanized and founded upon paperwork, and that can damage your work. We lost Circa which was an young art fair which was a genuine attempt. After that Santurce es Ley emerged.
Beto- When I started with Carry-On I went everywhere in search for support, in Puerto Rico, to all institutions. No one gave me support. I sold an artwork from my personal collection, a piece by Cecile Molina, and with the money from the piece I did the exhibition.
Negroni- There are no earnings from this.
Beto- With the travels of Carry-On I have made no money. But that is not important; what is important is that people hear about it. Here in Georgia is where I've been treated the best in terms of getting the work shipped here and back, a curatorial fee, etc. Elements that should be basic, and that institutions in Puerto Rico should be able to support us because we are making the efforts of taking artwork out of Puerto Rico.
Negroni- It would be beneficial to them to be able to say this exhibition is in collaboration with this or that museum. You have another problem; people like Beto are doing a great effort in their spaces, they do it to be able to survive and in the way they help other artists. But you have people who take advantage that artists don't have a fixed salary for selling their artwork at very low prices. This has not let the market improve. People act with badly managed intentions. Those people have to ask themselves, what are we doing for the rest of the people? The least I can do is rejoice for my peers and help them when I can. It really fills me with price when my friends do well because they are my colleagues.
With the issue of autonomous management, an environment for camaraderie has been created. For example in the space I'm in at Cerra street, we do things amongst ourselves, and others have a place to work when they come to Puerto Rico for a while. Down the street there is another space run by colleagues that when help is needed they close down their workshop and come help. It has something to do with good education; there is no use if I don't try to amend people who are doing good things and bad things. Maybe if I give the example with good practices other people can follow. People notice good work, which creates precedents for diffusion. As a professor I bring other people to the scene.
I have faith that in a couple of years a revival may occur, because we are gradually educating people. And I say educate in the most humble way because there has to be many people doing the same for it to work. A transformation for the audience is coming.
M- Do you see a return to the gallery, to the museum? How would it be if you want to recapture that scene?
Negroni- We have faith in Carmen Yulín.
Beto- We have great faith in Carmen Yulín. Its serious, something quite crazy that's going on in Puerto Rico. There has been a big change in the concept of what is art, and what is Puerto Rican art. Before you would say Puerto Rican art and it was something traditional. Nowadays I can't keep up with everything that is going on. Not long ago did I find out about Juan's new job.
Negroni- I work as a professor at a university, and now I move to the administrative level to do other work.
Beto- To me that is the light at the end of the tunnel. A person like Juan to be up there... to me is the same thing with Carmen Yulín. I see now that it is possible, that we can do it, that people from my generation, with the mind and proposals like Juan has, to be up there they give me energy and hope that things will change. Change is always necessary.
Negroni- The government has to establish priorities, and study other countries' priority of the arts to serve as example.
Beto- It is about using history as a framework. Art is one of the activities most important to determine a time for a country or territory. If the government doesn't support the arts, there will be no history to tell.
M- ¿Cómo es tu proceso creativo como artista y como curador? ¿Cómo se diferencian y cuáles son los encuentros?
A mí me sucede que cuando voy a curar un proyecto a veces no encuentro cómo incluirme yo en el proyecto. A mí también me interesa qué es lo que pueda pensar la gente, y la gente piensa ah como es tuyo pues enseguida te acomodaste. Y realmente después de todo no le veo el problema que si el proyecto es mío me pueda incluir dentro del proyecto. Entonces a veces un proyecto puede venir de una inquietud plástica que yo tengo, a veces hay algo que yo quiero resolver a nivel plástico pero en la manera que yo trabajo mi obra, a lo mejor no me permite disertarlo de una manera plástica, entonces lo que hago es que invito a panas o gente conocida para hablar un poco de cómo ellos lo solucionarían, o cómo ellos abordarían esos temas.
Me pasó una vez que yo hice una exhibición en la Liga de Arte que tenía que ver un poco con la distribución urbana del área metropolitana de San Juan. Yo quería participar de la exhibición, pero mi obra no me permitió en ese momento acomodarme. Pero entonces trabajé con gente como Martín Albarrán, Rafael Báez; gente que yo sabía que su approach le iba a añadir un montón al comentario que yo quería hacer que era multiplicidad de posibilidades de cómo resolver problemas que nos competen a todo el mundo.
A veces tiene mucho que ver, y a veces no. Igual mi trabajo es bien caprichoso; a veces sale de un comentario mío, una idea que es muy mía, o un chiste interno que yo pueda tener con mi hermano. Puede ser bien casual. Yo estaba hablando con un compañero de taller y me dice: tú dices que tu trabajo es muy casual pero a mi me parece que tu trabajo son snapshots de momentos muy específicos; que en mi obra en general se ve mucha tensión; que es como si hubiese habido algún clímax en una situación y hubieses tomado una foto y se hubiese utilizado eso. Así que a lo mejor tengo que revisar un poco eso, lo que yo creo que es lo que estoy haciendo, y a lo mejor estoy haciendo otra cosa sin darme cuenta.
M- Qué situaciones contrastantes te encuentras como curador tratando de sacar proyectos de Puerto Rico o tratando de devolverlos una vez sales de acá?
Es súper nítido que el museo haya aceptado, porque dentro de las gestiones de los museos, y a veces por la cuestión del presupuesto o la logística de cómo el museo funciona pues las piezas van a llegar a su destino. Puede ser que me lleguen todas a mi o puede ser que lleguen directo a cada artista. Eso es una parte súper importante porque de otra manera el proyecto no se hubiese podido dar. Si el artista no estaba dispuesto a enviar pues tenía que buscar un sitio alterno entonces en dónde preparar la exhibición.
Entonces haberla hecho en Puerto Rico, no se si era lograr tanto. Yo creo que haber llegado hasta acá, que tú hayas venido hasta a conocer un poco de la exhibición, yo creo que es súper importante que se haya dado aquí. De otra manera en Puerto Rico... en Puerto Rico las exhibiciones están pasando desapercibidas. Se convierten en un evento social, la gente llega en bici, se dan una beer, y cuando se acaban las beers, que ahora cada vez se acaban más rápido, se van.
El asunto es que el término museológico en ese sentido es muy importante, y es muy importante para mi como mi carrera de artista y curador, como para los demás colegas. Yo creo que también es satisfactorio aportar un poco, porque hay un montón de gente súper buena que están acumulando pilas de obras en los talleres, y no encuentran qué hacer con ellas porque en Puerto Rico no hay la cultura del coleccionismo. Yo no estoy segura si ni siquiera existió, yo creo que es que no ha existido. Y entonces los intentos que han habido por que se de no han sido suficientes y yo creo que la centralización del arte en el área metropolitana ha jodido mucho a los artistas. Y la cosa está aguantá.
M- Recién sales de una exhibición en La Productora. Qué significa la autogestión para el artista hoy día y cómo esa cultura de galería afecta o queda afectada por ello?
El art scene en Puerto Rico está fundamentado en la autogestión. Por ejemplo, Beto tiene su galería y es un business. Pero más que todo es un lugar de encuentro donde muchos de nosotros hemos tenido una súper buena oportunidad de si queremos un espacio formal, hemos tenido hasta la oportunidad de ingreso, pero es un proyecto que sale del esfuerzo de otro artista.
Beto- La palabra autogestión es bien importante en todo este contexto. De hecho, todo esto que nosotros hemos hecho acá es una autogestión completa. En mi caso, el llevar 35 artistas contemporáneos de Puerto Rico fuera de Puerto Rico.... quién hace eso? A mi me invitaron para ser curador, y me invitaron a una galería. Yo pude haber hecho una exhibición de una persona, pude haber hecho algo mío o algo de tres personas. Pero la gente tiene que enterarse de lo que está pasando aquí, y me fui en el viaje de invitar a medio mundo y de repente eran 35 personas. Pero todo ha sido una autogestión y en la manera en que surgió.
Originalmente era una exhibición para Boston. Se llama Carry-on porque literalmente así fue que llegó a Boston, en bultos carry-on. Entre Anabel, yo, panas y colegas artistas de Boston que fueron a Puerto Rico, pues mira tienes que llevar estos carry-on. La cuestión de que se haya convertido en una exhibición itinerante fue por la autogestión, pero también por sí solo. De repente llegó Miguel a la galería un día: ah, eso suena interesante vamos a llevarlo al Clemente. Y yo literalmente fui para Boston, empaqué todo, me monté en un carro, guié hasta Nueva York. Después hice lo mismo y lo lleve a otro lado.
Juan- Es como una exhibición gitana. Carry-on se convirtió más que en una exhibición, es un subject, es ya como un individuo aparte que se mueve de un sitio a otro. A mi me parece fenomenal cuando Beto me llamó... estuve par de días, pero yo nunca digo que no y por eso a veces me meto en problemas y estuve como un par de días pensando y trabajando con el concepto. Si tu me estás hablando de un concepto carry-on, qué es lo que significa. Me puse a hacer un research y buscar a ver qué es y qué significa para nosotros. Yo fui del celular hasta el condón, hasta el paracaídas. Y entonces cuando comencé a bregar con la cuestión del paracaídas, fui poco a poco llegando a la imagen que después yo trabajé para la pieza que es la del soldado con las palomas, que mucha gente me pregunta que si son gallinas.
Pero la autogestión, ahora mismo en Puerto Rico es lo que está moviendo las cosas. Porque qué tenemos? El museo de Puerto Rico, el Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, el Museo de Ponce. Y aún así, el Museo de Arte Contemporáneo se está beneficiando de la autogestión, porque qué hacen? esperan que los artistas hagan todo el trabajo, que ya estén acomodados, ya conseguí lo que quiero, entonces el Museo dice ah OK ya eres digno. Ahora el Museo lo único que hace es: míralo, aquí está. Como si hubiese hecho el súper descubrimiento.
Entonces tienes el museo donde la dirección a nivel administrativo es fatal. La Escuela de Artes Plásticas ha decaído, que parece un campamento de verano.
Beto- La actividad más significativa en el mundo del arte, que ha pasado en Puerto Rico es una autogestión también... Santurce es Ley. Que vamos para la cuarta ahora, viene de Alexis Busquets. Este convoca a las galerías y proyectos dispuestos, y lo hacemos nosotros. Esas instituciones establecidas, grandes, no llenan nuestros requisitos, lo que nosotros necesitamos.
Negroni- A los efectos, ellos lo presentan como que somos nosotros lo que no llenamos las expectativas de ellos. Sin embargo, es todo lo contrario. El museo no tiene nada que ofrecerme a mí como artista. Qué me dan? Otra línea en mi resume? Eso no va a cambiar mi obra. Todo lo contrario, me la puede entonces institucionalizar y me la puede dañar, porque el museo no tiene esa visión. Ellos no están exentos de una visión burocrática de los procesos de arte, entonces todo es tan mecanizado y está tan fundamentado en los papeles que te pueden dañar la obra.
Nosotros perdimos Circa que una feria de arte, que era una feria joven pero fue un intento genuino y muy bueno. Yo creo que después de eso fue que salió Santurce es Ley.
Beto- Cuando yo empecé con lo de Carry-On yo me tiré para todos lados a buscar apoyo, en Puerto Rico, en todas las instituciones. Me tiré a escribir propuestas, hice cuanto movimiento puedes hacer, y nadie me dio apoyo. Yo vendí una pieza de mi colección personal, una pieza de Cecile Molina, y con el dinero de esa pieza yo hice la exhibición.
Beto- En esto yo no he hecho nada de dinero. En todo el viaje, y toda la travesía que ha hecho Carry-On. Pero eso no es lo importante, lo importante es que la gente se entere. Aquí en Georgia es donde mejor me han tratado en cuestión de que me pagan en shipping, tienes un curatorial fee, etc. Cosas que deben de ser básicas y cosas que las mismas instituciones de Puerto Rico deben de apoyarnos a nosotros que estamos haciendo estas gestiones de sacar obras de Puerto Rico.
Negroni- Que les conviene que un proyecto como este diga: con la colaboración del Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico o con la colaboración del Museo de Arte Contemporáneo... Y tienes otro problema también; tienes gente, por ejemplo Beto que está haciendo un esfuerzo por mover su espacio, porque moviendo su espacio come, y mueve a otros artistas. Pero tienes otra gente que están aprovechándose que el artista no tiene un ingreso fijo para comprarle piezas a precio de liquidación, las metan en un baúl y vayan por las oficinas de los abogados y de los coleccionistas a vender a precios de quemazón. Entonces eso no ha permitido que el mercado mejore. Hay unas intenciones mal manejadas. Entonces, realmente estamos haciendo algo por los demás? Yo lo menos que puedo hacer es alegrarme por mis compañeros, y si los puedo ayudar los voy a ayudar. Pero todo el mundo dice que si fulano de tal está haciendo una porquería y mira dónde está. Mano, pero está ahí y a mi me llena de súper orgullo que mis panas les vaya bien porque son tus colegas.
Beto- Eso pasa como sí somos hermanos pero... yo lo veo muchísimo. Yo navego en las artes; brego en las artes plásticas pero soy músico profesional también. Y es así; en vez de alegrarse y apoyarse, este está allá haciendo eso pero yo estoy acá en lo mío.
Negroni- Con el asunto de la autogestión se ha creado un ambiente de camaradería, por ejemplo en el espacio que estoy ahora en la calle Cerra, que está Martín y está Roberto, un arquitecto. Hacemos cosas entre todos, otros que vienen por un rato a Puerto Rico pueden tener su espacio allí. Más abajo en la calle están otros colegas; y cuando se necesita ayuda cierran sus talleres y se vienen a ayudar. Es una cuestión de educación, y a mi no me sirve de nada no tratar de ayudar a enmendar gente que están haciendo cosas bien y cosas mal. Si yo doy un ejemplo a lo mejor la gente se le contagia. Beto ha hecho una labor titánica, y la gente lo está notando, y eso crea unos precedentes. Y la gente se empieza a contagiar con la buena obra.
Yo tengo fe que de aquí a unos par años van a haber un renacimiento, gente que los estamos educando poco a poco. Y digo que estamos educando y lo digo con mucha humildad porque tiene que haber mucha gente haciendo lo mismo para que funcione. Lo del público, eso va y viene.
M- Entonces es cíclico o ven alguna vuelta al museo, o la galería? Cómo sería capturar nuevamente esa escena?
Beto- Tenemos mucha fe en Carmen Yulín. En serio, es una cosa bien loca que está pasando en Puerto Rico. Es que ha habido un cambio tan grande en los conceptos de qué es lo que es arte de por sí, y de lo que es arte puertorriqueño. Antes tú decía arte puertorriqueño y era esa cosa tradicional. Hoy día, yo mismo no puedo estar al tanto de todo lo que está pasando. Yo mismo me digo diantre y de dónde este salió. Aquí hace par de días me entero del trabajo nuevo de Juan.
Negroni- Yo empecé a trabajar ahora a dar clases en una universidad, y ahora voy a empezar a nivel administrativo a hacer otras cosas.
Beto- Para mí eso fue como ver la luz al final del túnel. Una persona como Juan que esté allá arriba para mí eso es igual que ver a Carmen Yulín de repente. Veo que es posible, que lo podemos hacer, que el tener gente de mi generación y gente con la mente y el tipo de propuesta que tiene Juan, que estén allá arriba me dan un aliento de que sí, esto va a echar pa' lante y que va a cambiar. Los cambios hacen falta siempre; son muy necesarios.
Negroni- El gobierno puede establecer prioridades. Estudiar la prioridad que les dan otro países para servirles de ejemplo.
Beto- Es usar la historia como marco de referencia. El arte sí es una de las cosas más importantes para determinar un cierto momento de un país. Si el gobierno no apoya el arte, pues no va a haber historia qué contar.
Tagged with ART, PUERTO RICO, TRAVEL, ARTISTS.
April 3, 2013 by Mariana Ortiz-Reyes.


oneday I will see the bigger picture.
the highlands of Cape Bretton Island, and there are no trails to it.
in Prince Edward Island to a wonderful Christian girl from that area.
that is a focal point of their lives and ministry together.
right now, so I will move on!
mountainous areas that wouldnt otherwise be reached by other groups.
Republic (Pico Duarte), and headed home.
temp jobs if I need to.
Pico Duarte, Highpoint of Dominican Rep.