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Entries in Huppert (4)
Saturday, July 18, 2015 at 17:48
We will leave an explanation of this film's title to the curious who believe that the Internet could not possibly lie to them. Its translation may indeed shed some light on the plot – that is, if you like your plots brightly lit – yet the English novel on which the film is based is called A Judgement in Stone. And while most movie versions employ a literal translation of the French, German has chosen "Beasts," and Italian, "The Darkness in the Mind." What kind of film could possibly inspire such diverse nomenclature? One most certainly of beasts and judgements, although these labels hang loosely to more than a few objects. And the country home that serves as the centerpiece of our action has more than a few objects to go around.
Our protagonist is a morose, tomboyish, yet attractive housekeeper with a name out of a socialist realist novel, Sophie Bonhomme (Sandrine Bonnaire). When we first see her, she is somewhat late to an appointment with the debonair and rather stunning Catherine Lelièvre (an equally stunning Jacqueline Bisset) at a café that admittedly makes Catherine nervous. Why should a woman of the world, a former model (we are informed later by a dubious source), and a member of the upper crust of society, feel ill at ease in a mediocre little bistro, the likes of which litter France as pigeons occupy Rome? Better to let the events speak for themselves. Catherine warns Sophie – although the warning is like much of Catherine's persona, wholly disingenuous – that the house is remote. "Is that a problem?" she asks, also not caring whether it is. "I don't know," replies Sophie, an answer that startles Catherine. Throughout the film Sophie will recur to this slogan of her ignorance, and on numerous occasions Catherine will be startled either because Sophie should obviously know or because her indifference to that knowledge comes off as terrifying. Catherine's clear, lightly-accented French hints at a privileged life spend abroad in foreign tongues, perhaps indeed very privileged. Alas, she has had little success with domestics of late (such is the curse of the wealthy unable to procure the perfect assistant) and Sophie was laid off after her employer's husband died suddenly. "She's moving to Australia to be with her son," she tells Catherine, who couldn't care less what happens to the former employer provided the reference is solid. Sophie presents her letter of recommendation, but does so in a manner that will strike the careful viewer as unusual. We cannot see Catherine's face at that very moment, so it is impossible to detect whether the same sensation creeps over her features, but the way Sophie points to the name and address on the top of the letter makes us uncomfortable. The two ladies hit it off as much as they can given that they are negotiating the blandest of business deals, Sophie agitatedly mentions her previous salary, Catherine catches on and hikes it by ten percent, and all of a sudden there is nothing more to talk about. For her first day of work, Sophie's employer will fetch her at nine on Tuesday from the local train station. And what day is it today, asks the employee. Saturday, says a startled Mrs. Lelièvre, who doesn't really notice anything wrong although she very well should.
This scene, one of the very best opening vignettes you will ever see, foreshadows every detail to come. We may even generously interpret Sophie's listless looks over Catherine's shoulder as symbolizing her gaze at another character, one who hasn't been mentioned but who figures prominently in our story, and one who can also be symbolized by a letter since her work comprises the handling of others' written correspondence. That remarkable shrew is the local postmistress Jeanne (Isabelle Huppert). For my money, Huppert and Emily Watson are the world's two most talented actresses, but let us not digress. Catherine returns to her remote manor for a family dinner of moules-frites, without, it appears, the frites. The reactions towards Sophie's hiring are mixed: her recently teen son Gilles (Valentin Merlet) inquires as to her looks (Catherine, of course, "did not notice" anything except that "she wasn't awful"); her nineteen-year-old stepdaughter Melinda (Virginie Ledoyen) wonders as many educated young people do about the wages and conditions of their imminent housekeeper; and her greybeard husband Georges (Jean-Pierre Cassel) just wants to eat his mussels, listen to Mozart, and hope it all works out for the best. One may consider this blended quartet a microcosm of upper-class interests – money and labor negotiations, hedonism, overidentification with the less fortunate owing, it is assumed, to guilt, and a Pollyanna-like aversion to conflict coupled with a longing for higher culture – or one may not. Since the confrontations that will arise pit the well-off against those who perform services for the selfsame elite, the most facile of readings will have something to do with the proletariat – but now we must really put a stop to this silliness and return to that train station.
Somehow we know that when the nine o'clock Tuesday morning train arrives, Sophie won't be on it. We are so sure of this, in fact, that we search for the same intuition in Catherine, who seems to know it as well, although she cannot quite fathom why. Since we are still in that tenebrous age before cell phones, our brooding employer takes out a cigarette and puffs away furiously – that is, until she espies Sophie on the other side of the platform. Sophie, who is wearing exactly what she wore to the bistro, has taken an earlier train with the explanation that she did not want to be late, which may ultimately rank as the most plausible of her countless lies in La Cérémonie. As the two approach Catherine's car, they are accosted by Jeanne looking for a ride to work, and we should say something about this Jeanne. In and around town Jeanne Marcal is known for four things: her gaudy, Pippi Longstocking-like wardrobe; her snooping (in her profession that means rendering unto mail recipients what Caesar's taster used to render unto Caesar); her volunteering for the Church, although she has no evident spirituality and simply desires to help the poor; and her past tragedy, as she once upon a time was acquitted for the negligent death of her small daughter. The description of this dreadful event that she confesses to Sophie omits so much detail as to make us wonder what, if anything, she ever says is true. Everything she utters, be it whimsical, cruel, or objectively intelligent, is punctuated by the same myopic smile. Yet somehow we believe, if for but a moment, that it was society not Jeanne who killed her daughter. Society who made her an outcast and a single mother; society who let her dwell in a tiny apartment with an exposed oven; society that rushed to damn her before she could even muster a defense. Thus ten minutes into our film, we have been sufficiently introduced to the three female leads, all seated in one car and revving off in the same and yet very different directions. When Jeanne smiles at Sophie with that myopic smile, the latter looks perplexed as to why anyone would smile at her. Later, towards the middle of the film, Sophie will finally return the smile and our story assumes a very different tenor.
There is a poorly-kept secret in La Cérémonie that outrattles the other, less consequential skeletons surfacing one after another like zombies. The scene in which the truth is 'revealed' (any half-awake viewer would have reached the same conclusion well before this point) seems overwrought and melodramatic, but the grief and anger that ooze out foretell the wickedness of the tale's end. In more than one scene we see despair, white-man-in-China despair, an abyss of hopelessness that gapes like a leviathan. The secret soon becomes the justification for all of Sophie's passive-aggressive charades, although it should be said that her personality is so damaged to begin with that no excuse will suffice. I have said less about Jeanne, a creature from a very black lagoon, because what is said about her in the film is so clear yet so terrifying that we shudder to consider the fact that we probably all know people just like her. Cheeky, impish, prying, cheerfully mischievous in an effort to mask true malevolence, intelligent in that way unique to very smart people who have come to envy life and all its inhabitants, Jeanne skips around, gleefully pinching fruit from a vendor like some insolent street urchin. We find her so frightening precisely because she is mindfully incalculable. And what about Sophie? In one respect Sophie embodies the plight of the typical domestic servant, who may be likened in this instance to a piece of furniture: something you acquire, place in a comfortable spot, and only notice ever again when you start tripping over it. As for the darkness and the ceremony, well, we would probably be better off just going and helping the poor. Just like Jeanne.
tagged Chabrol, Huppert in Film and film reviews, French literature and film
Friday, January 9, 2015 at 13:47
Bark on, bark on, my most vigilant hounds!
Let me not rest when dark slumber abounds!
With my dreams I have reached an end,
No more time have I with sleepers to spend
Franz Schubert, Die Winterreise
This composer, whom the titular character in this film describes in absolute terms as "ugly," was uncompromisingly devoted to his art, perhaps in no small part because he saw little value in a material life of hedonism and wealth. Schubert's perception of an artist working night and day to achieve minor personalized goals in his lifetime that will only become global imprints well after death suggests not only a blind faith in the redemption of the soul, but also a disheartening contempt for this one life he has been given.
This quandary – art versus life, sacrifice versus immediate gratification, profundity versus superficial banality – is as old as life and art themselves, and one that plagues Erika (the sensational Isabelle Huppert), a teacher and lover of music. Erika is extremely gifted in her field and, like so many artists, as demanding of others as she is of herself. She is a recluse, living with her mother (Annie Girardot) and socializing with no one else, suppressing the quiet pain of having a father rotting away in an asylum ("the twilight of the mind," she calls it), unpleasant with her students, of whom she can realistically expect little, and evasively bellicose towards her colleagues. So far, Erika fits an artistic stereotype all too well: the insufferable genius who demands perfection in everyone and everything and is left bitter by the gross negligence of a world sworn to mediocrity and passableness. There is, of course, a little more to her than that – and what exactly that little more entails has stirred up a great deal of controversy. Erika has a curiously unhinged side to her that manifests itself in pornographic and sadomasochistic whims, the likes of which have no real place in an artistic work and the reason why this film has been considered a bit of a hybrid. No need to go into details, but suffice it to say that Erika cannot really relate to anything except her music (even her mother is just another obstacle to her routine). And her music is about endless practice, endless striving towards perfection, and the vast majority of life is spent chasing that perfection, with the possibility of attaining it seemingly just around the corner. If this description sounds like a metaphor for something else, then the second half of the film will make perfect sense.
It is precisely at the midway point of the film that she gives in to her desires for Walter (Benoît Magimel), a handsome young prodigy who also has feelings for her of a much more conventional sort. When she first plays before him, the long waits for Walter's face to react tell you he will be a factor in the film. It is when he first plays, however, that we understand the twisted underside to Erika's psyche: she cannot bear to look at him, not out of disgust but out of boredom. Erika, you see, has another aspect common to many artists: she is interminably bored when not engaged in her own artistic pursuits. It's not even that nothing else matters, but that nothing else could possibly matter. But she has urges and physical lacunae that have never really been addressed, and her haplessness in that sliver of life called sexual interaction is as glaring as her art is elevated. When she hurts herself, it's not for the trite excuse, "I hurt myself because I forgot what it was like to feel something," but rather the "I don't remember ever touching anything except piano keys." At no point does Erika, who is a truly cultured and intelligent person, seem fake or conjured up from the back of some deranged and lonely mind. Yet at the same time she is also an abstraction, a piece of music that someone wrote and commanded to live, a Frankenstein sonata. And when the film, based on a novel by this equally controversial Austrian Nobel Prize winner, asks her to live, it spirals swiftly down into a painful exchange of bruised egos and, well, bruises.
Much has been made of the sex and violence in The Piano Teacher, directed by one of Jelinek's most famous fellow countrymen, although it's considerably less than the orgy of sexploitations and sexplosions scripted into your average action film. I have not read Jelinek's novel and cannot say I am maneuvering my shelf components in anticipation of such a purchase, but the character names reveal a novelist's touch. Walter's last name is Klemmer, or, in German, "the one who clamps or traps," and his first name, when pronounced in French (apart from some songs by Schubert, the film is exclusively in French but filmed in Austria with Germanic names, German street signs, and so forth) does not sound very different from "Voltaire." Klemmer is also the surname of a famous jazz musician, whom Jelinek may have had in mind when she wrote her novel in the early 1980s, although this is debatable. More important is that another of Erika's students is called Nápravník, who was a Czech conductor and was mentioned in this famous novel. In Czech (Jelinek is of Czech descent), nápravník is related to the words "correctional" and "corrector," suggesting both a prison and a teacher, as Erika is certainly both. Yet Erika is not some sort of aspiring dominatrix, nor does she reflect Austrian society's alleged emphasis on discipline and excellence (you can foresee down what darksome path that leads), but a woman terrifyingly alone and closing the gap on middle age. Somehow her soul's torment is supposed to be mitigated by a set of rather banal urges, when that is precisely her only quality that has nothing to do with art. But Huppert's performance is so outstanding that we try to battle through the film despite our repulsion. Maybe the last twenty minutes or so are best watched on fast forward; then again, perhaps there is no better way to experience Erika's slow burn than to endure what she endures down to the final frame. As one of her students sings (from Schubert's Der Wegweiser) in perfect summation:
But I have done nothing so wrong
That I should avoid the human throng.
What kind of foolish desire
Drives me tow'rd the wastelands' mire?
tagged Haneke, Huppert in Central Europe, Film and film reviews, French literature and film, German literature and film
Saturday, October 18, 2014 at 02:42
Chocolate manufacturers have almost invariably suffered a cruel fate in literature and film, perhaps because they come to seem as petty and decadent as their precious wares. When fictional chocolate does have some kind of positive connotation, it usually veers down that extremely dubious path of catholicon and, if applicable, aphrodisiac as well. Let's set the matter straight: chocolate is but another drug. True, it may at times so stimulate the brain that some people frankly never recover. But like alcohol, nicotine, or anything else that one allows to shape's one mood and, in so doing, one's personality, chocolate is an excuse for those who need excuses and a pleasure for those whose lives may not have enough of it. Which brings us to this quiet little mystery.
We begin with the strangely distant Marie-Claire Muller (Isabelle Huppert) exchanging vows with the just as strangely fatigued André Polonski (Jacques Dutronc). Why Polonski and Muller as the protagonists in a French film, albeit one set in this relatively multiethnic city? Are their names intentionally foreign-sounding? Our Muller is an heiress to a formidable chocolate business, which for some Europeans is as plain an accomplishment as her surname suggests. Polonski, on the other hand, while perhaps a reference to another director, is a highly regarded classical pianist. His is also a common name – in Poland, where the most famous of all French pianists was born – and so we again face the quandary, so prevalent in Chabrol, of societal conflict, of an invisible class struggle, of art and its eternity versus the immediate gratification of gold bullion. It is well known that another contemporary director likes to employ bourgeois couples called Anne and George, or variants thereof, upon whom he can inflict the vilest of fates. But what about Chabrol? "I declare you bound, re-bound, if I may be permitted to say, in marriage," says the justice of the peace. "Please exchange rings." "They're the same ones" says Marie-Claire, who goes by Mika, which may remind us not a little of Milka, a German chocolate – but I digress. Yes, Mika and Polonski were, once upon a time, wife and man, nineteen years ago to be exact. Just before, as it were, the pianist decided for reasons that will become painfully clear to us that Mika was not his soul's mate, and opted to marry the lovely Lisbeth who would bear him his only child Guillaume (Rodolphe Pauly) then perish in a mysterious car accident on Guillaume's tenth birthday. A flashback near the film's midpoint clarifies the unusual sequence of occurrences that evening, even if what this character remembers is not what the official police report contains. What we do know, and what is reflected in that brief glimpse into a foggy and mysterious past, is that even after their brief marriage and divorce, Polonski and Mika remained so close that it was at Mika's house that the family was staying at the time, and it was in Mika's neighborhood that Lisbeth fell asleep at the wheel and skidded off into eternal rest. And it was also Mika who gave Lisbeth the titular cocoa laced with Rohypnol mere minutes before her fatal ride.
Revealing this detail here does not spoil our film, because the same information is made available to the viewer at a proportionally earlier point in Merci pour le chocolat. It seems safe to assume that Mika killed Lisbeth, whether or not she intended to do so. Our task is to determine why she took this course of action, and what, if anything, occupies the black abyss of what is left of her soul. Even in the opening scenes, when Mika listlessly humors guests at her wedding reception then, as if to make amends for such a betrayal, a well-attended public exhibition of Lisbeth's photography, we sense that she has long since been shunted down a very different track. At the exhibition we move quickly from one photo that appears to be a close-up of thumbs depressing a neck, to Polonski trapped in some imbecilic harangue on politics, to Mika tuning out – there is no other expression – one of her oldest employees and a dear friend of her father's. With little forewarning – people seem to be quite used to her permanent somnambulism – she walks away and touches someone on the back who appears to be Guillaume. With that touch, which befits a lover much more than a stepmother, we somehow have the premonition that it will not be Guillaume. When it turns out indeed to be Mika's stepson, it is remarkable to note how his perturbation indicates sexual prudishness. Yes, Guillaume has joined the rest of the world in finding something sensual about Isabelle Huppert, hardly a cause for either lamentation or praise. But within the context of the film, it suggests yet another complication that bobs its head upon the surface on account of the only person who sees Mika touch Guillaume at the exhibition, a beautiful eighteen-year-old by the name of Jeanne Pollet (Anna Mouglalis).
Jeanne we know from an earlier scene. In it, two very well-to-do middle-aged ladies Pauline (German actress Isolde Barth) and Louise Pollet meet in a posh restaurant where, one gets the impression, they no longer need to look at the menu. Apart from reveling in their poshness, they are also awaiting their teenage children, Jeanne and Axel, who are openly dating but "probably playing tennis right now" (the hint is clear, even to the mothers in denial). When the duo finally cruises in still perspiring from, well, their afternoon workout, Pauline is reminded of an announcement from today's paper regarding the Muller-Polonski wedding. What happens next is so preposterous (Barth's pronounced accent in French imbues the whole scene with an urgent gravity, as if the foreign press were reporting a scandal) it could only be likely: apparently Jeanne, a budding young pianist, was born at the same hospital on the same day as Guillaume Polonski. Owing to a dearth in bracelets, only the first three letters of their surnames were written and – and here I admit to having laughed myself silly, and not only at the thought of a Swiss hospital lacking supplies. In any case, what we may say is that some doubts arise as to Jeanne's parentage, all the more so since her legal father has been dead for many years; Louise's shockingly defensive reaction – any self-assured parent would have mocked the whole notion – only serves to deepen Jeanne's and our suspicions. One thing leads to another and Jeanne shows up on the Polonskis' doorstep eager to meet the great master. In no small coincidence, she also happens to have a piano competition in Budapest in a couple of weeks and could benefit from as much private tutoring as possible. Polonski, of course, is in that regard all too happy to oblige. And although he makes a point of verbally dismissing Jeanne's paternity queries, his treatment of her indicates otherwise, perhaps because she reminds him of Lisbeth, whose gestures culled from photographs in Guillaume's room she begins to ape.
Not every secret that subtends Merci pour le chocolat is revealed, because life does not show all its cards, at least not all at once. We may think we know what took place that lonely night, but the versions we get cannot be considered in any way definitive. There are many delicate, observant moments that illuminate our cast in unpredictable ways: consider when Dutronc, a marvelously understated actor, thoroughly convinces Jeanne that he may believe her story, then turns to Guillaume and speaks exactly like a father who has no doubt about his offspring; when Mika goes to see Louise in her office for one of the tensest tea-drinking scenes in recent memory; or when a character turns off the lights in bed only to have a close-up reveal a face much more awake in the darkness than the light, as if the face and the brain behind it thrived in the shadows of human motives. A couple of details from the telltale flashback, details specifically concerning Guillaume, also imply what may have happened and what may yet occur. Yet as Polonski himself admits, Jeanne's distinct resemblance to Lisbeth has as much to do with the good memory it generates as with any biological probability. Almost anyone can resemble anyone else if a few key mannerisms are copied; the more eccentric the mannerisms available, the more convincing the understudy. And we haven't even mentioned what piece Jeanne will be playing in Budapest.
Friday, November 4, 2011 at 17:16
A romantic mind will always be drawn to an era he could not possibly have known: Europe between the Great Wars, America as it began its first free century, England when Dickens was its sole witness (upon me 1960s and 1970s Northern Europe has cast an everlasting spell). Even an acute nostalgist knows that his sentiments are mostly based on unhappy persons' yearning for a past they cannot have, thus arming themselves for a future they cannot bear, and yet he still yearns. He yearns for love and remembrance, sweetness and wonder, and the eternity of his wretched soul. He will watch movies and read books, and dream himself the hero who simply must triumph in the end. Life will continue to disappoint him mildly, but life is always disappointing to those who choose to dwell in the past. What he wants is to be transported to that period, to breathe its air and darken beneath its sunsets and know beforehand that it will be the most glorious years of his existence. Alas, such is not our fate. We are doomed to do quite the reverse and live as if our better days are always a step ahead. Which brings us to a work from one of the most romanticized of all periods.
We are amidst the Belle Époque, that generation of prosperity before an Austrian nobleman would die and Europe would bleed. Like all such times, the label will come in hindsight, as its proponents firmly believed that nothing could have been worse than the First World War – a notion that would prove to be hideously mistaken. Like all reminiscents, they predictably overlook the malaise and woe of the vast majority in order to celebrate the minority's advances; almost just as predictably, guilt prevents them from glorifying the very elite – statesmen, kings, and industrialist mega-moguls – because, well, no one should really have anything nice to say about people so privileged as rarely having to wear the same clothes twice. Their focus then shifts to the upper middle class, the moneyed bourgeois who have neither blue blood nor courtier manners. Many of this stratum were of humble provenance, and made their money the old-fashioned way: a lucky investment. Such is the case of Jean Hervey (a magnificent Pascal Greggory), who took a flyer on a "failing newspaper." It was "a horrible newspaper, with no opinions," and initially yielded nothing more than bromides and inoffensiveness. But without the slightest indication – at least not to its new owner – the newspaper reversed its fortune and made Jean a permanent member of the urbanized rich (Jean claims he has "an easy relationship" with money). We see nothing of the Jean the businessman, but we can expect him to resemble quite closely Jean the socialite, that is, stuffy, boring, and dapper, with the perpetual mild indignation that snobs seem naturally to exude. Every Thursday, then, and we begin our film on a Thursday, a couple of dozen guests – it would be too presumptuous to call them friends – gather at Jean's palatial residence for dinner, gossip, and a ritual without which their lives might be totally meaningless. Jean has plenty of almost robotic, identical female servants to do the heavy lifting, figuratively and literally, and gets away with practically saying and doing nothing at all. But the main reason he can permit himself such insouciance is his lovely wife Gabrielle (an even more magnificent Isabelle Huppert).
Gabrielle is one of the screen's most original creations, in no small part because she is perfectly comfortable in her existence and yet perfectly miserable. We do not immediately deduce the latter part of that equation, but an event barely twenty minutes into our film will make that agonizingly clear. At this first Thursday gathering, however, she is anything if not the genteel hostess. Her guests quack and croak in the pretentious tones of those who believe current events, strong drinks, and a bit of company lead to philosophical epiphanies. One quips idiotically, without precedence or conclusion, that he dreams of strangers falling in love; a fat woman states that she never repeats what a stranger tells her, but keeps it for herself – which implies that she repeats everything her friends and acquaintances tell her; Jean, who narrates our story, hums complacently to himself that he knows "Gabrielle's dreams" so "she could not be unfaithful"; an elderly spinster grins and announces that, "we have a set of things to do in life. When we finish, we collapse"; and another guest observes that "you don't have to know someone to enjoy his company," and we already understand that the whole film will come to be about knowledge, about whom we really know and whom we think we know, and those we think know us. All these comments drown out the loudmouth rants of an obese and dishevelled drunk who just so happens to be the editor-in-chief of Jean's newspaper. Our narrator informs us that he does not think much of this slob, but, being of the Philistine vanguard, is naturally prone to taking no action and hoping for the best. I spoil nothing by saying that on the Herveys' ten-year anniversary, Jean returns home, slinks up the stairs and through a series of rooms only to find a letter sitting on his wife's boudoir. It is very much a Dear Jean letter, and we know its contents even if we are given only a few gigantic words on screen. But before Jean can even decide how to react ("you did not accustom me to this, Gabrielle"), Gabrielle does what no one could have possibly thought she would: after an absence of barely three hours, she returns.
A tale of domestic deception is a dusty chestnut, and as such, the original story cannot be recommended because its intentions are hardly sincere. Not only is there nothing shocking about such indiscretions, they are rarely if ever imbued with any pathos. The paramount question would seem to be – as posed by Conrad's title, "The Return" – why Gabrielle comes back. Is she simply inured to her pointless existence? Does a part of her long for security and ease, things that her lover will not be able to provide her? But the smarter viewer knows that the question is a McGuffin best left to hopeless graduate students who deem existentialism a profound path; thankfully, Chéreau seems to know it as well. The victory of style in the cinematic Gabrielle is the transformation of a plain text that wishes itself dynamic and controversial into a dynamic and controversial stage piece that wishes itself plain. In the hands and mouths of lesser actors, we would have a soap opera whose dénouement could have been predicted somewhere around the ninth minute; but Huppert and Greggory do something extraordinary. They try as hard as they can to be run-of-the-mill citizens – Greggory the well-to-do dullard who never laughs, Huppert the delicately sturdy wife who never cries, both stock bourgeois roles – and yet they fail. Their savage efforts to be like everyone else lays bare the originality of their minds, most evident in the bizarre scenes between Gabrielle and her domestic, Yvonne, when sexual tension mingles with a misty sense of oneupmanship. When Jean the narrator tells us, and us alone, that Gabrielle is "not just any woman," we sense she will answer this thought aloud later in the film, and she most certainly does. When she waxes poetic about the suffering she endured in not leaving Jean for good ("my body, my arms, and my legs could not take it"), he accuses her of plagiarism because that is precisely how those without taste or artistic sense confront flashes of genius. It is no surprise then that Jean's line of sight is frequently screened by his large forelock, nor that the interchangeable female staff – who sometimes feel like a Greek chorus waiting to caption tragedy – seem much more alive than the guests. And those two moments in life when Gabrielle was happy? Let's just say they reveal more about her than any departure or return ever could.
tagged Huppert in Film and film reviews, French literature and film, Victorian literature and film


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Carnival Newsroom
Ship Info
About Carnival Cruise Line
50 Years of Fun: Carnival Cruise Line's History
Carnival Corporation Home
Collect $200 As You Cruise Past Go! Carnival Cruise Line Launches Cruise-Themed Monopoly Game
Fans looking for a new way to remember their Carnival cruise at home – or better yet, imagine a future vacation when cruising resumes – can now enjoy Monopoly Carnival Fun Edition, a cruise-themed version on the classic board game.
The signature elements of the self-described "Fast Dealing Property Game" game are all there but with a unique twist with 28 popular Carnival Cruise Line features and attractions, including BOLT, the first roller coaster at sea, Cherry on Top, Lido Marketplace, and JavaBlue Café, serving as landing spots for players. Each of the spaces have a designated value and players purchase these properties with money emblazoned with the line's iconic funnel. There are also Cruise Director Announcements and Funnel Chest Cards with challenges and directions for players while game pieces appropriately enough include a cruise ship.
"Everyone has played Monopoly and we're excited to create this one-of-a-kind version that includes many of Carnival's most popular onboard spaces that we're sure our fans will enjoy," said Andres Villalever, director of retail for Carnival Cruise Line. "We're always looking for new ways to celebrate the Carnival brand and when we had the opportunity to be a part of this custom-designed Monopoly game, we jumped at the chance."
Monopoly Carnival Fun Edition is colorfully packaged with a giant image of its newest ship, Mardi Gras, on the cover, as well as on the game board itself.
Carnival Cruise Line Monopoly is available on the line's online retail site, https://shop.carnival.com/, for $39.95.
On National Pizza Day, Carnival Cruise Line Reveals Additional Details on Italian-Themed La Piazza Zone on New Mardi Gras
'Mini CFO' Version of Carnival CFO Shaquille O'Neal Debuts to Promote Short Cruise Offerings
For media inquiries and editorial photo requests, please contact:
Public Relations Department
3655 N.W. 87th Ave Miami, FL 33178
Email: media@carnival.com
© 2023 Carnival Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) is a novel and increasingly popular optical imaging technique that has revolutionarized brain research in the youngest developmental populations. After nearly a decade of technological development, NIRS has become a reliable, easy-to-use and efficient tool to explore the linguistic and cognitive abilities of neonates and young infants, opening new vistas for the investigation of language acquisition and cognitive development. This Research Topic covers the latest advances in these areas brought about by NIRS imaging. The main focus is to highlight innovative and foundational studies that go beyond methodological issues and advance our theoretical understanding of infant and child development. Contributions from the pioneers of this method are selected, illustrating how NIRS has allowed developmental researchers to ask theoretically relevant questions that more traditional methods couldn't address. These works further our understanding of language and cognitive development and bring us closer to bridging the gap between brain, mind and behavior at the very beginning of life.


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The Long and Short of It: Looking Back on the History of Same-Sex Marriage, One Year after Windsor
By Rachel Hope Cleves • June 3, 2014
A year ago June, the United States Supreme Court published its decision in the case of United States v. Windsor, striking down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) that banned the federal government from recognizing marriages between same-sex spouses. Since then, at least nineteen lower courts throughout the states have cited the Windsor decision to support equal rights for gay couples. The most recent addition to the list, as of the writing of this blog post, is the United States District Court for the District of Oregon, whose presiding judge, Michael McShane, tossed out the state's same-sex marriage ban on May 19, 2014. Prior to that came the May 9, 2014, decision in the Pulaski County Circuit Court of Arkansas. Former President Clinton, who has gone on record to express regret for signing DOMA during his presidency, can now celebrate the extension of marriage equality within his own home state.
Without a doubt, there has been tremendous change to the legal landscape of same-sex marriage during the past year. Even supporters might be feeling winded by the sudden acceleration of the marriage equality movement. So perhaps it is a good time to pause, take a breath, and reflect on the history of this moment, looking beyond the past year's changes to the centuries-long tradition of same-sex marriage in the United States. During oral arguments in United States v. Windsor, Justice Samuel Alito, speaking from the bench, declared that same-sex marriage was "newer than cell phones." His comment, intended to discourage his fellow judges from striking down DOMA, betrayed a profound misunderstanding of American history. Same-sex marriage is a minority tradition older than the nation itself.
Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca.
The earliest accounts of same-sex marriage in the future United States can be found in the records of conquest and discovery. Spanish conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca reported that on his 1528-1536 journey through the Gulf Coast he saw the custom of "one man married to another" ("casado" in the original Spanish). Although settlers often described indigenous same-sex marriages as "strange," colonial culture had its own well-known same-sex marriage practice: unions involving "female husbands," working-class women who lived as men and married other women. Later, men in the California Gold Rush and elsewhere in the nineteenth-century frontier often entered into "bachelor marriages," some of which lasted a lifetime.
At the turn of the twentieth century, as queer subcultures began to develop in the nation's growing cities, many committed same-sex couples organized weddings and referred to themselves as married. According to a questionnaire distributed by ONE: The Homosexual Magazine in 1961, 51% of respondents either were or had been in a same-sex marriage. By the time of the Stonewall riots, in June 1969, protestors shouted at police "we have the right to marry too!" Their cry described not just an aspiration, but a reality. The extensive evidence of that reality, however, has done little to change the common impression that same-sex marriage is a new invention.
Roberta Kaplan, the lawyer who argued against DOMA in United States v. Windsor, has attributed her success to the compelling story of her client Edie Windsor's forty-four union with her wife, Thea Spyer. More than a decade of experience as an LGBT advocate taught Kaplan that "if you just focused on one couple people would really be able to understand what happened." I've followed a similar logic in framing my new book, Charity and Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America, which tells the story of another female couple who lived together for forty-four years, a century and a half before Windsor and Spyer. I hope that their compelling story can put to rest the tired argument that same-sex marriage has no history, just as Windsor and Spyer's story defeated DOMA.
Silhouetted portraits of Charity Bryant and Sylvia Drake. (Henry Sheldon Museum)
Charity Bryant and Sylvia Drake met in February 1807 during a visit that Charity paid to the small village of Weybridge, Vermont, where Sylvia lived with her family. Charity was twenty-nine and Sylvia was twenty-two. They immediately fell in love and, unwilling to be parted, Charity rented a room in Weybridge where Sylvia came to live with her on July 3, 1807. The two women recognized this date as their anniversary throughout their lives together, and afterwards they seem never to have spent a night apart. They built their own cottage in 1808 and moved in on New Year's Day 1809, living there together until Charity's death from heart disease in 1851. When Sylvia died in 1868 her family buried her under the same headstone as Charity, believing that those who are united in life should not be sundered in death.
Everybody who knew Charity and Sylvia regarded the women as a married couple, or something like it. Hiram Harvey Hurlburt Jr., who grew up in a nearby village, recalled meeting the women in the 1830s at the tailor shop they operated, and hearing "it mentioned as if Miss Bryant and Miss Drake were married to each other." Charity's nephew, the famous poet and editor William Cullen Bryant, left a more romantic account of the women's relationship in a letter that he published in the New-York Evening Post in 1843, following a visit to their cottage: "in their youthful days, they took each other as companions for life, and … this union, no less sacred to them than the tie of marriage, has subsisted, in uninterrupted harmony, for forty years." The poet's mother, Charity's sister-in-law Sarah Snell Bryant, wrote quite simply to the women: "I consider you both one as man and wife are one."
It is clear from all these examples that Charity and Sylvia's marriage was not a secret. Far from it, the conservative, religious, farming community of Weybridge recognized, tolerated, and even celebrated the women's same-sex marriage. This recognition does not comport at all with our assumptions about the history of sexuality and marriage during the early national era. In fact, whenever I tell people that I wrote a book about two women who lived in a same-sex marriage from 1807 to 1851 the first question they ask me is: is it fiction? No, the fiction is our assumption that before the present day marriage was an exclusively opposite-sex affair.
What I've learned from researching Charity and Sylvia's story — drawing on an incredibly rich source base – is that same-sex couples could form marriages in the past, but it took a struggle. Prior to meeting Sylvia, Charity faced enormous hostility from neighbors in her home state of Massachusetts who found her refusal to marry a man, and her desire to form intimacies with other women, to be suspicious behaviors. Sylvia experienced rejection within her family after moving in with Charity. For years her mother and many of her brothers refused to visit the women in their home.
Bryant Drake headstone.
Only decades of dedication to their faith, to their community, and to their family, secured local acceptance of the women's marriage. The women worked themselves ragged, sacrificing their health to earn money to donate to their nieces' and nephews' educations and to the upkeep of their church. They organized prayer meetings, taught Sunday school, trained local girls in the valuable tailoring trade, and ran the local benevolent societies. As Sylvia's brother Asaph observed in a memoir written at the end of his life, his sister and Charity had "done as much to build up and keep society to gather considering thier means as aney other two individuals."[sic] Sylvia wrote in the opening page of her 1835 diary, "Be useful where thou livest, that they may both want + wish thy pleasing presence still." Charity and Sylvia's story proves the wisdom of that dictum.
Until recently, most same-sexed couples who wished to marry faced the same struggles as Charity and Sylvia. What has changed in the past decade since Massachusetts first approved same-sex marriage in 2003, and in the past year since DOMA was overturned in June 2013, is that same-sex marriage has been secured as a legal right rather than a social exception. Today, in nineteen states plus the District of Columbia same-sex couples can simply apply for a license and be married. Looking back at the long history of same-sex marriage, as well as the short, gives us a better sense of what a monumental accomplishment this is.
Headline image: Edie Windsor and Thea Spyer at home. (Edie & Thea/Bless Bless Productions)
Tags: DOMA, Gender, history, same sex marriage, Sexuality, United States v. Windsor
Rachel Hope Cleves
@RachelCleves
Rachel Hope Cleves is Associate Professor of History at the University of Victoria. She is the author of Charity and Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America (Oxford University Press, 2014) and The Reign of Terror in America: Visions of Violence from Anti-Jacobinism to Antislavery (Cambridge University Press, 2009). She is currently working on a… Rachel's full bio →
aishakhan0208 June 8th, 2014
Reblogged this on The Pursuit of Happiness.
pavanneh June 8th, 2014
Very interesting. It is good to read this type of information. Hope to get it out there to more people.
Reblogged this on Because I can… and commented:
This is a well written and uplifting post. Enjoy.
Selina Rose Says! June 8th, 2014
Reblogged this on Selina Rose Says! and commented:
Love is love….
rohitmaiya June 8th, 2014
I remember reading an article (more than 20 yrs back) about two classmates. They were such great friends that they did not wanted to be away from each other. So they joined the same college, same job and lived in the same city and rented the same apartment. They then found a girl who was willing to marry both of them. The woman bore kids for both of them and the three of them are one happy family.
Back then in India, there was hardly any noise of homosexuality or gay marriages. India was way too conservative then and I guess even these friends perhaps did not know they were attracted to each other (My assumption).
Van Nomads June 9th, 2014
Love it! Wish people would just stop worrying about what everyone else is doing when it doesn't harm anyone. If consenting adults are in love who cares what is or isn't between their legs.
wakingofthebear June 9th, 2014
Congratulations on being Freshly Pressed.
belle★beckford June 9th, 2014
Thanks for the history lesson. I had no idea how far back same sex marriage went but I knew it wasn't brand new 🙂 I like to tell people who say these are "end times" because of openly same sex marriage, that these are not new ideas. The world will not end because of this.
habibilamour June 10th, 2014
Awww they must have been so happy together….I didn't know about "female husbands"….my independent nature means I probably would have been one in those days 🙂
mfbedenli June 10th, 2014
Reblogged this on mfatihbedenli.
Sophia's Pockets June 10th, 2014
Great post! Here is a post on our Editor In Chief's history of her own same sex marriage and the church… http://sophiaspockets.wordpress.com/2014/06/09/all-are-welcome-2/
Hugh's Views and News June 10th, 2014
This was such an 'eye opener' for me as I had no idea how long back same sex marriages went. A truly wonderful story but I do wonder if it had been two men, if things would have been different and perhaps they would not have been as swell accepted? Here in the UK, same sex marriage is now law, before then we had Civil Partnerships which were introduced in 2005, giving my partner and myself our chance to show not just our families, and friends, but the whole world just how much we love and care for each other.
pavanneh June 11th, 2014
So glad you are able to be together and out in the open and you were able to have a civil union. May it forever be so.
Stephanie June 11th, 2014
Reblogged this on Stephanie RiverA and commented:
Same-sex marriage newer than cell phones? Or old than this country? The answer in this post: originally posted on Nursing Clio by Rachel Cleves.
jeremiah8777 June 15th, 2014
Reblogged this on normanjeremaih1 and commented:
I believe in God, therefore i think his work is perfect. Only we make mistakes with our flesh pulling us along any empty place.
Brandon R. June 29th, 2014
This shouldn't be an issue but it is. Luckily, there are people working towards equality. Love should not be restrained. It's unfortunate that difference was not law. People like what they like and shouldn't be penalized for it, or damned for some. I encourage the pursuit of one's nature because that is what you're borne with, I might not agree, but I have no right to deny them what their nature compels them to do. The same goes with abhorrent racists. It's like discrediting the human value of someone with non-white skin. Really? People are people just like a rose is a rose.
jolozada1117 July 1st, 2014
Reblogged this on othanlozada27 and commented:
equal rights! #lgbt #gay #lesbian 🙂
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I really need to pay the money to get my Dreamwidth premium account back, don't I?
Festivids nominations are open! I am very excited, and between my own vidding spreadsheet and seekingferret's fake Festivids nominations, I have nominated eight fandoms so far: the 20th Century Boys movies, Alphaville, Danger 5, Europa Report, the Indiana Jones series, Snowpiercer, The Bling Ring, and Moonrise Kingdom. Barring any other sudden flashes of inspiration, this is probably where I'll stop. Actually that's not true, I'm probably going to nominate Star Trek: The Animated Series because reasons.
Festivids! What is everyone else nominating? Who's participating?


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FedEx Distribution Facilities
The Crump Firm has completed numerous projects for FedEx including prototype City Van Stations, designed for more than 50 Van Station projects throughout the country, as well as other sort and industrial facility projects. We also have extensive experience with sort facilities for Domestic Ground Operations at numerous locations around the country with Federal Express. The scope of these 80,000–120,000-square-foot facilities typically included vehicle maintenance facilities with internal vehicle access, providing package sorting, material handling systems, specialized cargo container management, bulk freight areas and private office support areas in addition to customer service areas requiring public access. Often these facilities included regional dispatch centers with specialized information technology requirements. Our firm has completed this type of facility in multiple city locations throughout numerous states including California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Washington, Oregon and Hawaii.
The Crump Firm has also completed several Air/Ground, Truck & Transit projects on airport facilities. The primary function of these projects was cargo-handling interface between freight and aircraft, many with immediate access to the aircraft apron. These facilities were primarily large, open-warehouse-type spaces for material, package, and container handling with supporting office and air-side vehicle maintenance spaces. Our firm has completed this type of facility in Tucson, Arizona; Portland, Oregon; Seattle/Tacoma, Washington; and Los Angeles, California.
In addition to van stations and facilities, we have completed multiple administration, call center, dispatch and support facilities for FedEx. Many of these included speciality equipment, data centers and large warehouse spaces. These facilities were built as stand-alone, owner-occupied buildings and as future multi-tenant buildings in the event that FedEx decided to relocate.
80,000-120,000 sq. ft.
Distribution & Industrial


Nerve Growth Factor is a small secreted protein that is important for the growth, maintenance, and survival of certain target neurons. Nerve Growth Factor forms a cystine knot structure made up of beta strands twisted around each other and linked by disulfide bonds. It activates cellular signaling cascades through those receptor tyrosine kinase to regulate neuronal proliferation, differentiation and survival. It serve as a therapeutic agent in neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's disease. Enzo Emanuele at the University of Pavia found that levels of a chemical messenger called nerve growth factor increased with romantic intensity. when people first fall in love, and Pietro Calissano has suggested that nerve growth factor may contribute to increased longevity and mental capacity. The results showed that the levels had reduced to as they were after one year.
Neurotropin is a family of neurological growth factors. It induces the survival, development, and function of neurons. It also induces differentiation of progenitor cells, to form neurons. Neurotropins are chemicals that help to stimulate and control neurogenesis. Neurotropins are able to activate lymphocytes and fibroblasts; they can modulate angiogenesis and sympathic vascular function.
FREE SAMPLES can be sent on request!
Storage: Stored in cool and dry place, keep away from strong light/heat.
Shelf Life: 2 years when properly stored.
Atorvastatin calcium is a white to off-white crystalline powder that is insoluble in aqueous solutions of pH 4 and below. Atorvastatin calcium is very slightly soluble in distilled water, pH 7.4 phosphate buffer, and acetonitrile, slightly soluble in ethanol, and freely soluble in methanol.
Used for primary hypercholesterolemia, combined hyperlipidemia or diet control invalid for patients with familial hypercholesterolemia.
Usage: Carphedone is a GABA derivative that exhibited apparent immunocorrection properties during immunosuppression induced by cyclophosphamide were studied.
As one of the strongest Racetam nootropics available, it is important that you precisely measure the dosage of your Carphedon powder.The suggested range of dosages for Carphedon is 100 mg to 250 mg taken a maximum of three times a day. You should experiment with different dosage levels to determine what works best for you. If this is your first time using nootropics, it is a good idea to start with a half dose and only build up to the full amount after a couple of weeks of experience.
19-Norandrostenediones (4-estrene-3,17-dione, NOR) is a precursor of the anabolic steroid nandrolones. Until 2005 19-Norandrostenediones was available without prescription in United States, where it was marketed as a prohormone, but it is now classified as a Schedule III drug. It is also banned from use in many sports, including the Olympic Games, under the World Anti-Doping Code.19-Norandrostenediones is readily metabolized to nandroloe after oral administration, but its potency to transactivate the androgen receptor dependent reporter gene expression is 10 times lower as compared todihydrotestosterone (DHT).
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Search Results for query 'TOUR DE FRANCE' >
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Cycling Thomas Bernal
Thomas 'itching to go' as he bids to reel in Alaphilippe at top of Tour leaderboard
SNTV
Julian Alaphilippe , Geraint Thomas , Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas , Alejandro Valverde Belmonte , Egan Arley Bernal
Team Ineos rider Geraint Thomas said on Monday's rest day that he is "itching to go" ahead of the final week of racing at the 2019 Tour de France.
Second-placed Thomas gained 27 seconds on yellow jersey holder Julian Alaphilippe on Sunday's stage 15, as a late attack saw him distance the Frenchman towards the Prat d'Albis summit finish.
Three big mountain days are still left to race before the Tour's traditional conclusion in Paris, and Thomas will be intent on making further inroads into Alaphilippe's lead, which stands at one minute and 35 seconds.
On Saturday, the Welshman had lost crucial time on the Col du Tourmalet, but his response on Sunday kept him in contention as he bids to retain the Tour de France title.
Tuesday's 177 kilometre relatively flat stage 16 in Nimes is likely to see a bunch sprint finish.
Nimes, France. 22nd July 2019.
1. 00:00 Various of Geraint Thomas entering news conference
2. 00:15 Geraint Thomas (left), Team Ineos general manager Dave Brailsford (centre) and Egan Bernal (right) in news conference
3. 00:23 SOUNDBITE (English): Geraint Thomas, Team Ineos rider:
(About taking time out of Julian Alaphilippe's lead on Sunday and looking ahead to the Alps)
"We stick together. I think obviously yesterday (Sunday), I said on the radio that I didn't feel great coming into the last climb. As it turns out, I did feel great at the top. But, yeah, I think the main thing is, going into the Alps now, I feel motivated to get there and really try and finish this Tour off well. It has been slightly up and down here, for sure, and race compared to last year. But the main thing for me is that I finished strongly yesterday (Sunday), and I am really just itching to go now. I much prefer the Alps - I have got a lot better memories from there for obvious reasons. Yeah, I'm just looking forward to it."
(About managing his effort to remain in contention overall and the soaring temperatures in France this week)
"Yeah, yesterday (Sunday), like I say, I finished really strongly so, yeah, it's not an issue. If that is my bad day, to lose 30 seconds on the Tourmalet, is quite a good day really. And like Dave (Brailsford) said, you win a Grand Tour by being good all the way through, and managing your effort all the way through, not going into that deep, deep red zone often - save that for the final day or two. So I feel like I have managed that effort really well so far and I'm feeling good for it. Yeah I'm looking forward to the Alps now and, altitude-wise like in training in Tenerife, a drop off of watts is never really as much as most people so I'm relishing that opportunity and the heat, it is the same for everyone. I have ridden in that heat Down Under (Australia) numerous times over the years and got used it, so it is no problem."
(About Team Ineos' performances in this year's Tour de France)
"Egan (Bernal) is fifth and I am second. I think we are still doing pretty well. Ok, yeah, we are not in the yellow and we are not riding on the front all day everyday. But like Dave (Brailsford) said, there is more than one way to win the Tour and this situation is completely different, and we don't have to pull when there are other teams that want to do it as well. So I think we are still in a super strong position the boys as well... Dylan (van Barrle) for instance, has been incredible, the way he has been going this year. I think he has been one of the standout guys in our team. I think everyone has ups and downs and I think it is how you deal with that. But, yeah, I am confident that we are all in great shape and a great position, and looking forward to some big Alpine climbs."
6. 03:22 SOUNDBITE (Spanish): Egan Bernal, Team Ineos rider:
(About Nairo Quintana telling his team he was having some difficulties during the Col du Tourmalet, but Alejandro Valverde said that he did not mention anything)
"I think it is easier when you have good communication with the rest of the team. That has happened before, and he (Nairo Quintana) has always has been very honest. As a fellow Colombian, he told me that he was not in the best condition. I have been ahead of Nairo in the race. I think it is good for the race and for the teams (to have that competition and communication between riders). In my case, if I am ahead (in the race) maybe other riders could have some doubts, because a rider from Ineos is ahead and they do not want to help me out. I think there is a lot of strategy around, but again, the leader in our team is Geraint (Thomas) and we will give our all for him."
Mountains , Environment and nature , Tour de France , Road cycling , Cycling , Sports , Professional soccer , Soccer , Men's soccer , Men's soccer , Men's sports
Nimes Olympique, Ligue 1
Nîmes , Occitanie , France
f260a227999785cdd22ee7fe4dc36343
Cycling Alaphilippe
Alaphilippe will ride tactically to preserve the 'honour' of wearing the yellow jersey
Julian Alaphilippe , Thibaut Pinot
Tour de France leader and home favourite Julian Alaphilippe said on Monday's rest day that he and his team have "changed the plan" as he bids to preserve the "honour" of wearing the yellow jersey.
Quick-Step rider Alaphilippe has the weight of home expectation to become France's first Tour champion for 34 years, and that pressure showed during Sunday's stage 15 when current champion, Team Ineos' Thomas, gained 27 seconds on the 27-year-old.
Alaphilippe is prepared to adapt his approach to stay out in front, with his lead over second-placed Thomas now at one minute and 35 seconds.
The Frenchman said that lead is "almost nothing", given the mountainous route the Tour will take before Sunday's traditional conclusion in Paris.
1. 00:00 Julian Alaphilippe enters news conference
2. 00:07 Wide of news conference
3. 00:15 SOUNDBITE (English): Julian Alaphilippe, Quick-Step rider:
(About how he will change his approach to preserve his lead in the yellow jersey)
"For sure, it is really a big honour to be in yellow during the Tour. So we have changed the plan and we defend it. I give everything every day, like you see. I don't go in a breakaway now. I ride like the leader of the Tour de France, so I don't know what will happen over the next days, but for sure I will continue to defend the jersey. My team also, like yesterday (Sunday), they did a really great job again and I am looking forward to starting the last week."
4. 01:01 SOUNDBITE (French): Julian Alaphilippe, Quick-Step rider:
(About the difficult stages which lie ahead in the Alps)
"The more we move closer to Paris, the more my feeling is different and special. I am realistic about the fact that there are only difficult stages ahead. I already knew this situation before. I did not stop saying that the hardest was still to come. It started at the Tourmalet where I really surprised myself. Yesterday (Sunday), we saw that it was a very difficult stage too. It will be hard until the end. I don't want to dream but I'm sure I'll do my best."
(About how his lead remains a precarious one ahead of the final week of racing)
"One minute and 30 seconds advantage is a lot and, at the same time, nothing considering the next few stages. It is possible to have a failure and lose so much time in a (mountain) pass of 15, 20 per cent or even more, because the stage of Val Thorens is such a difficult climb to the summit. When you look at the profile of the next stages, a lead of one minute 30 seconds is almost nothing."
(About another Frenchman, Thibaut Pinot, and his approach in the mountains)
"Thibaut Pinot showed over the last few days that he is in exceptional form in the mountains. He can count on a very strong team (Groupama) around him. So I think he will continue to attack and ride in that way to make a difference. It is in his interest to do that."
Professional soccer , Soccer , Men's soccer , Men's soccer , Men's sports , Mountains , Environment and nature , Tour de France , Cycling , Sports , Road cycling
8f6eacab30d97938c634665f791262f6
Olympics Judo France
French president François Holland and Olympic flag bearer Teddy Riner campaign for Paris 2024 Olympic bid.
The French president, François Holland, and French Olympic flag bearer, Teddy Riner, campaigned on Friday (4th August) for the Paris 2024 Olympic bid.
French president François Holland is in Rio for two days to campaign for the Paris 2024 Olympic bid.
The president explained that terrorism is a worldwide phenomena affecting "any country and any city" and that it will not deter France from biding for the Olympics to be held in Paris in 2024.
He also highlighted the fact that the last climate change conference was held in Paris just days after the November terrorist attack in Paris.
Teddy Riner, France's flag bearer, also talked at the event held in Club France, a place were all the French supporters can gather to celebrate together.
The 27 year old judoka is a two time Olympic medallist and the number 1 ranked judoka in men's heavyweight +100 Kg.
Riner also holds a record of eight world titles and won bronze at the 2008 Olympics and gold at the 2012 Games.
He has not lost a match since September 2010 and is the favourite to win gold at Rio 2016.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 5th August, 2016.
1. 00:00 Wide shot of press room.
2. 00:05 Close up of of French President François Holland arrival pan on French flag bearer Teddy Riner.
3. 00:21 Medium shot of French President and Flag bearer on stage.
4. 00:27 wide shot same action.
5. 00:32 Close up on Teddy Riner French Flag bearer.
6. 00:39 Wide shot pan right to left.
7. 00:50 Close up on Teddy Riner getting to speak.
8. 01:02 Cutaway shot of France Olympic logo.
9. 01:06 SOUNDBITE: (French) Teddy Riner, French Flag bearer:
(Q: Words of presentation of his role in Olympics):
"I would like to say that it's a real honour for me to be the French Flag bearer in this Rio 2016 Olympic games. It's amazing, I'm enjoying every moment, every day, I can tell you that it's something big for an athlete. My role is to support all my team-mates in the French delegation. And our goal, all French athletes will be to make sound "the Marseillaise" every time we can (national anthem). That is our mission."
10. 01:38 Cutaway shot of Club France logo
11. 01:45 SOUNDBITE: (French) François Holland, French president:
(Q: Words on Paris 2014 Olympic candidacy):
"So can France organise a big event like the Olympic games with top security? We need to remind you that any country, any city faces the danger of terrorism. No one can be exempt of their responsibility to fight terrorism. I will say also that we're able to organise big events even if we had been attacked and we have got some experience in these kinds of situations. By the way we have organised a few big events this year like the Paris Marathon, Roland Garros, Tour de France, and more recently the UEFA Euro 2016. We have also been able to organise a huge climate conference, attended by all heads of state, in Paris a few days after the November 2016 attack. So are we really not able to organise these Olympics in Paris in 2024 in full security? Of course yes, this is the challenge that we want to take."
12. 02:56 Cutaway shot.
13. 03:01 Close up of French president after speech.
14. 03:13 Medium shot of president and French bearer getting out of stage.
15. 03:25 Wide shot of press room.
16. 03:30 Close up of French president taking pictures with crowd.
SOURCE: SNTV.
DURATION: 03:40.
Climate change , Environmental concerns , Environment , Environment and nature , Climate change , Climate , International relations , Government and politics , Men's soccer , Men's sports , Sports , Men's soccer , Soccer , International soccer , Men's judo , 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games , 2024 Olympic Games , Judo , United Nations Climate Change Conference , 2016 UEFA European Football Championships , Record setting events , Olympic games , UEFA European Football Championships , Terrorism , Martial arts , Sports , Men's judo , Men's martial arts , Men's sports , Men's martial arts , Summer Olympic games , Events , General news , War and unrest
France Olympic Team, France National Soccer Team
Rio de Janeiro , Rio de Janeiro , Brazil


The Prime Minister of the UK is in charge of the country with the support of the Cabinet and ministers, together they are responsible for all policy and decisions made by 'the government'.
What does the Prime Minister do?
Government departments and agencies are responsible for putting the policies into action.
To ensure you, as the general public, know what is going on inside those fancy buildings (parliament), the government publishes 'transparency' information about how the government works, to allow you to make politicians, public services and public organisations more accountable. They are committed to published how much public money has been spent on what, how the government is doing with it's objectives and the job titles of senior civil servants (and their salary). For a closer look at the data, click here.
Information sourced from the government website, ironically.


Wow! This is a beautiful Custom Built, split ranch with .92 acres. Newer, meticulously maintained, spotless and totally updated ALL BRICK 4000 + GR Ranch. Original Owners/ Builders have taken such great care of this 4 bedroom home. Master bedroom has 2 grand dressing room closets and a master jetted Jacuzzi suite. Take look at the nicely designed granite kitchen and granite Fireplace, Brazilian Cherry hardwood floors,surround sound speakers, 14 ft ceiling in DR and GR with crown molding, new water softener(2016),new iron filter(2016),new AC in(2014), New Well Tank, Reverse Osmosis, Hunter Douglas blinds and silhouettes, freshly painted throughout and carpets professionally cleaned. Full Daylight Basement with additional fireplace and another(2098)sq ft/prepped and framed. Outside features include: All NEW concrete driveway, maintenance free landscaping, sprinkler system , exterior flood lights, freshly painted over-sized garage , beautiful wood deck off kitchen for entertaining.


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"If working 40 hours a week is a slave camp, then all of America is a slave camp," he said. There's an unfortunate truth to this statement. An important article, summing up a brutal fistful of realities of life in the contemporary US, from the idiocy of the War on Drugs and the concomitant drug courts to the prison nature of work to the human sacrificial duties of death cult religions and the blood-soaked practices of the poultry industry. Tyson is mentioned, one of the most horrific employers nationwide.
They thought they were going to rehab. They ended up in chicken plants
"Lungfish," Giant-Size, p. 9. 44" x 30," charcoal and pastel on paper.
"Lungfish, Giant-Size," page 12, 44" x 30," charcoal and pastel on paper.
This one reads, " Once, in the center ring of my teenaged mythology, I asked a preacher a question about reality. Preachers were in charge of keeping all the stories glued together and preventing anyone from peeking through the cracks, making sure no one would peel back the words and images or reality would disintegrate. Children would notice the change in light and shadow and wiggle their fingers into the seams and reality would be no more substantial than buggy wood. "How do I know if any of what you talk about is real?," I asked the preacher. "What is real stands out, it shines like a galvanized roof," he answered.
A recent interview with KMO on the C-Realm podcast.
513: Struggle and Toil
Why Are Tattoos So Popular?: Tattooing and the Global, Human Monoculture
Tattooing is a practice that appears to be shared by most human cultures, historic and prehistoric. The oldest tattooed human remains date from 6,000 years ago and what we take to be tattooing tools have been found in archaeological sites dating back 60,000 or more years. At different times and in different societies, everyone has been a candidate for being tattooed—both women and men, young and old, as well as all economic and social classes—though there was never (to our knowledge) a culture in which all social and economic classes and both genders simultaneously sought tattoos. Never, that is, until contemporary Western culture which has embraced this inclusive attitude toward tattoos since the nineteen-eighties, an inclusive approach that is central to the global tattooing phenomenon.
Many people have noticed the obvious fact that tattoos have exploded in popularity during the past several decades but few have asked what drives this popularity or what brought about this inclusive attitude to tattooing. To answer these questions, we have to look at what seems to be the common characteristics of getting a tattoo.
I've been tattooing for over fourteen years and I've tattooed a wide variety of people in a range of venues. I've tattooed at busy flash-oriented shops as well as custom shops, at motorcycle festivals, and currently at one of New York City's best and oldest shops. This experience has given me a chance to observe many tattoo clients and to note many commonalities in their experiences. Among the typical physical aspects of getting tattooed, the person receiving the tattoo initially winces at the relatively minor pain at the start of the tattooing session. Within fifteen to thirty minutes, most clients report a feeling of numbness accompanied by a general calmness and this calming is almost always followed by an uplift in mood. This sounds very much like what we understand to be the dynamic of an endorphin rush. Endorphins are opioid neuropeptides, protein-like molecules used by brain cells—neurons—to communicate with one another. Their principal function is to inhibit the transmission of pain signals. After someone begins to feel pain, the central nervous system signals the pituitary gland to release endorphins to deaden that pain. Having deadened the pain, endorphins then produce a feeling of euphoria.
That the tattoo customer is the subject of an endorphin high appears fairly straightforward. More interesting is that endorphins have been used to treat anxiety, depression, and even to enhance creativity. This use of endorphins as therapeutic tools aligns with my experience in working with tattoo customers as most customers state verbatim that, for them, getting tattooed is a form of therapy. Endorphins have also been linked to the production of alpha brain wave patterns. Alpha waves correspond to a state of combined relaxation and mental alertness, a state sought after by meditation practitioners. And alpha wave therapy has been used, like endorphin-based therapy, to combat stress and anxiety as well as enhance focus.
Endorphin therapy is also used to treat a psychiatric disorder known as depersonalization disorder or derealization disorder (the two share many features whether or not they are the same malady). In both disorders, the person experiences herself or himself as living through a screen, as watching his or her life from a distance. This feeling makes sense given that our culture seems to depend on the use of screens in cell phones, televisions, computers. I say "our culture" in reference to the metaculture of the United States but it would be more accurate to speak of a global culture that is shared through the use of screens. This global culture of screens mediates our world for us and distances us from our experience of being alive, of existing in the present moment, of our experience of our bodies and our senses. This global culture presents us with the same images and programs and news and so homogenizes us. It presents these things across the country and globe at the same time, so that our experiences themselves are synchronized as well as homogenized. This homogenization and synchronization of global culture renders it a monoculture like a single, genetically-modified crop and serves to produce consistent reaction patterns which function as a stable target for advertising efforts and sales expectations as well as political decisions and preferences. The collections of opinions and beliefs, emotions and reactions and desires cultivated through the network of screens develops a standardized human personality, an authorized global human profile.
The experience of receiving a tattoo is undeniably immediate, personal, and unscreened and so it works against the pressure of the global, human monoculture by grounding us in our bodies and in this moment in time. These sort of experiences are becoming more difficult to find and enjoy within the confines of the global monoculture. Having sex and playing sports, for instance, can both be grounding practices, but both are in competition from computer pornographyaddiction and video gaming technology.
There are cognitive as well as physical commonalities in the experience of getting tattooed though the former are not as immediately apparent as the later. These cognitive elements are responses to the pressures of the global monoculture which are very different than the demands of traditional cultures. In traditional cultures, tattoos bind an individual to a group, and the group to which the individual is bound is usually a very specific subculture such as military personnel, royalty, or extended families. Since everyone is getting tattooed contemporarily, so there is no subculture that holds a unique claim to being tattooed, and therefore this function of tattoos linking someone to a subculture cannot be the case. In my experience, contemporary tattooing, especially custom work, actually appears to work in the opposite manner from traditional purposes. Rather than binding an individual to a group, today tattoos separate a person from the crowd and distinguish that person as an individual.
This is significant since the pressure to be absorbed by the group and lose one's individuality is stronger than ever. That is because, not only is the group bigger due to population increase and therefore a stronger relative threat to the individual, but the global monoculture requires us as individuals to remain as infantile as possible so that our assembly of predictable reaction patterns can be focused on easily met desires and needs and not on complex existential, critical, or creative pursuits. This need for infantilization is realized in part through a lack of rites of passage, those specific, bracketing rituals that previously structured life in most human societies. Most traditional cultures included some ritual involving minor to moderate pain and these rituals marked off the beginnings and endings of the various stages of an individual's life. Scarification and tattooing were two of these rituals. Both scarification and tattooing marked events in time along the path of the individual's as well as the group's evolution. Contemporary global monoculture contains no such rituals and so we remain psychologically and emotionally underdeveloped and even internally unformed; we remain childish. As psychologically infantilized people we are more dependent on external authority and easy solutions, less self-reliant and less questioning, and much more preoccupied with toys of various sorts. The resurgence of tattooing and its global spread may be seen in part as a response to this lack of rites of passage and our need for psychological structure and personal maturity. This makes sense with the subcategory of tattoos that are used to commemorate an occasion such as a birth, a move, a marriage, or a death.
The global popularity of tattooing can be seen in general as a response to the demands put upon us by the global monoculture, specifically as this culture removes us from our physical selves and immediate experience through the mediation of ubiquitous screens, as this culture puts greater and greater pressure on the individual person to conform to a standardized human profile, and in the requirement by this culture that we remain psychologically infantile. The fact that tattoos are seen as acceptable to available to nearly everyone supports this idea of tattooing as a response to global monoculture since that culture spreads these pressures across the board indiscriminately without respect to such things as economic privilege, race, gender, or geographical locale.
While it's possible and appropriate to see tattoos in this way—as a response to the global monoculture—it's simultaneously possible to see the current universal popularity of tattoos in reverse fashion, that is, not as a means of distinguishing an individual, but as yet another way the global monoculture homogenizes us. This is particularly true in the case of popular tattoo designs and of course with flash, the predesigned tattoos displayed in many shops and sold on the market. I would argue that this use of tattoos is a form of "mass individualism," one of the ways the global monoculture attempts to minimize some of the resistance to its own pressures to conform as well as to screen out irregularities in the accepted human profile. Mass individualism is far more powerful than traditional conformism or the pressures put upon individuals through institutions. In the case of mass individualism, there appears to be no institution commanding conforming to an ideal or set of behavior or thought; mass individualism actually presents itself as a liberation from these forces. But the restricted emotional and responsive patterning of mass individualism like its cliches and slogans–usually printed on posters, hats, or tshirts–is at best no less authoritarian than previous methods of control. In the case of mass individualism, the hidden institution is the market itself and its need for a limited version of human potential communicated to us through a billion screens.
This is the first interview for my first published book, "A Serf's Journal." I took the title of this book as the title for my blog as I feel it's fitting given much of my focus.
Zero Squared #98: A Red Worker in a Red State
Archives Select Month October 2017 August 2017 May 2017 April 2017
Anarchist Without Content
Appalshop
Hong Kong Review of Books
Industrial Workers of the World
New Syndicalist
Path to the Possible
The Extraenvironmentalist
The Front Porch blog
Zero Books


Today's Afro Birthday ! NBA player, Rodney Stuckey ! NFL player, Tarvaris Jackson ! Actor, Brian J. White ! Gospel singer, Clara Ward ! NFL player, Carnell "Cadillac" Williams !
Today's Afro Birthdays ! Grammy Award winning singer, Luther Vandross ! Jazz musician/Bandleader, Lionel Hampton ! NBA player, Danny Granger ! Actor, Shemar Moore !
Today's Afro Birthday ! WNBA player, Candace Parker ! Poet, Etheridge Knight ! Nigerian Actress, Ini Edo !
Today's Afro Birthdays ! James McCune Smith, first Afro American to earn medical degree ! Singer/Composer, Lord Kitchener ! Addie Mae Collins, 14 yr old Birmingham Church Bombing Victim.
Today's Afro Birthday ! NBA player, C. J. Watson ! Actress, Lela Rochon ! Rapper Redman ! Actress, Kimberly Elise !
Today in Afro History ! Milton L. Olive III becomes the first Afro American to receive The Congressional Medal of Honor for the Vietnam War in 1966. Nina Simone passes away in 2003.
Today in Afro History ! Michael Jordan sets NBA record with 63 points in a Playoff game in 1986 ! Harriet Tubman starts working with the Underground Railroad in 1853 !
Today in Afro History ! Evander Holyfield defeats George Forman in Heavyweight Championship fight in 1991 !
Today in Afro History ! Alice Walker is awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1983 ! Alex Haley is awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1977 !
Today in Afro History ! Jackie Robinson bunts for his first major league hit in 1947 !


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This content is © Lise Wulff | All rights reserved.
Educational input
The Scream from Nature
The Scream from Nature is an eco art project which aims to raise consciousness about the relationship between humans and nature. The project is a contemporary interpretation of Munch's masterpiece the Scream, in which the iconic face is recreated outdoors in nature with a variety of materials. Artist and founder of the project, Lise Wulff, invites you to make your own Scream from Nature and share it on Facebook or Instagram #thescreamfromnature.
Take action by following us
An EcoArt project
by Lise Wulff
700 trees outside CAREX of Museo de la Evolucion Humana
Outside the Centro de Arqueología Experimental in Atapuerca, Spain, 700 trees have been planted with the help of some hundred people.
With the presence of the Embassadors and embassies of Norway, Holland, South-Africa, Italy, France and Germany our event in UNESCO World Heritage Site Atapuerca was a real international effort to create awarness and positive environmental action.
During the first years, each tree will be protected with tubes. When the tubes are removed, we will follow the growth of the Scream, and the seasonal changes of the trees. Majuelos – the Spanish name of the trees – have small, white spring blossoms and red berries, autumn colored leaves, and plain branches at winter time. I am very much looking forward to following the development of this Scream from Nature!
Lise Wulff, founder of the Scream from Nature
The Center of Experimental Archeology is the visitor center of the Museum of Human Evolution in Burgos, related to the findings of the Sierra de Atapuerca excavation site, with some 40.000 visitors every year.
Special thanks to Jorge Extramiana and Un bosque para el planeta tierra, Rodrigo Alonso at Museo de la Evolución Humana, Norway's ambassador to Spain, Mr. Johan Vibe, and the Royal Norwegian Embassy, as well as the Mayor – la Alcaldeza – of Atapuerca.


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Q: NotificationCenter: Automatic removeObserver when block's owner is freed I have several ViewControllers that indirectly subscribe to a global NotificationCenter instance, by calling this function that is part of a class of mine:
public func subscribeToValueChanges (key: String, callback: @escaping ()->Void)
{
    changeNotifier.addObserver (forName: NSNotification.Name(rawValue: key), object: self, queue: OperationQueue.main, using: { (n: Notification) in
        callback()
    })
}

(managed by , using addObserver(forName:object:queue:using:).
Now, I have to remember to invoke removeObserver when my viewcontroller gets freed, or I'll probably cause a leak. That's a bit unsafe.
I wonder if there is a way to automate this, so that the class that implements the above function can learn when the block's owner is freed. Or maybe even at the time the current ViewController disappears (there seems to be no global notification for that, or is there?)
Or would, by using [weak self] in the closure's code, callback become nil, so that I can perform an occasional garbage collection on all callbacks (by storing them as optionals in an array)?
Another thought: The ObjC runtime offers associated objects (How do I use objc_setAssociatedObject/objc_getAssociatedObject inside an object?) – could those be attached to closures, perhaps? Then I might be able to monitor that object and learn when the closure is freed.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange