A hero is someone you look up to, someone you can depend on in any situation, someone who would give up his or her life to save others.
I've been thinking about heroes ever since I met the writer, Joe McGinniss, at the Sydney Writer's Festival last month (see previous blog: http://wp.me/p1Ytmx-4N ). McGinniss wrote a terrific book called Heroes in 1976, about spending three years searching for the "vanished American hero," a futile search but a rewarding one for the reader. He was in Sydney to talk about his recent book, The Rogue, on former US Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, but she certainly showed no signs of heroism. During his Festival discussion with Annabel Crabb, McGinniss mentioned his early career as a sportswriter with the Philadelphia Bulletin, and how he got into trouble with the city's professional basketball team, the 76ers, by being critical of their star centre, Wilt Chamberlain. It was an example, McGinniss said, of how writing the truth about people could get you into hot water.
Any mention of heroes and basketball makes me think of a man who should have been president, and actually ran for the office in 2000, but suffered a few bouts of atrial fibrillation, and really didn't have the numbers to defeat Al Gore for the Democratic nomination. He had to drop out of the race.
His name is Bill Bradley, a New Jersey Senator for 18 years, a Rhodes Scholar, a professional basketball player for the New York Knicks and a star forward for Princeton University, an author, a national radio host … and one of my heroes. I even wrote to his press secretary at the time, offering to help with his campaign, but they didn't need anyone, and then it was all over. His nickname was "Dollar Bill," which I always thought referred to his ability to hit the money shot, but apparently it was his ability to spend wisely!
It's an idealistic, American view of what the individual can do to make the nation better. Bill Bradley is a straight shooter – in fact, he had one of the best jump shots I've ever seen – both on and off the court. It makes you wonder what would have happened had his heart problems not emerged during the campaign, and if he had managed to snare the nomination from Al Gore. Would he have been able to beat George W. Bush in an election that turned on hanging chads? I'd like to think so.
And while we're on the subject of heroes, I came across another one after I ordered a book from Amazon by Jimmy Breslin (another of my heroes of the writing kind), a biography of the baseball magnate, Branch Rickey, who broke the color bar in the sport by signing the first African American player, Jackie Robinson, to his Brooklyn Dodgers. I've written about Rickey in another blog (http://wp.me/s1Ytmx-227 ).
Amazon had the usual come-on about the book on my other hero: "Customers who bought this item, also bought this one." Well, they were right. I also bought the book about my favourite baseball player, Stan Musial, of the St Louis Cardinals. "Stan the Man," as he was known, was one of the greatest baseballers of all time, and George Vecsey, a sports columnist for the New York Times, has written an excellent biography of the man who had to play in the shadow of Joe DiMaggio, the legendary New York Yankee, and Ted Williams, the Boston Red Sox slugger.
Stan Musial: An American Life is a classic tale of a Polish kid from small-town Pennsylvania, who's humble, hard-working and has a dream – to play in the major leagues. It's also the story of a kinder, gentler America in the 1940s, 50s and 60s, when neighbours were friendly, the suburbs were safe, the fathers put up lights on the roof at Christmas, and everybody went to church.
It was also a time of racism, and Breslin's book on Branch Rickey and his fight to get Jackie Robinson into baseball chronicles that period. And Stan Musial, as one of baseball's most respected players, got involved in the Robinson controversy, when a sportswriter reported that the St Louis Cardinals were planning to strike rather than play against the black Brooklyn Dodger in 1947.
Frick once said, according to Vecsey, that a "prominent player" on the Cardinals told people he did not care whether Jackie Robinson was white or black or green or yellow. On the Cardinals, there was only one prominent player – Stan Musial.
It took a long time before African-American players were fully accepted into major league baseball, but now many ethnic groups are involved in the sport. But racism still exists in America, as it does in Australia.
On a positive note, I can recommend Stan Musial: An American Life to any baseball aficionado, especially those interested in the US in the middle decades of the 20th Century … and, of course, fans of Stan the Man.
Memories of a much simpler time ..
Thanks, Bill. There is also a chapter in Vecsey's book about Stan Musial on the campaign trail for JFK in 1960, with an interesting entourage of celebrities: Byron White, former pro football player and Supreme Court Justice; James Michener, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author; Arthur Schlesinger, writer and later JFK aide; Ethel and Joan Kennedy, and Jeff Chandler and Angie Dickinson, Hollywood stars. Musial's wife of 72 years, Lil, died last month, and Stan is still alive, but not well (he's 91). There's a moving epilogue in which George Vecsey meets Stan Musial in his wheelchair in a St Louis restaurant. An American icon, Musial is loved in St Louis.


This patch allows to use constants in comparison expressions with bind values.
"... where $1 = \"ABC\""
"... where $(int)1 < 4711"
This patch allows to use constants in comparison expressions with bind values. Here are some simple examples: "... where $1 = \"ABC\"" "... where $(int)1 < 4711"
How does Castor currently deal with below examples ?
Werner Guttmann - 19/Nov/04 12:30 PM How does Castor currently deal with below examples ?
org.exolab.castor.jdo.QueryException: Could not get type for comparison.
Werner Guttmann - 22/Nov/04 01:38 AM Thanks. Can you please attach a JUnit test case, that shows the current problem(s) and will run successfully once the patch has been applied. Whether or not this test case finally makes it into the test suite we'll talk about at a later point of time.
expand your patch, wouldn't it? Sorry for being cheeky here ... ,-).
Werner Guttmann - 26/Nov/04 03:53 AM Martin ? If you'd like to get this into the RC2, this'd be the perfect time to expand your patch, wouldn't it? Sorry for being cheeky here ... ,-).
Martin Fuchs - 28/Nov/04 03:15 PM Created an attachment (id=793) test case This test case is integrated in the already existing OQL tests in OqlTests.java and shows how to successfully compare an bind variable parameter with a constant.
Werner Guttmann - 29/Nov/04 03:48 AM Patch applied.
Patch applied (once more .. ).
Werner Guttmann - 29/Nov/04 03:48 AM Patch applied (once more .. ).


text:
Q: How do I connect to a neo4j embedded instance via bolt using the neo4j browser? I've followed the instructions in section 4.14 of the documentation but I can't figure out how to connect the neo4j browser to my embedded instance. Once the server is running, I open the browser via neo4j desktop and run :server connect. This prompts me for a host, username, and password. I'm not sure what to put for these values. I've tried many combinations of localhost, localhost:7687, and bolt://localhost:7687 for the host, and I've tried username/password combinations such as neo4j/neo4j, neo4j as a username with a blank password, and a blank username and password. I've never set a username and password for the database. No matter what I try, I always get the following error:
ServiceUnavailable: WebSocket connection failure. Due to security constraints in your web browser, the reason for the failure is not available to this Neo4j Driver. Please use your browsers development console to determine the root cause of the failure. Common reasons include the database being unavailable, using the wrong connection URL or temporary network problems. If you have enabled encryption, ensure your browser is configured to trust the certificate Neo4j is configured to use. WebSocket `readyState` is: 3

What are the proper values for host, username, and password?

A: Turns out either localhost:7687 or bolt://localhost:7687 is fine, and username/password can both be empty. Interestingly enough, the way I was building my uber-jar with maven seemed to make the bolt dependency unavailable. I switched to buck and the bolt connector seemed to start.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Bell's Brewery is a hit or miss brewery. Hopslam and Hell Hath No Fury are ridiculously delicious but Third Coast Beer was one of the most disgusting things we've ever had. Their two most recent offerings, The Oarsman and 25th Anniversary Ale were both not up to par so we took a great interest in a release of their new double IPA, The Oracle.
The Oracle is a double IPA boasting a hefty 10% ABV. It has sweet citrus and pine smell to the nose. When the brew hits the tongue, the brew tastes of a sweet pine and light malt presence with sweet and bitter hops on the back end. It has a medium to heavy body that leaves a light tinge of alcohol on the tongue.
Bell's has proven that they know how to make a double IPA. The Oracle is an amazing example of an double American IPA. While there is nothing wrong with this IPA, it isn't quite Hopslam, though it is delicious. Bell's has created a slightly less equal brother. The Oracle is their an Eli Manning to their Hopslam, Peyton. Even if it isn't THE best beer, it'll help hold us over until January when they release their flagship brew.
Wow...you didn't like Bell's 25th Anniversary? Im drinking it right now, And I think it's pretty damn good. Did you "Rate" this one?
Upon further review, The more a drank this, and the warmer it got, it turned into a hot mess.
I appreciate the concern which is been rose.This is a wonderful opinion. The things mentioned are unanimous and needs to be appreciated by everyone.
DFH Financial Solutions Limited is based in Manchester and offers Financial advice to people who are struggling with their debts. DFH Financial Solutions.


text:
Federal Grand Jury Indicts Jose Zarate In The Kate Steinle Case
Lisa Payne-Naeger
Even though a liberal jury let Jose Ines Garcia Zarate walk, in the murder of Kate Steinle, he may not be completely off the hook. A federal grand jury issued an indictment against Zarate.
Mercury News outlines the story:
The defendant accused of shooting Kate Steinle is facing new federal charges, just days after being acquitted of murder in a closely-watched trial.
A federal grand jury indicted Jose Ines Garcia Zarate on Tuesday for being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition and being an "illegally present alien" in possession of a firearm and ammunition, federal prosecutors announced in a statementTuesday evening.
The allegations mirror the lower charge Garcia Zarate was convicted of in state court. After a four-week trial, 12 jurors found Garcia Zarate not guilty on Thursday of first- or second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter or assault with a deadly weapon but convicted him of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
If convicted of either federal charge, Garcia Zarate could face a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced next week for his conviction in state court, where he faces up to three years but has already served more than two years.
Let's hope the Steinle family finally sees some justice in the atrocious murder of their beloved Kate.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Chroot local VSFTPD users into their own respective directories So I have been really struggling the past few days trying to get an FTPES chrooted instance of vsftpd set up on Red Hat 7.3.
The objective is to have external users login only to their respective directory to only download files. There will be around 50 ftp users.
vsftpd version 3.0.2, Red-Hat 7.3

To start off here is my vsftpd conf:
# The default compiled in settings are fairly paranoid. This sample file
# loosens things up a bit, to make the ftp daemon more usable.
# Please see vsftpd.conf.5 for all compiled in defaults.
#
# READ THIS: This example file is NOT an exhaustive list of vsftpd options.
# Please read the vsftpd.conf.5 manual page to get a full idea of vsftpd's
# capabilities.
#
# Allow anonymous FTP? (Beware - allowed by default if you comment this out).
anonymous_enable=NO
#
# Uncomment this to allow local users to log in.
# When SELinux is enforcing check for SE bool ftp_home_dir
local_enable=YES
#
# Uncomment this to enable any form of FTP write command.
write_enable=NO
#
# Default umask for local users is 077. You may wish to change this to 022,
# if your users expect that (022 is used by most other ftpd's)
local_umask=022
#
# Uncomment this to allow the anonymous FTP user to upload files. This only
# has an effect if the above global write enable is activated. Also, you will
# obviously need to create a directory writable by the FTP user.
# When SELinux is enforcing check for SE bool allow_ftpd_anon_write, allow_ftpd_full_access
#anon_upload_enable=YES
#
# Uncomment this if you want the anonymous FTP user to be able to create
# new directories.
#anon_mkdir_write_enable=YES
#
# Activate directory messages - messages given to remote users when they
# go into a certain directory.
dirmessage_enable=YES

# Activate logging of uploads/downloads.
xferlog_enable=YES
dual_log_enable=YES
vsftpd_log_file=/var/log/vsftpd/vsftpd.log

# Make sure PORT transfer connections originate from port 20 (ftp-data).
connect_from_port_20=YES
#
# If you want, you can arrange for uploaded anonymous files to be owned by
# a different user. Note! Using "root" for uploaded files is not
# recommended!
#chown_uploads=YES
#chown_username=whoever
#
# You may override where the log file goes if you like. The default is shown
# below.
xferlog_file=/var/log/vsftpd/xferlog.log
#
# If you want, you can have your log file in standard ftpd xferlog format.
# Note that the default log file location is /var/log/xferlog in this case.
xferlog_std_format=YES
#
# You may change the default value for timing out an idle session.
#idle_session_timeout=600
#
# You may change the default value for timing out a data connection.
#data_connection_timeout=120
#
# It is recommended that you define on your system a unique user which the
# ftp server can use as a totally isolated and unprivileged user.
#nopriv_user=ftpsecure
#
# Enable this and the server will recognise asynchronous ABOR requests. Not
# recommended for security (the code is non-trivial). Not enabling it,
# however, may confuse older FTP clients.
#async_abor_enable=YES
#
# By default the server will pretend to allow ASCII mode but in fact ignore
# the request. Turn on the below options to have the server actually do ASCII
# mangling on files when in ASCII mode.
# Beware that on some FTP servers, ASCII support allows a denial of service
# attack (DoS) via the command "SIZE /big/file" in ASCII mode. vsftpd
# predicted this attack and has always been safe, reporting the size of the
# raw file.
# ASCII mangling is a horrible feature of the protocol.
#ascii_upload_enable=YES
#ascii_download_enable=YES
#
# You may fully customise the login banner string:
ftpd_banner=TEST
#
# You may specify a file of disallowed anonymous e-mail addresses. Apparently
# useful for combatting certain DoS attacks.
#deny_email_enable=YES
# (default follows)
#banned_email_file=/etc/vsftpd/banned_emails
#
# You may specify an explicit list of local users to chroot() to their home
# directory. If chroot_local_user is YES, then this list becomes a list of
# users to NOT chroot().
# (Warning! chroot'ing can be very dangerous. If using chroot, make sure that
# the user does not have write access to the top level directory within the
# chroot)
chroot_local_user=YES
passwd_chroot_enable=YES
local_root=/data/ftp/pub/somedir
hide_ids=YES
# (default follows)
#chroot_list_file=/etc/vsftpd/chroot_list
#
# You may activate the "-R" option to the builtin ls. This is disabled by
# default to avoid remote users being able to cause excessive I/O on large
# sites. However, some broken FTP clients such as "ncftp" and "mirror" assume
# the presence of the "-R" option, so there is a strong case for enabling it.
#ls_recurse_enable=YES
#
# When "listen" directive is enabled, vsftpd runs in standalone mode and
# listens on IPv4 sockets. This directive cannot be used in conjunction
# with the listen_ipv6 directive.
listen=YES
#
# This directive enables listening on IPv6 sockets. By default, listening
# on the IPv6 "any" address (::) will accept connections from both IPv6
# and IPv4 clients. It is not necessary to listen on *both* IPv4 and IPv6
# sockets. If you want that (perhaps because you want to listen on specific
# addresses) then you must run two copies of vsftpd with two configuration
# files.
# Make sure, that one of the listen options is commented !!
#listen_ipv6=NO

pam_service_name=vsftpd
userlist_enable=YES
tcp_wrappers=YES

# Enable Passive Mode for ftp server.
pasv_enable=YES
pasv_min_port=10090
pasv_max_port=10100

# Enable TLS / SSL Connections
ssl_enable=YES

# To Allow anonymous users to use SSL
allow_anon_ssl=NO

# To force local users to use SSL
force_local_data_ssl=YES
force_local_logins_ssl=YES

# The following option depend on the authentication method you require.
ssl_ciphers=HIGH
ssl_tlsv1=YES
ssl_sslv2=NO
ssl_sslv3=NO

# These values must adjust according to your environemnt.
rsa_cert_file=/etc/pki/tls/certs/<removed_full_name>.pem
rsa_private_key_file=/etc/pki/tls/private/<removed_full_name>.key

require_ssl_reuse=NO

Currently I set users directories up like this:
/data/ftp/pub/somedir/./ftpuser1
/data/ftp/pub/somedir/./ftpuser2
This works and chroots me into /ftpuser1 however I am unable to view any files or other directories & I am able to traverse down one directory into the /data/ftp/pub/SOMEDIR which I do not want, because users will be able to see how many other ftpuserxx there are.

I have also tried:
/data/ftp/pub/somedir/ftpuser3/./
<this fails with error code: Error: GnuTLS error -15: An unexpected TLS packet was received. Error:Could not connect to server>

Permissions on the ftp directories are as follows:
inside /data/ftp/pub:
drwxr-xr-x. 5 root root 48 Jan 12 09:03 somedir

inside /data/ftp:
drwxr-xr-x. 3 root root 21 Jan 10 16:42 pub

inside /data:
drwxr-xr-x. 3 root root 17 Jan 10 16:42 ftp

inside somedir folder:
drwx------. 3 ftpuser1 ftpuser 108 Jan 11 16:23 ftpuser1
drwx------. 2 ftpuser2 ftpuser  78 Jan 12 09:04 ftpuser2
drwx------. 3 ftpuser3 ftpuser  92 Jan 12 09:03 ftpuser3

inside ftpuser1 folder:
drwx------. 2 ftpuser1 ftpuser 23 Jan 11 16:23 test_instructions
-rwx------. 1 ftpuser1 ftpuser  0 Jan 11 16:23 test.txt


The Nationwide Stride Against Cancer, a fundraising event to benefit the Cayman Islands Cancer Society takes place on the last Sunday each January.
For 2020, the big day is Sunday January 26th. 2020 also marks the 25th Anniversary of the Cayman Islands Cancer Society; so this Stride is going to be an extra special one!
CI$25 early bird registration will close midnight on January 12. Starting January 13 general registration price will be CI$30. No registration on the day of the event, please.
Race packets (t-shirts) can be collected starting the week of Monday, January 21st, 2019. Shirt sizes limited, come early.
Some participants will be timed. See Event Details.
Water will be available on course and at finish.


This sleeper sofa comes in a brown or black breathable leatherette which is easy to clean. The cushions are attached and the sinuous spring base allows for comfort and durability. The classic style is timeless. And although the sleeper component of the sofa comes in handy for an over night guest, the daily use of the sofa itself will not disappoint.
*The matching love seat, sold separately, is not a sleeper.


text:
[Accessibility Information]
October 1998, Vol. 121, No. 10
REPORT: Auto retailing: changing trends in jobs and business
Keith G. Keel
Download full text in PDF (60K)
Growing employment
Fewer dealerships
Rising used car sales
Growth in lease arrangements
New competitors
The automobile sales industry has been undergoing significant structural transformation in recent years. Two principal factors driving the change are the proliferation of new-car leasing arrangements and the rise of high-volume, publicly-owned automobile "superstores." The two factors are related. New cars typically are leased for 2 or 3 years, after which they are returned to the dealer, creating a large supply of late-model used vehicles. As a result, new-car dealers currently are selling proportionally more used cars than ever before, and a formidable competitor has entered the market in the auto superstore.
Employment growth in the industry that includes establishments primarily engaged in the retail sale of new automobiles or new and used automobiles has been accelerating in recent years, especially since 1992.1 At the same time, the total number of dealerships has been declining, and the occupational distribution within the industry has changed as well. This report explores employment trends and significant developments in the industry that are changing its structure and composition.
The first car ever sold in this country, a Duryea Motor Wagon, was purchased directly from the factory in the spring of 1896. As the industry developed, a relatively small number of larger manufacturers began to concentrate in the upper Midwest, and it became evident that a distribution system was needed. Factories established branch offices, and independent distributors and dealers entered the market as well. Most distributors also were dealers in large urban areas, selling cars both directly to the public and to dealers in nearby towns. Typically, a distributor would charge about 30 percent over the original factory price, and the local dealer would add another 20 percent.
In the 1930s, the automobile manufacturers moved to eliminate the independent distributor-dealer by setting up franchise arrangements to sell their products. The practice cut the cost of the middleman and gave manufacturers greater control over how their cars were sold. When franchise agreements first developed, they were vague, with dealers agreeing to provide "suitable facilities" and their "best energies" to sell the cars. Dealers could carry as many other brands as they wanted, but they were restricted to an assigned selling territory and had to sell the cars at the price specified by the manufacturer.2
In December of 1997, new-and-used car dealers employed 1,056,000 workers, an increase of 34 percent since December 1972. Proportionally, this was about half as much as in the total private sector over the same period (69 percent), and even further behind job expansion in the rest of retail trade (90 percent). As a result, new- and-used car dealers represented 5 percent of total retail trade employment in 1997, down from a share of 7 percent in 1972.3
Chart 1 shows that employment in the auto retailing industry is highly responsive to business cycles, dropping sharply during economic downturns, and gradually returning to pre-recession levels during expansions. Over the 1972–84 period, the rate of growth was slow (0.3 percent per year), with the net increase in jobs only 33,000. Since 1984, however, employment has grown more rapidly, especially following the 1990–91 recession. To illustrate, from 1984 to 1992, employment in the industry grew at a modest rate of 0.8 percent per year, as 64,000 jobs were added over the 8-year period. Over the 1992–97 period, by contrast, the growth rate jumped to nearly 3 percent per year, as 168,000 jobs were added in just 5 years.4
The number and type of employees vary significantly among auto dealerships, depending on such characteristics as size and location of the dealership, manufacturers and models handled, and distribution of sales among departments. Based on data compiled by the National Automobile Dealers Association, in 1996, the average dealership employed 45 persons and had an annual payroll of $1,556,000.5
The tabulation below shows the percent distribution of workers in auto dealerships by occupation in 1980 and in 1996.6
Salespersons ........................................ 20 21
Technicians........................................... 29 24
Services and parts personnel............ 28 28
Supervisors, other workers................. 23 27
In 1996, salespersons accounted for 21 percent of employment in the industry, while service and parts workers (excluding technicians) represented 28 percent. Both occupational groups represented about the same proportion in 1980. The technicians group, however, represented a smaller share of total dealership employment in 1996 (24 percent) than in 1980 (29 percent). Supervisors, (general office) and other workers, on the other hand, increased their share of employment from 23 percent in 1980 to 27 percent in 1996.
According to industry sources, the shrinking of the technicians' share of auto dealership employment is partly attributable to declines in the number of customer repair orders as vehicle quality has improved. Dealers also continue to explore the potential for satellite service operations as a way to address the convenience concerns many consumers have about dealership service. Additionally, competition from independent auto repair shops is on the rise and dealers continue to exit the body-shop business because of the prohibitive costs of the required high-tech equipment.7 Partially offsetting these declines, however, has been a sharp increase in "internal" technical work related to used vehicle reconditioning and an increase in overall net profit per repair order.8
The number of new-car dealerships peaked at 51,000 in 1950, as car sales reached 6.5 million units, a million more than in 1929, the previous peak. By 1996, the number of dealerships had been cut in half. Not only is the number of dealerships in long-term decline, but it also is highly cyclical. Much like employment in the industry, the number of dealerships tends to fall sharply during recessions. Over the study period, the greatest losses occurred during the recessions of 1973–75 and 1980–82; during the expansions of the 1980s and 1990s, on the other hand, the number of dealerships actually grew slightly.9 (See chart 1.)
While the total number of dealer-ships has declined dramatically since 1950, surviving firms tend to be large. Over the past 20 years, the loss of dealerships has been concentrated among those with relatively small sales volumes. As shown in the following tabulation, in 1976, there were 13,200 dealerships with new-unit sales levels of less than 150 per year. Currently, there are only 4,664 dealerships in that category. In contrast, there are now 5,801 dealerships that sell more than 750 new units per year, while in 1976 there were only 3,450 dealerships with that level of business.10
Units sold 1976 1996
0-149 ...................... 20 21
150-399................... 29 24
750 plus.................. 23 27
Salespersons at new-car dealerships are increasingly likely to sell used cars. New-car dealers sold 11.9 million used vehicles in 1996, an increase of 40 percent from the level recorded in 1985. In contrast, over the same period, the number of new vehicles sold actually decreased by 2 percent, totaling 15.1 million in 1996.11 Reflecting these trends, used-vehicle department sales dollars as a percentage of total sales dollars increased from 23 percent to 29 percent for the average dealership between 1989 and 1996. During the same period, new-vehicle department sales as a percentage of total sales declined from 62 percent to 58 percent. (See table 1.)
The increase in used-vehicle sales dollars as a percentage of total sales dollars also may be partly attributable to the 56-percent increase in the average retail selling price of a used vehicle over the 1989–96 period. New-vehicle prices, by contrast, increased just 41 percent over the same period.12 Similarly, data from the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which controls for quality and model mix, also show that used-car prices are increasing faster than new-car prices. Between 1989 and 1996, the CPI-U for new cars increased 19 percent, while the index for used cars increased 30 percent.13
Although used-vehicle prices are growing faster than new-vehicle prices, the average retail price of a used vehicle is still only a little more than half that of a new one. Nevertheless, this ratio also has been slowly increasing, as the following tabulation shows.14
Used auto.................... $5,978 $11,500
New auto..................... 12,950 21,750
Ratio......................... 0.46 0.53
According to representatives from the industry, the used-vehicle department, already important to the health of today's dealerships, will be even more so in the 21st century.15 Dealers are taking an increasing interest in their used-vehicle operations because of low returns on new units. In recent years, the typical dealer's new-vehicle department has been essentially a break-even operation. Currently, the largest share of dealership profits is derived from service and parts, followed by used vehicles. The following tabulation shows that, in 1985, the used-vehicle department of the average dealership represented only 7 percent of total net profits; by 1996, that proportion had grown to 34 percent. 16
New vehicles............... 77 13
Used vehicles.............. 7 34
Service and parts....... 16 53
Growth in leasing arrangements
Advances in vehicle quality and the availability of low-mileage, previously-leased models are among the leading factors fueling the increase in used-vehicle sales. Currently, leasing accounts for more than 31 percent of all retail activity.17 The average life span of a car manufactured in the United States is 8.5 years, more than 40 percent higher than 20 years ago, when the average vehicle lasted only about 6 years.18 Due to the uniform quality of previously-leased vehicles, the used-car sales industry has changed from one dominated by unique units to one with many effectively identical vehicles. These changes have contributed to the rise of used-car super-stores, which is helping to transform the industry.
During the 1980s, the focus within the automobile industry was mostly concentrated on foreign competition, supply, and product development. In recent years, however, the industry has shifted its priorities, placing more emphasis on the used-car market and how vehicles are distributed and sold.
The automobile "superstore," which was first introduced in 1993, is one of the fastest growing trends in the auto sales industry. At the very time when used-car sales were growing as a proportion of new-car dealers' total sales, a formidable competitor emerged. Superstores offer challenges to both traditional dealers and to manufacturers. Some of the auto superstores are publicly-owned national chains that offer a huge selection of vehicles and no-haggle prices. Their access to the stock markets yields them capital at significantly lower costs than those paid by traditional dealers. They also have the financial resources to acquire and implement the latest technology.
Superstore customers are greeted by "sales consultants" who are dressed casually and taught to be helpful and not confrontational. The typical superstore salesperson receives a salary rather than commission. Customers may use computer kiosks to search through the store's stock by price, make, and other variables. As late as 1980, only about half of the country's dealerships were using even the most rudimentary computer services, and applications were usually limited to accounting and parts inventory. Traditional dealers and independent used-car dealers rarely carry more than 100 to 150 used cars. Superstores typically have separate lots with 500 to 1,200 cars on each lot.19
Because superstores tend to stock many different models, it is difficult to stock parts for all of their cars or to service them. To solve this problem, some superstore chains have their own satellite service facilities. Others have contracted with national chains of car repair shops to do their warranty work. These developments potentially could have a negative impact on employment in the industry, because fewer technicians and administrative staff will be needed with much of the work being contracted out.20
Many dealerships are being forced into volume-selling just to increase their cash flows enough to stay in business. To remain competitive, an increasing number of dealers are consolidating and forming large dealership groups. Manufacturers also are buying dealerships and consolidating them to improve operations among their retail distribution networks. Some dealers have gone public to raise the needed capital to finance the escalating costs of running a dealership. Taking competition to a new level, some manufacturers are allowing the auto superstore chains to sell new cars. This development could have a large impact on the future of auto retailing.21
The growth in leasing arrangements and the development of the auto superstore are among the principal factors in the recent transformation of the retail automotive sales industry. These developments have contributed to industry consolidation and a long-term decline in the total number of dealerships.22 Nevertheless, employment has been expanding, especially following the 1990–91 recession. The transformation has altered the occupational distribution of employment somewhat as well, with proportionally fewer technicians and more office workers needed in the current climate. In sum, the automotive sales industry has changed significantly in recent years, affecting not only workers in the industry (and related industries) but also anyone considering purchasing a new or late-model used car.
Authors' identification: Economist in the Division of Monthly Industry Employment Statistics, Bureau of Labor Statistics.
1 The scope of this report includes Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) 551, Motor vehicle dealers (new and used) and excludes SIC 552, Motor vehicle dealers (used only). The latter is a much smaller industry and is quite different in character than SIC 551. In March 1997, "benchmark" employment for SIC 552—obtained from universe counts and used to produce monthly estimates from survey data—was 89,800, or less than one-tenth the level of SIC 551 (1,045,600). Also, because employment estimates for SIC 552 do not meet BLS standards for accuracy and reliability, they are not published. See Manual on Series Available and Estimating Methods, BLS Current Employment Statistics Program, March 1997 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, June 1998).
2 Most of the information in this section came from Ward's Dealer Business, April 1996.
3 Employment data are for SIC 551, Motor vehicle dealers (new and used), and are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Employment Statistics (CES) survey. For more on the CES program, see BLS Handbook of Methods, Bulletin 2490 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, April 1997), pp. 15–31.
4 Annual rates of change are based on the compound growth method of computation, using December to December changes unless otherwise noted.
5 "NADA Data," Automotive Executive Magazine (National Automobile Dealers Association), August 1997, p.42.
6 These data were obtained from the National Automobile Dealers Association, Industry Analysis Division.
7 Lending support to this argument, employment in automotive repair shops increased by 392,000 or 166 percent over the 1972–96 period—more than 4 times as fast as in new and used car dealerships.
8 "Transition to the 21st Century," Project 2000 (National Automobile Dealers Association), May 1996, pp. 8–9.
9 The data on the number of dealerships in 1950 are from the National Automobile Dealers Association, Industry Analysis Division. The data for 1975–96 are establishment counts from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Covered Employment and Wages program, commonly known as the ES-202 program. Beginning in 1991, employers reported employment and wages on an individual establishment basis. In prior years, a reporting unit concept was used, which sometimes included more than one establishment. Thus, the establishment counts presented for 1991–forward may not be strictly comparable with data prior to 1991.
10 National Automobile Dealers Association, Industry Analysis Division.
13 The CPI-U is the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers. CPI data can be found in the monthly publication, CPI Detailed Report (Bureau of Labor Statistics), or at the official CPI Web site </cpi/>. For methodology and technical background on the CPI, see BLS Handbook of Methods, pp. 167–230.
14 Data used in this tabulation are from the National Automobile Dealers Association, Industry Analysis Division
15 "Transition to the 21st Century," p. 8.
16 "NADA Data," p 51.
17 "Transition to the 21st Century," Project 2000 (National Automobile Dealers Association), August 1997, p. 7.
18 The Plain Dealer, "Average Life span of U.S. Consumers' Cars Keeps Climbing," Mar. 2, 1997.
19 Ward's Dealer Business.
20 Franchise Times, Aug. 1, 1997.
21 On the move toward volume-selling, see Automotive News, Nov. 14, 1994; Feb. 12, 1996; Apr. 1, 1996; and Sept. 30, 1996. On manufacturers allowing superstores to sell new cars, see Automotive News, Feb. 5, 1996.
22 Standard & Poor's, "Consolidating US Auto Industry Faces Uncertainty," July 14, 1997.
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Photo: Flickr / Ben Miller
'DStv must fall' tops the trends list due to high prices and tedious repeats
DStv is not in the good books on Thursday, as many Twitter users have outed the company for taking advantage of its customers.
by Andrea Chothia
The Twitter hashtag "DStv Must Fall" topped the trends list on Thursday 23 April, for charging its customers exorbitant prices in the midst of countless repeats.
This comes after DStv increased their prices at the beginning of April.
Here's how DStv increased its prices for 2020
According to the latest DStv price hike, Premium and Compact Plus customers will now have to pay an extra R120 more for the year ahead. Access clients now have to pay R60 more. The Family package sees the biggest individual rise, in terms of both its monthly amount and percentage increase (it'll cost R140 more over the next 12 months).
Here's the prices for the rest of 2020:
The problem is that in the midst of a pandemic, a lockdown, hunger, looting and other devastating effects, DStv still felt the need to hike up their prices — this is mainly why Twitter users are up in arms.
The main grievances of DStv customers are:
Price hikes;
Exorbitant package pricing;
No new content, continuous repeats;
Not allowing customers to choose specific channels instead of packages; and
Not contributing to fight the pandemic.
Many Twitter users have threatened to cancel their DStv subscriptions and instead pay much less for Netflix.
"You get yourself a nice internet/ WiFi package + Netflix. You end up saving and have access to a vast variety of shows and doccies. And you still save. DSTV is long overrated," a Twitter user said.
"DStv is useless without sport especially Soccer but these people they lack compassion, that company makes billions, some people really can't afford to pay not because they don't want to but because of this coronavirus situation, the repeated shows is an insult also."
Twitter user
Monotonous repeats during lockdown
We're in lockdown, which means we can't go out and the television has become a big part of our daily lives.
If we weren't couch potatoes before, we most certainly are now. However, Twitter users claim DStv has no new content, no new shows to air and is simply churning out repeats left to right.
Despite the uproar, DStv has not said anything on Twitter or Facebook. The company has continued to post suggestions of what TV shows to watch, infuriating customers even more.
Most of us know that Mzansi sometimes uses humour to deal with impropriety, hence the DStv memes that took Twitter by storm on Thursday. Here are some of the best ones.
Apart from 'isolated incidents' government pleased with SANDF conduct


Jukka Majava, Tuomo Kinnunen, Del Foit, Pekka Kess (2017) "Analysing innovation-driven enterprises' stakeholders in two spatial ICT ecosystems", International Journal of Value Chain Management, Vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 207–220.
Innovation-driven enterprises (IDEs) engage with various stakeholders during new product development and commercialisation. Spatial ecosystems in which these enterprises operate provide them with the local business environment for new innovation development. Our study analyses IDEs' stakeholders in two spatial information and communication technology (ICT) business ecosystems: one in San Diego, California, USA and the other in Oulu, Finland. The study analyses the stakeholders' presence and their roles to support innovation. The critical stakeholders for supporting innovation-driven enterprises, such as providers of different forms of capital and research institutes, are identified. Our findings suggest that IDEs should exploit the spatial ecosystems by interacting with various stakeholders and by gaining access to local resources to create new innovations. The results of the study are beneficial both for managers of new innovation-driven ventures and decision-makers designing and implementing innovation policies.


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Just Wright (2010)
Just Wright (2010) – How did Queen Latifah get that scar? Is it common knowledge?… She's 40+ playing a realistic 35. Makeup! She's another entry on the long list of women working after 40 (along with Pam Grier in the movie), once a rarity, now a commonplace… Common, btw, plays an NBA all-star. The cameraman in several shots makes him look shorter than Queen herself. With Rajon, Dwight, Dwayne, and Jalen all in the frame with him, it's important that Common not look too small. Plus, in the romance scenes, it's best not to have Queen's head look 50% larger than his. And how come at 38, a top NBA player and future Hall-of-Famer, he's still single, but then falls hard for a transparent gold-digger like the Paula Patton character? And… and… wait a minute… "Common"? Who the heck is "Common"? My God, life is passing me by. I wouldn't know Common if he snuck up and bit me on the ass. The man had a feud with Ice Cube in the '90s. How could I not know that? Somebody go update the man's Wiki page. I think that it stops three or four years ago.
Well, I wanted rom com and I got rom com, because Latifah and Common have chemistry and whatever that means, whatever that is, it's all you need to make the long wait for the final clinch worthwhile… I liked the movie. It's got a great example of the it'll-be-a-while-before-we-smooch-but-now-our-lips-need-to-get-accidentally-close-to-each-other's-and-we-both-need-to-look-a-little-shocked-with-a-hey-i-think-i'm-in-love-expression-stealing-over-our-faces. In the final clinch, the skinny muscular dude has got an armful.
Movie notes:
I need to watch Chris Rock's Good Hair (200), wherein Rock "explores the wonders of African-American hairstyles." Latifah, Patton, and Grier don't have a single curl among them.
Nice touch: the 40-year-old's parents counseling her about meeting the right man.
Class: the piano scenes feature a Steinway.
Checking the producers: Queen's got her own money in it.
Common's mother is described as "a pill." I'm glad to see that the expression is still used.
The meet cute happens at a gas station where Queen and Common are pumping their own gas; you can't pump your own gas in New Jersey.
I checked out that scar. Happened when Queen was three, playing with her brother. She tripped over a phone cord and bonked her head.
Filed under: Comedy | 2 Comments »
You Can't Take It with You (1938)
Posted on August 28, 2010 by joem18b
You know how directors film Tom Cruise and Pacino and other short guys so that they seem of normal height? Jimmy Stewart was 6′ 3″ and Jean Arthur was 5′ 3″ and in You Can't Take It with You (1938), Stewart looks like he could dribble Arthur down the court if he wanted to. Did Capra shoot them that way, the tall and the short, on purpose, or had he not learned how to do the framing trick that would make them seem more equal? Fast forward to something like The Stratton Story (1949) and I'll bet you don't see Stewart looming over June Allyson, who was 3″ shorter than Arthur. Something to look into.
YCTIwY is based on the Kaufman and Hart Pulitzer-winning play and it's Capra at his life-and-America-are-grand best, and offhand, I can't think of a sadder and more dispiriting movie to sit watching, if while listening to Barrymore's speech about "isms" or his disinclination to pay any taxes since they'll only be spent on battleships, you happen at the same time to be pondering the fact that the movie was made in 1938. Like attending a wedding one day before the groom's regiment leaves for the front.
But assuming that you're not brooding about the past in that way while you watch, YCTIwY carries you along like the Rapids Ride at the Manhattan Water Park. Watching it at the same time as She's Out of My League (2010), I realized how tightly it's made. The two movies: one, knitting, the other, crochet. In the time that it takes Jay Baruchel and Alice Eve to consume their dinner outdoors in downtown Pittsburgh, YCTIwY has run down the rails from a xylophone number to a gunpowder accident, with Arthur's visit to Stewart's parents thrown in.
(Parenthetically, as indicated by the parentheses, there is a scene at the beginning of SOoML in which Alice Eve walks through the Pittsburgh airport, stopping all male traffic as she strides along in her red high heels, preceded by her cleavage and posterierceded by her flowing blond hair. We're required to suspend our disbelief just a tiny bit because, although she is looking mighty fine in the scene, and is backed by a supportive musical soundtrack, maybe she's not… quite… that fine. But we get the point. The thing is, I was reminded of my first job after college, wherein I sat at a desk in a very large room filled exclusively with men of all ages dressed in short-sleeve white shirts and dark ties. Every afternoon at two, the boss' daughter pushed a mail cart through the room. We knew that she was coming because there was another room just like ours through the doorway to the south and we could hear the silence fall there at one fifty-five. This young innocent with her cart and Virgin-Mary blank stare and exaggerated secondary characteristics, dressed like a Burger-King hooker, was the prototype, the ur-babe, the apotheosis of show-stoppers. No one, including yours truly, could get enough of her. Then when she had passed on to the next room to the north and the cone of silence moved out with her, we all slumped back in our chairs in unison, shaking our heads, rolling up our fingers in our ties, spent.)
Watching Barrymore also brought me down somewhat for another reason, as I was reminded of his brother's downward spiral into terminal alcoholism, whereas I was drinking Pepsodent-flavored Mogen David out of the kids' Donald Duck bathroom cup because there was nothing else in the house but the Everclear we use to cook pork-chops flambe.
But whatever else, the movie did jerk some tears, happy tears, in the end.
– The best thing that ever happened to Capra was hooking up with Stewart.
– Back in '38,"giving 110%" was already in the dialog.
– So was "arrested for selling dope."
– I wonder if the saying-the-blessing-at-the-dinner-table scenes carried a different resonance in '38 than they do today?
– Kaufman and Hart have the wise old Barrymore in the end sell his house, causing the whole neighborhood to be dispossessed without him saying boo about it. Odd? Or does all come right so quickly after that that the playwrights considered themselves off the hook?
– The best part of the movie for me was Edward Arnold demonstrating his powerful onscreen presence whilst throwing his weight around.
Filed under: Classics, Comedy | 4 Comments »
The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942)
I like to go to plays. Not Broadway extravaganzas, but community and university theater productions. Unfortunately, my spouse doesn't share this interest, which cuts back on my dramatical attendance, except when our daughter comes home for a visit. Fortunately, stage plays find their way onto the silver screen, and found their way to it even more in the 30s and 40s than today. Modern examples of the play-on-film would be Bug (2006) and Doubt: a Parable (2008), which I have reviewed. Unfortunately, we are not living in the age of Eugene O'Neill, Thornton Wilder, and Tennessee Williams, except insofar as revivals and remakes allow us to do so. With all due respect, John Patrick Shanley, Tony or no Tony, is no Kaufman or Hart, the two who wrote the play from which The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942) derives, via the Epstein twins' screenplay(the Epsteins of Casablanca fame).
TMWCTD is a comedy of great verbal energy, many fun cogs and wheels and conversational gizmos, jokes, gags, all done on the level of a New Yorker parlor drama. They don't make them like this anymore – so dense, so many moving parts. As I watched Married Life (2007) the other night, I detected faint echoes from those lost days. Do I subscribe to the theory that civilization is headed downhill because of this and other portents? Nope, and besides, weighing and judging civilization and its components is far beyond my capacity to grok, at least in 1,000 words or less. (Do I believe the planet and the human race are headed downhill? Ulp!) But just because I don't expect another TMWCTD to roll off the assembly line in 2010 doesn't mean that I'll have no chance to laugh at a movie. I watched Reno 911:Miami (2007) again the other night with my spouse, and because she liked it, perhaps I'll get to watch all 5 seasons again. Yay! In my defense, I think that the Marx brothers would like it too. And She's Out of Your League (2010)? Not in TMWCTD's league, but still, life is still good on the couch.
Most of the topical content in TMWCTD has aged out, evaporated, leaving behind in the dialog a foundation of basic comic ideas: gone for most of us are an appreciation of Lucius Beebe's penguins and octopus, Lana Turner's sweater, Zazu Pitts, Noel Coward and Gertrude Lawrence, and the larger-than-life Alexander Woolcott, who spent a weekend with Moss Hart, prompting Hart to wonder out loud, My God, what if he never left? and the play's premise was born.
In TMWCTD, Jimmy Durante is funnier than I remember. Younger, too. Who fills the Durante niche in comedy today? There's bound to be someone. Early Jim Carey? It's got to be someone who mugs outrageously and with unflagging energy. Vintage Robin Williams? Durante, suddenly seeming more modern to me, makes me doubt the trope that some classic aspect of screwball stage comedy is gone and isn't coming back; perhaps it's all just cycles and cycles and only a matter of time before we've gone in retrospect from Touch of Mink to Mash to Airplane to Knocked Up and back to Coconuts again. An extra four billion folks have arrived on the planet since TMWCTD was written. Even if they simply act like monkeys with typewriters, lost or missing dialogic brilliance ought to crop up now and again, out of the chaotic randomosity of crowds. Or will we just keep getting more video games instead? Great Britain bans EA's Medal of Honor because it allows you to play on the side of the Taliban. That's comedy, isn't it?
Glenda the good witch works in TMWCTD without her wand.
Anne Sheridan plays the whole movie overdressed, but shows up 30s style for one scene in a thin silk blouse, confronting the camera face-to-face, so to speak, and proving without a doubt that she's a mammal.
I've noticed more than once that watching two movies at the same time, interleaved as it were, or one after the other, offers perspectives that might otherwise go unnoticed. For example, I saw Ameracord (1973) one Friday night in San Diego, followed by The Godfather (1972) on Saturday. Fellini's artistry made The Godfather, seen so soon after, seem rather amateurish to me. Now that The Godfather has entered the pantheon of great films, any crudeness in its fabrication goes largely unnoticed. Every so often, when I stop to think about this, I feel privy to a cinematical secret, just because of that Friday and Saturday a long time ago. In the present instance, the two overlapping movies are TMWCTD and Repo Men (2010). Sure, there are chuckles in both, but in this example we learn that just talking at each other real fast can pack a punch greater than that felt by cutting the other guy open, reaching inside him, and hauling out his mechanical stomach while wise-cracking about it. Just sayin.
My Favorite Brunette (1947)
Bob Hope was 44 when he made My Favorite Brunette (1947). He lived to be 100, which gave him plenty of time to get old and then older and then move into "Wow. Is he still alive?" territory. Sort of like Woody Allen, only worse. Bob Hope, money-making canny real estate investor. Bob Hope, going blind, blinder, blindest. Bob Hope in Southern California and Bing Crosby in Northern California, both growing increasingly crusty, crabby, inveigled in family feuds. So forth. I lived in the same area as Bing and the celebrity chatter was a pain in the ass. Crosby was born the same year as Hope but died at 74, so the aggravation didn't last as long. And ditto for Dorthy Lamour, sitting in cocktail lounges and grousing over her drink about getting old and how Hope and Crosby dropped her like a hot potato when the first wrinkle creased her brow.
But now all three have moved along to that big movie studio in the sky and we can sit back and enjoy their movies without feathers. Although come to think of it, those of us who put up with their travails in later life are now ourselves beginning to follow the three of them, heading as we are one-by-one for that celestial loge seating – with The Sound of Music (1965) being the only movie playing up there, as Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman point out in their novel Good Omens. And speaking of The Sound of Music, huzzahs to Julie Andrews for playing Queen of the Fairies in Tooth Fairy (2010), wherein she sets Dwayne Johnson straight in that regal way of hers, even if the movie wasn't as funny as it could have been, according to Mayo and Kermode (hello to Jason Isaacs). Hey, Mark, most comedies aren't as funny as they could have been, so does your range of consideration encompass the complete distance between Not Funny At All and As Funny As It Could Have Been? Because that range includes everything from One Chuckle to That Was Just About Perfect But Not Quite.
So, My Favorite Brunette. Not as funny as it could have been, but had some chuckles in it. A clever bit of slapstick between Hope and Peter Lorre. Hope's timing and comic turns kept reminding me strongly of someone but I couldn't quite put my finger on who till 3/4 through, at which point Hope's timing, moves, and self-deprecating patter seemed pure Woody Allen. Allen was 14 when this movie came out. Allen says that Hope was a big influence on him until he (Hope) moved to TV and got lazy; Allen sold his first joke to Hope when he (Allen) was a teenager; he could have used the quips in My Favorite Brunette as models later on, and probably did. (Hope ended up with 89,000 pages of jokes – a million punch lines. Is that weird? A giraffe walks into a bar – the punch line is something about high balls.)
On a personal note, the movie includes a shot of California near Stockton in San Francisco. I would have been 3 and my older sister 5 at the time. I scanned the pedestrians on the sidewalk for signs of us with our mom and dad. We were living in the Outer Sunset on 46th at the time. No luck.
Movie moments:
– Hope and Lamour are shown flying relaxedly from S.F. to Washington on a DC-3. The last trip I took on a DC-3 was like going through a car wash in an oil drum.
– Hope breaks the 4th wall twice.
– Whenever a closeup of Lamour would come on, I'd try to remember what the closeup situation is in movies today.
– Hope secretly records a conversation using a modern (for '47) device, which recorded onto a blank 78 record.
– Multiple use of peering through keyholes, including a hotel-room keyhole.
– Hotel windows that open. I dropped a thing or two out of those back in the day.
– Hope discovers an empty whiskey bottle in a chandelier and says, "Hmm. Ray Milland was here."
This was the first movie made by Hope's own production company. Hope was a Top Ten star into the '50s. He gave Peter Lorre a role in this one because the man needed money. I just noticed that Lorre appeared in a five-part episode of 77 Sunset Strip, one of my faves in the late 50s.
Caro Diario (Dear Diary) (1993)
Posted on March 8, 2010 by joem18b
dear diary, i just watched a movie that has your italian cousin caro diario in it. now don't be jealous that caro diario appears in a big old color movie, whereas you're just a little bitty blog diary. don't be jealous that nanni moretti puts his little diary up on the big screen and and then writes into it there, or that nanni's so popular and witty and a real know-it-all, whereas you are typed into every day by a nobody who got caught one time with panties on his head. and finally, don't be jealous that whereas i lie to you all the time so that the wife and kids won't find out, nanni includes himself and his wife silvia right up there on the screen along with his little diary, and if he works up a heavy sweat, if you know what i mean, in a movie like quiet chaos, he can always tell silvia that he was just acting. although i hope that his twelve-year-old son doesn't see him doing what he did in that one, at least not until the boy grows up a little bit more. and when, i mean if, i ever do some heavy sweating like that, i'm keeping it to myself, dear diary! you won't need to know and neither will the wife.
besides, d.d., nanni is sort of like me – popular where he lives but who else knows him? whereas i'm popular in my backyard, but only when i'm throwing buddy his rag bone or pouring purina into his dinner bowl. so hold your head up high, dear little diary, because you know why? eyes are reading you right now! whereas in the big city down there on the flats, with its i-don't-know-how-many libraries, caro diario is to be found only in the old carnegie free branch over by the cooling towers, on a vhs tape in a cardboard box! so sad.
nanni made caro in three parts:
part one – while he putt-putts around rome on his vespa, i am cruising pea gap on helga's old huffy. nanni shouts beautiful slogans and that makes him grow beautiful (he says), whereas i squawk at the pickininnies and they pull on my sheet. just kidding. i pass harry and leonard sitting on harry's porch. one day harry and leonard will be inside with the door closed and after that they'll either be back on the porch or off to discover the world, who knows which? dillian is planting lillies in front of the church. leonarda is in the cemetery lying down on a yellow tablecloth, practicing for when she goes there and doesn't come back. when i was in high school, there were scooters all over the place, mostly cushmans. where are they now? nanni says that there is a bridge in rome that he needs to cross twice a day (well, he can't cross it just once, i guess, and still get back home); so i'm crossing pea creek on the huffy, dear diary, on those two-by-fours that the noxapater clan laid down after the last storm washed away their sorry little excuse for a bridge.
in part two, nanni travels around the aeolian islands with a friend who hasn't watched tv in 30 years. my nanny never watched tv. she could stand on the tail of her bear rug and expectorate a stream of tobacco juice into a hills bros coffee can balanced on the nose of the bear, making the can ring like a bell. she would dunk the head of the bear in a pail of water once a year on easter to clean off the residue of her misses.
in part three, nanni gets sick. tumor. it don't look good for nanni. mild spoiler: 15 years later, at 55, he's still kicking. at first he just itched, dear diary, whereas i've got this godawful boil that makes me wonder how the hell i rode around the hamlet on that huffy all afternoon. nanni goes to doctors, whereas i use my special "medicine" from the pine grove half a mile up the hill. then nanny applies a poultice to the area and gives me a high colonic, though she don't call it that. so don't get sick, and if you want a horror film, forget saw or hostel and go find a documentary about cancer. also, quit watching so many movies and go help somebody who needs your help.
what a thinker nanni is, d.d.! you won't catch him doing analogy or metaphor in this movie, no more than i do in you. he spits out the facts, straight onto the subtitles. although come to think of it, when he was riding around rome, there was no traffic, whereas on one of the islands that he visits, traffic is gridlocked and honking about it. could that mean something? can irony be metaphor?
anyway, thank you to duder for recommending the movie. it was good and it got me going. tomorrow, dear diary, i'm watching guadacanal diary and then taking my .22 out into the field to plink varmints. then i'm going to italy for three weeks to visit cinquefrondi, mammola, and grotteria on a rented vespa. ciào for now.
Filed under: Comedy, Foreign | Leave a comment »
The Invention of Lying (2009). I liked it. What does that prove?
I was on Ricky Gervais' wavelength from frame one to fadeout of this film. I laughed when I was meant to laugh, I teared up when cued by the score. I sat imagining a movie starring Jennifer Garner and Hilary Swank playing sisters, but that's just a jaw thing. I enjoyed the movie.
When it was over, it occurred to me to wonder whether there was any connection between my enjoyment of it and its artistic merit, if any. Does liking something make it art? Of course not. So is artistic merit 100% orthogonal to enjoyment? Or can there be some relative connection? If, for example, I like a movie but 99 others don't, does that lessen the possibility that cinematic art has been created? What if all 100 of us like it? I mean, the director sets out, in many cases, to make something we'll like; if he succeeds, doesn't art play a part?
I suppose that questions like these reflect aspects of the larger "What is art?" question. I remember nothing from my art-history and aesthetics courses. A visit to Wikipedia would probably provide me with lots of answers, but I'd rather just think about it for a couple of minutes and then move on.
Because it does bother me a little that I could watch, laugh, cry, enjoy, knowing that my reactions may have nothing to do, probably have nothing to do, absolutely have nothing to do (which is it?) with the artishness of the thing. Doesn't seem right.
I mean, could I love a movie that is absolutely devoid of artistic merit of any kind?
Later: ok, after a lot of thought on the matter, I have concluded that if I like a movie, it automatically has artistic merit, even if I watched it in an impaired state or at a time of severe mental disequilibrium. This would include Norbit and The Love Guru. If I don't like a movie, I allow that it might still contain some artistic merit. This would include Metropolis and Sunrise. As I said to Roger Ebert the other night while explaining how all this works, if you like a movie and I don't, then artistic merit is not automatically conferred upon it. Who knows what weird stuff you're liable to like? But now if you can explain to me why a movie that I don't like has artistic merit, and I buy your explanation, no matter how wrong-headed and tinfoil-hatted it may be, then that's ok, unless I change my mind later and decide that your explanation is actually rubbish. I feel a lot better having cleared this up for myself.
You ask, what if I (me, not you) love a movie but decide in my heart and mind that it is trash, or at least trashy? Doesn't matter. In that case it has artistic merit that I can't see right off the bat, or I wouldn't have loved it in the first place.
What if I have a love/hate thing going with some movie? That means artistic merit. Probably even more than I would ever be able to know.
Finally, if a movie has twelve tons of artistic merit but I'd hate it if I watched it, then you go watch it and report back. You'll probably love it.
Filed under: Comedy, Drama, Filmology | Leave a comment »
Homo Erectus (2007)
aka National Lampoon's Stoned Age. NL has produced a closetful of clunkers over the years, but Adam Rifkin gets this genre film right, the genre being Movies To Watch While You're Drunk. I was and it was.
It's all here:
David Carradine as MooKoo, proving once again that he will do literally anything for a paycheck. He's especially good in the scenes where he's carrying his head under his arm. (Ed.: Written before the man checked out. RIP. Loved you in Hell Ride. Nice callback to Dennis Hopper in Modern Romance.)
Talia Shire as his wife, mother of the clan, who will do anything for a fur, even if it's off an australeamoustisimus.
Ron Jeremy as Oog, who doesn't show it, but at this point doesn't really have to anymore. Anybody who cares has memorized it by now.
Gary Busey as Krutz, who doesn't have to act crazy to be crazy.
Ali Larter as Fardart, showing off the best set of prehistoric choppers in film history, although Raquel Welch still beats her from the neck down.
Carol Alt as Queen Fallopia. "You turn me down?? Every Neanderthal between here and the volcano wants to get into this lizard-skin thong!"
Kansas Carradine as the pregnant cavewoman. David's daughter adds her oiled belly to several of the scenes wherein the women drop their pelts.
and Adam Rifkin, who gets hit in the head by large rocks twenty, no, twenty-two, no… I was too far gone to keep track.
The movie poses the question, If you paste large shaggy patches of fake pubic fur over the female actors' actual areas, is that still full-frontal, or what?
Filed under: Comedy | Leave a comment »
Music and Lyrics (2007)
Age is adding a touch of gravitas to Hugh Grant. His good looks, which have limited him throughout his career, are fraying in the same good way that Pacino's did when his bloom wore off. Grant is no Pacino, but looking at him now I can understand how he got caught in a car with a hooker in L.A. That understated, self-deprecating yet subtly superior British style is aided immeasurably in his case by the signs of wear on his puss.
Here, he carries on the Cary Grant/Eva Marie Saint tradition of older guy (Grant is 47) scoring with the beautiful and nubile young woman (Drew, 32).
Grant plays an aging, ex-rock star reduced to singing at state fairs. (Refer to Bill Nighy in Love Actually for more on the subject.) By a remarkable stroke of luck, he is given the chance of a comeback. However, to succeed, he must write a great song "by Friday" that is, by soon enough to introduce tension in the film but by far enough for him to meet a girl, work through a few plot points, and win her heart before the deadline. With the date set, a meet-cute immediately follows: the has-been's plant sitter is on vacation and Drew Barrymore, ditzy but still lovable in spite of her age – although the clock is ticking on this – shows up to fill in ith the watering chores. May Drew only grow up sooner than Diane Keaton did (if she has). Hugh writes the music; Drew is a lyric poet savant. The next Roger and Hammerstein is born, though hopefully R and H didn't wake up in the sack together after a night of collaboration.
For those on product-placement watch, Baldwin and Yamaha are given equal, lingering time for their grand pianos.
Extra credit to Grant for performing not only on film, but also onstage in front of a full auditorium of children, teens, and their parents. He also does a love duet on stage; I've had a soft spot for these ever since Willie Nelson and Amy Irving did theirs in Honeysuckle Rose and then Dyan Cannon came onstage to announce her divorce.
This movie also produces a credible hit song that helps keep the romantic vibe afloat. No oscar-winner about the hard life of a pimp, but hummable.
Somebody should do (or has already done) a study of couple chemistry onscreen. Hugh and Drew have it here like Clooney, Brad, and Matt have it in Oceans 11, 12, and 13. It has nothing to do with the characters and everything to do with the stars. You'll need to want that in order to absorb all the Hollywood vitamins that this flick provides.
The film steps up to PG-13 when Hugh and Drew wake up in bed togeher the morning after. This, we know, in a movie paced as energetically as this one, means that the subsequent breakup is only minutes away. (Note to self: watch A Touch of Class again sometime soon.) Other than the moment in bed, the film is squeaky clean. The stars let it loose in the out-takes but even there they are relentlessly beeped out.
If you require an edge to your romantic comedy, you won't find it here. The movie is smooth, all edges and corners rounded. The conflict is painless. Boy meets girl, loses girl, gets her back again for the finale before you've reached the bottom of the popcorn bag. This is not a bad thing if you want to sit back and watch Hugh and Drew do that thing that they do, this time with and at and on each other, while your brow remains unfurrowed. Then tear up for a second at the melodic, heartfelt climax. Nothing wrong with that at one in the morning on the couch in the family room.
Filed under: Comedy | 1 Comment »
Tillsammans (Together) (2000)
Tillsammans is a well-made sorta-comic sorta-serious feelgood ensemble drama about a communish collective located in a Swedish suburb in 1975. The collective, Tillsammans (Together), includes your couple experimenting with an open relationship in a building with thin walls, your newly-minted lesbian, your gay man, some unhappy kids, a woman taking refuge from her abusive husband, neighbors of antithetical mood looking on, politics, a woman airing out her apparatus due to a fungal infection, a man airing out his apparatus because the woman is airing out hers, so forth. Ironically, these folks become less and less together at first, but then the plot does a volte-face, with togetherness increasing amongst the group now on a deeper level than before, new connections made that everyone in the movie, kid and adult, has been missing, wants, and needs. I cannot vouch for the verisimilitude of the representation of this collective; writer/director Lukas Moodysson was only six in 1975, but perhaps he was present at the scene at that age, now revisiting his memories through his script. Perhaps that's the reason for the movie. Perhaps Moodysson interviewed his parents for insights into the 70s.
I've seen Tillsammans three or four times over the past nine years and it holds up. The characterization is paper thin: all that you need to know about each member of the ensemble is sketched in moments as the soapish plot advances. But given that the dreaded staring-off-into-space motif is so often used these days to signify unknowable depths in a protagonist, who needs characterization?
Several quick points about the movie:
– It was made in Trollhättan. Which I thought was located on Discworld or in Middle Earth.
– Trollhättan here is standing in for a Stockholm suburb. It also stood in for rural Washington State in "Dancer in the Dark." Moodysson isn't doing dogme here, but the grainy photography, close-ups, and handheld photography remind of Von Trier and Scandinavian guerilla filmmaking, at least until the humor in the film emerges, a minute or two in.
– The writer/director's first film was titled "F**king Amal."
– A line about Baader Meinhof was left out of the subtitles. Conspiracy???
– It's possible that throughout the 50s and 60s, and maybe the early 70s as well, the only Swedish movies I saw were Bergman's. I skipped "I Am Curious Yellow," reports of boredom outweighing my prurient interest. So now, years later, the sound of onscreen Swedish dialog still triggers Pavlovian expectations in me of conversations that plumb the depths of the human puddle of the soul. So maybe I invested the collective members of Tillsammans with more gravitas than they actually had earned during my viewing. I remember going out on a dinner date once with a young woman who had a strong Swedish accent, and it was the weirdest thing. As I sat across from her, I kept dropping into monologs about winter, Olaf Palme's murder, Fårö, the bare trees with their bare branches, my chilblains, the cold drafts in the empty chapel where I prayed in the face of the stubborn divine silence, after cracking the ice on the water bowl in my bedroom, only to abrade my thighs with a frozen washcloth. And this was at a luau on Kauai, mind.
– I don't recall shopping bags having paper handles yet in the 70s, as depicted in the movie. Also, the VW bus looks like it would look now, not then.
– I've heard it said that Eva, the fourteen-year-old in the movie, is the most adult of all the characters – an opinion that evidently originated with someone who has never lived with a fourteen-year-old girl, and mistakes angst for insight.
– It is not good to hear your partner experiencing her first orgasm when you aren't in the room with her but she isn't alone.
Anyway, a collective is a group the members of which share a common goal. In the case of the Tillsammans collective, the goal is political, or was in some year or other before the action begins. Hence the opening scene of joy at the news of Franco's death. Hence one of the collective's children being named "Tet," after the offensive. Meanwhile, a commune is a group the members of which share a common purpose and join together to be with others who share similar tastes, thoughts, and desires. Tillsammans, though the point is never made explicitly in the film, seems to be transmogrifying from collective to commune as the movie progresses… or no. Now I'm thinking that Moodysson simply chose the collective setting as a convenient way to stage an ensemble drama, or a soap opera. The commune truths that I personally experienced are barely nodded to in the movie. (Moodysson has gone on to write/direct five more movies, none of which I've seen.)… Or no. Now that I come to think of it, many of the interactions in the movie actually do hinge on the facts of collective life. E.g., reassigning the relaxation/meditation room for use by a non-collective outsider; dealing with the group member who won't do the dishes; solidarity in the face of opposing opinions… But hey! Wait a second. I just realized that this movie, made in 2000, presents the 1975 collective as if the whole concept of collective action, born in the 1960s (actually it's been around since humans were fighting off the tyrannosauruses), has past, so that these guys are, well hell, saps for soldiering on, though Moodysson obviously cares for them (music by Abba) and probably didn't mean for them to seem like saps. No, they aren't saps; it's hard to make a Swede look like a sap; a dolt, maybe, but not a sap.
What's the difference between a soap opera and a legitimate dramatic creation based on solid characterization, anyway? The characters in Tillsammans grow and change in the course of the film; most evince conflicting characteristics within themselves, so forget what I said above about their paper-thinness. Most of the characters embody opposing ideas within themselves, automatically making them seem more real. And they deal with emotional issues emotionally, but with enough restraint to avoid bathos. There are plenty of characters, though, so a cinematic lick and a promise must often suffice in defining them via the action.
I was 16 when the 60s began and 26 when they ended. At the time, the creation and growth of communes in the U.S. seemed like a natural development in the cultural evolution of human society – a cultural maturation of 50s on-the-road into 60s pulling-off-onto-the-shoulder-and-then-taking-a-hard-left-out-into-the-Upper-Sonoran-wilderness consciousness.
I began my part in this by sharing peyote at a hot springs with a lot of other naked sojourners, thence moving on to communal life. I take the subsequent history of the togetherness movement, from the 70s to the present, as a metaphor for my life. My time in the commune began with my participation in a triangle-type relationship, but it turned out that the legs of the triangle were of unequal length. Also, it seemed that we kept slipping into two-against-one mode, and for this reason I reached out within the community to transform the triangle into a square – well, a trapezoid really, because once again I didn't properly address the leg-length issue before acting. This caused the two-against-one dynamic to transmogrify into a three-against-one situation. Then, the fifth leg that we (I) added created, switching metaphors, a healthy hearty four-legged beast with an unhealthy unhappy wagging tail. Neurasthenically wagging, a downhearted drooping wag-twitching tail. Long story short, for every individual in the commune, multiple relationships are possible, but for one or two of the individuals it can be difficult finding a grouping that doesn't leave you shucking the damn corn and shelling the damn peas while your groupmates are noisily making the sign of the multi-sided yam out back in the yurt.
So how could communes and ashrams seem so natural, so normal, so necessary to one generation only to then practically evaporate, leaving hardly a trace in the decades that followed. What, it was only a fad? The ideas wore out? Who's to blame? Reagan? The rise of the NFL? The defeat of Communism? How have the young gone about dropping out and rebelling since then? As per mumblecore? Or by scoring high on their SATs and leaving for college, only to return home after graduation to clear the stuffed animals off the bed and move back in until those darned lagging unemployment indicators turn around again? The communes were wiped out by the materialism of the 80s? They were simply impractical? These experiments in cooperative living – all failures? Reagan did turn off the community-action spigot in the first year of his reign; that didn't help, but it didn't surprise anybody, either. And how come we've got to live through yet another set of stupid wars without even getting a summer of love to go with them? It's an outrage.
I googled for area communes and discovered one listed right across town, out beyond the tank farm. I went over for a visit after reading the commune specs online: one man, one woman, one boy, one girl. If I join, we will share labor, take our meals together, start a garden after breaking up the concrete covering the backyard, and share spiritual searchings and mingle our chakras after the kids fall asleep at night. The man asked me if I had a sledge hammer and wheelbarrow. I said yes. The woman asked me about my seeds.
So if you grow up in a decade, does that make it, and the decades just before it, seem special? Do the 50s and 60s just seem special to me because that's when I was young? Do the 80s and 90s seem unique and distinct to you now, dear reader, if that's when you were young? While to me, the years from 1980 to 2009 are mostly an undifferentiated blur? The young, as the communes died out, abandoned free love, extended group families, and radical democracy in favor of what, the blur? Not in favor of the weblike internets, which took a while to arrive; though I did send my first email in 1981. Whole Foods? Drowning polar bears? Facebook as the new commune? Or, wait, did society just subsume everything that used to make a commune seem unique? By Jupiter, am I sitting here in the middle of it? The Big Commune?
How can there be no hippies but the proverbial "aging" hippies? What currently replaces the hippie urge? I googled "internet commune" with high hopes, dashed. The "Internet Collective" is, ugh, incorporated. Drug use? No, that's so high school. Clothing easiness? Hey, I'm at work as I finally write this and you should see me. Those glimpses of commune life in "Into the Wild," are they just Sean Penn's surmise? Times are supposed to be hard; doesn't that mean that there are plenty of post-college youth out there with nothing to do, not to mention boomers flashing back to their youthful roots, and disaffected x- and y-gen unemployed? Are intentional communities and unschooling programs and suchlike anything more than just notions?
And my God, I just realized something else. The greatest literary influence of my youth was "On The Road." I hitchhiked to school every day. I hitchhiked back and forth across the U.S. and Canada multiple times. I hitchhiked up and down Mexico. "Two-Lane Blacktop" resides in my Top 5. But where have all the hitchhikers gone? Not to communes, that's for sure. The only hitchhikers left are the serial killers, and they're just doing it until somebody makes a movie about them after they've been executed. The nation has lost its way.
Why no hitching? Hitchhiking can be an important rite of passage. How many hitchhikers in "Into the Wild"? One. Emil Hirsch. What's getting in the way? Improvements in mass transit? I don't think so. Affordable gasoline? Nope. Rattletraps you can buy for peanuts? They hardly exist anymore outside of Cuba, not like the "iron" you could used to buy. Bicycles? Nope – those helmeted, costumed figures peddling along in the bike lanes are not lapsed thumbers. Freeways? And who is more afraid of whom now, between driver and hitcher? These days, as the hitchhiker climbs into the car or truck that has pulled over and sits idling, with its ominously tinted windows, will that passenger climb out later still in one piece?
An hour later: OK, I called my friend Jane. I've known Jane for ten years and was sort of aware all that time that her living arrangements were somehow out of the ordinary, but I never asked her for details. Turns out that she lives in a house with a name like Glow Lobster Aura or something, owning 1/8 of it and dedicated to a type of community living that involves sharing a variety of things that I for one tend to keep to myself. As I asked her about the current state of collectives, group homes, and communes in the area, she took me on a verbal tour of co-housing and alternative lifestyles locally that amazed me. Turns out that I know more folks involved in non-traditional lifestyles than I would ever have guessed. Dreams endure, though transmuted by time into modern forms. Dreams, but also the reality that living together is not easy, like married life is not easy.
When Moodysson made "F**king Amal," Ingmar Bergman announced that a new master had been born. Tillsammans strengthened Moodysson's reputation. Since then, he's written a TV movie and written and directed five more films. After two additional arthouse flicks, he brought forth a couple of real head-scratchers ("A Hole in My Heart" and "Container"), and most recently, his first English-language effort, the globe-trotting "Mammoth." Tillsammans won various awards, including the Audience Award at the South by Southwest Film Festival. Moodysson is always interesting, but I'd say that at 40, we all hope that his future still ahead of him.
The movie's lesson: let's all move to Sweden, where everyone, no matter how nutty he or she may sometimes seem (refer to my next review for an analysis of Elin Nordegren), is in fact way saner than Americans are, or at least way saner than my gun-toting, tea-bagging, Palin-lovin American neighbors next door. (But I'm only raggin on the G.O.P. because I'm frustrated trying to find a good big solid incorporated Republican commune with a good big solid commune president who would keep us focused not on the weak sisters in our group but on America, love it or leave it, goddamnit, and on the uranium-mining business that our commune would operate, and on the commune's goddamned bottom line.)
Filed under: Comedy, Drama, Foreign | 2 Comments »


text:
Meaning of Something He Can Feel in Urdu
Meaning and Translation of Something He Can Feel in Urdu Script and Roman Urdu with Short Information in Urdu, Urdu Machine Translation, Related, Wikipedia Reference, Image,
Something He Can Feel
سمتھنگ ہے کين فيل - ایک گانا ہے
Urdu Machine Translation
کچھ وہ کر سکتا محسوس
Beware of Darkness (song) Beware (Big Sean song)
Anybody Seen My Baby? Anybody Listening?
Anybody Else But You Dinge von denen
"Something He Can Feel" is a song composed by Curtis Mayfield for the 1976 motion picture Sparkle. The song, a love ballad in a Chicago-/Philly-soul style, became a number-one hit on the Billboard's R&B singles chart in the United States twice with two separate recordings: a 1976 version by Aretha Franklin from the film's soundtrack (see 1976 in music), and a 1992 cover by girl group En Vogue (see 1992 in music).


Three weeks from today I'll be touching my toes in the Adriatic, commencing ASA's first-ever Croatia flotilla!
Jimmy Tanaka, an ASA Instructor, just returned from his own sailing trip in Croatia, and shared this video with me of his HD photos from the trip. Talk about heart-racing anticipation!
I also wanted to announce that ASA's 2011 flotillas are now officially posted. In addition to the perennially popular San Juan and Gulf Islands flotillas, we'll be repeating this year's new Exuma Islands flotilla, as well as adding a new destination–Tahiti! (Which, by the way, is a KILLER deal.) I know you're not all going to sign up just yet, but keep these dates in mind as you're thinking about next year's vacation plans. Meanwhile, enjoy the rest of the summer sailing season!


Original design armchair EGG Arne Jacobsen introduced the world in 1958. EGG chair was designed for the hotel Royal Hotel (today Radisson Blu Royal Hotel), for those who want to be in a hotel room was the most stylish and modern. Since then, the seat has become synonymous with Danish furniture design throughout the world. Shape EGG chair is ideal for privacy and relaxation, it can be used as a seat for staff chair for conference halls and meetings, or simply as a chair for the home. EGG chair appeared in the garage Arne Jacobsen from plaster, and today it is made of quality materials and fabric upholstered kozhzamom. At the time when he worked with Arne Jacobsen chairs and other furniture designers made from bent pipes and considered it futile ideas, but Arne Jacobsen went to his goal by creating a chair EGG is considered a national treasure of the country. After 50 years, the chair is something more than just a designer armchair, it is removed in advertising and film, set in the most famous offices and companies in modern homes.


We don't currently have any Spin - The Cycling Festival deals.
If you go via our Spin - The Cycling Festival link - the code MSESPIN should be automatically applied – you can get a free pair of tickets to the event at Olympia London (Fri 12 May - Sun 14 May).
Tickets get you entry to one day only, so you'll need to choose which day you'd like to go. Tickets can be used for adults (norm £11.50, including booking fee) or teens (13-17-year-olds, norm £6.50) or under-12s (usually free).
These tickets are completely free, so if you're asked to enter your card details, go back and try again.
Tickets will be available until 11.59pm on Sun 30 Apr, or until all 1,000 pairs of tickets have gone, whichever's soonest - so get on your bike if it's something you're interested in.
Your tickets will be sent via email, and you'll need to print them off and show them at the door.
The event is on between 1pm and 8pm on Fri 12 May, and between 10am and 5pm on Sat 13 May and Sun 14 May.
Spin - The Cycling Festival will feature over 150 cycling brands. Plus, there will be talks and Q&A sessions, cycling artwork and installations, coffee masterclasses, craft beer, street food, live music and DJ sets.
We've 5,000 free tickets to give away for entry to The Midlands Food and Drink Festival (Sat 23 Jul - Sun 24 Jul). Better still, the tickets will also get you free entry to The Pet Show at the same venue over the same weekend.
Go online to The Midlands Food and Drink Festival, choose tickets for Sat 23 Jul or Sun 24 Jul, and click 'Get tickets'. Tickets are one-day only.
Enter the MSE Blagged code MSE2016 link and click 'Go'.
Choose up to two tickets from the 'Special Offer (MSE2016)' option and click 'Add to basket'.
You'll then be a taken through a few different pages to confirm your order, and you'll need to sign in or register for an account for The Ticket Factory.
At the final confirmation page, choose the free 'Email - print at home' option.
The offer ends at 11.59pm on Fri 22 Jul, or when all 5,000 tickets have gone, whichever's first. Your tickets will be sent via email, and you'll need to print them or show them on your smartphone. Both events are on between 10am and 5pm on both days.
The tickets can be used for adult or child entry. They usually cost £10-£12 for adult tickets and £5-£6 for child tickets (six to 17-year-olds), depending on whether you buy them in advance or on the day. Under-5s go free - select their tickets when you select your free tickets.
What is The Midlands Food and Drink festival?
The Midlands Food and Drink festival will showcase local and international food and include workshops, talks, demonstrations plus a meet-and-greet with Great British Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain (pictured). Plus, there'll be live music, beer/wine stalls and street food.
The Pet Show has spaces dedicated to dogs, cats, birds of prey, horses and more. There'll be camel racing, dog displays and celebrity guests including wildlife presenter Michaela Strachan (pictured).


My path from a regular Singapore student, going into the army, moving on to university and then a permanent job has pretty much been uninteresting but I liked my life then in some sense. I didn't have to pay rent. I had a job that pays me way above what most fresh Arts graduates get and I could travel 4 times a year yet still save a good amount. I basically didn't have to worry much about money as long as I kept my job which I enjoyed doing and which also gives me good material to talk about when I meet new people. How many people you know are in the private industry doing broadcast censorship for cable TV?
I've never thought about my being here today might have something to do with what many inspirational books call The Law of Attraction. But sometimes, the coincidence on how things developed astounds me.
I disrupted from military service when I was 22 to further my education at NUS to major in Japanese Studies just so I could qualify for the Japanese Monbukagakusho scholarship to do an exchange program in Japan for a year, but during my first semester at school, I decided to major in English linguistics instead. Following graduation, while serving the remaining of my military service, I was searching for sub-editor jobs when my friend introduced a freelance censorship editing job to me. That was how I got into this line. It was this freedom as a freelancer that allowed me to visit my best friend, who was working as a freelancer in sound design, in Taiwan then just because he wanted to be there. And it was this fateful visit that I met his friend during the trip and somehow found out that she had also been wanting to do the CELTA. So I dropped her a message and that very same year, less than 6 months after meeting each other, we decided to take a trip to Bangkok to do the course together. This move pushed me further into my plans of taking the trip to Japan because if I didn't come, taking the CELTA course wouldn't have made much sense.
I flew to Japan to do a language course with the aim of getting a job here. 3 months into the course, I was preparing my resume and what not when something in my life changed and made me decide to leave Japan at the end of 6 months. But towards the end of the course, I decided against leaving and I was suddenly slapped with the reality that I have a mere 2 weeks left in my course. I was flustered but I also had the thought that I'll just do what I can but if it turns out that I have to go home, I guess that'll be that. It was then that I met a teacher at the school who helped me get my resume done up in a day and after sending multiple applications with no luck, she recommended me to an ALT dispatch company, Z.
Z very nicely granted me an interview but told me that because it was during the middle of the school year, they couldn't hire me then unless someone quits. So I continued searching for other jobs in the meantime feeling like I was gonna pee in my pants as time ticked away but lo and behold! Fate has it that someone did quit the job a couple of weeks later and the company decided to hire me. It was crazy coincidence. I couldn't have gone for the interview at a better time, because if I had gone earlier, the company might've forgotten about me and hired whomever went after I did.
6 months later, the contract ended and Z lost the city's contract to company Y. All the ALTs under Z assigned to teach at the city basically went out of jobs although Z did say we could all fight for the few positions they have in Nagoya or go search for other companies. I went for the latter. Backtracking a little, before joining Z, the very same teacher who got me this job also got me an informal meeting with the head of the Board of Education at a different city who told me that their policy is to hire someone with at least 1 year's experience as an ALT, and who also lives in the same city. I fulfilled neither criteria, so she told me that she would recommend me to the company that won their city's contract. But by then, I already had another offer at company X after having gone for their interview. To me, it didn't make sense to turn down one dispatch company's offer to try for another but I didn't say anything then although I had already made up my mind to join X.
As the date approached the new school year, I suddenly got a call from my teacher saying that the head and the chief of the Board of Education wanted to interview me. I was surprised but wasn't expecting much since I didn't fulfill any of their criteria. I went for the interview and I was told that I would be fighting for the place with another ALT who was going to have the interview on the same day. I then realised that they were considering hiring me even though I didn't fulfill their criteria. I was excited but unsettled since I was competing with one more person for one place. The chance was literally 50-50. At the end of the interview, the head came to us and handed us each a piece of paper. I looked at it in disbelief and was told that the chief decided to hire the both of us. I got the job on the spot. So I turned down the offer at X, for obvious reasons.
I had the most fun teaching students and playing with them for that 1 year and I loved my job but I knew then, that I wasn't going to be there for long because career-wise, the experience probably wouldn't look too impressive on a resume. I decided, 2 years, and I've got to move on. I've heard so many stories about how much time it takes from application to interview to employment that I've decided to get myself ready earlier. What more, with my previous experience of almost peeing in my pants before I joined Z. Getting off work at 4pm everyday and not having much social life, I searched the net for jobs on an almost daily basis and literally sent out over a hundred applications with barely 5 even bothering to send me a mail to tell me I've been rejected. But since I've still got at least 9 months to go, I wasn't too flustered.
As the summer holidays approached, I suddenly got a reply from company W wanting to interview me. I thought, ah, good chance to practice my interview skills. I didn't mind that it was in Tokyo although coming all the way here for just one day would cost me $300. Yes, I spent $300 for the interview. I had my interview and was told I was competing for the position with a few other interviewees. So I returned to Singapore after that for summer vacation and a week later, I got an email from W asking for my expected salary. I was thrilled but worried that if I stated too high an amount, they would reject me because they explicitly stated that in the mail. I discussed with my sister and decided on an amount and all that remained was to pray and wait. A week later, W sent me a confirmation mail that they were going to hire me. I was over the moon and at the same time troubled because I had to quit in the middle of the school year, plus my teacher tried hard to get me this job. It was a difficult position but I knew I had to take this chance to get into the translation industry.
It's been almost 2 years since I came and I sometimes wonder how I managed to get here, but I know that I've always wanted to be in this industry. Even though after some time I stopped thinking about it, I realised everything built up and made this happen.
Perhaps there really is such a thing as the law of attraction.
No problem. On a random note, I seem to be getting more and more readers from the alphabet.
Wow, I'm so excited for you J! I hope Japan will treat you well.
Life is going to be awesome from this point on!
Hello! Just curious, do you have to do your reservist? Are companies more hesitant to hire older workers like the culture here in Singapore?
No, I do not have to do reservist since I am working overseas. It just doesn't make sense to fly me back every year to perform reservist and I believe no companies overseas will hire you if it is required.
Also, it really depends on what you mean by "older" workers. I know people who are in their mid-30s managing to find new jobs as well. As long as you have the skills the company requires, I should think it isn't a big problem. But then again, I don't think I am familiar with the industry well enough to give a definite answer.