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The Bovine: In 1999, 35 million small family plots produced 90% of Russia's potatoes, 77% of vegetables, 87% of fruits, 59% of meat, 49% of milk
* The Bovine: In 1999, 35 million small family plots produced 90% of Russia's potatoes, 77% of vegetables, 87% of fruits, 59% of meat, 49% of milk — way to go, people!
In 1999, 35 million small family plots produced 90% of Russia's potatoes, 77% of vegetables, 87% of fruits, 59% of meat, 49% of milk — way to go, people!
The Bovine, 09 August 2009
And since 1999, it seems things have only gotten better when it comes to small-scale agriculture in Russia.
In 2003 the Russian President signed into law a further "Private Garden Plot Act" enabling Russian citizens to receive free of charge from the state, plots of land in private inheritable ownership. Sizes of the plots differ by region but are between one and three hectares each [1 hectare = 2.2 acres]. Produce grown on these plots is not subject to taxation. A further subsequent law to facilitate the acquisition of land for gardening was passed in June 2006. (according to a footnote in "Who We Are" by Vladimir Megre, pg. 42)
What other country raises so much of their food in such sustainable, organic, and non-GMO modes of production? While the European Union is setting the stage for agribusiness takeovers of major market share from traditional peasant farmers in places likePoland, Russia seems to be one of the few countries on the global stage moving so clearly in a sustainable and healthy direction.
And while organic farming gets a lot of media attention in North America, the fraction of agricultural land actually under organic cultivation is miniscule at 0.6%. The EU is a bit better at 4%. In spite of the minimal land area under organic cultivation, the movement for healthy agriculture in North America is under increasing siege by government "regulators".
So what's behind this wonderful new revival of Russian peasant agriculture? Could it be as simple as one person — Anastasia — a 40-year-old woman from Siberia who befriended a traveling Russian entrepreneur? Based on material Anastasia gave him, that entrepreneur, Vladimir Megre, has published nine books which have become underground best-sellers in Russia.
One of Anastasia's imaginations, which Megre describes in considerable detail, is a future in which more and more people live on small (one-hectare) homesteads, which she calls Kin's Domains. There they cultivate the earth to grow trees and raise vegetables and fruits of exceptional nutritional value, with enough surplus to sell. Anastasia imagines a national culture based on simple rural life in eco-villages like these, in which values of health, love, truth, freedom and beauty take precedence. Eventually she sees this leading to a booming business in eco-tourism as people from all over the world want to come to Russia and catch with their own eyes a glimpse of what humanity and the world can become.
Anastasia, however, is not just a simple peasant woman. In fact, she seems to be something of a spiritual adept, in the ancient Vedic tradition. In addition to her suggestions for agriculture and nutrition, she shares with author Vladimir Megre, insights on subjects as diverse as statecraft and the education of children. The books are an enjoyable and educational read. Though it's sometimes tiresome to wade through Megre's personal struggles with the material, I don't think there's anything I've seen yet that quite compares with what Anastasia has put before us in these few slim volumes. She describes her mission as helping people find their way through "the dark forces' window of time". And that's something we could sure use some help with. Thanks Anastasia!
Here's an excerpt from one report on the Anastasia material from Scott Fraser, writing for RealitySandwich.com:
"….Vladimir Megre, a Siberian entrepreneur, is the author of The Ringing Cedars Series. The story begins with Vladimir on a commercial trade run through some remote communities of Siberia. He starts to build an interest in the economic value of the Siberian cedar, and then pursues reports of a "ringing cedar," an anomalous tree that stores cosmic energies and, after many hundreds of years, begins to ring. On his journey, Vladimir meets Anastasia, a young woman who has grown up in the Siberian wilderness. She brings Vladimir back to her forest glade and shares her advice with him regarding the raising of children, living a natural lifestyle, and illuminating the spirit of Creation that rests within every person.
For Vladimir, living a few days in Anastasia's world is full of shocking and mystifying experiences. Humbled by the simple accommodations of a grass-lined dugout and not even a fire, Vladimir witnesses the abilities of Anastasia's visionary "Ray," as well as her astonishing somersaults, swings, and soaring through the forest canopy. Both the wild animals and the plants in her domain are seemingly tamed, observes Vladimir, as he watches the squirrels bring her food, the cedars shower her in pollen, and witnesses a show of acrobatics with the denizen bear!
As Vladimir's critical interest in these phenomena grow, Anastasia stresses the importance of the wisdom she offers, offering the vision of an emerging culture re-united with Nature. Letting the children grow up in orchards and gardens full of our love is the key to reclaiming humanity's Creator role on earth, and this new Age of Co-Creation will be realized when we empower our dreams with the purity of thought that comes from living a natural life.
This is the story of The Ringing Cedars. Whether one accepts it as fact or fiction, it is playing a massive role in transforming the culture of Russia, and in various communities around the world.
Dachniks is a term for the cottage-gardeners of Russia, and we become very familiar with their story in reading Anastasia. Leonid Sharashkin, editor of The Ringing Cedars Series' English editions and a doctoral student in Agroforestry, is able to share with us the massive impacts of this gardening movement in the larger context of Russia's agricultural economy:
"Currently, with 35 million families (70% of Russia's population) working 8 million [hectares] of land and producing more than 40% of Russia's agricultural output, this is in all likelihood the most extensive microscale food production practice in any industrially developed nation.
"According to official statistics, in 1999 more than 35 million families (105 million people, or 71% of country's population) owned a dacha or a subsidiary plot and were cultivating it… The 35 million plots of these families occupy more than 8 million hectares and provide 92% of Russia's harvest of potatoes, 77% of its vegetables, 87% of berries and fruits, 59.4% of meat, and 49.2% of milk."
"When you look at the contribution of gardening to the national economy as a whole, it's even more stunning," Sharashkin said. "In 2004, gardeners' output amounted to 51% (by value) of the total agricultural output of the Russian Federation. This represents 384 billion rubles (approx. US$14 billion!!!), or 2.3% of Russia's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This is greater, for example, than the contribution of the whole of electric power generation industry (317 bn rubles), significantly greater than all of forestry, wood-processing and pulp and paper industry (180 bn), significantly greater than the coal (54 bn), natural gas (63 bn) and oil refining (88 bn) industries taken together. The share of food gardening in national agriculture has increased from 32% in 1992 to over 50% by 2000."
"Essentially, what Russian gardeners do," he concludes, "is demonstrate that gardeners can feed the world – and you do not need any GMOs, industrial farms, or any other technological gimmicks to guarantee everybody's got enough food to eat. Bear in mind that Russia only has 110 days of growing season per year – so in the US, for example, gardeners' output could be substantially greater. Today, however, the area taken up by lawns in the US is two times greater than that of Russia's gardens – and it produces nothing but a multi-billion-dollar lawn care industry."
Though the dacha movement has its roots in Russia's traditional peasant culture (and more recently in post-WW2 programs to boost agricultural production) the Ringing Cedars movement has had its own major contributions since the release of the books in 1996. A strong focus on planting trees and using non-timber tree products, permaculture principles like "no-dig" gardens, and fulfilling a spiritual relationship with the land are some of the new characteristics among the dachniks who have been inspired by Anastasia.
As well, the readers of Anastasia are also at the heart of a growing Russian eco-village movement. These are subsistence communities made up of multiple family estates, normally called "Kin's Domains," a term that appears in the books. Along with each family's estate of between one and three hectares, these eco-villages may include community areas with a school, clinic, theatre, and festival grounds. Before the release of the Ringing Cedars books, Russia was without an eco-village movement; but in 2004, a conference of readers had attendants representing more than 150 eco-villages!
The spiritual affinity within the communities of the Ringing Cedars movement lies in their vision of re-establishing "Motherland," an eco-culture where every person is fulfilling their role as a Divine Co-Creator. As readers go deeper into the series, Anastasia begins to reveal the path back to the state of a Creator Being, teaching about "The Science of Imagery," of empowering our creative ability with pure thought, feelings, and a loving relationship with Nature. She also shares her stories about the history of the People of Earth, of the priests who led us into the Occult Age that is just now ending, and of the Beauty that was found in the gardens and rituals of an ancient Vedic race.
Anastasia also gives advice regarding the sowing of seeds, raising bees, and ideas for setting up a permaculture-style estate. Along with accounts of kombucha UFOs, ancestraldolmens (ancient burial chambers), and supernatural orbs, The Ringing Cedars Series contains a diverse array of paranormal tales, practical sustainability, poetic scripture, and cultural vision. For me, the books are a captivating read of personal, cultural, and spiritual significance.
Across Russia, "Garden Plot Acts" legislation is increasingly coming into effect, entitling each Russian citizen to a piece of land free from taxation and inheritable though the family line. I read this message of sovereign title to land for the purpose of spiritual fulfillment as a hopeful tiding of humanity's future here on the planet. As I wander about visiting homesteads, farms, communities, and seeking the stories to inspire a natural and spiritual life, I have discovered Anastasia. It is one of those inspiring stories, and there are many blessings for us all on the path of Inspired Co-Creation…"
Read the whole story here on RealitySandwich.com
From "Woman in Russia.com":
"In the 1960s the then General Secretary N.S.Khrushchov in compliance with the agricultural programm in Russia began to grant private citizens six hundred square meters plot on lease in collective orchards. Such a plot was called "dacha" (a country house). In the 1990s dachas turned from a place for rest into a major means of surviving – people then were more like farmers than amateur gardeners. For most people a dacha is a place to grow vegetables, fruit, berries…"
The economic situation has been slightly changing in the country since the late 90s. And gradually dachas have been turning into a place for a rest…
Organic Farming by Country, from Wikipedia
"Out of Russia comes again the hope of the world" — Edgar Cayce See this page for more background on Russia's spiritual mission in our time.
Ringing Cedars Press — American distributor of the Anastasia books in English translation
Lead picture is from "From Russia with Love"
Second picture is from "Women in Russia"
Uncommon Vistas on Flickr, source for "A Russian Garden" photo (3rd picture)
Ecological Economics, SQSwans Reports, SS-Defcon, Subsistence Agriculture, Urban Gardening
The Bovine
ss-defcon
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ss-defcon says:
[…] While many in the world are completely dependent on large scale agriculture, the Russian people feed themselves. Their agricultural economy is small scale, predominantly organic and in the capable hands of the nation's people. Russians have something built into their DNA that creates the desire to grow their own food. It's a habit that has fed the Russian nation for centuries. It's not just a hobby but a massive contribution to Russia's agriculture. In 2011, 51% of Russia's food was grown either by dacha communities (40%), or peasant farmers (11%) leaving the rest (49%) of production to the large agricultural enterprises. But when you dig down into the earthy data from the Russian Statistics Service you discover some impressive details. Again in 2011, dacha gardens produced over 80% of the countries fruit and berries, over 66% of the vegetables, almost 80% of the potatoes and nearly 50% of the nations milk, much of it consumed raw. In a myriad of villages like Voskresenskoye, nestled deep in the Russian countryside, the monetary turmoil roiling the nation's large cities still seems a largely distant threat. "This crisis is for the rich, for people who have dollars. We never had money here," said Tamara Boychenko, a 68-year-old retired resident of the village located in northwest Russia about 80 kilometres (50 miles) from Saint Petersburg. Food sovereignty puts the people who produce, distribute and eat food at the centre of decisions about food production and policy rather than corporations and market institutions that have come to dominate the global food system. In Havana, Cuba 90% of the city's fresh produce comes from local urban farms and gardens. In 2003, the Russian government signed the Private Garden Plot Act into law, entitling citizens to private plots of land for free. These plots range from 0.89 hectares to 2.75 hectares. … In 2003 the Russian President signed into law a further "Private Garden Plot Act" enabling Russian citizens to receive free of charge from the state, plots of land in private inheritable ownership. Sizes of the plots differ by region but are between one and three hectares each [1 hectare = 2.2 acres]. Produce grown on these plots is not subject to taxation. A further subsequent law to facilitate the acquisition of land for gardening was passed in June 2006. "Essentially, what Russian gardeners do," he concludes, "is demonstrate that gardeners can feed the world – and you do not need any GMOs, industrial farms, or any other technological gimmicks to guarantee everybody's got enough food to eat. Bear in mind that Russia only has 110 days of growing season per year – so in the US, for example, gardeners' output could be substantially greater. Today, however, the area taken up by lawns in the US is two times greater than that of Russia's gardens – and it produces nothing but a multi-billion-dollar lawn care industry." – SQ-RN: Russia's Rural Villagers are Unphased by Economic Collapse; SQ-NH: Russian Family Gardens Produce 40% of Russian Food; SQ-TB: In 1999, 35 million small family plots produced 90% of Russia's potatoes, 77% of vegetables, 87% o….. […]
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Generation Dead: Consuming the Vampire – Holly Black's 'The Coldest Girl in Coldtown'
At the end of the lecture on Sedgwick, I told the group that in many ways Holly Black's The Coldest Girl in Coldtown (2013) was the opposite to the Sedgwick text, My Swordhand is Singing (discussed here). This meant that following my lecture, my first question in the seminar was: 'How does this text differ from Sedgwick's novel?' There were the obvious differences: it is set in the USA during the twenty-first century, the vampires are far more humanised and attractive, and the protagonist is young woman. However, it was the similarities within the text were particularly interesting in light of understanding YA Gothic.
As in My Swordhand is Singing, the protagonist had a difficult family. In both cases, the mother had died when the lead character was young, leaving them with an alcoholic father and significant guilt issues. The trope of the dead mother recurs throughout Gothic texts. As I mentioned in the first lecture, traditionally the mother was seen to provide emotional and moral sustenance within the household. An absent or dead mother was a sign that the protagonist was now vulnerable to nefarious outside sources. In the case of both Sedgwick and Black's novels, the death of their mother forces them to grow up faster and take on responsibilities more associated with adulthood. Peter regularly has to take on his father's responsibilities when Tomas has been drinking too much. Tana takes on a protective role towards her sister, Pearl, and takes the role of the mother in regards to running the household. Moreover, both their fathers appear to hold some resentment towards their children and both Peter and Tana believe that their fathers hold them responsible for the death of their wife. This means that neither character is strongly emotionally connected to their father allowing them to leave their homes in order to fight/ fall in love with vampires.
Unlike Sedgwick's novel, the vampire is a figure of desire who is preternaturally attractive rather than a bloated corpse. In Black's text, it is a vampire, Gavriel, who is the main object of Tana's affections. Throughout the novel, she realises that despite the danger he poses – he is both a vampire and insane – she is falling in love with him. Black repeatedly draws attention to Gavriel's appearance making it clear that apart from his red eyes, he looks like a beautiful, teenage boy. As with many supernatural love interests, he has the prerequisite full lips, high cheek bones, and scintillating eyes. Yet, although Black includes both Tana's ex-boyfriend, the bad boy Aiden, and Gavriel, as with Sedgwick, students agreed that romance was not the main driving force in the novel. Instead, the novel follows Tana's attempts to save both Aiden and Gavriel, before she gets caught in Gavriel's plot to kill his maker, and then finally she finds herself having to save Pearl.
The focus on the heroine rather than the romance, especially her need to save her little sister, show the influence of YA dystopian novels. Black's novel was published after Suzanne Collin's Hunger Games series (2008-2010) following which dystopia had become the new 'buzzword' in YA publishing. Black's novel fuses YA Gothic with YA dystopia via a heady mixture of consumerism and youth culture. The premise for The Coldest Girl in Coldtown is that vampirism had once been a 'gift' given only to a small number of people and vampires acted like feudal lords. In response to this as an act of rebellion, a young vampire starts biting humans haphazardly in order to spread vampirism. In Black's world, vampirism is an infection spread through the bite (rather like in Meyer's Twilight series). Having been bitten, the individual starts craving human blood. If they can resist drinking human blood for eighty-eight days (an almost inhuman task), they will remain human, if not they will die and come back a vampire. Those who are bitten are said to have 'gone Cold'. As the vampire infection spread, the American government set up Coldtowns: highly policed urban spaces that are surrounded by walls. Here vampires and those who have gone Cold are confined.
The narrative centres on one particular Coldtown which is ruled over by Lucian Moreau, a beautiful, blond, flamboyant vampire. Capitalising on the fact that the human population are at once entranced and disgusted by vampires, he sets up cameras around his mansion and creates a reality television empire. (In the novel, the two most popular reality television shows are Hemlock the Bounty Hunter, who kills/ captures vampires and is a play on Dog the Bounty Hunter [2003-2012], and Lucien Moreau's vampire show). The parallels between Lucien and Anne Rice's Lestat are clear. In Queen of the Damned (1988), Lestat decides to become a rock star. You can visit 'the nearest record store and ask to see the album which has only just arrived – also entitled The Vampire Lestat, with predictable modesty. Or if all else fails, switch on your cable TV, if you don't disdain of such things, and wait for one of Lestat's numerous rock video films which began to air with nauseating frequency only yesterday' (Queen of the Damned, pp. 13-14). Lestat embodies the rise of MTV culture in the eighties. Lucien, however, is a vampire for a new age.
In this way, whilst the Coldtowns can be read as prisons or internment camps, they can also be viewed through Michel Foucault's description of the Panopticon. The presence of the guards armed with flame throwers suggests a prison. However, the desire of Lucien and the other vampires to present themselves for visual consumption, and the desire of the humans to consume the vampire as a beautiful dead object, confuses the power structure. Reality television and social media at once empower and imprison both human and vampire alike. This is made clear in Black's novel as an industry arises from vampirism – there's a mall on the outskirts of the biggest Coldtown and young people flock to enter it in order to have to chance to party all night and perhaps live forever. (I am purposely paraphrasing the tag line from Lost Boys [1987], here). As part of this, Goth(ic) is also presented as something to both perform and consume. Death, and an obsession with one's own death, is romanticised throughout the novel. Through its depiction of popular consumer culture and social media, the text critiques and celebrates how subcultural identity is formed.
Within the text, the twin, Midnight and Winter, epitomise the need to create your own narrative through the use of social media. They sport fake names, blue hair, and an unhealthy desire to be turned into a vampire before their next birthday by going into a Coldtown. After she is attacked by a 'cold' Aiden, Midnight vlogs about the experience. Black writes:
'Tana had to admire the way Midnight was able to turn what happened
into a madcap story, into a part of the Legend of Midnight. Even the
not-so-good stuff was spun on its head to be enviable […]. But standing
in front of Midnight, knowing what actually happened, Tana could see
that Midnight wasn't just telling a story to other people, she was telling
a story to herself'
(Holly Black, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, p. 98).
Social media becomes a way of creating a new version of yourself. Midnight and Winter accessorise their Goth-persona with their social media presence. In many ways, their clothing and piercings act like the latest filter on SnapChat or Instagram. Our discussion of their characterisation during the seminar led me to ask, are Winter and Midnight actually Goths? Or just performing Goth? Which led to one student answering, "Is there a difference?" Black's novel, with its depiction of consumerism and capitalism gone full-vamp, seems to suggest that the distinction is no longer clear.
At the end of the seminars, I asked the students whether they would want to be a vampire, in Black's world. (It was universally agreed that Sedgwick's vampires held no temptation). Some of the answers were flippant. ("Of course, flawless skin every day is too much to resist"). To the heartbreaking. ("You'd watch everyone you loved die"). Regarding Black's novel and the presence of the Coldtowns, one student commented that they wouldn't want to be a vampire because whilst it looked like freedom in the form of rampant hedonism and eternal life, your incursion in the Coldtowns meant that you were far more constrained than in your human life. Vampirism in Black's is the ultimate gilded cage.
This entry was posted in Critical thoughts, Generation Dead: YA Fiction and the Gothic news and tagged Holly Black, teen gothic, Vampires. Bookmark the permalink.
1 Response to Generation Dead: Consuming the Vampire – Holly Black's 'The Coldest Girl in Coldtown'
Lucy Northenra says:
That sounds like an interesting discussion Kaja. I love this novel. The twin's catch phrase 'no more birthdays' is particularly ripe for discussion re: vampirism and romanticising death and Rob Latham's work is very pertinent to the wider theme of consumerism at work here. Social media is really given a very ambiguous and subversive treatment in relation to damaged teens and subcultures. It's a brilliant novel to teach I think and it sounds like your class was very pertinent to current debates!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Tag Archives: Joe McDonough
"BIG T'S JAZZ": RELICS OF JACK TEAGARDEN, 1928-64
This post is for my dear friend, the fine young trombonist Joe McDonough, who worships at the Teagarden shrine. A few days ago, I began to collect orts, fragments, and holy relics (from the treasure house of eBay and elsewhere) for him, and for you. Along with Louis, Sid Catlett, and Teddy Wilson, Jack was one of my earliest jazz heroes — and he remains one, memorably. Wonderful pieces of paper follow below, but no tribute to Jack could be silent. Although there are many versions of his hits in his discography, he made more superb recordings than many other players and singers. Here's one of his late masterpieces, a sad song that reveals Jack as a compelling actor in addition to everything else. The trumpet is by Don Goldie:
and an early one, with support from Vic Berton and frolics from Joe Venuti:
and since we can, here's another take (who knows at this point which is the master and the alternate?):
And the 1954 LOVER, with an astonishing cast: Jack, Ruby Braff, Sol Yaged, Lucky Thompson, Denzil Best, Milt Hinton, Kenny Kersey, Sidney Gross:
An early favorite of mine, the 1947 AUNt HAGAR'S BLUES, with beautiful work from Eddie Condon, Wild Bill Davison, and Pee Wee Russell:
And now, some pieces of paper. Remarkable ones!
Pages from an orchestral score for SUMMERTIME (title written in by Jack):
The seller of some of these treasures has a pleasing explanation, which I offer in full:
This is the score for Jack TEAGARDEN, when he performed in bands and orchestras, throughout the 1930s and 1940s. Jack TEAGARDEN was known as the jazz singer and jazz trombonist, who was an innovator at both. He was famous for playing trombone with the best – Paul WHITEMAN, the Dorseys, Louie Armstrong, etc., etc.
Teagarden's wife, Addie was a great personal friend, throughout the 1980s. She shared some of Jack's personal effects, including this historic and valuable score for "Summertime", which Jack actually used in studio and on stage. This is a genuine original score. What a great piece of jazz and musical history.
Jack's part on trombone is designated (in a small rectangle), on each of six, large, hand-written score sheets from Los Angeles and San Bernardino, California. The front of the sheets, when closed, has the words, Summer time, which have been doodled, by Jack.
I will be selling other TEAGARDEN and Louis Armstrong memorabilia, over the next year.
Weldon Leo "Jack" Teagarden (August 20, 1905 – January 15, 1964) was a jazz trombonist and singer. According to critic Scott Yannow of Allmusic, Teagarden was the preeminent American jazz trombone player before the bebop era of the 1940s and "one of the best jazz singers too".[1] Teagarden's early career was as a sideman with the likes of Tommy Dorsey, Paul Whiteman and lifelong friend Louis Armstrong before branching out as a bandleader in 1939 and specializing in New Orleans Jazz-style jazz until his death.
At my age (77), I am beginning to sell a lifelong, eclectic, collection of unique artwork. I enjoyed this great collection. Now, it's time to share it with others.
Is it "Milly" or "Willy"? Jack wished her or him the best of everything:
In 1936 and perhaps 1937, Jack was one-third of a small band aptly called THE THREE T's. Here's a page from a fan's autograph book (selling for 449.95 or thereabouts on eBay):
in 1940, Jack either played a Martin trombone or advertised one, or both:
Some years later, the Belgian label issued BOOGIE WOOGIE by Jack — which is from his 1944 transcription sessions:
And this is a Billboard ad for that same or similar band:
At the end of the Swing Era, when big bands were dissolving and throwing their leaders into deep debt, Jack got telegrams, at least one decidedly unfriendly:
Jack inscribed this photograph to the Chicago photographer Nat Silberman:
and the newspaper advertisement for Jack's last gig, at the Dream Room in New Orleans — where Connie Jones was with him:
At the end of the trail, Jack's headstone with its very moving inscription, although I wonder if those sweet moving words were his idea:
Posted in "Thanks A Million", Bliss!, Hotter Than That, Irreplaceable, It's All True, Jazz Titans, Jazz Worth Reading, Pay Attention!, Swing You Cats!, That Was Fun!, The Heroes Among Us, The Real Thing, The Things We Love, Wow!
Tagged Charlie Teagarden, Connie Jones, Denzil Best, Don Goldie, Eddie Condon, Frank Trumbauer, Jack Teagarden, Jazz Lives, Joe McDonough, Joe Venuti, Kenny Kersey, Louis Armstrong, Lucky Thompson, Michael Steinman, Milt Hinton, Nat Silberman, Norma Teagarden, Pee Wee Russell, roger Wolfe Kahn, Ruby Braff, Sidney Catlett, Sidney Gross, Teddy Wilson, Vic Berton, Wild Bill Davison, Willard Robison
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO LARRY McKENNA! (Part Two): LARRY McKENNA, SAM TAYLOR, STEVE ASH, NEAL MINER, FUKUSHI TAINAKA at SMALLS (June 23, 2019)
Larry McKenna got to the gig early, as did I and many others who knew what gorgeous music we were about to hear, created right in front of us. He and Sam Taylor, both on tenor saxophone; Steve Ash, piano; Neal Miner, string bass; Fukushi Tainaka, drums, made castles of sound for us — two sets' worth. And for those who live by clocks and calendars, Larry turned 82 on July 21, 2019. He's not "spry": he is in full flower right now. Consider the blossoming evidence of the first set at Smalls here.
Before the gig. Photograph by Melissa Gilstrap.
(Incidentally, Larry and Danny Tobias have a little concert date on Sunday, September 21, at the 1867 Sanctuary in Ewing, New Jersey — details here.)
Now, for the second set at Smalls — beautiful playing by everyone!
SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE (as they used to say, "from the movie of the same name):
The lovely THERE'S NO YOU (hear a delighted woman in the audience say, "Oh, yeah!" once the melody registers):
The durable swing standard ROSETTA, which gives Sam a very touching opportunity to tell about his early and sustained connection with Larry:
MORE THAN YOU KNOW, a feature for Sam:
And to close, another song associated with Earl Hines [and Louis Armstrong and Lester Young!] its title a sweet reminder of the bonds we forge, YOU CAN DEPEND ON ME:
The sounds of this evening were completely gratifying, but what got to me — and you can see it in the videos — were the smiles on the musicians' faces (echoed on the faces of people near me), expressions of gratitude, joy, and pride — what an honor it was to be there and, to hear the artistry, to feel the delight. How rare, how wonderful.
Posted in "Thanks A Million", Bliss!, Generosities, Ideal Places, It's All True, Jazz Titans, Pay Attention!, Swing You Cats!, That Was Fun!, The Heroes Among Us, The Real Thing, The Things We Love, Wow!
Tagged birthday, Danny Tobias, Earl Hines, Fats Navarro, Fukushi Tainaka, gratitude, Jazz Lives, Joe McDonough, John Herr, joy, Larry McKenna, Lester Young, Liz Waytkus, Louis Armstrong, Melissa Gilstrap, Michael Steinman, Neal Miner, Sam Taylor, Smalls, Steve Ash, THESE FOOLISH THINGS
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO LARRY McKENNA! (Part One): LARRY McKENNA, SAM TAYLOR, STEVE ASH, NEAL MINER, FUKUSHI TAINAKA at SMALLS (June 23, 2019)
Today, July 21, 2019, the wonderful tenor saxophonist Larry McKenna turns 82. Pause, please, to consider that.
Here is music that Larry and friends created, at Smalls in New York City, when he was a mere 81. The friends are Sam Taylor, tenor saxophone; Steve Ash, piano; Neal Miner, string bass; Fukushi Tainaka, drums.
This is the first set of two: savor the energetic singing quality Larry offers us and how it inspires not only the audience but the other players.
YOU'RE IT (Larry's original, based on IT'S YOU OR NO ONE):
a less-morose version of YOU'VE CHANGED:
and my request, THESE FOOLISH THINGS — with Steve's lovely introduction:
FATS FLATS (or BARRY'S BOP) which closed the first set:
Thanks of course to Sam Taylor, whose idea this session was, and to Fukushi, Steve, and Neal. Thanks also to Melissa Gilstrap, Liz Waytkus, Joe McDonough, and John Herr.
When we have music like this to be nourished by, who needs cake or wrapping paper? Every note is a celebration of our collective lives.
Posted in "Thanks A Million", Bliss!, Generosities, Ideal Places, It's All True, Jazz Titans, Mmmmmmmmmmmmm!, Pay Attention!, Swing You Cats!, That Was Fun!, The Heroes Among Us, The Real Thing, The Things We Love, Wow!
Tagged birthday, Fats Navarro, Fukushi Tainaka, Jazz Lives, Joe McDonough, John Herr, Larry McKenna, Liz Waytkus, Melissa Gilstrap, Michael Steinman, Neal Miner, Sam Taylor, Smalls, Steve Ash, THESE FOOLISH THINGS
REMIX WELL! (Part Two): GORDON AU'S GRAND STREET STOMPERS at SWING REMIX (April 13, 2019)
Here's the second part of a glorious evening of music and dance at Swing Remix, music provided and created by Gordon Au's Grand Street Stompers — who were, for this gig, expanded: Gordon, trumpet, arrangements, compositions; Joe McDonough, trombone; Ricky Alexander, Matt Koza, reeds; Nick Russo, guitar and banjo; Rob Adkins, string bass; Rob Garcia, drums. (R1 was there, stepping, twirling, and dipping, although my camera did not catch her in flight.) It added up to great dance music, delightful small-band jazz, splendidly played, with inventive arrangements that make familiar songs seem new.
Here's Part One.
Bechet's SI TU VOIS MA MERE, featuring Matt Koza, in honor of Earl McKee:
From an elegy to an original by Gordon, dedicated to a wayward feline:
A classic from the time when people still carried nickels for the pay phone:
The lovely Harry Ruby – Rube Bloom paean to simplicity:
A nocturnal horror in Swing:
Let's!
and an encore, from GUYS AND DOLLS:
Tagged Earl McKee, Frank Loesser, Gordon Au, Grand Street Stompers, Harry Ruby, Jazz Lives, Joe McDonough, Matt Koza, Michael Steinman, Nick Russo, R1, Ricky Alexander, Rob Adkins, Rob Garcia, Rube Bloom, swing dance, Swing Remix
AT THE BALL, THAT'S ALL (Part One): GORDON AU'S GRAND STREET STOMPERS at SWING REMIX (April 13, 2019)
Dance off both your shoes! Who could do otherwise when Gordon Au's Grand Street Stompers play for dancers? This took place at Swing Remix on April 13, 2019. That's Gordon, trumpet, compositions and arrangements; Joe McDonough, trombone; Ricky Alexander and Matt Koza, reeds; Nick Russo, guitar; Rob Adkins, string bass; Rob Garcia, drums; Molly Ryan, vocals. R1 was there, too, which meant that the universe was properly aligned.
The usual caveats apply (not at all to the music!): I can't shoot videos from the dance floor because of the eager traffic, people who have a right to be there and swing out. So these videos were recorded from an upstairs balcony, and as a result the sound is somewhat distant . . . but it is what you would have heard if you weren't fortunate enough to be dancing close to the wonderful band. I also confess to some technical difficulties (a recalcitrant camera) so the sound is stronger in one channel than the other: no need for you to get a hearing test. But it's there. . . .
Here are seven bursts of instrumental pleasure from early in the evening:
Gordon's own JUMP OUT AND GETCHA (perhaps because he is a connoisseur of things that go bump in the night?):
BLUE ROOM, with verse and clever arrangement:
Half of a new pair, PST (PACIFIC SWING TIME):
And a Grand Street Stompers' classic, SWANG THANG:
The second half, EST (for EASTERN SWING TIME), a composition John Kirby would admire:
Gordon's swinging and surprising take on early bebop, GROOVIN' HIGH:
and the attractive original NADINE:
There are more videos to come from this delightful evening. But even better . . . see, hear, and dance to the Grand Street Stompers in person: follow them here. See you on the dance floor (vertically, not horizontally).
Tagged Gordon Au, Gordon Au's Grand Street Stompers, Grand Street Stompers, Jazz Lives, Joe McDonough, Matt Koza, Michael Steinman, Molly Ryan, Nick Russo, Ricky Alexander, Rob Adkins, Rob Garcia, swing dance, Swing Remix
WONDER-FULL: THE NEW WONDERS' NEW CD
There are many ways to honor the tradition, in jazz as well as the other arts. Let us say you are a young musician who falls in love with an artifact — the OKeh record of TIGHT LIKE THIS by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five in 1928. You can use the recorded music as an inspiration to go your own way, to play something that honors Louis but is your own creation. Or, equally honorable, you can transcribe the recorded evidence, and offer to a new audience a live performance that comes as close to the original as possible, or one that allows for individual variation within the hallowed architecture of the original.
Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks — the great progenitor — and the newer groups such as the Original Cornell Syncopators and the New Wonders follow the latter path gloriously, sometimes recreating and re-enacting, sometimes honoring the original architecture while painting the interior windowsills periwinkle.
From left, Jared Engel, banjo; Joe McDonough, trombone; Jay Lepley, drums; Ricky Alexander, reeds; Mike Davis, cornet, leader; Jay Rattman, bass saxophone; Dalton Ridenhour, piano. Photograph by Jane Kratochvil
There are many ways in which the New Wonders are special. For one thing, they offer repertoire that has not been overdone — no SINGIN' THE BLUES, no STRUTTIN' WITH SOME BARBECUE. They draw from recordings made by the California Ramblers, the Chicago Loopers, Tiny Parham, Red Nichols, the Goofus Five, and others — wonderful pop tunes that haven't been played in ages. And they are a great paradox, for their approach is exact (reproducing pieces of arrangements, both instrumental and vocal, that are not easy to do) but loose. They are not museum curators, but they are not only playing the songs and moving on . . . and there is a spirit of great fun and ebullience without the least mockery or condescension. A performance or a recording by the New Wonders is a convincing bit of theatre: as if this group of beautifully-dressed young men had come to your house with the sweet notion of bringing 1927 back for a few hours. And they do it with love: the music can be precise and tender, or hot and bumptious — all in the space of a few songs.
I saw them create such wonders last August in Brice Moss' pastoralia, and it was memorable, as you can observe here. But there were limitations to the sound my microphone could capture, and this was the pianoless New Wonders. So I am delighted to announce their debut CD, titled THE NEW WONDERS, so that no one can mistake it for anything else. It's a delightful banquet of sounds from Messrs. Davis, McDonough, Alexander, Rattman, Engel, Lepley, and Ridenhour, as they playfully work their way through FLAMIN' MAMIE; REACHING FOR SOMEONE; I'M MORE THAN SATISFIED; BONEYARD SHUFFLE; POOR PAPA; I GET THE BLUES WHEN IT RAINS; I'D RATHER CRY OVER YOU; PERSIAN RUG; CLORINDA; I NEED LOVIN'; SMILE, DARN YA, SMILE; JUNGLE CRAWL; I'M WALKING BETWEEN THE RAINDROPS; SHE'S FUNNY THAT WAY; THE BALTIMORE.
I may be accused of ageism, but there is something particularly pleasing to hear these reasonably young (at least to me) musicians immerse themselves in music made by young musicians — an enthusiastic freshness. And there's another delightful oddity in the New Wonders' presentation: the vocal choruses. In my youth, we made fun of Wes Vaughan, we lifted the needle over Irving Kaufman (unless there was a hot obbligato) and in general, we waited for Bing to come along and make everything all right. Four members of The New Wonders sing (Lepley, Rattman, Alexander, and leader Davis) and they do it splendidly, not only in solo — verse as well as chorus — but in reproducing the intricate vocal parts from the Chicago Loopers date, CLORINDA and I'M MORE THAN SATISFIED — with great style, earnest without being stiff. Replaying this disc, I found myself looking forward to those beautifully-executed vocal outpourings, and I think you might share my pleasure.
Al fresco, August 2017
Here you can find out more about Mike and the band, and here is the band's Facebook page. And . . . . here is the CDBaby page for the new CD.
But the best way to buy a band CD is at the gig — maybe you'll get it signed, and you have the direct economic transfer of giving money to the musicians who have just played for you, so here is the event page for the New Wonders' CD release party — Tuesday, March 13, 2018, from 8-10 PM at Norwood, 241 W 14th St, New York, New York 10011. Mike points out, "Norwood is a members-only club. In order to attend this event all tickets must be purchased in advance. NO tickets will be sold on the premises." And I won't be able to make this gig, so those of you who are waiting for more videos might have to be in attendance, if possible. It will be Wonderful.
Tagged Bing Crosby, Bix Beiderbecke, Brice Moss, Dalton Ridenhour, Goofus Five, Irving Kaufman, Jane Kratochvil, Jared Engel, Jay Lepley, Jay Rattman, Jazz Lives, Joe McDonough, Louis Armstrong, Michael Steinman, Mike Davis, Original Cornell Syncopators, Red Nichols, Ricky Alexander, The Chicago Loopers, The New Wonders, Tiny Parham, Vince Giordano, Wes Vaughan
MORE HOT JAZZ IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN (Part Three): THE NEW WONDERS (MIKE DAVIS, JOE McDONOUGH, RICKY ALEXANDER, JARED ENGEL, JAY RATTMAN, JAY LEPLEY): AUGUST 20, 2017
The days are getting shorter, darker, and cooler. There's little that I can do to combat this, but I offer this third part of a glorious August afternoon as a palliative for the descent into winter.
Thanks to the energetic Brice Moss, I was able to attend and record a lovely outdoor session featuring The New Wonders — Mike Davis, cornet, vocal, arrangements; Jay Lepley, drums; Jay Rattman, bass saxophone and miscellaneous instrument; Joe McDonough, trombone, Ricky Alexander, reeds; Jared Engel, plectrum banjo. There's group singing here and there, which is its own idiomatic delight. This is the third of three posts: here is part one, and here is part two — both segments full of wondrous hot music.
And now . . . . a Hot one in Hot slow-motion, no less steamy — NOBODY'S SWEETHEART:
Did someone say "The Chicago Loopers"? Here's CLORINDA, with vocal quartet:
A serious question for sure, ARE YOU SORRY?
Another paean to the South from songwriters who may have gone no deeper than Battery Park, THAT'S THE GOOD OLD SUNNY SOUTH:
We'd like it to be a valid economic policy — THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE FREE:
DEEP BLUE SEA BLUES, with a surprising double for Jay Rattman:
Who needs an umbrella? I'M WALKING BETWEEN THE RAINDROPS:
and an emotional choice, I'D RATHER CRY OVER YOU:
Deep thanks, as before, to Brice, family, friends, and to these splendid musicians, for making an Edenic idea come to life.
And I don't have the delicious artifact yet, but The New Wonders did and have finished their debut CD. I am willing to wager that it will live up to the band name. Details as I know them.
Tagged Ana Quintana, Annette Hanshaw, Bix and his Gang, Bix Beiderbecke, Brice Moss, California Ramblers, Chester, Cliff Edwards, Eden, Eubie Blake, Evan Arntzen, Frank Trumbauer, Fud Livingston, Garden of Eden, Harvey Tibbs, hot jazz, Jared Engel, Jay Lepley, Jay Rattman, Jazz Lives, Joe McDonough, Jon-Erik Kellso, Ken Salvo, Mark Lopeman, Michael Steinman, Miff Mole, Mike Davis, Noble Sissle, Red Nichols, Ricky Alexander, The New Wonders, Tiny Parham, Ukulele Ike, Vince Giordano


There are many myths surrounding bats, but one thing is for certain, they sure know how to swim.
Sometimes we think we know the truth about a certain animal but then someone posts a video on a website of that certain animal doing something you would never expect and you lose your mind.
Look at this guy go! He's practically a pro!
According to the Smithsonian Museum, bats can swim if the need arises, but it's not part of their daily curriculum.
Most bats interact with water when they want a drink and do so by swooping down and skimming the water's surface. This guy may have been extra thirsty. Or maybe bats are like humans with their own individual wants and this guy wanted to take a swim.
Interested in learning more about bats, click here. Or here. And try not to laugh when you watch this bat devour a banana.
Did you know bats can swim? Let us know in the comments!


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Home › Tuvizo › Running, Cycling, Rowing, Hiking – All Can Be Enjoyed By Blind Or Partially Sighted People
Running, Cycling, Rowing, Hiking – All Can Be Enjoyed By Blind Or Partially Sighted People
Mar 31 2015 0 Comments March 2015
Image credit: Flickr user Jiri Cech
Visually impaired or blind cyclists are enjoying cycling in many parts of the world through riding stoker on a tandem. Stokers sit at the back of the bike and they greatly increase the speed of the tandem and are considered the power behind the throne. The captain is the sighted guy at the front who is responsible for the steering, gears and brakes. Until the stoker and the captain get used to each other's riding styles, the captain will give a running commentary on the scenery, bends, holes in the road and the general lay of the land. As they get to know each other, the stoker will be able to anticipate when the captain is about to lean or tuck or stand up on the pedals. There are many clubs which not only have regular day rides but also hold multi day rallies for tandems. Many of these events raise money for various charities for the blind and partially sighted and they are also used to raise awareness. Remember to wear a reflective vest or reflective belt wherever you cycle.
KARISSA WHITSELL – PARALYMPIAN
Karissa Whitsell was born in 1981 and was diagnosed with degenerative macular dystrophy at the age of nine. She always loved riding a bike and as her sight deteriorated so she decided to give tandem riding a try. Karissa was only nineteen when she went to the 2000 Paralympics, the first of three visits to the games. Karissa has ridden with several captains but one of her favourites is Lisa Turnbull. It takes a while to get to know each other's riding style, so it is really beneficial to stay together as a team. Karissa Whitsell is still racing and enjoying promoting tandem riding for the partially sighted and the blind.
Image credit: Flickr user Gustavo Fernandez
Like most people learning a new skill, the students start with the basics and this usually begins with practising on a rowing machine, followed by going into a rowing tank and learning to master a sweep oar. Rowing is a sport in which visually impaired and blind athletes can compete on an equal footing with sighted athletes. Adaptive rowing became an official sport in the Beijing 2008 Paralympics and includes people with different mental, physical and sensory challenges. Sue Buckley who is president and founder of Club VIBES (Visually Impaired/Blind Enhanced Services) in Knoxville, USA has been investigating different physical activities which visually impaired people can enjoy. She has this to say about rowing, "Eyesight is not necessarily an asset, so that was one of the things that we wanted to try. We understand that during parts of training the rowing crew actually shut their eyes. ORRA (Oak Ridge Rowing Association) chairman, Terry Holly said, "We use our sense of hearing primarily, the sense that you listen to the water, you listen to the oars as they turn, you listen to the slide which is the seat moving back and forth so that your other senses focus on how to row and all the technical aspects of it." Rowing gives the participant an excellent low impact body workout and participants have commented on how it has helped lower their blood pressure, helped them to lose a few pounds and they feel generally fitter. The social aspect of rowing and meeting like minded souls, is also a great boost to confidence and morale.
VICTORIA NOLAN – OLYMPIC GOLD
In 1993, Victoria Nolan was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa, she was only 18 years old. Victoria married and had two children but by then she only had three per cent vision left. Determined not to give in to her disability she decided to take up a sport and tried rowing. Victoria fell in love with it and quickly turned her hobby into her passion. In 2007 Victoria joined the Canadian National Adaptive Rowing Team and in 2008 competed in the Beijing Olympics. Victoria has travelled the world, winning many medals along the way and retired in 2012. She is a special education teacher and holds a Masters Degree in education and a degree in special cognitive science. When not teaching, Victoria is sought after as a motivational speaker, where her guide dog, Nolan, is usually the centre of attention.
Road running is a great way for the visually impaired and blind to either continue a lifelong passion or start a new one. The usual way to run is with a road guide. Running with a tether is a good way to boost communication, with the runner and the guide taking hold of each end. The guide will run slightly ahead and to the side of the runner and so the runner will be able to sense turns and the guide can give a sharp pull if there is danger ahead. The length of the tether varies depending on the road conditions and how far apart the two need to run. The site www.blindrunner.com suggests tying a loop at each end big enough to put your hand through but says "I just loop my fingers through the loop rather than sliding the look around my wrist. This is because some guides are clumsy and why should I hit the dirt because I trip up. LOL." It is important that the guide is a stronger runner than the visually impaired runner as he will need to give a verbal commentary as well as run. It is suggested that the guide gives notice of curbs, inclines etc at least three steps before they happen. If there is a narrow gap the visually impaired runner prefers to run behind rather than ahead. The Blind Runner site also says "random statements, such as 'Watch it', 'Turn', 'Look Out' mean nothing. Remember, I'm blind, not psychic!" Everyone who runs where there are other road users should remember to wear a reflective running vest or reflective belt to ensure high visibility in all weather and light conditions. Here are some running techniques for blind runners from the official YouTube page of the National Federation of the Blind:
SIMON WHEATCROFT - ADAPTING
Simon Wheatcroft has been legally blind since the age of 17 having been born with a degenerative eye disease – Retina Pigmentosa (RP). This was only diagnosed when Simon was 9 and he was expected to retain most of his vision well into his adult life but he had lost his sight by the age of 28. Simon started his running life by running on a football field but found the dog walkers and their canine companions kept bumping into him. He then decided that he would run on a closed road, using the feel of the yellow lines under his feet as a guide and using the phone app, Run Keeper, to tell him the distance he had travelled and his pace. His partnership with the app company and AirBNB has also culminated into a web-focused comprehensive account of his journey from Boston to NYC. Simon Wheatcroft soon got bored with his small closed road and decided to try his luck at running along the yellow lines on the nearby dual carriageway, trusting that the cars would try and avoid knocking him over. Simon gradually learnt where the lamp posts and other hazards were and had a three mile route which he could happily run on his own. Simon now wanted a challenge, so he chose to run a 100 mile race in the Cotswolds in England, as a mere marathon didn't seem far enough. He ran 83 miles of that race unaided. In 2014 Simon Wheatcroft achieved what very few people would even contemplate. He ran from Boston to New York and then ran the New York marathon. He has recently scaled Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest point, with a group of three other people to raise funds for charities. Simon was not interested in breaking any records, he just wanted to enjoy himself and interact with people along the way. He is also a powerful motivational speaker and holds talks in the States and the UK in an effort to raise money for various organisations which assist the blind. Simon is also part of a group that are encouraging people to become running guides to help people who are visually impaired to fulfil their dreams.
Hiking is a marvellous way to get back to nature and unwind. Partially sighted and blind people can enjoy hiking with the help of a guide or a guide dog and some have even hiked thousands of miles solo. Many people have commented that even though they don't have their sight, the heightening of their senses such as touch, sound and smell is so great, that they feel their sighted counterparts miss out on the experience.
TREVOR THOMAS – BLIND HIKER – AN INSPIRATION
Trevor Thomas is an adrenaline junkie who found his first thrill at the age of three – downhill skiing. Over the years Trevor followed this with racing cars, extreme mountain biking, sky diving and any other high risk sport he could think of. At the age of 35, after only eight months of being diagnosed with a rare incurable eye disorder, Trevor was blind. After suffering from depression for many months due to loss of self esteem and his reliability on others, a friend of Trevor's suggested that he start hiking as a way to regain some of his independence. Trevor thought that hiking was far too tame for him and had never even contemplated it before. He began slowly and said that on one visit to his outfitters he decided he would hike the 2,175 mile Appalachian Trail on his own. Trevor said, "As you can expect, my family thought I had lost my mind along with my eyesight!" Eighty per cent of hikers who start the Appalachian Trail pull out before the end, so imagine the challenges facing a blind hiker. Trevor's outfitter had done the AP a few years before and spent months trying to get Trevor as ready as he could for this long hike. Trevor began his journey and would tell hikers he met that he was blind and hiking the whole trail, and asked them to confirm exactly where he was on the trail and if he was still walking in the right direction. This worked well at the beginning of the trail as there were so many hikers but as Trevor moved on so he met less and less people who could confirm his whereabouts. Trevor found that he was hiking more and more on his own. Trevor was surprised to find that the people he met found him and his journey inspirational. He said it gave him a chance to share his story with people and explain what it was like being blind. His fellow hikers kept asking him where he was going to hike next – a thought which hadn't even entered his head, but now the seed was sown. Trevor's trail companions gave him the trail name of 'Zero/Zero'; a reference to his blindness. Since his 2008 hike of the AP trail, Trevor has hiked over 18,000 miles on some of the world's toughest trails. More recently, he has been joined by his guide dog, Tennille. Trevor expresses how important Tennille is in life, "Getting Tennille was probably the best decision I ever made since going blind. She has changed blindness from a negative to a positive, especially with my interaction with people. Now that I have Tennille people want to engage with us, they want to find out more about this amazing dog I have....Just the sheer companionship alone is worth its weight in gold. Tennille's not only a guide, she's a friend. In 2014 Trevor Thomas founded the Team Far Sight Foundation whose main goal is to empower visually impaired and blind young adults through hiking.
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A Story of Trump and Protests
It is almost exam week in Maastricht again and even though we sometimes feel like the world around us stops, it (luckily) doesn't. In case you didn't have time to read the news this week, here is a summary of some important things that happened.
Firstly, there is some news with regard to the impeachment inquiry of Donald Trump. The impeachment procedure against president Trump began in September this year because an anonymous whistle-blower complained to Congress that Trump withheld military aid. Additionally, Trump used a White House meeting as a way to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into announcing investigations against Trump's political rival, Joe Biden. In July, Trump also asked Zelensky in a phone call to pursue investigations against Joe Biden and his sonand to support the conspiracy theory that Ukraine, and not Russia, stood behind the 2016 presidential election.
The House judiciary committee now released a report on constitutional grounds for impeachment before Monday's public hearing to consider evidence against Trump. Donald Trump described this process as a 'witch-hunt'. However, a vote on articles of impeachment could already be held next week.
But that's not the only reason why Trump appeared in the news this week. French President Macron gave an interview to The Economist in which he stated that 'What we are currently experiencing is the brain death of NATO.' On the morning after a two-day NATO meeting, Trump blasts Macron's 'brain dead' comments on the NATO as a 'very, very nasty statement'. He further said that 'nobody needs NATO more than France'. Macron mainly based his statement on criticism of NATO to reflect his frustration of the situation between Turkey and Syria. In October, Turkey (who is a member of NATO) entered Syria without coordination with any NATO partner aside from the US. Macron figures that this invasion has undermined the battle against Islamic State. Trump however, seems to side with the Turkish leader Recep Tyyip Erdoğan. He said that Turkey 'couldn't be nicer, more supportive, very helpful.' Trump also added that the Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed because of Turkey's cooperation.
Meanwhile, the United Nation climate summit, known as COP25, started on Monday this week in Madrid and will last until 13 December. The aim is to bring countries together to consider ways to strengthen the joint implementation of the Paris Agreement. Climate activist Greta Thunberg also arrived in Madrid on Monday morning to participate the march that took place in the Spanish capital. She spoke in a press conference about the impact the global climate strike movement had so far and stated that 'we are getting bigger and bigger, and our voices are being heard more and more, but of course that does not translate into political action.'
After the speech, the march took place in Madrid. According to a tweet posted by Greta and Greenpeace Germany, half- million people demonstrated in Madrid, demanding for climate justice and political changes. The Spanish police said that only 15.000 people participated in the demonstration. An explanation for this discrepancy in numbers has not been shared yet.
Those are not the only protests going on right now. In Bogotá, the capital of Colombia, thousands of people thronged the streets for a third national strike in two weeks, aiming to put more pressure on the right-wing president Iván Duque and his proposed new tax reforms.
In India as well, the group rape and murder of a vet in Hyderbad has triggered mass protests of thousands of people. The people expressed their rage about the ongoing mass rape and murder of girls and women in the country. A survey conducted by UN Women showed that 95% of female residents in New Delhi feel 'unsafe' in public spaces of the city. For a long time, there have been terrible cases of rape and murder in India, which have been subject to discussion. There has also been changes in law which results in longer sentences for rapist. However, a lot of activist claim that the government does not do enough about the rising number of violent crimes against women.
Image retrieved from: https://deadline.com/2019/11/president-donald-trump-tweetstorm-the-saturday-edition-50-1202797524/
Mandatory Credit: Photo by Evan Vucci/AP/Shutterstock (10434333bm) Donald Trump, Sauli Niinisto. President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto in the Oval Office of the White House, in Washington Trump, Washington, USA – 02 Oct 2019


Learn how to make banana pancakes that the whole family will ask for again and again. This recipe for banana pancakes from scratch is just as easy as whipping up the traditional kind. This recipe for banana pancakes from scratch is just as easy as �... Pancakes are a splendid scrumptious breakfast meals, but if they are not made right, they are not pretty so excellent scrumptious. They may be hard, doughy, chewy, burnt, or any other quantity of defects.
Golden Pancakes. Nothing's as good as Golden. Scrumptious, fluffy and easy to serve. No artificial colours or flavours. Nothing's as good as Golden. Scrumptious, fluffy and easy to serve.... It is International Pancake Day today and if you don't want to end up with an eggy, floury mess where there should be golden brown pancakes, you had better read the following advice.
This is a recipe passed down from my grandmother. My mum called them 'on the farm' pancakes. These are amazing with maple syrup, golden syrup, lemon curd, Nutella � how to cook scrambled eggs on a grill Pancakes are a super delicious breakfast food, but if they aren't made right, they aren't quite so super delicious. They can be tough, doughy, chewy, burnt, or any other number of defects.
Rise and shine with these Golden Pancakes. Golden, fluffy, and perfectly sweet, these pancakes have everything you need to take on the morning. Enjoy every bite and add some flavor to your morning. Golden, fluffy, and perfectly sweet, these pancakes have everything you need to take on the morning.
STEP 6 Pour in mixture to form pancakes of desired size. Cook one side until bubbles appear and pop, flip pancake and cook until golden. Cook one side until bubbles appear and pop, flip pancake and cook until golden.
It is International Pancake Day today and if you don't want to end up with an eggy, floury mess where there should be golden brown pancakes, you had better read the following advice.


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'The Masked Singer' Finale Spoilers & Recap: Who Won The Competition? Who Was Behind The Masks?
By Cammy Harbison On 2/27/19 at 6:10 PM EST
Culture The Masked Singer The Masked Singer Identities The Masked Singer Spoilers Finale
"The Masked Singer" returns Wednesday at 8 p.m. EST. Check out our spoilers and live recap of the Season 1 finale including who won and who was behind the Monster, Bee and Peacock masks.
The Masked Singer season 1 finale has arrived. Tonight, the final three contestants — Monster, Bee and Peacock will be unmasked during a special two-hour finale that begins at 8 p.m. ET. Throughout the evening, the three remaining contestants will perform and one by one, each be unmasked. The performer with the most votes will be unmasked last and proclaimed the "winner" of The Masked Singer and the Golden Mask. The judges' panel will once again welcome comedian Kenan Thompson to the stage.
Which Singers Have Been Unmasked So Far?
Nine singers have been unmasked so far. The Hippo was the first singer to lose his cover as during episode one he was unmasked as the Steelers' Antonio Brown . During Episode the Pineapple received the lowest number of votes and was revealed to be Tommy Chong from the comedy duo Cheech and Chong. In episode three, the Deer got the lowest number of votes and, when unmasked, was identified as former NFL Quarterback and sports analyst Terry Bradshaw. In Episode four, viewers said goodbye to the Poodle who turned out to be comedian Margaret Cho. During Episode 5, the Unicorn unmasked as Tori Spelling. In week six we finally got to see who the face was behind the dark and brooding Raven mask. It turned out to be none other than the award-winning Talk Show host, Ricky Lake. On week seven after a long series of other-worldly clues, the Alien was revealed as singer, author and actress, Latoya Jackson. Then during last week's semi-finals two contestants were unmasked — The Rabbit (Joey Fatone) and the Lion (Rumer Willis)
Once the show begins, we'll provide a live-blogged recap of everything that happens, including the songs performed by each of the masked contestants and results for who won Season 1 of The Masked Singer. Tonight's show is one you won't want to miss, so be sure to check in with us on Wednesday at 8 p.m. EDT for a full recap of the event. You can also check out our earlier recaps and guesses for who might be behind the masks, here.
The Masked Singer Finale Recap: Who Won The Masked Singer? Who Got The Golden Mask?
Who will win The Masked Singer finale? The internet favors The Monster. FOX
Identities Revealed
Toward the end of the show, the singers were unveiled according to votes received. The results were as follows:
3rd Place - The Bee - Gladys Knight!
2nd Place - The Peacock - Donny Osmond!
1st Place (Golden Mask Winner) - The Monster - T-Pain!
Check out the full live-blogged recap, below.
8:10 p.m. - The first 10 minutes of the show recap everything that's happened over the season, with a focus on the Monster's run on the show. A few of the guesses for his identity this season were called out as well as some of the following key clues to his identity:
Gold Grill
RELATED: This 'Masked Singer' Clue Confirms The Monster's Identity
8:20 p.m. - After the commercial break, the show moves the focus to the contestants unmasked each week and their identities as well as a few of the key clues to their identities.
8:25 p.m. - Following the second commercial, the show features the Bee's journey. She discusses the difficulty she had with projecting her voice through the costume. The Bee also shared how much fun she's had singing newer tunes.
Some of the key clues to her identity were as follows:
Has known Aretha Franklin since she was a child.
Started performing in the 50's
She has 10 Grammys
Peaches, waffles and bakeware play heavily into her clues.
Empress of Soul
RELATED: 'The Masked Singer' Revealed a Clue That Confirms The Bee's Identity
8:35 p.m. - Returning from the break, Nick focuses in on the Raven, Alien, Lion and Rabbit who were unmasked as Ricky Lake, LaToya Jackson, Rumer Willis and Joey Fatone.
This 'Masked Singer' Clue Reveals The Identity of The Lion
This 'Masked Singer' Clue Confirms The Identity of The Rabbit
8:45 p.m. - After the fourth break, the show moves its focus to the Peacock, featuring his various performances over the season. The Peacock talks about how badly he hopes to win the competition and make a comeback. There are several references to magic.
'The Masked Singer' Revealed a Major Clue That Confirms One Contestant's Identity
'The Masked Singer' Blurred Lines Clue Seals the Deal on the Peacock's Identity
8:55 p.m. - We get some new clues about each of the contestants. They are as follows:
The Peacock (New Clues)
You could say I strut like an egyptian because I had a starring role next to a pharaoh and another alongside pyramids. Now Bee may have her hive but a bee hive symbolizes where I'm from. I hope to make you proud as a peacock.
The Bee (New Clues)
Hello to all my bee-levers.Now, you may ask did I train for this show? Well, I won a singing competition before the panelists were even born. Peacock may have those Vegas clues, but I once had the number one show on the Vegas strip .I'm no stranger to show business.
The Monster (New Clues)
What's up team monster? Now we may all dread it, but let's talk about the bird and the bee. I've got the music, the lyrics and the cadence to take them down — whether it's in my cave, at the bar or on a boat.
9:00 p.m - Up next the show focuses on performances by the remaining contestants. First to perform is the Peacock. He sings "Shake a Tail Feather" by Ray Charles. After his performance the Peacock says that in all the performing he's done, this has been his favorite experience.
9:15 p.m. - Following the Peacock is the Bee. She performs a moving rendition of Bonnie Raitt's "I Can't Make You Love Me." The crowd is in love. Though it's clear everyone thinks Gladys Knight is behind the Bee's mask, she dropped on last clue that may confirm her identity as Knight -- "I have 17 grandkids."
9:25 p.m . - Returning from the commercial break, the spotlight turns back to the Monster. He performs Montell Jordan's "This is How We Do It." The judges marvel over the many different genres the Monster has sung this season. "He's like a chameleon," says Ken.
9:35 p.m. - Returning from the break, the votes are in and the Bee comes in third place and will now be unmasked. The whole panel is leaning on Gladys Knight. When the Bee is unmasked she is: GLADYS KNIGHT
When asked why she came on the show, Knight said,
"Because we should always strive to do different kinds of things because they elevate us eventually."
9:45 p.m. - Cannon reveals that The Monster was chosen as the season winner and will don the Golden Mask. This means the Peacock will be revealed first. His identity turned out to be, Donny Osmond.
When asked why she came on the show, Osmond said,
"Because it's fun! I had the time of my life here! It's better than being Donny Osmond!"
9:55 p.m. - In the final moments of the evening, the Monster is brought into the spotlight for his big reveal. Nick Cannon says from the moment he first heard the Monsters voice he felt he knew who it was. He writes the name down on a sheet of paper to cross check after the Monster is unmasekd. When the mask is removed, his identity is revealed as T-Pain.
When asked why he came on the show, T-Pain said,
"I didn't have the chance to come into the game with my natural voice like a lot of my peers did … This helped me get my voice out there."
'The Masked Singer' Finale Spoilers & Recap: Who Won The Competition? Who Was Behind The Masks? | Culture
New 'Masked Singer' Clue Reveals The Peacock's Identity
This 'Masked Singer' Clue Confirms The Bee's Identity
New 'Masked Singer' Clue Reveals The Monster


This past Sunday I preached 1 Peter 3:1-8. It's not an easy text to hear for modern, Western peoples. In fact, if you read it quickly, it sounds like the first line of evidence in the argument for the case that the Bible is really just an outdated, mostly useless book. Most of us read the Bible about like we read our Facebook feed — quickly, shallowly, and on the hunt for cheap click-bait. So, when we come to a text like the one above, we're instinctively hunting for the frowny-face button to show our dislike. Let me suggest a different way.
Sweep Everything Under the "Culture" Rug One of the quickest ways we Christians have found to alleviate ourselves from the need to listen to (much less obey) hard texts is by saying something like, "Oh, that was cultural. They believed/acted/understood that in a certain way back then, but we're in a different (which we often mean as a euphemism for "better") culture now."
No. In fact, embracing this technique is really the first step in unraveling your trust in the text entirely, because pretty soon you're the one picking and choosing what is a best fit in our culture. That's not biblical faithfulness, it's syncretism. Furthermore, it's strikingly similar to the method of Bible reading that slavery-endorsing "pastors" used in the south hundreds of years ago, and Nazi-endorsing "pastors" used decades ago. Anyone excited about the culture-driven Bible reading plan anymore? Ok, let's move on.
React and Run Away Reactivity is almost never good, and that's especially true with the text of the Bible. When the Bible offends you, don't run away. You probably should do the when anyone offends you. Yet, we're nursing a kind of millennial angst against offense. Hurting someone's feelings is now morally equivalent to punching them in the face repeatedly. It's just that nothing about that is true. God hurts our feelings with truth so that he can show us grace. When you're offended, lean in.
I'm taking some of Tim Keller's best ideas on this and expanding them with my own thoughts. So, let's see what we should do with a hard text when it comes and offends us.
Consider the possibility that it doesn't mean what you think. Most of the time that we're offended at a text it's because we've read it at the aforementioned Facebook-feed-level of depth. We're just ignorant of what it's saying because we're not ancient Greek-speaking Romans (in the case of the NT audience). That why people like me go to graduate school — to understand the text so that we can explain it more accurately to our readers and listeners. So, when a text is hard to hear, ask yourself if you're hearing it rightly.
Consider your unchecked belief in the superiority of your own cultural moment. "That text is offensive," we say. "It's anti-woman, or anti-gay, or anti-progressive cultural values." But let's do a little thought experiment. Suppose we all got on a plane and went to Moscow, then Ramadi, and then Hong Kong. Suppose we brought our offensive Bible text with us. In each of those cities (and cultures) they would have problems with the Bible — just not your problems with the Bible. All the texts we think are regressive for women seem to progressive in Ramadi, for example. So why do you and your culture's problems with the Bible get to be the controlling, most important problems with the Bible?
Dismissing the Bible because you think it's regressive is, at bottom, an act of pretty extreme arrogance. Sitting atop your mountain of presumed progress, you look down your nose at those poor regressive (which is the NewSpeak pejorative du jour) peoples. Humility would, in this case, be listening to the text.
Ask yourself, "Do I really want a God like me? We all want God to be on our side, at least initially. But then we need to stop and think, do we really? I mean, you're great and all, but if God is pretty much up there agreeing with you and your culture all the time, in what sense is He God over you? At what point does God get to come and fundamentally alter or correct us and our ways of life?
In fact, relationships involve trusting the other enough to correct us. God is not a Stepford wife. He is not programmed by us for our pleasure. You can't have a relationship with someone like that. God is God, and He loves us enough to unsettle us from time to time.
Finally, find the good news. I love the Bible. Like, a lot. And yet there are whole chunks of it that I find really hard to read and understand. But part of the fun of reading the text is digging for diamonds. It takes hard work sometimes, but eventually you strike upon the deeper vein of treasure.
Ask yourself, "where is the good news in this text? Why would the Spirit have inspired this to be here for me to read?" Get a good study Bible, a good commentary, a good church, and get to work.
The generosity of God in Jesus Christ means responsibility and generosity in this life. God has been crazy generous to his people. He, the wealthiest conceivable being, took responsibility for a problem that was not his own (our sin) and generously dealt with it at the highest imaginable cost, the death of His Son. When we receive that grace, we should do likewise.
Hyper-Capitalism isn't the Kingdom Making profits in business is good, not bad. I mean, Jesus worked as a for-profit small business owner for the great majority of his adult life. But hyper-capitalism is the belief that profit is the good — transforming a tool into an idol. This false view of God's stuff plays on the emotion of fear and love — fear of lacking money, and a love of money itself. It creates selfish, money hungry people, not disciples.
Marxio-Communo-Socialism isn't the Kingdom, Either When I made point 2 yesterday, everyone smiled. When I made this point, everyone scowled. That's because I'm in the Northeast. If I preached the same sermon in Alabama, it would have been just the reverse. But again, Jesus was a small-business owner. He wasn't a socialist (or a communist, or a Marxist), because he very obviously believed in the private ownership of property and the means of production. This view doesn't play on our love of money or fear of lack. Rather, it plays on our self-pity and jealousy.
A Right View of Money Starts with a Right View of God We can't build an autonomous view of money. If we're going to think, feel, and act rightly with God's stuff, then we should probably think, feel, and act the way God does about stuff. If you think God is a celestial miser, you'll treat money wrong. If you think God is to be manipulated by prayer and obedience into giving you what he wouldn't otherwise, you'll treat money wrong. We must see that God is crazy generous. That's the starting point. And, his generosity is on display for all to see in the giving of Jesus for the sins of the world.
Receiving God's Generous Grace Means We Must Be Responsible When we get something from God, we must note three things: (1) It's not ours, it's God's. (2) We must be faithful with it — using the best wisdom from the Scriptures and from the pros to manage it well. And, (3) we must use our faith. We should invest, save, and spend in faith — asking and trusting God to provide blessing and protection over our investment.
Receiving God's Generous Grace Means We Must Be Generous We can't be selfish grace recipients. Receiving grace entails generosity. This one's pretty simple, really. If we're not responsible with God's stuff, we won't have any money with which to be generous. But if we are, we will. And when we are responsible and see a profit, we must be generous.
Preaching on Money is Not Fun, It's Necessary Man, I got some mean looks from folk when I criticized their politics. The idolization of the voting booth appears to be alive and well in my church. I intend to offend into the light and kill it with the truth, because the belief that we can vote the Kingdom of God in from the hyper-capitalist or the socialist is just plain foolish. I'm not called to console Republicans or make Democrats. I'm called to make disciples, and the politics of the Kingdom would scandalize both parties and their respective economic visions at different levels.
Yesterday was Easter Sunday — pretty much the biggest Sunday for us pastors. The pressure was on early this year, since Easter came so Early. But, the folks show up in their Sunday best (even in Boston). Familiar and unfamiliar faces find their way into the seats to celebrate the risen King. Or, at least, to have something to do before brunch.
In any case, Easter Sunday can be a source of massive encouragement and/or massive discouragement for us pastors. So, here are four handy reminders for those of you who find yourself in ministry this meaning, either feeling either good or bad over what are simply the wrong things.
Measuring my church's crowd against your church's crowd is just terrible. I've been on both sides of that equation. When church is small, you think, "I'll feel better better when it's bigger." But, you don't. When the church is big you think, "I wonder if I'll see many of these people again." Quit comparing your church to something else. Pretty sure the only one who wins there is the devil. Be faithful with what you have, not fretful over what you don't.
Fact: If you give me a million dollars in my marketing and outreach budget, my church will "grow" enormously.
I love that a lot of people came yesterday. And, I'm grateful that it was more than the previous year. But let's be honest, it's way easter to muster a crowd than to make disciples. Fellow pastors, let's celebrate the little movements of discipleship more than the big moments. It seems to me Jesus would feel that way. You know, more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents, and all that.
Here's what's great about Easter: opportunity for movement. As my old pastor used to say, people are more likely to believe the gospel if they're in church hearing the gospel. The crowd is bad at all. It's an opportunity. So, however yesterday went, learn from what happened. How could you turn great moments into discipleship movements?
Hey, Pastor, Jesus rose for you, too. If yesterday was awesome, it wasn't so awesome that the resurrection is somehow less great — peripheral. In fact, if you weren't stunned at the resurrection yesterday, it's a good indication that you're attempting to metabolize ministry success into spiritual life. Not good.
And, if yesterday was terrible, it wasn't so terrible that resurrection won't redeem it. Fellow shepherd, Christ is alive. He is our hope, not just the hope of our people.
Here in the cross we find the resolution — the glorious, scandalous, beautiful, and terrible resolution to the tension of the entirety of redemptive history up to this point, and the sound is an awe-ful and wonderful one. Like the greatest finale to the greatest symphony ever written, Jesus' death resolves the dissonance of our treasonous rebellion against God and God's relentless love for us. How does it do this? How could death accomplish such a thing? Because in the death of the Son of God for sinners, God could be both just — taking sin seriously enough to do something about it — and merciful — pouring his wrath out on someone else so that he could save his people. Justice and mercy met where blood and water flowed.
Here, I think it most appropriate to let the Scriptures speak for themselves.
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Romans 3:23-26).
Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities (Isaiah 53:10-11).
In sin, man traded places with God. On the cross, Jesus returned the favor.
In dying for sin, Jesus did something totally unexpected — better than we'd ever dream. Jesus, quite stunningly, became our sin and shame. He took all the brokenness, all the fallenness, all the war and poverty and disease. He took the unspeakable acts of horror committed against the innocent and the unspoken acts of violence committed by the guilty. He took every foul thought, impure motive, and unholy imagination that you and I have experienced. He took every part of every brokenness, upon himself. He became sin. He became detestable. He, the beautiful Son of God, became the most disgusting of things — sin. He became all of this and, representing the sin of his people, he died. He killed sin. He destroyed death. The death of death was accomplished in the death of God the Son.
This is the atonement for sin accomplished by Jesus.
This is the kind of God he is. He is not forced to save us, but out of his gracious love he does anyway. And it's this kind of love the death of the Son of God demonstrates — the amazing love of God the Father. And, the great news about this self-sacrificing love is that anyone who would look upon the death of Jesus and believe that he died to save them, will be saved. God is not only our judge, concerned with our righteousness. He is also the father of all those who would believe, and he loves us more than we can possibly know. He has the hairs on our head numbered and all our days ordained beforehand. He knows us better than anyone else and loves us more than we can possibly imagine.
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins, (1 John 4:10).
That's how we know. You can't know how much someone loves you until you know how much their love cost them. My wife knows that I love her because of what I've given up. To love my wife in the covenant of marriage, I have happily relinquished my say over the rest of my life. I've laid aside the option of simply doing whatever I want to do. I have joyfully given up independence, the love of other women, mobility, and a host of other things to gain her as my wife. And, that was a joy for me to do. Similarly, God's love for his people is the kind of love that willingly gives up the life of the Son of God to gain us — you and me — his people.
If God loved us with a less costly, more general kind of love, I suppose that would be nice. That kind of universal, general, we-are-the-world love may be good for a song, but it's not good for changing a heart. To change the hard, stony heart into one that lives and beats for God requires more. That kind of love can only come from the demonstration of great sacrifice, and in this case the greatest sacrifice possible — the sacrifice of God himself. This is the kind of sacrifice which takes the deepest of offenses and the broadest of relational gaps, and crosses them — even as the Son crossed the gap of eternity to come and die for us.
Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the [God's people] and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ, (Ephesians 2:12-13).
Our brokenness creates a void that, no matter how we may try, we cannot cross. But, the good news of the story of redemption isn't that God sits in Heaven shouting at us, "Come over here!" For he knows that we cannot, and we would not. But God, being unimaginably merciful to us, instead says, "I'm coming there." In coming and dying, he closes the gap and reconciles the world to himself.
Remember that the nature of our offense against God spoiled creation in at least four distinct ways. Our first and primary problem is our separation from God. But of course, being separated from God has consequences — separation from each other, brokenness within ourselves, and even the inability to rightly relate to the created world. But in the cross of Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, and then calling us to be partners with him, heralding and demonstrating that same reconciliation that we have received. Paul tells us, "all this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation," (2 Cor. 5:18).
The death of the Son of God meant the end of war with God. In the sacrifice of Jesus we find the one death that ends all others, the one sacrifice that makes the two sides lay down arms and embrace in love. In it we also find the power to lay down arms against those who would be our enemies. For, if God has willingly sacrificed his son for a humanity that didn't deserve it, then how can we, the recipients of such a sacrifice, not extend the same reconciling grace to others?
This good Friday, let us remember and reflect on the stunning love of God for sinners, and what Jesus death on a bloody cross have done for those who look on that act in faith.


1. 100. Adulteration of apples. U. S. v. 106 Five-eighths Baskets of Apples. Default decree of condemnation and destruction.
2. 1000. Misbranding of tincture of iodine. U. S. v. 110 Dozen Bottles of Tincture of Iodine. Decree of condemnation. Product ordered delivered to a public institution.
3. 10005. Adulteration of orange drink. U. S. v. 50 Cases of Orange Drink. Default decree of condemnation and destruction.
4. 10006. Adulteration and misbranding of olive oil. U. S. v. 13 Cans, More or Less, of White Star Brand Olive Oil. Consent decree of condemnation, forfeiture, and destruction.
Nathan Yohalem and Joseph Diamond, copartners, trading as Yohalem & Diamond, New York, N. Y.
5. 10030. Adulteration of flour. U. S. v. 77 Bags of Flour. Default decree of condemnation and destruction.
Collen County Mill and Elevator Co.
6. 10039. Misbranding of compound oil. U. S. v. 38 One-Gallon Cans of Compound Oil. Consent decree of condemnation, forfeiture, and destruction.
Nathan Tohalem and Joseph Diamond, New York, N. Y.
7. 10078. Adnlteration and misbranding of canned tomatoes. U. S. v. 88 Cases of Tomatoes, et al. Consent decrees of condemnation and forfeiture. Product released under bond.
8. 10080. Adulteration of brewers grits. U. S. v. 225 Bags of Brewers Grits. Default decree of condemnation. Product ordered delivered to a public institution to be denatured and used for feed.
9. 10112. Adulteration of butter. U. S. v. 443 32-Pound Cartons of Butter. Consent decree of condemnation. Product ordered released under bond.
10. 10142. Adulteration of frozen smelts. U. S. v. 375 1/2 Cases of Frozen Dressed Smelts. Default decree of condemnation and destruction.


UCS worked with BFL to launch a mcommerce enabled mobile app for mobile based shopping across the complete BFL catalog.
Brands for Less is a leading retail organization with over 30 retail stores across the Middle East and constantly endeavors to bring shoppers the latest and most innovative products ranging across men's, women's and children's apparel as well as household items.
UCS worked with BFL to launch a mcommerce enabled mobile app for mobile based shopping across the complete BFL catalog. The app provided an easy and visually appealing shopping experience directly from the user's mobile phone.


text:
Rankl first, CHS second by one
Sports | September 14, 2004
Carson High's Liz Rankl has established herself as the best golfer in the Sierra League for now by winning low medalist honors for the second straight week.
If the Carson girls golf team keeps going the way it is, the Senators may join Rankl as the lowest scoring team in the Sierra League as soon as next week.
Rankl shot a 10-over par 82 on Tuesday at Fernley to win her second straight title in a Sierra League Tournament. For the third straight week, Carson improved its score as a team and scored under 500 for the second straight week.
After finishing with a 497 last week at Silver Oak, Carson finished with a 491 at Fernley to take second just one stroke behind Reno High, which finished with a 490. South Tahoe took third with a 511.
"We're putting some pressure on them," said Carson coach Terry Gingell about Reno, who won the first two Sierra League events going away. "We're catching up.
"The kids are playing well and really progressing. All in all, a very good day. I'm very pleased with how they're improving."
For the second straight week, Rankl ended her round with two straight birdies and won by seven strokes. She finished with an 80 to win by 10 strokes at Silver Oak. "She's playing really well," Gingell said. "It's fun to watch."
Two other Carson players were able to break 100 – Grace Ray, who shot a 97 and freshman Lydia Peri, who fired a 99. "She's doing exceptionally well, I think," said Gingell about Peri.
Also for Carson, Samantha Wang shot a 105. "She felt like she could have done better but that's still a decent score," Gingell said.
In addition for Carson, Sarah Metcalf had a 114 and freshman Michelle Kop shot a 108. The next Sierra League event will be this Tuesday at Empire Ranch.


The Center for Land Use Interpretation received a grant in support of CLUI's Wendover Residence Program. The program enables artists to reside, create, and present work in one of the most dramatic settings in the country: the terminal flats of the Salt Lake Desert. Through an extended stay at the Center's Residency Program, artists gain a better understanding of the beautiful landscape around them, and in turn, interpret that landscape through their own work. CLUI encourages residents to produce an original piece or documentation (photography, text, sketches, sculptures, film, etc.) of their residency experience for display at the Center's Wendover exhibit hall. Since the program's inception in 1997, over 100 artists have been hosted, including Victoria Sambunaris.


text:
Tag: World cup 2018 Russia
RUSSIA WC 2018
July 16, 2018 July 15, 2018 Eli Graham
Gotze had just played a volley above Romero's hand into the net. The cross Coming from fellow substitute Schuller, Germany was World Champions for the 4th time same as Italy and just one World Cup behind Record wonders Brazil .
Four years later in kasan, Gotze and Schuller wouldn't be around to save the Germans as they became the first casualty of a queer World Cup.
Russia 2018 World Cup is the 21stFIFA World Cup mad the 3rd to hold in East Europe. Beyond the stats is a World Cup that has impressed on the field and off it.
The first surprise of the World Cup was a 5-nil drubbing of the Saudi Arabian National team by the host team.
The host team has been described as poor in mildest terms and unsurprisingly so. The least ranked team playing in Russia 2018 just 3 steps below the Saudi Arabia team, they surprised the world with their goal scoring prowess. They showed the world that it wasn't a one off by condemning the Mohammed Salah Egyptian team to their second loss out of the 3 games Egypt would go on to lose.
The Russian team have lived a fairy tale until they were knocked out via an entertaining penalty lottery by Croatia another team living the dream in Russia. The Russians were not given a chance but they preservered to the quarters, sending Pre tournaments favourites the Spainish nationalteam back to the warmth of Spain.
Russia 2018 has seen it's share of wonderful goals, Goal keeper blunders, of uninspiring performances by the game best players ,break out performances and the introduction of the Video assisted refeering on the biggest stage.
Off the field antics like Maradona showing his middle fingers to a Nigerian fan during their game against his beloved team Argentina or the face of Peter Schemechiel after his son Kasper Schemechiel saved Modric's last minute penalty are two events at opposite ends of a spectrum at this World Cup.
Russia 2018 imitates other World Cups held before it in bringing fans from different countries together, fans can be sending at fan zones mingling together and enjoying the company of their foes before the games.
The World Cup is seen arguably as the biggest sporting event bringing the best of the sport together for one year to win the biggest prize of their careers; The golden cup . This is why the inconsolable tears, the depressed shoulders and the heart wrenching pain felt by both fans and players after being booted out of the football mundial is quite understanding
The World Cup in Russia is already at Semi Finals, with 4 teams who have delighted millions of football fans around the world with their talent, discipline, tenacity and strong will over the last three weeks slugging it out. In another week the winner of the 21st edition of the World Cup would be known but this World Cup wouldn't be forgotten in a hurry.
The Faces of joy, incredulity and pain of fans are etched in eternity. The Goal celebrations ranging from the funny, the deeply emotional, the respectful and the political celebrations wouldn't go forgotten. Neither would the volleys,the belted thunders, curlers and the numerous last minutes goals that have decorated this World Cup is all part of the miracle called Russia 2018.
Russia 2018 would be ending by the night of the 15th of July without gang fights, unprovoked hostilities and other dangers that fans have been warned about before the tournament started.
Rather it would end with a thunder, a bouquet and a pure stream of joy that has always been the epitome of the world most emotional Event.
It is Russia 2018, it is the Queer World Cup .


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This evening event is for anyone who leads and convenes people in their work. From conference & event organisers to L&OD professionals to HR & People Management. You'll hear two of Australia's most progressive and in-demand speakers unpack the trends they're ignoring and spotlight the undercurrents they're paying attention to.
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