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Strategic Partnerships Mergers and Acquisitions
Congress Seeks Answers on Hospital Consolidation
Rich Daly
HFMA senior writer/editor
MedPAC's findings and recommendations on consolidation could be quickly put to use in pushing legislative changes, since the committee members requested a response within 30 days.
Sept. 4—The trend of hospital consolidation has drawn increased scrutiny from members of Congress who are concerned about increasing costs for Medicare and the program's beneficiaries.
The Republican leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee recently sent a letter to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) to ask for more research on the impact of hospital consolidation on Medicare and its beneficiaries.
"Hospitals play a significant role in the healthcare market and are thus likely to have a role in influencing healthcare costs, particularly as it relates to the Medicare program," the members of Congress wrote. "There is conflicting information however, on the impact hospital consolidation has on healthcare costs for patients."
The letter from Reps. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), chairman of the committee; Michael Burgess, MD, (R-Texas); and Gregg Harper (R-Miss.) noted that witnesses in hearings have given "differing views" on the extent to which consolidation is a cost driver in Medicare and to which Medicare payment policies encourage such consolidation.
"Some have questioned the merit of concerns over consolidation and have instead highlighted the beneficial efficiencies and economies of scale that can be accomplished through consolidation," they wrote.
For example, during a May 2014 hearing a witness argued that site-neutral payment policies should not be viewed in a vacuum and instead must be viewed along with the totality of services provided, the populations served, and in recognition of the fact that "hospitals are subject to significant regulatory and quality requirements," the letter noted.
In contrast, one consolidation critic noted at a February 2018 hearing that "extensive research evidence shows that consolidation between close competitors leads to substantial price increases for hospitals, insurers, and physicians, without offsetting gains in improved quality or enhanced efficiency."
The witness urged policies "to support and promote competition in healthcare markets" and to end "distortions that unintentionally incentivize consolidation."
Among the possible federal responses to hospital merger-and-acquisition (M&A) trends, as discussed by committee members at that hearing, were reduced Medicare payments to practices acquired by hospitals, tightened 340B requirements, more telemedicine funding, and increased transparency.
The consolidation issues that the committee leaders recently asked MedPAC to examine included:
The recent trend in hospital consolidation and to what degree federal positions spur consolidation
The impact of consolidation on hospital and patient costs
Differences in hospital prices in markets with more or less consolidation
The impact of practice purchases by hospitals on Medicare physician payments
Whether 340B discounts incentivize use of more-expensive drugs
Hospital advocates responded to criticism about consolidation by highlighting other research, such as a January 2017 study of hospital mergers over 10 years that found, "on average, acquired hospitals realize cost savings between 4 and 7 percent in the years following the acquisition."
And they emphasized that increased M&A activity is part of a response to the push by government and commercial payers for hospitals to move to value-based payment.
"What is important for policymakers to understand is how the rapidly changing health care environment is challenging hospitals to adapt by realigning with other hospitals and with providers, such as physicians, particularly those providing essential services that might be unavailable to individuals in their community absent that alignment," Tom Nickels, executive vice president of the American Hospital Association, wrote in a letter to the committee.
Hospital M&A slowed in the most recent quarter, according to tracking companies' reports, but analysts expected such deals to pick up in coming quarters.
Data's Role
The MedPAC findings on consolidation may be quickly put to use in pushing legislative changes, since the committee members requested a response within 30 days—amid the time of year when Congress passes its final federal funding bills, which often include major payment policy changes. For example, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 required prospective Medicare hospital payment-rate cuts for newly acquired, provider-based, off-campus hospital outpatient departments.
"Bipartisan concern over the degree to which Medicare payment policy may be accelerating hospital consolidation and negatively impacting the Medicare program has been present in Congress for some time," the members of Congress wrote.
But the concern became more acute when Medicare's trustees issued their June report, which found the Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund will be depleted in 2026, or three years earlier than projected last year.
"Accordingly, it is imperative the committee receive additional analysis from MedPAC regarding the degree to which Medicare payment policies may encourage hospital consolidation and may also lead to higher drug spending for the program and patients," they wrote.
One area that the committee may address is the 340B discount drug program. The committee's January 2018 oversight report on the program already concluded that "dramatic growth" had occurred in the "practice of 340B hospitals acquiring private practices and registering those practices as child sites [and thus eligible for 340B drug discounts]."
The committee's report found "regardless of the motivation for such consolidation, these actions often result in higher cost of care to patients due to the additional costs imposed by the hospital, such as facility fees."
Consequences of MedPAC Findings
MedPAC research findings and recommendations often have preceded congressional or regulatory actions.
For instance, Medicare's recently proposed rule to overhaul the accountable care organization program included changes in the clinical use of opioids, based in part on the findings of 2015 MedPAC research.
In MedPAC's June 2017 report to Congress, it concluded that consolidation can increase costs to Medicare and the program's beneficiaries. Among MedPAC's specific findings was that "horizontal hospital consolidation can contribute to higher commercial prices and therefore contribute to the growing gap between the prices paid by Medicare and those paid by commercial insurers."
Among MedPAC's previous anti-consolidation recommendations was to "restrain" Medicare price increases, rather than follow commercial rate increases, and to implement site-neutral prices for the same service in different settings.
In July, a year after that recommendation, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule to cut payments for hospital outpatient clinic visits at off-campus provider-based departments to 40 percent of the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) rate. The clinic visit is the most commonly billed service under the OPPS, and CMS estimated the policy would cut $760 million in FY19 Medicare hospital spending.
Rich Daly is a senior writer/editor in HFMA's Washington, D.C., office. Follow Rich on Twitter: @rdalyhealthcare
was a senior editor in HFMA's Washington, D.C., Office.
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Tesla ordered to suspend work on its first European Gigafactory
By Trevor Mogg	 February 17, 2020
Tesla has suffered a setback with the construction of its first European Gigafactory after a German court ordered the electric-car maker to suspend building work.
The order was delivered on Sunday, February 16, by the higher administrative court of the states of Berlin and Brandenburg while judges make a final decision on a complaint brought by local environmentalist group Gruene Liga Brandenburg (Green League of Brandenburg), Reuters reported.
The clearance of trees from the 92-hectare site in Gruenheide in the eastern state of Brandenburg is only three days short of completion, with Tesla hoping to resume construction work shortly.
But in a note of caution, the court said it "should not be assumed that the motion seeking legal protection brought by the Green League lacks any chance of succeeding."
According to Reuters, German lawmakers, who are keen to show overseas companies that the country is open for business, have been surprised by the level of protest against the construction of the Gigafactory, with activists claiming it could damage nearby wildlife and drain the area's local water reserves.
After considering a number of locations for its first Gigafactory in Europe, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced in November 2019 that he wanted it to be built in Germany.
"Everyone knows that German engineering is outstanding, for sure — that's part of the reason why we are locating our Gigafactory Europe in Germany," Musk said in November 2019, adding, "We are also going to create an engineering and design center in Berlin because Berlin has some of the best art in the world."
It's expected that Tesla's German factory, if it's allowed to proceed, will produce Tesla's Model 3 and the upcoming Model Y.
We've reached out to Tesla for comment on the stance taken by the environmental protesters and will update this piece when we hear back.
Tesla currently has three Gigafactory plants in operation — two in the U.S. and one in the Chinese megacity of Shanghai. Just days after the company celebrated the delivery of its first batch of Shanghai-assembled Model 3 vehicles to customers in China at the end of last year, the factory was forced to temporarily close its doors, together with other companies in the city, in an attempt to slow the spread of the coronoavirus, officially called Covid-19.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Editor's Note: These are the handouts to Anna's excellent presentation on Motivational Paralysis as a cause of underachievement. If you have a chance, see Anna's presentation. Meanwhile, these handouts give an excellent summary of her presentation, and great insight into a common cause of underachievement.
why is it so hard for me, and so easy for others? what is wrong with me?
if this is all there is to life, why bother?
Lack of Perspective -- poorly calibrated work evaluation skills. What is a challenging task? How long will it take to complete a particular task? How do you break an overwhelming task into reasonably-sized pieces?
Don't act as an external motivator -- every time you do, you undermine their development of self-management skills. Don't become "Guido the Enforcer"
This is not a phase: it could conceivably last the rest of your lives. On the flip side, any improvements you make now, you get to enjoy for the rest of your lives.
Keep your eyes on the long term goal. Don't become obsessed with methods of short term goals (meaningless in the long term).
Role model, role model, role model!
This is something that will cost less than $60, doesn't require the cooperation of the school, and will help your child be able to make the most of the opportunities they get, repair damage and build skills.


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Cards start County Cup trail
Brian Caffarey
12:03pm, Wed 5th Jan 2011
Whyteleafe v Woking
Surrey Senior Cup, 2ND Round
7.45pm on Thursday 6 January 2011
The Cards travel to Whyteleafe tomorrow (Thursday) evening to play their twice-postponed Surrey Senior Cup tie, their first outing in the competition this season. We are likely to see a young side in Woking colours, with several of the first team squad suffering from illness and the fitness of others needing to be conserved for Saturday's important league game at Basingstoke Town. It appears too that neither Reiss Noel nor Joe Keehan is eligible to play, having not been signed in time for the original date for this game. So, we can probably expect to see a good number of Woking's promising youngsters such as Matt Pegler, Josh Watkins, Anson Cousins and Charlie Turnbull in the Woking line-up.
Woking's unbeaten run now extends to 13 games, leaving aside the penalty shoot-out reverse against Brighton and Hove Albion. The Surrey Senior Cup can't be a high priority for Graham Baker as he focuses intently on climbing up the Conference South table, with two tough away games coming up at Basingstoke Town and Dover Athletic, plus a very testing away tie on 15 January at AFC Wimbledon in the FA Trophy. But he will want to put out a side capable of beating the 'Leafe and taking the club into the next round of the county cup. So, a leavening of some first team regulars, such as Dave Gilroy and Moses Ademola, who weren't used heavily in Monday's win over Boreham Wood, would be useful.
The 'Leafe lie in 19th place in the Ryman League Division One South, having won five, drawn three and lost twelve games, scoring 26 goals and conceding 42. In the previous round in the Surrey Senior Cup they beat Banstead Athletic 3-1 away. The 'Leafe went out of the FA Cup at the first attempt, losing 4-3 away to Chipstead. In the FA Trophy they did well to draw 0-0 away at Bognor Regis Town but then crashed to a 6-1 home defeat in the replay. On Saturday they lost 3-2 at fellow strugglers Corinthian Casuals, who, as it happens, will be at home in the next round to the winners of Thursday night's tie.
Whyteleafe FC
CR3 0AR
Directions, from Whyteleafe's official website, are as follows:
FROM THE M25 AND THE SOUTH
From Junction 6 of the M25 head north along the A22 (signposted to London, Croydon and Caterham). At Wapses Lodge Roundabout, where the Ann Summers building is clearly visible opposite, take the third exit. Take the first left adjacent to Whyteleafe South railway station and cross the level crossing. Fork right after 200 yards into Church Road. The ground is a quarter of a mile down the road on the right.
From Purley Cross (where the A23 crosses the A22), head south signposted to Eastbourne and the M25. Pass 'My Old China' (Chinese restaurant) on your right and continue under a railway bridge. Follow the A22 through Kenley and into Whyteleafe. At the first roundabout (with Whyteleafe Tavern opposite), turn right and cross a level crossing adjacent to Whyteleafe Station. Take first left into Church Road keeping St Luke Church to your right. The ground is a quarter of a mile up the road on the left.
Due to developments within the ground, on-site parking is now significantly more limited than in the past. There are no parking restrictions along Church Road – however, please have consideration for local residents. In addition there is a large car park at Whyteleafe Railway Station but please do check for charges made by Southern Railway.
Trains leave Woking for Whyteleafe South station at 12 and 46 minutes past the hour, with a change at Clapham Junction. Journey time is around an hour. Alternatively, trains leave at 22 minutes past the hour, changing at Clapham Junction and Upper Warlingham.
Trains leave Whyteleafe South for the return journey at 21.42, 22.12 and 22.41, with changes at East Croydon and Clapham Junction.
Come on, you Cards!
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Google, NV Energy renewable megadeal includes rare storage component
Republic Services
NV Energy has asked Nevada regulators for authority to procure 350 MW of solar generation and up to 280 MW of energy storage to serve a planned Google data center in Henderson. The internet giant started construction on the facility last July.
The deal is a part of Google's work to source 100% of its energy needs from renewable generation; in September, the company announced 18 deals totaling 1.6 GW, which it said was the largest-ever corporate purchase of green energy.
The agreement with NV Energy is one of the largest corporate solar purchases in the United States and analysts say the storage component is particularly interesting, due to its rarity. The solar generation could be new construction, or supplied by smaller projects in NV Energy's portfolio.
Google and other large tech companies are seeking to add cleaner energy to power their operations, but the new deal stands out for its size and the associated storage, which analysts say is less common in similar corporate arrangements.
While NV Energy already has plans to add both solar and storage to its system, Google is seeking to match up all of its consumption with renewables around the clock.
In December, regulators approved NV Energy's Integrated Resource Plan, including three solar projects totaling 1,190 MW and 590 MW of energy storage capacity. The utility has indicated it will need to update its long-term plan in order to gain approval for the new deal with Google.
Regulators have scheduled a pre-hearing conference for Jan. 23 to begin considering the proposal.
While Google's renewable energy purchases in the United States have so far been largely wind driven, the company last year said the declining cost of solar "has made harnessing the sun increasingly cost-effective."
Solar costs have declined more than 80% in the last decade, according to the company.
In the deals announced last year, Google laid out plans to purchase solar energy from a 155 MW project in North Carolina, 75 MW in South Carolina and 490 MW in Texas. The company said those deals would more than double the capacity of its global solar portfolio.
Clean energy is gaining traction with corporate buyers. Wood MacKenzie estimates that in 2018 corporate deals accounted for 22% of wind and solar contracts, with tech giants topping the list of buyers. The firm said Facebook, Google and Amazon accounted for more than a third of the U.S. renewables market in 2018.
But while the trend is towards more corporate renewables deals, this particular transaction stands out. "This is definitely the largest storage [power purchase agreement] I've seen," Alex Eller, senior research analyst at Navigant, told Utility Dive. "It's an interesting one."
Storage deals for corporate buyers often don't pencil out, said Eller, because the renewable generation is already fairly cheap. "There are some other renewable procurements in this size range, but having storage to go along with it is different," he said.
Google reached its 100% renewable energy purchasing goal on a global and annual basis in 2017, but is still working to power operations on a region-specific, 24/7 basis with zero-carbon energy.
NV Energy said the filing with state regulators reflects the utility's "commitment to driving economic development in Nevada through the creation of new tariffs and customized energy service agreements that meet the complex and individualized energy needs of customers."
The utility also said the agreement with Google will bring additional renewable energy and battery resources to Nevada "that will provide benefits for all customers during peak energy usage periods."
Both the energy supply agreement and tariff require approval by the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada.
Greentech Media Google Inks Huge Corporate Solar-Plus-Storage Deal in Nevada
Filed Under: Solar & Renewables Corporate News


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Ménage à trois: Warhol, Basquiat, Clemente | Art & Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany | Bonn
Text by Franziska Knupper
Campbell's soup cans, exclamation marks, kissing couples. Warhol, Basquiat, Clemente. The works of three legendary artists are currently being displayed at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn. Under the title Ménage à Trois the museum presents the artists' fascinating collaborations during New York's thriving art scene of the 1980s; how they inspired one another and contributed to each other's work or, as Andy Warhol himself put it: "One's a company, two's a crowd, three's a party."
The group met in New York. Warhol, known for his eccentricity, was already a notorious and internationally renowned artist whilst Clemente, just having returned from his travels to India, spent his days as a visitor at Warhol's famous Factory and Basquiat was a 23-year-old kid from Brooklyn painting t-shirts on the street. Their styles always differed profoundly from each other. There are Basquiat's furious faces with the narrow eyes and the music notes coming out of the mouths; faces like colourful masks from African Tribes or from urban Graffiti walls. Even visitors who are not familiar with Basquiat's work will recognise his stylistic traits after having looked at only a couple of pictures; the scratches, the writing, the torn-up pages of magazines. Energy and dynamism become almost visible, touchable. Small segments of bright colours are divided by black and yellow lines. Lines are cutting into fields of paint, leading you to swear words in bold print, screaming at you: "Hey Suckers!"
Spending time with Basquiat's work you can feel the city, the hustle and bustle, the aggressive forms and overwhelming patterns. His pictures are full of youth, of speed, the rush of the metropolis, of his past as a street artist. In comparison to Basquiat, Warhol's images almost appear clean and controlled with precisely defined shapes, serial graphic elements and repeated themes and sizes. There are his popular portraits of Goethe or his Jackie Kennedy prints; there is the soup, the banana, the Mona Lisa.
According to Basquiat, it was usually Warhol who started the process. He would provide the basis; a headline or a theme and Basquiat himself would then just "scribble and sketch something on it". He modifies them, attaches a moustache to the full lips, draws tiny figures in the corners or writes messages in red letters only to cross them out afterwards. He adds his impulsive spirit, a taste of trash and punk to the orderly atmosphere of Warhol's images.
Clemente's contribution to the collaboration follows in the last hall of the museum. Already a first glance at his pictures will tell you that his vision differs profoundly from the urban hastiness of his fellow artists. His style does not waver between impulse and control but rather focuses on the surreal and the mystical. His broad brush strokes resemble Edvard Munch, lacking the clear outlines of Warhol and Basquiat. His figures seem to merge while kissing; the canvases remain without the slightest hint of uncoloured space. Everything is filled and connected, slightly blurry, otherworldly.
In his case there already seem to be several souls and styles united in the spirit of this one painter. Clemente uses various materials ranging from oil or acrylic to watercolour; he employs bright colours as well as sinister tones, draws faces overlapping or merging into each other. His works are visions, are fusion, are dreams. Not surprisingly, a collaboration with the other artists only felt like a natural "extension to himself". This collection of several identities was only a logic result of his work. For him, the contradiction and differences between their styles only contributes to the strength of the paintings. In contrast to that, Warhol remarks that the best pictures are those where it is impossible to tell who created a certain element. The spectator might disagree with him on that aspect – no one would ever confuse a clean image of Warhol with Basquiat's wild scratches.
Despite those different aspirations and styles it is a collaboration in which every artist respected the other's opinion, work and approach. In the last corner of the exhibition visitors can have a look at the portraits they created of each other; they can admire Basquiat's portrayal of "Warhol as a Banana" and have a look at the mutual portraits and photographs in white overalls and with boxing gloves. They all examined each other as painters, as personalities. It is a display of reciprocal appreciation, of sensibility and understanding for each other's work; of respect and friendship. It is also a presentation of an era of unique artistic productivity, of velocity, of Bebop Jazz and Velvet Underground at the same time. It is wild, it is noisy. It is the New York City of another decade with its flashing headlines, streets and brands. It is New York City with its roughness and the fragility of its metropolitan inhabitants; inhabitants like Warhol, Basquiat and Clemente always on the hunt for identity, for orientation, for collaboration.
Ménage à trois: Warhol, Basquiat, Clemente, 10/02/2012 - 20/05/2012, Bundeskunsthalle, Museumsmeile Bonn, Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 4, 53113 Bonn. www.bundeskunsthalle.de
Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat & Francesco Clemente, New York, 1984
© Beth Philipps, Courtesy Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Zürich
Installation: Five Truths | Howard Assembly Rooms | Opera North | Leeds
Text by Daniel Potts
Katie Mitchell's acclaimed video installation arrived in Leeds on 14th February, and just as the carousel in the city's Valentine's Fair rotates and undulates carrying apparently happy lovers of all ages, Mitchell reminds us of an obverse mental maelstrom. The vehicle is Ophelia - Hamlet's spurned lover - in her "mad scene", which is experienced by the visitor five times at once through the interpretive prisms of Brecht, Artaud, Brook, Grotowski and Stanislavski. Each interpretation is presented on two video screens (therefore there are ten in all) within a darkened cube to be entered by the visitor, housed in the Howard Assembly Room. The screens, which vary in size, provide a double take on each interpretation and allow for simultaneous close-ups and shots further back. In each case, Ophelia is played by Olivier Award winning actor, Michelle Terry. Here, theatre meets film with convincing impact.
Of the five interpretations, the Brecht is the most easily recognisable. Here Terry supplies an aloof Ophelia, outwardly detached from the severe emotional trauma conveyed in the Grotowski, providing, with an eerie determination, her own narrative direct to camera. This self-commentary relates to and is interpersed with Shakespeare's lines set to Kurt Weil-esque, cabaret-like music, somewhat reminiscent of The Threepenny Opera. The Grotowski itself is distinguished from the others in the use of icy black and white, which compounds with a horrifying starkness a most impressive hysterical, tremulous catharsis followed by listless burn-out. The intensity of the Grotowski Ophelia, as it accompanies the others, seems to provide them with a sort of emotional sub-text as the running depths to calm waters. This effect is most noticeable with the Brook and the Stanislavski. In the former, Ophelia methodically sorts items of symbolic importance to the relationship into a plastic bag. At first glance, given the context of the whole piece, it appears a sort of ritualised, healthy response to the bereavement; but as with the latter, where it is seems Ophelia is deeply moved without overtly demonstrated physical expression (an excellent performance), the Grotowski provides the emotional reality. The Artaud is full of distortion, sonically and visually – it is filmed from behind a fish tank. Ophelia's face appears in distorted obscurity on the other side of the tank as she drops the items of importance into it. The distortion reinforces the sense of madness felt by the visitor as we try to make sense of the confusing sensory overload of the five interpretations at once, thus a degree of empathy is established with our heroine. The disturbing suicide by drowning echoes Millias's Ophelia in the construction of the shot. In this way it taps into the sense of Romanticised tragedy we have about the character.
The piece is particularly poignant at this time of year. In the absence of official figures perhaps we can assume a statistical correlation between relationship break ups and the advent to Valentine's Day. Of course, the piece has a much broader, universal resonance. The presentation of the scene in the different directorial styles highlights the multi-faceted nature of the individual as seen by others and by themselves. Aside of the sense of confusion and near insanity brought upon the visitor by his/her immersion in the work, an identification with at least one if not all Ophelia's is possible. An identification with just one of the stylistic interpretations would perhaps betoken a degree of self-projection. Taken as a whole, self-projection on to all Ophelias results in an overwhelming sense of renewed identity and self-knowledge that generally follows rejection and bereavement. A piecing together of a formerly faceted identity into a more satisfying one is what is missing in the case of Ophelia. In this way, the tragic conclusion is imbued with greater pathos.
Five Truths itself forms the denouement of an interactive video installation trail by multi-media artists, Invisible Flock, which takes the visitor around the city centre. Without ruining the intrigue for the visitor, it is worth saying that this experience is most engaging and effective in heightening the empathy and pathos of the final part. However, as announced on the website, it is best followed after dark.
Five Truths, 14/02/2012 - 25/02/2012, Howard Assembly Room, Opera North Grand Theatre, 46 New Briggate, Leeds, LS1 6NUGrand Theatre, 46 New Briggate, Leeds, LS1 6NU. www.operanorth.co.uk
Photo credit: Tom Arber Photography
Whose Film Is It Anyway? | Japanese Contemporary Auteurs in The Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme | Various Venues
Text by Alison Frank
The Japan Foundation has hosted an annual touring film programme since 2004. This year, between 10 February - 28 March, a set of 9 contemporary Japanese films will tour 7 UK cities (London, Sheffield, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belfast, Bristol and Nottingham). Two directors with films in the programme have been invited to introduce their work: Masayuki Suo (I Just Didn't Do It, 2007) at London's ICA and Katsumi Sakaguchi (Sleep, 2011) at both ICA and Sheffield's Showroom & Workstation cinema.
The Japan Foundation selects a different theme for its touring programme every year: 2012's provocative title, Whose Film It It Anyway?, suggests that the auteurs included defiantly resist interference in their artistic vision. Strangely, all the leaflets and web pages from the Japan Foundation and ICA seem to offer different explanations of the theme. In the absence of a clear rationale, insisting on a theme seems like a nervous attempt to keep the touring programme fresh. The Japan Foundation need not worry: the West's fascination with Japan's culture is nowhere near abating, and the opportunity to see Japanese films is more than enough to keep audiences coming back every year. Although the programme could have benefited from greater publicity in London, in UK cities with fewer cinemas showing art films it should be impossible to miss the programme's visit.
All of the films in the programme are by writer-directors: they are based on scripts written by the film-makers themselves. While writing and directing are separate skills, the programmers have chosen directors who are talented in both, resulting in films which tell unusual stories in a pleasing way. While none of the four features I saw from the touring programme could be classified as masterpieces, all were good-quality films worth taking the time to watch. They were, without exception, entertaining, surprising and very moving.
About Her Brother (2010) is by the oldest and most experienced director of the programme, Yoji Yamada, who has 77 films to his name. About Her Brother was selected as the closing film for the 2010 Berlin Film Festival, where Yamada received a Berlinale Camera for his contribution to film. About Her Brother centres on two siblings: a widow and her younger brother who is middle-aged and more troublesome than ever. The widow's only daughter is about to marry and leave home, and the film evokes Ozu in its examination of domestic life and the emotional family ties within it. Its gentle treatment of even painful subject matter, and its sympathy for child-like points of view, also give this live-action film an unexpected affinity with Miyazaki's anime.
Dear Doctor (2009) by Miwa Nishikawa, the only female director in the programme, may be familiar to ICA's audiences from the 2011 London Film Festival. It is the story of a village doctor and his new trainee, and is told in flashback. In the present, the doctor has disappeared, and a secret is being revealed: in the flashbacks, the audience is put in the position of re-evaluating the past to look for clues. The film balances the humour of seemingly unsophisticated villagers and their folksy doctor, with the melancholy of illness and awareness of parent-child pressures. The director's visual style makes occasional refreshing departures from the calm, contemplative approach traditionally used to depict rural life.
All Around Us (2008) takes a traditionally chronological approach to examine the relationship of a thirty-something couple over six years. A baby's death adds to the normal strains of habit and routine to distance them from each other. Whereas a mainstream film would clearly point to single causes for the relationship's ups and downs, All Around Us paints a more realistic portrait where circumstances converge confusedly but their cumulative impact is painfully clear. Director Ryosuke Hashiguchi's approach to male-female relationships is unusual in its refusal to dwell much on real or imagined infidelity; equally surprising are its wordy, frank, and entertaining dialogues about sex.
A Stranger of Mine (2005) is the Japan Foundation's most popular film ever, and it's easy to see why. Like All Around Us, the film boasts surprising and witty dialogue but has a much clearer narrative drive. While this sounds like a deliberate crowd-pleasing approach, A Stranger of Mine has the most inventive narrative of all four films discussed here. It focuses on one night in the overlapping lives of a young businessman, his detective friend, a new love interest, and a shady ex-girlfriend. While other films of the mid-2000s dramatically showcased different perspectives on the same events, using this device for comedy is unusual. The audience laughed out loud as earlier scenes from the film were repeated, revealing utterly unexpected events going on in the background. If director Kenji Uchida's directorial debut is this impressive, audiences will be anxious to see his name feature again in future touring programmes.
If this has sparked your interest in the programme, the ICA is hosting a Q&A session with director Katsumi Sakaguchi in conjunction with its screening of Sleep. The screening starts at 6:30pm and tickets are available here.
Whose Film Is It Anyway? continues in venues across the UK until 28 March 2012. For further details, screening dates and times and tickets please visit www.jpf-film.org.uk
1. Ryosuke Hashiguchi All Around Us (2008)
2. Tomoyuki Furumaya Bad Company (2001)
3. Masayuki Suo I Just Didn't Do It (2007) © FUJI TELEVISION / ALTAMIRA PICTURES / TOHO
4. Kenji Uchida A Stranger of Mine (2005)
Disembodied Voices | Nalini Malani: Mother India | Art Gallery of New South Wales | Sydney
Text by Ella Mudie
When Nalini Malani, one of India's most prominent contemporary artists, was invited to create a large-scale new media installation for presentation in India Contemporary at the Venice Biennale in 2005, her response was the startling and enigmatic video play Mother India. Recently acquired by the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, this provocative visual and sonic response to the challenge of representing continuous cycles of gendered violence is currently screening in the gallery's Asian art wing. It represents a unique opportunity for audiences to encounter the work for the first time in Sydney across an impressive 15 metre long wall-to-wall installation.
The starting point for Malani's synchronised five screen video projection which combines archival footage with more poetic and painterly imagery is the essay Language and Body: Transactions in the. Construction of Pain by anthropologist Veena Das, known for her bold questioning of the nature of violence, social suffering and subjectivity. Malani shares with Das an ongoing concern for gender relations and in Mother India the pressing necessity to find a means of conveying the traumatic ways in which women's bodies become implicated as sites to be claimed and owned in struggles for nationhood, is thrown into sharp relief.
Two pivotal episodes historic episodes from 20th century India form the video play's reference points – the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 and, decades later, the bloody Gujarat episode of 2002 which involved a horrific campaign of violent rape against Muslim women. In grappling with the considerable challenges of imaging endemic sexual violence, Malani instead elects to begin more obliquely with an interplay of voices. The piercing, shrill voice of an unnamed women cries out "what do you take me for? A something machine?" offset by the calm and authoritative declaration of a male Nehruvian voice who states that "the national honour is at stake." This highly charged verbal exchange sets in motion the tension in the work over boundaries - those of the nation, political ideals and the female body.
These disembodied voices are like ghosts resurrected from the archive and bring to mind Malani's previous suggestion that "the artist is a witness to a memory of loss." In Mother India, the visual witnessing begins with a montage of documentary style footage of a procession of billowing flags followed by images of women spinning yarn on wheels and film of masses of displaced people carrying their possessions through streets and fields. From relatively concrete beginnings, Malani soon shifts into a more disparate and abstract realm as the female body assumes a spectral quality. In one projection, an ethereal imprint of a woman in loose blue robes hovers over the ordered cartographic delineations of a map. In an another, a female face in close up appears as if dissolving into shadows while partially illuminated by patches of blood-like red light.
Concluding with a rapid fire procession of images of the ruins of destroyed homes in Gujarat, Malani emphasises how cycles of violence continue into the present. The nearby installation of two earlier single channel video works, Memory: record/erase (1996) and Stains (2000) reveal how far Malani has travelled on her journey to transcend the boundaries of the mediums of painting, drawing and video to prise open alternate ways of representing complex truths. With its new home in a major centre for Asian art in Australia, Malani's Mother India both intervenes and enters into conversation with the broad reconfigurations of identity and womanhood already represented in this diverse collection.
Nalini Malani: Mother India, 11/02/2012 - 20/05/2012, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au
Nalini Malani (India 1946 -)
Mother India: Transactions in the Construction of Pain 2005
video play; five video projectors in sync, sound, 5 minutes
Purchased with funds provided by the Art Gallery Society of New South Wales Contempo Group 2011
A Return to Making-Strange? | Opens Tomorrow | Interplanetary Revolution | Golden Thread Gallery | Belfast
Exhibition Statement:
The opening of Interplanetary Revolution may feature a cocktail bar, a chorus of ice cream vans, the introduction of another currency and a song by The Factotum Choir that they never quite cracked. Are we the warriors of the Revolution?! Are you? Drawing inspiration from the 1924 Russian propaganda animation of the same name, Interplanetary Revolution is a project that will include at least two new simultaneous group exhibitions and the installation/reworking of another. Looking at failing/ed ideologies; notions of otherworldliness and the uncanny; and revolutionary critique, Interplanetary Revolution will be an opportunity to collapse a few assumptions and undermine previous relationships.
It is planned that parts of the exhibition/s, the artists and/or artworks will change – other elements of the project remain as yet unfinished and may end up never being so. The project will be accompanied by curated or hosted screenings every Thursday evening and most likely a series of lunchtime talks.
The opening of the exhibition will feature contributions by artists and curators, including: Jofroi Amaral, Anonymous, Ursula Burke, Charles Burns, Captain Hate, Martin Carter, Ben Crothers, Colin Darke, Maurice Doherty, The Factotum Choir, Adham Faramawy, The Girls, Gerry Gleason, Laura Graham, Pierre Granoux, Sophie Hamacher, Michael Hanna, Allan Hughes, Brendan Jamison, Brian Kennedy, Rebecca Loyche, Phillip McCrilly, Susan MacWilliam, Kim McAleese, Laura McMorrow, Shiro Masuyama, Jonas Mekas, Ryan Moffett, Brendan O'Neill, Nicolas Provost, Ma Qiusha, Peter Richards, Reynold Reynolds, Erik Mark Sandberg, Gary Shaw, David Sparshott, Clemens Wilhelm. This is a Golden Thread Gallery TBC Project.
Angela Darby caught up with The Golden Thread's Director and curator, Peter Richards in the lead up to the launch of the exhibition on Thursday 16th February.
AD: You have been planning this exhibition for some time now, how has the project evolved?
PR: I suppose we have been working on the idea for this exhibition for nearly two years now. I think initially the exhibition had sought to weave together the work of international artists with artists in Northern Ireland in a broad looking how at failing/ed ideologies were being portrayed/represented in contemporary practice. I think since its inception the idea has developed to include a reflection on the construct of an exhibition and the nature/role of curation and artists as curators, curators as artists. And as a result some of the original thoughts about artist's/artworks have changed.
AD: Several of the artists selected are established and have an ongoing relationship with the gallery, could you say what attracted you to the work of the emerging artist in the context of this exhibition?
PR: There are obviously benefits to working with artists whom you have a established relationship with, in terms of understanding/trusting each other – which is really important when asking them for permission to use and experiment with their work - as in the case of this exhibition. I wouldn't say that we were attracted to emerging artists per se, rather their specific works, and how through these works we could build a sense of the subject of the exhibition. As a gallery, we do go and see as much as we can, as often as we can and we do have a facility for artists to register an expression of interest of working with us, which we regularly review. We're hoping that some of the artists we have worked with before will become artists that we work with again in the future. On a similar note we are still looking for artworks for the exhibition and will continue to do so throughout the exhibition.
AD: Contained within the publicity material there is a statement that indicates "at least two new simultaneous group exhibitions and the installation/reworking of another." Can you expand on this?
PR: Good question. Interplanetary Revolution is an exhibition – and in addition to inviting artists to participate in the exhibition; which in some cases means requesting the loan of specific works, in others talking to artists and inviting them to respond to the exhibition with new works (some site-specific, some interventions), I have also invited the artist/curator, Maurice Doherty, to re-create/re-work an exhibition that he curated in Berlin last summer (entitled Revolution) within the context of this exhibition. Having made that decision, I thought it would be interesting to then invite upcoming Belfast based curator, Ben Crothers, to put together his own Interplanetary exhibition also to be included in the show.
Whilst both of these exhibitions will exists as (fixed) exhibitions within or as part of the wider exhibition, the wider exhibition is planned to change throughout the duration of the show. Some works will be moved, others taken away, new works added, new artists approached and other interventions invited, so that return visitors to the exhibition will be greeted with something entirely different. Some of the planned changes are already known and understood – others are very much as yet to be decided.
AD: Does the open-ended construct of the project, in which artworks may change over the course of the exhibition, question the traditional role of the curator?
PR: I think the role of the curator has been debated, researched, scrutinised and questioned to death and back. I'm not sure what questions are left – I just hope that we collapse a few assumptions. I think maybe we're going back to the "making-strange".
AD: As a contributing artist how will your own work evolve during the exhibition period?
PR: As the exhibition's curator I'm not comfortable about having my own work in the exhibition – even though it is as part of Maurice's reworking of his exhibition - this is still to be confirmed. Similarly I have resisted peer pressure to join The Factotum Choir (aside from the fact that I don't sing). My work during the exhibition will be to find new work for the show and to keep the exhibition changing. With this in mind, i'm looking to do a few studio visits the end of this week and early next.
Interplanetary Revolution, 16/02/2012 - 24/03/2012, Golden Thread Gallery, 84-94 Great Patrick Street, Belfast, BT1 2LU. www.goldenthreadgallery.co.uk
Sophie Hamacher, Video still from The Fog (2009)
Clemens Wilhelm, Macht Nichts (2010)
Colin Darke Parodos GTG (2010)
Shiro Masuyama Parky Party (2006)
All images courtesy the artist
Observations of Modern Life | Ridley Howard: Slows | Leo Koenig Inc. | New York
Text by Dan Tarnowski
Slows is a new exhibition of paintings by the Brooklyn artist, Ridley Howard. Howard's second show at Leo Koenig Inc. marks both a new direction in his artwork and a continued exploration of his typical style, which could be described as conceptual figurative work.
The first painting seen in the exhibition depicts a man in a patterned sweater of brown, white, and orange. The man's face is realistically rendered with soft shading but the pattern of his garment is painted in flat shapes that conjure a Native American blanket. The 2-D style of the sweater recalls the geometry of the abstract and minimalist art contained in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Man With Sweater (2011), with its juxtaposition of soft flesh and angular shapes, sets the tone for the exhibition.
Blue Yellow (2011), a composition of yellow circles flanking a pink square over a blue background recalls the colour experiments of Josef Albers. It also shares a similar colour palette to the Pac-Man game for Atari. Considered alongside Black with Shapes (2011), a composition of green squares on black, it begins to seem like the artist has a serious interest in abstract painting. But the abstracts only encompass one of three artistic styles exhibited in Slows.
Progressing in detail, next comes Building (2011), a fairly realistic representation of the front of a factory, the kind of building common in Howard's hometown of Brooklyn. The building is viewed from straight on and framed in the canvas so it makes a perfect rectangle; no slanting of windows or doors; all right angles. The flattened composition and factory aesthetic recalls Charles Sheeler's modernist paintings of industrial architecture.
Progressing in detail once again, next are Ridley Howard's paintings of people. And they stand in stark contrast to all the geometry. Meticulously rendered with full attention paid to anatomy, Howard's figures are quite sensual. Nudes (2011) is the most erotic work in the exhibition, showing a couple embracing, a woman wrapping her legs around a man as he sits on a white downy bed. Despite the sexiness of the image, the viewer is not invited into the scene for long. Small details—the birthmarks on the man's back or a perfect horizontal line across the back wall—serve to distract the viewer and remind them of the artist's geometrical theme. The yellow color of the woman's tights matches a neighbouring painting, a still life called Trattoria (2011). The still life features a yellow wall, a table, overturned wine glasses, and a small photo of a cat. Thus, the viewer is led out of the lovers' scene and sent through the exhibition once again, looking at each painting a second time.
Holly, Rose Dress (2011) offers an interesting counterpoint to Man With Sweater (2011). In the portrait, a woman in a striped and flower-patterned dress features the same blend of three-dimensional form and flattened graphics as the man in the sweater, however the top half of the woman's face is cut off so the majority of the canvas is filled with her dress. Thus, the pattern on her garment becomes a composition of its own, the flowers drifting towards the right while the stripes ripple to the left. The movement in the pattern on the dress hints at emotions that are not captured in the stoic face of the woman.
Although Howard bridges organic and architectural forms, their combination doesn't seem jarring or disharmonious. The underlying geometry that appears throughout the paintings, even in the positioning of a nude's birthmarks, gives the artwork an orderly effect. The clearest example of this appears in Tracks (2011), a mostly-monochrome painting in which a green racetrack runs horizontally beneath a bevy of puffy trees. Each tree is different and spontaneously placed, while the track is a sleek horizontal zip. Although the scene is banal, it gains a picturesque quality from the subtle sunset in the background and from the orderly nature of the composition.
But what does all this order mean? Is it the artist's yearning to find meaning in places and relationships? Or is the artist detached from his subject matter, lining up his figures and shapes as an homage to painting?
Ridley Howard: Slows, 19/01/2012 - 25/02/2012, Leo Koenig Inc., 545 West 23rd Street, New York, NY 10011. www.leokoenig.com
Images courtesy of Leo Koenig Inc., New York
A World of Shifting Certainty | The Family in British Art | Millennium Gallery | Sheffield
Text by Kathryn Hall
The family is unique as a social institution: it functions largely in private, while at the same time has a public character; it may be defined one way for political purposes, yet assume any number of forms through personal perceptions and biological associations. According to context, the word family can carry with it notions of safety, obligation, compassion, social norms, or role fulfilment.
The Family in British Art explores the changing functions of the family and identifies certain concerns that have threaded through artistic depictions of family over the past 450 years. It is exactly the kind of large-scale, collaborative project that, since being dealt an Arts Council funding blow only weeks ago, seems under threat of not being exhibited again in the Millennium Gallery any time soon. Created in collaboration with Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums and Norfolk Museums & Archeology Service, the touring exhibition is part of The Great British Art Debate. Established to open up discussions about art, the partnership has already seen Restless Times: Art in Britain 1914–1945 and John Martin: Painting the Apocalypse come to the Millennium Gallery in recent years, exhibitions whose success lay in engaging the public with historic collections by drawing attention to their continued relevance. The Family in British Art builds on their momentum through its curation of historic and contemporary works alongside one another, and further stokes local interest with a commissioned set of Sheffield family photographs.
A theme so varied and abundant in artistic material benefits from being arranged thematically rather than chronologically. Under the sections Inheritance, Childhood, Parenting, Couples & Kinship and Home, the exhibition depicts a manifold of family connections, whether built through consanguinity, marriage, or closely shared environments or experiences. The common element across all pieces is an exploration of the ways in which humans relate to one another and their surroundings, and in doing so form an understanding of themselves and of others.
Drawing pieces from different periods together like this often heightens their impact. The earliest portraits are of moneyed families, posing, pets and all, against a backdrop of their sweeping estates. In these paintings children are depicted as small people in adult dress as a matter of course. William Hogarth's painting The House of Cards (1730) reveals a change in the conceptualisation of childhood at the 18th century, as children were seen to have needs and characteristics distinct from those of adults. His children are still adult-lings, mimicking their future roles as homebuilding husbands and wives. But with an ominous black dog lurking around their precariously built house of cards, Hogarth makes the point that children should be allowed to be children, protected from adult concerns before they are ready.
The House of Cards can be viewed in the Childhood section alongside Grayson Perry's 21st century ceramic pot Difficult Background (2001). At first glance both pieces appear to show a child's world of play, but on closer inspection reveal unsettling distinctions between adulthood and childhood. In the foreground Perry places children of postwar "austerity Britain" innocently occupying themselves, seemingly oblivious and unaffected by the ruin, bloodshed and warfare playing out in the serious, grown-up world behind them. With its underlying modern consciousness of trauma and the psychological repercussions of a troubled childhood, plus its acknowledgement of the existence of the working classes, its context differs altogether from that of Hogarth's and earlier works. Together these create a historical narrative and reveal changes in cultural consciousness through time.
Among the most fascinating pieces of the exhibition are those addressing the idiosyncrasies of adolescence. Sarah Jones' The Dining Room (Francis Place) I (1997), a photo seemingly of three sisters in their home, relates to earlier family portraiture of the exhibition, but as a self-aware construct: in reality the girls are friends, and are posed with disregard for one another. It explores performativity and the ambivalent attitude of teenagers toward those closest to them at a time in life when each is wrapped up in their own concerns over self-identification. John Collier's early 20th century depiction of teen rebellion The Prodigal Daughter (1903), in which a daughter defiantly leaves the house against her parents' wishes, addresses an adolescent need to break from family confines and assert independence. Contemporary artist Zineb Sedira strips her work of so familiar a context as the home in Mother Tongue (2002), a video triptych of attempted conversations between her, her Arabic-speaking mother and English-speaking daughter. The awkwardness of a teenager relating to older family generations is exasperated further through a literal inability to communicate, nodding to the idea of family being an identity formed through discourse.
The Family in British Art could do more to explore less conventional famliy structures - there is little addressing adoption, gay parents, single parents, and non-marital cohabitation. Paul Graham touches on a 20th century technological extension of the family in his intriguing Television Portraits (1991), and it would have been interesting to see more on families involving subjects beyond humans. There is a wealth of material here though, encompassing a wide range of art forms, and plenty of room to make endless connections across pieces and to individual experiences.
The Family in British Art, 02/02/2012 - 29/04/2012, Millennium Gallery, Arundel Gate, Sheffield S1 2PP. www.museums-sheffield.org.uk
Family Portrait, 1960s, from the Belle Vue Studio Archive © Bradford Museums and Galleries
Contemporary Sound Art | Haroon Mirza: /|/|/|/|/|/|/|/|/|/|/|/|/|/|/|/| | Spike Island | Bristol
In his first UK solo exhibition, Silver Lion Award winner of last year's Venice Biennale, Haroon Mirza unfolds the map of an uncharted soundscape at once inviting and forbidding. His show /|/|/|/|/|/|/|/|/|/|/|/|/|/|/|/| (the title being the "typographic representation of a sawtooth waveform" –that is to say, the representation of sound waves) consists of installations in which the auditory element heavily outweighs the visual. Each installation is pervaded by its own distinct mood, but all share a common denominator in the intensity of the experience and of the response each work elicits.
The artist has created a sense of insularity in which to experience his work through a spatial intervention in the galleries of Spike Island: the familiar rooms have been broken up and reassembled beyond recognition, with the help of temporary structural elements such as walls and latticed flooring. Upon entering what used to be Spike Island's largest gallery, the visitor is almost sucked in, as if by a black hole, into Mirza's award-winning The National Apavilion of Then and Now . Through a pitch black corridor soundproofed with thick, carpet-like material that swallows the sound of your footsteps, you walk into the unknown guided by a droning sound.
At the end of the corridor you find yourself in a dark and narrow triangle-shaped room, soundproofed with triangular pieces of dark grey foam jutting out from the walls. Overhead, a halo of white LED lights is the only light source, distorting the surface of the walls into apparent movement. The drone rises in pitch and intensity, the vibrations travel up through your body from the metal grille floor. When the lights and sound abruptly cut off, you are left in absolute darkness with the only sound a faint reverberation seeping through from the installations in the adjacent galleries; the only light a haunting afterimage of the LED halo. At that breathtaking moment you are engulfed by an overwhelming, absolute aloneness: a strangely welcome lack of any sort of context, temporal or spatial.
Once you've pried yourself away from the magnetic hold of National Apavilion, head to the gallery hosting I Saw Square Triangle Sine. The spatial arrangement of the installation -in the centre of the room on a raised platform- creates the effect of walking into a performance space, a recently abandoned set on which the instruments are still pulsing with life. The sculptures have clearly been positioned to bring to mind a band, including decks, drums, a keyboard, microphones and amps. This effect is however undercut by the physical reality of the undulating feedback noise, the sound of no music being produced at all. There is something distinctly menacing in the continuous rise and fall of the sound waves, intensified by the fact that the invisible line separating artwork and visitor is here erased: the visitor is welcome to play the drums or listen to the earphones, thus melting through the invisible barrier into the installation.
The adjacent space, set up as a corridor lined with sky blue foam, provides a welcome break from the intensity of the auditory experience that is The National Apavillion and Square Triangle. The mutedness and light spilling across the space sharply contrast with the sense of engulfment created by the previous installations. With head still vaguely throbbing, the visitor can examine a mixture of preparatory drawings for installation projects: some with the playful, careless quality of pencil drawings, thoughts absent-mindedly scrawled on paper; others precise, colour-coded diagrams with explanatory keys and notes. The juxtaposition of the doodle-like notes and almost mathematical blueprints make for a tongue-in-cheek reminder of the mixture of flash of inspiration and meticulous planning that inhere in the creation of any artwork.
The break, however, does not last long: already the exacting clamour of Untitled Song featuring Untitled Works by James Clarkson next door flows in and penetrates the visitor's consciousness. Entering the adjacent gallery you are greeted by a symphony of energetic sound-snatches running alongside each other, collapsing, and dividing again. As time passes, different installations come alive at different points, gradually building a soundscape as if in reaction to each other and to the visitor.
A small, barely noteworthy speaker next to the entrance suddenly gives out an authoritative thump that vibrates its surface; from the other end of the room, a contraption made up by a wall-mounted speaker, a ceramic lamp, and a glass table responds and develops the thumping. In the centre, a modified shop display case, empty but for a lonely small speaker inside it; above it, a chain is suspended with its end curling on a woofer. As if swept along by the soundwaves rising and falling across the room, this installation comes to life too: the vibration travelling through the ear forces the chain to dance, adding its own jangle to the orchestra. Close to the entrance, suspended from the ceiling hangs a mobile-like structure, made up of a visibly vibrating small speaker, a string of red LED lights, a drum rim, and two more speakers on the other end. Across the room lies an old-style turntable with an analogue radio spinning on it, strongly echoing the decks of Square Triangle; an energy-saving bulb overhead sheds intense white light and creates a not unpleasant grating sound crossed with the static emitted by the radio spinning past. Untitled Song employs the lyricism of looped feedback and static sound waves to create an auditory experience precariously straddling the border between noise and music. The use of muted speakers through which music –presumably- flows only to be discarded in favour of the pure sound of vibrations renders the work all the more poignant.
In /|/|/|/|/|/|/|/|/|/|/|/|/|/|/|/| the most promising young artist of the 2011 Biennale has put together a daring, original, and deeply moving solo exhibition that helps to carve a distinct niche for sound art in the landscape of the contemporary art world.
Haroon Mirza: /|/|/|/|/|/|/|/|/|/|/|/|/|/|/|/|, 21/01/2012 - 25/03/2012, Spike Island, 133 Cumberland Road, Bristol, BS1 6UX. www.spikeisland.org.uk
Installation view, Untitled Song featuring Untitled Works by James
Clarkson, 2012. Mixed media.
Photo: Stuart Whipps. Courtesy the artist and Spike Island.
Ménage à trois: Warhol, Basquiat, Clemente | Art &...
Installation: Five Truths | Howard Assembly Rooms ...
Whose Film Is It Anyway? | Japanese Contemporary A...
Disembodied Voices | Nalini Malani: Mother India |...
A Return to Making-Strange? | Opens Tomorrow | Int...
Observations of Modern Life | Ridley Howard: Slows...
A World of Shifting Certainty | The Family in Brit...
Contemporary Sound Art | Haroon Mirza: /|/|/|/|/|/...


text:
Q: Does the higher cohomology of a quasi-coherent sheaf on a Stein manifold vanish? It is a well-known result in algebraic geometry that if $X$ is an affine scheme and $\mathcal{F}$ is a quasi-coherent sheaf on $X$, then the higher cohomologies of $\mathcal{F}$ vanish, i.e.
$$
H^i(X,\mathcal{F})=0, ~\forall~ i\geq 1.
$$
In complex geometry we have a similar result of of Henri Cartan which claims that if $X$ is a Stein manifold and $\mathcal{F}$ is a coherent sheaf on $X$, then we have
$$
H^i(X,\mathcal{F})=0, ~\forall~ i\geq 1.
$$
See this nlab item: http://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/Stein+manifold#Forstneric11
$\textbf{My question}$ is if we consider the more general case that $\mathcal{F}$ is a quasi-coherent sheaf on a Stein manifold $X$, do we still have
$$
H^i(X,\mathcal{F})=0, ~\forall~ i\geq 1?
$$
Here by quasi-coherent I mean $\mathcal{F}$ locally can be written as the cokernel of
$$
\bigoplus_I\mathcal{O}_X|_U\rightarrow \bigoplus_J\mathcal{O}_X|_U.
$$
(I'm not sure whether there is other version of quasi-coherent sheaf in complex analytic context.)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Anthony Warner
Jason Preston, of Ohio, dribbles the ball during the match versus Rio Grande on Wednesday, December 4, 2019, in The Convo. Ohio won the match 90-51.
12.05.19 / 7:49 am
Men's Basketball: Jason Preston continues heavy, but necessary workload in 90-51 win over Rio Grande
Anthony Poisal
Jason Preston has averaged more minutes than any Ohio player this season.
And last season.
And maybe ever.
Well, not quite — D.J. Cooper averaged 38 minutes per game in 2010. Preston has averaged 36.6 minutes nine games into the season. Before Ohio's 90-51 win Wednesday over Rio Grande, Preston had played 120 minutes in the last three games.
That means he did not leave the floor.
Preston was OK with that. He was fine, too, when coach Jeff Boals pulled Preston from the blowout against the RedStorm with ten minutes to play.
The sophomore point guard exited with 11 points and 13 assists, tying a career-high. He received a modest ovation from the crowd as he walked off the court and received a pat on the back from Boals before he was given a clean towel wrapped around a bottle of water from a team assistant.
Preston played 30 minutes against Rio Grande, but that probably felt much shorter compared to what he's undertaken this season.
"We won by 40, so that's always great," Preston said. "I figured I'd probably be playing a lot."
Ohio has had no choice but to play Preston for the near entirety of every game. Injuries to Ben Roderick, Miles Brown and Conner Murrell have kept the Bobcats' depth at guard thin, but that has opened the door for a breakout season from Preston, who leads Ohio with 16.6 points per game.
His biggest improvement, perhaps, has been his passing game. His 8.7 assists per game leads Ohio and is a large leap from his 3.4 assists per game last season as a freshman. Preston was also thrusted into a heavy dose of playing time last season where he averaged 29.5 minutes per game under former coach Saul Phillips.
Preston's improvement is exactly what Ohio needed to show early signs that it can still compete despite its young roster of eight freshman and new coach in Boals. The Bobcats have won against every team they should've beaten so far, and their three losses have come against Villanova, Baylor and Utah — all major college basketball programs.
Things couldn't be much smoother for Ohio, and that's largely due to Preston.
"He's conditioned to play 40 minutes," Boals said. "He's taking care of his body, good hydration, massages and treatment. He's been a pro's pro. He's built for it, and we're going to continue to ride him."
Boals has statistical data to back up Preston's top-notch conditioning.
The Bobcats keep track of the heart rate of each player throughout practice. This past week in practice, Ohio did a full-court shooting drill meant to test the endurance of each player.
The coaching staff monitored the heart rates for each player, and Preston was among the most level on the team.
That came as no surprise to Boals, who has played Preston for a full 40 minutes in five games this season.
"When you play that many minutes for multiple games, you kind of get used to it," Boals said. "It's tough if you haven't been doing it, but that's what he's been doing."
Preston, who gained 16 pounds in the offseason and looks noticeably more toned than a season ago, doesn't care how his workload will look when Ohio's injured players recover.
Boals, however, leaned into the mic and offered a quick response Wednesday when asked if he will decrease Preston's workload at any point this season.
He made sure to be clear: He wants Preston on the floor as much as possible regardless of how the roster looks.
"No," Boals said with a smile. "He will play the same."
@anthonyp_2
ap012215@ohio.edu


High school is an important time in a student's life. They're beginning to think about the future and whether they want to attend college after graduation or enter the workforce. They're also navigating relationships and discovering who they are.
How does learning work in a K12-powered online high school in Arizona?
Your student's education begins with K12's personalized learning program. This program provides your student with individually tailored learning experiences based on their academic needs and strengths while allowing some flexibility to explore interests that can help set them on a track to achieving their goals for the future.
What is daily learning like at an Arizona virtual high school powered by K12?
Because of K12's personalized approach, each student's day-to-day learning can vary, but generally students in grades 9–12 communicate regularly with their teachers, manage their schedules with minimal Learning Coach support (about 1 to 2 hours per day), and begin considering their post-graduation goals with help from counselors. The online high school curriculum includes various levels of core courses and a broad selection of electives that let students explore areas of interest and even a possible future career.
To learn more about a typical day of K12-powered online schooling, visit our A Day in the Life website.
Arizona Virtual Academy is an AdvancED accredited school that empowers students with a personalized education experience. The school serves students performing at or above their current grade level who are seeking to be challenged academically. Students in grades 4–12 can combine online learning with a structured classroom environment at blended learning centers around the state. Students in grades 3–8 that meet gifted program requirements are eligible to test into RISE (Reaching Intellectual Success and Excellence), a self-contained program exclusively for profoundly gifted students. The high school ranked among the top 50 Arizona public high schools for SAT scores for 2015 and 2016 as reported by the Phoenix Business Journal. And as part of their dedication to promoting a positive outlook for the future, the caring staff provides college and career guidance.
Insight Academy of Arizona is an AdvancED accredited school that focuses on students' academic and personal well-being. The school serves students who are performing below their current grade level and are not on track to graduate. Credit recovery courses, trimester scheduling, and social and emotional learning programs help address students' academic challenges. Students can combine online learning with a structured classroom environment at blended learning centers around the state. The school also helps students prepare for college and a career through guidance services and the Destinations Career Program, where high schoolers can take courses in Business, Finance, and Health Science.


Small group all day programs for 6 to 11 year olds. We begin and end each day at the art workshop in Eltham, with an adventure in between interacting with the environment along the way.
Creative activities include singing, drawing, sewing, painting, storytelling, photography and movement.
In this "Bike ride and Farm" tour, we will meet at the Eltham Studio as usual anytime between 7am and 9am, then head down on a leisurely bike ride along the footpath to Eltham station and then venture along the bike path towards Diamond Creek, with a good sized stop off at Edendale Farm, exploring our environment through creative activities along the way and at the Farm, returning again to the Eltham studio for a pick up anytime between 4pm and 6pm.
Children need to be capable riders and bring their own bike, helmet and bike lock.
Experiment with a range of visual art media in the art studio.
Casual - anything they're ok with them getting dirty, muddy or painted!
Kids 6 to 11 years old!


text:
Messenger ramps up testing of default end-to-end encryption
Aisha Malik
January 23, 2023, 11:22 a.m. ·2 min read
Meta announced today that it has started gradually expanding testing default end-to-end encryption for Messenger. The messaging service is also bringing some of its standard features to end-to-end encrypted chats, including chat themes, custom chat emojis and reactions, group profile photos, link previews and active status.
Over the next few months, millions of users around the world will continue to see some of their chats gradually upgraded with end-to-end encryption. Messenger will notify people in these individual chat threads as they are upgraded. Meta says the process in which it selects and upgrades individual threads is random so that there isn't a negative impact on the company's infrastructure and users' chat experience.
Messenger end-to-end encryption experience
Image Credits: Meta
"We know people want a space to connect and they want to know that those conversations are private, safe and secure," Meta said in a blog post. "That is why we've spent time building a team of talented engineers, cryptologists, designers and policy experts who are all committed to rolling out default end-to-end encryption on Messenger. Building a secure and resilient end-to-end encrypted service for the billions of messages that are sent on Messenger every day requires careful testing."
Meta first tested end-to-end encryption features for Messenger back in 2016 for "secret conversations." Last January, the company introduced opt-in end-to-end encryption for group chats and calls for Messenger. But unlike Meta's other popular chat app WhatsApp, end-to-end encryption is not yet enabled by default for all conversations on Messenger, but this will soon change as the company begins rolling out default end-to-end encryption.
As for Instagram, the popular Meta app began testing end-to-end encrypted messages through an opt-in setting in 2021. Last February, the social media app introduced the feature for all users in Ukraine and Russia.
Meta has previously said that it expects to roll out default end-to-end encryption protection across all its apps sometime in 2023. The company has not provided a recent update on this timeline, but says it will give updates as it continues to bring end-to-end encryption to Messenger.
Meta starts testing end-to-end encryption for individual Messenger chats
Tesla CEO Elon Musk would 'be silly' to slash prices again, analyst says
The market doesn't want more price cuts by Tesla.
The stakes for the TikTok CEO's first Washington appearance next month just got higher with heightened warnings of a US-China war
The CEO of the video app is preparing to address Washington's concerns over data privacy and security as the US gets more hawkish on China.
The Biden administration is taking aim at Apple and Google for operating mobile app stores that it says stifle competition. The finding is contained in a Commerce Department report released by the administration on Wednesday as President Joe Biden convened his competition council for an update on efforts to promote competition and lower prices. "You've heard me say capitalism without competition isn't capitalism," Biden said Wednesday before convening the meeting, "it is just simply exploitation," he said.
Report: Microsoft plans to update Bing with a faster version of ChatGPT in the coming weeks
Microsoft is working to incorporate a faster version of OpenAI's ChatGPT, known as GPT-4, into Bing in the coming weeks in a move that would make the search engine more competitive with Google, according to a new report from Semafor. The integration would see Bing using GPT-4 to answer search queries. People familiar with the matter told Semafor that the main difference between ChatGPT and GPT-4 is speed.
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Vancouver's Wreck Beach has long been a favourite hangout for locals and tourists alike. Stretching along seven kilometres of beachfront on the west coast of the Point Grey peninsula, near the University of British Columbia, the isolated beach is accessible only by a 500-step forest trail. It's also famous as the region's most popular clothing-optional waterfront. But staff at Metro Vancouver say its ballooning popularity over the past few years is leading to increased emergencies and public saf
Longtime CBC radio producer Michael Finlay died Tuesday from medical complications following a random assault in Toronto's east end, his family has confirmed. In an email to CBC staff, Cathy Perry, executive director of newsgathering and operations, said he will be remembered as an exceptional storyteller, documentary maker and editor. Perry said Finlay travelled the world to produce radio documentaries for a number of programs, including Sunday Morning. "If you worked on a documentary with Mich
Prince Harry's £8,000 gift for nephew Prince Louis has such a sweet meaning behind it
Long before becoming a doting father to Archie and Lilibet, Prince Harry was an uncle to his brother Prince William's three children and for little Louis'...
Priscilla Presley's Son Navarone Garcia Breaks His Silence: 'People Know About Me, But They Don't Know Me'
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Eugenie Bouchard stuns in tweed skirt set at horse races: 'Super classy!'
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Theatre in the Age of Climate Change
An Opera for Climate Change
This week on HowlRound, we continue our exploration of Theatre in the Age of Climate Change, which began last April with this special series for Climate Week NYC. How does our work reflect on, and responds to, the challenges brought on by a warming climate? How can we participate in the global conversation about what the future should look like, and do so in a way that is both inspiring and artistically rewarding? While surfing the Internet one day, I came across the spectacular trailer for the opera CO2. Since I couldn't drop everything and fly to Milan, I asked librettist Ian Burton if he would share his experience with me. What he writes gives us a sense of the ambitious scope of this project. —Chantal Bilodeau
Ensemble of CO2. Photo courtesy of Teatro alla Scala.
I started writing the libretto for Giorgio Battistelli's opera CO2 in 2013, commissioned by La Scala Milan. I was given a generalized briefing of structuring an opera around the theme of Global Warming. I remember that my first concern was whether such a thing had been attempted before.
A number of films, documentaries, plays, and performances dealt with some aspect of the theme. Knowing that Giorgio Battistelli would have the orchestra, chorus, and great soloists of the most famous opera house in the world at his disposal, I wanted to provide him with a text that would both inspire him musically and give him maximum scope for vocal and orchestral expression. For example, big chorus scenes would allow him to show off the vast and brilliant orchestra to the full, while powerful, lyrical and exciting arias, duets (and, in the event, octets) would highlight soloists.
Giorgio and I previously worked together on a production of Richard III commissioned by the Opera of Flanders in 2005. Subsequently, the opera toured in Ghent, Dusseldorf, Eindhoven, Strasbourg, Geneva, and in Turin the next year. For Richard III, I abbreviated Shakespeare's longest play looking for its most sing-able moments. Then, I composed three big chorus scenes of coronations, which were not in the original play.
When thinking about CO2, I went back to Joseph Haydn's two great dramatic oratorios, The Creation and The Seasons, for inspiration. Before specifying the disastrous impact of Carbon dioxide emissions, I needed to the wonder and glory of the miraculous design and diversity of our planet, its seasonal changes, and its biological variety. Haydn did something similar by using Biblical texts and James Thomson's poems.
Structurally and textually, I thought of the libretto as a Postmodernist poem where images, ideas, and themes bounce off each other, provoking new trains of thought and generating new imagery.
Initially, I wanted to divide the piece into twelve sections to represent the months of the year, the Zodiacal signs, and the hours of the day. Within these twelve sections, I would deal with twelve different aspects of the theme, such as Creation; the Kyoto Conference; food miles and supermarkets; CO2 emissions and air travel; tsunamis; hurricanes; the Apocalypse; bio-diversity; and the Garden of Eden—a nod to Haydn's Creation.
Although thematically satisfying, the twelve sections proved a bit too lengthy and unwieldy. So, I cut my piece to nine scenes on different aspects of climate change with a prologue and an epilogue. The central character David Adamson is a climatologist, sung by baritone Anthony Michaels-Moore, who introduces the project in a rather dry lecture on Global Warming. His lecture is constantly interrupted by trigger words like "creation," "Kyoto," "tropical cyclone," and "Eden." He also states, "All my life I have wanted to tell the story of an atom of carbon." We are then taken into outer space, a beach in Thailand, a supermarket, an airport lounge, Eden, and so on.
The frequent interruptions of the lecture are theatricalized with the use of video provided by Tony Award winner Finn Ross, film of Ed Burtynsky's amazing photographs, and choreography devised by Marco Beriel. Meanwhile, David attempts to discuss sustainability, deep ecology, practical environmentalism, and tropical cyclones. He also discusses the metaphysical and poetic definitions of the Seasons and James Lovelock's "Gaia Hypothesis," amongst other things.
In addition, director Robert Carsen and designer Paul Steinberg came up with a device inspired by the Apple Mac computer, which David has at the beginning of the piece. The computer becomes "a stage within a stage" on which all of the sung and danced action of the opera takes place as if it's on the Internet.
Structurally and textually, I thought of the libretto as a Postmodernist poem where images, ideas, and themes bounce off each other, provoking new trains of thought and generating new imagery. Different languages like Latin, Ancient Greek, Sanskrit, Arabic, English, Russian, and Japanese mirror the global and timeless aspect of the theme. Then, quotations from various sources, such as Shakespeare, James Lovelock, Rachel Carson, and Alfred Russel Wallace along with the Psalms, the Vedic scriptures, the Homeric Hymn to Gaia, and the Kyoto Protocol add layers to the voices in the opera.
Once I structured the scenes, the characters came quite easily. For example, an offstage chorus of boys recite Psalm 18: "Caeli enarrant gloriam Dei." The audience is also present at the beginning of Creation when the four Archangels Michael, Raphael, Gabriel, and Uriel fly in from the heavens, hovering above a group of four scientists whose texts derive from a variety of twentieth century sources. They first appear when David is talking about the pre-Socratic philosophers Thales, Anaximines, Theophanes, and Heraclitus. Thus, we have an octet of voices, plus a boys' chorus, singing of the wonder of Creation.
In the airport scene, angry passengers briefly talk on their mobile phones, while David talks to his research assistant about figures and data relating to CO2 emissions from air travel and private jets.
Other characters emerge from the different scenes, including Mrs. Mason whose brother-in-law drowned during the Tsunami of 2004; Thai hotel manager Mr. Changtalay who works on a beach in Phuket; and Adam, Eve, and the Serpent in Eden. Finally, Gaia, the goddess of the Earth, sings her threnody on the disaster Man has caused on the Earth, in the environment, and in the atmosphere.
When David steps forward at the end of the opera, he is in absolute silence as the house lights come up. He speaks the final lines: "If this is not my planet, whose is it? If this is not my responsibility, whose is it? If I am the cause, am I not the cure?" These are some questions I want audiences to leave asking themselves.
Start the conversation today!
Bilodeau
Thoughts from the curator
How does our work reflect on, and respond to, the challenges brought on by a warming climate? How can we participate in the global conversation about what the future should look like, and do so in a way that is both inspiring and artistically rewarding?


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Dean Koontz - The House Of Thunder
Used Very Good, pages foxed/tanned, cover lightly creased
In a cavern called The House of Thunder, Susan Thorton watched in terror as her lover died a brutal death in a college hazing. And in the following four years, the four young men who participated in that grim fraternity rite also died violently. Or did they?
Twelve years later Susan wakes in a hospital bed. Apparently involved in a fatal accident, she is suffering from amnesia. She doesn't remember who she is or why she is there. All she knows is that her convalescence is unfolding into a fearful nightmare - and that the faces that surround her, pretending loving care, are those of the four men involved in that murder years before.
Have the dead come back to life? Or has Susan plunged into the abyss of madness? With the help of her neurosurgeon, Susan desperately clings to her sanity while fighting to uncover who or what could be stalking her...


Niuatoputapu (OC-191). QSL via JA0RQV, direct or bureau, and LoTW.
Logsearch and OQRS on Club Log.
be four stations active on various bands and modes. QSL via RW6HS.
FG/F6GWV from Guadeloupe (NA-102) from 24 February to 13 March.
Week (see below). QSL via Club Log's OQRS or via 9A8MDC.
activity dates and the X Anniversary Award.
(OC-086) until 20 February. He operates mainly SSB with some CW.
February to 20 March. QSL via PA3EFR.
Jurubaiba Island (SA-029). QSL via operatr's instructions.
LoTW; logsearch on Club Log.
QSLs via Club Log's OQRS, or via R7AA (direct or bureau).
Complete information on the AAW can be found at .
and provinces as possible (see for complete rules).


text:
Browns, CrossCountry Mortgage building upon successes of partnership's first season (2.3.22)
Primary CrossCountry Mortgage Campus signage installation completed in past month
BEREA, Ohio – The Cleveland Browns and CrossCountry Mortgage (CCM), one of the nation's largest and fastest growing retail mortgage lenders, are entering the 2022 offseason by building upon multiple successes from the first year of their long-term strategic partnership, including at the CrossCountry Mortgage Campus in Berea.
During the past month, the Browns and CCM, the team's official mortgage partner, transformed the exterior of the CrossCountry Mortgage Campus' main building. Developed by West Camp, the preferred display graphics partner of the Cleveland Browns, new signage featuring CCM marks have been erected above the front lobby and team personnel entrance. B-roll of the installation and creation of the imagery, crafted locally in Northeast Ohio, is available to media via the link below. Additionally, media are asked to update their archives with the recent photos of the facility provided below for future use. All assets can be credited courtesy of the Cleveland Browns.
Browns-CrossCountry Mortgage partnership highlight video
CrossCountry Mortgage Campus main entrance signage installation b-roll
CrossCountry Mortgage campus photos for future use
"Our partnership with CrossCountry Mortgage has and will continue to be impactful, given it was established in full alignment with two of our collective organizations' main goals – engaging Browns fans in unique ways and continuing to make a meaningful difference in our community," said Haslam Sports Group Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Dave Jenkins. "We appreciate the relationships and activations that we have been able to create together during the first season of the partnership and look forward to building upon that foundation in future years."
"This relationship really isn't about the Browns or CCM – it's about Cleveland and the incredibly dedicated and hardworking people who live here and throughout Northeast Ohio," said CrossCountry Mortgage Chief Brand Officer Laura Soave. "Everything we do with the Browns is designed to help ensure a truly world-class fan experience, both before and during each home game and throughout training camp."
The Cleveland Browns and CrossCountry Mortgage announced their long-term partnership in July, which includes naming rights for the team's CrossCountry Mortgage Campus in Berea. The collaborative is already planning new opportunities to engage Browns fans and the community in 2022 and beyond.
Fan and community activation highlights made possible through the partnership in 2021:
CrossCountry Mortgage was the presenting partner for the team's "Salute to Service" themed game against the Detroit Lions on Sunday, Nov. 21.
During the game, CCM made a $100,000 donation to Milan Edison High School in honor of U.S. Navy Corpsman Maxton W. Soviak, a 2017 Edison graduate and football captain who died while assisting the evacuation of Americans and refugees from Afghanistan in August. His father, Kip Soviak, and Edison High School Head Football Coach Jim Hall and Athletic Director Nick Wenzel were onsite to receive the contribution and participate in the Soviak memorial tribute.
During that week's Browns "Hats off to Heroes Honor Row" moment, the Browns and CCM also made a $10,000 donation to benefit USO Ohio.
The week of the game, CCM and the Browns hosted multiple events to recognize active military members, veterans and their families, including a private dinner with Browns players and CCM veteran employees.
Prior to every home game, CCM offered its futuristic "Hype Cam Experience" studio on Dawg Pound Drive, where fans created and interacted with video messages, giveaways and other content across digital and social platforms.
During all 10 home games, CCM hosted VIP guests for a special game-viewing experience in the CrossCountry Mortgage Landing overlooking the Dawg Pound.
Additionally, CCM and the Browns conducted a season-long "Dedicated Dawg" sweepstakes that featured various prizes, including winning packages totaling nearly $90,000. Prizes included game tickets, Browns gear and $50,000 in cash for the grand-prize winner to create the ultimate Browns fan cave. The recipient will be announced within the next month.
Upon entering training camp, Browns fans were officially welcomed to the CrossCountry Mortgage Campus with the opportunity to take interactive photos and share them on social media
CCM also was the presenting partner of "Browns Live: Training Camp." The digital streaming program returned in 2021 to provide Browns fans across the globe the opportunity to enjoy training camp sessions.
In June 2021, CCM started construction of a $46 million corporate campus in Cleveland's historic Superior Arts District. The 168,000-square-foot campus, located at 2152-2160 Superior Avenue, will bring more than 600 full-time jobs to Downtown Cleveland. The facility includes a 4,600-square-foot training center that will help area professionals prepare for successful careers in the mortgage industry.
About CrossCountry Mortgage, LLC:
CrossCountry Mortgage, LLC is a top 10 retail mortgage lender in America, founded in 2003 by CEO Ronald J. Leonhardt, Jr. The company has more than 6,000 employees and licenses in all 50 states. A direct lender and approved seller and servicer by Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and Ginnie Mae, CCM offers a broad portfolio of home purchase and refinance programs ranging from conventional and jumbo mortgages to government-insured programs for Veterans and rural homebuyers. Additional options include down payment assistance, home equity products, and expedited closing programs. CrossCountry Mortgage is on the Inc. 5000 List of America's Fastest-Growing Private Companies and a recipient of several other local and national awards for sales and growth. For more information, please visit crosscountrymortgage.com.
About the Cleveland Browns:
A member of the National Football League's AFC North division, the Cleveland Browns have long been among the most iconic and historic professional football clubs. Bolstered by eight league titles, 13 division championships and 17 Pro Football Hall of Famers, the Browns were established in 1945 as a charter team of the All-America Football Conference (AAFC). The Browns played their inaugural season in 1946 and finished in first place during each of the league's four years of existence (1946-49). Cleveland was one of three AAFC teams selected to merge with the NFL in 1950 and appeared in the league's title game in each of its first seven seasons, claiming three of its four NFL championships overall (1950; 1954-55; 1964) during that stretch. The Browns' 16 Pro Football Hall of Famers, the sixth-most in the NFL, include founder Paul Brown, legends Jim Brown, Otto Graham and Lou Groza, as well as Marion Motley and Bill Willis, two of the first African-Americans who helped break professional sports' race barrier in 1946. After a relocation to Baltimore in 1995, Cleveland was awarded an expansion franchise that returned to play in 1999, retaining all of the club's history and its namesake. In 2012, Dee and Jimmy Haslam, CEO of Pilot Flying J, purchased a controlling interest of the Cleveland Browns. Their vision for the Browns is to build a consistently winning football team, to take exceptional care of Browns fans and to be leaders in the Northeast Ohio community through the core areas of education, youth football the team's signature First and Ten volunteering movement. The Browns, led by Head Coach Kevin Stefanski and Executive Vice President of Football Operations and General Manager Andrew Berry, play their home games at FirstEnergy Stadium in Downtown Cleveland.
***Visit the Browns Media Center for materials provided by the Browns communications department, including media schedules, press releases, quotes, photos, media guides, rosters, depth charts and more.***


This was a wonderful gesture of kindness and reconciliation. It won't mean much to those who don't follow baseball, and that is Reason #478,653,222 why it's a mistake not to follow baseball.
I've written about the Steve Bartman fiasco several times, both here and on the currently off-line Ethics Scoreboard. I am not in the "Steve Bartman was an innocent victim of circumstance" camp, though he was a victim of moral luck. He was an incompetent baseball fan, not paying sufficient attention to the game and interfering with it as a direct result. On the other hand, for members of the 2003 Cubs to use him as a scapegoat for their blowing a lead, the game, and the play-offs, and for Chicago fans to hound him out of town and into hiding, was far worse than his negligence, the most disproportionate and vindictive treatment of a fan in sports history.
Bartman, for those of you who have lived in a bank vault since 2003, was the hapless young Chicago Cubs fan who unintentionally interfered with a foul ball that might have been catchable by Cubs outfielder Moises Alou in the decisive game of 2003 National League Championship Series. In a perfect display of the dangers of moral luck, Bartman's mistake—it didn't help that he was wearing earphones and watching the ball rather than the action on the field—began a chain of random events that constituted a complete collapse by Chicago in that very same half-inning, sending the Miami Marlins and not the Cubs, who had seemed comfortably ahead, to the Series. Bartman, who issued a sincere and pitiful apology, was widely vilified and literally run out of town. He then became part of Cubs and baseball lore, one more chapter in the sad saga has been called "the Billy Goat Curse," the uncanny inability of this team to win it all.
Yesterday the Cubs announced that the team had privately awarded Bartman an official Chicago Cubs 2016 World Series Championship ring as a special gift from the the Cubs organization. These things contain 214 diamonds at 5.5 karats, three karats of genuine red rubies and 2.5 karats of genuine sapphires, and are worth about $70,000. Even so, the symbolism is worth far more.
This guy was badly mistreated, and it is good to see a recognition of that fact by the team.
Is Billy Buck getting one?
Or did the Red Sox give him one?
70 grand to make one, but if one ever made auction, it would be more.
Not a baseball fan, but well aware of this story. I'm glad to see that the Cubs are a team that cares more about their fans than the bottom line. I know they will get some blowback for doing this, but I think it is the right thing to do.
VERY classy move; unexpected, unsolicited, and as close to pure altruism as you'll get in the jaded world of professional sports!
Nearly 4 decades ago (September 1977) the U.S.A. gave the Canal back to Panama, 241 months ago today the Union Jack was furled for the last time as the Brits relinquished Hong Kong to China.
Two years ago TitleTown's 13 Time World Champion Green Bay Packers not only forgave Prodigal Son Brett Favre, but welcomed him back with open arms AND retired his # 4.
Other as yet unfinished business? Will MA & Boston generally, and BoSox fans specifically, ever forgive Harry Frazee for letting The Bambino slip away to the Evil Empire?
Absolutely not. Also never forgiven: Grady Little. Don Zimmer. John McNamara.
I wondered immediately if the Cubs gave a similar ring to Moises Alou.
That statement of Bartman's is wonderfully eloquent gratitude, by the way.
What an uplifting story!! I LOVE it!!!
Shows it's never too late to make amends!
Haven't been commenting as much lately, still reading!
Thank you again for all you contribute to our world. Gives me hope so often.