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Great new review
Our friend Steve Schalchlin recently posted a great review of Imprudent Zeal on amazon.com. He gave it 3.0 out of 5 stars and titled it "An original, rambling look at America."
Steve is a singer/songwriter and lyricist for the musicals "The Last Session" and "The Big Voice: God or Merman."
Here's his review:
From the idealistic would-be priest who gets tossed out of the seminary for "imprudent zeal" to the "wrong side of the tracks" musician and artist from Mississippi to the hooker's daughter in Seattle still looking for her daddy, Imprudent Zeal is filled with wide-ranging characters and the colorful specifics of their lives.
The rambling storyline felt comfortable and kept me smiling and watching expectantly to see where these peoples' lives would finally intertwine.
Alec has a nice feel for place and time. I could feel the suffocating heat in Mississippi and the bone chilling rain of a lonely man at a train station on Long Island New York. I also loved learning more about the art of painting.
If I had any criticism, it's that I wish he'd slow down the pace a bit and really plunge us farther into each individual person's heart. I felt sometimes that the narrative became a little too much of, "They went here. They went there. They went to another place" and occasionally I got the feeling I was still in the introduction, waiting for the story to begin.
Eventually, though, his compassion for these wayward souls comes through and the book slowly and finally drew me in to the point that it surprisingly became a page turner. I was racing to get to the end to find out how it would all turn out.
The central part of the story takes place in New York at a kind of "do it yourself" community center called "Everything For Everybody" run by the exiled would-be priest. Those scenes throb with reality and color, and the mix of characters felt bone real since it's based upon a real place. Worth the price of admission alone.
Alec has constructed a lovely book filled with warm, well-meaning people all trying to find a place in a world that makes little sense to them. I do recommend it.
Posted by Alec Clayton at 1:58 PM 2 comments:
TMP stages heart-rending 'Miss Saigon'
Published in The News Tribune April 25th, 2008
Pictured: April Villanueva and Aaron Freed. Photos by Kat Dollarhide.
The musical "Miss Saigon" is among the saddest ever written. With the exception of two brief moments of comic relief provided by the Engineer (played with great style by Micheal O'Hara), this Tacoma Musical Playhouse performance is one of unremitting tragedy, longing and horror.
In its melancholy and its broad sweep – and especially in the tone and the power of the music by Claude-Michel Schnberg, with lyrics by Richard Maltby Jr. and Alain Boublil – it bears a striking resemblance to "Les Misérables" – so much so, in fact, that when the lovers Kim and Chris broke into song I thought I was listening to Eponine and Jean Valjean from the touring company of "Les Misérables. April Villanueva as Kim has Eponine's beauty and vulnerability and a similar hauntingly stunning clear and sweet voice, and Aaron Freed as Chris has Jean Valjean's vocal range and power, plus a whispery quality on the more tender ballads that is as gentle as the whimper of a hurt child.
Where it differs from "Les Misérables" is in its lack of heroic grandeur.
There are no heroes storming the barricades; rather, there are flawed human beings whose weaknesses have tragic repercussions.
The story is set at the end of the Vietnam War.
Kim is a poor girl who comes to Saigon after her parents are killed and her village is destroyed, and she has reluctantly turned to prostitution.
She is 17 years old, shy and afraid. She joins a group of bar girls who work in a club called Dreamland owned by the Engineer, a small-time hustler who, like all of his girls, dreams of a better life – his dream being escaping to America before Saigon falls to the Viet Cong.
Chris and his buddy John (Scott Polovitch-Davis) come to Dreamland, and John buys his buddy Chris a night with Kim.
Chris and Kim fall in love that night and cling to each other as they sing a classically tender duet, "The Last Night of the World," which nods to the world swirling in horror around them and the love they believe can outlast it, and Chris promises to take her home to America with him.
But when Saigon falls and the Americans are lifted off the roof of the embassy into helicopters to be transported home, there is a mad and desperate scene with Vietnamese clamoring at the gates to get in.
Soldiers inside the embassy will not let Chris go out to get Kim, nor will they let her in.
Skip ahead a few years after the war's end.
Chris is back home in America and has married Ellen (Julie Watts) after a long and painful adjustment to life in the United States; Kim is again trapped in the life of a bar girl, but now with Chris's son, Tam (played alternately by Bryan Goodnite and Peter Belen); and John is working on behalf of the Bui-Doi children born to American soldiers and Vietnamese women during the war. (One of the most heart-rending songs in the play is John's solo "Bui Doi," sung to a backdrop of pictures of these children.)
Kim's life with her child in Vietnam is hopelessly bleak. Yet she clings to the belief that Chris will do as he had promised and come back for her and the son he did not know about.
The comedic relief provided by the Engineer are the songs "If You Want to Die in Bed" and "The American Dream." The former provides necessary transition with sly humor and the latter is a big Broadway-style production number sung with great panache by O'Hara and backed up by a chorus line of bar girls in stars-and-stripes costumes and a sexy Lady Liberty.
The costumes by Joan Schlegel are nicely done, especially the Engineer's bad-taste '70s outfits, and the set transitions are smooth and unobtrusive.
"Miss Saigon" is a long play at two hours, 30 minutes plus a 15-minute intermission, and it is emotionally draining. With adult language and themes of prostitution, it is not recommended for children under the age of 13. There are helpful parental guidelines on the Tacoma Musical Playhouse Web site for those parents who may be undecided about taking their children.
WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday through May, additional performances at 2 p.m. April 26 and May 3
WHERE: The Narrows Theatre, 7116 Sixth Ave.
TICKETS: Adults, $23; students/military, $21; children 12 and younger, $16
INFORMATION: 253-565-6867, http://tmp.org/
199 supplicants
Kader Attia installations at the Henry Art Gallery.
Published in the Weekly Volcano, April 24, 2008
Pictured, "Ghosts," aluminum foil artwork by Kader Attia on loan from the Musee d'Art National in Paris.
Photo: Richard Nicol
Kader Attia, featured artist at the Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, presents work that is equally effective in terms of idea, form and emotional impact. He expresses deep sympathy for the human condition through artworks that are inventive and classically solid in design.
Massive architectural forms fill one large gallery. Called Rocher Carrés, this installation is based on a seawall made of giant blocks of concrete that lean seaward at odd angles (pictures of which are included in the exhibition). Row after row of huge white boxes made of drywall sheets fill the room. All lean dangerously to one side (apparently, not actually dangerous). Visitors can walk through as though through a labyrinth. The effect is disorienting. Some people may feel at risk of being crushed. People with vertigo probably should not enter. You feel the weight pressing down and become aware of contradictory feelings of fullness and emptiness.
The adjacent large gallery is filled with an installation called Ghosts — 199 kneeling figures positioned in rows of military precision, all facing in the same direction and bowing like Muslims in prayer. These figures are life-size. They wear hooded robes that drape open in the back as well as around nonexistent faces. The only indication of gender is the curve of their lower backs, which appear to be female. They are made of tinfoil. Seen from the front, their open hoods reveal emptiness. What does this installation say about the human condition?
Does it say we are all hollow inside? Empty supplicating robes? Does it speak to our vulnerability and longing? Does the multiplicity of almost identical figures indicate that we are programmed drones?
Both Rocher Carrés and Ghosts epitomize the artistic dictum variety within unity. They are unified through repetition of almost identical forms and through color harmony. One is all white, the other all silver. In Rocher Carrés, which is all white, even the white gallery walls and light fixtures become part of the installation. Both can be seen from many viewpoints, including a bird's-eye view from a balcony above the galleries.
In a smaller gallery there is another installation using empty grocery bags to represent poverty. The empty bags look like empty women's strap blouses (the handles become shoulder straps). A wall text explains that this installation was inspired by watching poor people in line at a food bank holding their empty bags. A written description cannot explain the affect of these few empty grocery bags sitting on tables.
Two other pieces in the show are an untitled stainless steel sculpture and a DVD projection video called Oil and Sugar #2. The sculpture is a giant camera aperture. The video shows what happens when oil is poured over a stack of sugar cubes. I won't explain it further (it would be too much like giving away the plot twist of a movie). Suffice it to say it is very surprising and a powerful image.
Also showing is Seattle artist Dawn Cerny's We're all going to die (except for you), an installation including small drawings, bunches of little paper doll figures and even stuffed owls — plus Victorian mourning dresses and contemporary T-shirts — all of which, according to a press release, encourage viewers to "meditate on American attitudes toward death, trauma, and war in the past and the present."
This weekend will offer the last chance to see Cerny's installation, which runs only through April 27.
Also showing are: Jean-Luc Mylayne, photographs, through April 27, and Josiah McElheny: The Last Scattering Surface, through Aug. 17. Mylayne's photographs are large-scale studies of birds in desert landscapes in clear, bright colors. They fill two large galleries. McElheny's Last Scattering Surface is an almost room-sized glass chandelier. Also shown are preliminary drawings and a related video.
[The Henry Art Gallery, Kader Attia: New Work, Tuesday through May 25, $10 general admission, $6 students and seniors, members free, 15th Ave. N.E. and N.E. 41st St., Seattle]
The Cure at Troy
The Seattle Repertory Theatre's performance of "The Cure at Troy" is absolutely amazing. It is a retelling of an ancient and little known Greek play by Sophocles written by Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney and directed by Tina Landau.
On the voyage to Troy the archer Philoctetes is bitten on the foot by a poisonous snake and the stinky and festering bite refuses to heal, so Odysseus puts Philoctetes off on an abandoned island where he lives in exile and constant pain for 10 years.
But Odysseus cannot totally abandon Philoctetes because Philoctetes has in his possession the magical bow of Hercules, and the gods tell Odysseus that the only way to guarantee a victory over the Trojans is by using the bow and arrow of the god Hercules — a weapon that cannot miss its target. He sends Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles, to fetch Philoctetes and the magic bow. What transpires between Philoctetes and Neoptolemus, and later between Philoctetes and Odysseus, is raw, stunning and awesome.
Boris McGiver as Philoctetes expresses emotions as raw as the festering wound on his foot as he hobbles and crawls about the rocking island in one of the most physically demanding jobs of acting I've ever witnessed. (A stage hand told me that McGiver has injured himself repeatedly during performances, which is not at all surprising.)
The traditional Greek chorus is used in a manner that is highly inventive and thoroughly modern while honoring the ancient tradition of the chorus as narrator and commentator.
The chorus consists of Guy Adkins, Ben Gonio and Jon Michael Hill. The three of them sing beautifully, and their choreographed movements are astoundingly beautiful (kudos to movement consultant Geoffrey Alm).
Odysseus is played by Hans Altwies and Neoptolemus by Seth Numrich.
The set by Blythe Quinlan and lighting by Scott Zielinski are breathtaking.
This is a very unusual play that combines poetry and dramatic storytelling with highly abstract and stylized movement. I highly recommend it. It runs through May 3. For more information, go to www.seattlerep.org
Read OffBook: The Cure at Troy, a publication of Seattle Repertory Theatre (PDF format)
Posted by Alec Clayton at 9:03 AM 1 comment:
Cool 'Cat' gets new life at TLT
"Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" at Tacoma Little Theatre
Published in The News Tribune, April 18, 2008
Pictured: Peter Punzi as Brick and Stephanie Leeper as Maggie, photo by Jason Ganwich.
Peter Punzi made me sit up and take notice. Punzi plays the part of Brick in Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" at Tacoma Little Theatre.
I've seen many productions of "Cat" on film, television and in community theaters from Mississippi to Washington state, and in none of them have I ever seen Brick Pollitt interpreted the way Punzi and director Nyree Martinez interpret him. Actors ranging from Ben Gazzara to Paul Newman to Tommy Lee Jones have played Brick as angry and defiant. And in many versions – especially Newman's – I have had a hard time seeing past the larger-than-life Hollywood glamour boy to the hurt and confused man inside.
Not so with Punzi's portrayal of Brick. He plays him as gentle, sweet, scared and damaged man whose pain was palpable. That is the way, I suspect, Tennessee Williams saw him. But when Paul Newman played Brick in 1958, audiences would not have been willing to accept a leading man who was not only sexually conflicted but as gentle and damaged in a way that might have been perceived as casting aspersions on his manliness.
Punzi doesn't have the smoldering good looks of a young Ben Gazzara or Paul Newman, but he is a handsome man with a stocky body that is easily believable as that of the aging football hero he portrays, and he handles the Southern accent well.
Elliot Weiner also approaches his role as the blustery patriarch Big Daddy in a way that is different from what is usually expected of the role. In a play filled with exaggerated characters, Big Daddy is typically portrayed as the most outsized of them all. It's hard to even visualize Big Daddy without picturing Burl Ives. But Weiner downplays and quietens Big Daddy, which results in a more believable and sympathetic character.
The other larger-than-life character is, of course, Maggie the Cat – memorably played as an outlandish Southern sex kitten by the likes of Elizabeth Taylor and Kathleen Turner. Actresses who play Maggie inevitably overact. In this production, Stephanie Leeper plays Maggie. And yes, she appears to be an outlandish parody of a clichéd Southern sexpot. But that is way the character was written, and if she is a cliché, we must remember that this is the character upon whom the cliché was built.
The story by now should be familiar to theatergoers. It is Big Daddy's birthday. The family has just received word from the doctor that tests for malignancy came back positive. Big Daddy is dying of cancer. But the family tries to hide it from him, making up the lie that the tests have shown that he suffers only from a spastic colon.
Meanwhile, the second son, Gooper (Bill Read), and his baby-machine wife, Mae (Amber Rose Johnson), are conspiring to inherit Big Daddy's vast plantation holdings and Brick and Maggie's marriage is being ripped apart by his alcoholism and by the ghost of Brick's best friend, Skipper. Both Maggie and Big Daddy suspect there was a homosexual element to Brick and Skipper's friendship, but Brick denies it: "One man has one great good true thing in his life. One great good thing which is true! I had friendship with Skipper. You are namin' it dirty!"
The set designed by Chris M. Roberson creates the sultry and decadent feel of a Southern plantation on a scorching night with storms approaching both inside and out. The effect is beautifully highlighted with Jason Ganwich's lighting design and props by Penny Clapp and David Jerome.
"Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" is a modern classic written with superb dramatic structure and a master's ear for language. It runs two-and-one-half hours with two intermissions. With strong adult language and themes, it is recommended for ages 14 and older.
WHEN: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through May 4; ASL performance May 2
WHERE: Tacoma Little Theatre, 210 N. I St., Tacoma
TICKETS: $16-$20
INFORMATION: 253-272-2281, www.tacomalittletheatre.com
Posted by Alec Clayton at 4:28 PM No comments:
Inconsistent patterns
I like the titles and descriptions TaCo sent out in announcing the latest Woolworth Windows installation:
"Issei Watanabe — Possibility of Inconsistent Patterns featuring duct tape geometry; Kelsey Parkhurst, Dana Brownfield, and Melissa Balch — What To Wear featuring absurdly altered articles of clothing; Justin Hahn — untitled installation featuring lots of polymeric material; Celeste Cooning — Milk and Honey II featuring an artificial paper forest."
How well those titles and descriptions match what is actually in the windows varies.
Facing the windows on the Broadway side, let's start with the windows on the far left. First up is Celeste Cooning's Milk and Honey II, two windows filled with cut-paper floral patterns. The decorative and elaborate cut-paper leaves cover the walls, hang from the ceiling and cascade down to a bed of leaves on the floor. In all but one small section, the paper is snow white and has the kind of sparkle in front of its bright blue background that we might associate with paper snowflakes — pretty and fanciful. In the second window, however, there is a little section on the floor where the leaves are spray painted with multiple colors, the overall affect being the colors of autumn leaves on the ground partially covered with a layer of snow. That sounds much more pleasing than it actually is. I think the addition of color hurts more than it helps. (And what's with the ladder lying on the floor? Is it an intentional part of the installation, or was it accidentally left there by a worker?)
Next up is Justin Hahn. Stretched across large sections of windows are piles of what look like purple and green latex sheets. Imagine blown sections of tire retreads painted a milky purple and green and stacked two to three feet high in a long ribbon. There is a kind of unity and design integrity to this that I can appreciate. But in the middle is something jarringly out of place: two green and yellow-green figures that look like little creatures from a horror movie rising from a pile of bloodred human or animal organs. It's very creepy.
Next comes the Parkhurst, Brownfield and Balch installation (Brownfield's name is included in the announcement but the window labels mention only Parkhurst and Balch, and it is hard to tell who did what). This installation consists of small pop art paintings of shoes and other items that might be found in a woman's closet. There is a dress hanging on a coat hanger that hangs from a painting of a coat hanger, and there are scattered shoes and an oversized jacket and a dress woven from some kind of plastic material, and a few round white balls on the floor. The white dress has a nice form to it, but the rest of it seems random and uninteresting.
The most inventive work is Watanabe's Possibility of Inconsistent Patterns in the Commerce Street windows. It's fascinating and makes good use of the available space. I first noticed it while driving up the hill of 11th Street. I saw groups of vertical stripes — clusters of black stripes and clusters of multicolored stripes. As I drove past, the relationships between the stripes began to change because they were on different levels, and depending on my point of view, different groupings of stripes became visible. This peekaboo effect became more pronounced when I walked down the hill and looked through the windows.
The stripes are made from tape on the windows and on the walls behind the windows. The window stripes are all vertical and are spaced about an inch apart. Most of them are black except for one cluster of brightly colored stripes. The window stripes almost completely block the view of the other stripes on the back wall, which are more colorful and create opposing patterns — a triangular pattern in silver and stair steps in rainbow colors. The "possibilities of inconsistent patterns" seem almost endless as you peer between the vertical stripes at various places.
[Woolworth Windows, 24hours/7 days, through May 31, Broadway at 11th and Commerce at 11th, Tacoma]
You're missing a great show
Unless you are the other couple in the audience last night at the Midnight Sun, you're missing a great show -- "The Ascetic," produced by Theater Artists Olympia in conjunction with The Northwest Playwrights Alliance and Prodigal Sun Productions and starring Pug Bujeaud, Tim Hoban, Tim Scott (aka Tim Samland) and Paul Gisi.
I saw this play first in rehearsal a couple of weeks ago and then again Sunday night. I wrote a preview article for my weekly column in The News Tribune (scroll down to see it). It is a wonderful play, well written (by Philip Atlakson), well acted, and well directed (by Dennis Rolly).
There was a grand total of four people in the audience Sunday night, and I was told that there were only two people in the audience opening night. My God! Such lack of support for hard working and well known local theater people is disgusting. Get off your asses, people, and buy your tickets at buy olympia.com. Tickets are a mere $12.
And tell everybody you know.
Paint splattered
While painting our bathroom cabinets today I was reminded of something that happened a long time ago. I took a break from painting (pictures, not cabinets) and ran to the 7-11. The clerk noticed my paint-splattered clothes and asked, "Are you a house painter or just an artist?"
Writing, acting make 'Ascetic' emotionally intense
Pictured: Tim Samland as the ascetic and Pug Bujeaud as Sara. Photo by Marc Bujeaud
Theater Artists Olympia, the "fringe" company that produces some of the more challenging theater in the Pacific Northwest, is bringing Philip Atlakson's play "The Ascetic" to the Midnight Sun performance space beginning tonight.
TAO boasts of "untamed theater," which implies something that is less than polished, but this play is thoroughly polished both in the writing and in the production. The story may be improbable, but the writing is literate and beautifully structured.
Atlakson heads the Dramatic Writing Program at Boise State University. He has written, directed and acted in numerous plays and movies, including the off-Broadway production of "The Ascetic."
A co-production with The Northwest Playwrights Alliance and Prodigal Sun Productions, this play was presented in a Playwrights Alliance reading a few years ago under the title "The Ascetic of Lincoln County," but this will be its first full stage production. I saw it in rehearsal without costumes, sets or theatrical lighting and with actors still on book. Even under those rough conditions, I thought it was great theater.
A holy man has made the news by standing on a rock in the basalt desert of Eastern Washington for 300 days, apparently without food or water. A married couple, Jerry and Sara, travel to the desert to see this phenomenon for themselves. Immediately upon arriving on the rock in the desert where the holy man stands with his prayer rope, Jerry takes his picture, and then he asks his wife to take a picture of him standing by the holy man, treating the ascetic as if he is not a man at all but some kind of prop set in the wilderness.
Sara is skeptical. She thinks the holy man is a sham. He's in it for the money (although she can't figure out how he can make money out of it). And he must be sneaking food and water, stashing it somewhere among the rocks, because it is not possible to survive 300 days without food or water.
But Jerry believes the holy man is for real, a link between past and present, East and West – "our link to how unlinked we've become," Jerry declares with a kind of circular logic that becomes more and more nonsensical as he tries to defend the holy man. He employs the same kind of circular reasoning in criticizing his wife with statements such as "You say things as a way of never saying anything at all."
The presence of the holy man brings about strange reactions from both Jerry and Sara. They do things they normally would never do. Sara even seduces her husband into making love right in front of the ascetic in a scene that pushes right up to the boundary of good taste without crossing that boundary – an acting challenge that Pug Bujeaud as Sara and Tim Hoban as Jerry handle with grace, intensity and playfulness.
The ascetic challenges their reason, their marriage, their faith and ultimately (possibly) their very lives.
"I have to say, as an actress, it is the most challenging role of my life," Bujeaud said. It is both physically and emotionally demanding. In the hands of a less skilled actor, Sara would be unbelievable, but Bujeaud's performance seems convincingly authentic, as does Hoban's.
The only other actors are Tim Samland as the ascetic, in what might well be the most understated job of acting ever seen in the South Sound, and Paul Gisi in a brief appearance as the sheriff.
"The Ascetic" was described in a press release as a black comedy, which may be at best a semi-accurate description. It is an intense, thought-provoking drama with moments of absurdity. I found myself wishing for a more comedic approach, especially in Gisi's portrayal of the sheriff, but director Dennis Rolly probably made the right decision in having his actors play it as straight drama.
WHEN: 8 p.m. Thursdays-Sundays through April 26
WHERE: The Midnight Sun, 113 N. Columbia St., Olympia
TICKETS: $12 at buyolympia.com and at the door day of the show
Group show at Black Front Gallery
Pictured: untitled figure by Diane Kurzyna(pictured in downtown alley, now on display at Black Front Gallery)
The terms "cutting edge" and "street art" are tossed around a lot. The current show at Black Front Gallery is the real thing. These artists are like feral cats brought inside and trained — only everybody knows you can't really train an alley cat.
OK, I exaggerate. Only some of these artists are real-deal street artists. Others are establishment artists who might have been influenced by street artists. Like Diane Kurzyna, aka Ruby Reusable. She's been making art out of recycled materials for as long as many of us remember. And frankly, up until now, her art has tended to be more cute and entertaining than profound. She started out making silly little dolls and various clever tableaux out of Wonder Bread wrappers and other discarded materials.
Eventually she moved into making life-size and relatively realistic figures out of plastic bags and placing them in various "real life" locations such as park benches, a city bus and perched atop dumpsters in downtown alleys — all of which lends to her art a kind of gritty street cred it never had before.
Kurzyna fits right in with the "real" street artists that are showing at Black Front, some of whose names I can't even mention because the cops are on the look out for them. I'm talking guerilla artists with tags such as "Sine," "Baso," "1+1=3," "Veks" "Slutz," "Jeans," and others. I'm talking graffiti painted directly on the gallery wall with dedications to certain other graffiti artists whose identities are known only to the select (plus — and I was glad to see this — a "tag" dedication to longtime Olympia gay rights activist Mike Cook who died of cancer a few years ago). This work is touching, colorful, vibrant, and at least some of it is gut-wrenchingly real.
Back to Kurzyna. Her figure, which sits in the gallery window, is made of reused black plastic bags from Radio Shack, Hot Topic and Metropolis. She's wearing a red plastic-bag teddy and red "Danger Do Not Enter" shoes. On her head is a beauty queen tiara made from aluminum pop tops and wire based on E from Slutz crew (known for work on the free wall behind the Capitol Theatre in Olympia). This is the best work Kurzyna has done to date. Even the clear plastic shoes hanging overhead look much better here than when last seen in an installation inside the Capitol Theatre.
But the real star of this show has to be Adie Janci, a street artist from Chicago. I don't know anything about this artist other than what is posted on the gallery wall. In fact, there are works in the gallery that I assume to be by Janci because of their grouping with her other works, but which, in fact, may be by some anonymous street artist. I am speaking here of the unidentified stenciled images on the left wall as you enter the gallery. These figures remind me a lot of work by Bansky, possibly the most celebrated street artist in the world (if you don't know him by now, that's why God invented Google). The most outstanding of these figures is a stenciled picture of two little girls sitting on high stools — and I'm talking really, really high, almost ceiling high. The girls are dangling a baby on puppet strings. There is a graphic quality to these images that is hard to describe but which I find fascinating, and the combination of sinister imagery with childish innocence is powerful.
In a wall statement, Janci says her street art in Chicago consists mostly of long, white legs that she cuts out of paper and attaches to walls. There are a few of those here, attached at ceiling level. There are also two walls filled with little drawings and paintings that feature these same long white legs, many in combination with yellow bicycle wheels and one large group of circus-motif paintings.
I don't believe Janci is a self-taught outsider. This is art that shows a highly trained touch with line and color and a sophisticated feel for distribution of space.
Set against the back wall are two pieces by Joe Penrod, who has shown at Black Front previously. Penrod places real items next to walls and "paints" their cast shadows with blue masking tape. Here he has two stools stacked one atop the other and a bucket filled with wood scraps, both with long blue cast shadows. They are striking images.
The smaller back room gallery features an installation by Laura Sharp — three walls densely packed with drawings, paintings, photographs, and various found or handmade items all interspersed with dated news clips. It is like a scrapbook of a young life lived in difficult times.
Also showing are works by singer/writer/artist Skie Bender.
[Black Front Gallery, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Sunday-Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday-Saturday, through April, 106 Fourth Ave., Olympia, 360.786.6032]
Posted by Alec Clayton at 8:29 AM 2 comments:
Yer Killin' Me
Published in Art Access, April 2008
pictured: "and God Bless" by Dominic Rouse, courtesy Benham Gallery
The latest show at ArtsWest is "Yer Killin' Me," curated by Deborah Paine, curator for Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs and former Microsoft curator.
This show features:
• Samantha Scherer in an installation titled "These Are Their Stories": 50 to 60 beautifully rendered watercolor images of victims from the opening sequences of the TV show "Law & Order."
• Chris Crites'recreations of criminal mug shots and other images from the 1890s to 1950s in acrylic on paper bags.
• Susan Seubert, a Portland artist whose black and white photographs depict bucolic landscapes where people have been murdered.
• Maggie Orth, Seattle artist, technologist and entrepreneur who creates and invents interactive and electronic textiles and who is considered a pioneer in the emerging field of electronic textiles, interactive fashions, wearable computing and interface design.
• Dominic Rouse, whose bizarre, macabre and surrealistic photographs are all about death and destruction.
• And Randy Nichols, who expressively recreates the portraits of personalities bordering on the edges of iconic.
Scherer's installation is not extremely large as installations go, the full installation is 26 inches by 65 inches and consists of some 40 to 50 evenly spaced individual watercolor paintings, each of which is a mere 2.5 inches square. The black-and-white images look more like ink wash drawings than watercolors. The wet-on-wet paint soaks into the paper in blobs with delicate control of shadows and minimal modulation of tone. Scherer explains: "Underneath each drawing, the season and episode number pertaining to the victim is handwritten on the wall in pencil, so it ends up being a kind of catalog of victims."
As viewers of the "Law and Order" series know, each show begins with someone finding a dead body, usually by complete chance. It is these bodies – their faces to be specific – that Scherer paints. Most could easily be interpreted as peacefully sleeping rather than dead, but at least one of the images is of a survivor in a hospital bed with a black eye and oxygen hooked to her nose. This is a painful image. There is also at least one image of a highly recognizable actor, in this case Joe Seneca, one of those character actors that everybody immediately recognizes but can't remember by name.
Rouse appears in the show courtesy of Benham Gallery. Images seen on his Web site at http://www.dominicrouse.com/ are macabre in the extreme, with rotting corpses, skeleton heads with bodies sliced in sections and sewn back together. A photograph called "and God Bless" pictures a bare room like a monk's cell minus the religious iconography or a prisoner's cell with an old dresser of a type one can't imaging being in a prison cell. There is no body in the cell, but the tops and bottoms of striped pajamas pray beside the bed – the top hung on the wall like a crucifix. Other Rouse photos in the show such as "Vacancy" and "The Survivor" are even darker and more horrific.
Nichols' paintings are decorative and sweet, and similar to Scherer's in style, only with more color and less detail. Described as iconic, it seems that description has more to do with the subjects than with the look of the paintings. The subjects include Princess Diana and the recently martyred Benazir Bhutto, both of whose violent deaths play right into the "Yer Killin' Me" theme.
It is Crites' mug shots on brown paper bags that are iconic in presentation. Each face is that of a criminal or suspect taken from the San Francisco Police Department, Golden Gate precinct, in the 1940s. The artist does not know their identities. They are identified by crime: "Arsonist," "Assault," etc. Harsh, seen from a straight-forward viewpoint and painted in flat planes of few colors, they are reminiscent of some of Andy Warhol's silkscreen portraits – and due to subject matter also bring to mind Warhol's electric chair series.
Orth's interactive and electronic textiles almost defy description. Until interacted with, her abstract patterns are not unlike paintings by Stuart Davis or Marsden Hartley or traditional patchwork quilts, but when touched, the colors and patterns change. These works are technologically inventive, and the patterns are quite attractive, but I do not understand why they were included in a show in which everything else adheres to a death theme.
Seubert's photographs do not appear to fit with that theme either. They are quiet landscape photographs in black and white, comfortable nature scenes with no hint of humanity – no people, no cars, and no buildings or telephone wires overhead. But each photograph is of a murder scene. Titles and captions complete the photographs by explaining the settings. For instance: "1000 Acres. On 31 August 1992, Clarence Wayne Richards' body was found in 1000 Acres Park. He died of numerous stab wounds to the neck and chest. His pickup truck was found in SE Portland. On 30 January 1990, the body of Tony Alverez was discovered sitting in his truck with two gunshot wounds to the head. He was a long haul trucker. There is no suspect in the case."
"When asked if I would be a guest curator for the ArtsWest Playhouse exhibition space," Paine said, "my first question was to inquire about the play they would be presenting during this exhibition. 'The Dead Guy' production turned out to be a wonderful title to play with in terms of finding imagery that would segue from the play to the exhibition space."
Paine described the works in the show as "an eclectic mix of tongue-in-cheek playfulness and serious imagery" that "deals with death in an obvious and hopefully humorous way."
"Yer Killin' Me" runs April 6-May 3 at ArtsWest Playhouse and Gallery, 4711 California Avenue SW, Seattle.
This is from the latest review of my novel posted on amazon.com.
"...while I can't say I always like his choice of topics, I do enjoy his writing style. His characters are vivid but above and beyond that, the settings are like scenes on a theater stage. He paints word pictures in all his work...
The Wives of Marty Winters is an escape from reality to reality and provides a venue for development of personal imagery. I encourage you to see for yourself." - Margaret Ward.
If you're reading this, MW, thanks for posting a review. I'll try and paint even more vivid word pictures in my next one. Click here see all of the customer reviews on amazon.
Music and movement tell an island love story
Published in The News Tribune, April 4, 2008
Pictured, top: Jamelia Payne as Asaka; bottom: Ashley Jackson as Ti'Moune. Photo by Dean Lapin.
The Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens musical "Once on This Island" at Lakewood Playhouse combines Caribbean folk tales with a love story reminiscent of "Romeo and Juliet" told through song and movement.
Unlike the majority of contemporary musicals, there is almost no dialogue; the story is presented in an abstract and symbolic manner, almost like ballet or opera.
All movement is dance in this production, which has the feel of an elaborate musical on a grand scale despite the intimate in-the-round space and simple props and sets.
This is Julie Halpin's directorial debut at Lakewood Playhouse. She comes to this production after almost 40 years heading the drama departments at Washington and Curtis High Schools and brings with her experience in dance, choreography and mime. I mention this because it shows in the choreographed movement of the actors wherein even the most insignificant movement away from the central action is presented as a kind of stylized mime performance (credit also choreographer Katie Stricker). Unfortunately, with so much attention to movement, some of the less choreographed jockeying for positions between scenes becomes a distraction. But that's a minor quibble.
The multi-layered story exposes wounds in the island society to which we in the United States can easily relate. There are severe class and racial divisions on the island. The light-skinned descendents of French settlers and their slaves who live on one side of the island consider themselves more civilized than the darker-skinned and more primitive peasant natives who live on the other side of the island and worship native gods.
Island legends and the love story of Ti'Moune (Ashley Jackson) and Daniel Beauxhomme (Adrian David Robinson) are told by a chorus of island storytellers (many of whom play double roles) and by the native gods and goddesses: Agwe (Eddie James), God of Water; Asaka (Jamelia Payne), Mother of Earth; Erzulie (Tena DuBerry), Goddess of Love; and Papa Ge (Jeffery Brown), Demon of Death.
In the beginning there is a terrible storm that kills many of the island inhabitants, but the gods save the young child Ti'Moune (played by six-year-old Jade Cooper) by placing her in the top of a tree. Her adoptive parents believe the gods have saved her for a reason but they don't know what that could be. Years later when Ti'Moune grows up and prays for love, the gods bring her Daniel, son of Armand (Alex Domine) who comes speeding through her side of the island and wrecks his car, and is almost killed in the accident. Ti'Moune and Daniel fall in love – to the shock of her parents who are afraid of the taboo they would break by being together, but he abandons her, returning to his side of the island even though not yet recovered from the accident. Against the advice of her parents, Ti'Moune sets out to find Daniel, nurse him back to health and recapture their love in an adventure that becomes a pitched battle between love and death.
It is a dark story that does not end well in the time of the telling, but which sets the stage for happier times of healing in the future, as exemplified by the uplifting final anthem "Why We Tell the Story" – a song of hope and healing reminiscent of "We Are the World."
In the lead role as Ti'Moune, Ashley Jackson stands out primarily for her acting and graceful movement, and Robinson's energetic dance movements simply take the breath away. Physically they are perfectly cast as the beautiful and tragic young lovers, but they are neither the best singers nor the most dynamic characters in this play. Those honors go to the gods and goddesses played by Payne, DuBerry and Brown.
One of the strongest singers is Payne, a grand Mother Earth. She spends much of the evening standing on rocks in front of a waterfall wearing a majestic headdress and singing with powerful bell tones. Her comforting song, "Mama Will Provide" is one of the solo highlights of the play. The second of the strongest voices is that of DuBerry as the Goddess of Love. Her solo on "The Human Heart" is one of the more haunting moments in the play.
But the most undeniable presence on stage is that of Brown as the big-voiced, menacing Demon of Death.
Also outstanding in this production is Domine, a senior at Steilacoom High School who (as storyteller and father to Daniel) already looks like a seasoned professional actor.
Filled with darkness, mysticism and death, it is hard to believe that this musical was based on "The Little Mermaid" and was written by the creators of "Seussical." But it was, and despite some of the heavier moments, it is essentially light entertainment.
WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday through April 27
WHERE: Lakewood Playhouse, 5729 Lakewood Towne Center Blvd., Lakewood
TICKETS: $22 general admission, $19 senior and military discount, $16 under 25, $14 under 15
INFORMATION: 253-588-0042, www.lakewoodplayhouse.org
art everywhere
Overlooked public art in Tacoma
Published in the Weekly Volcano, April 3, 2008
Watch out when you're walking, you might step on the art. It's all over the place, more often than not hidden in plain sight. Sometimes hidden by virtue of being overly familiar; your eyes just take it in and spit it out without ever processing it through the brain. Like the tiles inset in the sidewalk on 11th Street between Broadway and Commerce that were installed with great fanfare a few years back but which not just get stepped on.
Or like Buster Simpson's Parapet Relay at the UW Bookstore downtown. Simpson is an internationally known installation artist and sculptor whose works include major public installaltions in Seattle, Bainbridge Island, Walla Walla, Boston, Kansas City and many other cities. Tacomans might remember Simpson's grand rooftop sculpture that graced the Museum of Glass from 2002 to 2006. But how many even notice the ghostlike image of enigmatic words along the parapet of the UW Bookstore? This is art that was designed to vanish in plain sight; art that only those who are willing to take the time to look and think ever notice. The words STORAGE, LABOR, GATHER, IDEA & WISDOM in block capital letters wrap around the parapet, but not all can be seen from any given angle. As you move around the building looking at it from different viewpoints, the words appear and disappear. They refer to the site's original industrial function morphing into its current educational function. Take a look. I wonder how many people pass by every day without noticing.
On the other hand, there is some public art that becomes so ubiquitous around here that it's a good thing it goes unnoticed. I'm talking about salmon. There are salmon sculptures all over Tacoma and down in Olympia, too. They're everywhere, and they're boring, boring, boring. In Olympia they had a contest about 10 years ago and practically every artist in town submitted a salmon, and they were placed in public locations all over town, but eventually had to be moved into public buildings because people were desecrating them (who can blame them?) and stealing them (who would want to?).
And then there are Larry Anderson's 19th century-style figures all over T-town, most noticeable perhaps in Fireman's Park and in front of Union Station. I'm glad that this style of public sculpture is no longer popular, or at least no longer as popular as it once was, but I have to admit there is a kind of working-class charm to Anderson's sculptures that I enjoy. That guy with his suitcases in front of Union Station looks so damn happy to be catching a train out of town.
Speaking of Union Station, the Chihuly glass there is among his better work, especially the two oval windows. These are much better than the work on the so-called Chihuly bridge of glass that connects the Tacoma Art Museum with the Museum of Glass.
Another often-overlooked work that I've always enjoyed is Kurt Kiefer's Washingtonia Domus on 26th Street near the Tacoma Dome. Simultaneously delicate and airy and heavily industrial, Domus is a row of potted palm trees — a tricky bit of false Tropicana in the dreary Northwest.
And then we have God in the clouds in two locations, two wall paintings with imagery borrowed from Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling, both of which are so bad they're good. One is the Grandfield's mural (artist unknown) behind the store at 20 Broadway, and the other is the Youth for Christ mural at 201 N. I Street, which is actually well done but is unbelievably corny.
A terrific bit of public art is the pop-icon Oakland/Madrona fence art by Eddie Hill at 3818 Center St. These flat cut-outs of workers are quite striking.
Discovering public art by accident can be a lot of fun. But you can also find a virtual tour online at http://www.tacomaculture.org/arts/publicart.asp
with photos, descriptions directions and maps.


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Alec Baldwin facing involuntary manslaughter charge over film shooting
The actor fatally shot cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of film Rust in New Mexico in 2021.
Getty Images / Instagram
Baldwin: The Hollywood actor is facing a charge of involuntary manslaughter over the death of Halyna Hutchins. Getty Images / Instagram
By Victoria Pease
Alec Baldwin and family of cinematographer reach settlement after death
Bullet suspected to have killed cinematographer on film set recovered
Director hurt by Alex Baldwin on film set pays tribute to cinematographer
Woman killed after Alec Baldwin fires prop firearm on film set
Actor Alec Baldwin will face criminal charges over the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the film Rust, the New Mexico District Attorney's office has said.
Both Baldwin and the film's armourer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed will each be charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter over the death of Ms Hutchins on the film's Santa Fe County set.
Assistant director David Halls has signed a plea agreement for the charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon, the DA's office said.
Hutchins was killed on the set of the movie in October 2021 after a prop gun Baldwin was holding was discharged.
Director Joel Souza was also wounded in the shooting on the Bonanza Creek Ranch set near Santa Fe.
No charges will be filed specific to the non-fatal shooting of Rust director Joel Souza.
"After a thorough review of the evidence and the laws of the state of New Mexico, I have determined that there is sufficient evidence to file criminal charges against Alec Baldwin and other members of the Rust film crew," Mary Carmack-Altwies said.
"On my watch, no-one is above the law, and everyone deserves justice."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Along with Sinspawn Geneaux you'll also have to deal with two of his tentacles. These will be behind your characters and you should focus on dispatching them first, as they will intercept magic attacks directed against the boss.
They're not particularly strong, and are susceptible to both physical and Fire-based attacks. They will halve damage done by Lightning/Ice and will absorb Water spells.
Tentacles aren't capturable for the Calm Lands Arena side-quest. That would just be a bit silly.


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Avocado Acres
Avocado Acres - Encinitas January 29, 2022
846 Clark Ave
Avocado Acres Homes for Sale
Included below are homes for sale in the Avocado Acres community in Encinitas. If you would like more information on any of these Encinitas real estate listings, just click the "Request More Information" button when viewing the details of that property. We can provide you with disclosures, past sales history, dates and prices of homes recently sold nearby, and more.
And, if you haven't already, be sure to register for a free account so that you can receive email alerts whenever new Cardiff by the Sea listings come on the market.
Encinitas is a Spanish name meaning "little oaks".[7]
The city was incorporated by 69.3% of the voters in 1986 from the communities of historic Encinitas, new Encinitas (Village Park, etc.), Leucadia, Cardiff-by-the-Sea, and Olivenhain. The communities retain their identities and distinctive flavors.
Encinitas can be divided into five areas:
Old Encinitas: a small beachside area featuring a mix of businesses and housing styles. Sitting along the coastal 101 highway, the Encinitas welcome arch, the famous surf break Swamis, and the early 20th century La Paloma Theater are located here. Old Encinitas is divided from New Encinitas by a low coastal ridge.
New Encinitas: a newer region which features a golf course, many shopping centers, and is composed of larger tract homes.
Olivenhain: a semi-rural region in eastern Encinitas, composed of mostly single family homes, an active 4-H Club, and several private equestrian facilities. Olivenhain connects to Rancho Santa Fe via Encinitas Blvd.
Leucadia: a coastal community of the city. Leucadia features tree-lined streets and boulevards. The community features art galleries, unusual stores, and restaurants, along with single family homes. This also contains beaches such as Beacons and Grandview.
Cardiff-by-the-Sea: Encinitas' southernmost oceanfront community, which features streets named after British cities and classical composers, the Lux Art Institute, and the San Elijo Campus of Mira Costa College.
Listing information last updated on January 29, 2022 12:00 AM PST.


An Essential Homeschooling Course Every Student Needs to Take!
One Homeschooling Course Every Student Needs to Take!
As busy homeschooling parents we can get caught up in teaching our children the basics like math, English, science and history, and forget to equip our kids with practical, everyday skills for successful living.
Learning practical life lessons like balancing a checkbook and saving money or developing a content and giving heart is extremely important especially in today's self-indulgent, credit-driven world.
Knowing how to make your money grow, the ins and outs of interest or the pitfalls of credit cards - in a world that runs on credit and credit scores, it's imperative that our kids not only learn how to earn money, but how to handle their money wisely.
This past spring, my husband and I, along with our teens had the privilege of attending Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University.
Not only were we experiencing the effects of this national recession, we are self-employed, live in Michigan where the unemployment rate is well over 12%, and reside in a county where 1 out of 48 homes are in foreclosure – in my city alone, 1/24 families are losing their homes!
To compound the problem, over the years we have listened to poor financial advice and never really learned how to properly manage our money.
But managing your money isn't hard; it's actually quite simple when you take the time to learn how! And Dave Ramsey makes learning about finances and budgeting interesting, yes interesting - even for kids!
Don't let your kids leave home without knowing how to handle their hard-earned money. Make sure your kids graduate from your home school with the knowledge and skills they need to be truly successful in life.
Dave has the heart of a teacher and teaches with a fun, humorous style that your teens will love. He even created a finance course specifically designed for teens.
Dave Ramsey's homeschooling course, Foundations in Personal Finance empowers students to make sound financial decisions for life. You and your students will enjoy this easy-to-use homeschool curriculum, complete with interactive lessons and, of course, Dave's practical, down-to-earth teaching style.
But don't take my word for it, experience some free samples compliments of Dave Ramsey and see for yourself!
Sample Dave Ramsey's Homeschooling Course for Free!
Want to try out Dave Ramsey's homeschool finance course for yourself before plunking down your hard-earned cash?
Save up to 23% on Dave Ramsey's Foundations in Personal Foundations homeschool curriculum and workbooks. Homeschool co-ops can buy this program with 10 workbooks for 30% off! Discount already applied on Dave Ramsey's site.
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It is important that all emergency services work together as they do not know when cooperation will be vital in their role of saving lives. Weston RNLI is always working to further this cooperation and sharing of knowledge.
For example on July 12th they are holding the annual RNLI Emergency Services Day on the Beach Lawns, starting at 1100. At this event some 40 emergency services will be there to display what they do and show safety demonstrations to the public. Entry is free.
The RNLI crew recently had an exercise with Avon Fire and Rescue to explore how both organisations would cope with a plane crash in Weston bay. (Weston Bay is on the flight path of both Bristol and Cardiff airports.) This exercise involved the RNLI practising rescuing survivors from a dummy crashed plane and then handing them over to the Fire and Rescue Service Hovercraft which took them to the beach.
Last night this cooperation went further with the RNLI volunteers going up to the Fire station at Brislington. Here they had lectures on how to deal with fires and had demonstrations on how to use the different types of fire extinguishers. During the exercise the fire crew where called out to an emergency but were able to return and continue hosting the RNLI.


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Crocs, Inc. (NASD:CROX) Seasonal Chart
CROX Relative to the S&P 500
CROX Relative to the Sector
Analysis of the Crocs, Inc. (NASD:CROX) seasonal charts above shows that a Buy Date of April 16 and a Sell Date of July 23 has resulted in a geometric average return of 13.05% above the benchmark rate of the S&P 500 Total Return Index over the past 13 years. This seasonal timeframe has shown positive results compared to the benchmark in 11 of those periods. This is a very good rate of success and the return strongly outperforms the relative buy-and-hold performance of the stock over the past 13 years by an average of 16.38% per year.
The seasonal timeframe correlates Poorly with the period of seasonal strength for the Consumer Discretionary sector, which runs from October 17 to April 12. The seasonal chart for the broad sector is available via the following link: Consumer Discretionary Sector Seasonal Chart.
Crocs Inc is engaged in the design, development, marketing, distribution, and sale of casual lifestyle footwear accessories for men, women, and children. The reportable geographic segments of the company include Americas, Asia pacific, and EMEA.
To download CROX seasonal chart data, please log in or Subscribe.
Stocks mentioned in this post: CROX


In a small neighborhood studio, a yoga-class friend was telling me about a recent yoga retreat.
She looked at me. Class began. And at the end of class we wandered off in our respective post-yoga happiness hazes.
It's a matter of simplicity and joy. The word "retreat" means "to pull back." On retreat, with tasty fresh food, gentle attention from a teacher, pampering and quiet, we pull back from the habits of daily life that drain us — eating on the run, denying ourselves attention, rushing through or avoiding basic self-care, excessive noise.
Adding vacation vibes to the daily grind means attending to the senses and tending the mind, following guidelines from yoga philosophy.
Include asana practice, even a little. Unwind a little throughout the day before the knots build in the body (and then the mind). One friend uses the kitchen counter for downward facing dog while the coffee brews. Another practices half moon before bed.
Observe Soucha, the concept of tidiness with attention to the place where you begin and conclude the day: the bed. Simplify your bed-making routine so you never skip it. When replacing the sheets, I splurged on linen. Instead of two blankets, I use a duvet. The bed's made in seconds and looks and feels luxurious.
Think about other ways to add Santosha, contentment, to a daily routine. This might mean a touch of elegance or fun, like a single flower in a bud vase on the desk or colorful socks peeking from trousers. When I taught at a high school, one of the women in my wing brought silverware and a cloth napkin to eat her sack lunch. While we all clutched peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in plastic bags or dipped yogurt from a disposable cup with a plastic spoon, she spread a simple repast on a clean napkin and ate like a guest at a fine restaurant.
Identify an essential oil that pleases you. Maybe a scent you associate with a place you like to retreat to. I'm in a rose phase and add rose oil to my bathwater, along with Epsom salts and baking soda. Before catching the bus to teach a class, I'll sometimes dab oil on my inner wrists. Essential oils are subtler than perfumes and less likely to offend others. An oil that calms or energizes might add Tapas to your day, that yoga concept of zeal.
Can you add an occasional pampering service or inspiring lesson to your daily life? Ask in your area for referrals to a massage therapist or esthetician. Develop a relationship with the provider. Even an occasional massage works wonders when you know and trust the person. Or join a painting or knitting group. My local library hosts coloring book nights. Think of receiving a service or exploring a fun past-time as Svadyaya, self-study.
Manage sleep and get enough. (Nice sheets might help!). If sirens and cars disrupt rest, consider using a white noise sound to help you sleep. When I lived on a rowdy block, I used an ocean sound on my smartphone to soothe me. Surrendering to sleep is reminiscent of the release of control we experience in Savasana, corpse pose. Before slipping into sleep, touch upon the notion of interconnectivity of all life and a yielding to its energies – Ishvarapranidhana – by pausing to offer gratitude or appreciation for this life.
Look for opportunities to engage the senses. At least once a day, be sure to taste. Say to yourself, "I am tasting." Savor. This might mean taking your brown bag sandwich to a park bench to eat alone or sitting in a cafe for 10 minutes with your tea instead of having it in a to-go cup. Use touch. Run your hand along the smooth wood of a tabletop while waiting for a dinner companion, slip off your shoes to stand in the grass for a moment while crossing the square, look up at the sky and watch one cloud pass, pause and sniff the vendor's flowers. (And treat yourself to a blossom while you're at it!) Attune the senses as an inverse of Pratyahara, the practice of sensory withdrawal.
Being in a new place on retreat plunges us into "beginner's mind." Retain that childlike wonder in daily life by shifting routine a bit. Take a different street home from work or let the dog choose your evening walking route. Look at a colleague as if seeing him for the first time. Browse a new section of a bookstore — history, say — even though you usually tend toward fiction. Be willing to be surprised. Buy an unfamiliar magazine. Talk with a stranger on the plane. This is a form of focus, like Dharana, the concentration that supports meditation.
Bring home a habit that you cherished on retreat. Did you drink coffee on a balcony every morning? Could you sit in the apartment window instead? Did you watch the sunrise? Get up a little earlier and let the quiet cloak you. When I drove a commute to work, I woke up an hour earlier to take a pre-dawn walk with my dog. The movement prepared me for the long drive and the happiness I felt motivated me to wake up. Notice how these refreshing habits are supported by the breath and its energy, Prana.
Add an object to your environment that can be a focus of meditation, for Dhyana. Did you bring home a sea shell? Set it atop the computer monitor and steady your gaze on it every once in awhile for four breaths. Or hang a picture of a scene that soothes you. Use it in a similar way, to rest the eyes. Then close the eyes and, as you breathe, imagine the sounds and smells of the scene.
The mind and the body, imagination and movement, are powerful vehicles to carry us from one moment into another. Give yourself permission to daydream. And then let that daydream drift away like a boat untied from a dock. Stretch the arms overhead and return to the task at hand. Notice the connection between then and now, was and is – that connection is you, your breath, your attention.
Eventually, a retreat may become as simple as lying down in constructive rest beside an open window and listening to the birds outside. Or as joyful as hopping on a vacant park swing to move through the air feeling the wind in your face.
Alexa Mergen offers Simple, Joyful Yoga at her tiny studio in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia and teaches private lessons in Washington, D.C. Her poems, stories and articles are widely published. Visit Yoga Stanza to learn more.
Thanks for taking your time to read this post. Looking to bring this relaxing feeling from a retreat into your daily life? Click here for the biggest offering of yoga-focused travel and training courses available on the web!
Alexa Mergen offers Simple, Joyful Yoga at her tiny studio in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia and teaches private lessons in Washington, D.C. Her poems, stories and articles are widely published.


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Ahmadinejad to retire next year
TEHRAN / MOSCOW
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (R) salutes supreme leader Ayatollah Khamanei (C) and former presidents Mohammad Khatami (2nd L) and Ali Akbar Hashami Rafsanjani in this 2005 photo.
Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has said in an interview with a German newspaper that he plans to leave politics after his second term expires in 2013.
"Two terms in office is enough," Ahmadinejad, an engineer, told Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung in its July 16 edition. Iran's constitution prohibits a president from serving more than two consecutive terms, but Ahmadinejad also ruled out the possibility that he would let someone serve one term and then return to office four years later, as Russian President Vladimir Putin recently did.
He said he would likely return to academia, according to the Associated Press. "Maybe I'll involve myself in politics at a university, but I will not form a political party or group," he said. His support in the Parliament crumbled as conservative rivals consolidated their hold on the legislative body in a runoff vote last month. The result was a humiliation for Ahmadinejad, whose political decline started last year with his bold but failed challenge to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei over the choice of intelligence chief. Iran witnessed the "Green Revolution" in 2009 when protests swept the Islamic republic's cities, denouncing Ahmadinejad's electoral win as fraudulent.
Moscow talks begin
Meanwhile, world powers resume nuclear talks with Iran today in Moscow in the hope that a crippling oil embargo will finally force the Islamic Republic to scale back its nuclear drive. The two-day meeting follows a bruising May session in Baghdad during which Iran nearly walked out of negotiations aimed ultimately at keeping it from joining the exclusive club of nations with an atomic bomb.
"There are reasons to believe that the next step will be taken in Moscow," Russia's Deputy Foreign Sergei Ryabkov said June 15, according to Agence France-Presse. "It is important for Russia to ensure that the negotiating process continues." Failure in Moscow could leave the process in tatters and raise the threat of air raids from Israel, a fateful scenario in which broader conflict would lead to a spike in oil prices that could tip over the world's teetering economy.
But a July 1 deadline for a full EU oil embargo and the June 28 rollout of U.S. sanctions against a host of Iranian oil clients is providing added incentive for Tehran to bargain more seriously. Two of the biggest bones of contention involve the speed with which world powers lift existing sanctions and the recognition of Iran's "right to enrich."
The latter is emerging as a key demand that Iranian negotiator Saeed Jalili is likely to present to Catherine Ashton, the EU foreign policy chief who represents the five permanent U.N. Security Council members and Germany at the talks. "We expect that Iran's right to nuclear technologies, including uranium enrichment, will be recognized and respected," Jalili told Russia's RT news channel in comments translated from Farsi.
Iran, for its part, "has the capacities to cooperate in disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation, so these capacities should be used by the international community," Jalili said in the June 15 broadcast. Ahmadinejad also said that his country was ready to take a "positive step if the other party makes a similar step" at the talks. The Iranian delegation, headed by Jalili and including his deputy Ali Bagheri and Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, arrived in Moscow early yesterday.
election,


The Shed is already open to the public as of April 5, but Cedric's won't open its doors until later this month. Nevertheless, I was able to interview Danny Meyer during a press preview on April 3, and he graciously provided me with lots of answers, which I've written up over on Fortune.com. That includes real talk about the elimination of tipping at his restaurants (meaning incorporating gratuity for service into menu prices, a standard practice outside the United States) as well as controversy surrounding going cashless.
Given unusual development of Hudson Yards as a brand new neighborhood, the debut of The Shed is unlike even the relocation of The Whitney, about a mile south on the other end of the High Line. The area west of Penn Station is far less accessible by public transit (with the exception of one new subway station with just one line in service) prior to the opening of the shopping center and Vessel, the honeycomb-esque structure that looks like a castle on the map of Westeros during the opening credits of Game of Thrones. So the vision for Cedric's and what role it will play is still a work in process.


Proper nutrition and physical activity are the keys to controlling type 2 diabetes.
The treatment for type 2 diabetes might not be quite as complex as you think. In fact, it has become medical boilerplate: After just about every office visit, doctors give patients strict orders to eat right and exercise. We hear these cautions so often that it's easy to zone out and think, "Right, doc, whatever you say...I wonder if I have time to stop for a cheeseburger on the way back to work..."
It's time to listen up if you have type 2 diabetes, because physical activity and careful meal planning aren't just good ideas -- they are proven therapies that can control your blood sugar. Follow the right regimen in the gym and dining room and you can postpone, and maybe even eliminate, the need for diabetes drugs.
However, even if you do everything right, you may eventually need an insulin boost to keep your blood sugar in check. Fortunately, there are a number of medications you can add to a daily regimen of fitness and food smarts that can help get your glucose under control.
We've already stressed the importance of your diet in treating type 2 diabetes, but we may still have some surprises for you. For instance, you might not have to give up sugar entirely. However, before you eat that hot fudge sundae, read our suggestions for crafting a type 2 diabetes diet.
Exercise is one of the prime ways to combat insulin resistance. When you work out, your muscles need energy and your body tends to burn glucose. On this page, you will find out how to create a safe and effective diabetes exercise plan.
All diabetes patients have to learn how to keep a tight control over their blood sugar, and monitoring your glucose levels is an invaluable tool in that task. On this page, you will learn how to monitor your blood sugar and what your test results mean for you.
While insulin is usually associated with type 1 diabetes, there are some type 2 diabetes patients that can benefit from insulin injections in regulating their blood sugar. Learn all about insulin and how to inject it on this page.
There are a number of herbal and home remedies for diabetes that some consumers have turned to as an alternative to conventional medicine. On this page, you will learn how to treat diabetes with natural cures.
As obesity rates continue to rise, so do the number of children diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Unfortunately, children generally lack the discipline and focus to effectively treat this complicated disease. On this page, we will help you craft a diabetes treatment plan geared for a child.


On New Year's Eve, BTS stans everywhere were surprised with the gift of new solo music from member Jimin.
Making his solo debut, Jimin dropped '약속 (Promise)', a slowed down acoustic tune that instantly hit us straight in the feels. So, it's no wonder the incredible fans of the K-Pop artist broke a whole world record streaming the single.
Fans of the band were streaming so hard that they actually surpassed the SoundCloud record of 4.9 million streams in the first day held by Drake on his Pusha T diss track 'Duppy Freestyle'. Jimin accumulated a whopping 8.5 million streams on the first day and has now more than 15 million in just four days. Legends only? We think so.
2018 was a year of huge success for the singer and his K-Pop band members. Their world tour brought them to Europe to play some of their first and biggest shows to date, and they sold out TWO nights at the O2 arena. Not only that, but the band picked up their second Billboard #1 in the US in just six months with LOVE YOURSELF: Answer, the last installment in the LOVE YOURSELF concept series.
Oh, and the lead single 'IDOL' broke the Youtube record previously held by Taylor Swift for most views within 24 hours with an insane 45 million. The group and their fans are just unstoppable.
We can't wait to see what the K-Pop superstars get up to in 2019.


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Pac Fax is a fax service run by the U.S. Mail in 2015, offered by public mailboxes equipped with built-in fax machines.
As Marty exits the alley and enters the futuristic Hill Valley town square of 2015, one of the first things we see is a public mailbox (Figure 1.1), with a large screen console hanging off of its side. Closer examination reveals it to be a U.S. Mail fax machine, offering a "PAC FAX" service that delivers in .05 seconds.
Not foreseeing internet or email, the future we see in the film has an abundance of fax machines, between these mailboxes and what we see in the McFly household later.
Figure 1.1 As Marty takes in the future Hill Valley town square, he walks past a public mailbox offering PAC FAX service.
Figure 2.1 The first instance we see show the front of the PAC FAX mailbox.
Figure 2.2 As Marty approaches Cafe 80s, wee see another from the back.
Figure 2.3 The best view of the PAC FAX logotype and other typographic details is when Doc is taking Marty's sports almanac to the trash.
Figure 2.4 Zooming in on the previous image — from here, I was able to identify specific typefaces and real-world inspiration for the logotype.
In examining the PAC FAX visual identity, my first steps involved going through the film's scenes for a good close look at it. Luckily, there was one shot that gave a nearly straight-on view of the mailbox's side (Figure 2.4). This allowed me to identify the typographic details, as well as the logotype I would be approximating for the overview section.
For the ".05 SECOND SERVICE" callout, I determined the "SECOND SERVICE" type to be Handel Gothic, designed by Don Handel in the mid-1960s (Figure 3.1). The typeface is probably best known for its use by designer Saul Bass when he created the wordmark for United Airlines in the early 1970s. The ".05" is one that I couldn't find an exact match for, though it looks like a slightly condensed version of City, a slab serif typeface designed around 1930.
Moving on to the PAC FAX logo, I noted that the type had a slant to it, as well as negative lines cutting through some of the characters, both of which get a lot of use as futuristic type treatments. While there were no images of the concept art for the PAC FAX in the "making of" books I acquired for my research, I did find two different sketches online that point to design influences for the wordmark and the overall branding of the mailbox. I recognize the signature on each as being that of concept artist John Bell.
The first (Figure 3.2), had the fax/mailbox combo branded as a a Federal Express service, using the original FedEx colors and logo (redesigned in 1994). We see the familiar ".05 SECOND SERVICE" line. In the second concept drawing (Figure 3.3), we see a version where the mailbox is branded as Express Mail, and offering a 30 second delivery time. Above all that, we see a large FAX wordmark.
What we see used in the film, seems to have combined the two concepts — keeping the ".05 SECOND SERVICE" from the first and using the blue and red US Postal Service colors from the second. The PAC FAX logotype introduced a whole new fictional brand, and the mark carries traits from both the Federal Express and Express Mail logos (Figure 3.4). We see the US Postal Service influence in the A characters, which look very similar. And F in Federal Express looks similar to what we see in PAC FAX.
All things considered, while the tech might be something that wasn't realized on our real-world timeline, the visual identity is believable enough, both in the context of the film and as something we could expect to see in 2015.
Figure 3.4 The final PAC FAX logo shares characteristics from both of the visual identities explored in the concept sketches.


text:
Ujjivan Sfb plans to restructure 7-8% of loans by Q2fy22
By Jose M. Dean	 Last updated Aug 9, 2021
Ujjivan Small Finance Bank reported earnings for the quarter ended in June. The bank recorded a net loss of Rs 233 crore for the first quarter ended June 30 and the highest gross NPA ratio on record, even after the big cancellation it undertook. His total income from April to June 2021 fell 8% to Rs 717 crore, from Rs 775 crore during the period last year. Net interest income fell 16% to Rs 384 crore from Rs 458 crore during the period last year. The bank's gross non-performing assets (APM) climbed to 9.8% of gross advances as of June 30, 2021, from 1% at end-June 2020. Net ANPs, or bad debts, also increased to 2.7% . 0.2 percent. Nitin Chugh, Managing Director and CEO of Ujjivan Small Finance Bank, discussed the final results.
The bank had planned a restructuring, which began in the second half of June. "In July, we restructured Rs 500 crore. So we expect about 7-8% of the book to be restructured by the end of the second quarter and that will be a work in progress, "he said.
"As things have improved in July, we are absolutely optimistic that things will improve from now on; customers have also started to reimburse, "he explained.
In Kerala the bank has a very small wallet of around Rs 210 crore. However, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka had a remarkable recovery in July, he said.
Demand has certainly returned. "If there is demand, if there is good quality credit available, we don't see any problem with the growth. We are targeting growth of around 20 to 25%, and I maintain that three good quarters for us will get us through good growth momentum. This is what we saw in July, which reaffirms the whole hypothesis that growth will not disappear, "he explained.
Regarding NPAs, he said the bank had barely added 40,000 accounts to NPAs compared to earlier when the numbers were in lakhs.
Regarding the timing of reverse mergers, he said: "For now, based on the latest communication we received from the Association's Reserve Bank of India (RBI), we could apply three months before the end of our fifth year, which is around Jan 31, 2022. We would apply to RBI in the first week of November and go through a lot of formalities and procedural approvals before we do and after that as well , there are several regulatory approvals and milestones to be completed. So in all, between 9 and 12 months is what we expect this whole process to take to be completed.
(With PTI entries)
For the full interview, watch the accompanying video.
(Edited by : Dipika gosh)
First publication: 09 Aug 2021, 10:58 STI
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White Noise Ambience is being used all over the world as the ultimate sleep-aid device. It can help you sleep soundly in environments that can be problematic for restful sleep. Just read our reviews and to see how many people are sleeping better since they started using White Noise Ambience. Includes high-quality looped sounds such as Ocean Waves, Fireplace, Heavy Rain, Grandfather Clock, Train Ride, Thunderstorm, Frogs, Airplane, Cat Purring, Campfire, Floor Fan and Rain On Window.
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"Very impressed. Got rid of my old noise machine. You can make play list. I set up a whole camping storm using different sounds and times for each. Would be great to be able to fade one noise to another. Clock nice feature."
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I've had this app for several years and tried many before it, and this is by far the best. The selection of sleep sounds is huge and the ability to combine them into mixes guarantees there'll be something for everyone. There's the standard waves and rain to purring cats and airplane cabins. My personal favorite is a mix of frogs, a crackling campfire, and a light rain. The only thing missing that I've seen on some others is whale sounds. But they occasionally add to the library, so maybe that one is still to come.
And I can't leave out the alarm clock. You have the option to leave the clock up all night, so I don't have to mess with unlocking or waking up my phone if I wake up in the middle of the night and need to check the time. Sure, I could just go out and buy a real bedside clock, but the great thing is, I don't need to!
I have been using this for six years almost every night. All of the other "white noise" or ambient apps have the annoying start point where you can detect the loop repeating. This can have the opposite effect of relaxing you, where you are lying awake, waiting to hear the familiar skip that signals the beginning of the loop.
This app is great because you can combine multiple sounds and layer them with different speeds, thus eliminating the "seam" that you may hear that ruins the ambience.
I would give it 10 stars if I could!
LOVE the "twilight insects" so much!! Far and away the best sleep sound I've found. My personal preference will not be for everyone, obviously, but I've tried many sleep apps and I think the sound choices here are very good. Also, I love the alarm clock face in 'red light' option. My room stays adequately dark. No hesitation giving a 5 star review.


text:
Clinical rescue evaluation in laparoscopic surgery for hepatic metastases by colorectal cancer
Aim:Laparoscopy is an increasingly important tool in the staging and treatment for potentially resectable liver metastases. The clinical risk score (CRS) is useful in selecting patients for diagnostic laparoscopy before planning resection of colorectal metastases. This study evaluates the effect of staging laparoscopy (SL) combined with CRS. Materials and Methods: From January 2004 to December 2007, CRS evaluation and SL were performed in 65 consecutive patients with colorectal metastases, before planned open-exploration and resection. Patients were assigned to a CRS, which is based on 5 factors related to the primary tumor and the hepatic disease. This study was aimed at recognizing occult unresectable metastases, by combining laparoscopy and CRS. Results: Only 62 patients had a complete SL examination (3 were excluded for dense adhesions). A group of 24 patients was identified as unresectable, and 38 patients as resectable. In the latter group, 3 patients directly had laparoscopic treatment. In all, 38 patients underwent laparotomy (35 resectable, and 3 patients with dense adhesions that could not have a complete laparoscopic treatment).Resection was carried out in 30 of 38 (78.9%) cases, and the remaining 21% gave false-negative results. In all, there were 32 of 65 (49.2%) unresectable patients, and 75% of them were recognized by SL. Conclusions:Laparoscopy identified the majority of patients with occult unresectable disease, improved resectability, and it should be a routine in patients being considered for potentially curative hepatic resection. The CRS, earlier shown to predict survival after hepatic resection, identifies high-risk patients, who are most likely to benefit from laparoscopy, and may improve resource utilization. Copyright © 2010 by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Titolo: Clinical rescue evaluation in laparoscopic surgery for hepatic metastases by colorectal cancer
BIONDI, Antonio Giuseppe [Writing – Original Draft Preparation] (Corresponding)
TROPEA, ALESSANDRO
BASILE, Francesco
SURGICAL LAPAROSCOPY ENDOSCOPY & PERCUTANEOUS TECHNIQUES


text:
Powellinia is een geslacht van vlinders van de familie Uilen (Noctuidae), uit de onderfamilie Noctuinae.

Soorten
P. bialbifasciata Berio, 1953
P. boetica Boisduval, 1837
P. lasserrei Oberthür, 1881
P. margelanoides Boursin, 1944
P. pictifascia Hampson, 1896
P. pictivaria Berio, 1962
P. pierreti Bugnion, 1837

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Trump opposition inspires Dem focus on statehouse wins
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — President Donald Trump said he would "drain the swamp" in Washington. Progressives are hoping to make good on that vow, leveraging anti-Trump feeling to limit corporate influence in statehouses across the country.
They point to what just happened in Virginia, where Democrats rode a backlash against the president to sweeping victories. The surprise winners in House races include some first-time politicians who vowed never to take contributions from the state's most powerful corporation.
Together with Gov.-elect Ralph Northam's win over the GOP's Ed Gillespie, a former corporate lobbyist and Washington insider, and key wins in other state legislatures, the victories have lifted Democratic hopes of even more success in next year's critical midterm elections.
Opposition to Trump has inspired a new breed of independent-minded Democratic candidates, said Carolyn Fiddler, a longtime Democratic operative focused on state legislatures who now works at the liberal blog Daily Kos.
"They are going to bring a very public-interest vision to governing, and they don't have the deep corporate ties that establishment politicians have," she said. "It's going to change the way business is done in some of these state capitals."
Virginia's CEOs, lobbyists, lawmakers and other powerbrokers are still scrambling to make sense of the election's implications. Democrats won at least 15 seats in the House, all but erasing a business-friendly Republican majority that almost everyone assumed was safe. Democrats may even flip the chamber, depending on the outcome of three races that remained too close to call on Friday.
The newly elected Democrats — 11 women among them — include the House's first openly transgender lawmaker, its first Latina members, and its first female Asian-American. Thirteen of them have taken a pledge to reject any donations from a regulated utility such as Dominion Energy, Virginia's most influential corporation and largest corporate political donor.
The company has cultivated deep relationships with leaders in both parties, securing bipartisan support for laws boosting its bottom line. But critics have long complained that lawmakers are too cozy with the company.
"I certainly intend to directly challenge their power over the General Assembly," said Lee Carter, an IT specialist, Marine veteran and member of the Democratic Socialists of America who won a surprise victory Tuesday. He said Dominion is one of several corporate interests that will "have to get used to a new way of doing things."
Dominion spokesman David Botkins said the company is "looking forward to getting to know the new members and working together" on energy issues.
Virginia's largely unregulated campaign finance system has fostered strong ties between lawmakers in both parties and the businesses they regulate. An examination by The Associated Press in 2016 found a handful of lawmakers, including senior members in both parties, rely almost entirely on business interests and their representatives for campaign contributions.
Virginia also doesn't prohibit lawmakers from spending from their campaign accounts for personal use, and many lawmakers rely on corporate donations to subsidize their official office budgets.
Northam has said he wants to limit corporate money in elections and ban personal use of campaign funds.
Carter defeated Jackson Miller, a GOP House leader whose list of top donors reads like a who's who of corporate influence, including Dominion, Realtor groups, bankers, hospitals and car dealers. Many of the other defeated Republicans got their campaign cash from similar sources.
Democratic state Sen. Chap Petersen, a fierce Dominion critic, sees a new era at the General Assembly.
"We have a new legislature that is reform minded, which is not beholden to the large corporate interests," he said.
Whether that vision gets dashed after the opening of January's session remains to be seen. Republicans still control the state Senate, and Democratic legislators have yet to resolve many of the tensions over corporate influence on their party that played out between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in last year's presidential race.
Democratic Senate Minority Leader Dick Saslaw said the General Assembly will remain a place that supports industries of all kinds, regardless of the election outcome.
"That's not going to change, because we're a pro-business state," he said.