With all of the focus around minimalism, simplicity, decluttering, and capsule wardrobes, it's easy to believe that a simple life is the dream, but a simple life is not the end goal.
We don't remove the clutter, reduce the stress, and boycott the busyness to have a simple life. We do it to have a life.
That means something different for everyone, but when we are constantly defeated by not being simple enough, or decluttered enough, we lose sight of what are really after.
The next time you are done paying off a credit card, or cleaning out your closet, or completing whatever simplicity step you are on, stop.
Before simplifying further, think about what you really want out of this life of yours. Is this the time to simplify more, or is this the time to deepen a connection with someone you love? Is this the time to move on to your bookshelves, or is this the time to create something new, or serve in your community? Perhaps it is simply time to rest.
Simplifying with the goal of becoming as simple as possible will prove to be as empty as dieting to be as skinny as possible. It's not satisfying and it never lasts.
As you create more time, energy, space, and attention in your life, use the simplicity to make a life you are excited to wake up to every day. Use it to better engage in relationships. Use it as confidence to live where you want, work where you want, and most importantly, to finally be who you are.
When decluttering is frustrating, or you regret spending too much, or you aren't sure where this whole simplicity journey is headed, remind yourself that you aren't creating a simple life, you are creating a life.
Simplicity is a tool . A finger pointing at the moon.
Yes, yes & yes. Last year I became obsessed with decluttering and simplifying to the point where I was reading articles about it every single day and had a list as long as my arm on things to declutter. OK, my house was spotless but my mind was going a million miles a second & I was TIRED. Safe to say I threw in the towel & now I don't put so much pressure on myself to be minimalist. I've never been a hoarder or collector anyway so I don't even know why I was suddenly so obsessed with decluttering.
I now only declutter when I feel like it and I leave my to do list completely empty on the weekends. What could be more simple than that!
Wow! What a great post. This was so nice to read as I am stressing over what to get rid of next.
Couldn't agree more! We simplify so we can fill out life with more – but more of what makes us happy, what makes us joyful… more love, more experiences.
A very nice message. Quite too often, we loose the sight of the forest among the trees. Your post reminds very gently why someone is on the path, steers one to look at the goals first. Thanks for sharing.
I love this! I do want more laughter and connection in my life. That's the end game. Good reminder, thank you!
This is such a positive reminder! Simplifying is just a part of the journey, but it is what we find at the end of it that really counts, and it's up to us to make it great, unique and meaningful. Thank you for sharing this!
So intelligent! Yes, right now it's time to rest though I'm tempted to declutter.
Thank you for this post. I completely agree that it's important to not lose sight of why you want to simplify and declutter in the first place. I am a list maker and a planner so it's easy for me to get caught up in the process of simplifying. So this year I'm making a stronger effort to spend time on the things that really matter. I'm making sure I meet my friends for coffee. Or I'm planning for that weekend getaway in the mountains. It's the journey that matters after all.
What a fantastic reminder! And such good timing. We can't lose sight of where the drive came from in the first place and of the why.
I chose to read your blog this morning instead of the news headlines. I think it might be the start of a new routine for me. Fantastic post — as someone who's personality is very all or none and can be driven to extremes during the decluttering/simplifying process, this is a good reminder to step back, breathe, and enjoy what I'm trying to achieve.
I really enjoyed this post–simple, to the point, and to the heart of the matter. Thanks, Courtney.
I'd have to agree. I think that's where labels like 'minimalism' can be misdirected if not used carefully. It's easy to fall into the trap of finding a label or an identity as a 'Minimalist,' but the real importance is to keep sight of why you want to live by minimalist guidelines or standards in the first place. Usually, to experience more joy.
Oooh, I needed this reminder right now. Thank you!!!
I completely agree! Really, I think everyone has a different definition of simple. It's all about your life and perspective and what you're comfortable with. My husband and I are experimenting with making small changes in a lot of different areas of our lives right now, seeing what works and what doesn't. The real goal is fulfillment.


text:
/**
* Test help lib
*/

var help = require('../lib/help');
var assert = require('assert');

describe('help lib', function () {

  it('should return unique array', function () {
    var arr = [{ hello : 'world' }, { hello : 'world' }, { hello : 'not world'}, 'a'];
    var unique = [{ hello : 'world' }, { hello : 'not world'}, 'a'];

    assert.deepEqual(help.unique(arr), unique);
  });

  it('should measure function execution time', function () {
    // Long computation
    var i = 0;
    var max = 10000000;

    function doSmth(from, to) {
      for(var i = from; i < to; i += 1) {
        var item = i*i;
      }
      return to;
    }

    var doWithTime = help.withTime(doSmth);

    assert.equal(doWithTime(i, max), max);
  });

  it('should join strings to valid url', function () {
    var href = "http://localhost.name/api/root/long";

    assert.equal(help.joinUrl('http://localhost.name', 'api/', '/root', 'long'), href);
  });

});

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


"I provide complete health care for women at all stages of life including preventive medicine, screening, medical and surgical interventions. I have a special interest in high risk obstetrics, and minimally invasive surgery including ablation hysteroscopy, laparoscopy, and robotic surgery."
Dr. Taylor is married and has three children. He enjoys traveling, running, skiing and scuba diving.


text:
Danielle Gillespie
Elise reaches out to still her mother's hand. For the past five minutes, her mother has repeatedly scrubbed her fingers under her nose. Every time she does this, she manages to dislodge her oxygen tubes, sending of a titter of anxious beeps through the machines.
As soon as Elise releases her thin fingers, they slide under the plastic once more and scrape against the pink, flaking skin beneath her nostrils.
"It itches," her mother says.
Elise frowns. "I'm sure it does, but you're rubbing your nose raw."
"The tube is rubbing my nose raw."
"I'll ask the nurse if they can do anything to help it," Elise offers.
Her mother laughs. "Save your breath. They've got more to worry about than that." She reaches for a plastic cup of ice water sitting on her bedside table. "Little Bobbi," her mother begins, "my roommate." She waits for a nod of recognition from Elise.
"She took a bad turn the other night. She has a brain tumor, you know." She shakes the cup. "Or rather, had a brain tumor. A male nurse used one of his saves on her. She was able to walk out of here the next day. Full remission."
Elise stares at her hands, but she can feel her mother's eyes on the side of her face. "Must've been a new nurse."
Her mother holds the cup to her lips, takes a ginger mouthful and swallows. Her lips are so cracked that she stains the rim with a tiny smear of blood.
"He was young," she says. "I don't think he'd been here a week before it happened."
Elise digs in her purse until she finds an unopened chapstick. "Here." She hands it to her mother.
Her mother dabs at the drop of blood still seeping from her cracked lip and then seals the divide with a thick layer of waxy balm. It takes her two tries to get the cap back on. She stares at Elise as she hands the tube back. "I'm dying," she says. "You know that right?"
"The doctor says—"
"The doctor," her mother snaps, "didn't save Bobbi. The nurse did."
Elise unzips her purse and drops the chapstick inside. She thinks better of it and takes it out again, setting it next to her mother's ice water. "You know what you're asking me," she finally says.
Her mother pulls the sheet up to her chin and presses her mouth against it.
"Nothing you haven't asked of me."
"I never asked," Elise begins.
"You didn't have to," her mother says. "I did it anyway."
It takes Elise 45 minutes longer than usual to make it home from work. She can smell food cooking—something Italian—before she reaches the door. Thomas works 12 hour days and wants food as soon as he's home. If Elise isn't home in time for them to cook together, he always starts the meal. He likes to tell her that he makes a better housewife than she ever could, but she knows he relishes this fact rather than begrudges it. When Elise walks into the kitchen, she finds him standing over a pot of bubbling Bolognese sauce, dabbing at the front of his shirt with a damp paper towel. He starts to smile when he sees her, but it snags on one side of his mouth and hangs there without ever making it to the other side.
"You're late," he says. "Traffic?"
Elise slides her purse onto the counter. "Yeah, it was pretty slow."
The smile levels out across his lips, easy again. "Bummer," he says. "How is she?"
Elise pulls up a stool. "Alright. Or not well. I don't really know." She hovers her pinky over the sauce, feeling a thin layer of condensation pooling on her skin from the steam. It's hot enough to burn a little. She jabs her finger quickly into the pot, submerging it to its base and bringing it to her mouth. Thomas watches her, waiting for a reaction. It's good. Really good. The best he's ever made before—not too sweet, not too salty. But her mouth dries as soon as she's swallowed, and she finds herself mumbling an apology about not feeling well, and seeking out the couch in the living room.
Sammy is stretched across two couch cushions, his front paws extended in front of his body and the pink pads of his back paws facing the ceiling. He thumps his tail listlessly and yawns, letting drool slide down his pink tongue onto Elise's preferred pillow before she shoos him off the couch. He jumps onto the coffee table, and the pile of mail and old magazines shifts beneath him, threatening to spill off the edges. Between a yellow electric bill and an old copy of O Magazine, Elise can see the face of a cherubic infant laughing toothlessly from a prenatal pamphlet. She knows Thomas must have picked it up the last time they were at the hospital together visiting her mom. Elise pushes the pamphlet under Sammy's paw until most of the infant's face is obscured by white fur. She thinks about going back into the kitchen, telling Thomas that leaving these goddamn things all over the house isn't going to make her want to try any sooner. The thought of emptying her lungs, shouting and shouting until the tension in her shoulders snaps and the rawness of her throat gives her the option of silence, propels her back towards the kitchen. At the doorway, she pauses. Thomas is standing with his back to the door, carefully ladling sauce onto two plates of steaming white noodles. The plate on the right holds a small ramekin full of sauce so Elise can control her noodle to sauce ratio. It's something he loves to tease her about, but never fails to accommodate. Her anger shrivels, curling into guilt. She presses the palm of her hand flat against the small of his back and reaches for her plate. She can make herself eat two bites. He'll be happy even with that.
On her drive into work the next morning Elise allows herself to get lost in running numbers, creating budgets, finding solid, numerical solutions to the problems her firm throws at her. It always feels like she's solving one of those word problems from a standardized test. The ones that nearly everyone in her class had always hated so much, but that Elise had always loved. To get Lawyer A to Baltimore it will take a plane ticket of x, a rental car of y, (plus gas, g), and food for three days at z per meal and three meals per day.
Elise tries to think of her life as a word problem: Elise has one save. She once had three. Save One she used on her father and that was the right choice. Save Two she used on her ex-boyfriend Charles when he overdosed the first time on heroin, and that was the wrong choice. (Not because Charles deserved to die, but because it wasn't really her place.) Thomas has zero saves. Elise plus Thomas equals one save. If Elise has one sick mother, one young husband, and one (potential) family, how should she use her final save? Please show your work.
Seven years ago, when Elise was in her last year of college, her mother used her third and final save on Elise's father. He'd been driving home from Sampo's Bar on a Friday night when the neighbor's dog, an elderly black lab named Cookie, had dashed across the highway in pursuit of what was most likely a rabbit. Elise's dad had swerved to avoid it and rolled their old jeep end over end into a ditch. The accident had occurred only a few miles from the house. When the police had called Elise's mother, it wasn't ten minutes before the two of them were sliding into the gravel behind the red and blue swirls of emergency vehicles. Her mother, flinging open the car door, had stepped into the cutting air in nothing but an oversized Winnie the Pooh nightshirt and a pair of her husband's work boots, shaking and shaking, but seemingly unconscious of the cold. Broken ribs, a punctured lung, a ruptured spleen—maybe he could have made it on his own. Maybe he could have pulled through. But the moment Elise's mother saw her husband's limp body being heaved through a shattered car window, she decided to give up her last save if it meant she could drive him home that night, tuck him into bed, and know for certain that she'd wake up to his easy laugh and lined face the next morning.
Elise's father did come home that night; Elise remembered leaning against the console from the backseat of the pickup truck and clutching his hand tightly, while her other hand squeezed the thin shoulder of her mother, who drove them silent and white-lipped back to the house. Almost more terrifying than the near death of her father, was the idea that her mother had nothing left. Not a single save for herself. One for Elise. Two for Elise's father.
Three months later, Elise's father would be dead: killed instantly in a work-related accident and Elise's mother would be left wondering if the three months had been worth her last save. If maybe she shouldn't have held on to it for the future. But no. Time is precious. Surely she would have made the same choice even if she could have done it over. Time is precious.
Tonight, about halfway through sex, Elise looks down at Thomas and finds herself wondering what it would be like if the intent behind her lovemaking were different. For a moment, she allows herself to imagine coming together with the intent of creating something new, something good, instead of with a desire take away everything she doesn't want to think or feel or be. She wonders if maybe she is ready, has been ready. If maybe waiting, out of guilt, out of fear, out of the crushing weight of "what if" isn't really saving anyone. Not her mother. Not her unborn baby. She presses her face into Thomas's slick neck and lets even this thought wash away.
The first save Elise ever used was on her father. She remembers the ripping, breathless feeling that accompanied it—as if something were being wrenched from an essence inside of her that she had no name for. She didn't begrudge him. There were risks associated with a job like her father's, and while accidents didn't happen often, the idea of welding under the weight of meters and meters of water never became something Elise could make herself comfortable with. One weekend when Elise's mother was out of town helping Aunt Rhonda through a divorce—it could have been husband number two or husband number three—Elise's father came home after work complaining of lower back pain. He'd taken some ibuprofen and settled into his recliner to watch reruns of Ren and Stimpy. An hour later, Elise would walk into the living room after getting no response to her repeated question of "chocolate or vanilla?" and find him slumped in his chair, nearly insensible. An hour later, and he would be checked into the ICU for severe decompression illness, and then, three hours after his initial complaint of "man, my back aches like a sonuvabitch today," Elise would give up her first save freely and almost unthinkingly, terrified by her first glimpse of mortality.
Even though it was several months before she stopped feeling like some phantom limb of her psyche, her soul, her—she didn't really know what—was operating inside her, Elise didn't regret what she'd done. It had bought her more time with him. And for a man who had used all of his saves before the age of 16, time was everything. Elise's save bought them another six years with him. Another six years until the crash.
"Your Mom is going to be fine," Thomas says. It has been a silent morning as he and Elise have orbited around one another, two planets just barely grazing as they swap places showering, brushing teeth, getting dressed. They've finally collided, hovering around the coffee maker as it drips slowly, forcing them to wait. "Dr. Kal thinks there's a good chance of recovery," he adds. "I really think she's going to be fine."
Elise grunts in response. She wants to ask him where that confidence was when he used his saves on his sister, his first wife, himself. He steps closer to Elise, bowing his head, trying to get her to make eye contact with him.
"She can't ask you to do this," he says. "This isn't your responsibility."
Elise watches black drop after black drop plunk into little over an inch of coffee that's pooling at the bottom of the carafe. Maybe Thomas is right. This probably isn't something a mother should ask of her daughter. But Thomas wasn't there when Elise got sick in seventh grade. He didn't see her mother, eyes swallowed by grey bags, stealing silently into her room, anxiously slipping a thermometer into her ear every couple of hours. He didn't see her methodically running a cool rag over Elise's feverish forehead, her stiff and swollen neck—curled in the twin bed next to her for three days before she couldn't take it anymore, couldn't think of ever wanting anything more than to feel her baby girl's forehead cool beneath her fingers again.
Thomas touches her elbows, gently, reassuringly. "It makes sense to wait," he says.
Elise leans into him for a second, gives him a small smile, and pulls away.
"Not when it's cancer."
Elise is in the middle of a meeting when her phone shakes the conference table. She's about to shove the phone in her purse, thinking it's a text from Thomas, when she sees "Mom" flash across her screen. "Excuse me," she murmurs. She grabs her phone and gets up, sneaking out the door. She hesitates for a moment, finger poised above the screen, before she swipes to the right. "Can you bring me my fleece blanket? thx"
Elise lets out a breath. Good. She's alright. She squints, looks at the message again. Hadn't she brought her that blanket a week ago? Elise feels her stomach contract. She walks back to the conference room and sticks her head through the door. "I'm sorry," she says. "I have to go. My mom wants me." John looks at her in concern. He's always been the kinder partner. Not like Bennett. Bennett is an asshole. John gives her a thumbs up. "That's fine," he mouths. Bennett doesn't look at her at all.
Elise swings by Target on the way to the hospital to buy a blanket. She knows this isn't what this is really about, but it makes her feel better to buy it anyway, almost like the act of buying it will prevent this visit from being anything other than a quick drop-off. She picks a blue one. It's soft and similar to the one she's already brought her mother. She drives with the bag sitting on her lap, the fingers of her right hand swaddled within the plush folds.
Her mother is sleeping when she walks in. She looks thin, dwarfed by the size of her bed, but she also looks peaceful. The blanket Elise brought her last week is tucked around her feet. Elise notices that the skin under her mother's nose is still raw, but that her lip seems to have healed. She walks closer, lets her fingers nearly, just nearly brush the surface of her mother's face and graze the thin fuzz covering the top of her head. Her mother opens her eyes, flinching in surprise at Elise's nearness. It takes her a moment to fully orient herself, and then she stares at the bag on Elise's arm. Something seems to pass over her face—something hard and yet unsurprised. Elise attempts to remove the blanket from the bag, but her hands are shaking so much she nearly drops it. A second attempt. She manages to drape it over the bed's handrail.
Her mother looks at her. "You've decided."
Elise wills her to say "I understand." To tell her "I'd do the same" or "I love you" or even "You're a disappointment and I never want to see you again." Instead she just nods, pulling the sheet up to her mouth. The scab on her lip has started to split again, but she doesn't seem to notice it. "I thought so," she says.
Elise fingers the blanket. "I love you."
Her mother looks at her. "I know." She reaches for the chapstick Elise had left her the other day and forces it into Elise's hands. "Here," she says. "Here."
Danielle Gillespie is a recent University of Evansville graduate, and an MFA candidate for the University of Missouri-St. Louis. She currently lives in the Midwest where she is amassing shelter animals at an alarming rate. Her work has been published in Quaint Magazine and Agave Magazine.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Several weeks of travel have wrapped up with our visit to Guadalajara, Mexico. This town, with its adjacent municipalities has a population of over 4 million people, and is steeped in Mexican history and lore. Despite the huge population, many large parcels of land have been set aside for parks and green areas. In our visits to Guadalajara, we have always stayed in the community of Zapopan. Up to this point, I have been drawn to Bosque De Coloma, mostly due to its location, ease of access, and some very nice diversity of terrain that supports a very large number of bird species. During this current visit, I was stopped at the park gate, because I was a "professional Photographer", and was not allowed in the park without a permit. These permits were only available on weekdays, this was a Saturday morning, and there was a very limited number allowed. After nearly a dozen visits, this was a new wrinkle. The very friendly attendant also pointed out that the allocation for permits for that weekend we all taken. So, plan "B" was brought in to play. My wife, Jeanne had previously done a bit of research and found another as yet unexplored park, that was just a couple of miles from our hotel. So, we regrouped and headed to Bosque El Centinela, "The Centennial".
This park turned out to be an amazing gem. Much less developed that any of the previous parks and green belts that we had visited, it starts out in a very flat piece of land, with quite a few deciduous trees, and a large number of mature Eucalyptus Trees. Then the terrain slowly starts to climb in elevation, up into pine trees, small creeks and a bit of a pond formed by a small dam.
Almost immediately after climbing out of our taxi, I notice two things, one of the largest concentrations of swallows circling above the trees I have ever seen, and dozens of Acorn Woodpeckers chasing each other from Eucalyptus Tree to eucalyptus. The swallows turned out to be, as near as I could tell due to the sheer numbers, all Cliff Swallows. Literally hundreds of them circling and diving thru the air. There was a pretty fair number on the power lines running near the park as well, but this was just a small fraction.
It was interesting to find the Acorn Woodpeckers in this park, as despite what the Wikipedia page says, I never was able to locate any quantity of oaks trees, that would provide them with the needed acorns.
There were a few other woodpeckers to found in the area as well. Several Gila Woodpeckers, A couple of Ladder-backed Woodpeckers, and one beautiful Gilder Flicker.
Here is the Ladder-backed Woodpecker.
And the Gilded Flicker. And just in case there is a question of ID, this bird did have the tell-tale yellow underwings when it flew away.
The one bird that I had truly hoped to track down, and was reputed to be found here in the park, was the Montezuma Quail. As I worked my way up the hill, I neared a small meadow, with waist high grass, and several trees down, providing nice cover. There was a bird, calling from some where in the grass, that I had never heard before. A loud, harsh "queeAAAK". Using my very best stealth, and scanning the meadow, I spotted it. A quail had climbed up on a branch very close to the edge of the meadow. I was so excited…but, wait a minute. The face pattern was just not quite right…Dang, this noisy bird was a Northern Bobwhite, what the heck is that doing here? Now don't get me wrong, it was very cool to see this bird, but it just wasn't the species I had hoped for. I guess the Montezumas will have to wait for another visit.
Here is a shot of the Bobwhite calling away….
As I turned to leave the grassy meadow, I caught a bit of movement just a few feet to my right. Peeking up thru the grass was a Curved-bill Thrasher. This bird even was accommodating enough as to jump right up on a near by branch so I could get a better look, and of course photograph.
The area had a large number of hummingbirds but very few ever slowed down enough for me to make a good solid identification. At the top of ridge, I found this one, drinking water from droplets that had gathered on a spider web.
This female Magnificent Hummingbird did settle down right next to me, and even chirped a few times.
One of the birds that is found in large numbers in Bosque De Coloma is the Vermillion Flycatcher. But for some reason, the male to female ratio seems to be way out of whack. There were at least 10 females to every male. Here in El Centinela, it was just to opposite, as I saw at least 20 males and only one female all morning.
Through out the park, Lesser Goldfinches and House Finches seemed to be every where. This male Lesser Goldfinch just got all puffed up for me, so a photo seemed appropriate.
Bosque El Centinela is an area that I will return to again very soon. In the 4 hours I was there, I barely explored quarter of the park, and found 28 species. In another month or so, when all the migrants are back, so will I!
Where Are You Birding This First Weekend of October 2017?


text:
Hello and welcome to the unofficial Brian De Palma website.
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GQ EDITOR - 'SCARFACE' AN UNTOUCHABLE '80s MOVIE
GQ'S BEST 1980s MOVIES, FROM 'THE SHINING' TO 'SCARFACE'
Posted today, GQ's best 1980s movies: from The Shining to Scarface is made up of picks from the magazine's staff. Associate Editor Paul Henderson chose Scarface:
First of all a disclaimer: despite being a teenager for much of the 1980s, I didn't see my favourite film of the 1980s in the 1980s. Instead, I needed Quentin Tarantino to tip me the wink in the wake of the release of Reservoir Dogs in 1992, when he deliriously sang the praises of the film's director and his gangster epic. "When Brian De Palma would come out with a new movie, the whole first two weeks before the movie opened, I would count down the days," said QT. "That week before Scarface opened, that was Scarface Week."
My own Scarface week came soon after, when I eventually tracked down a secondhand VHS tape of the movie and I could finally say hello to my little Cuban friend. And I must have watched it nearly half a dozen times (I took Sunday off). Al Pacino's hammy performance as Tony Montana – "You fuck with me, you fuckin' with the best" – is a glorious over-the-top riot of violence, Hawaiian shirts, Giorgio Moroder synth sounds and piles and piles and piles of cocaine. Oliver Stone, who wrote the script that included 207 uses of the word "fuck", admitted he had been a coke addict for two years before sitting down to write the story ("Scarface was me taking my revenge on that drug," Stone said) of a Marielito who arrives in Miami from the gutters of Havana with the intention of going "right to the top".
In its depiction of 1980s pop culture, inelegantly wasted lives and hardcore excess, it is untouchable (if De Palma fans can pardon the pun). Plus, it had one of the best movie posters ever. If I could order you to watch this film, I would… but as Tony Montana would say: "The only thing in this world that gives orders is balls." Preach.
Posted by Geoff at 8:00 PM CDT
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'I TAKE THE SCARFACE PACINO & THE GODFATHER BRANDO'
"MIX IT UP IN A TANK & GET A ROBOT COMMANDO" - NEW BOB DYLAN OUT TODAY
Today sees the release of Bob Dylan's Rough And Rowdy Ways. The album's third track, "My Own Version Of You," sees the narrator creating a sort of Frankenstein creature out of parts and people that include the fictional title characters from Scarface (specifically, the Al Pacino version) and The Godfather:
Well, it must be the winter of my discontent
I wish you'd've taken me with you wherever you went
They talk all night and they talk all day
Not for a minute do I believe anything they say
I'm gon' bring someone to life, someone I've never seen
You know what I mean, you know exactly what I mean
I'll take the Scarface Pacino and The Godfather Brando
Mix it up in a tank and get a robot commando
If I do it upright and put the head on straight
I'll be saved by the creature that I create
I'll get blood from a cactus, gunpowder from ice
I don't gamble with cards and I don't shoot no dice
If you look at my face with your sightless eyes
Can you cross your heart and hope to die?
I'll bring someone to life, someone for real
Someone who feels the way that I feel
(Thanks to Carsten!)
Posted by Geoff at 8:16 AM CDT
Updated: Friday, June 19, 2020 8:16 AM CDT
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KOEPP - 'I ALWAYS FELT BRIAN AND I WERE ALLIES'
VIDEO - DISCUSSES WORKING ON 'MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE' SCRIPT OPPOSITE ROBERT TOWNE
Early on in the Collider Connected video above, Drew Taylor asks David Koepp about the films he made with Brian De Palma in the 1990s:
Drew Taylor: Brian De Palma recently talked about how Mission: Impossible and Carlito's Way were the highlights of his career. And I want to know what you're experience was on these movies, and sort of what your take was.
Koepp: They were great. Brian and I have stayed close friends ever since. He lives just a couple miles away. We have socially-distanced coffee from time to time.
They were turbulent. Of the three movies I did with Brian, the only peaceful one was Snake Eyes. But I think the other two are stronger films, in part because of the chaos and fighting and friction. You know, the old expression, "Bad experience, good film. Good experience, bad film." So, I mean, I loved them. They were really fun, and even though there was fighting, I always felt Brian and I were allies. Even when he fired me-- had to fire me and rehire me-- on Mission: Impossible. He just the other day said, "You know, I think I was the first person to ever fire you." Yeah, Brian, you know [laughs], so what?!? You came back, didn't ya? But they were great experiences, yeah.
Drew: In the documentary, he talks about how you and Robert Towne were in different hotel rooms in the same hotel, working on different drafts of Mission: Impossible. [Laughing] Did you know there was a guy next door working on the same...
Koepp: Yeah, they didn't put us in the same hotel, actually. He was in the Dorchester, I was in the old Hyde Park Hotel, which is now the Mandarin. But yeah, it was really stressy. Once the movie got up and running, or once Paramount greenlit it, Tom got rather anxious, and wanted to bring Towne in to work on it. And then Towne came in, and Brian didn't want-- [Koepp throws his hands in the air] yeah, there was a lot of fighting. And then Towne came in and threw all the pages up in the air. And things stayed quite chaotic. And then three weeks before shooting, they said, "Will you come back... you know, try and put it all back together. But Bob's going to keep working, and you're going to keep working, and we'll just figure out what we shoot." I was like, "Okay... this oughta be interesting."
Drew: Has there ever been a situation where the movie was just too chaotic, or the script was in such disrepair, that you said, "I can't do this"?
Koepp: You know, I've always been able to find an appropriate moment to leave, if I needed to leave. I never had a dramatic leaving. I think, sometimes... and I think I've gotten better at it as I've gotten older. John Kamps and I wrote Zathura, that Jon Favreau directed, and Favreau really wanted to take a pass at it himself. We didn't want him to, so it seemed to make sense to leave, and, you know, let him do that. Which I think he was about to implement anyway, so, you know, [laughing] I'm not sure if I had walked out or was shoved. It's fine, I guess. You know, you gotta sometimes take your own shot at stuff. I didn't want to let that go, because it had a lot of my two sons in it. So it was a lot of personal stuff. I didn't want to leave it to somebody else. So, I think I probably threw a hissy fit on the phone as I left.
Other than that, you kind of know when you're time is up on a movie. Because usually if you get fired, or quit, it's not because people are unpleasant. It's because you're out of ideas. Or your ideas are just not jelling with theirs.
Koepp's new thriller, You Should Have Left, hits V.O.D. tomorrow.
Posted by Geoff at 11:50 PM CDT
PAUL HIRSCH ONLINE MASTERCLASS THURSDAY NIGHT
CLICK IMAGE BELOW TO JOIN DGC ONTARIO ZOOM CLOUD MEETING, JUNE 18, 7PM EASTERN
FLASHBACK - STEVE VINEBERG ON 'MISSION TO MARS'
THE LAYERING OF TIME AS JIM WATCHES VIDEO HAS "AMAZING EMOTIONAL RESONANCE", LINKS WITH 'THE FURY'
Since it's a Mission To Mars kind of year, I happened upon this Critics At Large article from 2013, in which Steve Vineberg reassesses Mission To Mars as a "Neglected Gem." Here's an excerpt:
When I saw Brian De Palma's Mission to Mars in 2000 with a heckling, pre-release audience, I didn't think much of it. A year later, though, the American Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria screened it on a double bill with The Fury as part of a month-long De Palma retrospective, and a group of former students who took me out there to see The Fury persuaded me to stay and take a second look at Mission to Mars. Perhaps it was the juxtaposition of the two movies that made me look at Mission to Mars with new eyes, but the second time around I fell in love with it. The Fury has an almost insane narrative, but it's a work of such visual inventiveness and emotional potency that, if you connect with it, the story is no obstacle; its excesses serve the movie just as equally ridiculous stories serve Jacobean tragedies and nineteenth-century operas. And though Mission to Mars has a much simpler silly plot, it too is a kind of outline – you might say a metaphor – for De Palma's ideas about the tension between technology and humanity and the nature of loss, his two favorite subjects.
The movie is actually about two missions to Mars, occurring a quarter-century into the millennium and a year apart. The first, involving a bicultural crew (Americans and Russians), falls to pieces when, having established themselves on the apparently unpopulated planet, they come across a structure in the crimson sand that responds to their attempts to penetrate it with an explosion that buries three of the four astronauts, sparing only Luke Graham (Don Cheadle). Earth loses contact with Luke; his comrades back home don't know what's happened to him or his crewmates. So they send another group up, a rescue mission, made up of Phil Ohlmyer (Jerry O'Connell), a young computer hot dog, and Luke's three best friends, whom he trained with – a married couple, Woody Blake (Tim Robbins) and Terri Fisher (Connie Nielsen), and Jim McConnell (Gary Sinise), who would have manned the first trip with his wife if she hadn't suddenly taken ill and wasted away from cancer. Derailed by the tragedy, Jim lost his place in the hierarchy. Now Woody and Terri persuade their boss (Armin Mueller-Stahl) to reinstate him, and he winds up in space along with them. But their vehicle crashes and Woody is an indirect casualty of the crash. The others land on Mars, where they find Luke, living alone in his space station and so haunted by ghosts that at first he assumes Jim is one, too. And they find the structure that swallowed up his crewmates. Seen from the air, it's an exquisite sculpture of a smiling face.
The key to gaining access to the face in the sand, it turns out, is the crew's ability to furnish proof that they're human. Mission to Mars is a space story, but it's the anti-2001: A Space Odyssey. In De Palma's Blow Out, the hero (John Travolta) keeps making the mistake of putting his faith in technology; so, on a smaller scale, does the teenage boy (Keith Gordon) in Dressed to Kill who's trying to track down his mother's killer. For these characters, technology is at best inadequate to achieve the (human, emotional) ends they want to put it at the service of; at worst it backfires and results in the deaths of the people they care about. By the time Mission to Mars takes place, technology is inescapably the ruling force, but De Palma uses the fact of all this technology, ironically, as a way of focusing on the human dilemmas that beset the people who have to deal with its inadequacy and its capacity for bringing disaster. Science has found a way for the astronauts to float through space without the benefit of a space capsule, but only for limited amounts of time, i.e., only as long as the oxygen in the tanks strapped to their backs holds out. When Woody is unable to harness the drifting capsule after the rest of the spaceship has crashed, he finds he hasn't enough oxygen left to return to his companions. Terri insists she should float out to rescue him – a futile act that would end up killing both of them. So Woody pulls off his helmet and meets the lethal pressure of Mars's atmosphere head-on, an act of self-sacrifice that comes out of his love for his wife. The separation of husband and wife plays off one of the movie's most ecstatic visual moments, when they dance together to a Motown tune in the gravity-free atmosphere of the spaceship en route to Mars. But De Palma fans will also recognize his trademark image – the character who watches in helpless anguish while someone, usually a loved one, is destroyed before his or her eyes – from The Fury, Dressed to Kill, Blow Out, Casualties of War and Mission: Impossible. Woody's demise may be the most strangely poetic version yet of a motif that amounts to an obsession: Robbins's face turns, magnificently, to cracked granite.
The tragedy that divides Woody and Terri echoes, of course, the loss of Jim's wife Maggie, whom we see only once, in a video (played, touchingly, by Kim Delaney) their friends prepared when they were chosen to helm the Mars mission. Jim watches it on a monitor in the ship when he winds up traveling there without her. It's a double-time frame sequence – the video contains images from this joyous time interspersed with earlier ones from the McConnells' wedding. I might not have made this connection had I not just rewatched The Fury, but the visual dynamic of an image embedded within another image and two sets of observers recalls the scenes in that movie where Amy Irving is caught in a psychic link with a besieged Andrew Stevens while someone else – who can't see what she sees – tries to communicate with her. This is a visual notion with amazing emotional resonance for these stories of loss. In The Fury, Irving's Gillian longs to meet the boy who shares her freakish psychic gifts; her separation from him, except in these imperiled visions she has no power to alter, underscores her isolation from the rest of the world, from the people she loves who don't share her abilities. And when she finally does get close to him, it's too late: he's already destroyed. The video that brings Jim's wife back to him, if only for a few minutes, is a trick of technology that is finally just a reminder of the uncrossable distance between them. He can replay this moment of happiness and relive not only his loss but also his bafflement: here they are at the peak of their lives together, anticipating a future that, though neither knows it, will never come to pass. In the video Maggie makes a toast to them standing at the threshold of a new world, but mere months later she was sick and he stood on the threshold of life and death, watching the most important person in his life fading away from him. De Palma gets at this idea in another way, too. The transmissions the first Mars crew sends back to earth have a twenty-minute delay. Back at home, Jim and the others watch as Luke and his companions, full of good humor and optimism, light a candle in a slab of cake to honor Jim's birthday before setting out across the sand to explore the structure. The NASA observers have no way of knowing that even while they're watching this transmission, twenty minutes after Luke sends it, his crew is being torn apart.
Posted by Geoff at 12:01 AM CDT
Updated: Wednesday, June 17, 2020 12:07 AM CDT
'PHANTOM' TRADING CARDS, FICTIONAL SPIN-OFFS, ETC.
"BEEF MEETS THE PHANTOM OF THE PARK" AND MORE FROM UNLOVELY FRANKENSTEIN
At Unlovely Frankenstein, Wallace McBride has several terrific-looking Phantom Of The Paradise themed prints and trading cards going on. "The Phantom of the Paradise deserved better," McBride states in the trading card pack description. "And not just Winslow Leach ... the entire damn movie. It was a box office bomb that, unlike some of its musical contemporaries, didn't quickly pick up a cult following. The Phantom of the Paradise Cult developed at a glacial pace, moving so slowly as to never really developing much in the way of ephemeral merch. So I wanted to see how trading cards for the film might have looked had they been released in 1974 by a well-meaning (but oblivious) bubble gum company." The trading cards include a reverse-side puzzle, and the wrapper has a bit in the fold: "New! DEATH RECORDS Special Magazine offer: 'BEEF MEETS THE PHANTOM OF THE PARK'"
To that end, McBride also has several Phantom Of The Paradise prints available on the site, including one for the fictional "Beef Meets The Phantom Of The Park." Definitely worth checking out.
'SCARFACE' IS A MORALITY TALE, PLAIN & SIMPLE
"DO NOT BE LIKE TONY" SAYS BACK-COUNTRY POPULIST
"Brian De Palma's Scarface is lightning in a bottle," states Sealgair MacUistain in this week's Thursday film review at Back-Country Populist. "It is a film that resonated immediately with the conscience and subconscious of the American audience and still accomplishes the same today. With a killer soundtrack that captures the merry and vapid decadence of the 1980's, first rate camera work from De Palma and crew (seriously, De Palma is extremely good at visual story telling. He is technically sound.), and a tour de force of acting and story telling, Scarface is consistently ranked among the best of not only crime films, but films in general."
In his review, MacUistain states upfront that while Scarface "is a totally secular movie that has nothing ostensibly to do with Christianity," he will proceed to use the film to explore "the great modern American heresy" that being a good person will get you to heaven. "Bottom line up front: being likable, or 'a good person', or 'nice' is not what saves you," MacUistain explains. "You are still broken and in need of salvation outside of yourself. If you rely on yourself alone, you will perish."
Delving into the character of Tony Montana, MacUistain writes:
People are wont to admire Tony Montana's rise to power and his "heroic" last stand. His hard work, can-do attitude, and confidence inspire a lot of people. Tony feels that he and other hard working people are getting played by the real crooks who are at the top of the pyramid. At first glance, Tony Montana is absolutely someone to admire.
That is, of course, until you realize that all of his decisions led him to being shot dozens of times and floating face down in a pool of his own blood. Additionally, he has killed or driven away anyone who ever cared about him.
Tony Montana has many admirable attributes. He is incredibly smart, hard working, enterprising, charismatic, loyal, and charming. However, he uses those talents improperly, to say the least. Speaking of talents, I do believe there is a passage of scripture related to this. Why don't you go ahead and open up the Good Book to Luke 19:11-17 and read the Parable of the Talents? How did Tony use his talents? His mother disowns him. He kills his best friend because he fell in love with his sister. He gets his sister killed after ruining her life and Tony probably suffers from some sort of malformed sexual attraction to his sister. His wife leaves him. His allies all turn on him. Every friend and employee he has is brutally killed. Yes, you went mighty wrong there Tony!
Despite all of his talents, he is not moral. He is not virtuous. "What? Sealgair you hack! You don't think the attributes of hard work, loyalty, charisma, and devotion are moral? You're a fraud! I'm going to write about you in the comments about how wrong and stupid you are!"
Comment away, my hypothetical friend! Let me also point out to you that those traits, admirable though they may be, do not equate to morality nor virtue. Hitler was hard working and devoted. Ted Bundy was charismatic. Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino had a damn sixteen pack, admirable as that is. None of that makes those fellows virtuous or moral. None of those traits mean anything if they are not used for an objective good. You are either on the wide path to destruction, floating around caring only about yourself, or you are on the narrow path oriented to Christ. Tony, obviously, is a selfish and loathsome irredeemable person on the wide path toward destruction.
Scarface is a morality tale. It is a cautionary tale. It is very plain and simple. Do not be like Tony.
After looking at the selfish ways Tony Montana relates to his wife, his mother, his sister, and his best friend, MacUistain continues:
But wait! Tony has a code! He refuses to kill children! And that is what really triggers his demise! Well, you are on the right track, but that is not really the whole story. Yes, it is true that Tony (correctly, and indeed morally) refuses to kill children. He was about to willingly assassinate a dude dedicating his life to stopping the plague of drugs, but he refused to go through with the assassination because children would have been caught in the cross hairs. Look, if the standard we use for "good dude" is comprised solely of "he does not kill children" then we have a lot of work to do as a society.
Updated: Sunday, June 14, 2020 7:07 PM CDT
Updated: Tuesday, June 9, 2020 1:52 AM CDT
DREW TAYLOR ON 'M2M' DISNEY ATTRACTION & FILM
"HOW DISNEY'S MISSION TO MARS WENT FROM ATTRACTION TO BRIAN DE PALMA MOVIE BACK TO ATTRACTION"
Yesterday at Collider, Drew Taylor posted an article about Disney's "Mission To Mars" attraction. "45 years ago today Mission to Mars opened at the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World," Taylor begins. "The attraction, which simulated the experience of blasting guests to the red planet, would [have] an oddly lasting effect on the company, inspiring a poorly received film that in turn would serve as the basis [of] an equally mediocre attraction. And on and on it goes, like the rotation of some huge planet. For some reason (and for many years), its gravitational pull was too great."
Here's a further excerpt from Taylor's article:
In June, 1975, Mission to Mars was first launched. It featured many of the same animatronics and even some of the same footage in the pre-show and ride film, but new elements were made to the show itself, both in terms of effects (inflatable seats would be inflated or deflated, to simulate space travel) and story points (hello, hyperspace travel). In 1975 Mission to Mars was installed in Disneyland too. But by the early 1990s, it was starting to show its age. It lacked the visceral thrills and excitement that modern audiences demanded and much of the science and technology was outdated and creaky. It closed in 1992 in Disneyland and 1993 in Walt Disney World. The mission had come to an end.
Or had it?
Since the late 2000s, Disney had been noodling with the idea of turning some of its beloved theme park attractions into equally beloved big screen events. The test pilot was Tower of Terror, a 1997 horror comedy starring Steve Guttenberg and Kirsten Dunst that aired on Wonderful World of Disney and, more crucially, acted as an 89-minute commercial for The Twilight Zone: Tower of Terror, an innovative attraction that opened at what was then known as Disney-MGM Studios a few years earlier. (Part of the movie was actually filmed at the attraction in Florida. At the time MGM-Studios took pride in the fact that it was a fully operational production studio, even though hardly anything was ever shot there.) The movie was enough of a hit that several other projects inched through development, among them were big screen adaptations of Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion, along with Dinosaur, an animated film that was using state-of-the-art technology and was being developed alongside an attraction set to open at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Ah, synergy.
But the film that would ultimately make it out of the gate first was Mission to Mars. Part of this had to do with an arms race Disney was having with Warner Bros, who was developing their own Mars-themed project called Red Planet. (A couple of years earlier Disney had found itself in a similar situation as its own Armageddon squared off against Paramount and DreamWorks' Deep Impact.) And part of it had to do with the fact that the studio really didn't publicize that it was based on the theme park attraction, which at the time had been shuttered for the better part of a decade. The movies-based-on-theme-park-attractions idea appealed to Disney chief Michael Eisner but it still made him nervous. It was Eisner who made the last-minute decision to add the cumbersome subtitle to Pirates of the Caribbean in an effort to distance itself from the attraction. If Mission to Mars was a success, so be it. But the connections between the theme park attraction and the movie were not going to be explicitly drawn.
And, truth be told, the movie, directed by Brian De Palma from a screenplay officially credited to Jim and John Thomas and Graham Yost, doesn't have a whole lot to do with the original attraction. Sure, it's about an expedition to Mars. But there aren't any direct parallels to be drawn, save from that amazing long shot, set to Van Halen's "Dance the Night Away," which features a rotating circular centrifuge, that explicitly recalls a similar image on one of the screens in the Mission to Mars preshow. (It's a deep cut, I know.) Where there could have been references, there are emphatically not. You'd think that some of the characters could have had the last name "Morrow" or "Johnson," references to the audio-animatronic figure that gave you the rundown in the ride's pre-show. But, alas, there is none. De Palma, whose experience on the film wasn't particularly positive ("It was relentless," he said in the De Palma documentary), never mentioned the original attraction. It's unclear if he even knew the film was an adaptation of a popular theme park attraction.
When Mission to Mars came out in the spring of 2000 (happy 20th!), it lost money, making $111 million internationally from a budget of over $100 million. De Palma was so broken by the project that he left the United States. "The Hollywood system we work in does nothing but destroy you," De Palma said in the documentary. "When I finished that movie, that's when I got on a plane and went to Paris. Mission to Mars was the last movie I made in the United States." (Mission to Mars did get some strong notices from critics, particularly overseas. It was #4 on Cashiers du Cinema's collective Top 10 that year, outranking The Virgin Suicides and In the Mood For Love.) But box office be damned, Mission to Mars was going to live on.
EPCOT had wanted a space pavilion since the early 1990s. It made sense. EPCOT (formerly EPCOT Center) was the science and discovery park. Space should have always been there. Initial plans called for a giant pavilion wherein several attractions would be accessible (one would have simulated a spacewalk, with guests suspended from an overhead track, peering into the outside of a space station) but budget cuts and the popularity of Horizons, a sort-of space-themed attraction about futuristic communities, occupying the same land that the new pavilion would have been placed, meant the space pavilion was off the table. But the idea was being revisited at the close of the decade; Horizons had lost its corporate sponsorship and a large sinkhole had been detected underneath its massive show building. They could finally do the really-for-real space pavilion and they had a cutting-edge idea to go along with it: spinning centrifuge that would make you feel weightless. They also had a flashy Disney movie they could piggyback on: Mission to Mars.
Disney enlisted Gary Sinise, one of the stars of Mission to Mars, to host the preshow for the new attraction, now called Mission: Space. (Sinise essentially is playing the same character but his name is never spoken.) And the big, wheel-shaped room from the "Dance the Night Away" scene is actually a part of the attraction's extended queue, along with several model spaceships from the film (much of the visual effects work for the movie was provided by Dream Quest Images, Disney's in-house visual effects company, that was shuttered following Mission to Mars' release). On a narrative level, this new attraction borrowed heavily from the Mission to Mars attraction, including the conceit that you are being trained to make the journey to outer space and the patina of pseudo-scientific education. But this time the emphasis was on thrills.
So Mission to Mars, a movie inspired by a Disney theme park attraction, inspired another Disney theme park attraction. Moving in a circle, just like the astronauts in the movie. Who has the Van Halen?


text:
Gion Matsuri (Gion Festival), Kyoto, c. 1930.
1930s • Arts & Culture • Kyoto-Nara
Tagged with: Festivals, Gion matsuri, Kyoto, Procession, Religious rites
"Kita-kannon"-yama float, Gion Matsuri, Kyoto, c. 1930. The festival originated as part of a purification ritual (goryo-e) to appease the gods thought to cause fire, floods and earthquakes. Over time the increasingly influential (and powerful) merchant class made the festival more elaborate and, by the Edo period (1603–1868), used the parade to brandish their wealth. When not in use, the floats and regalia are kept in special storehouses throughout the central merchant district of Kyoto in the care of the local people.
Jidai Matsuri, Kyoto, 1914
"Religious festivals are the most striking features of native life, and mirror the very soul of Japan. The most important fete of this kind is the Gion-matsuri, held annually in Kyoto, which it is our good fortune to see. The most important distinction of this, like many another, is the magnificence of its pageantry.
"The Funehoko Cart of Gion Festival", Kyoto, c. 1960, is unique among the floats as it is shaped like a boat (fune). The floats in the parade are divided into two groups, Hoko and Yama. There are 9 of the larger Hoko (long pole or halberd) which represent the 66 spears used in the original purification ritual.
"The foremost dashi, or car, carries upon the top of a mighty upright, rising a hundred feet into the air, a glaive forged from the charmed anvil of the wonderful sword-maker, Sanjo Munechika, and credited with possessing the virtue of curing the ague at a single touch of its blade. Behind this dashi follow twenty-three cars, bearing the effigies of as many noted scholars and philosophers, a mock moon, a mantis, and a stealer of flowers.
"Each special district, at the time of its matsuri, or festival, given in honour of some particular deity whose shrine has been reared in that place, feels at liberty to worship as many other deities as it likes … Each of these deities is allowed a separate palanquin, a shrine on wheels, the principal god being given the place of honour at the head of the sacred van.
Gion Matsuri dashi, with a golden phoenix, leading the parade of floats, Kyoto, c. 1940. A woodblock print postcard from publisher T. Tokuriki.
"The carriage is lacquered a deep black, relieved by golden ornaments. On the roof a golden phoenix perches with wings outspread, while a roof-tree glistens in decorations of copper. Inside this shrine is placed the effigy of the god who calls forth this train, a torii in front and one behind, made conspicuous by their red lacquer. The other deities are not placed inside the car, but mounted in gorgeous panoply high over the heads of the crowd riding upon it.
Hoshoyama, Gion Matsuri, Kyoto, c. 1930. The floats in the parade are divided into two groups, Hoko and Yama. The 23 of the smaller Yama carry life-size figures of famous and historically-important people.
"The first car is not decorated, but this one, called the dashi, 'a car of gentle motion,' can be described as a wooden house on four wheels, but having a mass of carving, decoration, and elaboration that defies description. An attempt of this kind would be useless, as far as concerned its representation of a class, for no two of these strange cars are ever made alike. The carvings on this one represent, in part, flights of phoenixes rising on wide-spreading wings, trains of tortoises, and columns of marching dragons.
"Among the deities included are to be seen the zodiacal conceptions, the goddess of matrimony, the goddess of the sea, the seven gods of fortune, the conquering empress; in fact, the deities supposed to govern every trade and craft which most affects that particular locality.
"On a platform raised from twelve to twenty feet above the ground, encircled and entangled amid the drapery of silk and brilliant brocades, snow-white gohei, and wreaths of gold and silver flowers, stand half a hundred people, while over their heads rises, on a high pillar, the carved head of the sacred object to which the car has been dedicated."
– Japan: The Place and the People, by George Waldo Browne, 1901
Naginata-hoko, Gion matsuri, c. 1930.
Uuhama-hoko, Gion matsuri, Kyoto, c. 1930.
Niwatori-hoko, Gion matsuri, c. 1930.
Suhama-hoko, Gion matsuri, c. 1930.
Kanko-hoko, Gion matsuri, Kyoto, c. 1930.
Tsuki-hoko, Gion matsuri, Kyoto, c. 1930.
Jiomeu-yama (Jyomyo-yama), Gion matsuri, c. 1930.
Urade-yama, Gion matsuri, c. 1930.
Kanon-yama, Gion matsuri, c. 1930.
Hosho-yama, Gion Matsuri, Kyoto, c. 1930.
Hashibenkei-yama, Gion matsuri, Kyoto, c. 1930.
Yamabushi-yama, Gion matsuri, Kyoto, c. 1930.
Hakuga-yama, Gion matsuri, Kyoto, c. 1930.
Urade-yama, Gion matsuri, Kyoto, c. 1930.
Moso-yama, Gion matsuri, Kyoto, c. 1930.
Hakurakuten-yama, Gion matsuri, Kyoto, c. 1930.
Fune-hoko, Gion matsuri, Kyoto, c. 1930.
Minami-kannon-yama, Gion matsuri, Kyoto, c. 1930.
Traditionally, the Minami-kannon-yama is the final float in the Gion matsuri procession. The float features a seated sculpture of Yôryû (Willow) Kannon, and is decorated with an Indian carpet dating to 1684, the oldest carpet of its type in the country.
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"Writing lesson", c. 1910.
The Tokyo Nautical School training ship "Taisei Maru", 1906.
"Assembling a comfort bag" propaganda and advertising postcard, c.1940.
Sapporo Brewery and Factory, Sapporo, Hokkaido, c. 1910.
Doshisha Girls' School, Kyoto, c. 1930.
"Writing lesson", c. 1910. | Old TokyoOld Tokyo on Early history of school lunches in Japan.
"Writing lesson", c. 1910. | Old TokyoOld Tokyo on The 1st Higher Middle School, Tokyo, c. 1910.
The Tokyo Nautical School training ship "Taisei Maru", 1906. | Old TokyoOld Tokyo on Tokyo Nautical School, Etchujima, Tokyo, c. 1910.
Sapporo Brewery and Factory, Sapporo, Hokkaido, c. 1910. | Old TokyoOld Tokyo on Yebisu Beer, Tokio Brewery No. 1, Meguro, Tokio, c. 1900.
Karuizawa Station, c. 1935. | Old TokyoOld Tokyo on Climbing Mt. Asama, Karuizawa, c. 1920.
Amusements & Recreations
Bridges & Spans
Colonies & Territories
Geisha/Maiko/Onnanoko
Imperial Household
Karuizawa-Nagano
Kobe-Osaka
Korea (Chosen)
Kyoto-Nara
Kyoto-Nara-Osaka-Kobe
Manchuria/Manchukuo
Mt. Fuji/Hakone
Museums & Expositions/Exhibitions
Neighborhoods (Misc)
Notable Landmark
Occupation Era
Outside Tokyo
Patriotism/Military
Theaters & Entertainers


text:
class CreateMaps < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def change
    create_table :maps do |t|
      t.string :name

      t.timestamps
    end

    add_index :maps, :name, :unique => true
  end
end


GetHuman-joaomori's next move: go to the YouTube help center.
YouTube doesn't have a customer phone number that is answered by an agent. Instead, GetHuman-joaomori will want to follow the link below to head to their help center. We will check on GetHuman-joaomori later to make sure it's all set or try to help escalate.
Hi my name is John I'm part of a u** soccer team from Mississauga Canada we play an academy league that includes some of the best academy's in Ontario we also do USA showcases and UK showcases I was wondering if YouTube would Sponsor our team. The academy name is CAQ and u can find more information about us at www.caqsoccer.net. *Would be a honor to wear the YouTube logo and have financial help for this wonderful boys.*Thanks for ur time and if u need any more information please contact any time.
GetHuman-joaomori did not yet indicate what YouTube should do to make this right.
We are waiting for GetHuman-joaomori to fix the problem and share the solution with the rest of us customers.
See how GetHuman-joaomori fixes it.


SimpliVity's hardware accelerator based approach eliminates the need for special-purpose appliances, the company claims.
SimpliVity's goal is to "simplify data centre IT infrastructure" and reduce the TCO for midsize and larger organisations, the company's vice president for Asia Pacific and Japan Scott Morris told iTWire, adding that organisations with as few as 10 virtual machines can benefit.
This is achieved by removing the need for the various appliances that are often installed in data centres to support traditional or converged systems - WAN optimisation, deduplication and archiving, backup, second and third tier storage, flash arrays and so on.
Not only do they take up space, they also represent a significant administrative load, and firms such as Gartner and IDC have found they occupy as much as 80% of operations time, Morris said.
Even the arrival of what he calls "true convergence" - generic blocks, each with plenty of memory and storage, assembled with software that presents them as one big resource pool - might have saved data centre real estate and reduced the number of points of management, it didn't remove the need for specialist appliances.
SimpliVity's founder - chairman and CEO Doron Kempel - realised this proliferation was a problem, and that the real challenge was to deliver the amount of I/O required across the whole system, Morris said.
The answer was to combine commoditised x86-based building blocks (each with its own processor, memory, storage and networking; available from SimpliVity [pictured] or Cisco) with SimpliVity's OmniStack PCIe accelerator card and management software that works with vCenter.
The accelerator takes care of the deduplication, compression and optimisation of data, "once and forever across the entire global federation of SimpliVity technology," he said, without using server resources.
This means there is no need for storage deduplication (that was taken care of before the data was stored), WAN optimisation (again, compression and deduplication has already been done), backup deduplication, and so on.
So rather than being a large file, each VM is just a map pointing to deduplicated blocks. This means VMs can be backed up, cloned or recovered extremely quickly, even between sites.
Morris pointed to the experience of customer Dairy Farmers of America, which went from 1PB of backups to 3PB in just six months, yet the physical storage used grew by just 2TB.
Dairy Farmers of America also reports that a 1.5TB VM can be backed up or restored in less than a minute rather than the eight to 10 hours previously required.
Furthermore, an entire system - even one that is spread across multiple sites - can be completely managed by a single administrator within vCenter.
SimpliVity's VM-centricity means the administrator is not concerned with LUNs, volumes and so on, and the attributes and policies associated with a virtual machine follow it wherever it runs.
This leads to "massive operational savings" allowing staff to be redeployed to more valuable work.
SimpliVity's approach also reduces the data centre footprint - a rack of equipment can be replaced with gear that takes just 4U or 6U - with corresponding power and cooling savings.
"It is an enterprise-class building block" and "a true revolution," claimed Morris, offering as much as a threefold reduction in total cost of ownership compared with traditional architectures.
The ease of expansion - buy the next block and "it's up in three hours" - makes SimpliVity a true pay-as-you-grow approach, he said, as customers do not need to size systems to accommodate future growth. And by buying extra nodes as required, customers stand to get the benefit of the ongoing improvement in hardware price/performance ratios.
While SimpliVity is applicable to almost any vertical, early adopters in Australia have largely been in the manufacturing, financial services, education, and services sectors. In the Asia Pacific region, government, telcos and cloud services companies can be added to that list, Morris said.


text:
Photo courtesy of Stephen Andrew Smith/CC BY-SA 4.0.
NewsBusinessInnovation
Globe and Mail to tap into online data to help reshape daily newspaper
By Canadian Press	• 4 years ago
Print revamp will launch on Dec. 1, 2017.
The Globe and Mail is putting more faith in algorithms as part of a newspaper redesign that's influenced by what's trending on its website.
A print revamp that launches Dec. 1 will incorporate news and topics that already have a proven track record with readers online, publisher Phillip Crawley said in an interview Tuesday.
Editors will ultimately decide which stories land in the paper, but their choices will be informed by what the Globe's internal tracking systems have tabulated online.
"It makes you much more confident about knowing what people actually care about," Crawley said.
"Instinct of an experienced editor … can't ever be substituted, but when you've got data which constantly feeds and gives you great clarity, there will be great surprises."
It's part of a larger overhaul of the Globe's newspaper that will see its weekday sections reduced to two: News and Report on Business. Stories from Sports will appear in Report on Business while Life and Arts will be folded into the News section.
The changes won't affect the number of arts and sports stories the Globe publishes, Crawley said, but it will extend deadlines to 10 p.m. ET, which could help late-developing stories and theatre reviews sneak into the paper.
"There's no less space. There's no less content," he said. "We're not actually aiming to cut what we regard as the key content."
There will be a stronger focus, however, on pieces by Globe writers, rather than freelancers and wire copy, Crawley said.
"We know that our staff content is always better read than anything else," he said.
More subtle tweaks are also planned for the paper, including a slightly slimmer page size, different headline fonts and a more streamlined layout that more consciously groups stories together by topic.
"They're often scattered," he said. "We'll try and organize that better."
The company also recently hired a technology expert with a PhD in artificial intelligence to design a "predictive modelling" platform to help determine which stories will interest readers and drive engagement, such as sharing on social media.
"We can feed you potentially what you will feel is of interest to you specifically, on a much more targeted basis. That's where we're going next," he said.
The Globe has also made a number of changes behind the scenes to cut expenses on less profitable ventures.
Last month, the company announced plans to stop its Atlantic Canada daily print edition on Nov. 30, saying it was losing $1 million each year to deliver about 5,000 copies of the paper each day. But the Globe is bringing on journalist Jessica Leeder to bolster coverage of the region.
The company also recently hired a reporter in California to cover primarily U.S. politics from a West Coast perspective.
Meanwhile, some of the Globe's freelancers were sent letters saying they'll no longer be asked to frequently contribute opinion pieces or articles.
"Sometimes you feel the columns are getting tired, repetitive, the columnist is doing other things and perhaps has lost a little bit of the interest in working with the Globe," Crawley said.
"It's not just changing the furniture, it's also changing the voices."
Crawley said executives also want to see an increase in digital subscriptions, which it will encourage by making more of its content available only to subscribers. Right now he estimates only about 25 per cent of the stories published on the website require Globe readers to pay.
"We want more material behind the paywall," he said.
"You've got to up the value. That's why we're investing in the journalism because if we do, we'll get the returns."
The Globe is also finding sources of revenue in less obvious places.
The company expects to generate $7 million to $8 million over the next year by renting out space at its new headquarters in downtown Toronto to corporate clients for receptions and meetings.
A subsidiary of the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star's owner Torstar holds investments in The Canadian Press as part of a joint agreement with the parent company of Montreal's La Presse.
This story is republished with the permission of The Canadian Press.
Globe and Mail Phillip Crawley
CommentaryColumns
Globe and Mail Public Editor: It's important to be right, not first with th...
Globe and Mail Public Editor: It's important to be right, not first with the news
Inside Arc Publishing, the Globe and Mail's new publishing system


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Former Google CEO says everyone forgot about criminals when building the internet
by Selena Larson @selenalarson February 16, 2017: 1:47 AM ET
Cyberattack on Twitter, Netflix, and more may have come from webcams
When people built the internet, they forgot about the bad guys. At least, that's according to Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Alphabet and former Google (GOOG) CEO.
At the RSA security conference in San Francisco on Wednesday, Schmidt spoke about the early days of his career building a network and mail system in the late 1970s while in a Masters program at the University of California, Berkeley. He touched on why internet security is still an ongoing issue, and why it's not completely secure by default.
"We now find ourselves back fixing it over and over again," Schmidt said. "You keep saying, 'Why didn't we think about this?' Well the answer is, it didn't occur to us that there were criminals."
Hacking, stealing information and data breaches are common problems, and many people still don't implement basic security features, such as strong passwords and two-factor authentication. And as more things become connected to the internet -- like TVs and fridges -- insecure gadgets in our home can be used as a network of bots that can take down major websites.
Related: Your data is not safe. Here's how to lock it down
Schmidt has said before that he and other early internet pioneers forgot to consider people who might use it for nefarious purposes.
But internet companies still struggle to account for all the ways people might use their platforms.
Twitter (TWTR), a way to send 140-character blasts about what you're eating for breakfast, morphed into a platform that elevates millions of voices, including harassers, racists and people inciting violence.
The social media company was late on reacting to this behavior, and it's still trying to wrestle with its ethos of supporting free speech and policing harmful behavior.
Facebook, too, has experienced consequences its founders likely didn't predict when launching as a platform for college students to connect.
Fake news proliferates so much that the company now has to let users know what they're reading is false. And despite founder Mark Zuckerberg denying Facebook (FB) is a media company, it's evolved to be a key distributor of news and information, including launching its own video apps this week.
As the Internet and companies built upon it continue to be used in new, unexpected ways, builders must account for behaviors outside of their own. No one will create a problem-free network. But by listening to and implementing diverse perspectives into the services people build, it may be possible to stop bad behavior before it affects literally everyone who uses the service.
CNNMoney (San Francisco) First published February 16, 2017: 1:34 AM ET


My first exposure to Douglas and its rich history was through "Mumma". As I listened to my friend tell stories about Mumma and all the "odd" things she did, I pictured a lady and a town growing up together. My favorite story was how she would ride her tractor out in the street to pick up her mail (occasionally re-routing the neighbors mail as she saw fit); and how she was convinced that any day now Ed McMahon was going to call and tell her she had won the Publisher's Clearing House Sweepstakes ("and won't you be sorry when he does"). But the stories that made me love her and Douglas were the Yankee stories, the stories of how she worked to preserve and protect a heritage that she was proud of. I first met Mumma when she was 89 years old. She was a small woman wrapped up in layers of flannel shirts and sweaters and wearing a battered old blue hat. She was "sans" teeth while doing the crossword puzzle at the kitchen table, her bright blue eyes glaring at me as she whispered, "they think I'm senile". Then she grinned an impish grin at me and I immediately felt like a conspirator in her plot, we both knew the truth. The little old toothless lady grunting at the table was really a sharp old cracker. After our secret exchange, she took her walker, went out into the yard and hitched herself up on her garden tractor and went motoring off into the fields she loved. I was not concerned about Mumma's safety; I was more concerned about the poor individual who crossed her path. Stalwart and determined, she hit the brakes for no man or beast.
Mumma was born Grace F. Dudley on May 18, 1910 in Douglas, on the farm that had given birth to generations of Dudley's before her; evidence of them hung on every wall and was placed on every shelf. She was next in the line of proud Yankee's that had earned their keep working the land, asking no one for anything, but contributing much. From out of the windows of the "Big House" Mumma could see the hencoops, barns, ice house and fields that had been in her family since the beginning. The story of her farm represents the final chapter in the tale of the Native Americans and their removal from their ancestral land. In the beginning of colonial settlement, the English paid what they believed was fair value for the Nipmuc lands to ease concerns abroad about exploitation of the Indians. Eventually the appearance of propriety in land dealings would be cast aside, natives were seen as an impediment to the manifest destiny of the white settlers and they should be dealt with quickly and cheaply. Right after King Philip's War, William Stoughton and James Dudley were ordered by the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony to survey all of the Nipmuc territory and acquire the land from the Indians. In 1681, Stoughton and Dudley purchased 1,000 square miles of the remaining land of the Nipmuc people, and in the southern portion of this purchase falls the land that Mumma would call home. Three land grants from the General Court (along with individual land grants) would form the town of New Sherborn (re-named Douglas in 1746) and from this would come a family who actively preserved its Yankee culture. While a proud people were banished from their homeland, a proud family came to replace them; and like their Nipmuc predecessors, they passed down through generations a love of the land and a respect for tradition.
Relations of James Dudley (who originally purchased the land from the Nipmucs) would settle the land on the Thompson Road in Douglastown (the original center of town). Samuel Dudley began building a small three-room cape on the farm and his son William would finish it around 1730. The family lived here till Paul Dudley began building the "Big House" next door around 1800 (finished in 1820) and Paul's son John and his wife Submit would set up housekeeping there. (John's wife, Submit Hill, was a descendent of Ephraim Hill who was the first white settler in Douglas) As Mumma would say, the Dudley's were farmers and the Hill's were "downtown people", what an eclectic family this union would produce. The 500-acre farm was at the junction of two major roads right by town center near the Congregational Church where they owned a pew and worshiped every week. Using the farm's excellent location to his advantage, Paul would build the Dudley Inn across the street from the Big House (c.1820) and it would become a stagecoach stop on the Ninth Massachusetts Turnpike (Boston-Hartford Turnpike). Paul was one of the original investors in this toll road (along with Ezekiel Wood in Uxbridge and Philip Ammidown in Mendon) that was originally laid out as the "Middle Post Road" by Benjamin Franklin himself. Local historians trace the history of this road as far back as the French and Indian War with many saying it is the original Indian path mentioned in early Mendon deeds.
Douglas was not much more than a one-horse town at the time Mumma was born. Her father, Ralph Dudley, was a farmer like all the Dudley's before him. However, like all farmers, he was more than just a "simple farmer", beneath the worn hands and tired frame beat the heart of an artist. The walls of the Big House are filled with examples of his work, and his paintings were cherished gifts for friends and family. He lived in the Big House with his wife Lola, their six children, his brother Walter, his sister Loiezer, and her husband. Hard work, frugality, and family cooperation were the values taught to Mumma and her siblings. The farm was totally self sufficient, everything was grown or made on the farm, right down to the soap. When Mumma's father died, his brother Walter assumed control of the farm and "Grandma D" (Ralph's wife) went to work as a teacher in the local elementary school, eventually becoming the principal. Mumma, always the pioneer, attended one of the few area colleges that offered a B.S. in nursing and obtained her degree (specializing in psychiatric nursing). She served as a nurse during World War II in Australia, stationed in a psychiatric hospital caring for American POW's. She saw brave soldiers who were beaten and tortured in the Japanese POW camps, commit suicide rather than continue to live. These men could not face going home after what they had been through. Uncle Walter died just after Mumma returned home from the war, leaving a farm sadly in need of a person to love it and bring it back to what it once was. Again the pioneer, Mumma decided to take over the management of the farm, a brave undertaking for a woman in 1946. Her service in the war had left her with emotional scars that would not heal quickly, so she healed herself; she returned to working on the farm she loved. She re-built the burned down barns, built tractors out of spare parts and kept the farm solvent.
Mumma raised her daughters the same way she herself was raised, living in one house surrounded by extended family. Her daughter Betsy grew up in the Big House with her mother, her Grandma D, her Uncle Putty, his wife Lois, their four children and Lois's mother (Grandma Etta). Life consisted of haying, growing vegetables and fruits, caring for the beef and milk cows, feeding the goats and pigs and once a month making the trip into town (East Douglas) to buy staples at Jenkes store. Amazingly, until 1968, there was no electricity on the farm because Mumma was afraid it would burn down the house. Like generations before them, the older generation passed down traditions and skills to the younger ones. From her Grandma D, Betsy learned to sew, make her own clothes, and quilt. Her Grandma Etta taught her how to spin wool, dye it and knit. Aunt Lois taught her cooking and canning. From Mumma she learned that nothing was impossible as long as you had a Massie Harris tractor and a chain saw, with these you could move mountains and shape the landscape. She brought Betsy up to be proud of who she was and how she lived because the family was rich in what really mattered. Mumma did not approve of people who put on "airs" about their heritage, she was proud to be a farmer and she would shake her head (and maybe a stick) at those who bragged about how long their family had lived in New England. To her, it did not matter what the people before you did, it was what you did with the heritage they gave you that mattered. Mumma gave Betsy the old cape William built as her own home and Betsy's little family became part of the bigger Dudley clan.
As years went by changes were happening in the world and even on Mumma's farm. Land had to be sold and farming life had to be given up. Mumma had come full circle in the Dudley history; she was born in the Big House but came to spend her last years with Betsy in the small cape that was the beginning of the Dudley family story. The history books of Douglas do not have the names Dudley and Hill on every page listing all the accomplishments and contributions the family made to the town's history. The part the family played in Douglas history was in the preservation of the "old ways" and the saving of every scrap of history in boxes and cubbies for future generations as a window to the past. Mumma passed away at the ripe old age of 93 knowing that her farm had been in the hands of only two owners, the Nipmucs and the Dudley's. When you sit in the fields on a quiet day, you can hear the whisperings of the previous inhabitants telling their stories to you, thankful that this one family has kept their memory alive.


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By Curt Hopkins|November 4th, 2014|Media Coverage|
LONDON, UK. — November 4th, 2014 — Telenomics, a strategic O2 business partner that offers dedicated telecoms business account management and O2 products to consumers, today announces the appointment of Curt Hopkins as its new CEO. Hopkins joins Telenomics to help with the continued growth of the organisation's retail footprint and to bring engaging, […]
By Curt Hopkins|March 2nd, 2012|Media Coverage|
Redeem, a pioneer of mobile recycling, is seeing turnover approach £20 million. The company's new owners, Curt Hopkins and Pete Petrondas, talk to Michael House about its recent fortunes, its projects and their plans for expansion.
Mobile recycling has exploded in recent years. More so than ever before networks, dealers and high street stores and supermarkets not focused on mobile are all […]
By Curt Hopkins|January 27th, 2011|Media Coverage|
Falkirk-based mobile phone recycling firm Redeem has been taken over by an incoming management team.
The buy-in was led by Curt Hopkins and Pete Petrondas, who assume the roles of chief executive and chief operating officer respectively.
The deal, for an undisclosed sum, was backed by private equity investor Trevor Bayley, who is a founding partner […]
By Curt Hopkins|February 18th, 2008|Media Coverage|
Vodafone UK today announced that it has completed a deal with Neverfail, a leading global software company providing affordable continuous availability and disaster recovery solutions. Vodafone will now offer business customers a high availability and disaster recovery service for mobile email using the Neverfail software.
In today's business environment access to email whilst on the move is a key requirement […]
By Curt Hopkins|July 13th, 2006|Media Coverage|
Nortel Networks announced Tuesday that it has won a seven-year, $US20 million managed services agreement with Rolls-Royce in London to provide voice-over-IP services for more than 26,000 users. Rolls-Royce, a provider of power systems and services, employs about 36,000 people worldwide.
"We selected Nortel for this important network and telephony infrastructure transformation because they truly […]
Nortel revamps services business to drive growth
Nortel Networks Corp. said it had revamped its services business to propel growth as it unveiled a big services contract with Bharti Airtel, formerly known as Bharti Tele-Ventures, India's largest mobile phone operator.
Nortel, North America's biggest telecommunications equipment provider, said it had signed a five-year deal to provide call center services for Bharti, which […]
Nortel Overhauls Services, Offers Multivendor Repairs
By Curt Hopkins|April 3rd, 2006|Media Coverage|
Nortel Networks Corp. last week said it is reorganizing its services offerings and adding several new ones, including a service that makes Nortel a single point of contact for maintenance of its telecommunications equipment and products from rival vendors.
As part of the changes, Nortel is creating a single business unit that will focus on […]
Nortel bags Bharti BPO deal
By Curt Hopkins|March 29th, 2006|Media Coverage|
Nortel Networks has won a five-year deal from Bharti Airtel to provide call centre services for its mobile phone operations.
The deal, whose size has not been disclosed, allows Nortel to create a network operation centre and supply network design, integration, support and maintenance services for Bharti's contact centre.
Curt Hopkins, vice-president – global services, Nortel, […]
Nortel to simplify, expand services offerings
Nortel Networks has announced it will simplify its services offerings as well as provide integration of equipment from other vendors, in an effort to spur new revenue from the services it offers to large businesses and service providers.
Even as it streamlines its services, Nortel is also adding new ones, including integration services for IPTV […]


But the Pacifica doesn't stop with those advantages — keep reading to learn why the Pacifica has become the go-to minivan for Round Rock families.
If you want peace of mind during trips between Cedar Park and Georgetown, you're better off with the 2018 Chrysler Pacifica than you would be with the 2018 Honda Odyssey.
The Choice between the Pacifica and the Odyssey is similarly clear when you consider their interior amenities.
Don't just listen us when we tell you that the 2018 Chrysler Pacifica outclasses the 2018 Honda Odyssey — come to %%di_name% today and take a test drive!
When is the Jeep Gladiator Coming Out?
Where Can You Find the Best Pizza in Austin?


Roughly 11 by 17 inch mini heavy paper promo poster for the new Nickelodeon TV show Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles autographed in black or gold Sharpie by Omar Miller (Raph), Ben Schwartz (Leo), Josh Brener (Donnie), Brandon Smith (Mikey), Kat Graham (April) and Eric Bauza (Splinter) plus co-executive producers Andy Suriano and Ant Ward and legendary voice director Rob Paulsen for a total of 9 signatures. Obtained in person at limited 2018 San Diego Comic-Con signing. With certificate of authenticity from AutographsForSale.com and original Nickelodeon signing ticket.


Humera, an eleven-year-old girl from a remote village off the coast of Karachi Pakistan, dreams of becoming a doctor. When the only school in her community comes under threat of closure, Humera faces intense pressure to forego her education for an arranged marriage. A DESTRUCTION follows Humera's life trajectory as it reaches a critical point: she must maintain the determination to stay in school or risk falling prey to the cycle of poverty.


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Home Digital AWS recognizes AWS Partners around the globe as leaders in helping customers drive innovation
AWS recognizes AWS Partners around the globe as leaders in helping customers drive innovation
by uma December 7, 2022
Atos today announces that it has been selected as the winner for GSI Partner of the Year – EMEA by Amazon Web Services (AWS). This award recognizes Atos' key role helping customers drive innovation and build solutions on AWS.
Announced during a Partner Awards Gala at re:Invent, AWS Partner Awards recognize a wide range of AWS Partners, whose business models have embraced specialization, innovation, and collaboration over the past year. AWS Partner Awards recognize partners whose business models continue to evolve and thrive on AWS as they work with customers. In 2022, Atos supported its EMEA customers, leaders in their respective markets across the public and private sector, to run on AWS, in order to modernize critical workloads, secure everything at scale, modernize their business, implement new ways of working and unlock their potential for action to drive progress towards their net zero targets.
"Atos is tremendously proud to be named AWS GSI Partner of the Year. This is a major recognition by AWS of our strong relationship and ability to support customers in their move towards large scale, all encompassing, transformation initiatives that deliver the power of cloud," said Michael Liebow, Head of Atos OneCloud. "As a Global Systems Integrator with strong cloud-native capabilities brought by Cloudreach acquired earlier this year and that are now merged with our end-to-end service offering, Atos helps customers take full advantage of the business benefits AWS has to offer."
For the first time, AWS Partner Awards included a self-nomination process across a number of award categories and specialization areas awarded at both the regional and global level where all AWS Partners were invited to participate and submit a nomination.
The AWS Partner Network (APN), is a global partner program, focused on helping partners build successful AWS-based businesses or solutions by providing business, technical, marketing, and go-to-market support. The APN includes independent software vendors (ISVs) and systems integrators (SIs) around the world, with AWS Partner participation growing significantly during the past 12 months.
"AWS Partners are at the center of unlocking value for global customers, across a wide range of industries," said Ruba Borno, Vice President, Worldwide Channels and Alliances, AWS. "We are honored to launch the inaugural global 2022 AWS Partner Awards, and thank all the nominees and winners for accelerating our customers' cloud transformation journey."
A panel of AWS experts selected the winners based on the below criteria: the GSI Partner of the Year EMEA Award recognizes Atos as an AWS top GSI partners that has provided significant contributions related to revenue, launched opportunities, net new certified individuals, and AWS designations earned.
Artefact acquires Adalyne to deploy Artefact Africa and extend its data consulting activities to a new continent
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