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A Bluestocking Knits
Thoughts on the Parley Cardigan, and Some Catching Up
My Parley was finished and worn exactly a month ago, to be honest, but it has been quite summery lately, really too warm to want a sweater, and I've been rather busy with other things as well, so haven't had the wherewithal to photograph it. But the weather dropped about twenty degrees quite suddenly this past weekend -- I kid you not, twenty degrees -- and I wanted wool, so I am wearing the cardigan again today. It is of course the Parley by Mary Lou Egan of Yarnerinas, from her book with Gale Zucker and Kirsten Kapur, Drop-Dead Easy Knits. The book is full of good-looking knits that are fairly low on the concentration scale, which is great for those of us who tend to have -- cough -- numerous projects going at once. This particular one comes in pullover and cardigan versions, with simple shaping and lots of stockinette, with a bit of twizzle at the edges to keep it interesting.
This is just four skeins of Briggs & Little Sport in mulberry, which I got from Penelope Fibre Arts in British Columbia, as it's apparently a rather small line produced in Canada, and not many US shops carry it, even online -- it's worth perusing the B&L website to see the "tour" section and how the wool is processed, from grading to shipping. Mine is a lovely purply color, with hints of blue and red and black giving it a lively depth which is very difficult to capture with the camera! The yardage on the Sport wool is quite impressive, as I still had a good-sized ball and another full skein left over -- I bought five. The wool is a single-ply, so tends to worm a little while winding and knitting, but not frustratingly so, although it doesn't feel particularly pleasant to knit with since it is rather rough in itself and perhaps it is that combined with the single-ness that makes it feel a little like wire when wrapped around my fingers. Much of the roughness does wash out, though, and so now it has a sturdy wooliness to it and a light sheepy smell which is not atal unpleasant. I am a little concerned about the alarmingly frequent thin places as I went along, two or three of which were such a hair's-breadth, literally, that I broke and spliced them on the spot. I was tempted to weave in a bit of extra wool as a reinforcement in the less-alarming places, and had at least a dozen safety pins marking them as I went along, but in the end I didn't -- although I do have so much wool left that at least there is enough for repairs if that does become necessary later on!
The buttons are La Mode no.214 (eleven, not ten, since the buttonhole band came out with that many, as it happened).
The purple is generally a bit darker than I could get in these photos --
The sizing is quite generous, and I probably could have made the next size down instead of the 42 for my US12 figure, but there it is -- it's a great no-fuss cardigan, and in this yarn is good for nicely-cool days, not too light, not too heavy. It probably does look its best with a scoop neck underneath, not a collared shirt, to play up the slightly-rolled neck, which has a gracefully curving line to it that I really like.
We had a good bit of rain this past winter, much to everyone's relief. The down-side is that all of the weed seeds that have been lying dormant for the past three or four years of drought have apparently all decided to sprout and grow now. Our backyard, which has a gigantic pine tree in it and therefore little else, has been since February or so a veritable sea of stinging nettles and crabgrass, which I have been digging up -- with a shovel, mind, not one of those mild-mannered forks -- an hour or so every morning, filling usually two trash cans a week.
Unfortunately for the butterflies, some of whose caterpillars subsist pretty much exclusively on stinging nettles, this is not good. I fully expect the nettles to come back again next year (she said, weeping quietly into her tea), but this year for the bees and other insects in our little patch of wilderness in the middle of suburbia, I scattered around a packet of California wildflower seeds in the few spots that get any sun, and a packet of shade flowers for the more woodsy corners. The photo above is the very first bloom, which is a baby blue eyes (Nemophila maculata). It looks like a little bit of everything in the sunny packet has come up so far -- I am quite looking forward to the mountain garlands and the lupines!
This is something else that has been keeping me busy, albeit indoors -- a pair of Elizabethan venetians (which are sort of ur-trousers) for David's Renaissance Faire garb. These have been a real pain in the neck, to be honest, but I am on the home stretch at last, and only need to do buttonholes and lacing eyelets now, which will mean that -- huzzah! -- David will for the first time have a complete period outfit, bar the shoes of course. More photos to come.
We took the afternoon Saturday to go and see the "Dressing Downton" exhibit at Muzeo in Anaheim. I have rather mixed feelings about "Downton Abbey", not as keen in the later seasons as I was at the beginning -- but from start to finish, the clothes are pretty wonderful. This suit of Lady Sybil's, from season 1, is probably what I would choose if they were to say, "Yes, you may have one!" although Mary's red suit from the same season would run a close second. Cora's court dress from season 4 would be my favorite of the fancier ones, I think, but, goodness, how often would I get to wear it?! More photos later of this, as well ...
The weather has been cool enough too, this past weekend, for me to enjoy again the feeling of wool running through my fingers, so last night when I had three hours in front of the television (new episodes of "Call the Midwife" and "Home Fires", and a repeat of "Wolf Hall"), I managed to get the rhythm going and finished the thumb gusset and worked over half of the medallion of the first two-end mitten. It puzzles me why this cast-on doesn't lie as smoothly as the first one, but I tried a different technique, so I guess it just does. V. glad that these fit well, to be sure!
And, yes, there is a new petit-point carpet! It's spring, how could I resist? This one is the Flower Trellis by Sue Bakker from Venus Dodge's Dolls' House Needlecrafts. I haven't yet worked a Bakker chart that was free of significant errors and this one is no exception, I'm sorry to say, and in fact has some real doozies. The chart gives symbols for "red, light red, green, gold" etc. with the materials list specifying which colors of DMC floss are used, either by themselves or in combination with similar shades -- but although there are symbols for "blue" and "yellow" there are no indications in the materials list that you need any blue or yellow at all. I had to just choose shades I thought went well with the other colors. The chart has the full border and the "trellis" in the main field, but only one each of the flowers inside each medallion, so the stitcher must decide where to put what -- this is perhaps not a serious drawback for a more experienced stitcher, but a beginner may not appreciate this, nor the fact that one long edge of the "vine" is clearly marked with the symbol for yellow, not green.
But, yes, it's a very pretty carpet now that it's finished, I must say! I worked out before I started the flowers which one I wanted where, and whether or not I would reverse it (just to make each medallion a little different). I also reversed the light and medium pink blends here and there, for the same reason. I used a partial chart for the half-medallions, leaving a one-stitch edge between them and the gold border, to match the trellis-work -- some have worked it differently, I find from poking around the internet. Mine is kind of busy as a result, but in an ordered sort of way -- quite garden-like.
I used the following shades of DMC floss (3 strands, on 22-count mono canvas) --
dark gold = 680 and 420 (1 + 2 strands)
yellow = 745 and 3078
blue = 931 and 932
pale pink = 223 and 224 (2 + 1)
medium pink = 223 and 3372 (1 + 2)
red = 356
pale green = 3347
medium green = 3347 and 3052 (2 + 1)
grey = 646
background = 3033 (instead of ecru)
Note that I needed 3 skeins of the background color, not 2 as on the materials list, and that the number of red stitches (the "tulip" stamens) is a mere six per medallion, so if you have a bit of a pretty red already, you really needn't buy a new skein!
11:33 AM in Gardening, Historical Costuming, Miniature Needlework, Miniatures - Hardy House, Mittens, Gloves, and Hats, Movies and Television, Scandinavian Knitting, Sweaters and Cardigans, Two-end knitting (Tvåändsstickning) | Permalink | Comments (2)
"Shakespeare and His World": "Othello", "Antony and Cleopatra", and "The Tempest"
For the "Clash of Civilizations" unit in the FutureLearn "Shakespeare and His World" course, we discussed "the outsiders" in Elizabethan society. I watched two productions of "Othello", first the Trevor Nunn film from 1990, with Ian McKellen as Iago and Willard White as Othello. This production is set in a vaguely American Civil War-era, I'm not entirely sure why, perhaps some commentary on race, though it doesn't quite carry through since if Othello is black he would not be a general, surely! -- but after a while it is not distracting. White is a majestic and compelling Othello, and McKellen is pure poison as Iago. Imogen Stubbs is delicate and trusting as Desdemona, and Zoë Wanamaker is excellent as Emilia, as is the rest of the cast.
I also watched the 1995 film with Irène Jacob, Laurence Fishburne, and Kenneth Branagh. Jacob was an unexpected choice, as she is a little old for Desdemona, and her accent was a little distracting, but she is lovely to look at and one can see why Othello was so taken with her, and she conveys a real sense of shy love for him, and distress when he is cruel to her later in the story. Fishburne handles himself very well both with the verse and the magnetism of the soldierly Othello, and with his headlong descent into jealousy, and Branagh is brilliant as usual as Iago. Iago's motivations on the page seem not entirely clear, but Branagh's Iago certainly makes us feel that he himself feels justified.
I don't think I quite agreed with the director's choice to make it obvious that Cassio slips a dagger to Othello in the last scene, perhaps because it's a little too ambiguous as to why he does it. I suppose we are to think that Cassio is allowing Othello "a noble exit", but it just doesn't ring true to me. It doesn't "ruin" the film for me, but the fact that it comes so near the end makes it stick in the mind longer, as it were, so it looms a bit larger than it should.
Last week the theme was "The Roman Example" and, instead of choosing the more obvious "Julius Caesar", Bate went with "Antony and Cleopatra," and so I watched the 1981 BBC Shakespeare production, with Colin Blakely and Jane Lapotaire. Colin Blakely is not someone I ever would have thought of as playing Mark Antony, but he does remarkably well, and he has the legs for it. Perhaps his working-class-yob air helps bring out the sense of Antony's being out of his depth here. This production goes for a rather Shakespearean look to it, with not Roman or Egyptian costumes, but "contemporary" Italian Renaissance ones. Not one of my favorite plays, but with some really gorgeous poetry.
For this last week of play-viewing, titled "O Brave New World", I watched 1980's BBC Shakespeare production of "The Tempest", here with David Dixon as a seriously creepy Ariel and Michael Hordern as Prospero. This version starts out with an exciting storm, but beyond that it turns bland, with little sense of magic or wonder. Christopher Guard is dull as Ferdinand, and there is no chemistry between him and Pippa Guard (his cousin in real life) who plays Miranda. Warren Clarke is a weirdly hairy yet effective Caliban, but other than a mildly amusing turn from Nigel Hawthorne as Stephano, Hordern is the only one who is at all interesting. A shame, really.
(By the way, despite the much-vaunted premise of the BBC Shakespeare series being that the plays are produced with minimal cuts, the Ambrose DVD version I have is surely edited, as I've seen images of this fey Ariel sprouting enormous wings and alighting on a table at one point in the play, which is certainly not in the one I saw. Good heavens, I would have remembered that. Iris, Ceres, and Juno appear in the credits, yet their lines, in IV.i, are not here. Curiously, the DVD box gives the running time as 150 minutes, while both IMDB and Wikipedia give it as 124 or 125 minutes.)
Lastly, I watched the 2010 version directed by Julie Taymor, with Helen Mirren in the role of Prospero, rewritten for her as Prospera, wife of the Duke, who becomes Duchess upon her husband's death and then is banished as Prospero is in the original play. This actually works pretty well here, so is not terribly distracting, but it does of course lend some different aspects with a mother/daughter relationship being one of the central themes, instead of a father/daughter one. I don't always like Taymor's interpretations -- I didn't much care for her "Titus Andronicus" though that may be as much Anthony Hopkins's fault as Taymor's -- but I thought that this film was really wonderful, and wonderful in the sense that Shakespeare would have used the word, too. Taymor really uses the capabilities of film to convey a sense of magic, things that could not be done on the stage -- Ariel's shimmering transparency, for instance, as in this photo of Ben Whishaw and Helen Mirren. In the BBC version, Ariel dashes off and, jumping into the air, simply disappears into a film cut, which even in 1980 I found anticlimactic, but here he leaves a vapor trail across the sky that really gives a sense of Ariel's otherworldliness. I also found Prospera's relationship with Ariel very touching, possibly due to cuts -- I don't really know the text especially well -- but I'm sure very much due to Mirren herself, the way that she speaks to him, sometimes rather cruelly, but with great fondess certainly, and that she takes his gentle chiding, towards the end, and accepts it, and learns from it. All of the supporting actors here are excellent, although perhaps Chris Cooper was the least effective with the verse, though his physical presence as the jealous brother Antonio certainly works very well. I usually find Russell Brand exhausting, to be honest, but here he was well-cast as the jesterlike Trinculo, playing off the more stolid Alfred Molina as Stephano. Djimon Hounsou is excellent as Caliban, not-quite-human yet profoundly moving at times in his primal humanity. It was also a pleasure to see Tom Conti again, perfectly cast as the gentle courtier Gonzalo, with his faintly tedious nattering.
This series of "play-going" was an interesting exercise in itself, besides the online course, in watching sometimes wildly different productions hard on the heels of each other. It's curious that, traditionalist that I tend to be, I often found the stagier productions more dull that the modern ones, even though sometimes I deplore the tendency of directors to feel that they need to fizz up Shakespeare for modern audiences (I didn't think Baz Luhrmann's "Romeo + Juliet" worked very often).
PS, I've recently seen an excellent and hilariously funny production of "The Merry Wives of Windsor" which really brought this lesser-known play to life for me -- it's the Globe production from 2008 (revived in 2010), with Christopher Benjamin as Falstaff and Sarah Woodward and Serena Evans as Mistresses Ford and Page, respectively. We all laughed so much -- even the girls, who think Shakespeare is "boring" -- that our sides hurt.
05:01 PM in Movies and Television, Shakespeare | Permalink | Comments (0)
Knitting in the Movies: "Tell Them of Us"
Here is another picture-heavy post, hard on the heels of the last one, but at least this is about knitting! I read just this morning about a small independent film in Britain, "Tell Them of Us", about a real Lincolnshire family, the Crowders of Thimbleby in Lincolnshire, during the Great War, a project inspired certainly by the centenary this year of the outbreak of that war. The call went out for knitters to help recreate the wonderful amount of knitted garments the director wanted for the film, and Mary Lou of Yarnerinas was fortunate enough to have been part of the knitting team -- she tells a bit about the experience on her blog.
There is a book, called Centenary Stitches, available from Northern Lace Press, including "about 70" period patterns used in the film, rewritten for modern knitters.
Robert (played by Reece Ackerman) writing a letter, certainly with "comforts" received from his mother and sister at home, a warm knitted waistcoat and what is either a sock or a balaclava hanging on the X of the table leg.
A wonderfully jaunty ensemble, hat and matching scarf -- with pompoms! -- and the sailor's jumper. Love the fluffy stripes on the collar!
Notice too the hap that the woman on the left is wearing, garter stitch with a simple lace edging.
Grace (played by Victoria Rigby) is wearing a wrap-around sleeveless jumper, a natural progression from the sontag of her grandmothers' generation.
A hug-me-tight, perhaps! and Mrs. Crowder has put down her knitting to read the letter.
The dark blue cardigan is almost exactly the same shape as the light blue one Grace wears above, but in a brioche stitch here, and with the front buttoned closed.
Mary Lou admits to having knitted this cardigan, which she adapted from a photograph of the real Grace Crowder, as well as the camel-colored jumper below, which is from a 1912 "sport sweater" pattern.
Notice the wonderful assortment of knits here, from old-fashioned shawls to "modern" jumpers and hats.
I am sorry to say, though, that Robert Crowder was killed at Passchendaele in 1917. The film was in fact inspired by the local memorial, and a window in the Thimbleby church which his family dedicated to his memory.
09:51 AM in Historical Knitting, Knitting in the Movies, Movies and Television | Permalink | Comments (4)
"Shakespeare and His World": "The Merchant of Venice" and "Macbeth"
Last week in the FutureLearn "Shakespeare and His World" online course, we discussed "Money and the City", with "The Merchant of Venice" as the focus play. The public library had three productions on the shelf, so since I have long found this play intriguing, I brought home all of them. I decided to watch them chronologically, so began with the 1972 BBC Play of the Month production, with Maggie Smith and Frank Finlay. I like both of these actors, and so it may have been no fault of theirs, but this was a rather dull production. I kept getting distracted by various things, that Antonio looked laughably like Henry VIII, the absurd pumpkin breeches worn by the younger male leads, which were made out of cloth lattice-work, revealing all -- though, to their credit, the gentlemen wore them well -- and, really, how unlike a man Maggie Smith looks in drag.
Next I watched again, after many years, the 1980 BBC Shakespeare production with Warren Mitchell and John Franklyn-Robbins -- Gemma Jones is Portia. This held up pretty well. It's a difficult play, and this cast does it capably. I just feel that the "quality of mercy" speech shouldn't be a lecture, as so many actresses do it. It seems to me that, yes, Portia has prepared all of her arguments -- she knows that she has the ultimate one, a pound of flesh but no drop of blood -- but that Shylock's stubbornness should come as a bit of a shock to her. How can he really be demanding that a pound of flesh be cut from another man's living body? "Then must the Jew be merciful," she says, and Shylock replies, "On what compulsion must I? tell me that." If she looks at him in disbelief, then tries to reason with him -- because, because "the quality of mercy is not strain'd" -- I think it plays better, plus it would sound less like a set piece that we've all heard a thousand times before.
The third was the 2004 Pacino version, here also with Alan Corduner as Tubal. The cast is first-rate, and Pacino does a terrific job (I was going to say "for an American", but I don't always get Pacino). Visually stunning, with wonderful costumes and gorgeous photography, and the only production to actually be filmed in Venice, so there really are palaces and canals -- though of course, to be fair, the other two were television studio productions. I just wish this one hadn't cut so much.
By the time it came for this week's unit on "Witches and Doctors", the only "Macbeth" left on the library shelf was, alas, the 1982 BBC Shakespeare production with Nicol Williamson and Jane Lapotaire, which I didn't like much the first time around either. He was wooden, and she took up the slack and went in rather the opposite direction. This is one of my favorite plays, so I was hoping to see the 1972 one with Jon Finch and Francesca Annis again, after many years, or perhaps a new-to-me production -- McKellen and Dench, say, or Patrick Stewart and Kate Fleetwood. Will definitely have to look for those. (Alan Cumming has done what looks like a stunningly bizarre yet effective one-man version set in a mental hospital -- this takes away all of the "reality" of the play, of course, since it's obviously all in his mind, but what a tour-de-force!)
Professor Bate accompanies each unit with a selection of objects from the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust collection, a contemporary map, a hornbook, a ceremonial pike. I think the one I found most fascinating was this, which is a glazed money pot used for collecting the pennies from the audience at the theater. It has no bung like a modern piggy bank, so that the only way to get the takings out is to smash it -- obviously intact ones are therefore very rare, which is why he is holding it here so gingerly! Apparenly it was not unusual for the lesser members of the company, the wardrobe or props for instance, and thus often women, to be the ones to go round with the money pots. It's a very evocative picture.
02:39 PM in Books and Reading, Movies and Television, Shakespeare | Permalink | Comments (0)
"Shakespeare and His World": "The Merry Wives of Windsor", "A Midsummer Night's Dream", and "Henry V"
I recently signed up for a free online course at FutureLearn called "Shakespeare and His World", presented by renowned Shakespearean professor Jonathan Bate, taking a cultural (Elizabethan) theme and examining a particular play that illuminates it. This is not actually the first FutureLearn course I signed up for -- I started the "Literature of the English Country House" and "England in the time of King Richard III" but although they were both interesting, I was having trouble finding the time to do even one of them, let alone two nearly simultaneously, and so I regret to say that I haven't yet finished either of them.
But Shakespeare -- but Shakespeare and Jonathan Bate! -- well! So here are some potted reviews of the productions I'm watching as we discuss them.
After the introductory week, the second week was "Shakespeare and Stratford", with the focus play being, perhaps unsurprisingly "The Merry Wives of Windsor", since despite being nominally set in Windsor, it is very much small-town England of the time. I watched two productions, as it happened, both that the public library had, first a production from 1980 with Gloria Grahame as Mistress Page. It was, I'm afraid, a not especially good production, though that was perhaps more the fault of the sound man and the costume designer and the cameraman than the actors. Despite being touted as being "Staged as seen in the 16th century" Grahame wore a gown in the style of at least a hundred years later, though everyone else was more-or-less 16th century. More irritating was the fact that the actors' mikes picked up every movement of their bodies, so it was a lot like the scenes in "Singin' in the Rain" where Lena's pearls drown out her dialogue. Grahame acquitted herself tolerably well with the Shakespearean prose, though she still carried herself as an indelibly 20th century woman.
I had seen the 1982 BBC production of "Merry Wives" when it was first broadcast, and I'm pretty sure I fell asleep halfway through, but I must say it improved with age. Prunella Scales and Judy Davis play Mistress Page and Mistress Ford respectively -- Davis's very modern lipstick was a bit jarring, but Scales could do this kind of role in her sleep. Ben Kingsley was alarmingly manic as Master Ford, but then Ford is supposed to be madly jealous; Richard Griffiths seemed surprisingly bland as Falstaff. (Actually, it was also fun to play spot-the-actor, as there were quite a number of familiar faces, from Nigel Terry to Elizabeth Spriggs and Alan Bennett.) The costumes were excellent, and I admired the set as well, which is supposed to have been based on Hall's Croft.
For "The Birth of Theatre" in the third week, the play was "A Midsummer Night's Dream", and I watched the 1996 Adrian Noble production currently on Netflix. This was kind of weird. I liked the framing of the play as a little boy's dream -- he hides under a table during Theseus's and Hippolyta's first scene, and so on -- but it doesn't seem to hold up when we are asked to believe that he's still dreaming this when the "translated" Bottom (Desmond Barrit) and Titania (Lindsay Duncan) go at it, and pretty obviously. The fairies were quite Seussian. The slapstick was good -- I especially liked the multiple doors when the four young lovers are wandering in the forest -- but, hmm, I'm still waiting for a really good filmed version.
This week is "The World at War" and "Henry V". My library has a number of productions, but Kenneth Branagh's was the only one I brought home. A cracking production -- first-rate acting, great production values, and a real sense of the both the grit and glory of war.
11:00 AM in Books and Reading, Movies and Television, Shakespeare | Permalink | Comments (1)
"Anonymous"
I finally saw "Anonymous" the other day.
Leaving aside for a moment the question of whether I think William Shakespeare of Stratford or Edward de Vere wrote the plays, the film itself is such a curious mixture of intelligent speculation and absurd rants that I hardly know what to think.
Roland Emmerich says in the behind-the-scenes clip on the DVD, "I think the whole authorship question comes out of the fact that there was a man who was just the first modern author, who in more than thirty plays summed up what we humans are.... I had heard inklings, there's like an authorship question, then you read a script about it and you all of a sudden say to yourself, wow, this is an amazing story. Basically, the more and more I read, the more I think that William Shakespeare has not written these works, had nothing to do with it. I'm always drawn to these kind of things when there is something there that people can argue about." Perhaps it wasn't his intention, but this makes it sound like he just wanted to make a movie that would stir things up.
He certainly does. I just think he goes too far. The Ben Jonson storyline, that de Vere selects the already well-established Jonson to front de Vere's play "Henry V" -- de Vere's inability to do so himself is because of the play's propagandistic nature -- and that Jonson's reluctanct agreement then leads to the opportunistic William Shakespeare stepping in ahead of him, is quite logical. If Emmerich had stayed there, he might have had a good argument. The idea that Elizabeth had a youthful affair with a courtier and bore a child in secret, I found a little harder to accept, but also remotely possible, if only very remote. The idea that this illegitimate son then grows up to be none other than Edward de Vere himself, and all unkowing, has an affair with Elizabeth and sires an illegitimate son which Elizabeth bears in secret, pushes the whole thing way over the edge of credulousness.
This leads to my other point about the film, that the extensive use of CGI gives the whole thing such an air of artificiality that it's difficult to believe that Emmerich himself believes it, certainly in the exterior scenes.
(Don't even get me started on the fact that all of the good characters are blond and handsome (and male), and that all of the bad characters are dark-haired and ugly.)
"I'm not a big theatre nut," Emmerich says in a Guardian interview last year. "But when I realised that I had to make a movie about Elizabethan theatre, I read everything I could about it. I tried to look for other movies that showed these scenes, and the only films I found were Shakespeare in Love and Stage Beauty, and they didn't really show it at all. There was no performance there, ever. There were rehearsals and then little snippets of things, but there was nothing that showed what the theatre meant to people. So I said, 'Guys, we have to show how it really felt.' Because it hit me, in the middle of a rehearsal that, at the time these plays were performed, 80 or 90% of the audience was illiterate. There was not much reading material. Books were incredibly expensive. So they must have eaten it up."
Now, I happen to consider "Shakespeare in Love" one of my favorite movies ever, one that I can watch again and again and enjoy more deeply every time, from performances and production values to its theories about the sources for the plays -- even though, yes, the Lady Viola character for one is a complete fiction, it all makes sense in the context of the film. Anyway, for Emmerich to say that there is "no performance" in "Shakespeare in Love" makes me wonder what on earth he saw, since the production of "Romeo and Juliet" takes up a good portion of the end of the film, and the whole point of it was to show, in fact, "what the theatre meant to people". If the astonished faces of groundlings and gallery-goers alike doesn't do that, I don't know what would.
Well, it is fascinating to see Rhys Ifans in such a subtle, dark role, when I am so familiar with him from "Notting Hill" and "Danny Deckchair". (Look at his hand in the picture at the top of this post. There is an actor who knows how a Renaissance-era courtier poses.) And Rafe Spall is so good that I almost believe that the man from Stratford was a simpleton. Almost.
And as a last word -- for today, at least -- I happened to be reading a preview of John Mullan's What Matters in Jane Austen. Now of course Mullan is writing about Jane Austen and not about Shakespeare at all, but in the introduction he points out that there are only a few manuscripts of her novels surviving -- some juvenilia, unfinished fragments of Sanditon and The Watsons and a few others, and Persuasion. This of course immediately made me think of the Oxfordian argument that we have so little in Shakespeare's writing. Mullan goes on, "Jane Austen's obscurity among her contemporaries is all the more striking when one considers her technical audacity. There was nothing so surprising about the fact that she wrote novels. There was something miraculous about the fact that she wrote novels whose narrative sophistication and brilliance of dialogue were unprecedented in English fiction. She introduced free indirect style to English fiction, filtering her plots through the consciousnesses of her characters. She perfected fictional idiolect, fashioning habits of speaking for even minor characters that rendered them utterly singular. She managed all this with extraordinary self-confidence and apparently without the advice or expert engagement of any other accomplished writer. She had had access to books, of course, and the conversations of a bookish family, but no circle of fellow authors. It might be a wrench to think of Austen, the conservative literary genius in a revolutionary age, as an experimental writer, but such she was. This has nothing to do with her subject matter: indeed, provide some bare plot summaries of her novels, and they can be made to sound rather less daring that those of contemporaries such as Maria Edgeworth or Mary Brunton. Her brilliance is in the style, not the content. Even when it comes to her characters, her success is a matter of formal daring as much as psychological insight. We hear their ways of thinking because of Austen's tricks of dialogue; their peculiar views of the world are brought to life by her narrative skills."
05:00 PM in Books and Reading, Movies and Television | Permalink | Comments (0)
This and That --
We had a booth sale the other day, and I managed to get a good way down the leg of a Welsh Country Stocking -- this is is Paton's Kroy, a bit heavier than the original wool, so I've had to adjust the stitch counts considerably.
But other than this I haven't done much knitting, still absorbed in Swedish church-books. Found this the other day, which amused me greatly --
Imagine the ruckus when papa found out that little Stina had been looking for a piece of paper and decided to make do with one of those old books in the vestry....
And in bookish news, I haven't seen "War Horse" yet, but came across this charming little video in which three of the actors talk about the book and their childhood reading -- that Tom Hiddleston was rather precocious, it seems!
10:47 AM in Books and Reading, Girl Scouts, Movies and Television, Socks | Permalink | Comments (1)
Recycled costume alert!
Jennifer Ehle as Mrs. Logue in "The King's Speech" (2010).
Geraldine McEwan as Miss Marple, with Joanna Lumley as Dolly Bantry in "The Body in the Library" (2004).
It shouldn't surprise me -- indeed, I am more amused than surprised -- that there is a website for recycled-costume spotters: Recycled Movie Costumes (the two pictures are from there).
I'm a bit late to the game on "The King's Speech" here, which I saw a few months ago and thought was absolutely wonderful. Pooh to those who complain about its historical inaccuracies -- now, sometimes I complain with the best of them about historical inaccuracies in films, but this one I thought did a brilliant job of both compressing a long story and conveying the hard slog of the Duke of York's/George VI's treatment into a mere two hours.
I must admit that I'm rather biased -- George has long been perhaps my favorite of the English kings. He took a bad situation and did a splendid job. I always liked the anecdote of Elizabeth replying to someone who asked during the war if the little princesses would be evacuated from the bombing in London, "The children will not leave without me, I will not leave without the King, and the King will never leave."
Here is a clip from around 1938 showing the King making a speech to open the Empire Exhibition at Ibrox Park in Glasgow. It is difficult not to feel for him from the very start, and to cheer him on in spirit.
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08:54 AM in Knitting in the Movies, Movies and Television | Permalink | Comments (3)
You know, I thought that when the girls were both in school -- even better, both at the same school -- that I would have more time. Wrong! It's a little-known fact that school- and extra-curricular activities actually expand to fill parental time.
So there hasn't been much knitting....
I did manage a pair of socks this month. I found the yarn rather unexpectedly at one of my local craft stores -- they usually have mostly acrylics and novelty yarns, although a bit more "upscale" than Michaels' selections -- but at the moment, they actually have a basket of sock yarn! so I snapped up a ball with my 40% off coupon -- Meilenweit Stile in color 8005, a blend of blacks, creams, lavendar-greys, and sages.
It was not, I admit, particularly pleasant to knit, feeling rather stiff and artificial in my hands, but it has softened up a bit with washing, and I'm counting on it being as filzfrei and extra-strapazierfähig as promised on the label ("non-felting and hard-wearing"). It bled a bit in the sink the first time -- a midrange blue, curiously, so apparently the black isn't really -- which toned down the cream somewhat. I'd thought the cream was a bit loud, as it happens (!), so for myself I wasn't terribly annoyed, but it's something to take into account next time.
These are plain stockinette with an eye-of-partridge heel and the squared-off grafted toe from the Jaywalker pattern.
I will probably forever after remember these as my "LOTR" socks, as I watched the entire cycle of Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" movies and a fair bit of the extras as I knitted!
Now I'm picking up that Ravenclaw "Prisoner of Azkaban" scarf that I started in summer. (Wool scarves in summer! what was I thinking?)
08:11 PM in Movies and Television, Socks | Permalink | Comments (5)
Mish-Mash
Every so often we have mish-mash for dinner, when the refrigerator is full of single servings left over from the week's meals. Tonight, Laura had the last slice of pizza, Julia had Swedish meatballs, and David and I had the remnants of my first promenade through My French Kitchen by Joanne Harris and Fran Warde -- lentil and sausage casserole and garlic soup, respectively. This is a lovely, evocative book that set my mouth watering as soon as I saw it. The lentil dish is pleasant and earthy (much depends on the sausages, I suspect), and the garlic soup very tasty. I didn't much care for the Poule au Pot, but then I've made various versions of this and never found it to speak to me much, so I can't fault Harris'. Her Boeuf en Daube, redolent of bay and thyme and olives and an entire bottle of white wine, was heavenly!
So, then, this post will be a mish-mash too, since life has been increasingly hectic chez Bluestocking these days, and little that I have to say would stretch to a full post on its own.
I made an Odessa the other day for my aunt, whose cancer is returning. Cashsoft DK again, so wonderfully soft and comforting -- this color is 525 Kingfisher, and worth seeking out, a lovely tealy greeny-blue.
I could not resist the lure of the laceweight -- the ball is one skein of Skacel Merino Lace, in 339 Pale Grey, luminous and pearl-like -- I'm thinking something Shetlandish.
A cup from Annie Modesitt's clever Fiesta Tea Set, in some ancient Tahki Cotton Classic that I dug up from one of the deeper drawers in my closet. Am not sure yet if I'm going to make the rest of the set in the same color (wh. is all I have), or find some peppier shades, or just enjoy this piece on its own.
I put up a photo album in the sidebar of some of my dad's model trains, the ones I have. Trains were such an intrinsic part of his life that I feel absurdly grateful to have these.
My Daisy troop is up to fifteen. Fifteen kindergarten girls in one room! Need I say more?
I've been watching a lot of movies lately, curiously enough all Norwegian ones, hard to knit to since I need to read the subtitles, my Norwegian stretching mostly to exclamations -- "Gud!" "Nå da?" "Fy!"-- and words that I probably shouldn't know. Anyway, first was "Insomnia", a bleak and gritty crime thriller from a few years back, in which a detective in the far north accidentally shoots his partner during a murder investigation, and finds himself increasingly mired in guilt and the insomnia of the title as he tries to cover up what really happened. "Hamsun" is the story of Norwegian Nobel Laureate novelist Knut Hamsun's involvement with Hitler's occupying forces during World War II, and of Hamsun's turbulent relationship with his wife, a fervent Nazi supporter. It's a ghastly, riveting film -- like watching a car crash that one is powerless to stop -- with Hamsun played with arresting dignity by Max von Sydow.
"Kitchen Stories (Salmer fra Kjøkkenet)" is the lightest of the bunch so far -- and by far -- and one that I can recommend without hesitation for those who like quirky, subtle, character-driven comedy. The premise is that Swedish researchers in the postwar craze for scientific research and efficiency are sending a team of observers to study Norwegian bachelor farmers' kitchen habits -- resulting in the quietly absurd set-up in the photo. One of these objects of study has had a change of heart and resents the intrusion stubbornly, but through a series of small events he and his ostensibly objective observer become unlikely friends. The ending is bittersweet but entirely believable and satisfying.
Little-known Fact #133: All Norwegian movies feature Sverre Anker Ousdal in some role, large or small.
(Not that I'm complaining, mind. Fellow polar geeks will recognize him from "The Flight of the Eagle", the lyrical and harrowing film based on the Swedish attempt in 1897 to reach the North Pole by balloon, and
as Roald Amundsen in 1985's "The Last Place on Earth". The sight of Amundsen and his men skiing towards the South Pole is as stirring a thing I've seen in many a year.)
I read the last of the Aubrey/Maturin series while David was in Hong Kong. I'd been reading them slowly, trying to spin out the last few as long as I could, but then one night after finishing The Hundred Days, I picked up Blue at the Mizzen as if there were no covers between the two, just another chapter break. It was like running down a hill -- I ran through it in delight, unable to stop myself and not caring a whit, and was surprised when I turned over the last page with something like utter joy and came to the end, not without a bit of a thud at my sudden return to reality. So, that's that, and I guess -- unless somebody stands me 21 for my birthday -- I'll start over again from the beginning.
I've just finished reading the fourth in the Brother Cadfael series, St. Peter's Fair, retrieved deep from the basement storage area of our local public library. It's interesting, reading the books hard on the heels of one another, instead of a year or two apart as I did when they were published -- I begin to get a sense of Peters' developing style and feeling for the characters. I had quite forgotten after so long that Hugh Beringar in his first appearance -- in the second book -- was in fact an opponent, not an ally of Cadfael's. Almost makes me want to see the television series again, but not quite. Only for Sean Pertwee,
for whom I almost seriously considered starting a write-in-campaign-of-one to Peter Jackson, as I had long pictured Sean Pertwee in my admittedly fertile imagination as Faramir, one of my favorite characters in "The Lord of the Rings" cycle. Not too much of a stretch, though, I think! (I would rather, too -- not that I've anything against Viggo Mortensen -- have seen Sean Bean as Aragorn, as he was much more my idea of the character -- but that's another story, for another time.)
10:09 PM in Books and Reading, Food and Drink, Girl Scouts, Knitted Lace, Mittens, Gloves, and Hats, Movies and Television | Permalink | Comments (15)
"'Then I am the first,' cried Pullings with infinite satisfaction. 'Let me wish you and Mrs. Aubrey all the joy in the world.' He grasped Jack's limp, wondering hand, wrung it numb, and showed the printed page, reading aloud, '"At Ashgrove Cottage, Chilton Admiral, in Hants, the lady of Captain Aubrey, of the Boadicea, of a son and heir,"' following the words with his finger.
'Give it here,' said Jack. He grasped the magazine, sloped the page to the light and pored over it intently.
'"At Ashgrove Cottage, Chilton Admiral, in Hants, the lady of Captain Aubrey, of the Boadicea, of a son."
'Well, I'll be damned. God bless me. Lord, Lord … upon my word and honour … I'll be damned to Hell and back again … strike me down. Killick, Killick, rouse out a bottle of champagne -- pass the word for the Doctor -- here, Killick, there's for you -- God love us all -- ha, ha, ha.'
Killick took the handful of money, put it slowly into his pocket with a look of extreme suspicion and walked out of the cabin, his lips pursed in disapproval. Jack leapt from his seat, took several turns fore and aft, chuckling from time to time, his mind filled with mingled love, happiness, fulfilment, and a most piercing nostalgia."
-- from The Mauritius Command by Patrick O'Brian
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text:
New bosses at larger than life fashion firm
A Redditch fashion firm which reckons big is beautiful is under new management.
Elvi specialises in larger size fashion for women and is based at Oxleasow Road, East Moons Moat.
It has 25 stores around the country, with locations including the Bluewater shopping centre and the Trafford and Metro Centres.
The company also has around 60 concessionary outlets in many leading UK department stores, including John Lewis, House of Fraser and Debenhams.
Elvi has now agreed to a management buy-in, which has been led by London-based private equity firm Langholm Capital, who have backed Midlands retail entrepreneur Oliver Spark as managing director. No sum has been disclosed for the deal though it is thought to be around £8 million.
Mr Spark, from Leamington Spa, was formerly managing director of another specialist retailer, the White Company, which supplies a wide range of home accessories and clothing.
He joins Elvi's existing design and merchandising director, Karen Smith, at the company. Three other directors have retired from Elvi following the transaction was completed.
Under the new management team, Elvi is poised to embark on an ambitious expansion programme, which should see the company open 20 new stores and a dozen new concessions in the next four years. The company also plans to extend its retailing activities by moving into internet-based home shopping.
It is hoped that the expansion programme will double Elvi's turnover from its current £20 million to a projected £40 million.
Mr Spark said: "The market for retailers offering clothes in size 16 and above is currently worth £4.5 billion, and as people are getting older and larger, that is set to grow.
"I am excited by the potential of Elvi as a business that is operating in a sector experiencing strong growth. It is our intention to move online and roll out stores and concessions in order to double the business."
Accountants Deloitte provided Langholm with financial due diligence transaction services, undertaking a review of the financial history and projections of Elvi prior to completion of the deal.
Peter Croom, transaction services director at Deloitte in Birmingham, said: "I have every confidence that Oliver and his team will be highly successful and look forward to working with Elvi in the future."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Dollar amounts on this page last updated March 17, 2017.
Oak Run is governed and managed by a property owners association commonly referred to as the Oak Run Property Owners' Association, Inc.
The Oak Run Property Owners' Association consists of a seven member Board of Directors. The Board of Directors are elected by the vote of the general membership.
The Board of Directors is granted the power to adopt and publish rules; exercise of the Association all powers, duties and authority vested in or delegated to the Association; and establish, levy and collect the assessments, as governed by the bylaws and covenants of Oak Run.
Every person or entity who holds any equitable interests in any lot or lots included within Oak Run, shall be a member of the Association, and subject to the payments of dues and assessments.
Each member shall be entitled to one vote for each lot that he or she owns.
If multiple owners are recorded on a deed for property at Oak Run, each owner must pay the annual POA assessment. Until all assessments on a given property are paid, none of the owners is entitled to membership privileges.
A maximum of 4 watercrafts may be registered to each lot. Two 11 HP or more plus two 10 HP or less. To register a boat, you must show proof of ownership and proof of liability insurance.
Maintenance / User Fee: $357 per year. This may be increased in accordance with the consumer price index.
Real Estate Taxes: based on assessed values of the property.
Water Availability Fee: $19.87 billed every two months.
Water mains adjacent to each and every lot where water hookup is easy accessible.
Sewer is available in Brentwood, Forest Ridge, and Parkview subdivisions only.
All lots shall be used for residential purposes only, and no business shall be conducted on the premises. Only single family dwellings not exceeding two and one-half stories in height shall be erected.
No trailer or similar structure, school bus, basement, tent, shack, garage, barn or other outbuilding shall be used as a residence, temporarily or permanently.
The outside finishing of all buildings must be completed within one year after construction has started.
Every dwelling house shall have not less than 680 square feet of enclosed living space on the "main" level. Prior approval of construction shall first be secured from the Architectural and Environmental Control Committee.
All Oak Run facilities are available for use to members and accompanied guest..
No camping on private lots at anytime.
The pool is open Memorial Day through Labor Day.
Every boat and powered watercraft on the lake must be registered by a property owner at the POA office. Stickers must be purchased annually. Proof of ownership is necessary to register a boat or watercraft.
There is a speed limit of 40 m.p.h. and a maximum overall length of 25 feet, except pontoon boats.
Campground is for the use of property owner and guests. Property owner must register their guests. Maximum stay at the campground is 14 days.


In this study, we investigated the amino acid variations and mRNA expression of PhoPQ and PmrAB two-component regulatory systems in colistin-resistant Enterobacter cloacae isolates from Korea. We determined the nucleotide sequences of phoP, phoQ, pmrA, and pmrB in 51 colistin-resistant, 5 colistin-susceptible, and 8 skip-well isolates and consequently, the corresponding amino acid sequences as well. PhoPQ and PmrAB sequences showed large variations among the isolates (14, 67, 20, and 68 sites, respectively). Although there was some discrepancy between the genes, the colistin-resistant E. cloacae isolates were grouped into four clades and the susceptible isolates were grouped into two clades. We did not find any distinct amino acid substitutions associated with colistin resistance. Furthermore, mRNA expression of phoQ and pmrB was not significantly higher in the colistin-resistant isolates. Our data suggests that the colistin resistance mechanisms might be different in E. cloacae when compared to other gram-negative bacteria.
The Enterobacter isolates used in this study were obtained from the Asian Bacterial Bank (ABB) at the Asia Pacific Foundation for Infectious Diseases (APFID, Seoul, Korea). This study was supported by the Samsung Research Fund, Sungkyunkwan University, 2017.


text:
HFF arranges joint venture equity for mixed-use residential and hotel development in downtown Austin, TX
Robert Wooten
AUSTIN, TX –– Holliday Fenoglio Fowler, L.P. (HFF) announced it has arranged joint venture equity for the development of Gables Republic Square, a 24-story, Class AA+ mixed-use residential and hotel project in downtown Austin, Texas.
HFF worked exclusively on behalf of the developer, Gables Residential, to arrange joint venture equity for the development of the property through The Carlyle Group.
Due for completion in early 2019, Gables Republic Square will be located at 400 Lavaca Street and will encompass 221 residential units along with a separately-owned, 159-key Hotel ZaZa. The residential component will have a ground-floor lobby with residential units located on floors 13 through 24.
Additionally, the Hotel ZaZa lobby, valet, bar and spa will occupy the ground floor while the hotel ballroom, restaurant and swimming pool will be located on floor 7 and guest rooms on floors 8 through 12.
Floors two through six of the property will be reserved for residential parking, and two levels of subgrade parking will be reserved for the hotel. Gables Republic Square will be an Austin Energy Green Building (Two Star Level), which is comparable to LEED certification, and features a design inspired by the surrounding historic Warehouse District.
The property's for-rent homes will offer best-in-class finishes, including granite or quartz counters in kitchens and baths; stainless steel appliances; upgraded cabinetry; in-unit washers and dryers; wood or wood laminate flooring in all living and dining areas; built-in speakers in kitchen and dining area; eight-foot doors; granite thresholds; and balconies.
Residents will have access to a rooftop amenity area featuring panoramic views of the city as well as a swimming pool, hot tub, outdoor kitchen, fireplace, club room, library and state-of-the-art fitness center.
In addition, residents will have access to a music practice room shared with the hotel and limited residential room service provided by Hotel ZaZa.
The HFF debt placement team representing the borrower was led by director Robert Wooten and senior managing director Matt Kafka.
The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) is a global alternative asset manager with $176 billion of assets under management across 128 funds and 170 fund of funds vehicles as of June 30, 2016. Carlyle's purpose is to invest wisely and create value on behalf of its investors, many of whom are public pensions.
Carlyle has expertise in various industries, including: aerospace, defense & government services, consumer & retail, energy, financial services, healthcare, industrial, real estate, technology & business services, telecommunications & media and transportation. The Carlyle Group employs more than 1,650 people in 35 offices across six continents.
Web: www.carlyle.com
Videos: http://www.carlyle.com/news-room/corporate-videos_new
Tweets: www.twitter.com/onecarlyle
Podcasts: www.carlyle.com/about-carlyle/market-commentary
Olivia Hennessey
HFF | 9 Greenway Plaza Suite 700 | Houston, Texas 77046
tel 713.852.3403 | fax 713.527.8725 | www.hfflp.com
ohennessey@hfflp.com
Labels: HFF Gables Republic Square Downtown Austin TX 9-13-16
HFF arranges sale and financing for Westin Tampa Harbour Island
Westin Tampa Harbour Island Hotel, 725 South Harbour Island Boulevard,
Harbour Island, FL
Daniel C. Peek
TAMPA, FL - – Holliday Fenoglio Fowler, L.P. (HFF) announced it has closed the sale of and arranged acquisition financing for the Westin Tampa Harbour Island, a 299-room, full-service hotel located along downtown Tampa's waterfront on Harbour Island.
HFF marketed the property on behalf of the seller and completed the sale to affiliates of Walton Street Capital, which acquired the 100-percent fee-simple interest in the property.
HEI Hotels & Resorts will manage the property. Additionally, on behalf of the new owner, HFF placed the floating-rate acquisition loan with a banking and financial services holding company.
Opened in 1987, the centrally-located hotel features 299 guest rooms, which includes 19 suites. The property's amenity package contains 17,432 square feet of meeting space, a heated outdoor pool, WestinWORKOUT Fitness Studio and sweeping water views.
Located at 725 South Harbour Island Boulevard, the hotel is proximate to an abundance of transient and corporate demand generators, which provide a base for healthy year-round operating fundamentals, including downtown Tampa, Amalie Arena, Florida Aquarium, historic Ybor City, the Channel District and numerous museums and sporting venues.
Alexandra Lalos
Most notable, the hotel is adjacent to the Tampa Convention Center and the planned $2 billion, six million-square-foot, mixed-use office, retail and multi-housing development being executed by Strategic Property Partners.
The HFF investment sales team representing the seller was led by senior managing director and head of HFF's hotel group Daniel C. Peek and associate directors Preston Reid and Alexandra Lalos.
The HFF debt placement team representing the borrower was led by managing director Michael Weinberg.
"The Westin provides further evidence to the robust investor demand for hospitality assets in the Tampa Bay market," Peek said.
"Like several markets in the Southeastern U.S., Tampa's economic expansion continues to be strong, perhaps best reflected in the performance of the region's hotel sector over the past 24 months".
"The Tampa hospitality market continues to attract high-quality institutional interest from groups like Walton Street Capital," Reid added. "With relatively muted new supply, a robust convention calendar and marquis events such as the 2017 College Football Playoff National Championship, on the horizon, the market shows little signs of slowing."
Preston Reid
"This is the third hotel financing we have arranged this year on trophy assets in downtown Tampa and downtown Orlando totaling nearly $175 million," Weinberg stated.
"The interest was strong from debt capital providers for all three despite the tightening of hospitality financing that is occurring nationally."
www.heihotels.com.
www.waltonst.com.
Labels: HFF Westin Tampa Harbour Island Harbour Island FL 9-13-16
Faris Lee Investments Completes $2.6 Million Sale of a Freestanding Property Occupied by CVS Pharmacy in Anderson, IN
CVS Pharmacy, 2419 Nichol Avenue, Anderson, IN
Jeff Conover
IRVINE, CA, Sept. 13, 2016 – Faris Lee Investments, a leading retail advisory and investment sales firm, has completed the $2.6 million sale of a freestanding, 10,125-square-foot, single-tenant retail property NNN-leased to CVS Pharmacy with a drive-thru in Anderson, IN.
Jeff Conover, senior managing director with Faris Lee Investments, represented the seller, Indiana-based Copper Development. The 1031 exchange buyer, Cuneo Trust from California was represented by Nick Cuneo of Clement Partners. The closing cap rate was 6.4 percent and the price per square foot was $257.
"Although CVS has just two years remaining on its current lease term, it has been at the property for 17 years and has historically generated strong sales," said Conover. "The buyer saw this as a stable, long-term investment with a national brand retailer in a location that continues to see sales growth."
Built in 1998 and situated on 1.7 acres at 2419 Nichol Ave., the property is strategically located at the signalized, hard corner intersection of Nichol Ave./State Road 32 and Raible Ave. which see a combined
19,700 vehicles per day. Nearby tenants include Wendy's, Taco Bell, O'Reilly Auto Parts, AutoZone, the U.S. Post Office and Pizza King. There are more than 68,500 residents and more than 31,300 daytime employees within a 5-mile radius of the property.
www.farislee.com.
Labels: Faris Lee Investments CVS Pharmacy Anderson IN 9-13-16
Marcus & Millichap Arranges $890,000 Sale of Regent Shoppes South in St. Cloud, FL
Jonathan Gerszberg
ST CLOUD, FL, September 12, 2016 – Marcus & Millichap (NYSE: MMI), a leading commercial real estate investment services firm with offices throughout the United States and Canada, today announced the sale of Regent Shoppes South, a 11,120-square foot retail property located in St Cloud, FL. The asset sold for $890,000.
Jonathan Gerszberg, vice president investments in Marcus & Millichap's Miami office, along with Ray Turchi and Chris Travis, vice president investment and associate vice president investments in Marcus & Millichap's Orlando office, had the exclusive listing to market the property.
The buyer, a private investor, was secured and represented by Nicholas Ledvora and John Graves, senior associate and associate in Marcus & Millichap's Tampa and Orlando office.
Regent Shoppes South is located at 3272 Canoe Creek Road in St Cloud, FL. The subject had direct frontage to a primary area retail road and was shadow-anchored by Winn-Dixie anchored shopping center. At the time of sale, the property was 84 percent occupied with local tenants.
"The excellent retail fundamentals, including signage, visibility, parking, access and frontage were the deciding factors for our client executing the deal. With current income, and a price less than $80 per square foot, our client realized the intrinsic value of the real estate and upside when repositioned." stated Ledvora. The buyer closed all cash performing within shortened timeframes for inspection and closing within thirty days.
Kirk A. Felici
First Vice President/Regional Manager
Labels: Marcus Millichap Regent Shoppes South St. Cloud FL 9-13-16
Hanley Investment Group and Lee & Associates Sell Single-Tenant Sonic Drive-In at Record-Breaking Cap Rate Nationwide in $2.6 Million Transaction
Bill Asher
CORONA DEL MAR, CA – Hanley Investment Group Real Estate Advisors, a nationally-recognized real estate brokerage and advisory firm specializing in retail property sales, in conjunction with Lee & Associates, announced today that the two firms completed the sale of a single-tenant Sonic Drive-in located at 9505 Magnolia Avenue in Riverside, Calif.
The sale price of $2,555,000 represented a cap rate of 4.70%, a record low for a single-tenant Sonic Drive-In restaurant nationwide.
Hanley Investment Group Executive Vice President Bill Asher, along with Lee & Associates Senior Vice Presidents Jon Friesen and Jeff Stanley, represented the seller, Evergreen – Magnolia & Van Buren NWC, L.L.C. (an entity of Evergreen Devco, Inc. in Glendale, Calif).
The buyer, a private investor from Los Angeles, was represented by Paul Bahk of Realtex Properties, Inc. in Los Angeles.
Laura Ortiz
Built in 2015, the 3,275-square-foot Sonic Drive-in is situated on a .50-acre parcel at the signalized intersection of Magnolia Avenue and Van Buren Avenue, one of the highest trafficked intersections in Riverside with average daily traffic counts of 75,000 cars per day.
Additionally, the building was the winner of the Beautification Award for 2015 by the city of Riverside.
"The investment featured an outstanding combination of characteristics that led to a record sales price," said Asher.
"It was leased to the largest Sonic franchisee in southern California, boasted a new long-term absolute triple-net lease with rental increases every five years and was in an 'A+' location in Riverside – a market with over 255,000 people within a five-mile radius."
"Since opening in November 2015, this particular Sonic Drive-in location was trending to be one of the top performing Sonics in the chain for the franchisee and a top performer nationwide," said Friesen. "It was an attractive selling point that played a role in obtaining a record low cap rate sale."
Jon Friesen
According to Asher, "Investor demand for a high performing, well-located single-tenant triple-net leased property is still very strong in today's market.
"Buyers continue to pay premiums for these types of properties seeking long-term cash flow, with relatively low risk and little to no maintenance.
"As investors continue to look for security, we expect that the demand for high quality retail assets will remain strong through 2016."
Evergreen was founded in Phoenix in 1974 and is a fully-diversified retail and multi-family development company. Managing partners Bruce Pomeroy, Andrew Skipper and Laura Ortiz oversee the company, which has earned a reputation as an industry leader by delivering high-quality real estate developments.
Evergreen works throughout the nation, and has offices in Arizona, California and Colorado. The Evergreen team is committed to partnership, value and creative problem-solving, making it one of the most respected real estate companies in the West.
Anne Monaghan
MONAGHAN COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
anne@MonaghanPR.com
www.hanleyinvestment.com
www.evgre.com.
Labels: Hanley Investment Group Sonic Drive-in Riverside CA 9-13-16
Two NAIOP SoCal Members Named Among National 2016 Developing Leaders
Brad Schmitt
Tustin, CA (Sept. 13, 2016) -- This year NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, selected 21 exceptional young real estate professionals to receive its 2016 Developing Leaders Award.
For 2016, two NAIOP SoCal members were named. They are Taylor Arnett, acquisitions manager, CapRock Partners, and Brad Schmitt, associate director, Savills Studley.
The annual award honors up-and-coming professionals under the age of 35 for their exemplary professional accomplishments, strong leadership and community involvement.
"Both Taylor and Brad have consistently demonstrated remarkable leadership for our chapter and an ongoing commitment to building our Young Professionals Group.
"We are honored that they have been recognized at a national level. It also further demonstrates the strength of our industry here in Southern California," said Kevin Jennings, market executive-Southern California, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and 2016 NAIOP SoCal President.
Taylor Arnett
"The NAIOP Developing Leader Award is an honor, particularly because of the caliber of Developing Leaders that are members of NAIOP nationally.
" I personally know some of the past Southern California winners of this award and feel privileged to follow in their footsteps. I will continue to seek leadership positions in NAIOP as the network and educational opportunities are the best in the business," Arnett shared.
As acquisitions manager with CapRock Partners, Arnett works to further expand CapRock Partners' deal pipeline to accommodate the increased deployment of capital within the firm's existing and new investment funds.
His experience includes roles with AMC Investments, The Koll Company, and Frazier Capital Valuation. He is a member of the 2008-2009 NAIOP SoCal Young Professionals Group (YPG) class and remains actively involved in the program currently serving as president of the YPG Alumni Committee.
www.naiopsocal.org.
Labels: NAIOP SOCal Development Laders Awards Brad Schmitt and Taylor Arnett Tustin CA 9-13-16
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My name is Lydie and I am an eleven month old Pit Bull mix. I have a very shy personality. I would benefit from having owner with patience to help me come out of my shell. I walk well on a leash and know some commands. I do have a grain allergy so grain free food only for me.


Teenage years tend to be the hardest part as so much is going on and is left to be discovered.
A different school, environment and friends. If that wasn't enough you find that your body is changing and hormones are a new thing you never hear of before.
That can be a huge problem and you begin to worry about how you can get rid of all that extra weight.
You feel uncomfortable when you are alone in the gym or running outside.
Be assured as you are not the first girl who is experiencing and it is certainly not the first time in history to overcome to a person.
If you want to get that dream body all emphasis should be on building healthy habits.
So let's discuss on how you can effectively lose weight as a teen.
The fastest weight to gain weight is to drink your calories.
Think of milk/milkshakes, soda's and all type of drinks that contain sugar.
Even the diet-sodas are harmful for you because they contain all kinds of additives that are all in some science lingo on the label.
The moment you abandon these type of drinks, you will notice that getting in shape is easier than before.
Instead only drink water. And lots of it.
Drinking water will help to remove all the toxins from your body.
In addition, you might be holding excessive water in your body.
By drinking water, you will remove this and also stop your body from bloating.
You can also have black coffee and tea (preferably green tea).
These two drinks are full of antioxidants that are good for your body and to boost your metabolism. Your goal is to only consume unsweetened drinks.
Most probably in the morning you are told to have breakfast and then when you come back in the afternoon to eat again.
In both situations you did not feel hungry.
The solution? Listen to your body and skip a meal.
Eat when your body tells you that you are hungry again.
In this way you will give your body to burn the extra energy that is stored in your body as fat and to get rid of that.
If you build the right habits right now, then you do not need to worry later in life every time when you are gaining weight.
If you know this, then you also know how to get back in shape.
If you want to lose weight, then you need to stop eating all the foods that are processed and packed.
Most of this you can in the local grocery store.
Also remove from your diet all kinds of carbohydrates, think of: white bread, pasta, rice, potatoes and fried food.
These type of foods release a sudden spike of sugar in your blood sugar levels that your body can't manage.
As a result, the surplus of sugar in your bloodstream is stored as extra fat.
So we need to first reset your body and get your blood sugar levels normal.
After this you can slowly introduce carbohydrates back in your diet.
Instead focus on eating pure and whole foods.
Think of chicken, fish, beef, vegetables, fruits and nuts.
These foods are full of good nutrients and do not contain any bad fat or nutrients.
Eat these foods and your body will convert in a fat burning machine. I like to have my meat, fish and chicken grilled for the taste!
Fully abstaining yourself from a particular thing is never good.
Motivation is strong and weak in times.
To make sure you stay on track during the difficult times it is important that you have a cheat day.
Give yourself some pleasure time to eat whatever you want to eat on a certain day.
Eat till you get sick of it.
This will make sure you won't desire or want that food in the upcoming days when you are sticking to you weight loss schedule.
This is important for your health but also for your school results.
Make sure to get 8 hours of sleep every day.
People with a lack of sleep don't have enough focus during the day and this reflects back on your eating pattern and your study time.
You will notice that you do not have the willpower to continue and that is because your hormones are out of order due to the lack of sleep.
This will make you snack more and eat bad foods and most importantly your school results will be affected by this.
Set a time for yourself that you will go to bed and hold yourself on to it.
Remove your smartphone out of your bed at least one hour before you go to sleep.
Make sure that you did some exercise as well during the day so that you are mentally as well as physically exhausted.
This will ensure for a good night rest.
If you want to lose some serious weight, give my own fast weight loss program a try! In here my clients lose 10-20 pounds more in just 3 Weeks without spending a single minute in the gym.


Personal Data Information which relates to an identified or identifiable individual (e.g. data about Funeral Partners employees, casual workers, agents, contractors, applicants, employees of vendors and suppliers, contractors, business contacts, customers/clients using our products and services and individuals who use our websites or service centres). It includes names, addresses, email addresses, job applications, user account information, and correspondence. Personal Data can also include web browsing information (e.g. data associated with a particular cookie) and IP addresses, when such information can be linked to an individual.


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Posts Tagged 'Junk Science'
Video Forensics: Junk Science…or the Real Deal?
It seemed like a routine traffic stop…or was it? The police said they had probable cause, but did they? The video footage, retrieved from the very sophisticated, digital-video surveillance system mounted in the police car, shows tinted windows on the victim's car; so how could the police see they had no seat belts on? Bringing in a video forensic expert helped bring truth to the courtroom and prove scientifically that probable cause was not met, and the case was dismissed.
A bank robber thought the baseball cap would hide his face from the surveillance cameras, but the installation company for the closed-circuit television system (CCTV) had experience working with a video forensic expert who helped them figure out how to best position the cameras so all activity in the bank could be caught on video. The thief got away with $780 dollars, but was quickly apprehended and identified through the aid of an expert; he's now serving seven years for the heist.
In a fatal shooting that was caught on surveillance video, the accuser's face was identified for a brief second. With a few simple forensic video applications, like clarification and enlargement, as well as importing a frame from PhotoShop, the shooter was identified and brought to justice.
No longer a unique aid to deterring crime or capturing the criminal actions of the unsavory (as well as recording the mundane, casual incidents of everyday life), CCTV is now so pervasive, it can be found in locations from convenience stores to sports arenas, mall parking lots to traffic corners…even in doggy boarding camps where you can check on your family pet from your Blackberry or your computer.
While the protests are rampant that CCTV is a violation of our Constitutional right to privacy – especially given the many ways in which CCTV is now being used – there is no doubt that its value is embraced by litigators, police departments, security stations, airports and so on. With human resources stretched thin, video surveillance has become a critical tool in the war on crime, putting millions of extra "eyes" on the job, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
But what happens once the perpetrator or action in question has been caught on video? What's next? What transpires can often be a quagmire of "he saw, she saw," with differences of opinion varying widely, with convincing arguments presented by both defense and prosecuting attorneys, and sometimes, a manipulation of the facts spinning in favor of one party versus another. This is where a video forensics expert can prove or disprove the layman's observations, providing authoritative information or testimony based on a keen eye and knowledge of the technology.
Yet, many argue that forensic video technology is a "junk science," a term used in this instance to label the practice as having no merit or credibility, that which cannot be authenticated, analyzed, or supported by scientific data. Science, by it's very meaning, refers to that which can be proven systematically, and "junk"…well, that word is self-explanatory! The main reasons forensic video technology is often branded a "junk science" are three-fold: First, there are no governing boards or licensing groups overseeing the video forensics profession, like you find in the legal or medical fields, for example. Because of this, theoretically, anyone could be touted as an expert, affecting the credibility and opinions of those with reputations previously held in high regard. Second, because video forensics is a complicated process and there are no standards on which to base testimony or proof – with no cohesiveness within the science itself – there can be wide gaps in opinions and observations. Third, because the technology and interpretation of video forensics (and audio) science can be difficult to understand by nonprofessionals, it's often discounted as not having any value, especially by the side not presenting the video evidence in court.
Such is often the case in the courtroom where a Daubert motion can occur (in those states that have adopted its use). The word "Daubert" comes from an actual proceeding, taken from the U.S. Supreme Court's Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (1993) decision whereby the judges were directed to examine the scientific method beneath expert evidence, ruling what was scientifically relevant, reliable and admissible. In short, because of the Daubert case, The Supreme Court mandated that federal judges shall act as "gatekeepers" by deciding whether expert evidence be allowed before the jury.
If a Daubert motion is exercised, based on the Supreme Court's opinion, the following is considered admissible scientific evidence: 1) evidence based on a theory or technique that can be tested; 2) the theory or technique has been reviewed by the expert's peers; 3) the technique has a known error rate; and 4) there is general acceptance of the underlying science in the scientific community.
Where this can adversely affect the admissible testimony of a video forensics expert is that judges are expected to examine and understand the methods of the expert and determine whether or not they are qualified to testify. Since there are no clear guidelines on which to base such credible witnesses, in many cases judges are left to render an opinion without adequate knowledge of the science.
Because of this, a Daubert motion can be used by either side of the litigation table to exclude evidence made by an expert which might support other proof, or further incriminate. Such was the case where the author of this article was called in to testify in a federal court drug trial on behalf of the defense. I was prepared to provide an expert, detailed opinion involving "voice recognition" evidence. But the prosecuting attorney convinced the judge to do a Daubert hearing, in an attempt to prove I wasn't credible.
In this scenario, I was required to answer questions proving I was qualified to give the court an expert opinion on audio evidence. This included verifying I was a certified digital video expert; that I'd completed several successful court cases; that I'd published articles to support my expertise; and so forth. Yet, the court deemed me unqualified to testify, thus proving there are always two sides to every court case; that rulings can be based less on experience and fact, and sometime more by a lack of understanding the scientific nature of video/audio forensics by the court.
In 2007 Kelly Gorham, a vibrant nursing student from a small town in Maine, missing for nearly a month, was found murdered, the result of strangulation, and buried in a shallow grave on property owned by the father of her ex-fiancé, Jason Twardus. Having been jilted by Gorham two months prior to her disappearance, Twardus is accused of killing Gorham in Maine and burying her in his native state of New Hampshire. Twardus' alibi was inconsistent with some of the evidence found.
Flash-forward to late 2009 when the murder case goes to trial…and crucial evidence based on video footage hangs in the balance. Friends and family of Gorham believe Twardus is the man seen on surveillance footage from a convenience store in Colebrook, N.H. the day after Gorham was last seen alive. The store is only a few miles from where Gorham's body was found. The footage shows a car that appears to be the same color and make as Twardus' vehicle, and the image of a man Gorham's family swears is her ex-fiancé (even though his face is not discernable) based on his posture, baggy clothing, profile and characteristic walk.
The prosecution brought in video forensic analyst Grant Fredericks to verify the family's contention. After questioning Fredericks extensively on his background and qualifications, the defense attorney called video forensics, as a whole, "voodoo science" and a "pseudoscience." Fredericks contested the defense's viewpoint during testimony, citing his ability to analyze beyond that of a layperson's eye.
In addition to other aspects cited, the affidavit Fredericks submitted to the court states there is a "strong likelihood" the car seen in the security footage is Twardus' green Subaru Impreza, and that the sweatshirt the man was wearing is "consistent with in every respect" to a sweat shirt seized by police from Twardus' home. "That man cannot be eliminated, in my opinion, as the man in the video," Fredericks said. However, as of this writing, the defense filed a motion to suppress the testimony of Fredericks, which the judge is expected to rule on sometime in early 2010.
The courts that accept video evidence – supported by a video forensic expert – are usually those that involve an experienced trial attorney, with admissibility boiling down to the strength of the presenting attorney's argument. When accepted, video evidence can help a judge or jury understand a crime scene or situation more clearly. Admissibility is stronger if a video forensic expert is involved.
In another milestone U.S. Supreme Court ruling, setting precedence for how video evidence may be decided on in a court case, consider the outcome of Scott v. Harris (2007), where appellate courts were given more freedom to decide issues on summary judgment. In a summary judgment practice a court generally considers the evidence to be more conducive to the nonmovant (a "nonmovant" refers to the party not filing a motion).
The eventual case of Scott v. Harris was preceded by a high-speed chase whereby a Georgia county deputy, on the tail of the speeding vehicle, was given permission from his supervisor to employ a PIT maneuver (allowing the patrol car to pull alongside the vehicle and force it to spin out or exit the road in an effort to bring it to a standstill). Instead, deciding not to exercise the PIT maneuver, Deputy Scott pushed the rear bumper of the fleeing vehicle, resulting in the driver (Harris) losing control of the car, jumping an embankment, overturning and crashing – whereby Harris became a quadriplegic.
Harris filed suit asserting that Scott violated his Fourth Amendment rights during the pursuit by using excessive force. After rulings in the lower courts denied Scott's summary judgment motion on a qualified immunity claim, the matter went before the Supreme Court where, in an 8-1 ruling, they reversed and held that Scott's effort to end the chase by forcing Harris off the road was justifiable and reasonable, and that Scott was entitled to immunity.
With a quadriplegic plaintiff looking for relief from the judicial system, how is that the Supreme Court found in Defendant Scott's favor? In a rare and uncommon move for the Supreme Court, they accepted the presentation of video evidence of the chase, the main contributing factor that influenced the court's decision. Writing for the Court, Justice Scalia concluded, "It is clear from the videotape (Harris) posed an actual and imminent threat to the lives of any pedestrians who might have been present, to other civilian motorists, and to the officers involved in the chase," thus contradicting Harris' version of the facts.
In future cases where video evidence is introduced, litigants will be able to cite Scott v. Harris that a court, not a jury, is competent to decide issues usually left to the jury to determine, particularly where video evidence contradicts the nonmovant's account of the facts.
While security footage can be used to support or refute criminal behaviors, or aid in civil cases, it has also proven valuable in uncovering police corruption and/or ineptness, and in fact, may be the best way to circumvent police lies and collusion.
In 2004, during the Republican National Convention in New York City, a massive number of protesters participated in a broad range of activities, resulting in over 1800 arrests, a record number for any political convention in the U.S. Most of those arrested were carrying out lawful and peaceful actions, yet the NYPD claimed disorderly conduct and fabricated a number of the charges. Video evidence, contradicting the assertions of the police, and much of it provided by private parties, proved the innocence of hundreds of people, with over 400 of the cases dropped.
In another incident last summer, near the Philadelphia airport, four friends made a 3:00 a.m. stop in a convenience store shortly after being involved in a minor fender-bender with their Mazda. The driver of the other vehicle, the son of a police officer, rear-ended the Mazda with his Buick, then left the scene after a purported exchange between the parties.
The Buick's driver located his father, on duty that night, and the two set out to locate the Mazda, spotted in the store's parking lot.
Moments after entering the store, 20-year-old Agnes Lawless was standing at the counter when Officer Lopez, father to the other driver, grabbed Lawless from behind and violently pushed her, striking her with his left hand and shoving and striking his gun in her face with his right hand. In a frantic struggle to defend herself, Lawless was arrested and charged with assaulting the officer.
Lawless and her friends filed complaints with the police department's Internal Affairs division, but in many cases like this it's the defendant's word against that of the police…except when there's surveillance video to prove one's innocence. The case against Lawless was dropped after video footage from the store's four security cameras were examined.
In some instances when viewing video evidence, such as with the Lawless incident, the truth is blatantly clear-cut, by even the untrained observer. But in many cases, the proof often falls into gray areas easily argued between opposing parties. When a video forensic expert's observations, analysis and opinion are based on his own perceptions, experience and expertise, especially without a governing of the profession or widespread acceptance of the science, it's easy to see why video forensics is sometimes discounted.
Yet, in a world laden with video technology, and with video surveillance systems in nearly every public environment you can imagine, the task of interpreting what is seen on video, including authenticating and clarifying the images, is not within the realm of the legal profession. When the "videotape" is rewound, it is best left to the experts who can help the court better understand the technology and circumstances as they relate to each incident. That is, unless you're on the side of the fence that thinks video forensics is a bunch of bunk…er, junk. Ultimately, however, in this author's opinion, especially given the amount of forensic video evidence surfacing in the courts today, the science of video forensics will soon earn the respect of all legal personnel.
photo credit: Security Camera Portrait via photopin (license)
Tags: CCTV, Evidence, Junk Science, Litigation, The Real Deal, Video Forensic Expert, Video Forensics
Posted in Expert Witness Testimony | No Comments »


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You may request for this practice not to use or disclose any part of your protected health information for the purposes of treatment, payment or healthcare operations. We are not required to agree with these requests. If we agree to a restriction request, we will honor the restriction request unless the information is needed to provide emergency treatment.
This right applies to disclosures for purposes other than treatment, payment or healthcare operations. You have the right to obtain a listing of these disclosures that occurred after April 14, 2003. You may request them for the previous six years or a shorter timeframe. If you request more than one list within a 12-month period, you may be charged a reasonable fee.
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Announcing the March 2016 reactivation of negotiations on the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IA-CEPA), Indonesia's then-Trade Minister Tom Lembong called for the two governments to take bold steps and "rejuvenate the animal spirits that we know drive economies".
This Keynsian turn of phrase denotes the human emotions that influence real-world economic outcomes.
Three years on, Australian and Indonesian consumers and businesses might wish their officials had paid more attention to their own parochial misunderstandings and foibles. Although the two nations finally signed IA-CEPA last month, the agreement's long, winding road laid bare the fevered and often bizarre political mishaps that frequently derail the relationship between the two very different neighbours.
The IA-CEPA was initiated in 2007, but like much of the bilateral relationship, went on ice in 2013 after publication of alleged Australian espionage against Indonesian leaders. Negotiations were reactivated in 2016, once both countries brought in new businessmen-turned-political-leaders – Indonesia's President Joko Widodo and Australia's then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Despite palpable warmth between the leaders, negotiations in 2017 and 2018 were torpid - at times a prisoner largely to the addiction of Australian politicians' spruiking unrealistic (and subsequently unattained) targets for IA-CEPA's delivery.
Four years into President Widodo's term there was clearly less appetite for ambitious, macro-level changes. Indonesian economic diplomacy had become narrow and at times combative. It focused on promotion of Indonesian products; pushback in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) (both countries brought WTO actions against one another amidst negotiations); and aggression on domestically popular issues like fighting off international environmental concerns about Indonesia's palm oil industry.
As many will know, however, it was unforeseeable political chaos in Australia that proved the biggest threat to IA-CEPA.
It came during the by-election in the federal seat of Wentworth in October last year after the resignation of Turnbull. With the IA-CEPA text finalised and simply waiting for the leaders' signatures, new Prime Minister Scott Morrison - desperate to retain Wentworth and therefore the Coalition's parliamentary majority - decided to canvass a 'review without prejudice' of the location of Australia's embassy in Israel.
The Singapore leaders' meeting that was supposed to serve as venue for signatures came and went with Indonesia indicating that IA-CEPA would wait on the Australian review. Thankfully for IA-CEPA, the upset wasn't fatal given President Widodo's continued desire to push trade liberalisation and portray Indonesia as open for business.
But the incident shows how in Indonesian politics, especially for ministers looking to raise their profile and burnish their toughness, there is little downside to sticking the boot into Australia – especially when a polarising domestic issue arises.
To the parties' credit, IA-CEPA still got done. Praise should go to both governments, which committed to the deal not only as an economic boost through tariff reduction, but also as a platform for future growth in the bilateral relationship. IA-CEPA's emphasis of economic cooperation and a standing mechanism for ongoing work on non-tariff measures will hopefully create durable 'architecture' in the same way that more longstanding security activities and meetings have built cooperation, trust, and networks among officials.
President Widodo deserves praise too. Although economically nationalist and with a tendency to seek out simple or hasty solutions rather than more structural ones, he has lent his imprimatur to trade liberalisation in a way unusual for an Indonesian politician. It was his downward pressure on officials that imparted purpose to a negotiating process that could have simply drifted after the late-2017 completion deadline was missed.
Although signed and now awaiting ratification, there is still political coda, with the running mate of Widodo opponent Prabowo Subianto telling an Australian journalist that they want to open up the agreement for what he regards as improvements, including the removal of quotas on live cattle exports. After the abolishment of quotas in 2016 in favour of a cumbersome mandatory ratio of breeder to feeder imports, the extension of automatic annual quotas for Australian animals has been presented as one of the key wins of IA-CEPA.
In one sense this is right, as quotas are not generally seen as best practice. On the other hand, if this new quota links to the automatic and bankable provision of permits for Australian cattle imports it will prove a welcome improvement. Even when quotas existed previously, they functioned more as an administrative aspiration than commitment to a level of realised imports. Ultimately, that this critique is, curiously, coming from the presidential ticket with the far more protectionist and economically nationalist narrative is yet another piece of the rich bilateral tapestry.
This article was co-published with the Indonesia at Melbourne blog.