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Forget the Slogan T-Shirt: Feminism Is Educating Female Garment Workers
This post is part of a sponsored collaboration between the Ethical Writers Coalition and the Asian University for Women.
It has become fashionable to be a feminist, no doubt.
Emma Stone and Dakota Johnson wore Planned Parenthood pins to the Oscars, and NYFW was saturated with feminist political statements. But the big problem with typical feminist statement tees is that many are made by young women in sweatshops, which completely undercuts the message. It's like when a male CEO says he supports diversity, but pays female employees a lower salary – because he can and it benefits his bottom line. Yeah, it benefits your bottom line to buy a cheaper feminism tee, but don't expect to get applause until I flip the tag over.
Still, what to do instead? Advocates for the rights and wages of female garment factory workers in Asia find themselves caught in a moral double bind. On the one hand, we don't want to financially support companies who are exploiting these vulnerable ready-made garment (RMG) workers, subjecting them to dangerous, abusive, and long hours of work for pay that won't feed their families. So we try to avoid cheap clothes made in developing countries like Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Myanmar. But on the other hand, RMG work – as dirty and cheap as it is – often represents a step up from these young women's other options, which include rural subsistence farming and sex work. We can't just take it away.
A promising new program might show there is a third way to change the paradigm: educating female garment workers, so they can change the system from the inside out.
The Glass Garment Ceiling
Like many South Asian women, Rubina Yeasmin traveled to Dhaka, Bangladesh to find a job so she could help her mother support her family. Once she arrived, she found a garment factory job, where for two years she worked 12-hour days, six days a week, and was often required to work on her off day as well. Even though most garment workers are women, she noticed that all of the managers and workers in the factory above the level of quality inspector were men.
Then Yeasmin heard about the new program, called Pathways for Promise. Launched in 2016, the initiative by the Asian University for Women identifies talented women among Bangladesh's four million female garments factory workers and provides them with the academic, financial, and professional support to enter the Bachelor's degree program and become leaders in their chosen fields. Pathways believes that that a woman's potential is not defined by the parameters of the factory floor on which she currently works, and that female garment workers deserve to break the aspirational barriers that impede the millions of women currently working the ready-made garments industry from daring to dream of advancing beyond their current circumstances. This intensive, one-year residential program, which feeds into the undergraduate AUW program, is tailored to the needs of students who wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity to achieve an undergraduate degree.
AUW collaborated with a select group of factory owners to offer admissions tests on the shop floors of factories. Even though participating factory owners offered a huge incentive – workers accepted for admission would continue to receive their monthly wages for all five years at AUW – nobody knew if any of workers would sign up.
Yeasmin's mother, who had always hoped she would be able to continue her education, encouraged her to apply to the program. Pathways for Promise doesn't believe that knowing English is a heuristic for intelligence, so Yeasmin and the more than one-thousand did. Applicants were interviewed and selected based on their demonstration of academic ability, commitment to one's community, and leadership potential – measured by empathy, courage, and a sense of outrage at injustice. Now, more than 30 former garments workers are enrolled in the program, including Yeasmin.
The program, which is financed by the IKEA Foundation and George Soros' Open Society Foundation, isn't just a business school. It seeks to empower this select cohort of women to become leaders in their communities and careers, and to dismantle prejudices against women and, more generally, the working-class. Each scholarwill complete one year of intensive English language study, one year of Access Academy, and then three years in AUW undergraduate program, plus will participate in conferences, internships, competitions, media coverage, and community service. The hope is that these women break out of their caste and demonstrate that no sector of society has a monopoly on talent, and that even a woman from a garment factory has leadership potential. They're not required to return to the RMG industry after graduation, but the combination of their personal experiences on the factory floor with their Bachelor's degree and leadership training will uniquely position them to contribute to the industry's sustainable development.
Asian University for women is an international university that educates and empowers women representing 15 countries, over 35 ethnicities and 25 languages across Asia and the Middle East, including Afghanistan, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Palestine, Syria, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Vietnam. The 500 students live and study together in Chittagong, studying Environmental Science; Economics; Public Health; or Politics, Philosophy and Economics, plus the optional minor in 13 different disciplines ranging from computer science to gender studies to math and fine arts. The goal is to help students expand their worldviews and embracing cross-cultural diversity as a regional strength – not a cause for division and strife.
Since opening its doors, AUW has graduated over 440 students, with plans to increase enrollment by nearly 150% over the next seven years. At least 90% of reporting alumnae secure gainful employment or enter a world-class graduate school program within one year of graduation. They work in nonprofit organizations, research institutes, private companies and schools. While the majority of alumnae pursue graduate studies outside their country of origin due to the availability of scholarships, 85% of employed alumnae go on to work in their home country, limiting "brain drain" in the region.
Now Rubina Yeasmin is in that same pipeline, and was delighted at how helpful the AUW student volunteers were during her orientation, saying that they, "have never hesitated to help with every detail." She wants to break the glass ceiling and join the management in her factory after graduating.
The AUW program includes 50 women from the Rohingya community – an ethnic minority that have been victimized as unrecognized citizens in Burma and then as unwanted immigrants in Bangladesh. Upon graduation, they will quite possibly represent the largest single cohort of Rohingya women educated to such a high level. One scholar is Halima Akter, who says refugees are often ignored in Bangladesh and do not have proper health facilities or the opportunity to pursue higher education. She hopes to develop an education and health infrastructure for all the girls in her refugee community. "I want to get established and inspire everyone. I want to prove that girls [and refugees] are just as capable…in every aspect of life," she says. "I want to pave the way for other girls my age so they can do something with their lives. I feel really fortunate to be studying in such a good international university."
The program is young, but early signs are encouraging. During its inaugural year, Pathways for Promise student retention rate was 96%. And now there is an extension program, Education Cells, where current Pathways for Promise students and recent graduates offer weekly classes to garment factory workers and women in low-income communities, following a curriculum that mirrors the Pathways program: English, math, and computer literacy. As enrollment grows, they're hoping to add special sessions on health and well-being, as well as martial arts.
Education Cells are one way that Pathways presents current factory workers and other community members with examples of successful and determined women as role models, to help dispel any inhibitions garments workers and community members may have in believing that they too can aspire to more.
Have an Impact
So if you're looking for a truly feminist statement to make, consider donating to the Asian University for Women, who is lifting up our sisters across the world, and helping create a more just system for your clothes.
"When women receive a secondary education and beyond, they are more likely to prolong marriage and childbirth, to seek prenatal care and a skilled birth attendant, to immunize their children, to have access to better nutrition for themselves and their children, and to send their own daughters to school." | Walking With Cake
"MY POINT: THERE AREN'T ANY CLEAR REGULATIONS WHEN IT COMES TO 'CONSCIOUS CONSUMERISM,' WHICH LEAVES A LOT OF ROOM FOR US TO GET DUPED, DESPITE OUR GOOD INTENTIONS." | The Peahen
On the one hand, I reluctantly agree with the "vote with your dollar" rhetoric that pervades the conscious consumer movement, but I am uncomfortable with the implication that merely consuming more or better would lead to long term solutions for garment workers. | Style Wise
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5 Quilting Technique Books You NEED in Your Sewing Library!
I've been a fan of books since I was very little. So much so that my mom often jokes that my punishment for misbehaving as a kid was to take my books away and make me go outside to play. It's really no surprise that I'm in my current role working with books everyday!
I find that nothing quite compares to having a physical book in my hands when I want to learn something new. I can pore over text and illustrations, reread where needed, and dig into projects with all the visual support I need for a successful outcome. My love of books extends beyond physical books to digital ones as well. I love the ease of pulling up a pattern on a device for a quick check that I'm doing things the way I should be.
When it comes to my craft library, there are a few books that stand out as my favorites for learning particular quilting techniques. Whether you're just getting started in your adventures in patchworking or you're an experienced quilter looking to expand your skills, everyone needs the books on this list.
You might think that English paper piecing isn't a technique you need a book to learn. You just wrap fabric around a small template and stitch it, right? Nope! There is a whole lot more to it, and to doing it well. Author Florence Knapp dives deep into the how-to of English paper piecing in her best-selling guide.
While you learn how to successfully baste and stitch a variety of unique EPP shapes to create amazing quilted tessellations, you also read about the rich history of EPP. You'll learn about Albert Small who stitched record-breaking quilts. You'll discover a novel laced with English paper piecing throughout. And, you'll see the oldest known example of this meticulous technique.
Sticking with a quilting-with-paper theme, next on my must-have list is Elizabeth Dackson's popular book on foundation paper-piecing. When I was first introduced to foundation paper-piecing I was told, "it's kind of like learning to ride a bike backwards." A description like that sounds so intimidating! The Quilter's Paper-Piecing Workbook showed me it's not actually all that difficult once you get the hang of it.
Elizabeth shares her golden rules for paper-piecing along with tons of other valuable how-tos. Each block is broken down step-by-step before being shown off in beautiful quilt designs. You can achieve just amazing precision with your points when foundation paper-piecing. It's a technique that everyone should have in his or her skill set.
To make a red and white quilt you're going to follow a lot of the same techniques you would to sew any other patchwork quilt, but there are key tips and tricks to having a beautiful finished result. You'll find everything you need to know to make these bold graphic designs in Red & White Quilting.
Linda Pumphrey has her thumb on the pulse of traditional sewing techniques. She relishes the history of quilting arts and brings that to today's quilters. In this book, you'll find 40 truly iconic red and white quilt blocks and 14 projects to show them off in. She even shares several block options to substitute in each design giving you countless variation options. It packs a lot of great information into one beautiful package.
I had no idea just what my domestic sewing machine was capable of until Catherine Redford's book Modern Machine Quilting. A great alternative title for this book would be Quilt Big on a Small Machine because that's exactly what you can learn to do. You can quilt full size bed quilts on your home machine.
Like the other books shared, this one is packed with a lot of tips and tricks with all the technique information. I really appreciate authors who share their successes and failures so my experience is better. Catherine does that and more!
I like to include an aspirational book on each one of my best-of lists. This time it's Block A Day. I love the thought of having the time to sew a unique quilt block every day for a whole year. I would learn so many things through the process of making 365 blocks; I know I'd be a better quilter for it.
Did your favorite quilting technique book make my top-5 list? If not, please share your favorites in the comments below! I'd also love to hear if you've taken on the challenge of sewing a block every day for a year. You have my deepest admiration if you've been able to pull that off.
Grab copies of our top-5 favorite quilting technique books today!


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We'll Leave It There So: Katie qualifies for Rio, marathon controversy and all of today's sport
Dan O'Connor watches from the window of John D's Bar in Dingle as the An Post Rás passes by. Source: Morgan Treacy/INPHO
HomeDefending Olympic champion Katie Taylor has qualified for Rio 2016. Rower Sanita Puspure has also booked her ticket for Rio.Kellie Harrington has secured herself at least a bronze medal at the Women's World Boxing Championships.Moldovan-born marathon runner Sergiu Ciobanu believes he missed out on selection for Team Ireland for the Olympics because of where he was born.But Athletics Ireland has 'completely rejected' the claims.Ireland defender Shane Duffy is on the brink of making his dream a reality as he looks to make the squad for Euro 2016.Eddie Dunbar came within a whisker of taking the leader's jersey as James Gullen won today's stage of the An Post Rás.
Robbie Brady takes a selfie with fans at the Aviva Stadium. Source: Tommy Dickson/INPHO
Hockey Ireland has received a €50,000 contribution from the Olympic Council of Ireland for its Rio fundraising drive.Pat Lam is drawing on the lessons he learned from Samoa's 1991 World Cup quarter-final defeat to Scotland ahead of Saturday's Pro12 final.Ulster have moved quickly to secure the long-term future of Stuart McCloskey.Irish Open champion Rory McIlroy has admitted he could snub the Olympics due to fears over the Zika virus.
Pat Lam speaks to the media in Galway. Source: James Crombie/INPHO
AwayLiverpool have completed the signing of German goalkeeper Loris Karius on a 'long-term contract' from FSV Mainz o5.Glasgow Warriors have thanked Connacht for their support as out-half Finn Russell remains in hospital in Dublin.Eric Cantona has expressed his doubts that Jose Mourinho is the right man to replace Louis Van Gaal at Old Trafford.Joey Barton has completed his move to Rangers ahead of the club's return to the Scottish Premiership.Conor O'Shea has left the door open to Martin Castrogiovanni but has asked veteran prop to clarify his international future.The Best Thing We Shared
The Euros are close and this piece of street art has just gone up in Dublin.
On his 50th birthday, we take a closer look at Cantona, the madness of the King.
Where We Were Today
Steve O'Rourke caught up with swimmer Fiona Doyle ahead of the Olympics while Ryan Bailey was chatting with Dublin footballer Michael Darragh Macauley.
Source: Morgan Treacy/INPHO
Ben Blake was down at the Aviva Stadium for Ireland's open training session and Murray Kinsella was in Galway for Connacht's media day ahead of the Pro12 final.
The Fixture ListThe An Post Rás continues on Wednesday with the fourth stage taking the riders from Dingle to Sneem. Showbiz, Baby!
Graeme McDowell took time out of his busy schedule after last week's Irish Open to pay a visit to Crumlin Children's Hospital.
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Like all marriages of convenience, Mourinho and Man U is bound to end in bitter divorce6 of the best restaurants for eating out healthily in Dublin
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Analysis: Connacht's sensational attack brings them Pro12 glory
'My head would be pounding from it… You were thinking: when is this going to end?'

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Dr. J. Alfred Cannon, a psychiatrist who crusaded for better mental health facilities for minority communities and who was instrumental in establishing the Drew Medical School in South-Central Los Angeles, died of an apparent heart attack in Zimbabwe where he had lived since 1983, his family said Thursday. He was 59.
Details surrounding his death on Tuesday in Harare, the capital of the African nation, were sketchy, but his son in Los Angeles, J. Alfred Cannon Jr., said his father was stricken without warning and died shortly thereafter.
Friends said Cannon moved to Zimbabwe to help develop the health-care system after the former British colony, then known as Rhodesia, was restored to black rule in 1979. The move reflected his commitment to black activism for self betterment.
"He wanted to be part of the struggle of a new developing nation," said psychologist Jackie Kimbrough, a friend of Cannon.
Cannon, who was an assistant professor of psychiatry at UCLA, was a persistent supporter of quality mental health care for inner-city neighborhoods in the aftermath of the 1965 Watts Riots.
In the years following the unrest, Cannon was instrumental in founding the Drew Medical School in 1966 (now part of the Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center); the Central City Community Mental Health Center and its successor, the Kedren Community Mental Health Center and the psychiatric department at King.
He also was the driving force in the 1960s behind the creation of the Frederick Douglass Child Development Center.
"When a white neighbor puts up a 'for sale' sign and you know you're not so far apart financially and educationally, it's very hard. You realize they're not at all certain what they ought to do. Suddenly, they feel they have to leave because a black-faced person has moved in. Childhood myths overwhelm them. And these feelings are covered over by talk about the price of the home and other rationalizations."
Several black leaders in Los Angeles praised Cannon upon hearing of his death in Africa.
A close friend, Rep. Mervyn M. Dymally (D-Los Angeles), said he was a man of vision who worked for better ties between Africa and African-Americans. "He left behind a number of institutions which were built to change the lives of the poor," Dymally said.
"When he lived here, he touched many people with his contributions to our community," Mayor Tom Bradley said. "He leaves a legacy of caring for those he sought to serve."
Rep. Augustus F. Hawkins (D-Los Angeles) called Cannon "one of the brilliant minds in our community and a venerable warrior."
Information about memorial services was not immediately available.


The world's game is coming to Atlanta. Let us help you secure seats to entertain your prospects or clients, reward your employees, or offer a one-of-a-kind experience to your guests using Atlanta United and the beautiful game at a great value.
To contact a seating consultant, please call 470-341-1500 or email tickets@atlutd.com.


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Watch India Vs England Live on Sony Sports Network
Watching the India vs England series on Sony Sports Network is an excellent way to get into the mood. The match will be broadcast live on SonyLIV, and you can even stream the matches using your smartphone! Read on to find out how to watch all the action live. India vs England – Who Will Win? The series will be a great spectacle! So, be prepared to root for your favorite team!
1 Virat Kohli vs Cheteshwar Pujara
2 KL Rahul vs Ravichandran Ashwin
3 LBW vs LBW vs LBW vs LBW vs LBW vs LBW vs LBW vs LBW vs LBW vs LBW vs LBW vs LBW vs LBW vs LBW vs
Virat Kohli vs Cheteshwar Pujara
The second Test between India and England is underway at Lord's Cricket Ground. So far, the second Test has revealed some chinks in the big three's armor. Unfortunately for India, the middle order has failed to live up to expectations. Here are four things to keep an eye on as India take on England in the third Test. We'll look at Virat Kohli vs Cheteshwar Pujara and how each batsman is going to perform against the English top order.
On day two, Kohli was wicketless and joined up with Cheteshwar Pujara. Both batting partners looked comfortable and confident for most of the innings, although Kohli did make one uncomfortable mistake, mistimed a pull shot off Ben Stokes, and dropped a six off Adil Rasheed. But overall, both Kohli and Pujara played some good cricket and helped India to a win.
Cheteshwar Pujara is batting well for India in the second innings, and the captain has defended his opening partner after a disappointing loss to New Zealand in the World Test Championship final. Cheteshwar Pujara has made many impressive contributions in India's Test batting line-up over the last few years, but has been criticised for his low scoring rate and style. However, Kohli defended Pujara in his virtual presser before the match.
KL Rahul vs Ravichandran Ashwin
After a dismal series, Indian batsmen KL Rahul and Ravichandran Ashwin are set to face off in the fourth and final Test of this three-match series. While some questioned the decision to make Rahul the deputy captain, others felt that there were better options in the Playing XI. Some cited Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, and Ravichandran Ashwin as candidates. Among the younger lot, Rishabh Pant was also on the move.
The Indian openers' performance matched Ashwin's as well. Ashwin said that the openers were key to India's 151-run win in the warm-up game. Meanwhile, Pant commented that Ashwin's performance was exemplary, as he conceded only 23 runs from four overs without picking up a wicket. In contrast, Bhuvneshwar Kumar took two wickets for 43 runs, and KL Rahul took three wickets for a score of 57.
Rahul has been the most consistent player for the Indian team since Virat Kohli retired at the end of the first Test. His batting partnership with Rohit Sharma has been the highlight of the team's recent success, and Rahul has played a crucial role in the batting lineup. Despite being a substitute for the captain, Rahul has the ability to provide India with a spark when it is needed.
LBW vs LBW vs LBW vs LBW vs LBW vs LBW vs LBW vs LBW vs LBW vs LBW vs LBW vs LBW vs LBW vs LBW vs
The controversy over LBW decisions in the second Test between India and England has been dividing fans. India skipper Virat Kohli has been incensed by the LBW shout given to Joe Root, while England's Marnus Labuschagne has been granted a lucky reprieve. Sachin Tendulkar said on a podcast that the on-field decision should not matter.
During the day, India scored 7/294, putting themselves in a commanding position to win. England, on the other hand, were in dire need of early wickets. Chris Woakes got Ravi Jadeja out LBW for 17 and then inserted Ajinkya Rahane at the crease. Rahane lasted only five more balls before being given out LBW. He then decided not to challenge the decision and accepted the verdict.
InWatch India Vs England Live on Sony Sports Network
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Fabric resources, fitting details, and tutorials to help you build your skills.
Crosby is wearing a size 16 Brit dress with 1" added to the sleeves, a swayback adjustment, and 1/2" added to the hips. Her measurements are 44", 32 3/4", 46 1/2" and she is 5'10".
The Brit dress is a perfect project to practice sewing with knits. Here are some of our favorite knits resources.
How to Sew Knits Without a Serger: This is one of our most popular tutorials, as it walks you through all the tricks to sew knits without a serger.
How to Sew with Sweater Knits: The Brit dress is perfect for sweater knits. Learn how to handle these special knits with this guide.
A Guide to Shopping for Knits: 5 questions to ask yourself when shopping for knits, by Melissa Fehr.
The whole Seamwork team sewed this month's patterns! See what fabrics we chose and what modifications we made.
This month's bonus variation adds a front neckline yoke and in-seam ruffle to the Brit dress.
Love the samples in this month's issue? Here is where we sourced the fabric. Remember, if you're a premium member, you get fabric discounts at a bunch of our favorite fabric shops around the world.
Sweater Knit from Drygoods Design.
A special thanks to Sewing Studio for the Bamboo Knit in Burgundy!
The Brit dress has negative ease in the bust, semi-fitted in the waist, and is fitted in the hips.


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Tag Archives: Stanley Kubrick
Why "TENET" was incomprehensible…
Christopher Nolan: a great movie director (Photograph by Photo Georges Biard)
I saw TENET last night.
Christopher Nolan is a great movie director.
The Dark Knight was a wonderful piece of movie-making: direction, script, acting.
Dunkirk was amazing on a big screen with a good sound system.
TENET looks all of its $200million budget.
But it is bollocks.
Like Inception – which was also unecessarily impenetrable – he should have gone back to an earlier, simpler version of the script – perhaps Draft 2 or Draft 3. It was probably a great idea back then.
Although I hope it didn't include the thrown-in-quite-late bit in TENET's plot which echoes the six Infinity Stones of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and JRR Tolkien's twenty Rings of Power. Maybe that was detritus left over from some discarded earlier version of the plot.
It is all very well to make intelligent or even mindless pure entertainment films which, with modern home technology, can benefit from being watched and re-watched several times, seeing more in them each time.
However, if the movie's plot details are not intriguingly intricate but actually just bloody incomprehensible for stretches, then there is something wrong with the script.
And the problem with TENET is not just the labyrinthine impenetrability of the final script – It is the soundtrack.
Here you have the labyrinthine impenetrability of a script plus occasional added mumbling.
Christopher Nolan's third Batman movie (The Dark Knight Rises) had the main villain mumbling through a mask. But this time it is not just one person but loads of people mumbling semi-incomprehensibly through masks and over radios and phones and, at points, having to compete with very distracting overly-complicated music which interferes with the clarity of what's being said.
And I saw TENET in a bleedin' IMAX!
There was a fair amount of occasional unclear muttering in TENET, but I think that was mostly because of the sound mix at those points, not the acting.
I swear Christopher Nolan probably heard everything clearly in his super duper sound mixing suite but he should maybe do what Stanley Kubrick allegedly did – go round suburban cinemas with a light meter (though there's nothing wrong with Tenet's visuals) and hear the soundtrack through less good speakers.
Even in IMAX, there was unclear mumbling going on.
This morning, someone who saw TENET last week in a different cinema told me: "I thought I needed a hearing aid after watching it. Couldn't hear all the vocals. Really spoilt it – or was it done on purpose so you have to watch it more than once?"
"It was like doing The Times crossword puzzle every day"
On the good side, Kenneth Branagh was wonderful, possibly deserving of a Best Supporting Actor (or Person) Oscar nomination.
This was maybe because Branagh rarely – or relatively rarely – had to be heard through a mask, a phone or sheets of glass.
So he could be (usually but not always) clearly heard.
Clarity should be one of the main tenets – yes, tenets – of film-making – clarity of script, clarity of diction, clarity of… well, everything.
In an interview in Total Film Kenneth Branagh said he constantly had to re-read the script in order to work out the storyline: "It was like doing The Times crossword puzzle every day."
Robert Pattinson told Esquire that, during filming: "There were months at a time where I'm like: I actually, honestly have no idea if I'm even vaguely understanding what's happening".
If even your cast have trouble understanding what the hell is going on, pity the poor audience, especially if they can't hear some of the muffled dialogue.
If you wanna write a novel, write a novel. But a movie ain't a novel.
Apparently, Christopher Nolan developed the ideas and plot of TENET over the course of twenty years and had been working on this version of the script for about six or seven years. Well, that is part of the problem.
I remember, years ago – last century – having a conversation with a fellow TV researcher about good interviewees. We agreed that the best interviewee to explain something clearly to a general audience was not an expert but a fan. If you know too much about a subject, you can't communicate it simply and comprehensibly. You know too much. If you are a fan, you know what the key features are and why a stranger to the subject could get hooked.
In the first two or three drafts of a script, there is the raw enthusiasm for the concept.
After six or seven or twenty years into it, you are fiddling with the detail, not communicating the raw originality.
My advice. If you have been refining something for twenty years, maybe go back to the original script which had the passion and simplify your 200th draft, don't make it even more complicated.
And, when you sound-mix, counter-intuitively, listen to it on worse speakers.
Clarity in all things.
Give the punters half a chance.
Filed under Movies, Writing
Tagged as Christopher Nolan, Dark Knight Rises, Inception, movies, scriptwriting, sound mixing, Stanley Kubrick, Tenet, The Dark Knight
Nov 11, 2011 · 11:11 am
An ordinary day in Borehamwood: I become trapped in my rubberwear
I live in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, which can occasionally have its moments.
Last night, there was the weekly ritual of spotlights on the skyline and distant roars as an eviction went ahead in the Big Brother house. The house is built in the former water tank at Elstree Studios, which is why contestants entering or leaving the house have to climb up steps, go through a door, then go down steps again – they are going over the side of the water tank.
Sadly, I moved here a few years after the late night fire at Elstree Studios when Stanley Kubrick was filming The ShIning – the heat from the fire caused his polystyrene snow to rise and float, causing polystyrene snowfall over part of Borehamwood.
But yesterday was an ordinary day in Borehamwood.
I went for my annual check-up at the optician. Every year, I think my eyesight has deteriorated badly and I may be going blind. Every year, they tell me:
"No, there's not much change: it's just your age."
Next week, I am going to South West Ireland and a friend, who has been trying to persuade me for almost a year that my rarely-worn Wellington boots are two sizes too small (in fact, they are a little tight but perfectly OK) got me to go into a shop to try on some new, larger, Wellingtons.
"Your old ones scrunch your toes up," she insisted.
My friend can be very insistent.
"It was bad for Chinese women," she told me. "And it is bad for you."
I went into the shop for a quieter life, though I was slightly torn between that and wanting to go home and go to the toilet.
I tried on a pair of grey Wellington boots two sizes bigger than my current ones.
"Too big," I said, relieved, thinking this would free me for the toilet trip home.
"We will try them one size smaller," my friend insisted. "That will still be one size bigger than the ones you have now."
"They don't seem to be in green," I said weakly. "They are only in grey. I think they should be in green because we are going to Ireland. It will cheer the Irish up."
My friend was insistent: "I will go get an assistant and see if they have a green pair."
Unfortunately, they had a pair. I put the right one on. It was a little tight to get on but, once on, it was very comfortable.
"That's OK," I said, grudgingly.
I put the left one on.
"They're just the right size," I said, grudgingly.
I took right one off. A bit of a struggle.
I tried to take the left one off.
It would not come off.
My friend tried.
I tried again. My friend tried again.
I tried again. And again. And again.
My friend tried, pulling the toes and heel.
"Careful of the toes," I said.
It was a bit sore on the toes.
A shop assistant tried.
The green rubber Wellington boot would not come off.
At this point I realised I still wanted to pee.
Rather a lot.
A second shop assistant arrived, pulling me nearly off seat when he yanked the boot at the heel and toe.
"We may have to cut it off," the second shop assistant said.
"Well, it might not be necessary," I said. "I had a circumcision a couple of years ago. I didn't think it was necessary; the doctors did. I eventually agreed to it because the doctors told me it would be no skin off my nose."
I looked at the shop assistant. He did not laugh.
"We may have to cut it off," he repeated.
My friend nodded.
My toes were feeling sore.
"I have a high instep," I explained.
"Do you want to buy them?" the shop assistant asked.
My friend and I looked at him.
"The boots," he said. "Do you want to buy them?"
He was not joking.
"No," my friend replied patiently. "He would have to sleep in them because he can't get them off."
A third shop assistant arrived and tried and failed to pull them off. My toes were getting sore; there was what felt like a bit of a sprain on the ankle; and, every time someone pulled, I was having to hold onto the sides of the seat to avoid being pulled off onto the floor.
I was now desperate to go to the loo and all that rubbing and sliding of my bottom backwards and forwards on the seat had now aroused the back-up of shit building-up on my colon or intestines or wherever-the-hell it builds up. It was getting quite insistent about heading for the exit in both retail shop and bodily terms.
"Are the Wellingtons waterproof?" I asked.
"Of course," the shop assistant replied, surprised. He looked at me: "They're rubber Wellingtons."
The three shop assistants went away to get the manager. My friend tried again.
"Careful of the toes," I said, holding on tightly to the sides of my seat,
By now, a nearby middle-aged couple had stopped trying on new shoes and were just sitting back watching our floor show with considerable interest.
"I have a high instep," I explained to them.
"If the assistants can't do anything," my friend said, "I'm calling the fire brigade."
I smiled, though I was thinking more of a warm toilet seat and sausages.
"I'm not joking," my friend insisted – and I knew she was not. My friend can be very insistent. She took out her mobile phone. "You have your leg and your foot stuck in a Wellington. The fire brigade can cut you out. That's what they're there for."
About eight seconds later, the manager and third assistant arrived with a pair of scissors.
I thought of toilet seats and the movie Murder on the Orient Express.
The train remains trapped in a snowdrift as detective Hercule Poirot tries to figure out whodunnit. When the case is finally unravelled, the snowdrift is cleared and the train is free to continue onwards. I have always thought the symbolism was wonderful. I wondered if, as they finally released my foot and leg from my rubber prison, I would piss down my leg and shit would explode out of my bottom.
I will spare you further details.
Tagged as Big Brother, boot, Borehamwood, Elstree, fire, humor, humour, rubberwear, Shining, Stanley Kubrick, studio, Wellington
John Lennon, Aristotle Onassis and the famous ballerina who was a gun runner
"There's nowt as queer as folk," is a saying which perhaps doesn't translate too well into American. In British English, it means there's nothing more strange nor more interesting than people.
So bear with me, dear reader, as I tell this meandering tale of less than six degrees of separation, a Wagnerian concentration camp, John Lennon and hand grenades in Cricklewood, north west London.
In my erstwhile youth, while I was a student, I lived in a Hampstead house of bedsits. One of the other inhabitants was the late Martin Lickert who, at the time, was John Lennon's chauffeur. He lived in a bedsit because he was rarely home and only needed an occasional single bed to be unconscious in at night. Although, one night, I had to swap beds with him as I had a double bed and he had to entertain a girl called Juliet. He later went on to become a poacher-turned-gamekeeper. Long after I knew him, he trained as a barrister and specialised in prosecuting drug cases for HM Customs & Excise.
His relevance, as far as this blog is concerned, is that he accidentally appeared in the little-seen and staggeringly weird Frank Zappa movie 200 Motels.
In that film, shot at Pinewood Studios, the part of 'Jeff 'was originally going to be played by the Mothers of Invention's bass player Jeff Simmons who quit before filming. He was replaced in the movie by Wilfred Brambell, star of BBC TV's Steptoe and Son and The Beatles' A Hard Day's Night, who walked off set in a rage after a few days and Frank Zappa said: "The next person who comes through that door gets the part!"
The next person who came through the door was Martin Lickert, by then Ringo Starr's chauffeur, who had gone to buy some tissues for his drumming employer who had a "permanent cold".
The co-director with Frank Zappa of 200 Motels was Tony Palmer, famed director of documentaries on classical composers who, last night, was talking about his career in a Westminster library. I was there.
It was an absolutely riveting series of anecdotes which lasted 90 minutes but it seemed like 20 minutes, so fascinating were Tony Palmer's stories.
He has, to say the least, had an odd career ranging from directing Richard Burton, Vanessa Redgrave and Frank Zappa in feature films to large-scale documentaries on heavyweight classical composers and from making documentaries on Liberace, Hugh Hefner and Peter Sellers to Swinging Britain TV rock shows like Colour Me Pop, How It Is and the extraordinary feature-length 1968 documentary All My Loving, suggested to him by John Lennon and so controversial at the time that it was shelved by David Attenborough (then Controller of BBC2) who said it would only be screened over his dead body – Attenborough denies using these words, but Palmer has the memo.
All My Loving was eventually screened on BBC TV after the channel had officially closed down for the night. I saw it when it was transmitted and, even now, it is an extraordinarily OTT piece of film-making.
Tony Palmer's film-making career is much like the composing career of Igor Stravinsky (whom Palmer introduced to John Lennon when The Beatles were at their height). Stravinsky saw Tchaikovsky conduct in the 19th century and was still composing when he died in 1971, after The Beatles had broken up. So there are fewer than even six degrees of separation between Tchaikovsky and Martin Lickert.
Palmer – who is currently preparing a documentary project with Richard Dawkins – has had an extraordinarily wide range of encounters from which to draw autobiographical anecdotes.
He directed Michael Palin and Terry Jones in Twice a Fortnight, one of the important precursors of Monty Python's Flying Circus and he directed the 17-hour, 12-part 1977 TV series All You Need Is Love tracing the development of popular music. Again, that project was suggested to him by John Lennon and he discovered that, though The Beatles had never tried to copyright the title All You Need Is Love, it had been registered by a Hong Kong manufacturer of sexy clothing and a brothel in Amsterdam.
Palmer also advised director Stanley Kubrick on music for his last movie Eyes Wide Shut and has apparently endless anecdotes on the great creative artists of the 20th century.
Who knew that the cellist Rostropovich used to get paid in cash, would put the cash inside the cello which he then went and played on stage and bought refrigerators in bulk in the UK so he could send them back to the USSR and sell them at a vast profit?
I, for one, had never heard that the German composer Richard Wagner, Hitler's favourite composer and much admired by the Nazis, actually had a grandson who ran a concentration camp towards the end of World War II.
Nor that, in the 1950s, ballerina Margot Fonteyn got paid in cash which she then took to a Cricklewood arms dealer to buy guns and grenades which were channeled though France to Panama where her dodgy politician husband was planning a coup.
It's amazing that, by now, someone has not made a documentary about Tony Palmer.
I suppose the problem is ironic: that the perfect person to have done this would have been Tony Palmer.
Filed under Classical music, Drugs, Movies, Rock music, Television
Tagged as 200 Motels, All My Loving, All You Need Is Love, Amsterdam, Aristotle Onassis, ballerina, ballet, bbc, Beatles, Britain, brothel, chauffeur, Colour Me Pop, concentration camp, Cool Britannia, coup, court, Cricklewood, Customs & Excise, David Attenborough, director of programmes, documentary, drugs, Eyes Wide Shut, Flying Circus, France, Frank Zappa, Grace Kelly, grenades, gun running, guns, Hampstead, Hitler, Hong Kong, How It Is, Hugh Hefner, Igor, II, Jacqui Kennedy, John Lennon, Liberace, london, Margot Fonteyn, Maria Callas, Martin Lickert, Michael Palin, Monaco, Monty Python, Mothers of Invention, movie, Nazis, Panama, Peter Sellers, Pinewood, poacher turned gamekeeper, Princess Grace, Richard Burton, Richard Dawkins, Ringo Starr, Rostropovich, six degrees of separation, South America, Stanley Kubrick, Steptoe and Son, Stravinsky, studios, Swinging London, Tchaikovsky, television, Terry Jones, Tony Palmer, TV, Twice a Fortnight, Two, uk, United Kingdom, US, USA, Venessa Redgrave, Wagner, Westminster library, Wilfred Brambell, World War


Dosage: Adult man dose is 250-500 mg intramuscular injection per week.
Active substance: Nandrolone Decanoate 300 mg in oily solution.
Deca 300 trade names: Cheribol, Durobolic, Decabolic, Nitrobol, Pharma Nan D, Nandrolone, Nandronit D, Therabol, Nandrolona, Growdeca, Pylodec, Nandrobolin, Axidrol, Decatrex, Decaver, Decabol, Nandrodex, Deca, Durabol, Duraxyl, Synobol, Deca-Duralin, Zebol, Decos, Gemdec, Nandroxyl, Grodec, Myobolin, NPP, Deca-Durabolin, Durabolin, Decaplex, Newdec.
Pharmaceutical Grade-Supplement For Intramuscular Use Only. Store Deca 300 at 20°C-25°C (68°F-77°F). Protect from light. Keep away from children.


Here we go again. Barack Hussein Obama has issued another illegal executive order, which stands in direct violation of The United States Constitution, in another attempt to disarm the American people in the face of the obvious acts of tyranny.
The manipulating tyrant attempts to conjure up tears to garner sympathy from the ignorant only to assail Constitutional Laws, the same laws that protect the people from tyrants such as himself.
Remember America, Barry cannot go a day without thinking about the first graders that were allegedly shot and killed at Sandy Hook Elementary. Yet, no administration to date has advocated the murder of innocent children in the womb more than this criminal (Proverbs 6:17).
Now this administration is going so far (as you let them go) to tell the country that the US needs a "sense of urgency" when it comes to new measures against gun ownership.
America, I say, "Let them watch!" It is time for the modern day tyrants to understand the Christian spirit of our forefathers, ENOUGH!
Barrack Hussein Obama also went on to say that he could bypass Congress, which is your voice, through your representatives. He said that the majority of the American people support his gun control efforts, which is an absolute lie.
In December, CNN took a poll in which we were told that 48% of Americans were for stricter gun control. Did they take that poll in the White House?
Who do they think that they are kidding?
The voice of the American people is heard loud and clear through gun sales.
First, former CNN news anchor Amber Lyon, an award-winning journalist, told us that she was ordered to report fake stories, delete unfriendly stories adverse to the Obama administration, and construct stories in specific manners while working for the left-wing network.
Secondly, on December 02, 2015, it was reported that Black Friday gun sales broke all previous records, this information coming directly from the FBI.
In other words, Barack Hussein Obama is the gun salesman of the last decade.
So, what Americans are being told by this lying administration fails the test of truth. In fact, the opposite is true (Isaiah 5:20).
Over the last 7 years of this, as well as the preceding administration, Americans have been under attack because of the crimes of the administrations. To parallel these crimes against the people, consider that our forefathers threw off the tyranny of King George for such activity with the cry of Thomas Jefferson, "Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God" (Romans 12:21).
One has to come to terms with the fact that some say that King George did not seem that bad, though he was. To say that, of course, shows you how far the American people have been conditioned and desensitized to tolerate the crimes of their current standing government, which has far surpassed the crimes of King George (Isaiah 59:4-15).
Though there is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9), all tyrants act out in a similar fashion. In the end, you will witness that they all serve the same devil (John 8:44).
They are lawless at every given step, and the fruit of lawlessness always produces the same rotten, bitter end. This includes those representatives that no longer represent the American people.
They steal, they kill and they destroy (John 10:10; 2 Thessalonians 2:8-10).
If the American people do not address the issues at hand by dealing with crime in the institution of government, like Jeremiah, who warned the people to repent concerning their sins before a Just and Holy God (The Book of Lamentations), then they will only bring more judgment upon themselves and their children.
So, why are Americans armed in the first place?
Unconstitutional and Illegal Executive Orders / I Will Not Comply!


Can I change a final variable? As you have said, and as you know this too, we can't change final values normally, but using a reflection API this may be possible, see this an answer to Stack Overflow question Change private static final field using Java reflection .... We make this possible by setting the field to accessible and removing the final modifier. Then the field can be set using reflection. Please use this with care and only in test scopes.
Studying some classes of Android, I realized that most of the variables of methods are declared as final. Example code taken from the class android.widget.ListView: /** * @return Whether the list...... 19/03/2013 · Declaring a variable as 'final' does not matter here because you don't reassign it. I can only guess that problem is in (member) variable 'event'.
The Java compiler requires local variables of enclosing contexts referenced in anonymous classes (so-called captured variables) to be final. What if the anonymous class wants to alter the value of the variable, i.e. requires the variable to be mutable? cities skylines how to change style to a city Final Keyword In Java – Final variable, Method and Class By Chaitanya Singh Filed Under: OOPs Concept In this tutorial we will learn the usage of final keyword. final keyword can be used along with variables, methods and classes.
2/11/2015 · Friends, here i am going to tell u a trick to overwrite a value in final variable in java. As, Till our previous knowledge of Java, we know that final variable are those variable which remain constant during the runtime of the program or you can say that "final variables are nothing but constants.
You can set a final variable only in a constructor or in an initializer. Regular methods cannot change the value of variables declared final.
We make this possible by setting the field to accessible and removing the final modifier. Then the field can be set using reflection. Please use this with care and only in test scopes.
Additionally, the keyword final could be added to indicate that the number of gears will never change. Local Variables Similar to how an object stores its state in fields, a method will often store its temporary state in local variables .


The ambiguous term operations research (O.R.) was coined during World War II, when the British military management called upon a group of scientists together to apply a scientific approach in the study of military operations to win the battle. The main objective was to allocate scarce resources in an effective manner to various military operations and to the activities within each operation.
The effectiveness of operations research in military spread interest in it to other government departments and industry.
Due to the availability of faster and flexible computing facilities and the number of qualified O.R. professionals, it is now widely used in military, business, industry, transportation, public health, crime investigation, etc.
OR means to use scientific and mathematical techniques for making decisions and solving problems. It is concerned with co-ordinating and controlling the operations or activities within an organization. It can be regarded as use of mathematical and quantitative techniques to substantiate the decisions being taken. OR helps to take decisions about operations and production. It takes tools from subjects like mathematics, statistics, engineering, economics, psychology, etc. and uses them to know the consequences of possible alternative actions.
Numerous synonyms for operations research are in common use. The British like operational research and the Americans like management science, but a preferable term to describe this subject is decision analysis.
Making decisions or taking actions is central to all operations research applications.
Following are some defintions of operations research by different authors.
O.R. is the study of administrative system pursued in the same scientific manner in which systems in Physics, Chemistry and Biology are studied in natural sciences.
Management science is the application of the theories of Probability, Statistics, Queuing, Games, Linear Programming, etc. to the problems of war, govt. and industry.
O.R. is the use of scientific methods to provide criteria for decisions regarding man machine systems involving repetitive operations.


- Gems of California scenery, no. 418.
Lawrence & Houseworth, Publisher. San Francisco from the residence of R.B. Woodward, looking East . , 1866. [Published] Photograph. https://0-www.loc.gov.oasys.lib.oxy.edu/item/2002723474/.
Lawrence & Houseworth, P. (1866) San Francisco from the residence of R.B. Woodward, looking East . , 1866. [Published] [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://0-www.loc.gov.oasys.lib.oxy.edu/item/2002723474/.
Lawrence & Houseworth, Publisher. San Francisco from the residence of R.B. Woodward, looking East . [Published] Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2002723474/>.


text:
Illustrate hydraulic fracturing is presently underway in us
Reference no: EM1394686
Form the working definition of hydraulic fracturing. Show familiarity with how hydraulic fracturing is really performed. Differentiate gas and oil fracturing. Illustrate where hydraulic fracturing is oresently underway in United States, Europe, and South America.
Define destroying many parts of the ecosystem
Opponents say that there really isn't that much oil in ANWR, and if the drilling is allowed, the area will be irrevocably harmed by destroying many parts of the ecosystem, i
State strong argument based on constitutional principles
Based on what you have learned in this class, are Elizabeth Holtzman's arguments for impeaching George W. Bush compelling? Is her judgment clouded or does she make a strong
disharmony and discord in international system-NATO
NATO is celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2009. The bipolar system the alliance was designed to operate within is gone. What do you think NATO's new role should be in dealin
Discuss the cost and pricing of green energy technology
Read Green Energy in Canada: Nice Try, Shame About the Price. Submit a paper discussing the relationship between costs and pricing of green energy and its effect on stakehol
How do gender stereotypes-androcentrism
Put it all together. Consider what the questions you have answered above. How do gender stereotypes, androcentrism, and differences in styles of communication lead to the comm
What are the most important aspects these development models
Both Piaget's Model of Cognitive Development and Kohlberg's Model of Moral Development are outlined in stages, with one stage building off of the previous stage. Put yoursel
Is there anything else that they could have done
Is there anything else that they could have done? Is it ever right to take away someone's autonomy? (Would a court order make the physicians' decisions ethical?) What would yo
Explain implications of work as human service professional
Explain the implications of your values for your work as human service professional. Describe the specific ethical dilemma, in relation to ethical standards of human service p


This artists' talk, part of The Portals project and chaired by Dr Kathy Cleland, Co-Chair of ISEA2013, will explore the cultural possibilities that could emerge as high speed networks are rolled out across Australia, and help us find ways to insert culture and diversity into the heart of the new infrastructure.
Reflects on key outcomes since the inception of Balance-Unbalance, an International Conference designed to use art as a catalyst to explore intersections between nature, science, technology and society , and introduces the core ideas from the 2013 conference.
We have selected artists from the ISEA2013 and Vivid exhibition programs to come together on a range of key thematic topics to discuss the role artists play in creatively investigating the possibilities and pushing the limits of new (and old) technologies.


Another year has started, and it is the perfect opportunity to kick off new beginnings. The year 2019 is great; if you want to make your first sale, or if you want to make it bigger than ever. One of the things that you should be excited about is what kind of trends would surface in the realms of social media marketing.
Social media marketing will continue to be one of the most effective forms of modern-day marketing so it is essential for you to be in-the-know of up-and-coming trends that you can apply for your campaigns. Knowing these trends will allow you to make proactive plans, and hopefully on top of your competitors who would only be reactive when these trends become apparent.
Influencer marketing is not a new concept. It is quite prominent in 2018. But for 2019, influencer marketing is seen to grow more than ever before.
The benefits of influencers are widely appreciated, resulting in established influencers becoming more and more expensive. This has also led to the rise of influencers with smaller following: micro and nano influencers, or those with only around 40,000 and 10,000 followers respectively.
They might not be able to command as much following as do the big players, but these smaller-scale influencers are becoming important on their own right. Not only are they becoming helpful for smaller business who are unable to pay for the big-time influencers, but also some of them prove to be the perfect fit for such businesses.
First, your choice of influencer should have decent social media reach. Again, it is excellent if you can partner with someone who has hundreds of thousands of followers or more but still depends on the scale of your business, as well as how much the influencer will charge on account of the audience he or she can command.
The number of followers is not enough if those people do not fall under your target market. Your influencer's audience segment is, therefore, another crucial factor to take into account.
Lastly, you should partner with an influencer who has a natural approach to marketing. Some influencers are not as effective in promoting a product because their approach can be rather ineffective. But there are some who can do so seamlessly and can really persuade their followers to make a purchase. You should work with one who has such powers to be able to make it big in influencer marketing.
Engaging your customers is about one of the most game-changing marketing tactics that you should employ. This is especially true for 2019 because customer engagement is seen to grow to be more critical than it has ever been. And through the years, social media has proven to be one of the most effective channels for engaging customers.
Customer engagement not only helps improve your conversion rate but also helps you retain loyal customers that are willing to do repeat businesses with you. To be able to engage your customers better, make sure that you launch dedicated campaigns with the use of exciting, appealing, and truly engaging content. Craft unique, well-planned campaigns that can help you win your customers.
A lot of development continues to go on the realms of social media. What was once an avenue for socializing with friends and family members have become a capable platform that business should tap for their sales and marketing initiatives. Social media has grown more than being a channel for improving awareness, and engaging one's audience, into one that has more direct influence over sales enablement. Studies are showing that a lot of purchases originate from buyers who come across their desired products on social media. This goes on to explain that true enough; social media is an effective channel in reaching potential customers.
With this in mind, you should craft a winning social media marketing strategy that can take full advantage of this fact.
Social media sites are expected to take AI integration and machine learning to the next level this year. AI is seen to especially tap areas that can be used by businesses to improve further how they engage their users.
For one, chatbots are very much maximized for messaging, allowing business to provide customer support in the absence of dedicated personnel. The adoption rate for chatbots is good, and it is expected to be even better this year as AI becomes more advanced.
If you have not tapped into this yet, give it a try to boost your customer service, which allows you to enhance your customer engagement.
Visual content can attract more attention than an ordinary post, making visual campaigns more effective. You should therefore really dwell into crafting more visual content this year.
Finally, one of the most significant turning points that are seen for 2019 is how social media would move towards building more trust by making use of social data more transparent. Some landmark issues in 2018 have made the whole world take a closer look at how social media sites collect, store, and make use of user data. Perhaps one of the biggest is the election-related issue that involved the use of as much as 87 million Facebook users. The data has been used to target specific users to influence election results allegedly.
This has led to social media players becoming more liable on the ability of their users to maintain their privacy by fostering honest communication, and the transparent and ethical use of their data.
This also affects social media marketers because there is also a need to ensure that marketing campaigns are ethical, and only make use of customer data from social media obtained in proper procedures. For one, paid ads generally allow marketers to tap specific audiences through the use of their data and their interactions with these sites. But measures are being implemented to ensure that such information is not used for the wrong reasons.
A new year has kicked off, and it's about time to start your campaigns. With the knowledge of the foreseen trends for 2019, you should make sure to craft a social media marketing battle plan that can help you stay ahead of the competition, and reaping the best results you can get. 2019 will be a good year for your social media marketing – claim it!
Suzy Viola is a social media marketing specialist and a photographer. She loves sharing her knowledge and interest to everyone that leads her to become a freelance writer. And Oh! She's a traveler too.


text:
#461: Wedding Bells by Godley & Crème
Peak Month: April 1982
10 weeks on Vancouver's CFUN
Peak Position #6
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: "Wedding Bells"
"Wedding Bells" lyrics
Godley & Creme were a rock duo comprised of Kevin Godley and Lol Creme. Kevin Michael Godley was born in 1945 in a suburb of Manchester, England. Raised in a Jewish family, he formed a group named Group 17, along with four other members of the Jewish Lads Brigade. Godley studied Art and Design at Stoke On Trent College of Art from 1966-68. In the late '60s, Kevin Godley met Lol Creme at a wedding. Laurence Neil "Lol" Creme was born in 1947 in the same suburb of Prestwich as Kevin Godley. Creme was also raised in a Jewish family. The pair co-founded a band in 1970 named Hotlegs, who had a #2 hit in the UK titled "Neanderthal Man". The band split in 1970 and morphed into 10cc.


text:
The Immortality of Mikhail Tal
11/9/2006 – Had he lived, had he not succumbed to chronic ill health and an excessive life style, today Mikhail Nekhemievich Tal, the "Magician from Riga", would have celebrated his 70th birthday – today, on the first free day of the Tal Memorial tournament in Moscow. The greatest attacking player in history is sadly missed but never forgotten. In memoriam.
In memoriam: Mikhail Tal, 1936–1992
Mikhail Nekhemievich Tal was born in Riga, Latvia, on November 9, 1936. He learnt to play chess by watching his father when he was eight, and soon became a member of the Riga Palace of Young Pioneers chess club. When he was 12 he received training from Alexander Koblencs, and his game improved rapidly. At 14 he qualified for the Latvian Championship and the next year he finished ahead of his trainer. At 16 he won his first national title and was awarded the title of candidate master.
In 1956, before his 20th birthday, Mikhail Tal had qualified for the USSR Chess Championship, which he finished joint fifth. In the following year he became the youngest player to win the championship. Even though he had not fulfilled the grandmaster norms completely – he had not played enough games against non-Soviet opponents – FIDE awarded him the title in that year. Tal won the Soviet Championship again the following year, and won the interzonal tournament for the world championship at Portoroz, and played for the Soviet Union at the Chess Olympiad..
Tal vs Botvinnik in 1960
The Candidates Tournament of 1959 was held in Bled, Zagreb and Belgrad, and was a quadruple round robin with eight players. Tal finished first with 20/28 points, ahead of Keres, Petrosian, Smyslov, Gligoric, Fischer, Olafsson and Benko. He won all four games against the 16-year-old Bobby Fischer. In 1960 he went on to defeat world champion Mikhail Botvinnik, becoming the youngest ever world champion (at 23). He held the title for just one year, and was defeated in 1961 by Botvinnik in the return match.
In spite of failing health Tal continued to play successfully in a number of Candidates Tournaments, losing in 1965 only in the final to Boris Spassky, in 1968 in the semi-final to Viktor Korchnoi, and in 1980 in the quarter-final to Lev Polugaevsky. He won the Soviet Championship four more times. In 1979 he finished equal first with Anatoly Karpov in the 1979 Montreal "Tournament of Stars", and in 1988, at the age of 52, he won the famous World Championship in Blitz in St John's, Canada, in a 32-player field that included Kasparov and Karpov. The first prize was $50,000.
Mikhail Tal was known as "The Magician from Riga" for his incredible tactical feats on the chessboard. He was the world's greatest attacking player, often sacrificing material speculatively in search for the initiative, creating threats to which his opponents found it almost impossible to respond. Tal managed to conjure up complications in almost any position and was almost always able to solve the ensuing problems better than his opponent. He played close to 3000 games during his career, winning more than 65 percent of them.
For decades Tal suffered from bad health and had to be hospitalized frequently throughout his career. He was a chain smoker and a heavy drinker. On June 28 1992, Mikhail Tal died of kidney failure in a Moscow hospital.
I met Mikhail Tal a number of times. I believe the first time was in April 1987, at the super-GM tournament in Brussels, where he was playing together with Kasparov, Karpov and Korchnoi, and finished sixth with 6.0/11 points. He often came to the press room, and there, on one occassion, he spotted us trying to solve a problem that GM Jim Plaskett had given us.
White to play and win
We had already spent a lot of time shuffling the pieces around on the board, occasionally being helped by one of the super-GMs, but to no avail. Nobody solved the problem that day. Except Misha Tal, who studied it unsuccessfully for about ten minutes, then left the press room. An hour later he suddenly popped in again and gave me the solution. Apparently he had worked out the main idea during a walk in the park. The full story of this puzzle is to be found here.
The most time I spent with Misha Tal was in 1988, when he played in the World Blitz Championship in St John's, Canada. He won that event ahead of the best players in the world and, I'm sure he would not be angry that I mention this, in an inebriated state. In fact I had to help him to reach his table for one of the rounds after he had imbibed a stiff quicky at the hotel bar. Some years later when I chided him for reckless disregard of his health – I had quit smoking and strongly advocated that he do the same – he smiled broadly and said, "Ah, but is life worth living if you have to worry about so many things?"
Frederic Friedel
A biographical article on Tal


We have immense pleasure to inform that we have ready stock of COBRA Tubular Batteries.
The batteries supplied in fully charged condition.
VAT @14.5% will be charged extra.
Warranty will be applicable from the date of our sales invoice.
48 months warranty:-30 Months full replacement + 18 months Pro-rata@30% discount on MRP.
Above prices are Ex-Factory, Freight and delivery charges extra.
Bolt, Nuts & Ceramic vent plugs will be supplied along with batteries.
The packing carton boxes are plain comes without printing.
Materials will be delivered against full payment in advance.


State authorities are asking residents to research charities in greater depth before deciding to give. The state cites a report entitled "Listen with Your Heart, Give with Your Head" which details the findings of an AARP Foundation ElderWatch survey of over 1000 adults about their giving behavior and knowledge about legitimate charities.
A federal lawsuit has been filed to enforce the pledge of a major donor. The donor was given naming rights for a dormitory and paid a little less than half the promised contribution before passing away. The attempts by Stetson University to collect the money through the probate proceeding (opposed by family) were rebuffed and, as a result, the school has gone to federal court seeking to enforce the agreement.
The state has increased the disclosure requirements for operators of unattended clothing bins if they are a "professional solicitor" as that term is defined under applicable state law.
The city of Lowell is considering the taxation of real estate owned by charitable organizations. As more commercial buildings are converted to nonprofit use, the City is facing a budget strain that is causing it to consider taking this step. Local nonprofit leaders have expressed concern and opposition.
With a verdict returned in less than an hour, a six-member federal jury decided in favor of Bank of America which was sued by an Arab-American charity that accused the bank of discrimination when the charity's account was closed. The charity at issue had previously been raided by federal authorities but subsequently found not to have engaged in any improper conduct.
Although a charitable registration law has been passed, forms to implement the law have not yet been officially issued. There has been input from the private sector to the state but so far no result has been achieved.
A major pharmaceutical company that has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to charities that help patients afford high priced drugs for multiple myeloma and other cancers is being accused by federal authorities of engaging in a scheme to "gain billions from U.S. tax payers." Celgene is a $9.3 billion company and the latest pharmaceutical company to come under fire in connection with patient-assistance charities which set up dozens of funds to help pay for the costs of cancer medicines.
The requirement that charities file a Schedule B as part of the registration process in New York was challenged in court unsuccessfully. On August 29th, the judge dismissed the challenge so charities will still need to include the Schedule B as part of their 990 in future filings. That does not mean, however, that the Schedule B will be open to public inspection. By New York law, the schedule is excluded from public records.
Commentary: Concerns in the industry include the fact that even though the law provides exclusion, people make mistakes and highly proprietary information could easily seep into the public domain.
The New York Attorney General recently announced that it had begun an inquiry into Donald Trump's charity (see "Presidential Candidates and Their Charities" below). The New York Times reports that the investigation may be a result of the disclosure that the Trump Foundation paid a penalty for making an improper political contribution.
Animal rights groups are joining together to oppose State Question 777 which would change the Constitution to preclude lawmakers from passing new laws to protect farm animals and improve environmental practices.
Brent Culberson, Director of the Division of Charitable Solicitation and Gaming, is leaving his position on September 30, 2016 and taking a position at Lipscomb University. Keith Boring has been named as interim director.
Our firm is involved in a lawsuit brought by the state, in part, for failure to give the multi-part point of solicitation oral disclosure required for professional fundraisers. The Vermont point of solicitation disclosure goes beyond simply identifying the professional status of the caller by requiring additional information on how the consumer may obtain information from the office of the Attorney General. In response to the claim by the state, a counterclaim has been made by the defendant that the compelled speech goes too far and violates the First Amendment.
In order to promote transparency, this independent watchdog agency will issue up to 250 questions to charitable organizations. Most recently, the BBB named 10 charities (who are among the largest in the United States, ranked by total contributions) that failed or refused to disclose the information the agency said was needed to verify the trustworthiness of the organization.
Commentary: There are a number of good reasons, as well as poor reasons, why a charity may be reluctant to start providing information to these types of organizations. There are many private individual watch groups, all of which have standards and the ability to make demands and publicize charities that don't respond favorably to their requests. The reality is that private watchdog agencies are, themselves, nonprofit organizations that create their own standards and express their own independent opinions regarding the worthiness of other nonprofit organizations.
The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued a new accounting standard to encourage charitable organizations to more fully tell their own story in their financial statements. The requirements for presentation and disclosure should lead to more relevant information being presented to the reader.
Under New York law, a charity is required to disclose contributions from foreign entities. A Scripps Washington Bureau review of the Clinton charities' tax returns and regulatory filings found that year after year, the filings ignored New York law and related instructions. The New York Attorney General's office did not respond to questions regarding the Clinton Health Access Initiative, but in an article written by Mark Greenblatt, Schneiderman's office was quoted saying it considers the Clinton Foundation, a separate entity, "in step" with state rules. However, David Nelson, an attorney and former partner at Ernst & Young Accounting Firm, who served on the Regulation and Legislation Committee of the Counsel of Foundations was quoted saying the Attorney General's office was not doing their job. The Scripps' Washington Bureau review went on to report inconsistent compliance with the disclosure requirements.
On the other hand, the Washington Post took Donald Trump and his Foundation to task. The article detailed how Trump found a way to give away other people's money and claim credit for himself. Specifically, it referred to an incident in Florida where he was honored by the Palm Beach Police Foundation. In that case, according to the published article, he secured a donation for the Palm Beach Police Foundation from another Foundation which he deposited into his Foundation and presented to the Palm Beach Police Foundation taking credit for the donation. The event to honor him apparently took place at one of his hotels where the Police Foundation paid to rent the room.
Managing Partner Greg Lam will be presenting a live teleconference on political activities and tax exempt organizations on October 27, 2016. The teleconference is being sponsored by the National Business Institute and there is a fee to participate.
The Urban Institute has just published the "State Regulation and Enforcement in the Charity Sector" research report. This 68 page report covers a wide range of issues involving the industry and regulatory accountability.


Our sounder beacons and combination units consist of an audible sounder and visual indicator in one unit providing a dual function warning device.
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We also supply explosion proof and intrinsically safe combination units suitable for use in hazardous areas as well as marine approved products.
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NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that a meeting of Great and Little Whelnetham Parish Council will be held in the Great Whelnetham Community Centre on Wednesday 09th November 2016 at 7.30 p.m. The press and members of the public are invited to attend.
DC/16/2154/TCA Beech Cottage, Sudbury Road, Sicklesmere, pollarding of trees, no concerns reply sent.
7.9 Playground report/ fence, bylaws re Parish Councils and dogs in play area, playground equipment replacement seats and maintenance.


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September 10, 2012 September 10, 2012 / Best YA Fiction, Jr. High Fiction, Sr. High Fiction
Written by Dan Kronos
Miranda North wakes up on a bench in the park with no memory of her past. All she can remember is her name and her age. When she goes into a nearby mall for help, she ends up releasing a mysterious psychic energy that incites pure terror into everyone around. All except for a boy named Peter, who explains she is part of a group of 4 genetically-altered human teens trained to be weapons with combat skills and powers that could destroy a city. The only thing keeping them in control: shots that keep them from losing their memory. When Peter and Miranda return to their "home," with the other two teens on their team, Olive and Noah, they discover that the organization who raised them wants to sell them as a weapon to the highest bidder. The four escape and go on the run in order to save the world and themselves. Time is running out and so are the shots. Their creators are hot on their tail and aren't afraid to use force and clones just like them to bring the four back under the organization's control. Will the four be able to find a solution before it's too late?
An intense, fast-paced novel for avid and reluctant readers alike. The plot is well-developed and gripping. The characters are likable and realistic as well as well-developed. Readers who like save-the-world type fiction, science fiction, action, adventure, and books about teens with super powers will devour this book and will wish there was already a sequel. A must-have for any collection.
Review by Jessica Moody, Olympus Jr. High Media Center
Hyperion Books for Children
2012 YA Fiction, Action Fiction, Adventure Fiction, Clones Fiction, Dan Kronos, False Memory, Genetic Engineering Fiction, Science Fiction, Superpowers Fiction
Partials SYLO Exo Velocity


Comment: Meall Ghaordaidh is a Munro on its own which is suitable for a half day walk. However, it has a Corbett companion, Beinn nan Oighreag, whose addition makes for a better day out.
Access: From Killin, take road into Glen Lochay for 4.3 miles. The preferred (and wider) road is the one on the south side. 1.7 miles after the two roads join, park on the bend 300m W of Duncroisk, just over the Allt Dhuin Croisg bridge at NN526363.
Weather 30/1/06: Perfect walking weather. No snow. –1°C at car, warm day, dry, no breeze, little cloud, very sunny.
Weather 8/3/10: Dry, light breeze, 0°C, snow underfoot above 2000 ft, warm in sun.
Weather 1/1/16: 2°C all day; dry, total cloud cover with base falling from 950m a.m. to about 800m p.m. Crampons required on Meall Ghaordaidh above 750m. Snow on ground above 200m, typically 10ins on ridges; a bit thinner on crest but over 2 feet deep in drifts on ridge. Very stiff breeze on exposed ridges. So slow progress in places!
Terrain: Path is very wet and boggy unless frozen.
Mobile: Orange signal at top, weak signal at car.


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Conservationists object to wetlands treatment in plan to relieve U.S. 123 congestion
Conservationists are objecting to how wetlands would be handled under the state highway department's plan to relieve traffic congestion along U.S. 123 through Easley.
Conservationists object to wetlands treatment in plan to relieve U.S. 123 congestion Conservationists are objecting to how wetlands would be handled under the state highway department's plan to relieve traffic congestion along U.S. 123 through Easley. Check out this story on greenvilleonline.com: https://grnol.co/1RolFP2
Rudolph Bell, dbell@greenvillenews.com Published 4:03 p.m. ET Jan. 14, 2016 | Updated 2:13 p.m. ET Jan. 16, 2016
Traffic on U.S. 123 through Easley.(Photo: BART BOATWRIGHT/Staff)Buy Photo
Some officials who have long sought the road improvement worry that the objections from Upstate Forever, a local conservation group, will slow down the process of obtaining a wetlands permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
"We desperately need to move forward on this project," said state Sen. Larry Martin of Pickens. "It's been in the works now for a long, long time."
Martin, who is also vice chairman of the Greenville Pickens Anderson Transportation Study (GPATS), a regional planning group, characterized the wetlands as not very significant.
"Basically what we're talking about is a swale that water runs through when it rains," he said.
Upstate Forever, however, says the proposed construction would affect six streams, worsening water quality and exacerbating stormwater problems in the Saluda River watershed.
The group outlined its objections in a recent letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
"The Saluda watershed is an important natural resource and economic driver for our region that we must protect," Chris Starker, an Upstate Forever project manager, wrote in the letter.
The South Carolina Department of Transportation says the $20 million plan to extend Highway 153 would cut congestion on U.S. 123 by giving motorists an alternative route to certain destinations.
Commuters coming from Powdersville, for example, wouldn't need to drive on U.S. 123 to get to Baptist Easley Hospital.
The plan would extend Highway 153 beyond its intersection with U.S. 123, taking it over railroad tracks and behind the Walmart-anchored Easley Town Center.
The proposed route would connect with Prince Perry Road on the other side of Walmart and from there continue across undeveloped land to Saluda Dam Road.
The road would have two lanes with a paved median in the middle and sidewalks and bicycle paths along the stretch behind Walmart, according to DOT.
Upstate Forever says SCDOT's plan to use an alternative method for mitigating the impact on the wetlands is not appropriate.
Normally, SCDOT would purchase "credits" from a wetlands and streams "mitigation bank" whose service territory includes the project site.
That particular mitigation bank, however, has used up all of its allotted credits, many of them applied to SCDOT's work rebuilding the intersection of Interstate 385 and Interstate 85 in Greenville.
As a result, SCDOT has asked the Army Corps of Engineers for permission to buy credits from a different mitigation bank and apply them to the Highway 153 project.
Upstate Forever says that might help the Savannah River watershed but not the Saluda River watershed.
It says the mitigation bank that exists to protect the Saluda River watershed is trying to secure additional credits and expects to have them by the end of the year.
Greenville County Councilman Butch Kirven, chairman of the GPATS planning group, said he thinks Upstate Forever makes a good point.
"But we don't want to slow things down," Kirven said. "We want this thing to go forward, and I think we can address their concerns along the way."
Read or Share this story: https://grnol.co/1RolFP2


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Debra Ann Wilhite
Debra, circa 1974; Wayne Gulley; Ella Mae Dicks
Missing From Evansville, Indiana
Clothing/Jewelry Description A blue knit sweater and bell-bottom blue jeans.
Medical Conditions According to her husband, Debra may have been pregnant at the time of her disappearance.
Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair, green eyes. Debra's hair was bleached blonde at the time of her disappearance. Her nickname is Debi and she may use her maiden name, Pfettscher. She is missing two molars. Her ears are pierced.
Debra resided in Gibson County, Indiana with her husband and two daughters in 1974. She was employed as a server at The Windmill, a truck stop and restaurant near Indiana Highways 41 and 57. She had been working there for only a week. Her co-workers said that she worked her normal shift during the evening hours on October 16, 1974.
A man entered the restaurant shortly before the end of Debra's shift. He said he had hitched a ride on a cattle truck to Evansville from Indianapolis to collect some money owed to him, and that he was staying in a local motel. It was raining at the time and his clothes were wet. He asked Debra to give him a ride to his motel.
The unidentified man is described as middle-aged and medium height, with dark medium-length hair. One witness was under the impression that the man and Debra knew each other; another witness thought they did not. Debra left with the unidentified individual shortly afterwards, when her shift ended.
She never returned to her family's residence and has not been heard from again. Her vehicle, described as a green two-door hardtop 1966 Ford Galaxie with the license plate number 26B2953 and vehicle identification number (VIN) 6W66X173520, has never been recovered.
She occasionally left the Evansville area for several days at a time prior to her disappearance. She was not immediately reported as a missing person as a result. At the time, it was believed that she may have traveled to California after her disappearance.
Only two cattle truck drivers are known to have been in the area on the night Debra disappeared. When interviewed, one of them told police he hadn't given a ride to any hitchhikers, as this was against his company's policy. The other truck driver moved away after Debra went missing and investigators were unable to locate him for questioning.
Her husband, Jeffrey Wilhite, had called her at The Windmill on the night she disappeared, and she'd agreed to pick him up at a bar in Evansville after her shift. When she didn't show up, he called his mother-in-law, who was watching their children, to say he wouldn't be there to pick them up that night. Two days later, Jeffrey contacted the police in Princeton, Indiana, where he and his wife lived, to say she'd stolen his car.
There was speculation that Debra was killed by a gunshot wound to the head shortly after she departed from the restaurant. Rumors surfaced that her alleged murderer drove her car into a stripper pit outside of Elberfeld, Indiana, and abandoned it there with Debra's body in the trunk. The stripper pit was nicknamed "The Duck Pond" and was filled with water in 1974. It was drained sometime afterwards.
Investigators did not look at the pit until 1994, twenty years after Debra's disappearance. They found no evidence of her or her vehicle there. Authorities do, however, believe that Debra was the victim of foul play.
Wayne Gulley and his former wife, Ella Mae Dicks, were charged with the 1974 murder of Sherry Lee Gibson in 2002. Dicks reportedly confessed to her role in the homicide, which occurred near Evansville. Gulley and Dicks's photos are posted with this case summary.
There are several similarities between Debra and Gibson's cases; both women were around the same age and disappeared within months of one another. Gulley matches the description of the unidentified man who departed with Wilhite from The Windmill Restaurant. Neither he nor Dicks has been charged in connection with Debra's disappearance.
Jeffrey was killed in a vehicular accident two years after her disappearance, and one of his and Debra's two daughters died of leukemia in 1978, at the age of seven. The other daughter was raised by her grandmother. She still hopes for resolution in her mother's case. Debra's disappearance remains unsolved.
Indiana State Police 317-232-8280
Evansville Police Department 812-425-2266
WFIE-14
The Evansville Courier and Press
California Attorney General's Office
Updated 5 times since October 12, 2004. Last updated January 31, 2020; details of disappearance updated.


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Q: More efficient way to do double summation in python? I have the following double summation:

And (using gurobipy package) I have the following code:
quicksum(quicksum(np.dot(C[t, v], x[t, v]) for v in V) for t in T)

Note that quicksum is just the same thing as sum in standard Python but faster for LP/Gurobi stuff. np.dot is numpy dot product. C and x are two dictionaries with tuples (t, v) as keys.
Clearly this runs in O(|T| * |V|) time without even considering time complexity of things like np.dot. Is there a faster way to do this?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


The tale can be read out loud in four minutes. In the version with music, choreography, video production and singing, it takes one hundred minutes.
A flurry of gentle, rapid notes envelop listeners seated in an old movie theater as musicians perform to the audience's left and right. A dancer shares the stage space with video projections that seem like holograms. The latter sometimes merge with the corporeal figure and sometimes drift apart or multiply.
Two windows at stage rear afford a view of the countryside, which is sometimes stationary, and sometimes whizzing by. Projected images seem to show people looking in on the stage action from behind. Everything is drawn out to a snail's pace. A sense of timelessness ensues, the audience drawn into the hypnotic spell.
Which one is the real bridegroom?
Her great-grandfather had called for nothing less. "People, create something new!" was Richard Wagner's exhortation to his contemporaries. 136 years have passed since the premiere of his last opera, Parsifal," in 1882. The composer died only months later and had specified that the Festspielhaus he'd personally designed be reserved for performances of his own works.
Thus "der verschwundene hochzeiter" (The Bridegroom Disappeared) premiered at the Reichshof, an old silent movie theater in downtown Bayreuth.
The first question that comes to mind: was it inspired by Wagner's music?
The text is based on an old Austrian tale: A wedding guest disobeys a command, dances too long — and after returning to his villages learns that three hundred years have passed. When the truth is revealed, he dissolves into dust.
Composer Klaus Lang derived his musical inspiration not from Wagner but more from the first-ever extant opera: "Rappresentatione di Anima, et di Corpo" (Play of Soul and of Body) by the composer Emilio de' Cavalieri from the year 1600. The main figure in it is "Tempo" (Time).
Music reminiscent of the Renaissance can be heard in Lang's score along with wide, sweeping waves of sound worked out in elaborate detail and conveyed by acoustic instruments, electronics and two vocal soloists.
A romantic work? Though one might draw comparisons to the romantic opera "Lohengrin" that opened this year's Bayreuth Festival, Lang's partner Paul Esterhazy describes the new work as anti-Romantic, even anti-Wagnerian. "Romantic means having feelings front and center," says Esterhazy.
The repetitious soundscapes, video motifs and action did grow lengthy and even monotonous at the world premiere that ran for roughly an hour and a half. "But we could imagine going on for five hours," says Esterhazy.
Performed without a conductor, the music is precisely coordinated via monitors. Esterhazy's work with the two silent protagonists, twin dancers Jiří and Otto Bubeníček, demonstrated equal precision.
The music, motion, videos and interior space of that old theater blend so well that Lang and Esterhazy doubt whether the work could later be performed somewhere else after the three scheduled showings in Bayreuth.
But perhaps that's the lesson of the "Bridegroom Disappeared." There isn't always a next time or a second chance. You can't turn back the clock.
The beginnings of theater in Ancient Greece were dominated by performances of ritual songs, dances and sacrifices in honor of Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and ecstasy. Greek tragedy then evolved out of these. According to Aristotle's (384-322 B.C.) theories of drama, the art form should cause the viewers to shudder and feel compassion, resulting in a cleansing effect.
17th-century French Classicism, defined by order, clarity and restraint, included authors like Pierre Corneille, Voltaire and Jean Racine. Racine's tragedy "Phedre" opened the Comedie-Francaise theater in 1680. The Parisian theater remains renowned today, especially for its performances of plays by Moliere (above), hence its nickname, "The Home of Moliere" ("La Maison de Moliere").
Dresden's Semperoper was named after Gottfried Semper, who also designed Vienna's Burgtheater. The Semperoper opened in 1878 with Carl Maria von Weber's orchestral "Jubel Overture" and Goethe's tragedy "Iphigenia in Tauris." Later on, comspoer Richard Wagner premiered many of his operas in the magnificent building. The building is home to the Saxon State Orchestra and Opera.
When today's visitors enter the Royal Opera House in the London neighborhood of Covent Garden, they are stepping into the third building built to house the royal company. Fires devastated the two previous structures. German composer Georg Friedrich Handel was very active here, both as a composer and as an organist. He wrote some of his operas and oratorios especially for the Royal Opera.
Assassination attempts, legends and fame have marked the history of Russia's most significant theater for opera and ballet, the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. Its huge ensemble, consisting of more than 200 female dancers, is seen as one of the world's best. Performances of Tchaikovsky's ballet "Swan Lake" are particularly popular with viewers. Following restoration works, the theater reopened in 2011.
The reference to "fenice" (Italian for "phoenix") is anything but a coincidence. The name was chosen because the Venetian opera house had to be reconstructed after burning to the ground. The fiery bird, a symbol of the Enlightenment, also alludes to the Freemasons, who participated in the reconstruction. Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi premiered several of his works in the opera house.
From 1880 through 1966, the Metropolitan Opera was located on Broadway. It then moved to New York City's Lincoln Square, where it remains today. The "Met," one of the world's most renowned opera houses, owes much of its fame to the numerous outstanding singers and conductors that have graced its hall, such as Austrian composer Gustav Mahler. The Met gave the first opera radio broadcast in 1910.
One can hardly imagine Sydney without its visually striking opera house. The unusual building was designed by Pritzker Prize-winning Danish architect Jorn Utzon and finished in 1973. While the unconventional design initially triggered a lot of controversy, the building become one of Australia's most important tourist attractions.


I love thriller/mysteries and I love funny, and this book had it all. Rose is my kind of lady. She's in her 70's but full of vim and vigor and is quite the character. When Rose is the main suspect in Bertha's death, she sets out with her friend Ida to prove her innocence.
They do some really strange and hilarious things to get proof that she isn't the killer. There are a lot of Yiddish words and phrases I didn't understand, but thankfully some included a translation.
This is cozy at it's best. It's an easy quick read without the gore most murder mysteries not in the cozy genre have. The story flows well and Rose and Ida will keep you entertained to the end.
This is my first book by this author but I plan on reading more from him in the future.
I think Rose and Ida would be a treat to know! I'm looking forward to reading about their adventures. Thanks for being a part of the tour!
This sounds like such a fun read! I've got this on my TBR. It sounds a little different from the usual cozy and it sounds like Rose and Ida are definitely characters worth meeting. Great review!
Looks like fun 🙂 I like an occasional cozy.