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Sara S. Goek, Ph.D.
Speaking Through Food
May 14, 2020 Sara Goek Comments 0 Comment
Contribution to Historians Cooking the Past
I know few Turkish words, but most of the words I do know relate to food. I can ask for tea (çay) or coffee (kahve), and name some of my favorite dishes (like baklava, obviously). In the realm of embarrassing stories from childhood, my family never tires of reminding me of when, visiting Turkey as a toddler, I repeatedly asked for "more zeytin, more zeytin" (olives – still a favorite).
My father is Turkish and my mother American. Most of my father's family still lives in Turkey and I grew up here in the US. Whenever we visited Turkey, a form of triangular communication would occur: my mom and grandparents would speak German to each other; since my father doesn't speak German he would talk to his parents in Turkish; and my parents spoke to my sister and me in English, of which my grandparents could not speak more than a few words. Later, I learned some German, but only enough for pretty basic conversation.
Without the language, my primary connection to a Turkish identity is through food. My Babaanne (father's mother) and I can't speak much to each other, but we can cook, and eat, together. With the help of my dad, acting as translator, she has taught me how to make some of my favorite dishes. The recipes themselves reflect her own life history: Her fruit preserves call for a few hours sitting in the sun, a simple step in Turkey, but almost impossible for me to accomplish during the years I lived in Ireland. The green beans recipe below calls for two "wooden spoonfuls" of olive oil, a convenient unit of measurement in a Turkish kitchen, if not an international standard. And Babaanne's signature dessert, Obsttorte (fruit tart), is a recipe she picked up living in Germany in the late 1950s. Many of the recipes, of course, are hardly recipes at all. She knows from experience the quantities and consistency needed at every step in the process. I'm the one who has to write them down to learn and remember.
Left: Babaanne talking to a neighbor from her balcony – in the days before COVID-19 quarantines. Right: Breakfast on the balcony, with fresh fruits, cheeses, and bread from the local farmers market and homemade jams.
When returning from trips to Turkey, my suitcase always contains food: olives, olive oil, baklava, halva, homemade preserves, and maybe some cheese or sucuk (sausage) snuck in past customs. My family and I have always most lamented our inability to bring back crates of fresh figs, the equal of which cannot be found on this side of the Atlantic. The foods that do make it back are jealously guarded to make them last.
As an historian I study music, specifically Irish traditional music and the migrants who carried it with them from Ireland to communities across the diaspora. Like food, music is somewhat ephemeral. Sounds and tastes can't be so easily packed into a suitcase. Their approximation can be documented through notation or recipes, but the true power lies with the consumer and the associations that those sounds or tastes carry. For migrants and their descendants – including me – that power persists even in new contexts.
Like many others, I have been cooking and baking more than usual during this pandemic. It provides both entertainment and comfort. Nothing I can cook will replicate the experience of a meal on the balcony of my Babaanne's summer home overlooking the Aegean. But this weekend as I ate green beans and savored a fruit tart, I thought of her.
Green Beans with Olive Oil (zeytinyağlı taze fasulye)
Learning how to cook the green beans recipe below while in Turkey (September 2019).
500g / 1/2lb green beans
7-8 cloves of garlic
3 fresh tomatoes
Use a wide pot, 3-4" deep with a lid. Put round slices of one whole tomato, peeled, on the bottom of the pan.
Add half the green beans – ends trimmed and broken in half – in a layer.
Add 3-4 cloves of garlic (whole) and diced onions.
Peel and chop another tomato and add on top.
Add the rest of the beans.
Add another peeled, chopped tomato and 3-4 cloves of garlic.
Sprinkle with salt. Add olive oil (2 wooden spoonfuls).
Heat on the stovetop on low with the lid on. After it gets juicy, add some boiling water (if necessary). Cook for about 20 minutes, until the beans are soft.
The beans can be served warm or cold.
My green beans cooked at home (April 2020).
Ken Burns and the Risks of Reconciliation
October 4, 2017 Sara Goek Comments 0 Comment
The opening episode of Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's The Vietnam War shows a series of iconic moments in film with a twist: they play backwards. As viewers we are asked to rewind our understanding of the war, to start from the beginning. In the process we are supposed to build a new understanding, through which we can all find solace in a shared history. But can we?
Ken Burns likes narrative history. An authoritative voice speaks to connect hours of historical footage and talking heads. The format harks back to earlier periods in historical scholarship when historians presumed their own objectivity. The sort of editorial decisions that go into selecting who to quote, what words to use (calling the Vietnam War a "failure" or "tragedy" rather than a "defeat", for example), and what images to put behind them, are all acts of interpretation obscured in the guise of fact and marshalled to support an interpretation. Giving the appearance of showing all sides further glosses over the biases. With subject matter as divisive as the Civil War or Vietnam War, this framing of the story ends up flattening out the events' complexity and decades of debates.
A major challenge of teaching history at college level is that students arrive with an understanding of history not dissimilar to that found in Ken Burns's documentaries or their school textbooks. The past is presented as a series of facts, while little or nothing is said of how or why those facts were chosen, if indeed they are agreed upon 'facts' as opposed to contested issues. Historians understand, and try to communicate to students, that the past is subject to debate and our understanding of it continues to change over time. The danger of narrative history is that it makes an argument and selects evidence to support that argument without acknowledging that it does so. Whether to accept the stories these documentaries tell at face value or probe them further is left to the individual. Too many, I fear, may choose the former. Neither The Civil War nor The Vietnam War ask explicit questions of their viewers. Therein lies their broad appeal and therein lies their danger.
The films are about, in Ken Burns's words, "ultimate reconciliation". This may come from a noble impulse to come to terms with history and establish an American canon that bridges partisan divides. Laudable though this optimism may be, reconciliation can create moral equivalence where it may not exist. It leaves us with "a popular narrative of brave soldiers fighting for their respective causes" without sufficient critical analysis of those causes. In the case of the Civil War this very narrative enabled the glorification of the Confederacy, the reimposition of white supremacy, and willful amnesia around emancipation.[1] In the case of Vietnam, the reconciliation narrative depends on mischaracterizing the anti-war movement and apparently explaining the politically-motivated decisions and lies of successive American governments as attempts by "decent people" to "muddle through" (episode 1). The hope for closure may be premature.
This is not an indictment of either film. There are good reasons for watching both and much of value to learn.[2] Rather, it is a call to see them for what they are: particular perspectives on American history. We have a rich past. It is complicated and messy, and its meaning is far from clear-cut. We can and should ask difficult questions and engage in civil debate over how to answer them. Questions – like protests – show not a disdain for the American project, but rather a commitment to bettering it. Reconciliation may be therapeutic, but it is not a cure. Privileging it risks losing a fuller examination of our past and our present.
[1] David Blight, Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory (Belknap Press, 2001).
[2] I will leave it to historians of the era to evaluate the content. See, for example, Christian G. Appy's reviews of the series for the OAH blog Process: Introduction, Episode 1, Episode 2, Episodes 3 & 4, Episodes 5 & 6, Episodes 7 & 8, Episodes 9 & 10.
Remembering Japanese-American Internment
February 19, 2017 Sara Goek Comments 1 comment
On February 19, 1942 – two months after the attack on Pearl Harbor – President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. It authorized the establishment of military areas "from which any or all persons may be excluded" in the interest of national security and defense.[1] In broad terms, it gave the military power to decide who constituted a threat. It did not, as many discussions of it imply, specifically mention Japanese Americans. That fact does not make it any less pernicious.
General DeWitt of the Western Defense Command was convinced that the entire Japanese-American population posed a threat to the nation. Between March and August of 1942 he authorized a series of "exclusion orders" that applied to "all persons of Japanese ancestry".[2] Authorities removed approximately 110,000 men, women, children, of whom about two-thirds were American citizens, from their homes on the west coast. Without any attempt at due process, they were ordered to store or dispose of their property, herded into groups at assembly centers, given numbered tags, and sent on buses or trains patrolled by armed guards to unknown destinations. The ten internment camps, known euphemistically as "war relocation centers," were all in desolate, distant locations. Those closest to the coast were more heavily militarized, surrounded by barbed wire and watchtowers. As one man recalled:
We were told that we are being evacuated so that the government can protect us. The first thing that I had observed was that they had armaments, not facing out, but facing in.[3]
Clem Albers, military police at Manzanar, April 1942 (National Park Service)
No evidence supported the perceived threat. Rather, its origins lay in racism and fear. Adding the two and throwing government propaganda into the mix meant the policy enjoyed widespread support. Both the press and Congress almost unanimously endorsed it. Groups supposedly committed to ending discrimination either supported the policy or looked on in silence as the "gravest violation in civil liberties since the end of slavery" took place.[4]
Many understand the historical lesson of Japanese-American internment, like that of the Holocaust, to be "never again". But there is another important lesson. It could happen again. Fear is part of human nature and those in power have repeatedly harnessed it against the 'others' in society. The record of internment should stand today not as a monument to a past from which we may safely distance ourselves, but as a reminder of what is possible and what we should do all in our power to resist.
Manzanar National Historic Site, January 2016 (photo by Sara Goek)
Cemetery monument at Manzanar, created by stonemason Ryozo Kado and erected in August 1943 (photo by Sara Goek, Jan. 2016)
[1] Executive Order 9066, February 19, 1942. Full text available from: http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5154.
[2] Civilian Exclusion Order, San Francisco, California, May 15, 1942.
[3] Remembering Manzanar, documentary film (National Park Service, 2004).
[4] Eric Foner, The Story of American Freedom (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1999), p.241.
February 2, 2017 Sara Goek Comments 2 comments
Danny Meehan outside his restored family home in Donegal, June 2012. Photograph by Sara Goek.
Fiddler Danny Meehan was born in 1940 and grew up in Drimalost, in the Blue Stack Mountains of south Donegal, in a family and local area with a rich musical heritage. At age sixteen he migrated first to Selby in Yorkshire. He worked in many places across Britain, finally settling in London in 1963 where he established a career as a self-employed stonemason. He also met and played with many great musicians in pubs, folk clubs, and concert halls in London. He appears on the album Paddy in the Smoke, with the group Le Chéile, and has two solo albums. He returned to live in Donegal in 2007. In 2012 TG4 honored him with the Gradam Saoil (Lifetime Achievement Award).
However, that biography doesn't do him justice. He is a larger than life character – humorous, generous, self-effacing, and, as he says himself, still a bit wild. Those traits come through in his music as well – his clever variations on traditional tunes, his unwillingness to put his own name to original compositions, and, having lived through what he calls a "dark age" for music, an appreciation for the young musicians of today. His is a music shaped by his roots in Donegal, his 50 years in England, and the many musicians he heard and played with along the way.
Out of curiosity, during the interview I asked Danny about his grandparents, because I'd read that his grandfather migrated to Pennsylvania in the late nineteenth century and returned to marry and settle down in Donegal. Danny's response became the focus of an article, "'Most Good Stories Are True, You Know': History, Tradition, and Identity in a Family Story" in The Irish Review (vol. 53, 2016). In conjunction with that article, I have put my full oral history interview with Danny Meehan and recordings of his music on my PhD project website, Voices of Irish Music & Migration. The specific audio clips referenced in the article are also available from The Irish Review's website.
Huge thanks, of course, to Danny for sharing his stories and music. Thanks to Aidan O'Donnell for initially helping me get in touch with him. Danny's nephew John Daly kindly provided additional information on the Meehan family history and the family photographs. Thanks to Clare O'Halloran and The Irish Review for supporting the publication.
The Transnational Life of Kevin Henry
September 1, 2016 Sara Goek Comments 1 comment
Kevin Henry at a festival in 1999 (photo courtesy of the Henry family).
Before I met Kevin Henry in April 2013 what I knew about him primarily rested on his reputation as a musician and raconteur. He comes from the same area on the Sligo-Mayo border as Roger Sherlock and Brendan Tonra, both of whom I'd interviewed and Brendan I had the pleasure of playing tunes with during my time in Boston. I knew also that Kevin had been a mainstay of the Chicago Irish music scene for decades. What I was unprepared for was the fascinating story of his circuitous journey from Ireland to Chicago and the aplomb with which he related it.
Kevin was born in 1929, the eighth of eleven children. Following in the footsteps of his older siblings, he left Ireland for England in 1947. He traveled up and down the country working as a seasonal agricultural laborer, coal miner, and construction worker. In 1953 he decided to seek his fortune across the Atlantic and booked passage to Canada, though his ultimate goal was America. He worked his way from St. John's, Newfoundland to Toronto and finally across the border to New York, where other siblings lived. There, he worked digging tunnels and waiting tables before deciding to head for Florida's sunnier climes. Unimpressed with the low wages paid laying pipes in the Everglades or working on the construction of a hotel, he moved north again, this time to Chicago. Apart from a four-month stint mining copper in Butte, Montana, he has remained in Chicago ever since. He spent 37 years as an iron worker, a career that included work on the iconic Hancock Tower. Throughout his life traditional music has remained a touchstone for his identity. Now 87, Kevin continues to work to sustain the culture of his native land and the legacy of music collector Francis O'Neill in his adopted home.
Kevin's life and the myriad ways he remained connected to his Irish identity are the subject of a new article published in the Transnational Ireland special issue of Éire-Ireland (vol.51, 2016): "'Looking for that Pot of Gold': The Transnational Life of Kevin Henry".
In conjunction with that article, I have put my oral history interview with Kevin Henry, photographs, and recordings of his music on my PhD project website Voices of Irish Music & Migration. More material will be coming soon – stay tuned!
A huge thank you to Kevin and his wife Pauline for sharing their time and their stories with me!
Reflections on (Extra)Ordinary Lives
March 14, 2016 Sara Goek Comments 3 comments
I confess, I am allergic to biographies of the famous and exceptional. My dad gave me some prime specimens when I was younger – the lives of Eleanor Roosevelt and Isabella Bird among others – and recently he even tried to interest me in new books about Abraham Lincoln. But I simply cannot finish one. Why? Some subjects perhaps seem anointed from the start, the products of circumstances far removed from the realities of my life and the lives of others around me. Others may have had the benefit of living in interesting times, but I never did finish Eric Hobsbawm's autobiography either, as much as I like his historical work.
Yet I find myself drawn to read and write the lives of the 'ordinary' people, those whose experiences many judge unremarkable. Historian Richard White's mother told him 'half jokingly, but only half, that her life was more interesting than my latest book. Why didn't I write a book about her? I told her, not joking at all, that I would.'[1] The result is my favorite history book, Remembering Ahanagran. Its subject, Sara Walsh, would have remained anonymous outside her immediate circle of friends and family had her son not become a distinguished historian and taken up her challenge. I take the book off the shelf repeatedly and never get bored. In the space between history and memory White reveals much about life, the ways we tell our stories, and how, through them, we come to understand ourselves.
As I worked on my Ph.D. I started a collection of memoirs by Irish migrants – Angeline Kearns Blain, Dónall Mac Amhlaigh, Anna May Mangan, Seán Ó Ciaráin, any many more – picking up stories from the boxes and shelves of secondhand booksellers. If history remembers their names it is because they took up the pen. Many who did not still have stories to tell. As an oral historian, that realization motivates my work. Some of those I've interviewed are household names (at least in traditional music households); others are not, but that does not make their words or memories any less meaningful. Their stories have taught me about the human experience: what it means to be a migrant, why people hold onto their cultures, and what it felt like to live in the foreign country that was the past. In biographies of the famous, perhaps some of those fundamentals get lost amidst the action.
[1] Richard White, Remembering Ahanagran: Storytelling in a Family's Past (Hill and Wang, New York, 1998), p.4.
The First World War & Irish Identity
November 11, 2015 Sara Goek Comments 2 comments
I don't often take the train from Cork to Dublin, but recently I did and for the first time I paid close attention to the memorial plaques along one wall of Heuston Station. In their own way, they encapsulate the debates over Irish identity and historical memory.
Formerly Kingsbridge Station, its name changed as part of the fiftieth anniversary of the Easter Rising. The first plaque commemorates the man after whom the station is now named, Sean Heuston, Irish revolutionary and former railway clerk. It gives a brief summary, in Irish, of his life and role in the rising.
The second plaque reproduces the text of the 1916 proclamation on three, relatively bland, metal tiles. Though I was unable to find information about its origins, it's likely that it also put up in conjunction with an Easter Rising commemoration.
The third looks the oldest and is, I think, the most interesting. It commemorates the staff of the Great Southern & Western Railway who 'laid down their lives for their country in the Great War'. The ambiguity is striking. What country was their country: Ireland or Britain? While the inscription does enshrine the idea of patriotic sacrifice, it leaves open the question of the nation to which that patriotism was directed.
As many as 200,000 Irishmen served in the First World War and of those about 35,000 died. However, the context of the Home Rule crisis and subsequent Easter Rising meant that their enlistment was hotly debated at the time: Unionists joined up to demonstrate their loyalty; Redmondites enlisted to show their commitment to Home Rule; and many others simply welcomed the separation money, regular pay cheques, or sense of adventure.
Staunch nationalists opposed Ireland's participation in 'Britain's war' and saw being an Irishman and fighting for Britain as an irreconcilable contradiction. This view had a long and pervasive influence on historical memory. Keith Jeffery writes that 'the prevailing orthodoxy in nationalist Ireland is that no true Irishman could possibly have joined the British army for patriotic and legitimate Irish reasons, or even (horrible thought) for a species of British loyalty.'[1]
Even those who enlisted realized at the time that their legacy would be contested. Tom Kettle justified his participation, arguing, 'I have written no word and spoken none that was not the word of an Irish Nationalist'.[2] Poet Francis Ledwidge, reflecting on his life and decision to join the 10th Irish Division, asked, 'how will I be accounted for?'[3] Patrick MacGill rejected attempts to view the war through the lens of patriotism, instead saying 'the justice of the cause which endeavours to achieve its object by the murdering and maiming of mankind is apt to be doubted by a man who has come through a bayonet charge.'[4] He puts words in the mouths of those who lie dead, asking 'what purpose has it served?'[5]
Placing these three plaques along the same wall gives a certain parity to their subjects. We are forced to consider the Easter Rising in its European context – the First World War – and to recognize that both events raised questions of national identity. Who are we to impose a brand of patriotism on those who did not or could not speak for themselves?
[1] Keith Jeffery, 'The First World War and the Rising: Mode, Moment, and Memory', in Gabriel Doherty & Dermot Keogh (eds.), 1916: The Long Revolution (Cork. 2007), p.90.
[2] Tom Kettle, Ways of War (Constable & Co., London, 1917), p.72.
[3] Francis Ledwidge, 'Soliloquy', from The Complete Poems of Francis Ledwidge (Herbert Jenkins, Ltd., London, 1919), pp.259-60.
[4] Patrick MacGill, The Great Push: An Episode of the Great War (Herbert Jenkins Ltd., London, 1917), p.vii.
The Irish Famine in Historical Memory
April 1, 2013 Sara Goek Comments 0 Comment
'The Irish Famine in Historical Memory: A Comparison of Four Monuments', from The Dustbin of History, 1 April 2013.
Though without doubt a seminal event in Irish history, the meaning and memory of the Great Famine of 1845-9 remains contested. It is estimated that over 1 million people died and 2 million emigrated and it catalyzed emigration for the rest of the century. While historians debate exact figures and the evolution of the historiography of the event, its complex legacy in historical memory, especially across the vast diaspora, remains underemphasized. A comparison of four memorials, one in Canada, two in the United States, and one in Dublin, offers some insights. As Ian McBride writes, 'we need to scrutinize collective myths and memories, not just for evidence of their historical accuracy, but as objects of study in their own right'.[1] These monuments are a physical manifestation of those 'myths and memories' and can be read as visual, cultural sources. First, an introduction to each monument, then some reflections on them.
Grosse Île, Canada
Opening ceremony in 1909 for the monument on Grosse Île. Photograph: Wikimedia Commons.
A 46-foot high Celtic cross stands at the highest point of this three by one mile island in the St. Lawrence River, thirty miles downriver from Quebec. Grosse Île served as a quarantine station for incoming immigrant ships from 1832 and witnessed the terrible devastation wrought by famine and disease on the 'coffin ships' that brought Ireland's destitute to the New World in the late 1840s. Michael Quigley estimates that between 12,000 and 15,000 from the Famine era are buried here.[2] This monument, the first of its kind, was paid for by public subscription raised by the Catholic, nationalist organization the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH).[3] It was unveiled on 15 August 1909 in a ceremony attended by 9,000 people, including the last surviving priest who had attended the sick and a woman who had been orphaned there as a young child and adopted by a local family. Now, the whole island is a National Historic Site and many other commemorations have taken place there.
The inscription on the cross reads:
Cailleadh Clann na nGaedheal ina míltibh ar an Oileán so ar dteicheadh dhóibh ó dlíghthibh na dtíoránach ngallda agus ó ghorta tréarach isna bliadhantaibh 1847-48. Beannacht dílis Dé orra. Bíodh an leacht so i gcomhartha garma agus onóra dhóibh ó Ghaedhealaibh Ameriocá. Go saoraigh Dia Éire.
Children of the Gael died in their thousands on this island having fled from the laws of foreign tyrants and an artificial famine in the years 1847-48. God's blessing on them. Let this monument be a token to their name and honour from the Gaels of America. God Save Ireland.
Famine Memorial, Washington Street, Boston
Famine Memorial, Boston. Photographs: Sara Goek.
This memorial by Robert Shure was unveiled in June 1998 as part of the 150th anniversary of the Famine. It consists of a small round plaza with eight plaques describing the historical context and in the middle of the space are two groups each with three bronze figures, a man, a woman, and a child. In the first group, the man sits, head hanging limp and bones showing through his skin, while the woman kneels looking upward with one arm raised, with the child beside her. They are clothed in rags and emaciated. In the second group, all three figures are standing and they appear in motion, as if striding forward, healthy and well-clothed, but the woman has her face turned back, looking at the first group.
Irish Hunger Memorial, New York City
Irish Hunger Memorial, New York City. Photograph: Downtown Magazine NYC.
Irish Hunger Memorial, New York City. Photograph: Wikimedia Commons.
Designed by artist Brian Tolle and opened in 2002 this is perhaps the most ambitious and diverse of the four memorials here. The structure looks like an Irish hillside. A passage under it is reminiscent of ancient tombs like Newgrange. Above, the landscape incorporates the ruins of a nineteenth-century stone cottage from transported over from Mayo, surrounded by native Irish plants and inscribed stones from every county. From the top visitors look out over the Hudson River and the Statue of Liberty. The sculpture sits on an valuable piece of real estate, to south is the New York Mercantile Exchange, and the artist says that seen from this context it's 'an extraordinary thing' that visitors 'look out on an abandoned Irish field that's here to commemorate a traumatic event in terms of world hunger'.[4]
Famine Memorial, Custom House Quay, Dublin, Ireland
Famine Memorial, Dublin. Photograph: Sara Goek.
Erected in 1997, this monument designed by sculptor Rowan Gillespie marks the site of departure of many emigrant ships. It takes the form of bronze figures, all emaciated and ragged, grasping bundles in their arms and walking towards some unknown future. On a wet, gray day, these figures appear eerie and unnerving. I am told that a sound instalation on the site used to play looped recordings of a voice reading lists of the food exported from Ireland during the Famine (though I don't believe this was the the case when I visited). Nearby is the World Poverty Stone, expressing solidarity with people living in poverty across the globe, its proximity situating the Irish Famine as a lesson for understanding human rights today.
Why compare these? What can we learn from them? They commemorate the same event, but in quite different ways and in doing so I think they reveal much about how and why the Famine is remembered in Ireland and the Americas and why its meaning remains contentious. The first, the monument at Grosse Île evokes the ethos of its era, both in standing and inscription: the imagery of the Celtic Cross is one of a grave marker but in a form that brings to mind a Gaelic, Catholic golden age, while the plaque on it ties into the idea of Famine emigration as forced exile and the nationalist interpretation of the event and conditions that produced it as the work of 'foreign tyrants'. Kerby Miller writes that in the aftermath of the Famine, Catholic clerics and nationalist politicians (both opinions represented in the AOH), 'generalized the people's individual grievances into a powerful political and cultural weapon against the traditional antagonist'.[5] In America they did so particularly effectively, not only because of memories of terrible suffering in Ireland and with no choice but emigration, but perhaps also because in the New World they faced prejudice and discrimination, which kept them as a group largely disadvantaged and left them bitter and disillusioned.[6] Nationalist readings of the Famine, represented by the opinions of John Mitchel and the AOH cross at Grosse Île, offered an explanation for their suffering as well as a 'redemptive solution' by calling on them to unite in recognition of their proud heritage, made mockery of by both the British government and American nativists.[7] The first memorial thus is both commemorative, marking the last resting place of thousands, and a strong signal of the strength of Irish nationalist sentiments in Canada and the United States.
The monuments in Boston and New York convey similar messages, albeit in slightly different ways. In the Boston memorial, the two groups of figures seem to be of the same people, a 'before and after' portrait of emigration. The first group, foresaken and emaciated leaving their native land, the second, healthy and successful in their new lives, though the female figure glances over her shoulder at the former. However, this sort of progress in the New World often took multiple generations and those who succeeded did not always choose to look back at where they had come from, viewing the Famine with shame or as part of the baggage of a past best left behind. Nonetheless, that story of 'rags to riches', of 'No Irish Need Apply' to the election of John F. Kennedy, has proven powerful regardless of its truth or complications. Not all immigrants found prosperity in America, but the enduring mythology is of those who did. As Kevin O'Neill writes, 'The Famine provides Irish Americans with a "charter myth" – a creation story that both explains our presence in the new land and connects us to the old via a powerful sense of grievance.'[8] The Irish Hunger Memorial in New York emphasizes this point: the sense of grievance encapsulated in the abandoned, ruined cottage on an overgrown and rocky hillside, and the presence and success in the new land in the surrounding skyscrapers and view of the Statue of Liberty, the symbol of American opportunity.
The Famine Memorial in Dublin, in contrast, conveys an image of starvation, hopelessness, and tragedy. Who are these people? Where are they from? Where are they going? Will they even make it there? Their bodies are emaciated, their faces vacant. They show no signs of anger or resistance. It is a representation of the starving poor of Ireland leaving their country while food is also exported from along the same quays. Though it draws on nationalist sentiments similar to those found in North America, unlike its counterparts this memorial contains no suggestion of positive opportunity or triumphalist vision for these people. However, its proximity to the 'World Poverty Stone' does relate to the message emphasized by Mary Robinson during her presidency and in her speech at Grosse Île in 1994, that we should recognize the connection between human suffering in the past and that in the present. She said we must choose between being 'spectators' or 'participants', between separating ourselves or being compassionate and involved.[9] She rejected any moral distancing or dispassionate analysis, instead choosing to see the human element of the past and to understand it in contemporary terms.
These physical memorials each in a sense embody the ethos of the time and place that produced them and its historical memory of the event. Overall they suggest that for those in Ireland, the Famine continues to evoke memories of shame, hopelessness, and suffering, and while people such as Mary Robinson have, after 150 years, come to use it as a lesson for the present, that has not changed the persistent image in national consciousness. The memorials in Canada and America suggest a very different type of historical memory: for members of the Irish diaspora the Famine was not just a tragedy to be commemorated, but one from which they rose despite hardships, their creation story. These latter memorials contain a greater sense of optimism, a reminder of how far they had come. While the Irish nationalist historical narrative on both sides of the Atlantic used the Famine as proof of British misrule, the story of its casualties has gone down divergent paths.
[1] Ian McBride, 'Memory and National Identity in Modern Ireland', in I. McBride (ed.), History and Memory in Modern Ireland (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2001), p.41.
[2] Michael Quigley, 'Grosse Île: Canada's Famine Memorial', in A. Gribben (ed.), The Great Famine and the Irish Diaspora in America (University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, 1999), p.150.
[3] Ruth-Ann M. Harris, 'Introduction', in Gribben (ed.), The Great Famine and the Irish Diaspora in America, p.12.
[4] RTÉ, Blighted Nation [radio programme], Episode Four, January 2013. For a longer discussion and interpretation of the Irish Hunger Memorial in New York see: Marion Casey, 'Exhibition Reviews: The Irish Hunger Memorial, Battery Park City, New York', Journal of American History, vol.98, no.3 (2011), pp.779-782.
[5] Kerby Miller, '"Revenge for Skibbereen": Irish Emigration and the Meaning of the Great Famine', in Gribben (ed.), The Great Famine and the Irish Diaspora in America, p.185.
[6] Ibid., pp.189-90.
[7] Ibid., pp.189-90
[8] Kevin O'Neill, 'The Star-Spangled Shamrock: Meaning and Memory in Irish America', in McBride, History and Memory in Modern Ireland, p.118.
[9] In: Peter Gray, The Irish Famine (Thames & Hudson, London, 1995), pp.182-3.
Update 19 June 2014: for further reading also see Emily Mark Fitzgerald, Commemorating the Irish Famine: Memory and the Monument (Liverpool University Press, 2013) and Margaret Kelleher's lecture 'Hunger in History: Monuments to the Great Famine' and article of the same name in Textual Practice, vol.16, no.2 (2002).
Postcards from the Road
Writing American Immigration History: Notes on an Essay
Input Needed: Key Texts on American Immigration History
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Once Almost Forgotten, Syphilis Is Back
One of the most devastating STDs is making a comeback, so get educated about syphilis's stages.
Congenital Syphilis Cases Are on the Rise
Failing public health systems may be responsible for the lack of timely treatment that cures CS.
A Grim History of Syphilis
By Tim Lalonde
'The Great Pox' was a brutal, deadly disease that wreaked havoc on the world for centuries.
The History of Syphilis in the United States
How much do you actually know about one of the most infamous sexually transmitted diseases?
The Effects of Syphilis on Pregnancy
Syphilis is a dangerous infection that can cause fetal deformities or death if left untreated.
The Origins of Syphilis: Myths Debunked
Stories about syphilis have been around for more than 500 years. What's real and what's myth?
Syphilis: Myths & Misconceptions
Don't let anything you've heard about syphilis prevent you from staying safe while having sex.
How Serious Is Syphilis?
While treatable, syphilis can cause major long-term health problems if not addressed quickly.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


There is a charge based on what the item is and how many you would like taken away. You need to pay for this when you book online before the collection will take place.
Small items e.g. bags of household waste, children's toys, dining chairs, a mirror or an airbed. You can have up to and including 6 items for £16. If more than 6 items, each additional small item is charged at £2.50.
Large/DIY items e.g. a door, fridge freezer, sofa, cooker, mattress or table. You can have up to and including 3 items for £16. If more than 3 items, each additional large item is charged at £5.00.
Exception items. We collect exception items priced at £32 per item.
See Bulky waste - items we collect 2018/19 (PDF, 347.6kb) for a list of small, large / DIY, exception items.
You can have a mixture of small and large items a maximum of 2 of each for the minimum charge of £16. The cost of the collection will be automatically calculated as you add your items to the list on the online form.
There are items that we cannot collect, these include: plasterboard, asbestos, hazardous waste, tyres, gas canisters/bottles, paint tins containing paint, chemicals, sunbed tubes, fluorescent light tubes and large batteries (from ride on toys/mobility scooters).
Make sure we can gain access to the items - unlock gates where applicable and place items at the side of the property where your bin is normally emptied, as close to the edge of the boundary of the property as possible.
Put your items out before 7.00am on the collection day, but please don't put them out the day before as this could lead to an unlicensed person taking them and possibly flytipping them.
These bulky collection prices are for domestic household properties only, please see our business waste collection information for details on commercial waste collections.


I'm sure this will make the new player experience much friendlier, as people won't have to grid as much IP on runes as they had to before. I'm really happy about this because of my own rune horror story.
Once upon a time, I was a level 26 LoL player that mained full AP Sona mid. Don't laugh, it was really good. Anyway, because it was really good, I decided that it would be the only thing I ever played for the rest of my LoL career.
Anyway, I spent thousands of IP on runes, thinking it would be a good investment. By the time I had become bored of the role, I had a whole bunch of runes lying around and a whole lot of IP down the trash. Because I wasted so much IP on runes, I now have an extremely small champion pool, consisting of maybe 29-ish champions. Biggest mistake I've ever made in LoL.
So, what do you think of the price drop? Do you have any rune horror stories of your own? Tell me in the comments below!


I viewed this exhibit as an incredibly necessary physical and temporal unsettling of an otherwise colonial space. Each work carried a powerful message of resurgence—even those, such as the video performance piece by Jeneen Frei Njootli, that unflinchingly tackled the ongoing effects of colonial violence upon Indigenous women in particular. I am turned back to Leanne Simpson and this idea of decolonized time and space, and art that is transformative. The Rebecca Belmore performance piece she is referring to in this discussion took place in Peterborough, which "is a bastion of colonialism" as experienced by Indigenous people (Simpson 97). "But," Simpson says, "for twenty minutes in June, that bastion was transformed into an alternative space that provided a fertile bubble for envisioning and realizing Nishnaabeg visions of justice, voice, presence, and resurgence" (97). With a specific focus on the new medias that Indigenous youth are engaging with and shaping, Claiming Space is an important exhibit that is teeming with brilliant works of art and a powerful message of Indigenous resurgence.
Belmore, Rebecca. X. 2010. Peterborough, Ontario. Performance.
Simpson, Leanne. Dancing On Our Turtle's Back: Stories of Nishnaabeg Re-Creation, Resurgence, and a New Emergence. Winnipeg. ARP Books, 2011. Print.
Sparrow, Kelsey. "This Is Not Native (?)." Mixed Tribes. Museum of Anthropology Vancouver. 2013. Web.
Laura Mars is a settler student and activist originally from former Yugoslavia, living on unceded Musqueam territory. A recent addition to the First Nations Studies program, she is in her fourth year of a double major in FNSP and GRSJ. She is interested in Indigenous new media studies, intentional communities, and anti-colonial feminisms.
This entry was posted in Creative Works, Personal Essays, Reviews/Reflections by ammckenz. Bookmark the permalink.


Charts represent S&P-500 forecast for September 28 – October 2, 2009. The calculations* have been performed using pattern similarity prediction and neural network tools. The tools have predicted fluctuation within 1%.


A new method to sensitively measure the structure of molecules has been demonstrated by twisting laser light and aiming it at miniscule gold gratings to separate out wavelengths.
[dropcap style="font-size: 60px; color: #9b9b9b;"]T[/dropcap]he technique could potentially be used to probe the structure and purity of molecules in pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, foods and other important products more easily and cheaply than existing methods.
Developed by physicists at the University of Bath, working with colleagues at the University of Cambridge and University College London, the technique relies on the curious fact that many biological and pharmaceutical molecules can be either 'left-handed' or 'right-handed'. Although such molecules are built from exactly the same elements they can be arranged in mirror images of each other, and this configuration sometimes changes their properties drastically.
The research team from the Centre for Photonics and Photonic Materials, and the Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at the University of Bath, used a special white-light laser built in-house and directed it through several optical components to put a twist on the beam. The twisted laser beam then hits a nano-scopic U-shaped gold grating which serves as a template for the light, further twisting the beam in either a right or left-handed direction. This deflects the beam in many directions and further splits it into its constituent wavelengths across the colour spectrum.
By carefully measuring the deflected light scientists can detect tiny differences in intensity across the spectrum which inform them about the chirality of the grating the laser beam interacts with.
The study, published in the journal Advanced Optical Materials, demonstrates the technique as a proof of principle.
Christian Kuppe, the PhD student who conducted the experiments, said: "At the moment chiral sensing requires high molecular concentrations because you're looking for tiny differences in how the light interacts with the target molecule.
"By using our gold gratings we aim to use a much smaller amount of molecules to conduct a very sensitive test of their handedness. The next step will be to continue to test the technique with a range of well-known chiral molecules.
Industry 4.0 Readiness: Do You have the Power?


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Cliff the Coyote in 2016 relaxing on a Middletown, RI, lawn, wearing his satellite tracking collar. Cliff was a member of the "Valley Pack ," an extended family group whose territory is centered around the Newport/Middletown boundary. Observed for years by Dr. Mitchell, the Valley Pack has contributed enormously to our understanding of coyote behavior. Photo: Dave Hornoff/The Conservation Agency.
Coyotes (Canis latrans) are a relatively new but now permanent addition to Rhode Island. For cultural, ecological, and practical reasons it is undesirable (and likely impossible) to remove them. Through study of their ecology, we can manage negative effects of coyotes' presence in a way that brings ecological benefits and long-term co-existence. Dr. Mitchell will present the science of coyotes she's learned from over 10 years of research in Rhode Island and look forward to new research directions in coming years.


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Thursday, May 17, 2018 10:11 AM
After a decade of build-up, the Marvel movies finally climax in Infinity War
in Comics | Television and Movies | Movie Reviews by MegaBearsFan
Movie audiences were all pleasantly surprised when the ensemble cast of Avengers all came together to make a pretty damned good movie. There was genuine anxiety regarding whether that movie could possibly successfully bring four movies' worth of superheroes together into a single movie, and manage to give everybody enough valuable screen time to make the whole thing work. Similarly, there was considerably anxiety regarding whether or not Marvel could double-down and pull off an ensemble of ensembles for the mega-crossover Infinity War. But at this point, I think we've all moved past any expectation that Marvel will screw up, and we all just assume that they're going to find a way to magically make it all work.
I had to wait a couple weeks to find out. I had planned to see the movie the Monday after release and have this review out two weeks ago, but fate conspired against that. Towards the end of the trailers, somebody pulled the fire alarm in the building, forcing the theater to evacuate. It was a false alarm, but by the time they let everyone back in, it was too late and the movie wouldn't be over in time to pick up the kids from KidsQuest before they closed for the night. Ah well. My girlfriend finally got sick of having to hush her students whenever they started talking about the movie, so she dragged me out to the theater earlier this week.
The sheer volume of characters, content, and punches here does make Infinity War one of the more unbalanced of Marvel's movies. It is after all, weaving a complex tapestry of superhero action, science fiction, and magical fantasy, and there's virtually no set-up or development for the characters. This movie is all climax all the time. It's probably the first Marvel movie that really requires that you have seen most of the lead-up material. There simply isn't enough time here to introduce who everyone is and what their deal is. If you haven't seen at least one film featuring each character, you'll likely be lost with regard to who they are. Guardians of the Galaxy, Civil War, and Ragnarok are pretty much essential prerequisite viewing. You can skip Ant Man though, as he's conspicuously absent from this particular compilation piece.
Infinity War is an ensemble of ensembles.
This movie would probably fail miserably if it were a typical super-hero movie focused around the heroes and their struggle (and failure) to beat the bad guy. Marvel knows well enough to not try to replicate The Empire Strikes Back. Instead, Infinity War is much more about the bad guy. Thanos is pretty much the main character here, and a great deal of time and effort is paid to trying to make him as relatable and understandable of a villain as possible. He is characterized with nuance, he's clever, he's ruthless, and he's consistent in his goals and ambition. Whether or not you sympathize with his point of view will, of course, depend on where you stand on the topic of universal genocide. Josh Brolin's Thanos does, however, have some pretty definitive swagger and charisma. His CG monstrosity has a lot of screen presence. It's too bad that the CG isn't always completely convincing though.
Because the bad guy is basically the main character (and protagonist), the entire narrative arc of the movie is almost the inverse of what you'd usually expect. The bad guys show up to create the dramatic stakes and sense of threat with aplomb, as expected. But instead of the rising action being a series of setbacks for the heroes with a climactic victory at the end, the heroes seem to come together and get everything mostly under control for the middle act of the movie, only to have it all go to shit when the climax arrives. Instead of the good guys losing in the end, the movie is framed as the bad guy wins in the end -- a subtle, but significant difference!
Thanos is the main character of this movie, and the dramatic and emotional arcs revolve around him.
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Tags:Avengers, Avengers: Infinity War, Marvel, Marvel Comics, Disney, McGuffin, Josh Brolin, Thanos, Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, Loki, Starlord, Gamora, Groot, Rocket Racoon, Drax, Black Panther, Wakanda, Winter Soldier, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, Infinity Stone, Infinity Gauntlet, space, magic, comic book
Monday, December 5, 2016 01:40 PM
I am skeptical of Doctor Strange's skepticism
When I reviewed Captain America: Civil War, I said that "the Marvel cinematic universe may be starting to collapse under its own weight". I probably should have said that "it's starting to buckle under its own weight", since Marvel is still a ways off from anything that resembles collapse. That movie also got better upon repeat viewings, but I feel much the same about the recently-released Doctor Strange. In much the same way that I had suspected that Suicide Squad must have taken place years (or decades) prior to Dawn of Justice, I had also assumed that Doctor Strange must have occurred (at least partly) prior to the events of the first Avengers movie.
The story of Doctor Strange is, after all, essentially a Doubting Thomas story. That would be fine if Doctor Strange were a stand-alone movie, but a Doubting Thomas story is a really difficult thing to buy into within the Marvel cinematic universe. By the beginning of the movie, Stephen Strange (who lives in New York) must surely be aware of (and possibly have first-hand experience with) superhumans since the events of the first Avengers movie. In a world in which the literal Norse God of Thunder Thor has descended from the mystical plane of Asgard, to team up with a gamma-powered Hulk and a super soldier frozen since World War II, to defend New York from an inter-dimensional alien invasion, can you really be all that skeptical of astral projection, alternate dimensions, or even blatant magic?
Avengers Tower is clearly visible.
If Doctor Strange's car accident and physical therapy took place long before the events of the first Avengers, then this skepticism would be excusable. If Strange spent years at Kamar Taj learning magic, while oblivious to the events of the Avengers movies, Winter Soldier, and Civil War, then that would be a satisfactory explanation for his ignorance. But I don't think that's the case. Doctor Strange was tight-lipped when it came to references to the other Marvel movies (potentially for this very reason), but Avengers Tower still shows up in the skyline, and I'm pretty sure there were references to the other super heroes in the first half of the movie. In fact, I'm pretty sure that Strange gets a phone call asking if he'd be willing to treat an Air Force colonel who broke his spine in experimental armor. This must surely be a reference to Rhodes' accident in Civil War.
Strange is asked if he'd be willing to treat Colonel Rhodes after injuries sustained in Civil War.
Maybe I'm being nitpicky, but buy-in is important in fantastical movies like this. But it's hard to buy into Stephen Strange, and it certainly doesn't help that he's an abrasive ass hole and isn't very likeable at the start of the movie...
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Tags:Doctor Strange, Marvel, Marvel Comics, Mordo, Kaecilius, the Ancient One, Dormammu, magic, Kamar Taj, astral projection, mysticism, skepticism, Doubting Thomas, Benedict Cumberbatch, Mads Mikkelsen, Avengers
Monday, August 1, 2016 08:45 AM
The Nameless King defies conventional Dark Souls boss strategies
in Video Gaming | Strategy by MegaBearsFan
The best strategies for defeating bosses in the Souls games typically involves staying as close as you possibly can to the boss, circling around to their backside, stabbing them in the butt, and rolling under their attacks when necessary. A few bosses in the series will break this convention and force the player to have to find different ways of defeating them. Dark Souls III has one particular boss that makes this go-to strategy almost completely futile. If you're able to circle-strafe around the feet of the King of the Storm boss in Archdragon Peak and then still beat it, then I am impressed.
The Nameless King and his storm drake require a different strategy than the typical Dark Souls boss.
Why you should keep your distance
The King of the Storm is one of the rare bosses in the series that actually requires the player to keep your distance from the boss and avoid getting in too close. There are actually quite a few reasons for this, but there are two that stand out as making this boss particularly frustrating for any player who tethers themselves to the boss's feet. The first is that you'll end up forcing yourself into battle with the most ever-present of Souls games' most formidable foes: the camera. Locking onto the enemy is impossible when directly below him, and so you won't be able to see any of what he is doing. He also moves very quickly and can cover a lot of space, so you'll end up spending a lot of time having to micro-manage the camera as you try to manually keep it focused on the dragon.
The second reason is that the dragon has a potent defense against this sort of strategy: its fire breath. If you hang around under the dragon's belly, it won't wait too long before flying up into the air and unleashing an area of effect fire breath attack that can often mean certain death if you get caught in it. Even a health bar that stretches most of the way across the screen can be more than halved simply by being hit with this attack. But that isn't the worst of it. The attack will also knock the player prone, but the fire spray also persists long enough that it can frequently trigger a second hit once you stand up. This second hit will almost certainly kill you.
Getting caught in this flying fire breath attack means almost certain death.
These two reasons should be enough to keep you out from under the dragon, but there are other reasons why keeping your distance is the better option....
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Tags:Dark Souls, Dark Souls III, FromSoftware, Namco/Bandai, Archdragon Peak, Nameless King, King of the Storm, dragon, swordspear, magic, lightning, Lightning Spear, miracle, fire, camera, lore, God of War
Friday, July 24, 2015 01:55 AM
Skyrim is the greatest time sink of a console generation
in Video Gaming | Game Reviews by MegaBearsFan
Skyrim is one of the biggest names of this console generation. It's already earned the status of "classic" in some circles. It's over three years old now, and I've been playing it (and its DLC) on my PS3 off and on for much of that time. I've been wanting to write a review, but I just never felt that I had progressed far enough into the game to have a full idea of its overall quality. Considering how long the game's been out, and how successful it's been both critically and commercially, this is more of a retrospective than a true review, since I'm not going to influence anybody's purchase decision. All I can do at this point is talk about what I think he game did right, and what it did wrong, so that future games can hopefully improve on the formula.
After years of playing, I've finally made enough progress with various characters to feel comfortable writing a review. With the recent rumors that Fallout 4 may reuse Skyrim's engine, I feel that this review actually has some relevance still.
The game also includes DLC, which I have reviewed separately in a another post.
The engine finally works! … Mostly …
It seems like Bethesda's open-world game engine is finally maturing. It's still a little rough around the edges and has its fair share of bugs and glitches (particularly pertaining to companion characters and home customization), but I was amazed when I realized that, for the first time with a Bethesda RPG, I had been playing the game for weeks without needing to consult the online wiki to find a work-around for a glitch that rendered any characters missing, quests inaccessible, or items missing! With Oblivion and the two Fallout games, it didn't take more than a few hours of gameplay to start running into such glitches.
The large, open world is finally stable enough to be more fun than frustrating.
My roommate actually had a game-breaking glitch that prevented him from saving after the initial character creation (including auto-saves), so he lost a whole Saturday afternoon's worth of progress and had to restart the game. That one was a doozy, and admittedly the worst bug that I've experienced so far in any Bethesda game! But these problems have been the exception rather than the norm.
So that's one big check mark in Skyrim's favor compared to previous Bethesda games!
Removing level-scaling makes leveling a reward rather than a punishment
Believe it or not, it wasn't the frequency of glitches that deterred me from finishing Oblivion; it was the level-scaling system. On paper it seemed like a good idea. Leveling up the enemies, quests, and loot so that the game is consistently challenging and rewards are consistently worthwhile sure sounded like a good idea!
Oblivion's level-scaling resulted in a world overrun by trolls, glass-armored bandits, and Daedra.
But in practice, it turned out to be completely ruinous. Leveling felt more like a punishment than a reward, as everything in the world also became progressively harder. This issue was compounded by the poor balance between different classes. If you weren't leveling your combat skills, and had created a class built around - say - Mercantile, Athletics, and Acrobatics then you could easily over-level early in the game simply by walking around and talking to NPCs, only to get slaughtered in the first Oblivion gate because the enemies were stronger than you and you couldn't talk your way out of the fight.
Skyrim fortunately, does not retain Oblivion's strict level-scaling feature.
Some quests, enemies, and loot are scaled, but most things are not (or they're only slightly scaled). Now, bandits are always just bandits, overpowering enemies start the game overpowered, and the world does not suddenly become exclusively populated by trolls and Daedra halfway through the game. "Dungeon bosses" do seem to scale with the character's level. As you start going up in levels, you'll start to notice that the grunts in the dungeons are trivial to fight and leave worthless loot. You'll actually feel like all that leveling has paid off! Then you get to the "boss" at the end of the dungeon and might get your ass handed to you and have to reload several times.
Hard areas should be hard, and easy areas should be easy. It's just mildly annoying that this game gives you no indication which it's going to be until you're already a mile underground, and the difficulty varies wildly - even within a single dungeon crawl.
Most ambient encounters aren't scaled to the player's level, so bandits always remain just bandits.
Removing the class skills frees up the player to develop whatever skills he or she needs without the compulsion to micro-manage leveling class skills versus non-class skills. Character development feels much more natural and organic, and you can change your specialization at any time if circumstances change ...
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Tags:The Elder Scrolls, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Skyrim, Bethesda, RPG, action, fantasy, open world, dragon, dragonborn, magic, user interface, NPC, AI
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Welcome to Mega Bears Fan's blog, and thanks for visiting! This blog is mostly dedicated to game reviews, strategies, and analysis of my favorite games. I also talk about my other interests, like football, science and technology, movies, and so on. Feel free to read more about the blog.
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I actually like playing the preseason in Madden10/07/2019 If you've already read my review of Madden 20 on my personal blog, then you know that I consider this year's release to be a massive disappointment. In fact, the last Madden entry that I actually liked was probably Madden 17. Despite my misgivings about this year's game, I do want to start off by talking about something in recent...
A dislocated shoulder wont stop me!
Comments: 0Not rated yet
The Mandalorian is built on sounder logic than recent Star Wars
Comments: 0Rating: 5.0 [1]
"Contact" link not working
Kojima validates my years-long criticisms of open world games in Death Stranding
Moral and ethical decisions in Cities Skylines?
Fishing for Cities Skylines expansion ideas: holidays?
UNLV will break in the Raiders' new stadium with a new head coach
'Civilization V' strategy: Enrico Dandolo blindly manages Brave New World's only playable City-State
Comments: 4Rating: 4.9 [13]
Is Endgame's ending a lot worse than you think?
Assuming you won't miss the Economic Victory, 'Fame and Fortune' is an excellent expansion to the 'Civilization' board game
Ace Combat 7 is an aerial dog-fighter with actual level design?!
Is Pyramid Head a rapist?
Comments: 27Rating: 4.1 [25]
Resident Evil 2 remake on PS4 blocks streaming and share if HDR is enabled
'Cold Heart': the Silent Hill Wii game that could have been...
Singing along with another Beatle!07/24/2017 We got to see Paul McCartney perform live in the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa. This past weekend, I got to cross something off my bucket list. My girlfriend and I traveled to Des Moines, Iowa to see Paul McCartney in concert. I had already seen Ringo Starr and his All-Star Band perform in Vegas, so seeing Paul means...
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Single and dating in a large city sounds like a most romantic idea. Just look at the numbers. So many to choose from. The reality is that it's not so easy, so romantic or filled with ongoing choices. Being 50+ and single and dating in a city like New York may have its own daunting feelings. It is easy to feel alone in a crowd.
One of the issues is the anonymity. Often people don't know their own neighbors. They may ride the train every day, maybe with some of the same people, but no one dares talk with each other.
So how to meet someone? How to find a date, a travel buddy, companion? There are stories of people meeting while choosing peaches at the produce department. Great stories. Getting fixed up by someone at the office? This can be really great. (This is how my husband and I met). But this can also be a disaster. (Why I almost cancelled that first date).
Guess this is why online dating is becoming the number one way to meet people. From the comfort of you own electronic device you can scout out possible people to date, knowing that the profiles you're looking at are persons that are interested in being contacted. You can review characteristics that might be immediate turn-offs; just go to the next profile. It's certainly less embarrassing then saying "next" while talking to someone at a singles bar.
We at BoomerPremierDating.com would really love to hear about your thoughts about online dating in the Big Apple…or any large city.
Elaine Rodino, PhD., is CEO of Senior Premier Dating LLC, is a licensed psychologist in private practice. She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA), Pennsylvania Psychological Association and the Los Angeles Society of Clinical Psychologists. Dr. Rodino is a past president of the APA Divisions of Independent Practice, The Society for Media Psychology and Technology, Central Pennsylvania Psychological Association, Los Angeles County Psychological Association (LACPA), the Foundation of LACPA, and recipient of the Distinguished Lifetime Contribution to Media Psychology Award, and the Distinguished Service Award to LACPA. She has appeared on T.V. and radio and contributes to magazines, newspapers and online health sites on issues regarding Couples, Relationships, Sandwich Generation, Holiday Blues, and other popular topics.


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Fame: The Musical
2005 Tour for Fame 200 Ltd , New Theatre Cardiff , January-28-05
This review first appeared in the Western mail....
Alan Parker's 1980 zietgeist movie has a lot to answer for - not only an inescapable and seemingly interminable spin-off tv series but Fame Academy, plus the subsequent glorified talent shows spawned by the mating of that bastard child of the original movie with reality tv, and the perpetually reinvented Fame The Musical.
This is not to be confused with Fame The Movie or indeed Fame The Real Thing, settling uneasily as this does between the original concept of the film and a hyped-up showcase for performance wannabees, having none of the qualities of either the film musical or the fascination of Fame Academy.
Fame, the film that started it all was, you may recall, a fresh outsider's look at New York's vibrant multiculturalism and the subversion of the American Dream - English director Parker was clearly bedazzled by American urban street culture and how at least in Manhattan's School For the Performing Arts there was a kind of democracy that encouraged people from all ethnic and economic backgrounds to fulfil their potential. The most stunning scene in the film was, after all, when the students took their new-found liberty literally onto the street with a great music and dance number that became a classic (and reminds us that what made it such an exciting film was not just the theme but the choreography and editing).
If you expect any of that sharpness or politics or sense of celebration from Fame The Musical you will be disappointed. All that's left from that radical original is the setting and a kind of token message about equality - and a repeated version of the title song, the only music to survive from Michael Gore's film score.
Instead we have a series of mini-scenes, each with its own number, generally performed, it must be said, with guts and enthusiasm albeit also with distorted amplification. Set in the Eighties (in the years after the Fame movie), there's maybe a touch of nostalgia or retro fascination, depending on your age, and there's a self-confidence about the production that only years of repetition can induce – and, yes, I was one of the few not on their feet at the end.
The modern dancing, I am assured by a companion who knows these things, is of a pretty high standard, and the lead Craig Styne is impressive - if only he hadn't given up acting after the first scene and maintained his energy through to the end. I wish, too, we'd heard more of Janet Kumah, who belted out a soul number with passion, especially welcome in view of the boring musical score.
It is a musical so maybe we shouldn't be surprised that there is not only no content but no storyline as such, superficial characterisation and a clunky script that is at times embarrassing in its trivialness, so that when something serious is introduced, like a narcotics tragedy, it jars rather than moves. But as a fan of musicals I may not be surprised but I am annoyed because it doesn't have to be so.
And as for progressive ideas - well, an early number is an uncomfortably crude rampant paean to priapism, the idea that a student might be gay is greeted with astonishment, and indeed every relationship in the show is unambiguously heterosexual (which is not only rather homophobic but ridiculously unrealistic in this setting).
But that isn't why audiences flock to every repackaging of this show - it's a ritual performed without any real anticipation of surprise or quality, where the appeal of the original is lost in the mists of time and where an umpteenth reproduction is not going to be bought for its authenticity.
Indeed, quite who's responsible is difficult to tell - this is the 2005 Tour for Fame 200 Ltd, the programme tells us, restaged by Karen Bruce after the original London Production directed by Runar Borge after the original production at the Coconut Grove Theatre, presented by Adam Spiegel and Mark Goucher by permission of Josef Weinberger Limited on behalf of Music Theatre International of New York, conceived and developed by David de Silva...and no mention of the film.
Reviewed by: David Adams
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