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Roop Kanwar's sati greeted with shock across India, Deorala became a place of worship
Roop Kanwar's turning sati was greeted with shock across the nation but for local villagers, Deorala became a place of worship overnight. The scathing public criticism finally forced a paralysed Rajasthan Government to act, even if belatedly.
INDERJIT BADHWAR
ISSUE DATE: October 15, 1987
UPDATED: December 18, 2013 12:20 IST
A wedding portrait of Mai Singh and Roop Kanwar
Roop Kanwar's sati in Rajasthan has become a national controversy and the Government has been sharply criticised for not condemning it and taking timely action. Features Editor Inderjit Badhwar visited Deorala village for an on-the-spot report:
A corpse being burnt on a funeral pyre is a gruesome spectacle. Even the staunchest are often unable to bear the sight and turn away. But the hundreds of villagers of Deorala village in Rajasthan's Sikar district, barely three hours away from the state capital, who watched the sati - the burning of a live 18-year-old Roop Kanwar along with her husband's corpse - saw nothing horrific. They saw only - and will repeat this under the severest of oaths - a calm and smiling Roop Kanwar, sitting with her husband's head cradled in her lap, showering blessings and benedictions on the crowds while chanting the Gayatri mantra. And she did not lose this serenity even when the fire consumed her torso and flames enveloped her neck. Then she fell forward. The eyewitnesses, so far, produce no other testimony.
crowds at the sati sthal: glorifying an atrocity
They saw, perhaps, only what they wanted to see. But how much was really visible in the heat, smoke and dust of the moment is impossible to say because no objective observers were present. And the near maniacal frenzy that accompanies a sati makes rational observation difficult. Sword-wielding youth circumambulate the pyre, screaming sati mata ki jai until the cry is taken up by the throngs. The crowds beat loud warlike rhythms on nagara drums and blow on conch shells, while the pundits chant mantras.
Once the ceremony is over, the sacrificed woman is consecrated as a goddess and the funeral spot becomes a shrine. Henceforth no one can refer to her by her name. She is either "satiji" or "sati mata," immortalised for her "balidaan" and courage.
According to preliminary official reports and accounts given by friends and relatives, Roop Kanwar's sati was voluntary. She had been married for seven months to Mal Singh, a B.Sc. student who lived with his family - his father is, surprisingly, a schoolteacher - in Deorala. The wedding took place with much pomp and splendour in Jaipur's Transport Nagar where her father runs a trucking business. Roop Kanwar was a matriculate and, on the surface, did not appear to be a conservative Rajput girl.
Even her wedding picture shows her without the traditional ghoonghat, a gesture of modernity. But to the women who knew her in Deorala, she was devoutly religious. Says Bai Ram, a sanyasin in the village: "She did four hours of pooja paath every day, especially that of the goddess Rani Sati. She read the Geeta and chanted from the Hanuman Chalisa. Her in-laws used to call her their Lakshmi."
Roop Kanwar had been back but three days from a visit to her parents in Jaipur when Mal Singh took ill with stomach pains and vomiting on the night of September 2. The following day his parents, Roop Kanwar and his brother, Mangej Singh, took him to a hospital in Sikar. He appeared to get better, so the wife and mother returned to the village that night. But at 8 a.m. on September 4, Mal Singh died and about two hours later, his body arrived at Deorala.
According to Pooran Singh, a first cousin, Roop Kanwar was praying when her husband's corpse was laid beside her. "She showed no sign of sorrow. She continued praying and even asked me to take her sobbing mother-in-law into another room. Then she announced that she had decided that her soul would be united with her husband's," he said, adding that several relatives tried to dissuade her from her course but she simply told them that to oppose her would subject them to the risk of a sati shraap (a feared curse upon those who oppose a sati).
Mementoes of superimposed photographs of Roop Kanwar on the funeral pyre sold at Deoraia: brisk business
Word quickly spread through the village that Roop Kanwar had decided to become a sati and several village elders and holy men went to test her to see whether she had the true sat within her. According to mythology not every woman can qualify as a sati and the sat comes only rarely to chosen women. Convinced that the sat had indeed come to her, the village elders, including her in-laws, gave Roop Kanwar their blessings. She then changed into her wedding finery and took a tour of the village with a coconut in hand and a funeral entourage in tow.
Hundreds had already gathered at the Rajput shamshaan ghat a hundred yards away from her home. For 15 minutes, the villagers say, she circumambulated the pyre. Says Tej Singh Shekhawat: "We kept telling her that it was getting too late and the police might arrive but she signalled us to be patient. Then she climbed on to the pyre and her husband's head was laid in her lap." Mal Singh's younger brother Puspendra Singh, 15, lit the pyre. But the fire didn't catch. And according to the account of one villager, at this point Roop Kanwar fell off the pyre with her feet scorched and had to be helped back on it. Meanwhile, just about every household in the Rajput section off the village began to bring pails of ghee and douse the smoking wood until it burst into flames. By 1.30 p.m. it was all over - the second successful 'sati in the village after 70 years.
The incident, with the massive social acceptance, even approbation, it has received, would probably not have attracted much national attention, were it not for the sustained opposition from women's groups in the state. Sati is illegal and those connected with it are liable for prosecution for murder under Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code. On September 6, women activists tried to meet Chief Minister Harideo Joshi to demand prosecution but were turned down. In fact, Home Minister Gulab Singh Shekhawat even described the incident as a purely religious matter and directions were sent from the state capital that the police should maintain a hands-off posture and not interfere with any of the post-sati ceremonies.
The villagers say they have been blessed. But the reality is that a woman was burnt alive before cheering crowds.
Even though a head constable from the neighbouring Dhoi police station arrived at the scene an hour later and lodged an FIR himself - because he was unable to get any witnesses to do so - the first arrest in the case, that of Puspendra Singh, was made only on September 9. But for this, the state Government appeared paralysed between September 4 and September 16, the day of the chunari mahotsava when relatives - including Roop Kanwar's father, Bal Singh Rathor, who was told of the sati only after it was over - consecrated the pyre by pouring Ganga jal and milk and wrapping a Rs 4,000 chunari over a trishul planted at the spot. Nearly two lakh people from all over the country visited the sati sthal that day.
Two days earlier, hundreds of women had marched in protest in Jaipur demanding that the chunari mahotsava should not be allowed to take place. They even obtained a high court order directing the state Government to ensure that no public function or ceremony would be held at the place where sati had been committed as this would glorify the institution.
Roop Kanwar's father (left) and father-in-law (centre);
But the situation had already gone out of hand. As one state official put it: "The thing to have done was to arrest all the guilty immediately after the fir was lodged and seal off the spot. Trying to stop the ceremonies later on would have meant a massive loss of lives." On the night of September 4, some 5,000 people from nearby villages had already gathered at Deorala. The crowds swelled to 50,000 within the next three days.
By the time the chunari ceremony was held, close to five lakh people had visited the spot - and donated about Rs 30 lakh to a newly-formed sati committee which was planning to erect a monument there. And among the teeming millions who visited the spot and sought the sati mata's blessings were some well known politicians, notably Janata Party leader, Kalyan Singh Kalvi; D.S. Shekhawat, joint secretary of the state's Congress committee; Hari Ram Khara, a BJP MLA: and Lok Dal MLA, R.P. Yadav.
The state Government decided to act decisively on the night of September 18, the eve of Union Minister of State P. Chidambaram's visit to Jaipur. It announced the transfer of District Magistrate K.M. Sahay and Superintendent of Police A.K. Saxena. During his day-long visit to Jaipur, Chidambaram met women's groups and assured them that the Government would not allow the building of any temple on the site.
People peer into the room she shared with Mai Singh; blind superstition
On the same day, the police arrested Sumer Singh, Roop Kanwar's father-in-law; Mangesh Singh, his brother: Bhupender Singh, 10, the deceased husband's brother: Bansi Dhar, the barber who shaved the family's heads before the ceremony, and Babu Lal, the priest, who performed the last rites. Bhupender Singh and his brother Puspendra have been remanded to juvenile homes.
But even after the arrests, Deorala wears a festive look. Since the sati, commerce has boomed in and around the village. Sand dunes, which mark the entrance into this semi-arid habitation of some 15,000 people, are lined with shops selling sweetmeats, bangles and mementoes commemorating the sati.
The Government first viewed sati as a religious matter and only acted two weeks later to arrest family members.
The most popular is a superimposed colour photograph of Mal Singh with his head on the lap of Roop Kanwar for Rs 12. The original price was Rs 7 but it went as high as Rs 20 on the day of the chunari mahotsava when more than 30,000 reproductions were sold. And still, some 5,000 people continue to visit the sati sthal daily. The villagers believe they have been blessed.
Nearby, Roop Kanwar's house has become a museum. In the verandah hangs a huge wedding portrait of her and Mal Singh. In the room where she had reportedly decided to become a sati, lies the red and silver sari she wore before changing her clothes for the last time. On the floor a diya flickers day and night.
Jaipur women picketing against proposed chunari rnahotsav
Despite this, Deorala, peopled by Rajputs, Heers, Yadavs, Meenas and Nais is, by most standards, a progressive village. It has seven schools, a dispensary, a Sankrit vidyalaya, a pukka panchayat samiti building and Rajput Sabha Bhawan. Its residents proudly circulate a pamphlet entitled Sati hona samaaj ke liye gaurav (a sati does society proud) which says that sati is engrained in the Hindu religion as a manifestation of devashakti and that the three most famous sati matas - Savitri, Anusuya, and Padmini - are worshipped all over the land. The pamphlet excoriates the Government for considering this "religious practice" a criminal offense.
And the residents bristle at any suggestion that Roop Kanwar may have been forcibly burnt. Says Tej Singh, a witness: "We do not burn brides for dowry. If a woman is forced or she tries to jump off the pyre then she is not considered a sati and no one will worship her.
Rajputs protesting government interference: divided opinion
After all she's from a well-educated family. Could this kind of woman have been forced? And there are hundreds of widows here whose husbands died even before there were pension schemes. Why were they not forced? She was a woman who believed her husband was a god and there could be no life for her without him. "
"If she was dragged," says Banwar Kunwar, a widow present at the sati, "we would have protested. I often wonder why I didn't go with my husband 10 years ago. This is because she had shakti and I didn't. The call comes from God." When asked why no one stopped the sati on humanitarian grounds, the villagers say in a single voice that to try and stop a self-willed sati invites the horrors of a sati shraap under which entire families and villages are destroyed.
Women activists feel that some Rajput women are driven to sati because widows are treated as social outcastes.
Roop Kanwar's real thoughts, her secrets, are burnt with her. All that remains is myth and superstition. Whether she was forced or went voluntarily, the stark and brutal reality is that a woman barely out of adolescence was burnt alive before cheering, applauding, frenzied crowds in 20th century India and has now become the basis of a highly profitable religious worship. And not for the first time. The state, indeed, sanctions sati. One of the biggest melas - and a state holiday - is the Rani Sati mela in Jhunjhunnu where even the Government puts up stalls. A smaller fair glorifying sati is held at Khandel in Jaipur district.
As Dr Hemlata Prabhu, principal of Canodia College, Jaipur, points out: "This is but one more form of glorifying crimes against women. It is not a religious issue. An entire village has benefited financially because of this act.
The curious and the faithful flock to Deorala by the bus-load
The lesson we are teaching here is that you can economically upgrade a village by burning a woman." By and large, some Rajput women are driven to sati because life as a widow is difficult. The widow is branded a kulakshini, an evil woman who has gobbled up her husband. She is not allowed to go out for years, wears only deep blue clothes and is the last member of a household to be fed.
Says Pritam, a woman activist in the village: "A widow has to ask herself whether she should commit suicide as a sati on her husband's pyre or at a later date. It is not easy." Adds Dr Sadhna Jain: "Because the woman's entire personality is structured around her husband's identity, she believes there ca n be no life after his death. It is a terrible trauma. A widow who remarries is often considered a worse social outcaste than a woman who commits adultery." And in a recent survey where Pritam asked several women whether they would commit sati if given the same rights as men, the universal answer was no.
Rajput youths guard the pyre: deifying a woman
In its most fundamental form, sati is but one more form of crimes against women. It is outright cruelty masquerading as religion. In not enforcing the law speedily in Deorala and letting the post-sati celebrations burgeon into a national festival, the Government has revealed yet again its pitiful inability to contain the forces of social fundamentalism. And there are ominous signs ahead.
The residents of the area are already talking about a sangharsh samiti that will fight the recently issued orders prohibiting the construction of a temple at the sati site. As in the case of the Muslim Women's Bill, this could become yet another obscurantist clarion call for political non-interference in religious personal law. The losers, once again, will be women. And the forces of progress.
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Politics over delay in Nirbhaya's rapists, BJP and AAP trade charges


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Review: 'HNDRXX'
Braylon Fernandez, Staff writer
With the second project in two weeks, Future delivers yet another top selling album but this time with a different tone. Future had only two features on "HNDRXX": The Weeknd and Rihanna.
Future backed away from his usual trap-style music and went for a more modern pop sound. He focused more on the meaning of the song and his lyrics, and many feel as if he is trying to change the way people view him, despite this being the first time Future has sang and used a lot of autotune. The album still had a very good flow and Future did not sing too much.The album has great vibes; I can see myself listening to it when driving around late at night or just hanging out with my friends but not much else.
"HNDRXX" has its moments where it shows great potential, but there are still flaws. While listening to the album, I could not tell when the song changed because they all sounded the same. Future is a trap artist who produces great music; he is not a Tory Lanez who sings about hardship. In some tracks like "Incredible" and "Damage" you can tell he threw the songs in the album just to make it 17 songs long. Future is one of my favorite artists, but it disappointed me that he went away from his roots and tried to mimic what's popular right now. With the upcoming "Nobody Safe Tour," I'm sure Future will still perform some of the songs from "HNDRXX" but most of the tour will be old classics and songs from his other self-titled album "Future."
"HNDRXX" has great vibes, but that still does not make up for the lack of variety. One of the greatest trap artists, Future's new album shows how his fans are extremely loyal, despite him backing away from his roots. Future is rumored to release yet another album soon, and I hope he goes back to his trap style music because he is one of the top artist in the genre. I give this album a B.
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Late October. Such an exciting time of transition. This is when everything really starts looking different in Oklahoma and when we officially trade our summertime pool parties for blanket-wrapped bonfires. This week marks the uphill climb to that first tall peak of the roller coaster known as The Holidays.
I groove hostessing. Maybe you call it entertaining or simply having people over. I straight up love opening The Lazy W to friends and family, sometimes my husband's professional colleagues, even strangers. We indulge in this pretty often and for a wide variety of reasons. In fact, if ever too much time seems to be passing between special occasions, you can bet that I am thinking up an excuse to invite people here. Lots of different personalities living and breathing in this house, all over the farm really, eating and laughing and infusing these walls with their Love and energy, it's what keeps this place alive. Luckily Handsome is on board with my passion for people about 87% of the time. That other 13%? I can usually bridge that gap with something chocolate. Like this.
But with the holidays so close upon us, reasons and excuses to gather are about to be plentiful.
This weekend we will dress up in costumes and share sweet treats, maybe attend a few parties and then sleep one extra hour Sunday morning. Handsome will be Batman, of course, the best Batman in all the land. I will be at least four different characters to go alongside Batman, taking photos of him with random strangers. My costume criteria is always twofold: How much have I been running lately and not eating tortilla chips- can I pull this off? And also- will it leave me free to be Batman's fans' photographer? haha Yeah, we are definitely excited about Halloween this year!
Actually I am looking forward to all the holidays this year! The gathering spirit has got me tight in its happy grasp. To me, preparing the farm for people is all about this: Love. Why are we gathering, and how can I set the stage for Love to move freely between us? How can this event, whatever it is, meet needs and make memories for everyone? So the details of that are pretty simple: atmosphere, food, and comfort.
ATMOSPHERE, LIKE NATURAL BLOOMS & PAPER DECOR: I love wild color around the house all year long, and when given a choice I will go for natural decor like real trees and indoor plants and flowers. So for the wintertime holidays that means forcing bulbs, for one thing. This year, in addition to paper whites and amaryllis I will force some more colorful stuff, and it's very exciting! At the Master Gardeners meeting next week, they are selling flower bulbs to members only and I cannot wait to see what they offer. Bring on the tulips and hyacinths!! The cozier months mean lots of yarn and tissue paper crafts, too. These are soft and inviting in any room, plus they are a relaxing way to keep my hands busy during movie marathons.
THEMES Some of the themed parties we threw this past year were Oscars Night, Pizza and Board Games, Car Show Pinup (that was my husband's surprise 40th birthday), and Fiesta. Each of these was a fully developed, top to bottom, inside and out themed party that just made us so happy. I love starting with the invitation and carrying the idea through food and drink, music, decorations, and activities. For the wintertime holidays, we will likely go for a cookie exchange, a a chili cook off, some Dirty Santa fun, and more.
Our friend Joe filling out his ballot at last year's Oscars party. Fun!
FOOD Ahh, wintertime diet, you are so good and so bad. I foresee lots of baking. Lots of biscotti, lots of homemade chicken pot pie and chicken and dumplins, a pot of red beans and rice here and there, so much bone-warming food. We can totally throw homemade pizza parties in wintertime,too! Thank goodness for my new treadmill.
Our friend Jason crafting his pizza masterpiece. We had an exciting tornado that night and ended the evening playing Cards Against Humanity. My gosh. FUN.
SNOW, maybe ICE All the almanac-type signs point to a snowier than usual winter in Oklahoma this year, so I am looking forward to lots of snowman building, snow angel making, snow ice cream, bonfires, fireplace chats, you name it. Snow is gonna be a fun excuse to cozy up and talk closely with people we love. And our buffalo told me he is ready.
SPEAKING OF PEOPLE Who to invite, and how to get them here? We are super blessed to move in several interesting circles of friends. Sometimes these circles overlap naturally, and sometimes we cause them to overlap, and this is always fun and interesting. We have some wonderful, beloved local family, too, so gathering people at the farm is pretty easy. Usually it's just a matter of how to spread the word? Until now I have always just texted folks or mocked up a silly Facebook event page.
But recently I discovered Paperless Post and cannot wait to dive in! I am such a sucker for themed-out events, and this just looks so fun. They offer a huge variety of styles and prices; in fact browse just the free stuff and you'll be blown away by the selection. It's actually dangerous for a person like me, who is always looking for an excuse to gather her people together, because just seeing a pretty invite sparks ideas for new events. haha I mean click on this one, for example. Hilarious! Check out all of their creative invitations right here. I literally explored for half an hour. SO much fun!
Paperless Post can print your holiday cards, too, and I think I'll try that this year. Nobody warn my husband, but I think we will have our portrait made soon. We will wear matching khakis and white shirts and big red holiday bows on our necks, and our new puppy will be stage center. Obviously. Or no, scratch that. We will wear acid washed denim and carry bow-staffs. Yes.
Anyway, three cheers for gathering your people! One big extra loud cheer for the holidays and all the Love they bring us. Check out Paperless Post, friends, and let me know which ones you like. I am signing off now to see if any of my Halloween costumes fit.
"Hospitality is present when something happens for you.
It is absent when something happens to you.
Yes, I am pretty sure that's a real word.
who are willing to share their passion.
It's what happened to me last Saturday when a small, cozy group of Oklahoma bloggers convened right here at our little farm for a few hours of chatting, nibbling edibles, and soaking up each others' experiences. It was wonderful in every way.
Honestly, I am still not sure how in the heck I scored an invite since every other woman there has been blogging far longer than me and has established herself in various ways both professionally and in the blogging community. But I am ever so grateful to Kelly from the Red Dirt Chronicles for her thoughtfulness.
Here are Kelly and Dee strolling with cameras and kind words.
Early on in the event's planning stages I stuck my neck out and offered to host, trying to conceal the truth that I just meant to cement my attendance. I mean, eventually someone was bound to realize this *crazy* Lazy W lady was pretending to fit into the "real bloggers" club and then promptly revoke my welcome card. Have you ever seen Catch Me if You Can? Kind of like that. But if I was hosting, well… then my chances for retaining my invite just greatly improved.
Several home made dishes and decadent bakery luxuries filled the table that day.
Anyway, the other eight women who joined in on Saturday were just dazzling in every way. About another eight were invited and had to decline, but I know they would have dazzled me too. I certainly look forward to meeting them eventually.
You may remember that last Saturday was a drop dead gorgeous day in Oklahoma. Bright sunshine, warm skin, cool breezes. As everyone arrived one by one and trickled down the driveway, we mingled outside and fed treats to the animals. Mia the gander bonded suddenly and passionately to Rose, one of the loveliest and warmest people you will ever meet. She has recently revived her blog OKRoserock, and I am so glad she did. Go find her post on International Women's Day!
and moments later Brooke suffered some unwanted aggression from Mia the gander.
I had the very real pleasure of meeting Sonya of Beyond the Screen Door, a woman whose exceptional seamstress work and talent for combining unexpected fabrics has been inspiring me for a long time.
her opinion on a fabric idea for my kitchen.
She is so gracious, I would have ended up taking advantage of her.
Another guest was a kind of local celebrity, Katie from Dishin and Dishes. She is a food blogger who appears weekly on Rise and Shine Oklahoma. She is also in the final stages of writing a book surveying all the best local restaurants in Oklahoma! This will definitely be on my Christmas shopping list next December.
then had lunch together the week after this event!
the gander who chooses people to love.
This day he had his sights on Rose, loud and clear.
Allison is the super energetic talent behind Refunk My Junk. All of her ideas are fresh and pretty, and she makes it seem doable! Love that. If you're in OKC, you can find her wares over at The Feathered Nest. We also discovered that she and Handsome worked for the same big box bank once upon a time. Cool!
and her style really flows over into her blog.
exactly the four seconds she wasn't smiling and making friends!
So sorry, but it's kind of my talent.
Dee is the talent behind the curtain at Red Dirt Ramblings. Her topic of focus is my not so private obsession, gardening… Oooh la la… Plus she has spun her skills and knowledge into a full blown writing career. This is what I am talking about, you guys! These things are actually possible! After some note trading and chatting, Dee and I noticed that her children are attending my high school Alma mater, Mount Saint Mary in south Oklahoma City. Small, beautiful world where we live, huh?
Laura is a young, gorgeous professional who has been stylishly chronicling her home renovations over at The Steen Style. She is one of those women whose smile is bright and whose energy is contagious. In fact, she arrived at the Bloggers' Ball (as it was cheerfully dubbed) with another lovely young woman, Brooke, and we all assumed they were lifelong friends. Not so! They had only met in 3-D that morning, on the way to the Lazy W. How's that for making connections real?
Brooke has been writing Rural Gone Urban for a while and recently launched a brand spankin new site for Chickasaw Country. Very exciting. Now she's writing a children's book, so keep your eye on her!
These ladies showered me lavishly with unnecessary but much appreciated hostess gifts. The funny thing is they didn't know it's also my birthday week, woo-hoo!
After we pressed the clock for every spare minute sharing stories, ideas, questions, and hopes for the future of our little group, everyone said goodbye and drove away from the farm. I was literally stunned into silence. Not the normal post-party fervor or exhaustion, just a wonderful, bizarre sense of possibility.
Possibility for Oklahoma, my heart's homeland.
I could barely speak for about fifteen minutes. See… each of these women started blogging for intensely personal reasons (like me) and each has gradually discovered her voice, mission, and platform in her own unique way. Now they are evolving unapologetically and sharing those mindful resources. Collectively these bloggers were an ocean of knowledge on IT and had a firm grasp on social media, all of which is crazy useful to me. But their greatest gifts were openness and drive.
Kelly's Twitter stream of most quotable remarks during the session was priceless.
"Blog drunk, edit sober." Solid advice, ladies. Solid.
In a nutshell, it was one of those times when life shows you exactly how much you don't know but simultaneously offers you a chance to learn it all. And to learn it through some really delicious connections.
I am whole heartedly looking forward to the next event and expect to see some of you between now and then, too. Thanks again for visiting the Lazy W, thanks for the gifts, thanks for the generous exchanges. Best wishes to everyone this spring and summer!
Birds of a Feather Can Still Be Mighty Different.
If I were a game show, I would want to be Wheel of Fortune. The hosts are never surly, always friendly. And apparently they don't age. The puzzles are workable, not reliant on bizarre trivia or statistical luck. And, most importantly, no contestant goes home empty handed. I just love that. Not because I believe every child needs a trophy for every effort made in life, but because it's just nice. Paying even the least winning contestant a $1,000 parting gift is the game show equivalent of a nice party favor. The best parties send people home with a little summin-summin.
Happy First Anniversary, Book Club!!!
In January of 2011, almost exactly a year ago as I write this, my friend Tina and I decided to start a book club. We each invited one woman to join us, making a group of four. I invited my cousin Emily, and Tina invited her coworker Desiree. It was awesome. Our initial goals were threefold: to get thinky more often, to expose ourselves to a greater variety of literature, and YES to socialize. Because we're girls. We really had no idea how things would go. I mean, January is famous for quickly abandoned though brilliant ideas, right?
for our little Oklahoma Book Club.
Since last January, our group of four has grown to twenty-two. 22. TWENTY-TWO. Veinte y dos. That is a 450% growth rate, you guys. And we didn't advertise or anything; it's all been just by word of mouth. In fact, in late October we made the rather uncomfortable decision to close enrollment due to a potentially unmanageable crowd. Seating and feeding people is one thing; but more importantly, in gigantic crowds we lose the intimacy needed for really satisfying book discussions.
In our first year we devoured eight novels as a group and have shared many hours of great conversation with each other, exploring and debating the content of these selections. We've laughed, we've cried, we've made each other blush. We've challenged our belief systems. Thanks to a Los Angeles book industry hook up we have with one of our members (her name rhymes with Frulia) , we even conducted a telephone interview with Aimee Bender, the author of one of our books! DO YOU KNOW COOL THAT IS?? So cool it's almost awkward.
As suggested by our club name, Dinner Club With a Reading Problem, we also eat. We eat really well. It goes without saying that every one of our gatherings has been a passionately convivial affair, sometimes themed to the book and other times a wild pot luck free-for-all. Even the self-proclaimed kitchen-challenged among us have participated happily, and we've traded fun recipes along the way. Again, because we're girls.
Reading has never been so much fun. We always set attainable deadlines depending on the time of year and most members' life groove at the time, so that no one seees book club as a burden or work. We keep in touch with each other throughout the reading weeks. And we have grown to know each other in deeper ways than you normally do in a casual acquaintance. Hearing a woman's thoughts on a hefty read can reveal incredible things about her life and heart.
So anyway… If you do not yet have a book club, I double dog dare you to start one. It will not cost you much time or money, and what it DOES cost you will return to you tenfold in a rich life experience.
Curious about who we are or what we've read?
Among the group we have 13 children and 4 grandchildren, ranging from infant to college aged.
Roughly one third of our members is married, one of them being half of a Derby Union. More on that another time.
Professions: By coincidence, a different one third of our members is in number-crunching professions. Accountants, analysts, IT whizzes, auditors, etc. Also in the group is a paralegal, a credit union manager, a college student/part time employee/ Mom of two teens, a literary publicist, a hair design student, a computer nerd, a social worker supervisor, a receptionist, a project manager for a major investment house, an oil & gas accounting/ payroll manager, a verification associate, and a dorky farmish blogger. We are a motley crew, and I love it.
By the way, you can find my reviews for most of these books somewhere on this blog.
How Do We Choose Our Books? In the beginning we planned to take turns like nice, polite little ladies. I mean, there were four of us. It was easy. Then throughout the year, as membership grew, we started kind of stabbing in the dark, just sort of brainstorming over plates of food and deciding wildly what to read next.
It was working out alright, but last week we decided to take a slightly more orderly approach in 2012 and draw names two months out, that person being the one to choose our next title. We meet every six weeks, more or less, and we recently started meeting at different places! All of our 2011 events were here at the farm, which I loved dearly, but I also love going to other people's homes, and fortunately our group is overflowing with willing hostesses.
Another member (her name is definitely not Margaret) has been making six hour drives from Austin, Texas to join the fun. Still another member (her name rhymes with Blephanie) reluctantly picked up the burden joy of reading by joining the group for a book she had started three years prior but never finished. And guess what? She not only stuck with us; she hosted the next party!
Personally, I am amazed to discover so much depth and stimulation at such an easy price. The events plan themselves, really, because we are all so eager to see each other and spill our guts about the books. We definitely have found some kind of magic here, and I can see it lasting many years.
So Happy First Anniversary, Ladies!! You have each found a very special place in my heart because of this uncommon adventure. I have thoroughly enjoy getting to know everybody and stretching my reading muscles beyond what I would read on my own. Please stick around… 2012 is going to be incredible!
On New Year's Day I visited my parents' house in Oklahoma City, had a GREAT time all afternoon, and drove back to the farm with my heart full of love. It's always fun to see everyone in our big ol' family, and it turns out that I didn't even leave that early, didn't even miss that much of the party.
Later that evening I did some goofing around on Facebook and saw photos of lots of people on my parents' front porch. People I did not recognize. Sitting in the same deep, reclining wooden bench where I have sat my whole life. Covered up in blankets in which I have been cuddling daughters and nieces for years. I crinkled my face and searched my memory. Not a scrap of a clue as to these crazy weirdo people's identity. Nothing.
"WHO THE HECK ARE THESE YAHOOS?!?!" I may or may not have shouted at my laptop. Then I typed a slightly more polite version of my question on Mom's Facebook page. She never responded, and I can only imagine her shaking her head in disappointment, pursing her sweet mouth and blinking slowly.
The issue has been on the back burner for a couple of days, but the heat has been on. My curiosity, nay, my sense of trespass, has been simmering.
So… Today I went to see my Mom at her office, enjoyed some very sweet chit chat, and was introduced to several of her coworkers. Very nice people. Not strangers at all.
Then the matter of Strangers on the Front Porch was raised. I took a deep breath because anything was possible in that moment. She could be telling me about siblings I never knew I had. Or that she and Dad had taken up Couch Surfing. Or that I was mistaken in my comment typing and that wasn't her Facebook page at all, but rather a different Parents' House Front Porch in an alternate reality or something like that.
Nothing could be further for the truth.
It turns out that Mom was just being Mom. I'd love to tell you what happened.
A work crew installing fencing down the street had hit a high pressure gas line. This is a serious accident, of course, but fortunately nothing exploded and no one was hurt. The worst that happened is the temporary evacuation of all the people on that side of the street. Mom said that among the evacuees was a family that had just bought their house; they hadn't even finished moving in yet.
Mom invited them to her house, where she was still entertaining extended family, may I remind you. They piled onto my childhood her front porch, feeling too cautious or too polite to immediately accept the invitation indoors.
Mom said they all sat on the front porch for a while, sharing blankets and hot chocolate. Getting to know each other a little bit. And judging from the big smiles on these yahoos' Mom and Dad's new neighbors' faces, everyone was having a great time. Mom told me that later in the evening (it was an hours-long evacuation) they went inside and even ordered pizzas and played games.
And that is the story of Strangers on the Front Porch.
Wow. And to think I almost ordered my sweet Momma a copy of the Reluctant Entertainer book for Christmas. She doesn't credit herself in this way, but she is a natural hostess. Her heart is in exactly the condition that hostessing requires: open, warm, and sensitive to the needs of others. Ready to bless, not impress, as Sandy Coughlin teaches.
Okay, I am definitely ordering her the book anyway. She needs to know how natural she is. I love you Momma.
But seriously, Open Your Hearts Before You Open Your Homes.


Directed by the talented Alfonso López, The Great American Trailer Park Musical is the story that takes place in the Armadillo Acres Trailer Park. Norbert and his agoraphobic wife, Jeannie, a hot young stripper, Pippi, and the Greek-chorus-like trio of women Linoleum, Betty and Pickles, is each dysfunctional in their own right! It has all the elements of a great story….agoraphobia, adultery, '80s nostalgia, spray cheese, roadkill, hysterical pregnancy, a broken electric chair, kleptomania, strippers, flan, disco and MORE!
This show is absolutely fabulous! It is a reminder that you can still have fun at the theater. So don your favorite trailer trash outfit, leave your political correctness at the door, and get ready for an utterly outrageous, over-the-top and out-of-control evening of smiles and laughter!


KANSAS CITY, KS. — Williams College senior Sachi Siegelman (Piedmont, CA) has been named an All-American by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA), it was announced on Friday.
Previously, she was named All-NESCAC and All-New England.
Sigelman is the 8th Eph to earn All-America honors under head coach Michelyne Pinard during Pinard's 10 years at Williams. For the last five seasons the Ephs have had at least one player named to the All-America team.
Senior forward Brett Eisenhart who capped off her Eph career with three consecutive seasons with 10 or more goals graduates as the all-time leading women'ss goal scorer with 42 was named First Teall All-New england.
Of Eisenharts's 11 goals this fall, 6 were game winners. She was previously accorded A First Team All-NESCAC honors for the second straight year.


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The artist concept depicts multiple-transiting planet systems, which are stars with more than one planet. The planets eclipse or transit their host star from the vantage point of the observer. This angle is called edge-on. IMAGE: NASA
Astronomers develop model for the distribution of inner planetary systems
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Data from the Kepler space telescope, launched more than a decade ago, is still helping astronomers who study planets outside of our own solar system — exoplanets — and unravel the mysteries of planetary systems. Initially, astronomers were surprised that Kepler found so many exoplanets, including hundreds of planetary systems with multiple planets orbiting close to their host star. As astronomers developed models to explain the abundance of inner exoplanets, they encountered a new mystery: "Why did Kepler detect just one planet around so many stars, instead of planetary systems with multiple planets?"
In a recent study published in The Astronomical Journal, the team of astronomers built a model for the population of planetary systems that could explain both of these surprises. The new study combines the physics of planetary orbits and a statistical model to make predictions that could help guide astronomers as they search for additional exoplanets.
"The Kepler mission provided such a rich and complex data set that one must combine a detailed understanding of both astrophysics and modern statistical methods to properly interpret the data. Years after the mission formally ended, we're just beginning to understand all that it's revealed about how common different types of planetary systems are." said Eric Ford, professor of astronomy and astrophysics in the Eberly College of Science, director of Penn State's Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds and co-hire at the Institute for Computational Data Science (ICDS).
According to Matthias He, a doctoral student in astronomy and astrophysics, during the primary Kepler mission, the telescope carefully collected a massive amount of data, measuring the amount of light from over 160,000 stars twice an hour for over three years and recognizing fluctuations due to planets passing transiting in front of their host stars.
"One of the ways that we can find planets is to look for these periodic dips in the light curves of these stars, which indicates that a planet is orbiting around it and blocking out some of the starlight as it passes each time," said He. "If there's more than one planet in the system and if they all transit in front of the star, then you'll see multiple different dips at different frequencies, so you can tell from the data that they are multi-planet systems."
Astronomers had previously analyzed data from Kepler's meticulous survey of this cosmic light show and found evidence that most stars host multiple sub-Neptune-size planets orbiting very close to their star. However, when astronomers calculated how often Kepler would detect only one of the planets, they significantly underestimated the number of stars for which Kepler detected a single planet. This has become known as the Kepler dichotomy, according to He. To explain this phenomena, some astronomers had suggested that many stars might have only a single planet orbiting close to their star. Other studies proposed two distinct types of planetary systems with different formation histories.
However, the researchers' new model suggests that more complex correlations in the orbital configurations of multiplanet systems could better explain the Kepler data. The statistical model was inspired by the physics of how planetary systems evolve and what combinations of orbits are likely to remain stable for billions of years.
"What the initial studies of Kepler data found is that there may be a population of single planet systems that makes up a big chunk of the systems — or they could still have multiple planets but with highly inclined orbits, so only one planet is seen transiting," said He. "What our study showed is that it is possible to have a single distribution of planetary systems that can explain both the number of single systems and multi-systems, if the degree of the mutual inclinations is correlated with the number of planets in the same system. More specifically, we found that systems with more planets tend to be more nearly co-planar, or located on the same plane, than systems with fewer planets."
As an example, He added that our solar system — a multi-planet system — has many planets following orbits nearly in the same plane, situated within a few degrees of each other.
A video of all of the Kepler multi-planet systems (1815 planets/planet candidates in 726 systems) from Kepler's original mission as of the announcement of Kepler's end of life. ETHAN KRUSE
New Earths?
"If we assume a model of what the true distribution of planets might be, then we can simulate what Kepler would detect, and then we can compare what we get with our simulations to the actual data," said He, whose particular focus is developing statistical models to describe the distribution of planets.
He added that using these models to search for new planets in planetary systems outside of our own is a bit like finding the faint gleam of additional needles in immense fields of haystacks, if you know how many needles are in each haystack and that they are similar. The statistical model of planetary distribution may help their colleagues strategize how to conduct future planet searches to find more exoplanets and to test models for the distributions of additional planets within a planetary system.
While Kepler provided astronomers the data to measure the frequency of Earth-size planets around nearby stars, most of the planetary systems it finds are so far away that they are hard to study in detail. Penn State recently built two precision spectrographs that will be used to search for rocky planets around nearby stars using a complementary method which detects planets as the pull of their gravity causes stars to wobble slightly. The team plans to make predictions about what additional planets radial velocity surveys are likely to find when they observe stars with one transiting planet. By comparing those predictions with actual survey data, they can test their model and improve planet formation models.
"Because we have a sense of the distribution of these systems, including the ones that don't transit, we can take our models and better predict what types of planetary systems are out there, including the ones that could be detectable by radial velocity surveys," said He.
To build the model, the researchers used data collected by NASA's Kepler mission. To do this, the researchers relied on the computational power of ICDS's Roar supercomputer.
Daniel Carrera, former assistant research professor of astronomy at Penn State's Eberly College of Science, and Darin Ragozzine, assistant professor of Physics and Astronomy at Brigham Young University also worked with Ford and He.
NASA and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) also supported this work.
Institute awards 14 computational and data sciences seed grants
Gravitational forces in protoplanetary disks push super-Earths close to stars
Black holes of all shapes and sizes in new gravitational wave catalog
How many Earth-like planets are around sun-like stars?


I have setup a donation system on my website and i was wondering what would be a good gift in return for donating i was thinking of doing like a sponsor thing so if someone donates a certain ammount i will sponsor them by putting an ad on my website.
Can someone give me ideas.
How about high(er) priority support.
You mean like call support? if that is what you mean yer that is a good idea but that wouldn't make me want to donate but i could package that with one of the donation plans.
Website not accessible with www prefix and cgi-bin redirection?
How to create website using hindi font?
need ideas for making website..plz help!


Per the Speaker's announcement on the formation of the Tax Reform Task Force, I wanted to draw your attention to seven individual bills I have introduced. These seven bills make up my tax reform plan, Jumpstart America, which focuses on business proven tax concepts to boost the American economy. My plan won't pick winners and losers, doesn't create loopholes, and empowers small businesses and entrepreneurs. Each of the seven bills can be found below.
Jumpstart America is supported by: Americans for Tax Reform, former CBO Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin and former FDIC Chair Don Powell.
This bill simplifies the individual tax code by setting the rate at 20% for the first $1 million earned and 30% for anything over $1 million. To make sure the most vulnerable are protected from a disproportionate tax rate, the 10% and 15% brackets will remain the same.
This bill cuts the capital gains and dividends tax to 15%. Extending these cuts to all investors will improve economic growth and stimulate future investments – helping the United States regain our competitive edge by moving cash flow away from the government and into the private sector.
This bill lowers the repatriation tax rate to 5% and make the process permanent instead of a holiday. As the title states, the goal of this bill is to bring jobs and investment back to the United States. The only rule is that companies cannot declare dividends on what they repatriate.
This bill allows for the 100% depreciation of fixed assets – providing businesses the ability to deduct tangible personal property from the tax base in the year of purchase. Bonus depreciation reduces the tax bias against investment and allows businesses to create new jobs and put people to work.
This bill reduces Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) tax rates on wage income and corresponding tax rates on self-employment income.
Expresses the sense of Congress that reform or repeal to the last-in, first-out (LIFO) method of accounting for inventories would cause irreparable and unnecessary damage to U.S. businesses.
I encourage all members interested in having real discussions on tax reform to cosponsor these bills and attend the Idea Forum on Tax Reform next week. For more information, or to become a cosponsor, please contact Nicole Lansford in my office atNicole.Lansford@mail.house.gov or X59896.


henever two or three pilots are gathered together around the nation's capital, whether it be a Congressional hearing or just in the back of some hangar, you'll probably hear the name of Ron Hubbard mentioned, accompanied by such adjectives as "crazy," "wild" and "dizzy." For the flaming-haired pilot hit the city like a tornado a few years ago and made women scream and strong men weep by his aerial antics. He just dared the ground to come up and hit him.
In the beginning, Ron (also known as "Flash") hailed from out west, but only stayed long enough to be born. Since then he has been a dweller of the world at large, and there are few nooks and corners of the earth that he hasn't poked into. Before he fell from grace and became an aviator, he was, at various times, top sergeant in the Marines, radio crooner, newspaper reporter, gold miner in the West Indies, and movie director-explorer, having led a motion picture expedition into the south seas aboard an ancient windjammer.
Then he turned to glider flying. And that is what gave Washington its biggest thrill, for Ron could do more stunts in a sailplane than most pilots can in a pursuit job. He would come out of spins at an altitude of thirty inches and thumb his nose at the undertakers who used to come out to the field and titter.
Once he took a glider up at a Chicago airport which was surrounded by a concrete road. It was a hot day and waves of heat were rising off the road as if it had been a stove. Ron sat on that up current of air and stayed there. Round and round the airport he went like a merry-go-round, until everybody got dizzy from watching him. Finally, he got tired of chasing his tail and came down, after establishing something of a record for sustained flight over the same field.
Then, one day he got fed up with gliders and decided to try something with power. So he climbed into a fast ship and, without any dual time at all, gave the engine the soup and hopped off. Well, he got back on the ground with the plane still all in one piece and, going on the theory that it's a good landing if you can walk away from it, he realized that he was now a pilot.
Fired by his new prowess, he immediately started barnstorming and ensnared many an unsuspecting passenger. He flew under every telephone wire in the Middle West, and cows and horses in that section still shy at the sound of an airplane motor.
After being one of aviation's most distinguished hell-raisers, he finally settled down with great dignity and became director of the flying club at George Washington University. At present, our young hero is buzzing around on the West Coast, where he writes magazine stories between flights. He is now recognized as one of the outstanding glider pilots in the country.


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Who's Henry Delaney? Bio: Death, Son, Died, Baby, Spouse, Kids, Salary, Married
1 A Short about Rob Delaney
2 Henry Delaney, his son
3 Net worth of Rob Delaney
A Short about Rob Delaney
Famous FolksRob Delaney was created in 1977. Delaney is referred to as co-writer and the co-star of this Television Show, 'Catastrophe'. Rob Delaney was increased in Massachusetts. He also attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and graduated in 1999 with a degree in theatre. Where he began posting because 2009 Rob Delaney manage. Delaney was the first to place his own jokes, while other comedians were reluctant to release their jokes on networking. According to Delaney, his fame rose by manifolds after director Graham Linehan and humor writer began reacting to the tweets of Delaney. Paste magazine named in 2010 among the 10 most funny folks on Twitter Delaney. In The Comedy awards hosted by Comedy Central, Delaney was the first comic to acquire the 'Funniest Person' in May of 2012. Rob Delaney has written The Guardian in addition to articles for Vice. Wife. Sister. Human. Warrior. Falcon. Yardstick. Turban. Cabbage', was released Grau by Spiegel & at November 2013. They never picked up the series, although Rob Delaney appeared on Comedy Central in 2011 known as, @RobDelaney at a number series. So Delaney began using Sharon Horgan to co-star and co-write in 'Catastrophe' which has been aired from January 2015. The series follows the couple while Delaney was in UK on company, once they get after a short affair but he then moves. The series was renewed after three seasons for a fourth year. Rob Delaney appeared at a fantasy/drama movie, 'Life Beth' as a News Anchor. 'Life After Beth' was but his joy turns to terror as she undergoes a transformation. At the television series, Rob Delaney looked in 2014, 'Bad Robots'. 'Bad Robots' was a tv prank series when tech takes victims. Back in February 2018, Rob Delaney shared after fighting brain cancer because 25, his old son died. He resides in London.
New website is up and mostly completehttps://t.co/nYMCeAv1qd
— Henry Delaney (@HenryDelaney) April 30, 2018
Henry Delaney, his son
Following the Death of a ChildRob Delaney demonstrated the passing news of his son. He explained, 'I Will Endeavor To not Move Mad'. My 2-year-old son Henry has passed," Delaney wrote in a statement shared on his FB page on Friday. "Henry was diagnosed with a brain tumor at 2016, soon after his first birthday, after persistent nausea and weight reduction. He had surgery to remove the tumor along with treatment that is additional . Then the cancer returned last fall and he expired in January," the Catastrophe actress stated. He was intelligent, humorous, and mischievous and we had many great experiences together, especially after he had moved dwelling after 15 months residing in hospitals," Delaney continued, stating that although Henry's "tumor and operation left him with major physical disabilities" his son had "immediately learned sign language and developed his own way of getting from A to B shuffling on his lovely little buttocks." "His push to live and to appreciate and to join was deep," he added. In addition, he revealed that following Henry passed his brothers and Henry's mother displayed. "They're why I'll attempt not to go insane with despair. I really don't wish to miss out in their lives that are lovely. I am greedy for more adventures together," he clarified. Delaney thanked each the physicians and nurses that "helped our loved ones endure Henry's illness," adding that they "would function as heroes before the day that I die." "I'm desperately unhappy at this time, but I will say with authority that there's great in this world," he added, before encouraging other people to generate a contribution to the Rainbow Trust or Noah's Ark from Henry's title to "assist other households in the UK with really ill kids." "Our family members would be in considerably worse shape at the moment if it were not for them. I would recommend you to take sustained and concrete action to encourage the NHS you can. "Ultimately, I request that you honor my family's privacy concerning this issue. I've nothing to say I haven't explained here," he wrote. "Thank you, amazing Henry, for paying too much time as you did. We miss you a lot"
Tom Cruise and the #Scientology guys had her built in the late 80's …
Net worth of Rob Delaney
The Departure of GriefRob Delaney's net worth is estimated to be approximately $3 million. Grief takes over Rob Delaney with his toddler's departure. May the one's soul rest in peace! Rob Delaney retains posting pictures of his work on Twitter page and his Instagram. A picture is of the Henry resting on the back of his father.
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A Star Is Born (2018) film review
Writers: Eric Roth, Bradley Cooper and Will Fetters
Cast: Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga. Sam Elliot, Andrew Dice Clay, Rafi Gavron, Anthony Ramos
A Star Is Born is now showing everywhere thanks to Warner Bros Pictures and Roadshow Films in Australia.
2018's A Star Is Born has a lot to love. In a film that receives ticks for outstanding in many areas, it is a gritty and powerful portrait of two talented people falling in love while also dealing with fame, jealousy and addiction in the public eye. It is a tremendous achievement in both film and music and to say it is a solid directorial debut by Bradley Cooper would be an understatement.
However, the film is problematic and not as a result of the production itself. It's downfall lies in the inherent nature of the film being the fourth cinematic version of A Star Is Born. One can understand why A Star Is Born has been revamped every few decades as it's formula is a winner with movie-goers. Everybody loves a story about a bright young thing who wants more than anything to find fame and fortune, only to find it to not be as it seems. The film and music industry is constantly changing so the film can be completely redone in a new fashion every few decades.
With Bradley Cooper's A Star is Born, we see the focus shifted to the 2018 music industry; a digital age where struggling singer, Ally (expertly played by Lady Gaga) is plucked from obscurity by a country music star, Jackson Maine (Cooper), who see's something in her that others have not. Again, it is a story that is easy to get excited about as society loves tales from the world of entertainment. It also has the inspirational element for people like Ally, who are struggling to find success and the takeaway from the film is that that success can come when you least expect it as long as you take every opportunity you can. Ally's first live performance of "Shallow" is a perfect depiction of a dream coming true in slow motion. The song, which is a sure thing for an Oscar nomination, not only shows two people falling in love thanks to the power of music, but it is a pivotal moment of the film and everything comes into focus and shows how every little detail of a dream coming true is important.
Yet, the 2018 film has it's problems that the earlier films did not and it is because of the changing times that we can see these problems. A Star is Born suffers from a severe lack of female characters, with Lady Gaga's Ally being the only real female character besides the stagehand, Gail who appears for two minutes. Neither Ally nor Jackson have any females in their families. Ally's whole life is governed by men...in her family, in her job, in her marriage and in her career. In addition to this, the narrative (which has been inherited from earlier films) means that she has a man to thank for her career as Jackson was the one who gave her her break. Her manager, Raz Gavron (Rafi Gavron) also controls her solo career and her rise to fame.
To call 2018's A Star Is Born sexist would be far too simple and a compulsive conclusion to jump to. There are definitely sexist elements. For example, there is no reason Ally should be the only female character of worth. However, it is a credit to the film that they do include gay and transgender characters. Yet the sexism of the narrative is a different matter. There is the idea that Jackson may be able to help propel Ally to stardom, but who is actually the strong one? She is strong to stand beside him in his weakest moments, be his rock and stand up for him when no one else will. So if it is a relationship of give and take, is sexism really part of it? Or is the career aspect of their relationship sexist?
Then there is the other unfortunate part of the narrative which is perhaps an unintentional, but nevertheless unsettling representation of the entertainment industry. Despite the fact that we are living at a time where the industry is experiencing the effects of the #metoo movement, there is a long way to go as the business of both music and film has been run by men for so long. We see in A Star Is Born how all the music executives and decision makers are men and while from the outside this looks horribly sexist, it is an unfortunate reality which is in the process of being changed and still has a long way to go. This is not something someone watching the 1937 version of A Star Is Born which focused on Janet Gaynor's Esther wanting film stardom would have even considered as a notable part of the film, as it was just an accepted part of the industry and seen as normal. However, current events have made us see things differently. Cooper could have adjusted this, but would it have been realistic if he did?
Despite these inherent problems, A Star Is Born is still a superb film that is emotional and hard-hitting. It does not shy away from the destructive nature of addiction and shows in graphic detail how it impacts the individual and their family. Cooper directs himself flawlessly as he gives a believable and gritty performance of not just a star in trouble, but a man who feels helpless and ashamed within himself. Lady Gaga gives a performance which many will see as reflective of her own rise to fame, but her Ally is far more than that. She is a woman who many will relate to as she is often plagued by her own guilt of doing what is good for her or what is good for the person she loves, and a woman who cannot help but love someone who does not love themselves. More than that, she turns everyone who was ever on the fence as to whether they are a fan of her as a singer into a true fan with her outstanding and memorable live performances throughout the film.
A Star Is Born is it's own worst enemy at times by bringing forward the problems of the entertainment industry and it's original story, which Bradley Cooper would have felt an obligation to remain true to. Yet it is hard to hold too much against it when it truly is an incredible and memorable film for everything it does so right.
Posted by NP1982 at 2:52 AM 38 comments:
Labels: 2018, bradley cooper, film, film review, lady gaga, music
Bad Times at the El Royale (2018) film review
Writer/Director: Drew Goddard
Cast: Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Jon Hamm, Dakota Johnson, Chris Hemswoth, Cailee Spaeny, Lewis Pullman, Nick Offerman, Xavier Dolan
Entertaining and delightful at face value and excellent beneath it's surface, Bad Times at the El Royale is a rare gem of cinema that turns deception into a stunning and enjoyable piece of art. With it's array of superb performances and it's nostalgia-charged production, this film says a great deal more than it does on it's already fascinating surface.
Written and directed by Drew Goddard, the film starts off by deceiving it's audience into believing that they will be watching an Agatha Christie-esque story set in 1968 play out on screen. A group of strangers arrive in a seemingly deserted hotel on the California-Nevada border that was once the scene of many a party of the Hollywood elite, but now only contains the ghosts of it's glory days and a sinister and sleazy atmosphere thanks to the retro lighting, dark corners and a bell boy (Lewis Pullman) who is never quite present.
We are introduced to each of these mysterious travellers and, as is unfortunately human nature, judgement is swiftly passed on each one of them as we note their flaws and attempt to guess what their story is. Bad Times at the El Royale does look like a typical thriller, so that is what our minds have been trained to do when watching such a film. However, once Jon Hamm's egotistical salesman, Laramie Seymour Sullivan reveals himself to be quite the opposite, the story quickly reveals each of the characters and their situations to be quite different than what we assumed and that is when the film reveals itself to as far as possible from a Christie novel.
Bad Times at the El Royale is unpredictable in the most unpredictable of ways. The screenplay is not only well constructed with spectacular character development and an intriguing and suspenseful story, but it also presents us with something of a realisation about ourselves. Bad Times at the El Royale does something very few genre films do and that is it makes us stop and question the relationship between what means we use to solve a mystery and how judgemental we are as humans. We are so quick to predict the motives of the characters based on what we see them doing, their professions, how they talk and how they are dressed, that it is only time that reveals that things really are not as they seem and there are very few characters are what they seem. In addition to that, there are so many complex personalities that also make you question what makes a good person or a bad person, and does it all just depend on circumstance?
It is a brilliant method of deception by Goddard, but it also reminds how we pass judgement on everyone we meet. It is a horrible part of human nature to base judgement on first impressions and it often takes something, such as Bad Times at the El Royale to remind us of this.
However, the associated guilt of this realisation is almost welcomed as Bad Times at the El Royale is so well done. At it's 2 hours and 21 minutes running time, it is a roller coaster of a film with a steep ascent for the first hour to build suspense, followed by fast paced twists and turns. The incredible production design of the El Royale is absolutely mesmerising. Yet, it is Cynthia Erivo as struggling, down on her luck singer, Darlene Sweet that is completely and utterly spellbinding. Erivo owns every scene she is in and with her own hand, almost brings the film into the musical genre. Like a performance in such a genre, she not only has an amazing singing voice, but she is able to portray her character through song as well as her dialogue.
The film also benefits from star performances by Chris Hemsworth, who once again proves his versatility by becoming a terrifying Charles Manson-like manipulative. Lewis Pullman also gives a head-turning performance as the bellboy, Miles Miller, a character who is one of the true surprise packets of the film.
Bad Times at the El Royale is whole load of fun and a true creative joy. It makes the unforeseeable link between how we watch a thriller and how our minds work as humans and does it in entrancing fluorescent lighting style.
Posted by NP1982 at 10:41 PM 6 comments:
Labels: 2018, chris hemsworth, cynthia erivo, Dakota Johnson, jeff bridges, jon hamm
Vision Films presents the feel-good, award-winning film that celebrates differences, RANDY'S CANVAS
Vision Films and Sugar Baby Entertainment are proud to present Randy's Canvas, the new, uplifting fictional feature film about a young man with autism who discovers love for the first time in a confusing world. Through his incredible art, Randy and the world come to understand that what makes him different does not define who he is. Director Sean Michael Beyer's thoughtful and inspirational film took top honors at the 2018 Autfest International Film Festival winning Best Film and Best Actor and has been praised by Autism Activist, Dr. Temple Grandin, and Autism Speaks as being a "sweet, heart-warming tale, portrayed beautifully".
Starring Adam Carbone (Dude Food with Sean and Sometimes Adam, Another Tango), Scout Taylor-Compton (Rob Zombie's Halloween, The Runaways), Kevin G. Schmidt (Cheaper by the Dozen, The Butterfly Effect), Massi Furlan (Live By Night, Supernatural), Michael Emery (Bone Tomahawk, Shameless), Richard Riehle (Office Space, Glory) and Marycarmen Lopez (Queen Sugar, Tragedy Girls), Randy's Canvas is now on DVD/VOD with all profits going to benefit the charity The Autism Project.
Randy (Adam Carbone, Best Actor, AutFest 2018) is a young man with autism who aspires to be an artist. Curator Maurizio D'Oro (Massi Furlan) notices his talent and opens many doors for him, including the chance to study with the renowned art professor, Hausdorff (Richard Riehle), and to have his work shown in a gallery. When Randy falls in love for the first time, his life begins to spin out of control as he tries to deal with a roller coaster of emotions and first-time experiences. With the help of his new classmate Cassie (Scout Taylor-Compton) he learns valuable lessons about friendship, emotions and acceptance.
Randy's Canvas is now available on Digital for an SRP $4.99 - $9.99 Rent or Buy across all platforms and to Buy on DVD for $12.99.
Posted by NP1982 at 1:37 AM 8 comments:
Labels: adam carbone, art, cinema, feel-good, kevin g. schmidt, movie, scout taylor-compton
The Big Take (2018) film review
Writer/Director: Justin Daly
Cast: James McCaffrey, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Zoe Bell, Bill Sage, Dan Hedaya, Robert Foster, Oksada Lada
The Big Take has a limited theatrical run at Cinema Village in New York City from September 7-13. Available on DVD and Digital on September 4.
Justin Daly's The Big Take is an intriguing, thrilling and original piece of cinema that is mesmerisingly atmospheric and an exceptional debut film from a filmmaker who is not afraid to take courageous creative chances.
At the centre of an elaborate plan by Vic (Slate Holmgren) to get money to fund a film by screenwriter, Max (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) is Hollywood actor, Douglas Brown (James MacCaffrey). Brown is under the impression that he is being blackmailed in order for a damaging video of himself not to be shown in public, but he is really part of a crazy scheme by Vic to fund a film and make himself a producer. However, Brown has access to people who can easily discover who Vic and Max are and when a visit by private investigator, Frank Maniscalpo (Dan Hedaya) to Max and his wife, Oxana (Oksana Lada) goes horribly wrong, things start to turn nasty for everyone involved.
The Big Take is a highly impressive directorial debut by Justin Daly. It is evident that he has a strong sense of who he is as a filmmaker and is uncompromising in the execution of his first film. Daly's style of direction is not unlike that of a younger Quentin Tarantino as The Big Take has an atmosphere reminiscent of that of Pulp Fiction. However, the screenplay (also written by Daly) cannot be compared to the 1994 film as it is a highly original piece of work.
It's creativity in the darkly comical narrative allows for a heightened sense of suspense and unpredictability which is supported by a soundtrack that not just enhances the atmosphere, but excites and intrigues. The reason it is so intriguing is that types of music are matched with landscapes that it would not usually be associated with in film (such as reggae accompanying the image of a motorcycle on the streets of Los Angeles), but unexpectedly works so well.
It's flowing dialog is superbly written for the screen and delivered with ease by the impeccable cast. Ebon Moss-Bachrach as the unassuming Max who is the star of the film. James MacCaffrey's Douglas Brown is the Hollywood stereotype which people love to hate right from the word go, but Max is the underdog who could be the real hero of the film that everyone barracks for. He is the relatable writer trying to make his way in the tough world that is Hollywood and trying to get people to take notice, so when trouble in the form of attention comes his way he doesn't question it. Zoe Bell is also a standout as the girl who is way scarier than she initially seems, Edie.
The Big Take explores the side of Hollywood where people will do absolutely anything and question nothing to finally get their big break. Justin Daly breaks into the filmmaking scene with incredible power and is without a doubt one to watch in the future.
Posted by NP1982 at 12:20 AM 7 comments:
Labels: 2018, cinema, drama, film, film review, independent, indie, new york, thriller
Oceans 8 (2018) film review
Director: Gary Ross
Writers: Gary Ross and Olivia Milch
Cast: Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Sarah Paulson, Rihanna, Mindy Kaling, Awkwafina, Richard Armitage, Dakota Fanning
Oceans 8 opens in Australia on June 7, 2018 and is distributed by Roadshow Films. Opening June 8, 2018 in the United States and distributed by Warner Bros.
Review by Nicki Newton-Plater
Oceans 8 is here to remind us that the female reboot is not just alive and well, but it is striving in it's perfect health.
With the male dominated Oceans trilogy having lost it's legs and tiring out over a decade ago, Gary Ross along with co-writer Olivia Milch have revived the franchise with the same thrills we found with the original, but with a little more designer chic.
Oceans 8 is joyous to watch as eight of entertainment's powerful female voices portray eight strong women who are even more interesting to watch than their male counterparts and far better dressed. The ladies team together to take on the impossible task of stealing one of the most expensive pieces of jewellery in the world during the glitz and glamour of the world famous Met Gala. The outcome of the heist may be extremely predictable and therefore not as suspenseful as it should be, but the organisation of the perfect crime is incredibly entertaining in it's fun and intelligent execution.
While Sandra Bullock's Debbie Ocean, Cate Blanchett's Lou, Anne Hathaway's Daphne Kluger and Helena Bonham Carter's Rose Weil are the characters that are the most fleshed out, each lady has their own set of unique and distinct character traits and each is celebrated. The film speaks volumes about how there isn't one right way to be a strong woman and that being strong and independent doesn't mean belittling men nor does it mean said woman has to be physically powerful. The cast is diverse and embraces the beauty in minority groups, with specific focus on those in New York City.
However much of a pun it may be, for some Oceans 8 may tend to flow a little too well with it not being overly intense or emotional. However, others may embrace this. The film is incredibly entertaining, easy to watch and enjoyable, especially with Blanchett's witty and well-timed dialogue and Hathaway's hilarious return to her comedic roots as a spoilt, pretentious socialite. It is a feast for the eyes with the outstanding costume design by Sarah Edwards of the ladies enviable wardrobes and Met Gala attire and exquisite production design by Alex DiGerlando. The recreation of the world of the prestigious Met Gala is aesthetically pleasing in every way with it's glamorous ambience, high-end fashion and overflow of A-list celebrities.
Oceans 8 is a whole load of fun and the type of reboot we crave where the filmmakers use the original as inspiration and not a chance to rehash a worn out story.
Labels: 2018, anne hathaway, cate blanchett, helena bonham carter, mindy kaling, new York city, rihanna, sandra bullock, sarah Paulson
Black Panther (2018) film review
Writer: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby (based on the Marvel comics by), Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole (written by)
Cast: Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman, Daniel Kaluuya, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke, Sterling K. Brown, Angela Bassett, Forest Whitaker, Andy Serkis
Review by Debbie Zhou
The Marvel Universe has often plodded through a predictable chain of movies, but in comes the newest addition, Black Panther – a triumphant wake-up call to the primarily white-casting of the superhero genre. It marks a step in the right direction for Marvel, right off their more playful and thoughtful efforts with ambitious filmmakers, such as Taika Waititi in 2017's Thor: Ragnorok. This time, there's a more serious approach at play, and director Ryan Coogler confidently takes the reins with a wholehearted embrace of African cultures and experiences, and empowers his protagonists with agency and a unique story.
Black Panther places T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) as the newly-appointed King of the African nation, Wakanda, following his father's death. As King, T'Challa is given the powers of Black Panther, deriving from the alien metal vibranium. This special metal is engineered into the entire country, providing them with ultra-modern advanced technologies which enables the population to power their cities – that not even "progressive" Western first-world countries could imagine.
This is a vision of Afro-futurism in its sheer beauty. The scale of Coogler's invention onto the Marvel stage derives not only from the epic landscape and technological wonder of Wakanda, but his meticulous attention to detail. He focuses on the smallest elements which evoke a sense of identity to the Wakandan people – down to the intricacies of African dress, rituals and music (the heavily-percussive and vocal score by composer Kendrick Lemar stands out); it ultimately fuels a prideful connection to a culture that we are rarely gifted the chance of seeing on our screen in such magnitudes.
And there are some fantastically crafted sequences that come from this total encompassing image of diversity, crafted by Rachel Morrison (she is the first female Oscar-nominated cinematographer). The action sequences are shot with rapid intensity, and in particular – a casino scene stands out in its fluidity, through its use of tracking shots. Here, the female protagonists, Nikia (Lupita Nyong'o) and Okoye (Danai Gurira) , are empowered through their fierce movements – the framing and focus of the story becoming integral to fully owning their characters as T'Challa's true allies and warriors. Shuri (Letitita Wright), T'Challa's younger sister, is also a nice addition to his circle – whose innovation and intelligence powers the use of vibranium in astonishingly new ways.
The story's antagonist is Erik Killmonger (played by the always reliable Michael B. Jordan), although Klaw (Andy Serkis) sets the stones for the brooding villain to step his feet into Wakanda. But in this Marvel story, T'Challa's sole dilemma is made more complex: it doesn't derive purely from a need to defeat a villain, he also faces the challenge of living up to his Father's legacy and questioning whether change is necessary.
Killmonger is one of the more interesting villains Marvel has created, and Coogler actively attempts to reflect the underlying social and racial problems of America through his character. By incorporating the African-American experience, there's a bitter anger that dictates Killmonger's actions; the exclusivity of vibranium means that those marginalised in other societies cannot access it. But while the contextual settings hands him over the perfect justification for his acts, Killmonger is quickly tossed to the side as a one-note villain (a Marvel trope) in the third act – where his actions become tyrannical, and his unreasonable abuse of power makes his personality lose nuance and authenticity.
Still, with Black Panther – Coogler has presented us with a section of the Marvel universe that reduces its white characters into supporting roles and instead, elevates its black protagonists on a platform which enables them to fight for their beliefs and their cultures. And for that ground-breaking act, it is most likely the best Marvel film yet.
Labels: 2018, action, chadwick boseman, film, film review, lupita nyong'o, marvel, michael b. jordan, superhero
Vision Films presents the feel-good, award-winning...


dude, three posts last year and two from 2014 and your sixth one is the above post?
Surprised any of you fools can still see well enough to type. You guys are so old!
Did you have some kid reboot your computer so you could get back online?
I hope everyone is well. I miss this place from time to time. Facebook made it a ghosttown here.
I learned how to fight on the internet here and continually expect everyone to be nice enough because they listen to the ABB. Thats now the way the rest of the internet works apparently.
Hey man, nice bump on the "heroes" thread.
Spent some time there this a.m. thanks to you.


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New era of quality and scale in genome sequencing will drive biological discovery
News article 29 Apr 2021
Publication of 16 high-quality vertebrate reference genomes establishes standards for biodiversity genomics
The Vertebrate Genomes Project (VGP) reaches a significant milestone today (29 April 2021) with a number of studies focused on genome assembly quality and standardization for the field of genomics. In a special issue of Nature, with companion papers simultaneously published in other scientific journals, the flagship study includes 16 diploid high-quality vertebrate reference genome assemblies, representing all the top level groups of animals with backbones. This includes the Canada lynx, platypus, greater horseshoe bat, zig-zag eel and Anna's hummingbird.
The genomes published here, as well as those sequenced in future, will be a valuable resource for research into how vertebrates have evolved, their biology, biodiversity, as well as health and disease.
It is only in the last five years that it has become possible to create high-quality reference genomes without considerable time, effort and expense, with the quality of assemblies prior to this point limited by technological barriers. But over the last few years, the VGP has taken advantage of dramatic improvements in sequencing technologies to begin production of high-quality reference genomes for the approximately 70,000 living vertebrate species.
"It truly was a challenge to design a pipeline applicable to highly diverged genomes. Our largest genome, which was 5Gb in size, broke almost every tool commonly used in assembly processes. The extreme level of heterozygosity or repeat contents posed a big challenge. This is just the beginning; we are continuously improving our pipeline in response to new technology improvements."
Arang Rhie, first author of the flagship paper from the National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
The VGP's approach combines assembly pipelines with manual curation to plug major gaps and fix other errors, such as false gene duplications, losses or gains. Previously, manual curation of genome assemblies was deemed to be too time-consuming to be applied to high-throughput projects. But since the beginning of the VGP, the curation process has been refined and speeded up to the point where it is now a key part of high-quality reference genome pipelines.
"Our new approach to produce structurally validated, chromosome-level genome assemblies at scale will be the foundation of ground-breaking insights in comparative and evolutionary genomics. Curation was a niche job at the beginning of VGP, so it's amazing to see how much it has progressed since then. It's been quite an odyssey of discovery."
Dr Kerstin Howe, lead of the VGP curation team at the Wellcome Sanger Institute
The quality of the VGP genome assemblies has enabled new discoveries that have implications for biodiversity and conservation, as well as human health and disease. The first reference genomes of six bat species, for example, revealed selection and loss of immunity-related genes that may underlie bats' unique tolerance to viral infection. This finding opens up new avenues of research that are particularly relevant for emerging infectious diseases such as COVID-19.
Specific to conservation and in collaboration with the Māori in New Zealand and officials in Mexico, genomic analyses of the kākāpō, a flightless parrot, and the vaquita, a small porpoise and the most endangered marine mammal, respectively, suggest evolutionary and demographic histories of purging harmful mutations in the wild. The implication of these long-term small population sizes at genetic equilibrium gives hope for these species' survival.
"These studies mark the start of a new era of genome sequencing that will accelerate over the next decade to enable genomic applications across the whole tree of life, changing our scientific interactions with the living world."
Professor Richard Durbin, of the University of Cambridge and VGP sequencing hub lead at the Wellcome Sanger Institute
As a next step, the VGP will continue to work collaboratively across the globe and with other consortia to complete Phase 1 of the project, approximately one representative species per 260 vertebrate orders separated by a minimum of 50 million years from a common ancestor with other species in Phase 1. The VGP will create comparative genomic resources with these 260 species, including reference-free whole genome alignments that will provide a means to understand the detailed evolutionary history of these species and create consistent gene annotations. Genome data are primarily generated at three sequencing hubs that have invested in the mission of the VGP: Rockefeller University's Vertebrate Genome Lab, New York, USA; the Wellcome Sanger Institute, UK; and the Max Planck Institute, Germany.
Phase 2 will focus on representative species from each vertebrate family and is currently in the progress of sample identification and fundraising. The VGP has an open-door policy and welcomes others to join its efforts, ranging from fundraising and sample collection to generating genome assemblies or including their own genome assemblies that meet the VGP metrics as part of our overall mission.
The VGP involves hundreds of international scientists working together from more than 50 institutions in 12 different countries and is a model of scientific cooperation, extensive infrastructure and collaborative leadership. Additionally, as the first large-scale eukaryotic genomes project to produce reference genome assemblies meeting a specific quality standard, the VGP has become a working model for other large consortia, including the Bat 1K, Pan Human Genome Project, Earth BioGenome Project, Darwin Tree of Life, and European Reference Genome Atlas, among others.
Rhie, A., McCarthy, S.A., Fedrigo, O. et al. Towards complete and error-free genome assemblies of all vertebrate species. Nature 2021; 592: 737–746. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03451-0
Durbin, Richard
Howe, Kerstin
Genome Reference Informatics Team
Vertebrate Genomes Project
Darwin Tree of Life Project
The Vertebrate Genome Laboratory at The Rockefeller University
The Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG)
National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance
UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute
Darwin Tree of Life: Looking back on 2020
Despite restrictions, 2020 has been a busy year for the Darwin Tree of Life Project. We take a look at some ...
Darwin Tree of Life: focusing on fungi and probing plants
We have much to thank fungi and plants for, and the Darwin Tree of Life project will help us to unlock ...
Sequencing and the Tree of Life
Progress and promise of the Earth Biogenome Project - a mission to sequence all known eukaryotic species.
'Collateral damage' from normal cell function may cause mutations that play a role in cancer
APOBEC1 enzyme likely responsible for two mutational signatures found in many cancers in small intestine
Bowel cancer mutations that impact immunotherapy identified
Researchers used CRISPR and mini tumours to discover more about how cancer develops and responds to the body's immune response.
Protective mutation impairs oesophagus tumour growth
Cells carrying mutations in the NOTCH1 gene take over the human oesophagus by middle age but inhibit oesophageal tumour growth in ...


Fort Severn is in Simcoe County, in the province of Ontario.
One theory claims this community was named for the Severn River on which it is located.
Established as a Hudson's Bay Company fort.
Sections below provide additional information and links about Fort Severn travel and tourism, maps, recreation, government and transportation.
Fort Severn locator map. Use the navigation tools in the upper left to move the map center or to zoom in or out. You can also click and drag the map to move in any direction.


As we all walk in the doors our freshmen year, we can't wait to be done with high school and move on to the real world. Looking back now, at the time I wanted to be done too, but now I realized that the time has flown by and next year my class will be seniors and we will be going into the workforce or going to college. Don't get me wrong, I like school just as much as the next person, but being out in the real world can also be terrifying. The whole point of this isn't to make you want to stay in high school forever, but more to just make you take a second to appreciate the time you have right now with the people around you. Before you know it, you will be getting married and having kids. You may never see the people that you see everyday ever again. Make sure that today you take a second to look around you and appreciate the little things because everything can change in a matter of seconds, or even a few short years.


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Tag: Montreux Jazz Festival
Lee Morgan, Alice Coltrane, Dave McMurray & More: The Week in Jazz
Matt Micucci June 7, 2021
Norah Jones, Vijay Iyer, David Broza & More: The Week in Jazz
Matt Micucci May 1, 2020
Jimmy Cobb, Marvin Gaye, Reggie Workman & More: The Week in Jazz
David Crosby, Lee Moses, John Adams: The Week in Jazz
"Tutu" by Miles Davis is one of the first songs to be encoded in DNA
Twist Bioscience, a company accelerating science and innovation through rapid, high-quality DNA synthesis, announced that working…
Matt Micucci November 5, 2017
Quincy Jones to launch first streaming service dedicated to jazz
Composer, producer, and bandleader Quincy Jones announced on stage at this year's Montreux Jazz Festival…
Claude Nobs statue unveiled in Montreux, Switzerland
A bronze statue of Claude Nobs, the legendary founder and general manager of the Montreux…
Matt Micucci July 9, 2017
51st Montreux Jazz Festival poster unveiled
The 51st Montreux Jazz Festival will take place in Montreux, Switzerland from June 30 to…
Oscar Peterson – "Cakewalk"
Pianist Oscar Peterson was first discovered by producer Norman Granz in the late 40's, who…
Matt Micucci November 14, 2016
Paco de Lucía and John McLaughlin 1987 Montreux concert to be released
The 1987 Montreaux Jazz Festival concert by guitarists Paco de Lucía and John McLaughlin will…
Lean Crowley May 26, 2016
Herbie Hancock added to Montreux 2016 line-up
Herbie Hancock has been added to the list of performers who will be playing at…
Lean Crowley May 2, 2016
Montreux Jazz Festival to publish 50th anniversary book
The Montreux Jazz Festival will celebrate its 50 year history with a book titled 50…
Lean Crowley April 20, 2016
50th Montreux Jazz Festival program unveiled
The Montreux Jazz Festival has announced the program of its 50th anniversary edition, which will…
The Montreux Jazz Festival has announced the program of its 50th anniversary edition, which will runs from July 1st to the 16th. The festival, founded by the late Claude Nobs, has grown to become one of the world's most important in the and despite opening up its stage doors to more popular music genres, jazz remains the centerpiece of its annual program. This year will be no exception, as the line-up will see a mixture of jazz masters and new talents take to the stage, beginning with the man who headlined its very first edition, Charles Lloyd. He will be performing on opening night at the Casino Barriére on June 30 with his New Quartet. That same night, pianist Monty Alexander will revisit his landmark 1977 live album Montreux Alexander. 90-year old Randy Weston will be playing music from his over-60-year career with his African Rhythm Quintet in the more intimate setting of the Montreux Jazz Club on July 2, while guitarist John Scofield, pianist Brad Mehldau and drummer Mark Guiliana will play the Auditorium Stravinski on July 3. The Cuban Latin jazz scene will be particularly well represented, notably by the Harold López Nussa Trio, the Alfredo Rodriguez Trio, Richard Bona and his band the Mandekan Cubano. Vocalist Lisa Simone will follow in the footsteps of her mother, Nina, with her performance at the festival, at which she will also be presenting her new album with multi-instrumentalist Jacob Collier. Former Miles Davis bandmates Mike Stern, Bill Evans, Darryl Jones and Dennis Chambers will re-unite to pay tribute to the late trumpeter, who played his final concert in Montreux in 1991, just months before his death. For more information, go to http://www.montreuxjazzfestival.com/en.


text:
Fenestration of the vertebrobasilar junction detected with multidetector computed tomography angiography
B. R. Omotoso1, R. Harrichandparsad2, I. G. Moodley3, K. S. Satyapal1, L. Lazarus1
Department of Clinical Anatomy, School of Laboratory Medicine and Medical Sciences, College of Health Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville Campus, Durban, South Africa
Department of Neurosurgery, School of Clinical Medicine, College of Health Sciences, University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa
Department of Radiology, Jackpersad and Partners Inc., Specialist Diagnostic Radiologists, Lenmed Ethekwini Hospital and Heart Centre, South Africa
The complex embryonic origin of the vertebrobasilar system may result in a wide range of anatomical variations. It has been hypothesized that the formation of fenestrations are likely to occur due to the failure of regression of the bridging arteries that connect the longitudinal neural arteries during embryogenesis. Fenestration of the vertebrobasilar system is a rare anatomical variation that involves a luminal division of the artery, that has a single origin into two separate and parallel channels which are rejoined distally. Fenestrations are important anatomical variants in patients undergoing endovascular and invasive intracranial interventions. Vascular fenestration has been associated with aneurysms, arteriovenous malformations, neuralgia, and vertebrobasilar ischemia. We report on three cases of fenestration at the vertebrobasilar junction in one female and two male patients, respectively, using multidetector computed tomography angiography. The length of the fenestrated segment of the artery measured 4.41 mm, 3.90 mm, and 5.90 mm, respectively in the patients. Our report is clinically important as the presence of this anatomical variation may influence the management of cervical and intracranial pathologies. Increased awareness of the prevalence of anatomic variations contributes to the advancement of noninvasive imaging capabilities.
morphological variation, vertebral artery, basilar artery
morphological variation
vertebral artery
B. R. Omotoso
R. Harrichandparsad
I. G. Moodley
K. S. Satyapal
L. Lazarus