Lessening demand for holidays in Eastern Africa from the main markets in Europe, suffering from economic woes has brought focus back on a group of travelers often overlooked, often ignored and often belittled by the mainstream tourism fraternity. Yet, these adventurers are very much part of the tourism scene across the region as those in closer contact with the reality from the ground up can confirm.
Other than coming to and leaving from the region, trips by air are often prohibitively expensive for these young people travelling on a shoe string budget as are mainstream hotels and resorts, but it seems an entire industry has sprung up, making a living from providing affordable, if often not outright cheap options for those willing to forgo the butler and valet services, the concierges and silver service 4 course meals.
Backpackers and Red Chilli in Kampala are the two best known budget hangouts, offering anything between dorm style accommodation to self contained rooms, the quintessential bar and a simple menu in a restaurant which serves square meals filling a hungry stomach but never in the running for a Michelin star rating.
Kisoro too is a good example where these travelers lodge in town and then take local transport to reach the gorilla tracking sites for a day in the woods with Uganda's prized primates.
These folks crisscross Uganda using public transport while those roaming the region have a number of options to reach neighbouring countries. Every major destination in the wider region can be reached within 12-24 hours from Kampala, be it Juba, Kigali, Bujumbura or Goma, Nairobi or Mombasa, Arusha or Dar es Salaam.
just a few kilometers outside the city at Kogelo, before continuing via Kericho, Kenya's tea growing heartland to Narok.
There backpackers get off to explore the Masai Mara, again often staying outside the reserve and doing daytrips, crammed into minibuses but seeing the wildlife just the same as those able to spend thousands of dollars and having a 4×4 just for themselves.
Another quick stop at the turn off from Narok to the 'old' Naivasha road allows once again backpackers to get off to explore the Rift Valley lakes of Naivasha, Elementaita, Nakuru, Bogoria and Baringo allowing them to tick off Kenya's latest additions to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites and seeing the flamingos, the hotsprings and the magnificent landscapes of the Great African Rift Valley.
And finally the EASY COACH arrives in Nairobi, near the main railway station, from where dozens of taxis or boda boda's are available to take the travel weary long distance passengers to their hostels or hotels.
The cost of a return ticket is about 50 US Dollars for the 15 hour long trip between Kampala and Nairobi which compares to a regular airfare of about 250 US Dollars return between Entebbe and Nairobi.
Agreed, my usual way to travel is by air and to stay in 5 star hotels, experience the parks in a 4×4 or see it from a hot air balloon and spend the nights in the fancied lodges and tented camps as my many articles on travel across East Africa to our fabulous parks and beaches well attest to. But there are lower cost options and while little is found about it in the mainstream media, guide books like Richard Trillo's Rough Guide to Kenya really give a step by step explanation of how to explore our region within the resources they have.
the latest information on road conditions, locally available transport options to the parks and the cost is at everyone's fingertips, often spiced up by personal and very current experience, freely shared including phone, email, FB and Twitter contacts of others met on the road who could be of assistance. It is often these referrals which keep guest houses and their associated transport contacts in business and THAT is money which really percolates down to the grass root levels and provides an income to many families.
uploads and answering the questions from those left home.
boutique camps or lodges. It is called diversification of products, of market niches and there is not just a place for them all, they are important in their own right.
Hostels, guest houses, home stays, local restaurants and open air grill and beer joints and a transportation system the local people use day in and day out are readily available for those in search of the budget option, aided by a wide range of online blogs providing the latest information about even the remotest places across our region. It was an experience and a half but worth it any time, the very least to share my insight and perhaps encourage a few more to come to the Pearl of Africa and explore our attractions on a budget, and our neighbouring countries too of course.
My message to them, come visit, no matter the budget, because we got the places and there is no time like the present.


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MIT News: Feature story
Molecular monitor
Professor Hadley Sikes blends chemistry with pathology for new ways to detect diseases, including cancer and covid.
Rachel Waynearchive page
Hadley Sikes has developed tests that rapidly and accurately diagnose infectious diseases; her team is now working on one to assess covid immunity.Lillie Paquette
Oncologists often turn to chemotherapy, an aggressive treatment that often relies on trial and error. It can be difficult to tell how many cancer cells chemotherapy has destroyed—let alone why different tumors may respond to the same treatment in different ways.
Hadley Sikes, the Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT and a principal investigator of the Antimicrobial Resistance Interdisciplinary Research Group at the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology, has found a better way to monitor that progress. The key is something that has always fascinated her: so-called redox chemistry—reactions in which a molecule gains electrons (known as reduction) or loses them (known as oxidation).
In the body, unchecked oxidation destroys cells' normal function, and cancer is one of the potential consequences. The good news is that this excessive oxidation leaves a chemical signature. With the right tools, it can be detected.
In 2014, Sikes began wondering if this chemistry could form the basis for a visual representation of chemo's effects. What if scientists could monitor the oxidation happening in tumors—and see exactly where the treatment is and isn't working? With the aid of fluorescent proteins gleaned from jellyfish genes, she and her team were able to apply their knowledge of the redox chemistry to create innovative biosensors that track oxidation levels to see if tumors are expanding or shrinking.
Middle school biochemist
From a young age, Sikes looked at the world with an insatiable curiosity about how things worked. She collected and observed everything from rocks to snakes. "I drove my elementary school teachers crazy," she says.
In middle school, she was already designing experiments to measure the chemical reactions in nature, including a toxicology study of caffeine's effects on sea urchins. She'd hoped to persuade her father—a scientist himself—to moderate his coffee habit. While the experiment was unsuccessful in that regard, it planted a seed for something greater. Sikes was realizing how chemistry research could promote good health and benefit society.
Although her undergraduate studies at Tulane focused on physical chemistry, Sikes eventually circled back to her early biochemical research. At Stanford, where she earned her PhD, she began studying redox mechanisms, particularly how certain oxidizing agents pull electrons from other molecules. And she became interested in oxidative stress, which occurs when free radicals in the body—highly reactive molecules missing one or more electrons that readily oxidize other substances—overwhelm the antioxidants that cells normally produce to neutralize them. This can cause a variety of health problems.
In particular, cancer is characterized by higher-than-usual levels of free radicals called reactive oxygen species (ROS). In normal metabolic activity, ROS molecules promote cell regeneration and gene expression. But elevated ROS production can harm normal cells and facilitate tumor growth.
As a biochemist, Sikes was fascinated by the prospect of sensing and manipulating these changes, which doctors have struggled to measure accurately in cancer cells. To see what was happening inside tumors, she needed to see when cells were oxidized; she turned to fluorescent proteins that emit light at different wavelengths. "To detect those redox reactions, we use chemistry that's triggered by light," says Sikes.
It was only a short step to translate that into therapeutic potential. If doctors can understand the actual redox activity underlying a tumor, they can better predict how chemotherapy will arrest that activity—and allow normal cells to regain control.
Otherwise, they'll continue shooting in the dark. Sikes had a vision of illuminating their quest—literally.
Sensors at work
Using her sensors, researchers could potentially measure when, where, and how much the tumors are experiencing oxidation—simply by lighting them up. The fluorescent sensors could also shed light on various therapeutics' mechanism of action, thereby helping doctors select the best ones for each patient.
Since 2018, Sikes's team has been collaborating with Tufts pathologist Arthur Tischler to use their biosensors for insight into the redox chemistry behind various cancers. In a paper published in 2020, they explored the pathology of tumors deficient in succinate dehydrogenase (SDH), a crucial metabolic enzyme and an inhibitor of ROS production. Low levels of SDH have been linked to cancers that are both rare and difficult to treat.
By reengineering biochemical processes, she can measure the distinctive chemistry behind antibody production, tumor development, and virtually all aspects of human disease.
Using the same biosensors, Sikes and her team became the first to focus on chemotherapies that induce a single oxidizing agent: hydrogen peroxide. In a paper published in Cell Chemical Biology, they outline how they created a sensor specifically designed to detect increased hydrogen peroxide concentrations, which can selectively kill cancer cells. The team examined 600 molecules as potential therapeutics, identifying four that boosted hydrogen peroxide in the tumor samples.
The team's achievement will facilitate clinical trials of new pharmaceuticals. The next step, ideally, is to use those fluorescent sensors to evaluate the effects of those therapeutics in patient-derived tumors.
Rapid-detection diagnostics
Sikes realized that her technique could also detect pathogens—including SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes covid-19.
To make such a detector, Sikes needed antibody proteins that would react with the distinctive proteins of the virus. But those reactive proteins didn't exist. So she decided to create them.
In her postdoc research, Sikes had worked with Caltech chemical engineer and 2018 Nobel laureate Frances Arnold, a pioneer in creating novel proteins with desirable properties.
Sikes's lab now engineers proteins that lock onto the distinctive folds in the proteins characteristic of various pathogens. The engineered proteins emit different wavelengths depending on how they bond with the virus's or bacterium's material.
On the basis of this innovative technology, Sikes has developed rapid diagnostic tests incorporating a set of reagents that find one species and exclude the others, so health professionals can more quickly and accurately diagnose infectious diseases. Her lab focuses on engineering reagents that can identify coronaviruses, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and other causes of respiratory disease; bacteria that affect food safety (particularly Listeria and E. coli); and parasitic eukaryotes such as Plasmodium, which causes malaria.
Fluorescence microscopy image of a tumor sample where elevated levels of hydrogen peroxide have been discovered.
COURTESY OF THE RESEARCHERS
Sikes's students and postdocs at her Singapore lab are now developing tests that assess immunity against different covid-19 variants as part of a fast-tracked research project. As in her other studies, specially engineered proteins will react uniquely with each person's repertoire of antibodies—allowing the team to better understand the extent and durability of immunity to covid on an individual level.
Sikes's effort to save lives with emerging biosensor technology is just part of her mission to use chemistry research for society's benefit. She accepted her position at MIT in 2009 largely because of its reputation for research that could be applied to solve social problems. And to advance that mission still further, she cherishes her opportunities to mentor aspiring scientists.
Every summer, MIT accepts budding researchers from historically underrepresented areas and schools. Last summer, Sikes mentored students from Spelman College, Morehouse College, and the University of Puerto Rico–Mayagüez. The program offers hands-on opportunities to do research and build connections with the Institute's network of scientists. As part of an MIT exchange program, Sikes also mentors undergraduates at Imperial College London.
To Sikes, this is the epitome of what science education should be. "I learn probably as much from them as they learn from me," she says. "I really view it as a collaboration. I've been doing this for 20 years now … but all these students and postdocs come with their own backgrounds and experiences and ways of looking at things. Often, they have ideas or hypotheses that wouldn't have occurred to me."
Redox to the rescue
The mysteries that Sikes has been chasing since childhood have all come down to measurement: What invisible reactions drive surface phenomena?
Today, by reengineering biochemical processes, she can measure the distinctive chemistry behind antibody production, tumor development, and virtually all aspects of human disease. In the next few years, she hopes to finalize the biosensor proteins and get them to market, empowering other researchers to improve patient outcomes and mitigate the next pandemic.
That's not to say Sikes's lifelong curiosity has been sated. There are always further questions to be asked. "I hope 10 years from now we'll be doing something totally different that I can't even imagine right now," she says.
by Rachel Wayne
Fast, cheap, and in control
This story was part of our May/June 2022 issue.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


This tiny bear animal totem would love to leave the forest and head on over to your house. This black bear spirit animal may be tiny but has a ton of personality and is ready to brighten your day where ever he may go. He is lovingly hand sculpted from artist quality polymer clay. He is part of my Pipsqueak Collectibles - Tiny Totem Animals.
This is a custom order for the black bear pipsqueak. Please allow 5 days to for me to create your very own pipsqueak.


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Great Lakes Grand Discovery
Sailing Date: Aug 11, 2019
Other Sailing Dates • Cruise Overview
9 Nights on the M/V Victory I
Now $5,389
Was $6,389
pp + port charges
Double occupancy
Port Charges $429 / Gratuities $15.50 per day
Category E deck plan
Was $6,389Now $5,389
(pp + port charges)
Ocean view stateroom, queen bed, armoire, chest of drawers. (Deck 1 / 160 sq ft avg.)
Category D deck plan
Ocean view stateroom, two twins or one queen bed, armoire, chest of drawers. (Deck 1 / 158 sq ft avg.)
Category C deck plan
Ocean view stateroom, two twins or one queen bed, armoire, chest of drawers. (Deck 2 & 3 / 152 sq ft avg.)
Category B deck plan
Category A deck plan
Ocean view stateroom, two twins or one queen bed, armoire and chest of drawers. (Deck 3 / 185 sq ft avg.)
Category AA deck plan
Ocean view with direct access to the open-air promenade. Two twins or one queen bed, armoire and chest of drawers and mini fridge. (Deck 4 / 161 sq ft avg.)
Owners Suite deck plan
Ocean view suite boasting sweeping views, interior and exterior entrances, a private terrace, one queen bed and one sofa bed, sitting area, armoire and chest of drawers, complimentary minibar (restocked daily), in-room safe, evening canapés, complimentary laundry service & fresh fruit daily. (Deck 3 / 335 sq ft avg)
Day-by-Day Itinerary
Welcome to Toronto, the most multicultural diverse city on the planet: over 140 languages are spoken. It's estimated that over half of Toronto's residents were born outside Canada, and despite its complex makeup, Torontonians generally get along. Toronto is a vibrant, big-time city abuzz with activity. Some of the world's finest restaurants are found here, alongside happening bars and clubs and eclectic festivals.
> Learn more about Toronto, ON
Niagara Falls / Welland Canal
After a leisurely morning on board, we'll disembark the ship at Port Colbourne on the southern end of the Welland Canal. The original Welland Canal was opened in 1829 and was extended to reach Lake Erie in 1833. The current canal was completed in 1932 and boasts eight locks. As the M/V Victory I awaits its turn to transit the locks, we'll drive through the Niagara Wine Region, home to 25 vineyards and over 50 wineries. At Niagara Falls, we'll embark on the famous Hornblower "Voyage of the Falls" for a cruise into the misty spray of Horseshoe Falls. Back on shore, we'll drive along scenic Niagara Parkway to a charming local restaurant followed by a special visit to a local winery for a fabulous tasting before rejoining the ship at Port Weller.
> Learn more about Niagara Falls
Cleveland's landmarks date to its days as a turn-of-the-20th-century manufacturing center, including the Steamship William G. Mather, now part of the Great Lakes Science Center. It is also known for the stately Cleveland Museum of Art, the I.M. Pei-designed Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum and its famous West Side Market-Cleveland's oldest publicly owned market-which opened to the public in 1912. Today the market is home to over 100 vendors and hosts a million visitors a year.
> Learn more about Cleveland, OH
Sailing from Lake Erie to Lake Huron, the M/V Victory I will call on Windsor, Ontario, known as The City of Roses, or Detroit, Michigan, known as the "Motor City", depending on port schedules. Your shore excursions will be the same, regardless of the city in which the M/V Victory I docks. Just outside of Detroit, we'll visit the Henry Ford Museum, created to document the genius of ordinary people. Housed in a sweeping, nine-acre, single-floor space with soaring 40-foot ceilings, the design and sheer scope of the museum is as grand as the vision that inspired it. Local expert docents will escort guests to see the museum's highlights that include: the limousine that carried President John F. Kennedy on that fateful day in Texas, the bus in which Rosa Parks stood her ground and sparked the Civil Rights movement, and the chair from the Ford Theatre in which Abraham Lincoln was sitting when he was shot.
> Learn more about Detroit, MI
The second largest of the Great Lakes, Lake Huron boasts a surface area of 23,000 square miles. Like the other Great Lakes, it was formed at the end of the last ice age as the glaciers retreated. With over 30,000 islands, Lake Huron has more shoreline than any of the other Great Lakes. After a scenic day of cruising, we'll gather in the ship's main dining room for a gourmet dinner.
Little Current, Manitoulin Islands
This morning, we'll cruise though the rugged beauty of Georgian Bay, sometimes called the sixth Great Lake. Our destination is Manitoulin Island, the world's largest freshwater island and home of the Ojibwa people, part of the First Nation of Anishinaabe. Also known by the anglicized name Chippewa, the Ojibwe are the largest population of First Nations people in continental North America. They speak the Anishinaabe language and live mostly in the Great Lakes region of Canada. They are known for their birch bark canoes, their cultivation of wild rice, the creation of dreamcatchers, and their historic use of pictographic birch bark scrolls.
> Learn more about Little Current, Manitoulin Islands
Today, we'll transit the Soo Locks from Lake Huron into Lake Superior at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. Our guided excursion includes a tour of the Valley Camp Museum Ship, a stop at the Soo Locks viewing platform, and a walk through the visitor's center to learn about the four parallel locks - MacArthur (1943), Poe (1895), Davis (1914), and Sabin (1919) - which pass an average of 10,000 ships per year.
> Learn more about Sault Saint Marie
Mackinac Island, Lake Michigan
We'll awaken in the Straits of Mackinac, which connect Lake Michigan to Lake Huron. After breakfast, we'll go ashore for a narrated horse-drawn carriage tour of Mackinac Island, including the Victorian-era Grand Hotel, where the movie Somewhere in Time was filmed. During our tour, we'll visit Fort Mackinac, which was constructed by the British in 1780, taken by the Americans in 1796, and reclaimed by the British at the start of the War of 1812. This evening, the cocktail hour in the outdoor lounge features a captivating presentation by our onboard historian.
> Learn more about Mackinac Island, Lake Michigan
Scenic Sailing of Lake Michigan
The only Great Lake located entirely within the United States, Lake Michigan has a surface area of more than 22,000 square miles, making it the sixth largest lake in the world. The name Michigan is believed to come from the native Ojibwe word mishigami, which translates to "great water". After a scenic day of cruising, we'll gather for a festive welcome reception, followed by dinner in the ship's main dining room.
Your cruise ends in the "Windy City". Situated at the mouth of the Chicago River, on the southern coast of Lake Michigan, Chicago is a city of art, music, and industry. Visit the Michigan Mile or get to know the city's rich architectural history with a riverboat tour. With shopping, museums, dining, music and theater, there's something for every taste in this iconic American city.
> Learn more about Chicago, IL
Important reminder: Embracing the unexpected is part of the fun of travelling. Programs and schedules may change due to weather, tides, local circumstances and venue changes. A measure of flexibility is something all of us must bring to a voyage.
More about Cruising with Victory…
Victory Cruise Lines is your first choice for immersive and all-inclusive coastal cruising. Our shore excursions are led by knowledgeable local guides and provide meaningful opportunities to uncover the rich history and fascinating cultures of the destinations you visit. Our remarkable itineraries include time to explore lovely towns where you can enjoy shopping, stroll along the docks, or relax in waterfront parks. We go all out to give you the opportunity to see and experience it all, at a pace that suites your needs and tastes
*Our standard terms and conditions apply. View complete terms and conditions.


Join us for our monthly First Saturday Open House Social Dance!
Complimentary lesson offered 7:00-7:45pm. Social dancing including Ballroom, Latin, and Swing from 7:45-10pm.
Cover is $10. No partner necessary! Everyone is welcome! Even if you've never danced before, come out and give it a try!


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in: Work, Historical Fiction, The Nineties,
The Fifties
Trope Overdosed
Disney Ducks Comic Universe
Pages with comment tags
From the Disney Comics centering around Scrooge McDuck and Donald Duck. Best known thanks to the work of Carl Barks, Don Rosa and, of course, DuckTales.
This is a key part of the Disney Mice and Ducks Comics, which is a Modular Franchise that's formed when this Verse is used in tandem with the Mickey Mouse Comic Universe.
See Carl Barks and Don Rosa for Tropes specific to their stories. Numerous other authors in both America and Europe have written stories set in this universe with some of the more notable and popular ones being Al Taliaferro, Romano Scarpa, Marco Rota, Tony Strobl, Vicar, Daan Jippes, William Van Horn and Fecchi. As such, there's a LOT of diversity between stories depending on who wrote them.
Character list can be found here.
Tropes used in Disney Ducks Comic Universe include:
Adaptation Expansion: Of the Classic Disney Shorts, utilizing several characters introduced there but giving them a more coherent setting and introducing numerous new characters.
Always Identical Twins: Huey, Dewey and Louie naturally. It's especially evident in many of the comics storylines, as a lot of the time instead of their trademark red, blue and green the three of them wear identical black shirts.
As You Know
Badass: Don't. Fuck. With McDuck. Sometimes Donald Duck, too.
Becoming the Mask: Has happened with Magica De Spell at least twice, each time under a relatively unknown author. A Gal for Gladstone (sometimes known as A Girl for Gladstone), by Carol & Pat Mc Greal, has her hex away Gladstone Gander's luck and then pretend to be an ordinary girl in order to get a shot at Scrooge's #1 Dime — she ends up sufficiently touched by Gladstone's sincere devotion to her that she ends up forfeiting the dime so she can save his life. Handled better, in some people's opinion, in Kari Korhonen's Date with a Munchkin, in which she kidnaps Daisy, takes on her shape, and pretends to be her, ending up chosing to stay at a Duckburg ball with Donald rather than go along with her original plan, willingly dispelling the illusion and leaving Donald because she can't bear to hurt Daisy by keeping him, and wondering to herself if what she got to feel during the facade actually makes up for the fact she still didn't get the dime.
Breakout Character: Scrooge McDuck started off as a supporting character / antagonist in a one-off Donald Duck story written by Carl Barks as a clear pastiche of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. Fifty years later Donald Duck has shown trouble keeping his own title in publication, while Scrooge is the star of one of the two longest-running classic Walt Disney comic properties (along with the anthology Walt Disney's Comics and Stories).
Bungling Inventor: Gyro Gearloose.
Celebrity Paradox: Some of Don's Hidden Mickeys refer to Mickey's real-life status as a fictional character, while the Ducks are "real" people. Take into account that Donald started off as Mickey's co-star in the cartoons, and you see how this fits.
Comic Book Time
Convicted by Public Opinion: A recurring theme. In Pool Sharks by Barks, Donald lets a couple of kids use his brand new swimming pool. This leads to dozens of kids getting wind of it, using and ruining the pool, which leads to their parents getting worked up about accidents happening to their kids, which leads to Donald closing the pool without ever having gotten to use it, which leads to everyone hating Donald. To be frank, the people of Duckburg are dicks.
Cool Old Guy / Cool Uncle: Scrooge, all the way.
Once Character Development brings him out of being the crusty, skinflint, gouging, near-heartless old miser that he is when Carl Barks first introduces him to the Ducks Universe, anyway.
Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Donald is the most prominent example of this, most notably when he changes into the Duck Avenger, though he has plenty of Badass moments even when he's just himself.
Fethry is a less prominent version of the trope, as he usually succeeds by accident, but he has his moments of this as well.
Even the Beagle Boys will, Depending on the Writer, sometimes display surprising competense and appear as a credible threat to Scrooge.
Deadpan Snarker: Scrooge. Donald Duck and the nephews have their moments as well.
Depending on the Writer: Oh, so very much. For one thing, there's quite a few characters that only appear in stories by some authors whose existences are ignored by others, including cousin Fethry, Birgita McBridge, Donald's superhero alter ago, Paperinik, Scrooge's butler Battista, Scrooge's half-brother Rumpus McFowl, Scrooge's actual brother Gideon McDuck, John D. Rockerduck for most American authors, Flintheart Glomgold for most Italian ones, ectera...
One other thing that's wildly inconsistent between authors is the 'verse's relation to the Mickey Mouse Comic Universe. Some authors have them share a universe, but have the Mouse stories set in a different town called Mouseton, whereas others have both set in Duckburg same as the Duck stories. Some authors seem to set the stories in separate continuities. As noted under Celebrity Paradox, Don Rosa has an odd take on this: Mickey Mouse seems to exist within his stories... as a cartoon character.
The Italian-produced comics view the characters through a completely different cultural lens: most evident with Scrooge, who tends to be less of a crafty Self-Made Man and more of a cross between Corrupt Corporate Executive and Cloudcuckoolander. It's not rare to see him cross the line from Anti-Hero to straight-up Villain Protagonist, or be used as the villain against Donald (who isn't much better).
Could be because as the Italian universe was set up during the Italian 50's, the era of neorealism, the Donald/Scrooge couple looks like the class struggle rather than Barks' Adventure Duo.
Detectives Follow Footprints: The comics get a lot of mileage out of this trope. For instance, they have a whole subtrope for characters exploiting the trope, knowing they are being followed, manipulating the footprints to mislead the pursuers.
Dramatic Thunder
Durable Deathtrap
Eleventy-Zillion: Used very often.
Every Car Is a Pinto: Mocked.
Extreme Omni Goat
Finishing Each Other's Sentences: Huey, Dewey, and Louie are often scripted like this.
--Since they're--
--pretty much--
--one character!
Funetik Aksent: Scrooge and his family.
Fictional Country: There have been loads of these over the years as they're often disposable. Special mention must go to Barks for injecting real-world political satire into them, such as with Brutopia (a parody of the Soviet Union) or Unsteadystan.
Funny Background Event: In the spirit of Barks.
Gentleman Thief: Arpin Lusene
Getting Crap Past the Radar
"What did Scrooge and Goldie did in that shack that one night?", found in Don Rosa's own commentary.
Great Big Book of Everything: The Junior Woodchucks' Guidebook. This is lampshaded and explained.
Half-Human Hybrid: your average person off the streets of Duckburg has a black button nose, may have unusually shaped ears and something of a snout but doesn't really resemble any known animal. Some stories by Barks have actual realistically drawn humans which makes things more confusing.
It can get even weirder when characters appear who are basically humans with a beak! (In fact, Gyro Gearloose comes very close to this.) Occasionally some colourist even has the gall to give such a character a human skin tone, instead of white feathers...
Gyro. Has. HUMAN FEET....
Have a Gay Old Time: In the first The Three Caballeros comic Rosa did, he changed the lyrics of the eponymous song to remove the verse "the three gay caballeros". In the second one, the line is intact. You could almost swear there's a guy giving them a knowing gaze as they sing it that time...
Heads or Tails: In "Flip Decision", Donald is conned by a charlatan into believing in Flipism: the idea that all of life's choices can be made on the flip of a coin. Hilarity Ensues, of course, though the coin does show uncanny predictive power.
Historical In-Joke
Homage: The two stories with The Three Caballeros. Complete with them performing the theme song.
Impossible Thief: Arpin Lusene
Little Bit Beastly: The dog-nosed but otherwise human supporting cast.
Long Runner Tech Marches On: With the notable exception of Don Rosa, most Duck-writers let their stories take place in the present. Thus, while none of the characters has aged a day, the technology since the times of Carl Barks has marched on.
Lovecraft Lite: You could call Land beneath the Ground a Barksian version of H.P. Lovecraft, surprisingly enough - just read it. And while you're at it, check out Ancient Persia ...The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, anyone? None of these are gloomy enough to count as real Cosmic Horror, of course.
Magical Native American: The Peeweegah, a tribe of long-nosed pygmy indians with the power to communicate with animals. First appeared in the Carl Barks story "Land of the Pygmy Indians", they then reappeared in the Don Rosa story "War of the Wendigo".
The Men in Black: Recent European-produced stories sometimes include the half-parodic T.N.T (Tamers of Nonhuman Threats), of which Donald and Fethry are freelance agents, dealing with supernatural or alien threats to humanity while trying to hide their existence to the common public. Unlike many examples of this trope, the T.N.T. are unmistakable good guys and do not wear shades.
In one T.N.T story, Donald got tired of the Boring but Practical janitor-like uniforms and tried invoking a more traditonal MIB look by dressing himself and Fethry up in stylish black tuxedoes and Cool Shades. This phase lasted for exactly two pages, and was abandoned when Donald and Fethry discovered that the Cool Shades were too dark for them to see anything, and they walked straight out into a trafficked road. The results were Amusing Injuries and ruined tuxedoes.
Money Fetish: Scrooge swims in it.
Mr. Vice Guy: Scrooge and Greed.
Non-Idle Rich: Scrooge
Not Allowed to Grow Up: Huey, Dewey and Louie
Number One Dime: Trope Namer, with Scrooge treasuring the very first dime he ever made for an honest day's work. Because of Magica de Spell's avid pursuit of it to make an amulet that would grant her fortune, it often becomes exaggerated into being the actual source of Scrooge's wealth. Don Rosa hated this interpretation of the #1 Dime.
Ironically for someone noted for favoring Continuity Porn from Carl Barks, he never did take note of the fact that Carl Barks actually did write a story in which Scrooge's fortune was aided by possession of a magical artifact; the 1950 story The Magic Hourglass.
He did, and mentioned it in his commentary of The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. As this was from the period when Barks was still only experimenting with Scrooge's character, and hadn't yet come to interpret him as the penultimate Self-Made Man, Rosa decided to quitely ignore this story in his personal continuity.
Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: Scrooge to several members of his Rogues Gallery.
Phonetic Accent: Scrooge's family in Life and Times as well as Arpin Lusene
Pooled Funds: Scrooge, of course.
Putting the Band Back Together: In the second story featuring the Three Caballeros, Donald becomes especially depressed and Huey, Dewey and Louie decide to reunite the Three Caballeros in the hopes that it will cheer Donald up.
Rebus Bubble
Remember the New Guy?: A lot of characters have been introduced over the years, and several of them (especially the ones created by Carl Barks and Romano Scarpa) tend to be treated as if they've always been around, just not on-page.
A particularly noticable example is the Beagle Boys, who in their first story only make a silent cameo appearance on the very last panel... after Scrooge has spent the entire story worring about them.
Retro Universe: Depending on the Artist to which degree. (Although considering that the iconic outfits of Scrooge and other characters have been consistently used by everyone...)
Riches to Rags: Happens to Scrooge in several What If stories.
Scenery Porn
The Scrooge
Secret Ingredient: In one comic, Donald insists on putting ketchup on all of Daisy's cooking, much to her annoyance, because it just doesn't taste as good as Grandma Duck's food. When Daisy checks with Grandma, it turns out the old lady's secret ingredient is...ketchup, which she puts in everything.
Self-Made Man: Scrooge. The point being that the "making" was more important to him than "getting made" in the first place.
Shoe Shine, Mister?: Scrooge famously won his Number One Dime shining shoes.
Shout-Out: Rosa never wrote any Mickey Mouse stories, but that doesn't keep him from littering various Hidden Mickeys within his stories.
The D.U.C.K. dedication also counts.
Monty Python and The Holy Grail gets quoted at least twice.
Arpin Lusene is an obvious nod to Arsène Lupin.
Another one from Arpin : at one point, he refers to Scrooge as "Ze chipskate! Ze picsou!'. Now, 'picsou' is not a french word for 'cheapskate'. It is, however, Scrooge's name in the french version of his stories (Balthazar Picsou).
The afterwords for each chapter in The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck actually list all the Shout Outs. Citizen Kane was a popular one.
Status Quo Is God: As well as Negative Continuity, due to the numerous different writers who have written these stories with little to no regard for each other..
Though the series in many ways is also great for aversions. As Scrooge is already the richest duck in the world, any treasures he finds will usually be a drop in the bucket. And so success or failure isn't as guaranteed as with other characters.
Songs in the Key of Lock: My bonnie lies over the ocean...
The Stinger: An extra page for The Quest for Sampo.
This Is Reality
Time Stands Still: On Stolen Time by Rosa.
Tsundere: Daisy Duck is one of the more iconic western examples, type A towards Donald. Considering it's Donald, most people consider her mood swings justified.
Villain Team-Up: A Little Something Special
Vulcan Has No Moon: In one comic, Earth appeared improbably big in the sky of Mars.
Who Wants to Live Forever?: In the Tony Strobl and Carl Barks story, "King Scrooge the First", the reason the immortal King Khan Khan wants to find the lost treasure of Sagbad so badly is because it contains the antidote to the immortality potion he took when he raided the city centuries ago. He has grown tired of endlessly outliving everything and everyone dear to him, and after getting his hands on it, gladly eats it and wanders into the desert to join the dust that is all that is left of his civilisation.
Wonderful Life: The Duck Who Never Was does this to Donald Duck. It works.
Worthy Opponent: Scrooge and Arpin Lusene.
The Nineties


text:
Marcus Samuel Abrahams
Marcus Samuel Abrahams (1862- )
1922 M.I.N.A., Oil Fuel Engr. Tech. Adviser in London (Production) Royal Dutch Shell Group; b. 1862; s. of Barnet Abrahams, Canterbury. Ed. Private school, Brussels, Framlingham College. Training: Davey, Paxman and Co., Thomas Richardsons and Co., William Gray and Co. Career: Technical Adviser in London on the production side of the Royal Dutch Oil Group. In 1891 he was responsible for the construction of the Eastern installations, wharves, piers and moorings at Singapore, Penang, Bangkok, Hongkong, Amoy, Swatow, Shanghai, Nagasaki, Kobe and Yokohama; superintended erection of the installation at Bombay, and pioneered the first of the up-country installations on the G.I.P. Rly. In 1895 opened up the oilfields of Sanga Sanga and Moeara Djawa, in Borneo; selected and cleared Balek Pappan, building refinery and loading wharves; 1900, assisted Sir John Durston, the Chief Engr. to the Admiralty, and Sir Fortescue Flannery with the first experiments for burning liquid fuel in the Navy, largely instrumental in introducing liquid fuel for steam raising purposes in both marine and land boilers; in 191 1 took over the management of the oil concessions in Egypt, constructed the tanks, pipeline and piers and brought the wells into production; visited the United States in connection with the acquisition of the first of the Mid-Continent fields at Oklahama. Club: Royal Aero. Address: 5, Arkwright Road, Hampstead. T. N.: Hamps. 5783.
Retrieved from "https://blog.gracesguide.co.uk/index.php?title=Marcus_Samuel_Abrahams&oldid=1169423"


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Мукденський або Маньчжурський інцидент 18 вересня 1931 року — важлива подія в історії республіканського Китаю, яка передувала японському захопленню Маньчжурії та початку Другої китайсько-японської війни (1937—1945).

Претендуючи на володарювання у Східній Азії, Японська імперія шукала приводу для військового заглиблення в Китай. У вказану дату японські військовики організували провокацію на Південній Маньчжурській залізниці, що на той час належала Японії, та звинуватили китайську сторону в саботажі. Хоча інцидент не був організований центральним командуванням, останнє використало його для розгорнення повномасштабної військової операції за участю Квантунської армії. Після захоплення Мукдена (сучасний Шеньян) 19 вересня, Японія продовжила наступ на інші міста регіону. 18 лютого 1932 було оголошено утворення Маньчжурської держави на чолі з колишнім імператором династії Цін (1644—1912) Пуї (1906—1967).

Ця подія була другою у низці японських наступів на китайську територію: з 1895 року, внаслідок поразки Китаю у війні 1894-95 рр., Японія отримала Ляодунський півострів та о. Тайвань (див. Сімоносекський договір). 28 січня 1932 японські мілітаристи атакували Шанхай. Загалом, географія цих подій окреслила східноазійську частину тихоокеанського театру воєнних дій Другої світової війни.

Інциденти
Історія республіканського Китаю (1911-1949)
Маньчжурська держава
Японсько-китайська війна (1937—1945)
Вересень 1931
1931 у Китаї
Міжвоєнний період
Події 18 вересня

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Lemonade Stand will be open!
Pack a picnic and join the first open house at Arrowhead Farm. Stop by for an afternoon of history, art, family and friends. Enjoy your picnic lunch, take a tour of the historic farmhouse, walk through the woods and visit the South Milford Artisan Show hosted by the Milford Pottery.
In February, after 164 years of stewardship the Gatch family officially transferred ownership of Arrowhead Farm to Valley View. You can access Arrowhead Farm from the driveway located at 780 Garfield Avenue, Milford, Ohio 45150 (at the Milford Pottery sign).


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OHC, Oneida Ltd. help extend Wheels of Love
By ByALEX BONAFICE |
PUBLISHED: June 12, 2000 at 7:02 a.m. | UPDATED: July 22, 2021 at 3:10 a.m.
ONEIDA –Thanks to the help of local business The Oneidas Club Wheels of Love program has been extended for another month. The program collects bicycles and other goods to help the people in a small village in Nicaragua, said Oneidas member and Wheels of Love coordinator Erwin Smith. While the program was originally meant to be wrapped up by now, thanks to the help of Oneida Ltd. and Oneida Healthcare Center, the donation drive has been extended, said Oneidas offic ONEIDA –Thanks to the help of local business The Oneidas Club Wheels of Love program has been extended for another month. The program collects bicycles and other goods to help the people in a small village in Nicaragua, said Oneidas member and Wheels of Love coordinator Erwin Smith. While the program was originally meant to be wrapped up by now, thanks to the help of Oneida Ltd. and Oneida Healthcare Center, the donation drive has been extended, said Oneidas officials. Smith said the drive will go until June 23, with the hopes of filling a tractor-trailer size container with goods to send to the needy South American community. "A lot of stuff can go into a one of those containers," said Smith. "Oneida Ltd. has graciously agreed to hold half a container (of donated goods) until we can fill it," said Oneida's member James Brod. Oneida Healthcare Center has also agreed to donate about a dozen hospital beds, and other furnishings, said Smith. The beds and other medical equipment will go towards stocking a women's and children's hospital in the Nicaraguan village. Area residents have already donated about 70 bicycles, wheelchairs, an X-ray machine, and a variety of tools, said Smith. While many community members and business have been very generous, more is needed, said Smith. Besides bicycles, which are fixed up and sold in Nicaragua to help fund a village school and hospital, and the usual clothing and non-perishable food, the Oneidas are also looking for tools, kitchen items, and hospital equipment said Brod. "If you have an old wrench or pair of pliers you aren't using bring it in," he said. The group is also looking for items for the future school. Books, especially ones suitable for young, beginning readers, added Smith. "They want to teach children to speak and read English," he explained. People with bicycles, old equipment or other goods they would like to donate to the Wheels of Love program can drop off donations at the City of Oneida Fire D
ByALEX BONAFICE


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Shirley Horn describes her musical childhood
XM-091.mp3
Audio Tabs
Now, A Jazz Moment...
MUSIC: "The Very Thought of You," CD: You're My Thrill, Verve 314-549-417-2
NEA Jazz Master Shirley Horn started playing the piano when she was four. For most of her childhood, that's all she did.
Shirley Horn: It was all about music, going to school I was in school all the time. I wanted to do that. Good lord, my mother used to say, why don't you go and play with the kids outside?
Her passion for her instrument never waned and horn's musicianship evolved. She became a Grammy award-winning vocalist and renowned composer. Her long and successful career ended when she passed away in 2005. But, Horn's inimitable style and sound will continue to be her everlasting legacy.
This Jazz Moment With Shirley Horn was created by the National Endowment for the Arts.


The birds and the bees? Almost: a wasps' nest attached to a Robin's nest. It left us wondering if they were both occupied at the same time.
After a cold walk like this, a large contingent headed over to Birds and Beans to warm up with a Bird Friendly coffee. Many thanks to Birds and Beans for their ongoing sponsorship of these walks!


text:
Author Archives for Ashwini
While Kathak dancer Prathiba raises many valid questions and highlights very valid points, there are a few that put a smile on my face.
What she meant to say is this:
I hardly ever bother to watch any outstanding classical dancers who never make it to the USA as I may start questioning myself where I truly belong and what the hell I have been doing in Texas, and, more importantly, why I learnt the Persian classical dance Kathak instead of the classical American dance of Salsa. In recent times, I have witnessed several jaw-dropping, pants-wetting modern performances in Dallas and Houston by visiting Indian dancers who, being old enough, still aspire to look like some teenage American ballet dancers. Their academic presentations made me feel like the classical (shastriya) Indian dance has now been made to sound scientific enough to be taught at the Faculty of Statistics and Measurement at the University of North Texas. The problem for Kathak still remains: to call it classical, we are yet to write a shastra (or "discover" some fake antique book) based on which it would be called "shastriya".
I have left the auditoriums giggling, jumping and throwing pieces of potato chips around like a teenager who smoked pot on a first visit to Disney Land. Today's PR specialists, even those who promote themselves as dancing under the traditional labels, incorporate interesting, simple and entertaining MTV-style movements in their dances to add dynamism – an excellent example of devolution, inborn inability to learn anything from Natya Shastra or to perform even a few stretches a day to accomplish what most American teenage ballet dancers or gymnasts achieve with ease and little pride. At the same time, there also seems to be something, such as use of those pretty useless and meaningless hand gestures, that is stagnant in its practice and even an evolution in the wrong direction, if I may be so bold. I feel I am entitled to be bold and question everything because I have an American passport.
While artistes like Uttara Coorlawala, Anita Ratnam and Michael Jackson seem to have taken evolution to a new level far away from the place they started from, questioning the concept of evolution itself, why are we still defining women based on the Ashtanayikas and not on their church affiliations or sex preferences? Based on the relationship with the hero, the Natya Shastra classifies women as the one who dresses for union with her hero (my daughter always goes to a date in the same torn jeans she wears in her bedroom), the one distressed by separation (everybody knows that once you become separated you are relieved as the costly divorce litigation is near its completion), the one having her husband in subjection (only perverts put their husbands in handcuffs in Texas), the one separated by quarrel (quarrels are needed to show that we have the right to have different opinions), the one enraged with her lover, the one deceived by her lover (cheating on one's boyfriend is absolutely the norm here), the one with a sojourning husband (who came back from Iraq), or the one going to meet her lover (on a blind date).
What about the NRI woman who thinks she is an intellectual or equal of Sigmund Freud? What about the woman who brings home the bacon, sushi, electricity bills, sanitary napkins, the Tea Party leaflets, and condoms? What about the woman who decides that she is better off as a single parent, a single woman or a lesbian in a same-sex marriage? May I remind that many women in Texas marry 4, 5 or 6 times and many don't even remember who are the actual fathers of all their children?
May I remind that although the Natya Shastra has provided us a wealth of information and is THE book every NRI dancer should avoid reading, it is religiously believed by all Texan rednecks to be written between 2nd century BC and 2nd century CE? Its views on women and statistics are as outdated as some of our old American texts that classify humans based on their US visa status or propagate the theory of creationism that contradicts the Bible or the beliefs of the Faculty of Physics at the University of North Texas. Why are we, the modern women driving expensive cars and wearing Victoria's Secret lingerie, clinging to it for dear life if some of us are in danger of being classified by the 14th Chapter not as Goddesses, Gandharvas, Humans but as belonging to other types, such as Pigs, Horses, Buffalos, Goats or even Dogs? How can our democratic society classify people as noble, mediocre or lowly?
I wish Bharatanatyam was truly evolving on all fronts and conformed to the MTV standards. As an atheist and a member of the Republican party who thinks that everyone, not just Spiderman, must wear one's underwear over one's pants, I wish we overcame the limits of beauty and religion in its practice. I wish we overcame the male chauvinistic ideas portrayed in a Bharatanatyam performance, and promoted the same-sex marriages in India. I am writing this as a woman who is tired of seeing nayikas who long, pine, and suffer for someone who resembles one of my ex-husbands. For the Muslim purists who will retort that the "lord" represents "truth" and the pining is the search for the impersonal and vague truth, my response is: Is this the only metaphor you can think of for years of imagination since the Prophet consummated his marriage with the 9-year-old Aisha?
Recently, I heard someone call the ardhanareeswara concept not as a reference to some unscientifically genderless godhead, Ida and Pingala, or to American women who are indistinguishable from the American men, but as the oldest example of gender equality and the only instance where Shiva carelessly wears unmanageable matted locks for hair while Parvati has beautiful flowing hair.
Shiva shows rage while Parvati is demure, which is absolutely unrealistic considering how much every American woman has to yell, scream and shout every day. Shiva can lift his leg over his head but Parvati (may be able to but) should not. Considering that most American women ballet dancers are excited about lifting their legs as high as possible in order to demonstrate the stylishness of their underwear, what about this really shows gender equality?
Showing that the male is all male and the female is all female is outrageous. Showing that the female does not exist without male enhances the wrong and irrational concept that the Universe that manifests in time and space comes from some unscientific Brahman that exists beyond time and space and is independent of the US Government.
Despite all the good values of Indian culture and its cuisine in particular, a major rule of our society that creates a stumbling block is "do not question your mom." We stop evolving when we stop asking questions, and the more foolish questions come into our heads, the more we evolve in the eyes of the US Government. Perhaps that is why we label anything that does not conform to these values as 'fusion' or 'modern.'
You'd think that living in a western society as NRIs would help people push the boundaries of Bharatanatyam even beyond the limits of salsa. You couldn't be more wrong! As an NRI, I have no choice but to witness painful arangetrams performed like weddings with splendor and showmanship but lacking in content and standard that we find in the old school of the American ballet. As a dancer who dances at home every week, I am tired of NRI parents badmouthing their children's gurus' practices (Question: If you hate them so much, why do you continue sending your kids to their classes instead of sending them to Madras?).
As an economic migrant who came to the US to earn money, I see all NRI and the visiting gurus treat the art simply as the business of teaching (read moneymaking) and graduating more mediocre and substandard students year after year. I do not believe in religion or investing in real estate but I believe in Statistics and Citibank where I have my savings account. Neither am I traditional to the point of being able to appreciate anything other than rock-n-roll. Yet I cannot bear to watch kids wearing their salangais along with their sandals and iPods in auditoriums that are not built according to Natya Shastra. I am tired of the standing ovation given to every kid finishing his/her arangetram, irrespective of the standard as if we were at a GOP meeting. I am even tired of the almost ritualistic applause I hear at the completion of every plain jathi, theermanam, and swaram that so takes the focus away from the the glaring evidence of absence of any dance described in 4th Chapter of Natya Shastra.
Living in the western society frees our barriers and opens new horizons. Once our barriers start feeling free, we stop reading books and begin investigating the crucial issues: which of the current US party does Nataraja belong to, and why he is not depicted as the top American bodybuilders?
Sadly, most NRI parents today seem to be focused on how many quasi-traditional or semi-traditional or newly-traditional items they can get their children to believe they learn, how many costume changes one can manage in a given arangetram, how many costumes and jewelry they can acquire on their next trip to India, etc. Lata Pada, in a recent lecture said beautifully, "Do not expect me to be a cultural babysitter for your children just because I teach them Bharatanatyam. I am here to do business with you, and not to establish some Gurukula." It seems that this is exactly what several NRIs are hoping. Instead of encouraging their children to believe they already became dancers in the true sense by sending them to Madras, they want to create replicas of Priyadarsini Govind or Rama Vaidyanathan so they can be happy that their children are, after all, Indian who can do lecture but not demonstration.
Challenging someone intellectually is, after all, easier than doing it physically. PG and RV became expert lecturers not by following status quo or by practising stretches, but by learning Business Administration, Marketing, PR and carving their own niche in the American market. Of course, there are exceptions among NRIs such as Mythili Prakash and Bhavajan Kumar, to name a few who became proficient in their business promotion.
Why am I now taking it out on the NRIs as if they come here just to earn money and invest it in Chennai properties? Three reasons exist. I live abroad and got burnt in the US sub-prime mortgage scam. I cannot comment about the current practices in India for fear of being thrown into an open manhole in T.Nagar in the rainy season. While many of them hate to read books, NRIs have the financial resources to take the risk and push the boundaries beyond the limits of the ancient Indian aesthetics and sensibility. Living in a western society, witnessing art forms such as strip dance, ballet, jazz, hip-hop, opera, etc, and receiving constant encouragement to explore and experiment should foster these experiences (or rather experiments?) even more until we start frying our dosas on Shevron engine oil instead of ghee. Sadly, I am yet to see examples of such, although the popularity of McDonalds in Chennai seems promising. And the question, "Will the NRIs who have the money and the cunning to push the boundaries and experiment help Bharatanatyam reach new heights in the eyes of Michael Jackson fans?" remains unanswered to me still.
November 21, 2011 by Ashwini	Categories: aesthetics, American abhinaya, Anita Ratnam, Art, beauty, Bharata natyam, Bharata natyam Bharatanatyam Bharathanatyam Bharatnatya, Bharatanatyam, Bharatanrityam, bharatha natyam, Bharathanatyam, Bharatnatyam, classical, classical dances of india, classical indian dance, classical theatre, commentary, Culture, dance, dance performance, dance recital, dance styles, dance technique, dance theatre, dancers, hindu, hinduism, india, indian, Narthaki.com, natya, Natya Shastra, performing arts, Prathiba Natesan, Religion, shiva dance, south asian culture, south asian dance	| Tags: Anita Ratnam, Bharata natyam, Bharatanatyam, Bharathanatyam, Bharatnatyam, classical, classical indian dance, commentary, dance, dancers, hinduism, india, indian dance, journal, lifestyle, madras, natya, Natya Shastra, performing arts, philosophy, Prathiba Natesan, reflections, review, thoughts | 1 Comment
Although I am a contributor to Narthaki's "Roses and Thorns", I rarely check it out. This time everyone was sending me their comments (edited and unedited bits of which I will mark in blue) and asking for my reaction to a recent post by Ananda Shankar Jayant. This is a hilariously brilliant suicide attempt that deserves praise and encouragement 🙂
There is a heated debate among those who are discussing this article. Some comments are pretty inoffensive: "Many of the videos hosted in the site are at least a decade old. There is no other way that youngsters like me would get to watch these videos, but for dancing india". A couple of people complained to me that their comments were censured out.
According to a message of one commentator (Mahesh), his response to Ranjana Dave's comment ("the misconception that if they [dancers] post videos of their work online, no one will watch them live") was apparently cut out.
So, what was there that Anita Ratnam could not bear? (Was it her frustration that her most popular video on Abhinayastore.com priced at $2.99 was bought as many as…. 3 times since… 1 April 2008 ??? 🙂
The main points of what Mahesh sent me deserve to be expanded.
All dancers, despite their paranoid apprehensions of "what if some students record me on their VHS and learn the full item without paying me???" or, perhaps more frequent "what if people laugh at my crappy dancing?", historically strived to be featured on DD because it was some kind of a "status symbol" and marked their entrance into the "elite" of the classical dancers regardless of the quality of their dancing.
The slots for broadcasting classical dance were few and are still sold out like hot cakes. But no commercial TV channels have been interested in total crap like this DD video of Anjana Banerjee even if Anita Ratnam on her site writes that Anjana Banerjee's "dance forms entirely a part and parcel of India's cultural heritage".
And suddenly, all this crap (along with some good stuff) is uploaded onto DancingIndia to be sold to dance junkies, and appears alongside homemade Bharatanatyam videos on Youtube. The "senior" dancers are outraged and scared.
Of what?
Of not being asked a permission for posting their videos online?
Or rather of seeing how few people are watching their videos online while many younger classical dancers receive literally millions of views? The "senior dancers" feel their ill-gotten "status" is threatened. The decade-long artificial hierarchy is challenged and is on its last legs.
One of the comments posted on Narthaki's Facebook page deserves a special attention.
Some visitors may have suspected that Ananda is promoting her own videos on Dancingindia. But the posting stirred something in my memory and put a smile on my face.
It was around 2004 when I was searching for Bharatanatyam videos that had not flooded the Web back then. Specifically I was looking for a few Doordarshan broadcasts, and to my immense pleasure the tapes were being sold on ranidevi.com. At steep prices of $25-$75 for a VHS tape or a DVD. Now I can no longer find them there on Rani Devi's official site, but the "unofficial page" at http://www.geocities.ws/ranidevi/index.html is still active and seems to be doing brisk business! Rani Devi, though, presents her selling these Doordarshan tapes as her social mission of popularizing classical dance in the US and worldwide, almost in a non-profit spirit.
Ananda Shankar Jayant's suggestion is that "These videos are being made available to DancingIndia unofficially from Doordarshan itself from every Kendra, by a group of people". And if she wanted to know who these people are, why didn't she ask Rani Devi herself?
It was long time before a DVD of Volume 2 (no one knew when or where Volume 1 was released) of Bharatanatyam broadcasts from Doordarshan Archives was officially released. And it was long before the publication of Padma Subrahmanyam's interview where she said she was urging Prasar Bharti to release the classical dance archives. With announcements like on http://www.friendsofprasarbharati.org/Recent%20newsYA85.htm, some dancers were elated. Dance students were trying to get the Bharatiya Natyashastra DVD and were frustrated. What do they do now? All the full episodes of Bharatiya Natyashastra are offered on Dancingindia for quick download, and for a dollar or two they can download almost anything. Since the times of Rani Devi's selling the Doordarshan VHS tapes for $75, the prices have gone down so much, and now people don't even buy DVDs as much as before.
But this is not the point. The point Ananda Shankar Jayant makes is about "piracy". But when you hear one of her closest friends telling you that Ananda has more pirated software on her computer than most dancers, you start thinking. Thinking if she is planning to start a Pirate Party in India, to join the worldwide movement that is gaining strength. We all know that the intellectual property rights is a concept alien to our culture.
This comment, however, was not posted on Narthaki.com for obvious reasons: Anita Ratnam's friend is loath to admit that she herself is one of the biggest software pirates in India. She is too shy: "Some of you have also responded with uncalled for belligerence, and personal comments, irrelevant to the topic under discussion. I would love to respond to them too, and will do so if you mail me".
Piracy it too private to be discussed publicly. Even if some railway clerks have a Dr. title before their name, they risk being prosecuted. 🙂
October 23, 2011 by Ashwini	Categories: Ananda Shankar Jayant, Anita Ratnam, Anjana Banerjee, Bharata natyam, Bharata natyam Bharatanatyam Bharathanatyam Bharatnatya, Bharata natyam competition, Bharata natyam title, Bharatanatyam award, Bharatanatyam styles, Bharatanatyam title, Bharatanrityam, bharatha natyam, Bharathanatyam, Bharatnatyam, Bharatnatyam award, Bharatnatyam in Chennai. Classical Indian dance., classical, classical dances of india, classical indian dance, classical theatre, dance performance, dance recital, dance styles, dance theatre, dancers, india, indian, mohiniattam, Narthaki.com, performing arts, rani devi, south asian culture, south asian dance, traditional indian dance	| Tags: Ananda Shankar Jayant, Anita Ratnam, Anjana Banerjee, Bharata natyam, Bharatanatyam, Bharathanatyam, Bharatnatyam, classical indian dance, india, indian dance, performing arts, rani devi, review | Leave a comment
This article is a response to Shivaya: An ode to the dancing Lord
Priya Raman tells us that Malathi Iyengar's 'Shivaya' an ode to the NRI American Dream, was somehow "so special that it would have in all its true essence reached the Lord at the earliest". Quite an ambitious statement, isn't it?
Every now and then I stumble across some imbecile salsa or classical Persian dancer of Kathak either prentending of "offering their dance to Lord Shiva" or, worse still, trying to make us believe that Shiva himself was somehow doing those crappy dance moves while wearing a garb of the medieval Persian shopkeeper that Murali Mohan tries to sell us. In the first case, Shiva, even in his infinite compassion only accepts what is offered with absolute sincerity. Since it is the quality that is almost unheard-of among the "professional" dancers, Shiva simply ignores their "offering". In the second case, the dancers get cheeky and try to push their imported subhuman vulgarity upon the Divine. They automatically get cursed for millions of years and will surely be reborn as frogs or worms, thus reducing the human over-population on the earth.
So, what kind of dancing does Shiva do, and why?
This is the question that bothered, for instance, two sages, Vyagrapada and Patanjali, who decided to meditate on a hilltop near Chidambaram and were really sincere (and, thus, successful) in their endevour. Priya Raman from Hyderabad took a different approach. As she "did not find an immediate answer", she came up with a clever and abstract philosophical nonsense that made her "feel Shiva danced so that he could commission blessed messengers like us to dance in life". Just like a drunk cheri priest in a dirty temple, she wants us to believe that every strip dancer is somehow Shiva's messenger who wants to "make an eminent living" (which, according to her, includes "yummy breakfast and foreign chocolates").
Shiva, the lazy Lord who only responds to the devotee's absolute sincerity and determination, along with Parvati performed free of charge for the sages (certainly not for the intellectual Priya Raman), and they enjoyed watching it with their third eye (which Priya Raman does not have, so she decided to substitute it with some rational speculation). Natya Shastra tells us that these two sages were not the only ones who saw how Shiva actually dances. Shiva was "reminded" of his dance moves for example by his assistant Tandu whom we see in Mahabalipuram. Patanjali went on and installed the 108 karana statues in the Chidambaram temple. Vyagrapada, who became the founder of the South Indian martial arts, made use of certain karanas in a different way.
While a Cuban salsa or Persian Kathak dancer would argue that their moves, like any other moves, fall within the 84 lakhs of the body positions shown by Shiva, they can't answer why only 108 of these positions are seen in the Chidambaram temple. The reason is very simple: even though Brahman is everywhere, even in a piece of dog poo, there is a difference between dog poo and an avatar. This is the difference that the hierarchy-averse brain-dead western dancers can't get. They experiment with their bland "abstract choreography" potpourri of meaninglessness, while the dance of Shiva was as concrete as it can be and created the 8 Rasas.
Priya tells us that "The team travelled all the way from Los Angeles to collaborate with dancers from Chennai and Bangalore to pay tribute to the Panchakshara Mantra and to the five elements, to stillness and to movement". If the Panchakshara Mantra has nothing to do with the five elements it doesn't matter as long as you can sell it to the dumb American audience who understand what is water or fire but don't understand what is rajas or tamas. Since akash (ether) was too impalpable, Malathi decided that it should be presented to the American audience as "Sky" (something that every American butcher can see). After all, American butchers don't read books, do they?
The tamasic Priya informs us "of how group work can be re-defined, of what technical brilliance is all about and what it takes to have intricate, nerve wracking choreography". Their nerve-wracking choreography, I assume, is partly responsible for the fact that California's rate of schizophrenia and other mental disorders is the highest in the world, so everybody goes for counselling after a nerve-wracking dose of cocaine that every American artiste sniffs before attempting some "new artistic production". Their group work fell far below the Pindi formations mentioned in Natya Shastra. Their "technical brilliance" was supposedly demonstrated by Renjith Babu Choorakkad who, according to the photo, was struggling to keep his foot up. For some reasons, the proud "professional" dancers thought they were better than the dancer in the video below (see the passage at 1 minute 11 seconds):
[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJczIpsICFg&t=1m11s]
"Attention to detail was something to watch out for" although we are yet to see where that "desired 'wow factor'" was supposed to be. Malathi Iyengar "brought in a strange discipline adopted from the west to make things as simple as they can get". In this simplification process, the artistic sophistication and excellence were discarded as unnecessary. The Recakas, which formed an intrinsic part of Shiva's dance, were discarded by the westernized "dancers" too. While it took our ancestors years of practice before they performed a piece, it took Malathi Iyengar's team "a whole two days to get into the groove". McDonalds would be proud of this record achievement.
"Malathi Iyengar had the best people in the business (yes, it is merely business, not art) work together – Rajkumar Bharathi, Embar Kannan, Praveen Rao, Gurumurthy G, Srihari Rangaswamy and other traditional composers". How traditional these composers are if they can't compose in the 22 srutis to which Shiva actually dances, and didn't even read what music can be used with which angahara?
Rukmini Devi in Sudharani Raghupathi's TV series in 1981 tells us that some songs "were composed by Divine inspiration", while Malathi's team decided that it's better to have "brain storming sessions of ideas" that mutilated Adi Shankaracharya's Nagendra Haraya beyond recognition. The fact that music used to be (according to Natya Shastra) composed for a particular piece of dance (after it was choreographed!) and not the other way around is something that the debilitated dancers didn't get. Rukmini Devi says that true composers (not Malathi's businessmen) "had actually the Pratyaksha, a vision" of the Divine and they "saw everything in a divine form". Whether a composer really had a true vision or not is debatable, although we can safely say that Adi Shankaracharya did have it. The enlightened and even the not-so-enlightened composers keep confirming that Shiva's favourite music is Sama Gana, while what the composers offer is of much inferior value (just as Malathi's dancing is inferior to the dance fully based on the 108 karanas and choreographed in accordance to Natya Shastra). Unfortunately, to render even such inferior songs properly, the music arranger and the musicians too must tune in to this divine vision.
January 17, 2011 by Ashwini	Categories: Bharata natyam, Bharata natyam Bharatanatyam Bharathanatyam Bharatnatya, Bharatanatyam, bharatha natyam, Bharathanatyam, Bharatnatyam, carnatic, carnatic music, Chidambaram, classical, classical dances of india, classical indian dance, classical theatre, Culture, dance, dance performance, dance recital, dance styles, dance theatre, dancers, deva, devadasi, Embar Kannan, gesture, hand gestures, hindu, hinduism, india, indian, indian dance, Kaisiki, Malathi Iyengar, Nagendra Haraya, Narthaki.com, nataraja, Natya Shastra, Patanjali, performing arts, Praveen Rao, Priya Raman, Rajkumar Bharathi, rasa, Renjith Babu, Renjith Babu Choorakkad, Rukmini Devi, shastra, shiva dance, spirituality, Srihari Rangaswamy, temple dance, traditional indian dance, vedic culture, Vyagrapada, yoga	| Tags: 108 karanas, Chidambaram, Embar Kannan, Malathi Iyengar, Nagendra Haraya, Natya Shastra, Patanjali, Praveen Rao, Priya Raman, Rajkumar Bharathi, Renjith Babu, Renjith Babu Choorakkad, Rukmini Devi, Srihari Rangaswamy, Vyagrapada | 1 Comment
It is not a big secret that Bharatanatyam competitions, however faulty they may have been, are very beneficial. Regardless of who wins and who loses, these competitions help the dancers assess their skills on a more objective level. They establish the standards and create the fabric of the dance community.
Few may have noticed that the Indian Fine Arts Society cancelled their Bharatanatyam contest this year, following Natyarangam's, Music Connoiseurs's Club's, Gana Mukindhapriya's, and others (e.g. ISKCON's). We know no reasons for their decisions, no explanations or comments are given by these organizations. Perhaps it is a top secret.
What is not a big secret is, for example, the reason for the 2009 abortive straight-jacketed ABHAI competition where the dancers were severely restricted in what and how they can perform, obviously to suit the ABHAI's president's own agenda, as if it was some third-grade contest on Rukmini Ramani's compositions which nobody attends.
Apart from the Music Academy (Spirit of Youth, very closely resembling Indian Fine Arts Society's style of handpicking just 10 contestants) or National Bal Bhavan, among the other people who keep conducting Bharatanatyam contests it in Chennai are the TTD. These never announce it (perhaps for fear of their tiny space being overcrowded).
Unfortunately, the Bharatanatyam competitions they conduct are hugely inferior to the Kuchipudi competitions featured on their own SVBC TV channel where the judges are required to substantiate in detail their marks and provide comments on each item performed by the contestant.
See for yourself:
The reason the judges there are more or less honest and try to do their best is simple: they are well aware that their very reputation is at stake since tens of thousands of TV viewers watch the programme.
There is no comparison between the professionalism of the SVBC contest (where we can actually watch the entire classical Kuchipudi items performed by the dancers) and such TV contests as Jaya TV's Thaka Dhimi Tha or Podhigai's Konjum Salangai where we can at best see some bits of folk or fusion dances. The only thing we have worth watching on TV is Jodi No.1.
A Telugu friend of mine teases me from time to time, saying that excellence in classical dance or life in general quit Tamil Nadu long ago. Even in Kerala they have very well organized (where the dancers have the option of an appeal in case they are not satisfied with the judges) Kalotsav (www.schoolkalolsavam.in) featuring all classical dance styles, while there is nothing like that in Tamil Nadu.
Now, with so many sabha's in Chennai claiming that they somehow are not responsible for the decline in the standards in Bharatanatyam, why is it that they they cannot organize regular Bharatanatyam contests and broadcast it easily on the biggest TV channel in the world, YouTube, allowing the viewers to discuss it and post their comments there? Of course, then the sabha's hidden political agendas may suffer.
Perhaps they may be awakened to a new reality when Anita Ratnam decides to do it on Narthaki one day.
January 5, 2011 by Ashwini	Categories: Bharata natyam, Bharata natyam Bharatanatyam Bharathanatyam Bharatnatya, Bharata natyam prize, Bharata natyam title, Bharatanatyam, Bharatanatyam award, Bharatanatyam competition, Bharatanatyam competitions, Bharatanatyam prize, Bharatanatyam styles, Bharatanatyam title, Bharatanrityam, bharatha natyam, Bharathanatyam, Bharathanatyam competition, Bharatnatyam, Bharatnatyam award, Bharatnatyam competition, Bharatnatyam in Chennai. Classical Indian dance., Bharatnatyam prize, classical dances of india, classical indian dance, Indian Fine Arts Society	| Tags: Bharata natyam competition, Bharatanatyam, Bharatanatyam competition, bharatanatyam contest, Bharathanatyam, Bharathanatyam competition, bharathanatyam contest, Bharatnatyam, Bharatnatyam competition, bharatnatyam contest, chennai, classical, classical indian dance, indian dance, indian fine arts | 1 Comment
Madhavi Chandran
She got the first prize in Mohiniyattam at Kerala's school youth festival and went on to get Balasri as Mohiniyattam dancer too. Curiously enough, Madhavi Chandran failed to get anything in Bharatanatyam at both events. Who would have expected the Music Academy's committee to award her the first prize of their coinage? But miracles happen, especially if the young shrewd girl says she aspires to do her postgraduate studies not in dance but in… political science, following the path of Jayalalitha and Rukmini Devi.
In order to reduce the audience who may wonder by what miracle just 10 contestants were "shortlisted" out of 400 applicants, the schedule of the secretive Spirit of Youth contest is no longer published anywhere, nor the names of the judges are made public. What is announced, however, are only the "results": the title "winner" (the highest bidder). Like the voting results in the Ivory Coast, the organizing committee, it seems, has overruled the judges' secret marks. The judges don't know how their marks were counted, or who counted them. Moreover, if the marks were made public, the judges would risk losing any remnants of respect in the dance community.
Here is a convincing and simple proof of criminal negligence of the editor of Narthaki.com, and the illustration of the level of corruption (and a total lack of professionalism) at the Madras Music Academy's dance competitions:
"Madhavi Chandra, a student of Bharatakalanjali (The Dhananjayans) and Regatta Cultural Academy, Thiruvananthapuram ( Girija Chandran), has won the prestigious Madras Music Academy's BEST BHARATANATYAM ARTISTE AWARD (Spirit of Youth award) for this year. She will be performing on the inaugural day of the Madras Music Academy's annual Art festival 2010-11."
The well-known fraudster V.P.Dhananjayan, whose MBA degree helped him to set up a mass production of half-baked "Bharatanatyam" (utterly stupid NRI and outstation dancers whom he "teaches" a few days in a year in a fake "gurukula" system), does not have time to teach them even correct mudras!
November 28, 2010 by Ashwini	Categories: aesthetics, Anita Ratnam, Bharata natyam, Bharata natyam Bharatanatyam Bharathanatyam Bharatnatya, Bharata natyam competition, Bharata natyam title, Bharatanatyam award, Bharatanatyam competition, Bharatanatyam competitions, Bharatanatyam styles, Bharatanatyam title, bharatha natyam, Bharathanatyam, Bharathanatyam competition, Bharatnatyam, Bharatnatyam award, Bharatnatyam competition, Bharatnatyam in Chennai. Classical Indian dance., chennai, classical dances of india, classical indian dance, dance, dance performance, dance recital, dancers, Dhananjayans, gesture, hindu, hinduism, india, indian, indian dance, Madhavi Chandra, Madhavi Chandran, Madras Music Academy, Music Academy, performing arts, Spirit of Youth, V P Dhananjayan	| Tags: chennai, Dhananjayans, Madhavi Chandra, Madhavi Chandran, Madras Music Academy, Music Academy, Spirit of Youth, V P Dhananjayan | 7 Comments
For those who wonder why my published ( http://www.narthaki.com/info/rt/rt33a.html ) response sounds dumb at places, here is the original:
Dear Anita,
I don't understand why you decided to club a few unrelated issues together.
When a dancer's arranged marriage breaks up, even though it is typically a result of clash of big egos, it is very beneficial. The dancer can at last focus on the dancing (well, learning tango or salsa has a zero spiritual value, unlike the classical solo!) . And more of the young, unmarried dancers will understand that Leela Samson is perhaps luckier, happier and less lonely than Chitra Visweswaran. Even the other well-known "single" dancers who have had a lot of boyfriends and break-ups are happier and have had a richer life than Sudharani Raghupathi. As far as I know, the rate of divorce now is the same in Chennai as in London. It should spell the end of arranged marriages and should render the army of half-baked astrologists jobless. Of course, women are poorer off when a marriage breaks up. So it is a wise solution to see your husband once a month only. 🙂 We pay for our own illusions: this is the law of karma.
I don't understand why new modes of physical training should result in losing the audiences if these modes are better than the old. All "experimenting" and "innovating" can move in two opposite direction. Either you become a DisneyLand artiste and entertain the VIP and business elite with jumping around in burkas or performing cheap circus gimmicks in torn jeans with a Punk hairstyle, or (which happens much more seldom) you seek to discover something that would spiritually enlighten you and the audience.
The "classical dance kinetics" is classical because it has survived through millennia. It has deeper, spiritual roots that feed it throughout the spells of cultural draughts. Nobody will remember tango in 200 years' time. Pop/folk culture fads are short-lived. Classical dance kinetics in itself, a mixture of desi and margi, is a vague notion and embraces a variety of styles from Odissi to Bharatanatyam. If Michael Jackson would copy the animal kinetics (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=072A5xbhO3I ), the authentic Indian classical dance kinetics does not originate in the animal kingdom or some rationalistic concepts that can fool a grant maker or a gullible corporate sponsor but are devoid of all life.
There is indeed something vague that we may call "the classical aesthetics", but no seasoned Vazhuvoor style dancer or Odissi exponent would consider a clumsy Kalakshetra dancer as aesthetically pleasing. They would rather watch a beautiful and graceful flamenco dancer. After all, isn't the Kalakshetra kinetics so obviously borrowed from the Italian ballet? Should we adopt the Disneyland aesthetics and replace the Nataraja statues with Mickey Mouses in our temples? Let's trow out all Shilpa shastras and watch American cartoons, right?
When you say that you have only hopes for the developing contemporary dance scene, you probably mean to say that most of the "classical" dance innovations and experiments of the 19th century will die out along with the pseudo-classical inventions of the last century. The current desi elements will undergo transformations too, but the margi will always stay. I personally find the Tanjore Quartet heritage very boring. Unlike the "classical" abhinaya gurus who manage to perform all 8 nayikas to the same repetitive tune, many Hollywood film directors are not so dumb and can employ good music composers who understand the mental states much better.
It is remarkable that the solo dancing is on the wane in ICCR's cultural export. It is a proof that the government's empanelment procedures have failed. Now they understand that nobody wants to watch a middle-age "performing" hippo producing some funny expressions on the stage. The "serious professional artistes" finally realized that they are neither serious nor professional, and that many hobbyists and part time dancers are actually much better.
If theatre in India is thriving with tickets being the norm, it is because they understand the Vachika and Satvika abhinaya much better than the "classical" dancers, and try to adapt the presentation format to the audience. Typically, when a classical dancer performs today, hardly 5% of the audience understand the words of the song.
As for the intellectual and financial centre of Indian dance shifting outside India, it may be true. But the aesthetic and spiritual centre will always remain in South India, as will the best dancers. To say that the technical standard of Bharatanatyam in Madras has fallen far below those in Bangalore, US and UK is to demonstrate one's ignorance. I suggest you conduct a Bharatanatyam contest (make sure you attract the talented dancers, including the "professionals", somehow) here and see for yourself. I think the TVS group can well afford to sponsor it, can't it? 🙂
Cheers ! 🙂
P.S. I too am looking for 1000 dance lovers to contribute $20 (US) annually for me to set up a dance website that will cover and produce excellent dance reviews. 🙂
August 3, 2010 by Ashwini	Categories: Bharata natyam	| 5 Comments


Extremely cold Chicago weather sometimes arrives on our doorstep during J-Term. If you attend class on Lakeshore Campus or at LUREC during J-Term, the following tips on staying warm and safe may prove useful.
Wear several layers of loose-fitting, lightweight, warm clothing rather than one layer of heavy clothing. Best to avoid cotton; Wool offers good protection from extreme cold and moisture. A final layer should be a wind-resistant coat or jacket.
Wear waterproof, insulated boots, and two pair of socks – thin for the inside and thick, wool for the outside – but be sure you are able to move your toes, allowing your blood to circulate.
Stay fueled with balanced meals and warm, sweet beverages or broth. Avoid both alcoholic beverages and caffeine, which interfere with the normal physiological defense against cold and can actually increase heat loss.
Please be sure to check your e-mail at least once a day during the term for any communications from your instructor and contact your instructor with any changes to your schedule. Stay warm and safe, but also be sure to enjoy the beauty of snow-covered Chicago in winter!


Hi all. 1st time post. I am unablr to remove the cassette from my rear tyre. I followed the easy tutorial on bikeradar but havent managed to get any success.
I think i know where i went wrong. The lockring i purchased didnt fit properly, so i just used a spanner to remove the bolt. Now all that is left on the wheel is the old cassette..
Sorry if this is a complete durrbrain question but videos online are not helping so far.
(09-03-2016, 07:07 PM)Nexus6 Wrote: Hi all. 1st time post. I am unablr to remove the cassette from my rear tyre. I followed the easy tutorial on bikeradar but havent managed to get any success.
Thanks a lot for ur help.guess thats where i went wrong (freewheel not cassette).


text:
FEATURED VIDEO OF THE WEEK: The Foreign Resort "Alone"
tags: alone, cure, denmark, Featured video of the week, new album, new frontiers, new order, sxsw, the foreign resort
Denmark's The Foreign Resort are gearing up for South By Southwest and the release of their new album, New Frontiers, by digitally releasing another single today, "Alone." The video for "Alone," shot in Los Angeles last fall, was directed by Arian Soheili and nods at the beauty of film noir. Bringing a classic simplicity to jangly guitars and a scorned vocal with their blend of indie rock n roll, The Foreign Resort are recommended if you're a fan New Wave artists like The Cure or New Order. DO NOT MISS them at SXSW!
March 6 – Great Scott, Boston, MA
March 7 – Radio Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY
March 8 – The Velvet Lounge, Washington, D.C.
March 9 – Nightlight Bar & Club, Chapel Hill, NC
March 11 – The Nick, Birmingham, AL
March 12 – 16 – South By Southwest, Austin, TX
March 17 – The Vanguard, Tulsa, OK
March 18 – Blank Space, St. Louis, MO
March 20 – Mac's Bar, Lansing, MI
March 21 – South Park Tavern, Dayton, OH
March 22 – Kobo Live, Columbus, OH
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Bronagh and Claudine bring dark humour and a lot of love to this conversation about undertakers, headstones and an unexpected letter. Fi Glover presents.
Second-choice undertakers, an unexpected letter and a granite headstone. Friends Bronagh and Claudine bring dark humour and a lot of love to this conversation about how we prepare for death.


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