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The CinemaCon Award That Would Have Been
By Helen Budge | May 5, 2020 8:41 pm PDT
Many disruptions brought about by the coronavirus pandemic have devastated the global cinema industry, with one such example being the cancellation of the annual, much-anticipated CinemaCon. During this year's Las Vegas conference a host of awards were due to be bestowed upon deserving industry figures and companies for successes and achievements throughout 2019.
In particular, this year's CinemaCon "Excellence in Event Cinema" award was to be presented to Paris-based distributor Pathé Live for their notable success with K-pop boy band "BTS World Tour: Love Yourself in Seoul.". And although, sadly, they never got to receive it in person here's a look at the award that would have been…
Pathé Live
No stranger to success in the event cinema arena, Paris-based Pathé Live have been active since 2008 producing and distributing content. A subsidiary of French cinema company Pathe Gaumont Cinemas, they have a stellar regular classical arts programme, having been the exclusive distributor of "The Metropolitan Opera Live in HD" series in both France and Switzerland since its inception. Further territories added later were Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia.
Ever since 2010 Pathé Live has produced and distributed – internationally – the "Bolshoi Ballet," live from Moscow and, more recently in 2016, launched a new series with the French National Theatre. They're also responsible for a wide-ranging programme of regular concerts, stand-up comedy and documentary releases, both locally and internationally.
Content is King (and K-Pop-Shaped)
And so in the spring of 2018 Pathé Live approached Big Hit Entertainment, BTS' management company, having spotted an opportunity to release their "Love Yourself in Seoul" concert theatrically. After discussions, Big Hit Entertainment entrusted Pathé Live with the worldwide theatrical rights to the concert, excluding Korea and Japan.
A one-day-event release date was set for January 26th 2019, 2D encores followed (9th and 10th February) and it was the first-ever event to offer ScreenX encores (27th January and 10th February). Although BTS had never before released concert-only content, Pathé Live secured over 4,600 locations across 107 territories overall, making it the widest-ever global event cinema release at that time. It became the highest grossing worldwide event for a one-day-only event, taking $12.1million on one day across 100 territories with USD $2.86 million from the United States alone.
To lend some context to this – although the figures speak for themselves – BTS are a seven-piece South Korean pop band that, in the last few years, have risen to international stardom. They're the first K-Pop act to ever hit number one on the American Billboard Artist 100 chart. And their international fanbase, known as "Army" (short for Adorable Representative M.C. for Youth), are huge in number, incredibly loyal and engaged with every move the band makes which takes us onto…
An Astute Observation
What Pathé Live had spotted, and subsequently went on to utilise in their campaign, was how connected BTS were (and are) with their legions of fans around the world. Raphael Lemée, International Sales Manager for Pathé Live, attributes a large part of the event's success to this and said, "It was an incredible chance to work with BTS themselves who have one of the most dedicated fan bases in the world. And because of the audience we were targeting, most marketing was through social media and digital campaigns."
Social media's essential role in the marketing of the event was integral to building up an excitable buzz in the lead up to 26th January, through daily engagement with fans. And the band's involvement themselves was critical in pushing key messages out such as announcements about the event, shoutouts and exclusive content clips.
The award itself was conceived five years ago in 2015, after a flourishing decade for Event Cinema. Working closely with content distributor North America-based Fathom Events, CinemaCon devised the accolade with the aim of it being used to celebrate those who have pushed the industry to become the multimillion dollar industry it is today. Innovative content, like "BTS World Tour: Love Yourself in Seoul," is recognised for pushing the boundaries of a traditional cinema's function, and for the ability to transform movie theatres into rounded "entertainment venues".
Previous winners of the CinemaCon "Excellence in Event Cinema" award include The Metropolitan Opera for their "Live in HD" series (2015), BBC Worldwide North America for their catalogue of work including the "Dr Who" series (2016) and Turner Classic Movies (TCM) for their "Big Screen Classics" series (2017).
The Decision Process
In past years the decision of selecting the winner came right down to the wire, with a range of hotly debated titles between distributors. To avoid any issues and to move forward as fairly as possible, CinemaCon decided to create a formal set of guidelines to follow and to appoint voting rights to a select industry panel.
And there's no doubt 2019 was a huge year for the Event Cinema sector, making the decision particularly difficult. With UK-based theatre giants NT Live's "Fleabag" and Trafalgar Releasing's "Metallica and San Francisco Symphony: S&M2″ as two other smash hit examples of last year, the competition was fierce.
But there's no denying the worldwide-reaching BTS phenomena which continues to go from strength to strength, which Pathé Live played their part in growing and solidifying. So "BTS: Love Yourself from Seoul" was the CinemaCon 2020 "Excellent in Event Cinema" award winner, and in lieu of the industry being able to gather in Las Vegas this past March, that's the story of the award that would have been.
Helen Budge
Senior Writer at Celluloid Junkie
Helen is a freelance journalist, copywriter, marketing professional and frequent contributor to Celluloid Junkie.
Latest posts by Helen Budge (see all)
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Premiumising the Picture House During a Pandemic - July 11, 2022
Tags: CinemaCon, Pathe Live, BTS, BTS World Tour Love Yourself In Seoul, Excellence in Event Cinema, Raphael Lemée


Here we have 2 character banners for the upcoming Joss Whedon movie The Avengers. The film continues the adventures of Captain America (Chris Evans), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr) and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) as they assemble as the mighty Avengers. Supporting characters returning in The Avengers are Loki (Tom Hiddleston), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner). The only thing we really know so far plot-wise is "When an unexpected enemy emerges that threatens global safety and security, Nick Fury, director of the international peacekeeping agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D., finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaster." So it's very little to go on, but we're definitely in for a treat with Joss Whedon at the helm. The movie is set for release on May 4 2012.
We can't decide whether we really like or really hate these character banners. Let us know what you think. Click to embiggen.
Update: It's also been confirmed that Alan Silvestri is composing the score for the flick!


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OriginalSportsWarriors
Warriors surge past Thunder in Western Conference war
Jake Montero
The Oklahoma City Thunder did something to the Golden State Warriors Saturday night that hasn't been accomplished in a long time: They looked, for a split second, like the Warriors' equal.
It started from the tip, when the Thunder came out and gave the Warriors the best punch in the mouth they've received since Chris Paul's out-of-body experience back in November. The Thunder went on a 9-0 run in 90 seconds, and Golden State looked taken aback by the otherworldly athleticism of the Oklahoma City stars.
This story has been updated with quotes and post-game material from the Warriors locker room at Oracle Arena.
Then the Warriors started clicking, Oracle started roaring, and the idea of an upset dissipated as soon as it began.
The Warriors made up the deficit with three minutes to go in the quarter. By halftime they led by 14, and had 73 points, the ninth time they've eclipsed 70 in a first half this season.
Yet, Oklahoma City hung around. Durant started scoring at will, and a forgone conclusion all of the sudden looked like a toss-up when an Enes Kanter jumper tied the game at 104 with 3:35 left in the game.
The Thunder's efforts proved only to delay the inevitable. The Warriors finished the game on a 12-4 run and have their fun, as Golden State completed the 116-108 victory against what possibly the strongest challenger they have yet faced.
Were the Warriors ever worried? Hardly. In fact, during a huddle recorded by ESPN, Steve Kerr seemed to relish his team's opportunity:
"About time we got a close game to play. … This is fun."
Kerr elaborated on the importance of the challenge post-game:
"I thought it was great for our team to go through a game like that too. It's been a while since we've had to get stops and be solid down the stretch."
Steph scored six of the teams final nine points and made game's deciding play when he saved a lose ball from going out of bounds by throwing it over his head to a streaking Iguodala, who slammed home the exclamation point on the Golden State Warriors' latest statement.
Curry started off slow, but finished with 27 points and 10 assists and one dab, after making a seemingly impossible one handed pass across the court to Klay Thompson, who nailed the three to give the Warriors a six point lead with 1:39 remaining.
It wasn't their best effort, but Curry said he'd gladly take the result against one of the league's best teams:
"A+ in the first half but got a little stagnant in the second. We battled and competed and did whatever it took to get the win so that's all that counts at the end, but we can play better."
Perhaps most shocking was Curry going 1-of-9 from deep. The reigning MVP scored when it counted, however, completing a handful of tough finishes around the rim to ice the game. That fact is much more important to Kerr:
"On a night that just wasn't his night, I thought Steph was just brilliant down the stretch.
Draymond Green scored just 9 points but was the Warriors most important player down the stretch, gobbling up difficult rebounds over much larger players with the game still in limbo, and making a sublime no look pass in the lane to a slashing Curry to keep a six-point lead with just under a minute remaining.
In the end, it was just another game where this once in a generation team couldn't be matched, no matter how big the swings from their opponent, including a 40-point night for Kevin Durant, a 27-point and 12-assist performance from Russell Westbrook, and a huge fourth quarter from Kanter.
Except it wasn't just another game. The Thunder came in tied with the Warriors as the hottest team since December. They were 9-1 in their last ten and riding a five-game winning streak.
They also entered Saturday's contest with a point to prove. To prove to everyone that they are more than just sort of a contender, but a legitimate threat to the two juggernauts atop the Western Conference.
That's something they will still have to prove, just like the Spurs and the Cavs and the Clippers will. The Warriors have bested them all, and had a good time doing it.
While the outcome is what we've come to expect with these Warriors, it was more than just a showcase for the stars.
Forced to play heavy minutes with Festus Ezeli out and Andrew Bogut in foul trouble, Mo Speights had his best game of the season, finishing with 15 points and leading all players with a plus-20. He was supposed to be a gift for the Thunder, instead he turned the game in the second quarter, at one point earning the loudest ovation of the first half, hitting a fade away three-pointer with the shot clock buzzer sounding midway through the second quarter.
Shaun Livingston also had a spectacular game, keeping the Warriors struggling offense afloat during the first half of the fourth quarter, with eight points.
The win is the Warriors' ninth in a row extends the Warriors streak of 41 consecutive home victories. The 46-4 start is tied for the best ever through a team's first 50 games, with the 1966-67 Sixers also accomplishing the feat.
Speaking of feats, Curry's hometown Carolina Panthers are trying to accomplish one of their own Sunday afternoon, when they look to earn their first Super Bowl victory in franchise history. You best believe the Warrior star thinks Cam and Co. have more than a decent shot:
"It's gonna be a blowout and you know it (pointing to ESPN's Rick Reilly). 24-10."
When asked why he changed the 24-17 prediction he made last week, Curry just smiled:
"I'm more confident than I was last week."
Follow @SFBay on Twitter and at SFBay.ca for full coverage of the Warriors.
Andrew Bogut Chris Paul Draymond Green Golden State Warriors NBA Oklahoma City Thunder
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Five prospects the 49ers may target late in the first round
Warriors edge Celtics with Curry game-winner
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Remembering best moments from six lost Giants
A's drop 11 in second round of roster cuts
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Warriors fend off Magic to set home win record

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


With Denplan Care your fixed monthly payments help you to budget for regular, affordable preventive dental care, without the fear of costly and unexpected bills. For an affordable monthly payment, Denplan Care provides regular, preventive dental care and is designed to offer long- term oral health care for as long as you remain a member.
Preventive Dental Care is the modern way of helping you keep a healthy mouth. It helps you to keep your teeth, and means you need to have less dental treatment. The two main causes of tooth loss are decay and gum disease. The better we prevent or deal with these two problems, the more chance people have of keeping their teeth for life. When the dentist, hygienist and patient work together, this can help to prevent the need for treatment and avoid the traditional pattern of fillings and extractions. Your dental team may recommend a course of treatment to get your mouth into good condition, and then work out a 'maintenance plan' to help you keep it that way.
At Zing Dental Clinic we are committed to an all round programme of preventive dental care and we are delighted to be one of the few practices to achieve Denplan Excel accreditation this year. In simple terms Excel is a quality standard. It has been developed in conjunction with the British Dental Association and The Royal College of Surgeons. The objective of Excel is: 'to place you, the patient, at the centre of all activities'. It also includes Supplementary insurance and Denplan's Insurance Services.


Kick off the month with an imaginative story about one child's experience with the power of curiosity... with some guest appearances by fellow kids.
Receive playful props, such as a magnifying glass to explore the natural world around you, and prompts to spark conversation and activities with your kids around curiosity. This month's passport is a perfect place for your child to sketch and capture their wonderings!
Capture photos of your child showing #curiosity and receive a custom printed photobook of your unique Story of Curiosity!
Join other intentional parents to focus on cultivating curiosity in your children this month.


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What To Do Labor Day Weekend: Watch This Video, Go To Taste of Melrose Park
Posted in Dining Out In Chicago | Comments Off on What To Do Labor Day Weekend: Watch This Video, Go To Taste of Melrose Park | August 29th, 2011
The last full Sky Full of Bacon video I made was about the annual Labor Day Weekend Taste of Melrose Park festival. Of course, since I finished it in late September, that didn't do you a lot of good then. It does now, so watch the video, then hit the fest this weekend which is always fun, inexpensive, and full of good tasting stuff:
As my friend Michael Morowitz Tweeted at the time, "Your street festival is lame. Here's one that isn't."
7 Links of Terror: Fried Turtle Edition
Posted in 7 Links of Terror! | Comments Off on 7 Links of Terror: Fried Turtle Edition | August 26th, 2011
My kids, on location with me during a recent Sky Full of Bacon shoot.
I'm trying to get ahead on Key Ingredients so I can work on other things— like actually making a Sky Full of Bacon video this year— so no time for lengthy disquisitions; just to have something posted this week, I'm going to lay a bunch of links on you. Enjoy!
1. At Archive.org, a corporate brochure in lofty language from 1909, for a Chicago wholesaler called Sprague, Warner & Co., which started around the Civil War as a grocery store. Many fascinating pictures of its state of the art plant along the Chicago river, where everything from storing cigars to roasting coffee was done. If you don't recognize the name, later Sprague, Warner & Co. formed the core of a conglomerate called Consolidated Foods, which would ultimately rename itself for its best-known brand: Sara Lee.
2. This Eater interview with Nick Kokonas gives some interesting behind the scenes stuff about Next. The second part is the most interesting to me because it talks about the reaction to the Thai menu. As behooves the most lavishly praised restaurant in the history of the universe, he doesn't bitch too much about what minuscule criticism that menu has received from certain corners (cough) amid the general lovefest, and he diplomatically covers his tracks a little so you can't ID anyone too easily (other than perennial critical punching bag Pat Bruno). Too bad; I'd love to know what criticism at LTHForum, say, he finds informed, and which he finds absurd.
3. Speaking of Next et al., this very interesting NY Times piece about Hollywood's maitre'd to the stars (who was laboring in obscurity in some fading ethnic restaurant until a power broker spotted his old world manners and gave him his big break) raises the same question I had about Grant Achatz's ultra-exclusive bar The Office— did such things ever really exist, or did we only think they did because of the movies?
4. Okay, so there are tons of "funny" themed cooking shows on YouTube. That aren't that funny. The food isn't that funny in this one. But the theme is… (h/t Michael Morowitz)
5. After belatedly watching the New Orleans episode of No Reservations, I wanted to look up some New Orleans food blogs. Looka has been around since 1999 (1999! On what, Compuserve?) and is actually mostly about cocktails of late. Along with a post about Teen Wolf.
6. My friend Cathy Lambrecht's tireless searching out of obscure midwestern tastes—like fried turtle— got some attention at WBEZ, when they linked to a talk she gave to Culinary Historians.
7. I'm guessing, from the unusually high quality, that this is raw footage from a commercial. Anyway, it's for a sort of Chinese-Polynesian restaurant in Edmonton, Alberta, and it's a real time machine piece back to Don Draper times:
Sky Full of Bacon Presents Fishy Goo
Posted in Key Ingredient/Chicago Reader, Published Elsewhere | Comments Off on Sky Full of Bacon Presents Fishy Goo | August 25th, 2011
http://www.wbez.org/sites/default/files/segment/audio/2011-August/2011-08-23/strip-mall-eats.mp3
This week's Key Ingredient presents a familiar face for Sky Full of Bacon… the first actual chef-y chef to appear in one of my videos, Rob Levitt of The Butcher & Larder, working with abalone:
The piece is here. And here's Rob and his wife Alli back in their Mado days in Sky Full of Bacon #4, A Head's Tale:
I was also featured this week in one of David Hammond's ever-excellent radio pieces, on searching for interesting dining in suburban strip malls, along with Jennifer Olvera, author of The Food Lovers' Guide to Chicago. Find out more about it here, and if that link doesn't work, this takes you straight to the audio.
Sky Full of Bacon Presents Minimalism
Posted in Key Ingredient/Chicago Reader | Comments Off on Sky Full of Bacon Presents Minimalism | August 18th, 2011
The most minimalist Key Ingredient yet, that is. Read it here.
Of course, Mark Mendez and his previous restaurant were featured in this classic Sky Full of Bacon video last year:
Speaking of videos, check out the nice things said about mine in CBS's blogger poll, and vote for me!
Reduxbin, Nostranamore, and Bon Appetit's List
Posted in Restaurant Reviews, Travel | 3 Comments » | August 18th, 2011
I sometimes feel like all I do is post positive reviews about happy dining experiences. It's not strictly true— this is a pretty nasty slam, for one— but there is the conundrum that I tend to go places that I know I'll like and I tend to like them just like I thought. I don't have the expense account which offers Julia Kramer, say, so many golden opportunities to have a bad night eating out. I can only dream of that life, but alas, I'm cursed with actually choosing well and enjoying my dinner most of the time.
But even if I do have a bad meal, I don't really feel inspired by lousiness to post at length, most of the time. For instance, I had an okay meal foodwise at Rootstock a few months back, coupled with willfully unwelcoming service which ruined that place forever for me— we could hardly get our check and pay to save our lives, while one of the owners (who was also, at least sort of, our server) was literally sitting down at our shared table, chatting up the people at the other end and studiously ignoring us. But there, that's all I have to say about the meal— a pretty good neighborhood joint where I'd been before turned out to be from the sort of neighborhood where they make it clear they don't want you. Rootstock, crossed off. What was that, about 75 words? Does anybody need any more? This is what Twitter is for, not a blog.
Harder yet is when a meal was nice enough, but not inspiring— especially when it was not as inspiring as an earlier meal at the same restaurant. Reading that Ruxbin was named one of the ten best new restaurants of 2011* by Bon Appetit, I was happy for them based on my first meal there last year, which I loved. But at the same time I couldn't help thinking about a more recent meal there, which just didn't recreate the magic. Here I felt much more acutely that this is a young restaurant still on its learning curve and capable of misses as well as hits. A deconstructed Caesar salad looked dramatic and way cool, and tasted pretty good, though possibly not as good as if it had been made the traditional way, all mixed together; a cured salmon platter, too mixed together, reminded me of John DesRosier's Jackson Pollock painting-dish, except his didn't look like the dog had painted it:
We had two entrees. One, a slightly Latin-flavored pork loin with bits of fried chickpeas, was competent and uninteresting, like a dish from ten years ago, way behind the porkocentric dining world of 2011 where you expect so much more boldness and porky punch (and a more interesting cut than loin). Much better was a bowl of cold soba noodles with various weird fine-diningy touches around it, like horseradish granita and a green soy gelee. I expect cold soup is a hell of a hard sell at dinner, but that's what I liked about it, and why I felt it was the one dish this time that had some of what I'd loved about the dishes from my first visit— then, the little intrusions of Asian flavors and textures into what seemed modern American food; this time, the delicate hand with a broth that seemed clean as water, yet full of complexity and interest.
So am I writing Ruxbin off? Not at all. I think it's just a place with a short menu made by young cooks, and at the moment, the odds of loving what you order off that limited selection prove lower than they were a year ago. I hope that doesn't hurt them when Bon Appetit-reading crowds make it busier than it already is (my advice; walk right in before 6 pm or after 9), and I hope that the next menu they devise turns out better— and better justifies the extravagant praise.
* Not sure where 2011 comes in, as Ruxbin has been open about a year. Also, though Andrew Knowlton says chef Edward Kim eschews the "kimchi taco" route, there was a kimchi empanada on the opening menus.
One thing about lists like that from national publications is that nobody can know the whole country's food scene, and so the list tends to focus on major cities, buzz begetting buzz. Although Madison, Wisconsin, like Austin (which places on BA's list), is a capitol-slash-college town, it never quite seems to break into that circle of attention. Too bad; Nostrano, which I visited opening night but didn't eat at until this week, would have been a great "discovery" candidate for the list. Even in Chicago, where owners Tim and Elizabeth Dahl previously worked (him at Blackbird, her for Boka Group), Nostrano would be among the best openings of an impressive year, maybe not revelatory in that it largely hits the familiar hot buttons of current dining (specialty cocktails, charcuterie, salads with duck egg on them, porky goodness), but holding its own in pretty much any of those categories.
Like the late Mado, it's a casually sort-of-Italian place built on delivering big, fresh flavors out of stuff from the farmer's market (which is literally a few steps away on Wednesday and Saturday mornings). I started with the charcuterie platter, which had a country pate, a bold liver mousse with stewed cherries, a rillette (I forget of what, and it was on the bland side anyway), and some grilled fresh sopressata (I think). I loved the mousse in particular, while the country pate stood out for the flavorfulness of the superior pork.
Because we clearly had a meat deficiency after driving around Wisconsin, Tim Dahl sent out a plate with some other charcuterie they'd made recently, a finnochiona, a coppa (too salty for me), and best of the bunch, something that started out to be pepperoni, but didn't get smoked because Dahl liked it fine as it was. I did too, it had all the cured meat flavor you could wish and you wouldn't have wanted anything to get in the way of it.
You get an extra ten points as far as I'm concerned when entrees are better than appetizers, and Nostrano earned them all with bold, complex, and almost aggressively flavorful main courses— braised pancetta with Roman-style gnocchi, rapini and rapini pesto, and grilled quail stuffed with garlic sausage with a blueberry agrodolce. These were Technicolor musical number dishes, nothing shy or delicate about them; I loved them.
Before they moved I thought Elizabeth Dahl was one of Chicago's best pastry chefs— ironically, another, Stephanie Prida, was dining a table away that night— and this time Dahl's desserts reminded me of Prida's in that they were not unlike conventional things you'd had before, but in each case, a twist lifted them above the ordinary. A panna cotta came with an entrancing elderflower sorbet; caramel gelato dunked in espresso came with what the menu called "bombolini" (but were indistinguishable from the sfingi of the good sisters at the Taste of Melrose Park), piping hot from the fryer.
The only knock I have against Nostrano came right at the beginning. As my son and I walked into a mostly empty restaurant, we were greeted with… some long explanation about how they were a little short staffed that night and they weren't seating people for another period of X minutes and… I don't know, I'd just driven up with my son from Chicago and I honestly couldn't listen to that at that moment. I didn't care, I even said I wouldn't care if we sat down and just looked at the menu for 15 minutes with a glass of water, but I didn't need to take on the cares of somebody else's restaurant, nor did I really want to be kicked out onto the Madison square to hang out in the company of derelicts and leftover rabblerousers from the endless recall elections. (This would be a review of Graze if they had sent us out to wait.) It was an unfortunately angst-ridden opening note for a place that looks, and mostly did feel, laidback and happy to please.
Tags: Bon Appetit, Madison, Nostrano, Rootstock, Ruxbin, wisconsin
Sky Full of Bacon Presents Weeds From Out Back of Carnivale
Posted in Key Ingredient/Chicago Reader | Comments Off on Sky Full of Bacon Presents Weeds From Out Back of Carnivale | August 13th, 2011
In this week's Key Ingredient, David Dworshak, who took over from Mark Mendez at Carnivale after many years as his #2, sets the record for most uses of his key ingredient: milkweed. Read it here.
And read comment at the Reader about Key Ingredient here and here.
Burgers, Barbecue, and Bald Eagles: Road Trip '11
Posted in Restaurant Reviews, Travel | Comments Off on Burgers, Barbecue, and Bald Eagles: Road Trip '11 | August 11th, 2011
I'm not saying the only consolation of driving 14+ hours to my hometown of Wichita and spending the entire week in 100+ degree weather is the food along the way. No, wait, I pretty much am saying that, at least since we exhausted the list (two items long) of tourist attractions I wanted to see last year. We managed to find another excellent one this year, or rather my sister-in-law did. But otherwise, family aside, the only thing to do was eat.
I wanted to visit L.C.'s BBQ in Kansas City again for dinner; there's always a danger with barbecue of being wowed by one, irreproducible experience. As it turned out, it wasn't as good as last year, but in ways that paradoxically confirmed its superiority. Huh? What am I smoking? Well, the thing with barbecue is, it's always variable. And this year compared to last, the variation was that the burnt ends, luscious little meat and smoke nuggets, weren't as done as last year, and hence were a little fatty and chewy. But you could tell what they'd be in another hour or two— and meanwhile the ribs, which hadn't stood out last year, were terrific. A second visit, even though not perfect, convinced me that L.C.'s remains in the front rank of pit barbecue joints, and in contrast to so many new Kansas City places popping up, is still gritty and real enough to treat my kids to a real-life episode of Cops as we pulled up.
My original goal upon reaching Wichita the next morning was to eat at an old favorite, Takhoma Burger, which had apparently reopened in a former Tiki Dancing bar just south of downtown on the somewhat sketchy strip of South Broadway mainly familiar to me, as I was growing up, from news reports of massage parlors being raided. (My friend Scott once called up the Tiki Dancing place to ask what Tiki Dancing was. He was told he'd have to come in to find out which, as he was 16 at the time, was not possible.) Alas, it was no more, so a quick call to my mom produced the alternate suggestion of a Walt's on Tyler.
Ersatz diners in Wichita are so common that the real old school diners feel compelled to look like the ersatz diners. The difference is, no real diner would have billboards for its "Wok'n'Roll Bowls," as the annoying Spangles chain does.
I say "a Walt's" because various places called Walt's, of varying quality, have popped up around town over the years, started by different descendants of the original Walt. This one, though, is in a gleaming diner building imported from the east coast (I couldn't tell if it had been bought new or well-used already) and the loosely-packed fresh-meat burger and fresh-cut fries were textbook perfect, every beefy thing you want a diner burger to be and rarely find in Chicago. I tweeted that it was one of the 10 best burgers in America, perhaps an enthusiastic exaggeration, but certainly not an absurd claim.
Presumably the oldest surviving hamburger chain in Wichita is the Kings-X chain; Jimmie King was an original White Castle franchisee in Wichita (where the chain started) and went out on his own some years later. Kings-X was always a slightly downmarket but good enough family restaurant chain with classic old school burgers with grilled onions. When a yuppie area on the east side took off, the younger generation built a new restaurant called Jimmie's Diner which successfully managed to draw yuppies for, again, a real diner's imitation of an imitation diner.
We stopped there for lunch after a matinee of Captain America. The burger was not up to Walt's, though still better than 98% of Chicago family restaurant burgers, I'm sure. The odd thing about it, though, was that it tasted exactly like a Five Guys burger. Did Kings-X burger's always taste like that, even before Five Guys existed, or are they imitating that chain (which has reached Wichita) instead of their own heritage? I don't know, but it was strange.
Another old chain, food's decent enough but I always loved the logo. I grabbed an excellent cherry limeade here.
My last burger stop was on the near West side, in what you might call the hippie-biker-artist part of town. T.J.'s had come highly recommended over the years, and it did not disappoint. The patty is bigger than a canonical 30s style thin patty, but I was impressed that they nevertheless managed to get a Schoop's-like outer crust on it without murdering the inside. I ordered a chili burger just to have something different, and the chili was old-school beanless with some nice heat, again bridging tradition with modernity.
To be honest, though, I have to admit by this time I was pretty worn out by burgers, fries, black and white checkerboard tile, jukeboxes, pictures of James Dean and Marilyn Monroe sitting at the counter, etc. One thing I noticed driving around town this year was that there are lots of new barbecue places. Two Brothers is the one we tried (my in-laws ordered takeout one night) and it's perfectly solid Kansas City-style BBQ, but I wonder about all these other places. Maybe next time that will be my quest– to see if Wichita can finally compete with Kansas City as a BBQ destination, too.
More interesting to me this time, though, was that Asian food has exploded in Wichita. Much of it, admittedly, is pure fakery, like a bunch of new Mongolian barbecue places. But a Chowhound thread pointed me to a place that was supposed to be a Thai-Lao Cafe— like the Malaysian restaurant I ate in last year, something we can't get in Chicago. And like that Malaysian restaurant, located in a former pancake house where my sisters used to waitress, the Lao restaurant was located in a pretty ironically nostalgic location, a one-time Davy Crockett-themed arcade on the south side:
We went inside and the atmosphere was something between a VFW hall and the place the GI's would have gone for R&R in Full Metal Jacket, a sort of tropical disco feel with the Lao extended family hanging out watching Dancing With the Stars or something at a long table littered with beer cans:
The menu looked straight Thai to me and I had to work my way through the entire family in search of Lao dishes. The son called Mom over, Mom barely spoke English and seemed unsympathetic to my desires, Dad finally came over and was much more amiable about helping me pick out things that he claimed were at least a little more like Lao dishes, though he said they didn't have many of the Lao ingredients on hand. When we had made a decent list, he reached under the counter, and came back up with a dusty 1980s cash register, which he plugged into the plug next to the coffee maker to ring me up. Not a lot of food traffic, I thought, which made his greeting query ("You call for pickup?" even more curious. But no more curious than a (painfully) white family, 9-year-old son included, sitting there at the Phnom Penh disco waiting for takeout must have seemed to the occasional Thai or Lao person wandering in; pretty sure they're not getting a lot of traffic from the east side of Wichita. It was pretty good authentic Thai, in the ballpark of our best places here, but if there was anything Lao about it, I wouldn't know.
But I said we hung out with eagles. My sister-in-law found this privately run bird sanctuary west of town; with 100 degree weather the guy didn't want to exercise the birds during the day, but he said if we came out early in the morning, he'd give us the tour. So we saw and interacted with hawks, kites, falcons, and…
He says he has the only bald eagle tame enough that you can pose for pictures with it. I'm always awestruck when I see a bald eagle in the flesh; it's like seeing a president in person.
My old LTHForum colleague Aaron Deacon suggested Brobeck's as another possible Kansas City BBQ destination, and being located right off 435 on our way to Iowa and Chicago, we decided to give it a try, even if it was white suburban barbecue in a strip mall.
It's really good white suburban strip mall barbecue, though— like Smoque, getting about the most you can out of a Southern Pride. Burnt ends were terrific, ribs and smoked sausage quite good, and the sample of ham salad offered at the start worth a lunch trip (well, not from Chicago maybe, but from the KC area, sure). One thing that amused me: besides their own sauces, they offered dispensers of other popular sauce brands like K.C. Masterpiece and Gates'. To me that's Coke offering you a shot of Pepsi to put in your Coke, but I guess these sauces have such a following that it makes sense in Kansas City.
Noticeably missing, though: Arthur Bryant's.
Finally, we stopped over in Iowa City. Being a college town, Iowa City's culinary scene seems dominated by pizza, and the Yelp reviews for any of them are not spectacularly good, but the best of the bunch seemed to be an old place called Pagliai's.
Last year we ate pizza in the Quad Cities area; this, though another hour further from Chicago, seemed much closer to a Chicago pizza, the same rolled-out crust you see around town, a thin tomatoey sauce like D'Agostino's, and where the Quad Cities pizza's idea of sausage was crumbly breakfast sausage-style, as it is through much of the midwest, this had nice lumps of pretty good Italian sausage. A very decent pizza— and at least it wasn't another damn hamburger.
Tags: bbq, burgers, iowa city, kansas city, pizza, wichita
iNG: Go Ask Homaro, When You're Ten Feet Tall
Posted in Dining Out In Chicago, Restaurant Reviews | 1 Comment » | August 5th, 2011
If the Miracle Berry didn't exist, Homaro Cantu would have had to invent it.
Cantu has long been seeking something beyond mere food, a kind of altered-reality experience where he could be the Timothy Leary opening new doors of perception. The problem is that dinner is, in the end, dinner, not a higher consciousness, and his claims of changing the world with food wind up overselling, and thus diminishing, the experience of his often genuinely clever and witty food. Cantu is working in the genre of other food-magicians descended from El Bulli, perhaps closest to Heston Blumenthal who takes a particular magician's delight in misdirection, making a dish that looks like one thing but turns out to be another. But Blumenthal is David Copperfield, staging elaborate tricks to make you laugh with delight, while Cantu seems to want to be Uri Geller, trying to make you believe it actually happened, right there on Mike Douglas.
Which is why the Miracle Berry is such a natural for him. For once, the trick genuinely doesn't happen on the plate, but in your mind. Dropping a Miracle Berry tablet— the experience can't avoid LSD connotations, and at iNG, shows no signs of wanting to— produces an effect by which sour things are perceived as sweet. It's less pronounced than advertised, perhaps, but it's there— you're given slices of lemon and lime on which to test your tongue once you've dissolved the tablet, and lemon goes from lemon to tart lemonade, basically.
The problem is that having once taken the tablet, you're stuck on the other side of the door— any dish or cocktail you're given will taste like its Miracle Berry-ized self, without necessarily a frame of reference for the original dish. The Miracle Berry "Flavor-Tripping" menu at iNG confronts this problem with varying degrees of success.
I never ate at Otom, so I don't know how much iNG resembles its predecessor in the space, though what its go-go boots-white and red interior did remind me of was Mod, the long-ago restaurant where The Violet Hour is now. The amuse which arrives inside your folded paper box of a menu seems to be there just to match the room, but what comes next is well designed to show the effect: a cocktail which tastes (somewhat) like a margarita before you suck the berry, and (somewhat) like a tequila sunrise after. It makes the point, though perhaps out of a desire to show up The Aviary a couple of doors down, it tries too hard. Some of The Aviary's cocktails are meant to change flavor as they steep in their ingredients, like tea— a naturalistic, and probably pretty subtle, effect. iNG not only short-circuits the process with the Miracle Berry but with a small tube of cherry juice, which spills into the drink as you lift it to drink. By the last sips cherry flavor has sledgehammered the subtler Miracle Berry effect; less would have made more of the effect.
The first real food course, a sort of deconstructed Beausoleil oyster covered in uni and frozen-grated foie gras, doesn't seem to draw on the Miracle Berry effect, but its drink pairing is quite wonderful: a taste of Dogfish India brown ale, in which the sweetness of a brown ale surges to the front under the berry's effects. In this case the extra twist is well chosen: it's served in a smoked glass, a neatly economical version of Blumenthalesque scent dishes involving things like smoking hay on your plate.
I got two of iNG's baozi, meltingly tender pork buns, so I would have loved to have tried one before and one after the Miracle Berry. Not that it would likely have made much difference; these are so tasty that you almost want to tell Cantu to forget the fine dining stuff and just get a baozi truck out on the streets as fast as possible.
The next dish, a version of Nobu's miso-black cod dish (I swear, Nobu by this point is the Colonel Sanders of black cod), seems a less wise choice for the Miracle Berry— already on the sweetish side, it becomes downright candy-coated under the Berry's influence. (I'd rather have had a puttanesca sauce or something equally savory to serve as the Berry's foil by this point.) While a duck dish with mint and white chocolate in its sauce (not so I could tell) was a very pretty plate, but what the Miracle Berry contributed to it (and by this point I'd been given a refresher Berry) wasn't clear to me.
Far more impressive was its effect on the drink pairings with these dishes— a slightly fruit-forward pinot noir was like sipping a fine balsamic vinegar, while a dry Riesling came off for all the world like an ice wine. Dessert followed— but as it's a charming visual joke, I won't spoil it.
So did I see an altered reality, or a possible future food? I doubt it, though the Miracle Berry's use as a sugar substitute that works on the mind rather than the food is certainly intriguing, albeit more from a food-business standpoint than a culinary one. I look at the meal more prosaically: as a triumph of showmanship. The fact is this meal, minus the Miracle Berry, is nothing strikingly unusual— all very nicely done in an Asian-minimalist way, subtle and a little sedate for my tastes, one you can imagine having any number of places (especially the black cod). The Miracle Berry and the whole presentation around it turns a pleasant meal into a mindbender in which you think hard about every course, tasting and testing and waiting for transcendence. If it never arrives, you've still made more out of this meal than it would have on its own in a more conventional restaurant. As I said before, Cantu has found a magic trick that takes place not on the plate, but in your head.
Tags: Homaro Cantu, iNG, Miracle Berry
Sky Full of Bacon Presents Bugs Bunny With His Lungs Ripped Out
Posted in Key Ingredient/Chicago Reader | Comments Off on Sky Full of Bacon Presents Bugs Bunny With His Lungs Ripped Out | August 4th, 2011
In the new Key Ingredient, Jeff Hedin at Leopold uses one of the few parts of the rabbit he wasn't already using— the lungs. Read it here.
Of course, I had already shot video of Hedin here:
Our Season of Pig: The Week of the Fair
Posted in Our Season of Pig | Comments Off on Our Season of Pig: The Week of the Fair | August 1st, 2011
Click "Our Season of Pig" under Categories at right to read past installments.
The truck pulled into the gravel lot and slowly backed up to the swine barn. We held plastic barriers between the truck and the walkway to the pens, and the doors opened:
The pigs didn't want to take that first step out of the truck, but by slapping their hams and pushing them (100-lb. girl putting all her might against 250-lb. pig), they were eventually all unloaded:
We washed them, a somewhat quixotic effort since pigs have a habit of fouling themselves just as you get them clean. The big unspoken joke of all this is that you're competing for an award for showmanship when your animal's idea of on-stage behavior is blithely pooping a continuous stream the whole time you're smiling at the crowd and they're applauding. You can see why pig-raising countries like Spain invented Dada and Surrealism.
But we got them clean enough, and set them up in their pens, decorated with pictures and ribbons. Then the kids began feeding some of them high-fat foods like cake mix to get their weight up for the official weighing-in the next day, while others (who were too close to the top of the weight class) watched and squealed angrily at being deprived.
Wednesday there were two shows— one was to judge the pigs, one to judge showmanship. Frankly, I have no idea what the distinction is with pigs; in both cases, the pigs just run where they want, and the kids chase after. (With lambs, there was at least some degree of walking them like a dog.) This was the judging among the 4H clubs; then there's the open show judging on subsequent days. Lots of chances to get ribbons is the point, I guess.
The same judge, surprisingly not a gravel-voiced old rancher but a serious young woman, judged both. She judged six different weight classes, picking a champion and reserve champions in each, justifying her choices with language that combined cool matter-of-factness about these animals being product with a kind of aspirational language that sounded like we were trying to help them get into good schools. Her favorite words seemed to be "practical" and "everyday," as if pigs were hairdos or sensible pants.
Liam guides Thor around the ring.
After a couple of weight classes we noticed a definite pattern— our club's pigs usually seemed to come in dead last. I asked Julie, our club leader, why that was. She said part of it was due to our not keeping their weight up during the day of transportation and arrival; they didn't eat due to stress and heat, and many of them lost weight rapidly. But the other part, she said, was that most of the others had probably fed their pigs Paylean, a supplement commonly used for show animals that's basically steroids for pigs. It gives them good muscle development for the show, but the price is that it turns the meat mushy— and if you've eaten pork that struck you as soft and spongy, a supplement like Paylean is probably part of the reason. This is when I'm glad that, for all that we work hard and want to do well, it kind of doesn't really matter so seriously in our lives that we're tempted to use modern industrial-farming practices like this. If we come in last for following some principles about raising the pigs a little more naturally, that's not so bad.
Showmanship followed and the judge hardly even seemed to look at our pigs, or our kids; we knew we didn't meet her industrial pigs-as-product standards, and again we came in low in the group. But the kids didn't seem to mind; it's more about the fun of being together at the fair than it is about winning.
Friday night was the real excitement— Battle of the Barns, between the kids from all the different 4H groups. It started with a relay race including such athletic activities as running with a greased watermelon…
and running backwards around the cows.
Then the tug of war in the mud…
The adults wisely backed up once it was over, because:
When it's over, the kids hose themselves off as best they can in the same place where they washed their pigs a few days before. Watching some of the teenagers horse around in the water, many of the older girls finding excuses to get down to bathing suits they had conveniently placed under their Battle of the Barns clothes, I couldn't help but think that as a way to make farming cool among today's teens, 4H is way underselling this whole coed-mud-showering thing…
Saturday was the auction. Unlike with the lambs in past years, with pigs again you just kind of chase yours around the arena.
Pigs were last (after cattle, goats and lambs) so we had plenty of time to observe, happily, that prices were up again after being pretty low last year. Where cattle prices were in the dollar and something range last year, this year it was more like three dollars and something. Part of this might be that buyers are less spooked by the economy than they were last year, but part of it was also that the various clubs and the fair were making a more serious effort to cultivate buyers— there was a nice little reception at the back of the swine barn this year, complete with beer, for prospective bidders. In the end, though, our pig was sold to the same man who bought two of our lambs (and donated them to a local food bank) in past years, and we got a good price, $3.25 a pound, which means we turned a modest profit on our kids' activity. Add in the gold star that Liam got on one of his art projects— meaning he made the short list for Grand Champion in that category— and we had a good year.
Although Myles made some comments about not shopping anywhere that bought our pigs for at least a year, in the end they weren't bothered by a season of raising one of their favorite foods. Although pigs are more intelligent and were certainly easier to handle than lambs, they're still kind of alien, and the kids didn't bond with these ominously large, black-eyed (except for Frank) creatures as they might a dog. Myles even ate pulled pork at the carnival just a few hundred yards from his own pig. I don't think this is bad in any way; only city dwellers can sentimentalize all animals as comparable to household pets. Farming has a vastly different view of livestock, and the symbiotic relationship of humans and domesticated animals is a natural thing which developed over millennia and needs to be reintegrated into our modern lives, not shunned or denied. I'm glad my kids have had a chance to discover it and understand it for themselves— including, recently, visiting a slaughterhouse and processing plant (though not observing slaughter, but engaging with it directly) for a future Sky Full of Bacon podcast. I feel I have done everything I can to prevent them from growing up to be food hypocrites, at least.
Along the way Myles said something to me which, as he sometimes does, showed a surprisingly adult perspective on his own childhood. As the summer went along and the demands of having a 4H pig got more intensive, he occasionally whined about the time it was taking up in his summer versus some imagined glorious summer of socializing as a preteen. (In reality, given that time he'd have read Harry Potter over again with his iPod in his ears.) But as Fair week approached its end, he said, "I know I'm going to complain about it sometimes, but I want to do a pig again in 4H next year. I like being part of something bigger."
Special thanks and well wishes to our adviser, Julie Tracy, whose guidance and support during a difficult personal time is appreciated and treasured by all of us in the Glenview Clovers 4H club.


"Where the land ends and the sea begins."
This tourist destination is undergoing a revival, thanks to the popularity of its Pokémon Contest Spectaculars.
Location of Lilycove City in Hoenn.
Lilycove City (Japanese: ミナモシティ Minamo City) is located in eastern Hoenn and is one of the many cities that is connected to the sea.
Despite Lilycove lacking a Pokémon Gym, it offers a wide range of attractions. The Hoenn region's Department store, the Lilycove Department Store, is located at the top of the hills offering numerous amounts of supplies for visiting Trainers. Lilycove houses a harbor in which the S.S. Tidal provides transportation to Slateport City and the Battle Frontier. Lilycove also houses the Lilycove Museum and the Cove Lily Motel for tourists to stay in. Finally, it is home to the Move Deleter.
Lilycove is located southeast of Fortree, near the sea. The western entrance of the city is Route 121, leading to Mt. Pyre and the Safari Zone. To the east is Route 124, the open sea, and either the Team Magma HideoutROR or the Team Aqua HideoutSEAS.
One of the major features in Lilycove is the grand Contest Hall, which, in Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, holds the Master Rank Pokémon Contests, while in Pokémon Emerald, all of the Pokémon Contests take place here. It is located in the southern half of the city, south of the Pokémon Center and west of the Cove Lily Motel. These Contests attract many Coordinators and Pokémon from around the country to watch and participate in the events. A lot of citizens are honored to have the hall located right at their doorstep. Inside, there are two reception counters and four Berry Blenders for making Pokéblocks. There are also photo frames for winning Pokémon that are painted by a skilled artist. People are also allowed to watch Pokémon Contests as they take place by going their one of two audience entrances.
In Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, if the player scores high enough while at the same time winning a Master Rank Pokémon Contest, an artist will come and talk to him or her, saying that he has painted the Pokémon that won. After winning the Master Rank, the painter located in the Contest Hall will then paint the player's Pokémon, and put it on display in the museum. As more paintings are put up, more people come into the museum, eventually prompting the curator to give the aforesaid item.
Contest entries of all ranks are unrestricted in Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.
The Cove Lily Motel is a local motel in Lilycove. It is located east of the Contest Hall. Due to the fact that Team Magma and Team Aqua were situated in Lilycove City, the city has become an unpopular tourist destination for a time, so the Cove Lily Motel has become empty. However, once the villainous teams were scared away by the player, the Game Freak staff decided to stay there, and arrive after the player beats the champion.
The motel has a very simple layout. The lower level only contains a man watching a TV set. If the player attempts to check the TV, he or she will be shoved away by the man for blocking his view. The upper level contains the Game Freak staff, as it is where they are staying while in Hoenn. Players will find the Graphic Artist, the Programmer, and the Game Designer. The Game Designer will give the player the Poké Diploma after completing the Hoenn Pokédex.
Northern Lilycove is home to the Lilycove Museum, where fine art and paintings are on display. The museum is located west of the Lilycove Department Store and the western-most attraction in town. An art dealer is often seen walking around the entrance. The first floor, or the ground floor as it is known, is the main exhibition floor of the museum; there are many statues here, including a few that are replicas of real statues, as well as a few paintings. Many people wander around this floor for inspiration or to just marvel at the fantastic pieces of artwork. It is this hall that features the classical artwork of Pokémon, and the symbolization of Pokémon, while most artwork originated during the ancient times.
The curator will introduce the second floor to the player as the "special exhibit hall" and tell the player about his future plans for the design. The second floor, as the curator explains, was made for modern and vibrant artwork that features Pokémon springing forth into glorious life, a great change from the first floor which displays classical paintings, and the curator asks the player to search for suitable artwork. At first, there is nothing on this floor. However, if the player wins a Master Rank Pokémon Contest with at least 800 points, an artist will approach the player saying he's done a painting that might even look good in a museum, at which point the player will direct him to the Lilycove Museum. As more paintings are put up, more people come into the museum, and eventually, if the player accrues five paintings (one for each Contest category), the curator will be moved by gratitude to give the player a Glass Ornament for their Secret Base.
In Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, a Kindler on the first floor will sell some of his art—Secret Base decorations—to the player for 100,000 each.
Adjacent to the museum and one of the main attractions of the city is the Lilycove Department Store, the largest store in Hoenn. The receptionist on the left welcomes visitors, and the one on the right gives out Pokémon Loto Tickets for the Pokémon Lottery Corner, with the winning number changing daily. Prizes are awarded for winning numbers, which must match any of the player's Pokémon's original Trainer's ID numbers from the last digit to the first one. The second floor is where items to fulfill Trainers' basic needs are available, such as Poké Balls, Potions, Mail, and other items. The third floor sells items that raise the stats of Pokémon, while the fourth floor sells four offensive and four defensive TMs, and the fifth floor sells furniture for Secret Bases. The rooftop has a couple of Vending Machines and hosts a random rooftop sale, which is advertised beforehand. In Pokémon Emerald, the rooftop also houses a Move Tutor, who will teach a compatible Pokémon Substitute one time only.
The wharf is a large seaside building located on the southernmost extent of the city's headland, southwest of the Contest Hall. From here, players may catch the S.S. Tidal and travel to Slateport City and either the Battle Tower if in Ruby and Sapphire, the Battle Frontier in Emerald, or the Battle Resort in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.
In the Generation III games, if the player has one of several event-exclusive items, other locations can also be reached which often contain Legendary Pokémon.
In Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, the Pokémon Trainer Fan Club is located to the east of the Pokémon Center. Fans at the Pokémon Trainer Fan Club discuss popular Pokémon Trainers and Gym Leaders. Once the player has entered the Hall of Fame, several members of the fan club announce themselves as fans of the player. In addition to this, and before the completion of the Pokémon League, there will be other members who are fans of some non-player characters including Gym Leaders such as Norman, Elite Four members such as Glacia, and Steven, and also the most recent person to have mixed records with the player's game cartridge. Winning or losing in Link Battles respectively increases or decreases the number of members who are supporting the player.
In Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, the Contest Spectacular Trainer Fan Club is located to the east of the Pokémon Center. The club is filled with fans of Lisia.
The Move Deleter is located on the northern side of the city, just east of the Lilycove Department Store. He is the only Move Deleter in Hoenn. Although not a hugely important place to visit, the Move Deleter is helpful for deleting moves that can't be deleted otherwise. He is a very forgetful man, and lives alone. For no charge, the Move Deleter will make a Pokémon forget a move it knows. This is the only way for a Pokémon to forget HM moves such as Cut or Fly, besides using the Day Care. In Emerald, one must have multiple Pokémon knowing Surf in order to delete Surf on one of them. This is done so that a player will not get stuck in an area where Surf is required to continue. In addition, a Pokémon's move will not be forgotten if it is the only move it knows.
In Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, next to the entrance of the Pokémon Center is the Memory Girl, a girl who can read the memories of experiences a Pokémon had with its Original Trainer (and its most recent owner if it was traded), as well as how the Pokémon felt about the experience. These memories range from meeting the trainer for the first time, defeating wild Pokémon or Gym Leaders, using HMs outside of battle, exploring various locations, evolving, etc. A Pokémon's memory may change over time as it has new experiences with its trainer.
In Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, the population of Lilycove City is 123, making it the largest city in Hoenn.
In Pokémon Emerald, Lilycove City has a total population of 138, making it the largest city in Hoenn.
In Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, Lilycove City has a total population of 106, making it the second-largest city in Hoenn after Mauville City, and the eighth-largest in the Pokémon world.
A Gentleman in the northeast part of the city will give out a random Berry once per day. These are randomly selected from the first ten Berries. He will not give Berries while GroudonOR/KyogreAS is causing extremely harsh sunlightOR/heavy rainAS in Lilycove City.
Before the player can enter the Lilycove Department Store, they must defeat their rival in a battle.
In the anime, Ash and his friends arrived in Lilycove City in Pokéblock, Stock, and Berry. Originally, they were just passing through the city because it was en route to Mossdeep City, the location of Ash's next Gym battle. However, after May saw a poster advertising an upcoming Pokémon Contest, scheduled to be held in the city the next day, they decided to stay in Lilycove just so May could compete for her third Ribbon.
After that, the group decided to go grab something to eat to satisfy Ash's hunger, and following May's suggestion, they headed to a restaurant that serves omelets. However, on their way there, Pikachu wandered off, leading them to a Berry market where they met a girl by the name of Kelly and her Grumpig. Kelly revealed that she was planning to enter the Lilycove Contest and she and May bonded over their mutual interest in Pokémon Contests. Kelly then invited May and the others to her home, which is attached to a Pokéblock shop that her mother runs.
When they arrived there, the group had lunch. Soon after, Ash decided to go out and train for the challenge awaiting him at the Mossdeep Gym. He was determined to teach Swellow the move Aerial Ace and Max accompanied him. During Ash's training session, an old man known as Vladimir the Attacker approached Ash and offered to help. Meanwhile at the shop, May and Brock were learning how to use the Berry Blender to produce Pokéblocks.
Later, Team Rocket appeared and tried to steal Kelly's Grumpig. However, May and her Pokémon managed to rescue the Manipulate Pokémon before sending Jessie, James, and Meowth blasting off again. The following day at the Contest Hall, Vivian Meridian opened the Lilycove Contest, welcoming the audience and introducing the three distinguished judges: the Chief of the Pokémon Activities Committee, Mr. Contesta; the President of the Pokémon Fan Club, Mr. Sukizo; and the operator of the local Pokémon Center, Nurse Joy.
With the audience welcomed and the judges introduced, the Appeals Round began and Vivian called the first Coordinator to perform, May. May sent out her Combusken, who despite making a good first impression with its entrance, used Fire Spin in a way that the move seemed to be out of control and risking May's safety. However, as shown in Lessons in Lilycove, May was unharmed and Combusken was able to turn the tables and end the performance nicely.
After that, Kelly took the stage and sent out her Grumpig. She proceeded to throw some Pokéblocks, which Grumpig easily manipulated with its Psychic attack. Then on Jessie's turn, she earns a high score thanks to Chimecho's Astonish. May, Kelly, and Jessie have all successfully secured a place among the talented eight Coordinators advancing to the Contest Battles. There, May defeated Jessie in the semifinals and Kelly in the finals, winning her third Ribbon.
In Judgment Day!, Ash and his friends left Lilycove City aboard a ship. It was also revealed that Lilycove's ports operate ferry services to Bomba Island and Mossdeep Island.
Lilycove City is the hometown of Katie, a Pokémon Trainer who competed in the Ever Grande Conference; she is considered to be the pride of Lilycove.
Lilycove City is home to the regional Pokémon Association headquarters, as well as the Hoenn TV station, which employed Gabby and Ty and also had Archie acting as their covert boss.
During the climax of the Ruby & Sapphire chapter, when a drought began to affect Lilycove, the Pokémon Association headquarters transformed into a blimp and flew away. Later, the Three Fires of Team Magma confronted Roxanne, Brawly and Wallace, all of which were blocking Groudon from reaching Sootopolis. They took the three Gym Leaders into drought-stricken Lilycove for their battles.
A rearranged, bossa nova version of the background music of Lilycove City can be found in Pokémon Platinum. It is played on the Audio System that can be obtained in the Villa at Resort Area.
The motto of the city is the same motto as that of the city of Homer in the state of Alaska, In addition, both cities are in a peninsula of their respective areas.
German Seegrasulb From Seegras, seaweed.
Korean 해안도시 Haean City 해안 (海岸) haean means coast.
Chinese (Mandarin) 水靜市/水静市 Shuǐjìng Shì Literally means "City of calm water".


It's time for our movement to take action. Right now, the Northern Territory government is dangerously close to lifting the moratorium on fracking, a move that would lock in dangerous global warming and destroy freshwater resources across the NT.
Together we can show the NT government that communities across the country stand in solidarity with Aboriginal communities, Traditional Owners, pastoralists, station owners, tourism operators, and thousands across the Territory who want clean water, clean country and a liveable climate for the next generation.
This movement has done it before. Together we've kept Adani at bay for over 5 years, and that coal has stayed in the ground. Now, our movement has to stand with the people of the NT to make sure this disastrous industry doesn't go ahead.
That's why we're working together to take the campaign to ban fracking to the national stage. To show Chief Minister Gunner that the whole country is watching, we're going to fill iconic locations across the country with people and our powerful message: Water is Life.
This weekend we're launching our first ever documentary that follows the story of Aboriginal communities in the NT who are standing up to protect their lands and waters from fracking. It's incredible, trust me. We'll keep you updated with the link to watch the documentary when it's ready!
Learn how to host your own screening to raise awareness here.
Once again, thank you so much for your contribution, it is giving us the power to stand up for land rights, for water and for our future.
We will be in touch again soon with how you can influence this important decision next week.


text:
Protests break out against prolonged loadshedding in Karachi
The Newspaper's Staff Reporter Published June 28, 2022
Resident of Karachi take to the streets against loadshedding. — DawnNewsTV
KARACHI: Protests broke out in several parts of the metropolis on Monday when residents took to the streets, burnt tyres and blocked main roads for vehicular traffic in protest over the K-Electric for carrying out unannounced and prolonged loadshedding and frequent power breakdowns during the ongoing hot and humid weather.
Though there was no word from the power utility, people fed up with hours-long power outages under the announced and unannounced loadshedding, finally decided to lodge their protest.
In the wee hours of the day, a large number of Lines Areas residents came out on main Sharea Faisal and blocked the key road near Gora Qabristan.
They blamed the KE for keeping their supply off for 13 hours. Shouting slogans against the power utility management and demanding restoration of their supply, the protest caused a traffic jam on one track of the arterial Sharea Faisal.
Residents of Lines Area, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Sultanabad, Nazimabad take to streets against KE
Similar scenes were witnessed in Gulistan-i-Jauhar where a hundreds of people converged on Johar Morr and blocked main Rashid Minhas Road for vehicular traffic.
The protesters were demanding restoration of their power supply, which they said was suspended since Sunday night.
Two more protest demonstrations were staged in the densely populated neighbourhood near Perfume Chowk and Safari Park on main University Road.
Traffic moving on main University Road was diverted to an alternative route due to blockade causing severe traffic jams on the main road and adjoining arteries.
Minutes later, Nazimabad witnessed the same activity where a large number of people including women and children took to the street and staged a protest.
The protestors raised slogans against the K-Electric and blocked the road, causing one of the worst traffic jams on main Nazimabad Road.
They said that they were facing 12 to 14 hours of power outages in extremely hot weather, which had made their lives miserable.
They also condemned the power utility for "making people fool" in the name of maintenance shutdowns.
Despite frequent complaints, they said, the company failed to describe the nature and the area of the fault with no timeline for restoration of the supply.
At the PIDC traffic intersection — an area that falls within the so-called Red Zone — a large number of residents from Hijrat Colony and Sultanabad staged a protest against prolonged power outages.
They chanted slogans against the K-Electric. Their protest caused a traffic mess on Club Road, Dr Ziauddin Ahmed Road and Mai Kolachi.
Residents from Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Surjani Town, New Karachi, Federal B. Area, F. C Area, Burnes Road, Defence Housing Authority, Clifton, Baldia Town, Manghopir, Orangi Town, Landhi, Shah Faisal Colony, Model Colony, Shaheed-i-Millat Road, Khokhrapar, PECHS, Mehmoodabad, and Defence View apartments said that the KE was carrying out unannounced loadshedding for hours in their areas.
Students appearing in intermediate exams have become the victim of prolonged loadshedding as they had to take their papers in hot and humid weather. Also, they are unable to prepare for their exams because of multiple spells of loadshedding in day and night times.
Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2022
Entire Karachi to face loadshedding from today, declares KE
Loadshedding to be reduced to 3.5 hours from tomorrow: Shahid Khaqan Abbasi
No part of country spared from power loadshedding
Fragile State
Well I guess they should continue to vote for PPP seeing as their still can't get the basics in life.
Real.Pakistani
Everything is going downhill ever since the instability caused by the corrupt PDM.
nouman
This is how PPP run a city now imagine what will happen to our country with them in power
They should not be protesting about power outage but the overall 3rd class state of Karachi thanks to PPP
IMF bailout vital to meet external obligations
The biggest impediment to sovereign debt restructurings in Pakistan is not economic, but political


Need to unwind? This Sleepy Time shower steamer is a good way to unwind after a long, stressful day. It features a pure bulgarian Lavender essential oil, paired with a touch of lemon essential oil to help soothe you after the intense lavender. This is sure to help you relax!
To use, simply place it in the corner of your shower (or where water will regularly hit it), and bathe as normal. This shower steamer will bubble and fizz, and release it's goodness to help you!
Net Weight: 4 Oz - Triangular.
Sodium Bicarbonate, Citric Acid, Polysorbate 80 (Emulsifier), Colorants, Essential Oil Blend.
Profile: Bulgarian Lavender and Lemon essential oil blend.
No harsh chemicals! Will not stain your bath tub. Contains all natural ingredients! Beautiful packaging, making it perfect for gifts!
This shower steamer is excellent for those who either enjoy aroma-therapies or need to benefit from it.
Only the highest quality ingredients and oils are used in our unique, hand pressed shower steamers for a relaxing, therapeutic, and enjoyable bath experience!


text:
# Layout Upgrader

This is the Sugar 7.0 Layout upgrader.

## How to use the script

You can ask for help anytime by simply run:
```bash
$ ./update-layouts -h
```

You can run this with directories:

```bash
$ ./update-layouts -d="directory/to/convert"
$ ./update-layouts --dir="directory/to/convert"
```

Or files only:

```bash
$ ./update-layouts -f="file/to/convert"
$ ./update-layouts --file="file/to/convert"
```

Both can be have multiple values:

```bash
$ ./update-layouts -d="directory1/to/convert" -d="directory2/to/convert"
$ ./update-layouts -f="file1/to/convert" -f="file2/to/convert"
```

Directories can have regex patterns (that will be used by glob):

```bash
$ ./update-layouts -d="directory1/*/to/*/convert"
```

For your convenience, you can keep the script out of the sugarcrm path and
combine the params above with the path of the [SugarCRM][SugarCRM] instance to
update:

```bash
$ ./update-layouts -p="path/to/sugarcrm" -d="directory/to/convert"
$ ./update-layouts --path="path/to/sugarcrm" -d="directory/to/convert"
```

In order to avoid mistakes, you can see how the script will handle the params
by passing the `--dry-run` option.

```bash
$ ./update-layouts -p="path/to/sugarcrm" -d="directory/to/convert" --dry-run
```

To see more output information from the script, you can use the `-v` option
(for verbose).

```bash
$ ./update-layouts -p="path/to/sugarcrm" -d="directory/to/convert" --dry-run -v
```

You can pass the header file
```bash
$ ./update-layouts -p="path/to/sugarcrm" -d="directory/to/convert" --license=path/to/license/file
```

You can even be bold and run the script directly from github:

```bash
$ curl -sS https://raw.github.com/alias-mac/layout-upgrader/master/update-layouts | php -- --path="path/to/sugarcrm" -f="clients/base/layouts/activities/activities.php" --dry-run -v
```

### Removing .orig files in a burst

If you see that the script works great, you can delete the original files by
running a simple and fast command on your favorite shell:

```bash
$ find <path-to-sugarcrm> -name "*.php.orig" --delete
```

## Have fun!

## TODO

- Add the ability to run PSR-2 code fixer (optional param).

[SugarCRM]: http://www.sugarcrm.com/

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


I had my first exposure to meditation in high school, and I was formally introduced to meditation in my first year of engineering college. But it took me some understanding of cognitive and neurosciences, life experience and few great teachers to really appreciate and make sense of it. Based on my experience, I aspire to share it from an arts and science-based approach to mindfulness concepts and practices. This approach is specifically designed with dancing and a scientific mind model as a way to discover the rhythms of life and how it naturally leads to harmony and joy. While the scientific mind model grounds my approach in reality and reasoning, dancing is used as a way to understand, appreciate and apply mindfulness. Like mindfulness, dancing (Latin, Swing and Tango) is also an integral part of my life. Apart from EMI, I am also traditionally trained in the Shambhala path.


"Rather than rely on inefficient chlorophyll to harvest sunlight, I've taught bacteria how to grow and cover their bodies with tiny semiconductor nanocrystals," says Kelsey K. Sakimoto, Ph.D., who carried out the research in the lab of Peidong Yang, Ph.D. "These nanocrystals are much more efficient than chlorophyll and can be grown at a fraction of the cost of manufactured solar panels."
Research in Yang's lab at the University of California, Berkeley, where Sakimoto earned his Ph.D., focuses on harnessing inorganic semiconductors that can capture sunlight to organisms such as bacteria that can then use the energy to produce useful chemicals from carbon dioxide and water. "The thrust of research in my lab is to essentially 'supercharge' nonphotosynthetic bacteria by providing them energy in the form of electrons from inorganic semiconductors, like cadmium sulfide, that are efficient light absorbers," Yang says. "We are now looking for more benign light absorbers than cadmium sulfide to provide bacteria with energy from light."


text:
New York Rangers rookie Adam Fox is 'worth everything we gave up'
With Adam Fox playing his 30th game of the season this week, the New York Rangers will have to send the Carolina Hurricanes another second-round pick.
New York Rangers rookie Adam Fox is 'worth everything we gave up' With Adam Fox playing his 30th game of the season this week, the New York Rangers will have to send the Carolina Hurricanes another second-round pick. Check out this story on northjersey.com: https://www.lohud.com/story/sports/nhl/rangers/2019/12/13/ny-rangers-rookie-adam-fox-worth-everything-we-gave-up/4404998002/
Vincent Z. Mercogliano, NHL writer Published 6:00 a.m. ET Dec. 13, 2019 | Updated 6:34 p.m. ET Dec. 13, 2019
Dec 12, 2019; San Jose, CA, USA; New York Rangers defenseman Adam Fox (23) has a shot against the San Jose Sharks during the first period at SAP Center in San Jose. (Photo: Cody Glenn-USA TODAY Sports)
SAN JOSE – When Adam Fox took the ice for his 30th career NHL game Tuesday in Los Angeles, the final bill the Rangers had to pay for the rookie defenseman was rung up.
The Carolina Hurricanes already received New York's second-round pick in 2019, and now it's official that they'll also receive the Rangers' second-round pick in 2020. Had Fox been limited to fewer than 30 NHL games in his first season, the Rangers would have sent their third-rounder instead.
"He's absolutely worth everything we gave up," coach David Quinn said.
"And more," he added.
While Quinn and the Rangers are glad to give up two second-round picks for Fox, the mild-mannered Long Island native — who grew up a Rangers fan and made his desire to play for his favorite team known — said he hasn't put much thought into it.
"It's nice to show you're worth trading for," he said. "You want to prove them right and all that, but you just have to play well. Pressure and expectations — it all kind of takes care of itself if you play well. So for me, it's just focusing on that."
POSTGAME ANALYSIS: Mika Zibanejad plays hero with two late goals
VITALI KRAVTSOV: Top prospect return to U.S. after stint in Russia's KHL
There's an argument to be made that Fox has been the Rangers' best defenseman through the first 30 games of the season. Quinn has remarked on several occasions that "he's made the transition to the National Hockey League look a little bit easier than it should be."
Oct 12, 2019; New York, NY, USA; New York Rangers defenseman Adam Fox (23) skates up ice during the third period against the Edmonton Oilers at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports (Photo: Vincent Carchietta, Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports)
The former NCAA star for Harvard entered game No. 31 Thursday against the San Jose Sharks ranked third in the league among rookie defensemen with 16 points (five goals and 11 assists).
"You want to help your team win in whichever way," Fox said. "For me as an offensive defenseman, I'm trying to contribute in that sense. But I think overall, I'm just trying to focus on playing a good game, as opposed to focusing on getting points."
Playing a good all-around game meant disproving the notion that he would struggle handling his defensive responsibilities while going straight from college to the pros.
He called it "a learning curve."
"Guys possess a little longer and sometimes you're not getting out as quick," Fox added. "But I think overall, I'm just trying to compete in the 'D' zone and have a good stick. Obviously, I'm not going to manhandle a lot of guys with my size and everything, so I think having a good stick is important for me."
Goalie Petr Mrazek #34 and Dougie Hamilton #19 of the Carolina Hurricanes looks to block a shot by Adam Fox #23 of the New York Rangers during the first period at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 27, 2019 in New York City. (Photo: Bruce Bennett, Getty Images)
While the start to his career has been largely encouraging, there have been some uneven moments of late. Fox and fellow rookie Ryan Lindgren have been an effective pair, but they had their issues against the Kings.
"There's been some ups and downs," Quinn said. "I think most rookies go through a little bit of a downward spiral at this time of year."
The grueling NHL schedule may have something to do with it.
"By now, I'd usually be done with the college season," Fox noted. "We're starting to get into more of the grind part of the season, reaching that midway point. It's my first time playing an 82-game season, so I'm trying to figure that out."
If there's anything Fox has shown in his early days with the Rangers, it's the ability to figure things out quickly.
Two second-round picks certainly feels like a price worth paying.
"One of the things that I've been impressed with Adam from the start was his commitment to playing defense and managing his offensive ability — knowing when to get involved offensively," Quinn said. "I think he's lost that a little bit lately, and he's certainly trying to get back on track from that end of it. But you're talking about a guy who's had a really good start to his career."
Follow our Rangers coverage at lohud.com/sports/rangers!
Twitter: @vzmercogliano


text:
Q: How do i rectify my error in my mergesort implementation This is my code of Mergesort but it's giving wrong output. I have no idea why.
I have tried to only include the essential details.  Please help me find out my mistake. Same is the problem with my quicksort implementation too.
void merge(int arr[], int l, int m, int r)
{

    int n1 = m - l + 1;

    int n2 = r - m;

    int L[n1], R[n2];

    for(int i = 0; i < n1; i++)

        L[i] = arr[l + i];

    for(int j = 0; j < n2; j++)

        R[j] = arr[m + 1 +j];
    int i = 0;

    int j =0;

    int k = l;

    while (i < n1 && j < n2)

    {

        if (L[i] <= R[j])

        {

            arr[k] = L[i];

            i++;

        }

        else

        {

            arr[k] = R[j];

            j++;

        }

        k++;

    }

    while (i < n1)

    {

        arr[k] = L[i];

        i++;

        k++;

    }

    while (j < n2)

    {

        arr[k] = R[j];

        j++;

        k++;

    }
}

void mergeSort(int arr[], int l, int r)
{

    if (l < r)

   {
        int m = l + (r - l) /2;
        mergeSort(arr, l, m);

        mergeSort(arr, m + 1, r);

        merge(arr, l, m, r);

    }
}

Suppose input here is 4,0,6,1,5,2,3
Output shown is 0,4,1,5,2,3,6
I have been trying for many hours please someone help

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


The occupation of 'Knocker Up' was an essential one in the days when cotton mills thrived throughout Lancashire. The duty of waking up the workers falling on the shoulders of an individual who carried a long pole with wire attachments that he rattled on bedroom windows at the crack of dawn.
One person still employed as a knocker up in Preston at the dawn of the 20th century was Peter Griffiths a sprightly 73 year old. Unfortunately, the tragic events of the second Saturday in August 1900 would bring his career and life to an abrupt end.
On the following Tuesday at the Preston Borough Police Court a soldier of the Loyal North Lancashire Regt. named as Frederick Hurst, aged 36, was charged with causing his death by violence. Prosecutor Mr. P.H. Edelston stated that at 2 o'clock on the Saturday afternoon Mr. Griffiths, who resided with his niece in Houghton Square, had left home to collect the money due to him for knocking people up that week.
The niece Margaret Ann Caffrey told the court he was brought home in a cab at 9 o'clock that night evidently in great pain.
Despite vomiting during the night he got up at 4 o'clock on the Sunday morning to perform his knocker up duties.
However, he returned within a quarter of an hour doubled up in pain. Dr. Garner was then called out and ordered his removal to the Infirmary where he died shortly before midnight.
She then stated that her Uncle told her he was in the yard of the public house when a soldier asked him for a match which he gave him. The soldier then asking for a penny, whereupon he replied that he had no money, at which point the soldier had assaulted him.
Various witnesses were called who had observed the incident outside the Port Admiral Inn on Lancaster Road that Saturday evening including William Whitehead who stated – 'I saw the soldier seize the old man by the bottom of the trouser legs, and throw him to the ground.
He fell on his back, and the prisoner then jumped violently with his knees on his stomach.
He then held him by the throat and shook him. He was pulled off by a bystander and walked off towards the market. He appeared to have had some drink and was wearing a military uniform with a red coat with dark blue facings.
Dr. Helme, a house surgeon at the Preston Royal Infirmary, then testified that he had attended to Mr. Griffiths, but despite treatment he gradually became worse.
At the post mortem that followed he found signs of recent peritonitis and observed the intestines were ruptured, consistent with being knelt upon in a violent manner.
The Bench then adjourned proceedings until after the Inquest, refusing the prisoner bail.
Following the Inquest, where its was recorded that Griffiths met a violent end, the magistrates resumed their hearing and concluded by sending the accused to the next Lancaster Assizes, charged with Manslaughter.
The Assizes were held in early November before Mr. Justice Bucknill. Peter Anderton, a local painter, was amongst those called and he testified that he saw the prisoner and the old man come tumbling out of the Port Admiral yard both the worse for drink, the soldier falling with both knees on the victim's stomach.
According to him, the soldier was getting up when the old man lifted his foot to kick the accused who reacted by dragging the man along the ground. In his opinion the fall had been quite accidental.
Mr. McKeever, for the defence, claimed the prosecution had failed to prove he was feloniously killed and that it was an unfortunate accident.
The jury, after a short deliberation, returned with a not guilty verdict and he was accordingly acquitted.


BATON ROUGE, La. — Gov. John Bel Edwards and Asteri President Marcus Morton on Thursday announced Asteri will expand digital development capabilities through an innovative state program that creates permanent entertainment industry jobs in Louisiana. Headquartered in Shreveport, Asteri is a digital content creator and large-scale testing solution provider.
"Louisiana's Entertainment Job Creation Program is encouraging innovative companies to invest locally and create quality jobs across the entertainment spectrum in Louisiana, from motion pictures to digital effects and other production activities," Gov. Edwards said.


text:
Law professor: Why Indiana needs 'religious freedom' legislation
Most religious freedom claims have nothing to do with same-sex marriage or discrimination.
Law professor: Why Indiana needs 'religious freedom' legislation Most religious freedom claims have nothing to do with same-sex marriage or discrimination. Check out this story on IndyStar.com: http://indy.st/1BR9Rwn
Daniel O. Conkle Published 12:05 a.m. ET March 7, 2015 | Updated 11:51 a.m. ET April 3, 2015
Supporters of religious liberty legislation making its way through the Indiana General Assembly rally Feb. 9, 2015, wearing buttons in support.(Photo: Charlie Nye/The Star)Buy Photo
I am a supporter of gay rights, including same-sex marriage. But as an informed legal scholar, I also support the proposed Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). How can this be?
It's because — despite all the rhetoric — the bill has little to do with same-sex marriage and everything to do with religious freedom.
The bill would establish a general legal standard, the "compelling interest" test, for evaluating laws and governmental practices that impose substantial burdens on the exercise of religion. This same test already governs federal law under the federal RFRA, which was signed into law by President Bill Clinton. And some 30 states have adopted the same standard, either under state-law RFRAs or as a matter of state constitutional law.
Applying this test, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that a Muslim prisoner was free to practice his faith by wearing a half-inch beard that posed no risk to prison security. Likewise, in a 2012 decision, a court ruled that the Pennsylvania RFRA protected the outreach ministry of a group of Philadelphia churches, ruling that the city could not bar them from feeding homeless individuals in the city parks.
If the Indiana RFRA is adopted, this same general approach will govern religious freedom claims of all sorts, thus protecting religious believers of all faiths by granting them precisely the same consideration.
But granting religious believers legal consideration does not mean that their religious objections will always be upheld. And this brings us to the issue of same-sex marriage.
Under the Indiana RFRA, those who provide creative services for weddings, such as photographers, florists or bakers, could claim that religious freedom protects them from local nondiscrimination laws. Like other religious objectors, they would have their day in court, as they should, permitting them to argue that the government is improperly requiring them to violate their religion by participating (in their view) in a celebration that their religion does not allow.
But courts generally have ruled that the government has a compelling interest in preventing discrimination and that this interest precludes the recognition of religious exceptions. Even in the narrow setting of wedding-service providers, claims for religious exemptions recently have been rejected in various states, including states that have adopted the RFRA test. A court could rule otherwise, protecting religious freedom in this distinctive context. But to date, none has.
In any event, most religious freedom claims have nothing to do with same-sex marriage or discrimination. The proposed Indiana RFRA would provide valuable guidance to Indiana courts, directing them to balance religious freedom against competing interests under the same legal standard that applies throughout most of the land. It is anything but a "license to discriminate," and it should not be mischaracterized or dismissed on that basis.
Daniel O. Conkle, professor, Indiana University Maurer School of Law
Read or Share this story: http://indy.st/1BR9Rwn
Letters: Jesus instituted the Catholic Church to teach, govern and sanctify
Alum: Cathedral turns back on Jesus' teachings of love, tolerance
Op-ed: Brebeuf creates space for gay Catholics
Letters: Indianapolis Archdiocese interferes with internal personnel matter at Brebeuf
Op-ed: Archdiocese followed canon law in revoking Catholic status of Brebeuf
Letters: Brebeuf alum implores archdiocese: 'Have you no shame?'


Find Wiley College reviews, tuition costs and how many students are enrolled at Wiley College in Texas.
79,755 books, serial backfiles, and other material including government documents.
77 Internet connections in libraries.
509 Internet connections in classrooms.
106 Internet connections in Laboratories.
642 Internet connections elsewhere on campus.
Approximately 85 students can be on the network at once.
49% of students live in school housing.
90% of housing units are Doubles.
Other organizations: (Appears as submitted by school) Student Government Association, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. , Alpha Angels Inc. , Delta Sigma Theta Alpha Iota Chapter, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc. , Krimson Kourts, Inc. , KBWC Street Team, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. , Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. , Sigma Sweet, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. , Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. , Women of Omega, Hospitality Club, Pan-Hellenic Council, Student Union Advisory Board, Wiley College Pre-Alumni, Biology Club, Spirit Team, Native American Club, Alpha Kappa Mu Honor Society, K. A. O. S. Council of Wiley College, Wiley College Formal Dance Club, Wiley College Gospel Choir and Young Entrepreneur and Consulting League.


Three British Paralympians have spoken of their hopes that London 2012 will lead to a greater recognition of their talents, skills and fitness.
Naomi Riches, a five-time adaptive rowing world champion and a Paralympic bronze medallist in Beijing in the mixed coxed four, says she is desperate for the public to move away from the typical "oh, aren't they brave" attitude.
The adaptive rowing team now trains alongside the non-disabled team that secured nine Olympic medals, and Riches believes the standards of the two teams are comparable.
She insists that she is looking forward to racing, even though she knows it is going to be "gruelling… painful, really hard work".
As a partially-sighted member of the quartet, she wears goggles that block out all light, so she has to concentrate on listening to cox Lily van den Broecke – who steers the boat and delivers instructions to the rest of the crew – and attuning herself to the "feel" of the boat.
She says the crowd's encouragement will sound like a "wall of noise" that will have a "positive effect" on her performance even though she will be concentrating on the cox and the boat, because she will know that "the majority of that crowd are shouting for us".
Riches, who has been rowing for eight years and describes herself as "quietly determined", was talent-spotted at an adaptive rowing awareness day in 2004.
Another Paralympian who wants the members of ParalympicsGB to win better recognition of their talents – as well as medals – at London 2012 is wheelchair fencer David Heaton.
He came out of retirement to compete in the team event at London 2012, in what will be his fifth games, and will be the only member of the seven-strong fencing team to have previous experience of the Paralympics.
He says he will judge whether it has been a successful games by the quantity of media coverage.
"Hopefully, at the end of the games the British public will recognise Paralympic sport as an elite sport and we will get the recognition we deserve," he says.
The aspect of the games he is most looking forward to is the opening ceremony, particularly so he can watch his team-mates – such as 14-year-old Gabi Down, who has spoken of Heaton as something of a mentor to her and other members of the team – as they come out of the tunnel into the Olympic Stadium on the evening of 29 August.
His first games was Barcelona in 1992, when the Paralympics "stepped up a level", and he says the opening ceremony "is an experience you never forget".
Britain's most successful boccia player, Nigel Murray – with two golds and a silver from three previous games, and currently ranked number one in the world – is another Paralympian hoping for greater recognition of his team-mates' talents.
"I think it will let people know what people can achieve regardless of their disability," he says.
Like Riches, he hopes "home advantage" will count. "We want people to get behind all the GB athletes and give us that support and encouragement," he says.
"Hopefully, it will inspire us to do the best we can do and also intimidate our opponents.
The heats of the mixed coaxed four start at 11.30am on 31 August.
The men's wheelchair fencing team event takes place on 8 September.
The boccia events take place between 2 September and 8 September.