Lou Harry – Courtesy of Lou Harry. Used with permission.
For years, he and I have crossed paths in theatre lobbies and performing arts venues throughout Central Indiana, but aside from occasional small talk, we've never had a substantive conversation. Finally, one day it occurred to me that my colleague, Lou Harry, probably had an interesting story and it was time I sat down with him to hear it.
Harry, who has lived in Indianapolis since 1997, is best known as a writer-editor for the Indianapolis Business Journal from 2007 to 2018, where he was the Arts & Entertainment Editor and later became a freelancer for the publication, once it downsized his position. Eventually, IBJ decided to make further cuts, so Harry recently accepted a position as editor of The Quill, the national magazine of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Other projects in which Harry's involved include a monthly podcast called "Lou Harry Gets Real," Indy Actors' Playground, a monthly series with local actor Paul Hansen, and SiteLines Indy, which he co-producers with John Thomas. It's an occasional play reading presentation, in which they partner with an organization that has a specific area of interest. A member of the Indiana Film Journalist Association, Harry is also a member of the American Theatre Critics Association, for which he chairs the New Play Committee.
Married to wife Cindy, Harry has a young son, Jonah, and two adult children, Katie and Emily, who live in Hattiesburg, Mississippi and Austin, Texas respectively, and two grandchildren.
In early January, Harry and I met for breakfast at a Meridian Street restaurant for a wide-ranging interview. Herein is an edited transcript of that conversation and comments drawn from subsequent email messages.
How do you manage to wear so many hats?
I have always had multiple tracks going. There has been the journalistic track, which has been my bread and butter, pays the bills and is what I love and enjoy. Then, there is the producing piece and the book writing and the theatre work. I come from a small town in New Jersey, a beach, honky-tonk town called Wildwood, New Jersey. It's a mob scene in the summer and a ghost town in the winter. I graduated with 100 people. The island is five miles long and a mile wide with four municipalities within it. It's a tiny place. Nobody had big ambitions to leave town, so I never thought I would actually work in the arts. I started writing plays while doing other jobs while working in Philadelphia. I co-founded and co-ran a children's theatre company as a sideline and I wrote plays for that. It was adult actors performing for kids. That was the first stuff I produced and some of those plays were picked up by other theatres. That was the first time my plays were done by someone other than me. That gave me a little bit of confidence, but producing was placed on hold until about 14 years ago when I arrived in Indy because I was always doing the arts journalism thing. I was very aware of separating the two and trying to avoid conflicts of interest and things like that. It all weaves together.
I don't know about that. It is hard to gauge that. When I was doing a morning segment on Fox59, there were people who were seeing my commentary and recommendations. I am aware there are silos, people who sort of follow it and know it. I came here to edit Arts Indiana and ended up at Indianapolis Monthly, then Indy Men's magazine and IBJ, so at each of those stages, there are people who follow you, but there are also unique audiences of those publications. I have never wanted to write for the hard-core academic journals or that sort of thing. I have always been about trying to reach an audience of strangers in the same way as the books I have written. It has never been about selling to friends and family. I want strangers to read my books and see my plays. I love it when the community and friends and family are supportive of the theatre work I do, but I am more enthused when I have no idea who those people are who are reacting to my work.
As a producer and an arts writer, how do you avoid conflicts of interest?
My interest has always been I am going to give honest reaction to the work I have seen. I am going to try to write intelligently and in an engaging way about my experience with that work, while incorporating past productions I have seen. I just wrote a piece about "They're Playing Our Song" for NUVO. That was the first Broadway musical I ever saw with Robert Klein and Lucie Arnaz. It wouldn't have been genuine to ignore the fact that I was going into it with a degree of nostalgia. So, I ended up writing a little bit in the lead about my experience with the musical. We can pretend to be objective, but one of the realities is the work we are exposed to early on can sometimes make something that is just OK into something more—not necessarily make a bad play good, but we can influenced by our history. I have never shied away from bringing my personal experience into the writing if I thought it was helpful and engaging. I was never big on plot synopsis. I am also hyper aware of spoilers. I love going into a work when I don't know much about it. I love having theatre as a primary experience, with Shakespeare even. I decided early on that I was never going to read a Shakespeare play unless I have seen it first. Seeing it first was going to be my primary experience and sometimes that meant not being exposed to "Winter's Tale" until maybe eight years ago. I just saw "Timon of Athens" for the first time and the same with "Merry Wives of Windsor," so I want my primary experience, if possible, to be in the theatre.
How can you put yourself out there when you are critiquing other work?
My loyalty, when writing a review, is to the art, the reader and the publication. I don't owe anything to the talent involved but respect, even if I have worked with them in the past. When a company in town has produced work of mine, I may not review something by the person who directed it for an extended period of time or I might not necessarily collaborate with that theatre for a while. I try to keep those things separate.
Do you have fears as a playwright or producer that someone will retaliate, settle a score, etc. by criticizing your work?
I am not worried about it. There has been some social media stuff. I remember a string of comments that led me to re-evaluate a comment in a story, whether it was appropriate or not. I am trying to think of an example where that might have been a factor. I honestly can't think of anything. My hope is that I have built a reputation for integrity in my writing, even if I am very critical of work, that I am not out to get anybody. As far as my producing work, I have made sure that actors have gotten paid for "Going…Going…Gone" for over 100 productions, demonstrating that I respect them. My support for the acting community and making sure they are compensated speaks for itself. Because of SightLines readings and the stories I have written about the arts, I hope it is very hard to say, "Lou just hates theatre or Lou has it in for this or that company." There hasn't been a theatre company for which everything I have written has been negative and when people have asked, "What is the best theatre company in town?" I say, "What I love most about Indianapolis is that every company I have seen is capable of excellence and has demonstrated it." Does that mean there won't be someone new in the market who might take a comment and say "Oh, Lou hates everything"? Yes, there is going to be some of that, but it doesn't bother me.
Since so many publications have let them go, what has happened to theatre critics?
Critics are migrating to blogs. I'm on the board of the American Theatre Critics Association, so I am aware that many career arts journalists now have blogs. Previously, there were theatre critics at the newspaper of record in any given town; then as the position faded away, they became the arts critic, so they end up covering everything. Then, they either take a buyout, forced retirement, layoff or whatever and then they end up starting their own blog. Or they help develop a community blog, a sort of a collective theatre hub of reviews. DC Theatre Scene is an example of that. Down in Dallas, it's TheaterJones. There is one in New England. They are saying "We want theatre criticism in this town and the theatre community wants criticism in this town, so let's see what we can do to make a home for that." That is the way things have migrated, but I think there is still a value in having work written about. Part of it is a legacy of the town and a chance for the town to develop new work as well. If I took one of my plays that was premiered here and tried to have it done at another theatre, they would want to see the reviews. They would want to see the outside assessment of how the show did. I could show them all the marketing materials and posters I want and they'll read the play, but they'll ultimately make the decision based on that. If I can show them three reviews, I'll have a better chance of getting it produced. If you apply for a grant as an arts company or an artist, the decision-makers want to see artistic documentation.
What is the difference between a good blog and a bad one?
The test is the quality of writing. What I think can make for a not-particularly-good blog is when the writer has never worked with editors before. Hopefully, if you have written long enough for a publication, you sort of become your own editor to a certain degree. It is always helpful to have another set of eyes though.
Do you consider yourself a critic or a reviewer?
I consider myself an arts journalist. Reviewing comes off to me as "I am going to pass judgment. I am going to review this. I am going to give it a pass-fail. I am going to give it an A to an F. I am going to give it a thumbs up or a thumbs down." I am not even remotely interested in doing that. As far as critic, it's a word I am not in love with either. Critics give themselves a license to write about anything in the production, up to what happens in the last moments. I try not to spoil an event for a potential audience member. I try not to write about anything that happens more than a third into the show.
What was your impression of the criticism of the theatre writers for Indy's two newspapers when you relocated here?
I wrote a piece for Indianapolis Monthly asking, "If everything is great, how do we know if it is any good?" When I moved here, I did see that as a problem. To oversimplify, there seemed to be two kinds of people here: the people who thought "Well, it's from here, so we have to praise it," or on the other hand, "Well, it was created here, so it can't be any good." I set a goal for myself at Arts Indiana and beyond, I want us to have discussions in that middle ground. So, "commentator" feels more comfortable to me. I think one of the problems is we tend to uncritically present previews. That bothers me when I read them in publications. To preview is a critical act. There should always be some kind of judgment. I never want to steer people to something that I haven't found a way to be optimistic or enthusiastic about.
Do you consider yourself an advocate journalist?
I consider myself an arts advocate, a passionate advocate for the arts. That doesn't mean that I need to advocate for every piece of art. I try to do an in-and-out thing, in which I ask myself, "Why am I telling them this?" We have a tendency, if we know some history about something, to pile it in there and then I have to ask myself, is this helpful for them to understand my perspective or am I just showing off? I try to show them what I know. That's the editing process. What am I trying to say here? If I am going to write about a play or concert or whatever, I don't want to go into anything that I can't go into openhearted and open-minded.
What is that you love about theatre?
As an audience member, I love theatre's "happening now" connectivity. As a playwright, I love the collaborative nature of it—blending the talents and ideas of a team to create something that no one could have created alone.
In a nutshell, what is the state of our Indy Arts scene?
A body at rest tends to stay at rest. We have a world of Netflix and everything else. It's harder to find out what's going on. We don't have a media landscape where it used to be you could open the Star or NUVO and say, "Oh, here is all the stuff happening and here's what I can get out to." There is not an easy access to information unless you are looking for it. The media landscape has widened through the internet and social media. We thought, "Oh, are we going to have to have this infinite number of choices?" But, in a lot of ways, it has created these silos for what you are looking for and that's it. So, the crisis in media is the increase in entertainment options. The arts have given ground to food culture in a lot of ways. People are more likely to talk about the new restaurant they went to than the new play they saw.
That is going to be in most every city. Philadelphia is a huge sports city. That is where I did my early career. There is a thriving arts community there. There is Chicago. You can't say it is not a sports town. Those are places on a different level. In Cincinnati, you have a number of solid theatres happening and a commitment to an arts district, but they are having a lot of the same problems. A lot of cities are. It is very difficult to take risks. It is very difficult to be a professional artist. You have actors here who struggle with making the leap to Actors' Equity. They may get paid better and everything else, but they may not also work for a year.
You obviously support our city's creative class.
Absolutely. The perception of the politicians on down is that the arts is a hobby instead of a potential, important livelihood. I am not sure of how many actors there are in town who actually make their living acting. The world would be a lot different if IU, Purdue and Ball State Universities were each 45 minutes closer because you would have that sort of teaching-artist professional and have a more likely chance of making a living here.
Are there things you have never done before that you still want to do? Have you ever acted?
Tons of things. No, I have not. I worked professionally for ten years in comedy clubs from the mid-80s to the mid-90s. I did stand-up comedy for ten years, working two or three weekends a month professionally in Philadelphia, Delaware and New Jersey. I started doing it right out of college as a sideline and started to get work during the comedy club boom and that just spread and at the time, there were eight or 19 clubs within one chain in three or four states, so I could work without stopping on Friday and Saturday nights. I retired when I moved here. It was a good side business. I enjoyed it. I was a good emcee. Eventually, I was a decent middle act, but I knew I wasn't going to be a headliner. I didn't have the drive to be. I didn't have the memory, but I loved doing it. That experience really helped in terms of emceeing events and when I am hosting an event and even when I'm writing. Working in clubs, you get a real sense of the audience. You can't help it. You have to. It gave me an appreciation as a writer, that somebody is going to be receiving this communication. I am aware that in the rhythm of my writing journalistically, that somebody has to read this. Being on those comedy clubs stages and knowing how people are perceiving what's going on has given me an advantage as a writer. How one word can alter a joke. How restructuring a sentence can make all the difference. I worked with some wonderful people, some of whom have really taken off. National people now.
I watch a fair amount. Being a member of the Indiana Film Journalists Association, I get a lot of screeners and vote on those awards. I do year-end awards. I also do a lot of festival writing about Heartland Film Festival and Indy Film Festival.
I love it. I am interested in it, but that is something about my writing, I try never to pretend I know something I don't know.
I believe I had the best magazine job in the country as editor of Indy Men's Magazine. The pay could have been better, but in terms of creative control, working with people I loved working with and having a product I was incredibly proud of, it was. We were publishing original fiction every month. We were doing long-form interviews. We were able to have a sense of humor throughout the publication. I am so proud of that magazine. As tearing hair out as it was, the process was great. And at IBJ, I felt like I had the best arts journalism job in the city and definitely the state and maybe even the region.
As it relates to my non-fiction, because I'm curious about the world. As it relates to my fiction, I am curious about what happens to the characters. As far as my criticism, I am curious about why I responded or didn't respond to work.
What do you like most about Indianapolis?
What would you like to see more of in our city?
Adventurous audiences engaged with adventurous artists.
What legacy would you like to leave through your writing?
I have no illusion of legacy about my writing.
Follow Lou Harry at "Lou Harry, writer, etc." on Facebook or visit his website at LouHarry.com.


State champions are being crowned left and right as the spring sports seasons wind down. Today, Brad Locke looks at how area teams fared in the tennis championships (1:18) as well as the track and field championships (2:27). Several area baseball teams are playing in the state semifinals this week (3:00), while three area softball squads are prepping for state championship series (6:09). Also, Itawamba AHS has a new basketball coach (7:23), and Brad presents the Athletes of the Week (8:35).
It's playoff time on the diamond. Gene Phelps and Brad Locke take a look at what's happening with area baseball teams (3:16) and softball teams (9:36) as they move into second-round action this week. Speaking of the postseason, Gene has updates on track and field (16:04) and tennis (18:02). Plus, Athletes of the Week are recognized (20:42).


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Sir Bobby urges trip to doctor's
Sir Bobby Robson is urging men in the North East not to ignore cancer warning signs.
Every year, around 1,300 men in the region are diagnosed with lung cancer, 1,200 with prostate cancer, 1,000 with bowel cancer and just under 100 with testicular cancer.
The Toon boss has had two brushes with the deadly disease and says he owes his life to his wife's insistence that he got symptoms checked out.
Now he is joining other cancer survivors to back Cancer Research UK's Man Alive campaign that aims to make men more aware about cancer.
Sir Bobby, 71, was treated for bowel cancer in 1992 but three years later, while managing Dutch side PSV Eindhoven, he started having problems with his sinuses.
"I came home from work one day and Elsie told me she'd made a doctor's appointment about my sinuses," he recalled.
"At the time I was a bit annoyed because I was really busy with PSV Eindhoven. But Elsie kept on at me so I reluctantly agreed to see my GP who referred me to a specialist.
"Following a biopsy, the consultant told me I had a rare form of malignant melanoma affecting the inside of my face.
"It was August and he said unless I had something done, I would be dead by January."
Fundraisers at Cancer Research UK want people to use Euro 2004 to raise money for the charity. They suggest a £1 donation from everyone watching a match at home, work, club or pub.
The Chronicle reader who raises the most over 2004 will win a special limited edition Cancer Research UK football shirt signed by Sir Bobby Robson.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


We are pleased to spotlight the third-place winner of our 2017 Au Pair of the Year contest, Supattra "Oi" Jairew, an au pair from Thailand. A teacher in her home country, Oi took on the fun task of teaching her one-year-old charge some words in Thai, and she quickly won the hearts of her entire host family with her caring nature and generous spirit.
"When my husband and I were evaluating child care options, one compelling reason we chose an au pair from Au Pair in America to be our childcare provider was the opportunity for our daughter to be exposed to another language and culture. We matched with an engaging, intelligent, and caring au pair named Supattra "Oi" Jairew.
During the match process, we expressed to Oi our desire that our child learn Thai. Oi was excited to share her language and culture in additional to improving her own English and learning more about the USA. From the first day, Oi spoke to our little one in both English and Thai. Although we had a few Thai children's books, we found that even in the age of the internet, acquiring more books was difficult. When we reached a dead end in finding books, Oi offered to translate some English children's books. Oi, a teacher in her home country, painstakingly translated each phrase in our daughter's books. Now, our little girl smiles with joy each time she sits in Oi's lap and Oi reads stories to her in both English and Thai.
The most important thing is that Oi helps keep us connected to our child when she is not with us. Each day, Oi texts us pictures of how our little girl spends her time and gives a summary of her activities. This makes it a little easier to be at work when our daughter is at home. My favorite thing about having Oi as our au pair is something that most parents who work outside of the home cannot experience when their child is in care – I get to give hugs to my daughter each time she goes on a walk near my office. Whenever Oi takes our little one on a walk nearby, I get a text inviting me to pop out and see my little girl – that means so much.
Congratulations to Oi for her excellent work and recognition as an Au Pair of the Year award winner!
Learn more about how you and your family can host an au pair like Oi!


The Hurricanes have reached the Stanley Cup playoffs just once since winning the 2006 Stanley Cup, in 2009. The past six years ... That was offset by an increase in NHL revenue - $43.25 million last season, compared to about $40 million in 2013-2014.
The Hurricanes have reached the Stanley Cup playoffs just once, in 2009, since winning the 2006 Stanley Cup. The past six years ... That was offset by an increase in NHL revenue – $43.25 million last season, compared with about $40 million in 2013-2014.


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Q: How to create curved (left or right)-arrow using matplotlib? I am using matplotlib.patches.FancyArrow to draw arrow between points. By changing
*shape*: ['full', 'left', 'right'], I can create full, left or right-shaped arrow.
Now instead of straight arrows, I want to join points by curve arrows. The class matplotlib.patches.FancyArrowPatch does it, however, the arrow shape is always full. Is there any way to get 'left' or 'right' curved-arrows in matplotlib?
The arrows should look like this, however I want them to be curved instead of straight.

A: Maybe you need:
set_connectionstyle("arc,angleA=0,armA=30,rad=10")

together with
set_arrowstyle("Fancy,head_length=0.2")

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Could You Get Everyone In Union Square To Shut Up For Free U.S. Open Tickets?
New York City isn't a place known for its tranquility. People yell here. So much so that's it's a quotable cliche. So how hard would it be to get everyone in Union Square, one of the city's busiest gathering places, to be quiet?
That's what Heineken and agency Wieden + Kennedy New York are looking to find out with this U.S. Open-themed challenge. The beer brand brought a tennis umpire's chair to the square and asked passersby if they might be able to bring the silence like it was Arthur Ashe Stadium, for two free Open tickets.
Your first instinct may be to use the microphone as a tool of aggression, but the winner here proves that it takes intrigue and a bit of a story to get people to just shut the sweet hell up for a minute.


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CARICOM Chairman Speaks On Mission To Guyana
by bgis | Mar 12, 2020 | Top Stories
Press Statement by CARICOM Chairman, Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados, following a two-day visit to Guyana by five Prime Ministers – Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St, Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago. (CARICOM)
Ladies and gentlemen of the media. Caribbean people. As you can see five Prime Ministers of the Community visited Guyana yesterday and we had a series of meetings with different parties.
We met with the President and we met with the executive of APNU/AFC. We met with the leader of the opposition Bharrat Jagdeo as well as the Presidential candidate Irfan Ali and other members of the executive of PPP. We also met with the representatives of the small parties.
We met with the election observers, and then again we met with the president and Mr. Jagdeo very late last night, early into the morning, together, in order to be able to chart a process forward.
We, the leaders of the Caribbean Community, are committed to working with the people of Guyana for a free and fair process and transparent process. And we made it clear, because there is simply too much at stake for the people of Guyana.
Georgetown is the home, the seat of the Caribbean Community. Guyana is a founding member of the Caribbean community and against that background, we are clear that as a community of sovereign nations we cannot get involved in the internal processes, but we are family, and family does not stand by and watch others in the family suffer without making themselves available to be able to aid the process.
We have tried to do that. But we are also conscious that we will be as successful as the parties themselves want to be successful and that while we can create the space for them to speak they have to have the will for this to work.
There is no doubt in our minds that there is at stake far more than who will be the President of Guyana. What is at stake is also the lives and the stability of the people of Guyana. We find ourselves today, as we speak, in a world that is exceedingly uncertain that is being challenged in a way that we never contemplated that the third decade of the 21st Century would be challenged in this way.
It is therefore even more important for us within the Caribbean Community to ensure that there is stability from the north in the Bahamas, to the south in Guyana and Suriname, from the west in Belize, to the east in Barbados. And it is against that background that we have appealed to both sides.
Both sides committed to the fact that they want to be able to abide by the laws of Guyana and the Constitution of Guyana. They have also committed that they believe that there ought to be a free and fair transparent process.
Pursuant to that, they met with the representatives of their own Commissioners with GECOM and we can only hope that both sides, therefore, will be able to put in place a mechanism that will allow for a fair and transparent process because as I said last Saturday every vote must be counted.
The Chief Justice of Guyana ruled yesterday, and her ruling was absolutely clear. That she expects the returning officer to either start anew or complete the process with respect to the SOPs. And we hope and pray that there will be an adherence to, not just the law of the judgment, but to the spirit of the judgment, because she was very clear in the last few paragraphs of her judgment as to what she expected in terms of the spirit and the principal position and the transparent process that is critical if this country is to go forward.
We hope therefore that good sense would prevail on all sides. We have asked both sides to be able to speak to their supporters.
Part of the difficulty in a complex situation like this is that everyone, if they feel that they are a victim then the opportunities for disappointment regrettably are very much there.
Against this background, this morning we have also said clearly that any attempt to be able to stall the process or any attempt to be able to obfuscate the process is one that runs against the spirit of the Chief Justice's judgment.
And it is against this background that we pray that even though a statute puts power in the hands of a Returning Officer that that Returning Officer will understand that he holds in his hands the future and stability of Guyana as we go forward, because every vote must be made to count.
We can't say it any clearer. And also it must appear to be so in the presence not just of the observers but more importantly of all of the parties who contested the election because everyone has a right to be able to determine whether the process is fair to them. And also whether they have the right to ask for a recount.
I'm satisfied that the President and the Leader of the Opposition are aware of our position. I'm satisfied that they too have agreed to act in the best interests of this country. But they must now ensure that all under them too will act in that way. Failing that, we believe that we will have to continue to keep engaged. This is not a single event. This is a process, and we are cognizant that this process didn't get here overnight and it is not necessarily going to be miraculously achieved and changed overnight.
But at this point, the most important thing, even as we fight this COVID-19, is for the people of Guyana to remain calm, to remain patient, and to allow us to help both sides and their supporters understand that it is only through a transparent and open process that we can go forward.
I want to say this finally. This country is on the cusp of turning the corner economically, but it must also be on the cusp of making every Guyanese a winner and not a loser. Our fear is that if the process is not transparent that we put at risk too much, and I, therefore, hope that the people of Guyana will work together to ensure that there is calm; there is peace. One life lost, as I said last week is one life too many. Let us not have any other person's affected at this point.
Barbados' Prime Minister & CARICOM Chair, Mia Amor Mottley
Tags: CARICOM, Election, Guyana, Mia Mottley, Prime Minister


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Photography: Oded Antman
Conductor Extraordinaire: Zubin Mehta
This conversation was initially published in our July/August 2010 issue and is a part of our extensive archive.
With an international career that has spanned more than five decades - India-born Zubin Mehta is one of today's most celebrated and respected conductors. Born to Mehli Mehta, founder of the Bombay Symphony Orchestra and in a family where he doesn't remember what he did first, speak or sing. 'Music was in my house because of my father. My father played music from morning till night he practiced, he taught, he rehearsed so | had it around me whether | wanted it or not. | don't know if music was my first language or Gujrati.' After studying pre-medicine in Bombay for a short period of time, Zubin made his way to Vienna where he enrolled in the Academy of Music. His world finally changed — his profound artistry was discovered and the boy from Bombay who as a five-year-old stood on vegetable crates staging a make believe orchestra and who as a teenager wore two unmatched black shoes (as the complimentary pairs' had holes on them) went on to become the gifted maestro we know today.
An exuberant, extroverted performer and person, Zubin Mehta's genuine star quality and talent has not only created a body of work with the world's greatest orchestras, including the Vienna, Berlin, Los Angeles, New York and Israel Philharmonic Orchestras but he has also been awarded the Nikisch-Ring bequeathed to him by Karl Bohm, the Padma Vibhushan and The United Nations Lifetime Achievement Peace & Tolerance Award along with many other prestigious honours. Hs passion for music goes way beyond sound, tune and orchestra; he uses the power of his music to unite and move people and politics and to nurture talent and create great musicians for tomorrow.
He lives and travels all over the world, with homes in multiple countries, but he continues to hold on to his Indian passport. For Zubin home is 'the minute I step into Bombay. But my principal home is in Los Angeles and my spiritual homes are Tel Aviv, Vienna and Florence. | feel very comfortable in all these places because | make music there with musicians that | have grown up with now.' Just before his scheduled rehearsal | managed to catch the great master in Valencia, Spain where he is the President of the annual Festival del Mediterrani. Twenty minutes later with a different tempo of humour, seriousness and a strong underlying tone of passion | understood that Zubin Mehta was more than just a conductor. 'We are interpreting works of such incredible classic masters. The works of Mozart and Beethoven — they will exist till the end of time and we are the caretakers of this incredible museum that is literally at our disposal and after us the next generation will take it forward.'
Your father's influence over your music and you is overwhelming in every interview, documentary and biography about you. What do you think or know was his take on Zubin Mehta the conductor we know today?
He was the primary influence on me until | left for Venna when | was 18. So my first 18 years were spent really with my father, with his music, prodding and coaching, he was also a very hard disciplinarian. When | went to Vienna it changed, but of course | kept in touch with him! And thank god he lived in LA because during his last years | made music with the Los Angeles Philharmonic so he used to be there at every concert. He was veryhonest and he helped me a lot in my professional years. There was always a mixture of praise and criticism though he was not my biggest critic; | think the newspapers have always been my biggest critics!
Your career began as you say 'substituting for every ailing conductor'. What was the young Zubin's goal and ambition like then when it came to music?
In those days, | was back in Vienna with my little family of two young children. | didn't have too much to do and when people around the world got to know about me they would ask for me when there were cancellations. In the first years | was available for these cancellations and that's how | made my initial career. However, it was not only important to be asked to conduct once for an ailing conductor, the second time you have to be asked back because the orchestra liked you or the public appreciated you. So it was very important to be invited the second time, which in my case happened most of the time and that's how my journey started.
Your repertoire goes across 300 to 400 years of music and as you had earlier pointed out every 50 years the styles change. In your own run as a conductor, how would you understand your style and your re-interpretation and curation of the 400 years of music?
Well | come from a Viennese school of music. | was trained there and lived there for seven years. My repertoire is basically the School of Vienna that began in the middle of the 1700s and goes on till day-before-yesterday. That is the basis of my repertoire. Then, of course, | do a lot of French, Russian and modern contemporary music composed in America, Italy, Israel etc. But the core of my repertoire remains Vienna.
In one of your interviews you said that your biography is about 'my thoughts on music and generally how music has run my life.' Comment.
Music is my primary language. It's the language with which | communicate with the world. it begins with communicating with my orchestra itself and then through their brilliant playing to the people sitting behind me. Music brings people together. We musicians are not astute politicians and might not be able to change history but we can bring people together. And, that's what | do in the Middle East. We can get Arabs and Jews to sit together and smile at each other during a concert. But we don't do enough, we have to do a lot more to bring youth into concert halls because they are the future. In Europe we have no problem our houses are always full with young people. But in America there is a real crisis and | hope they are doing something to change that.
On one hand you have played for audiences packed with both Arabs and Jews and on the other you performed Wagner In Israel once, and then decided it was still too traumatic for the Israeli audience. Music binds, transports, reminds, and creates a range of emotions that is often unexplainable in language. After all these years how do you understand the power of music and what would you ideally want to use it for?
People don't understand quite how powerful music can be. Especially in today's time where there are so many places in the world where people don't like to live together. Middle East is a prime example. The power to bring together, for example, Jews and Arabs is fabulous but we need to do more. But in order to do more we need more money. To support a cause and do free concerts is wonderful but an orchestra needs funds and the funds are missing sometimes, so we have to come together and put up a concert. We should do much more though. | don't know what is being done in a place like Kashmir to bring Hindus and Muslims together but | am telling you music will do it. Political rallies are not the answer. For instance, |am going to do a concert on the 5" of July on the border of Gaza with the Israel Philharmonic for this soldier that the Hamas has imprisoned for four years now. There is no law anywhere in the world where the Red Cross cannot visit prisoners but this boy who has been a prisoner of Hamas has been denied this visitation. Now my concert is not going to let him out but we are doing the concert to tell them to please object to the fact that even the Red Cross is not allowed to visit him. That's what we are doing and we are doing it on the Gaza border. So, hopefully they will hear about it and hopefully they will sympathize with the boy.
What according to you comprises the future of Western classical music and where do you see it headed?
Western classical has its home in Europe basically, central Europe to be particular. Here, where | am right now,in Spain, as well, we are doing wonderful work. There are great audiences, and concert halls and opera houses are being built everywhere. We are already going to open a new Opera house in Japan in 204 and are planning on taking Wagner's Ring Cycle to Osaka in 2014. That's how far in advance we plan, so, | don't thinkthere is any problem for Western Classical music to progress in the future.
What about Western Classical music in India?
We have a foundation in Mumbai in my father's name, where we are educating young children in Western music and we have a waiting list of 200 to 300 children. So the interest is huge and along with that there is talent as well. | do hope we can really nurture this talent in India. The Japanese, Koreans, Chinese and other Oriental countries are hell bent on cultivating their children in Western music. India has such a lot of music of its own and as much talent, we should definitely nurture it. | am all for the fact that if an Indian child learns Indian music and has an interest he should also learn Western music at the same time — if it's possible.
According to you what makes a piece of music great?
It's durability of course. Starting from the middle ages composers like Monteverdi that kind of invented opera in Florence and his operas are performed till date. Handel's operas that he wrote first in Germany and then England are still performed everywhere as well. We have composers like Bach and Beethoven; every single piece they have written will last till the end of time and it is geniuses like them that have given us this legacy. That is what makes it classical and this durability is what makes a piece of music great.
After more than forty years of conducting, are there still some pieces that you would like to do which you've never gotten the opportunity to do?
Yes, Wagner' Parsifal, but | have already planned it and | will be performing it in 2014.
Text Shruti Kapur Malhotra
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As King fans know, Castle Rock is a fictional Maine town that crops up in many of King's works, short and long, including The Dead Zone (1979), Revival (2014) and many, many in between.
Yesterday, Abrams' Bad Robot Productions released the tease video below. There is no word yet on when the series can be expected or who will star.


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NNPC, China sign $50bn MoU on oil and gas devt.
June 30, 2016 Admin Business 0
Abuja – The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) worth 50 billion dollars with some Chinese companies for infrastructure development in oil and gas sector.
The information is contained in a statement issued by the Corporation on Wednesday in Abuja.
It stated that "NNPC wishes to announce the recent landmark strides the Corporation has achieved in its bid to bridge the infrastructure funding gaps in the Nigerian oil and gas sector.
"This comes in the form of a first of its kind road show in China, where MoU worth more than 50 billion dollars will be spent on investments in oil and gas infrastructure, pipelines, refineries, power, facility refurbishments and upstream sector."
The Corporation named the companies involved to include NORINCO, CINDA, CNOOC, SINOPEC/ADDAX, ICC -NDRC, among others.
It added that ICC-NDRC would develop an overarching master plan for the Nigerian oil and gas sector.
This, it stated, would include detailed feasibility study of current status of existing infrastructure in the industry.
"ICC-NDRC will also develop bankable projects that will attract Chinese investors on this Government-to-Government platform. This initiative will move us to a much more profitable and efficient state.
"The master plan will form the basis of massive inflow of further investment from Chinese companies into the sector."
Commenting on the show, the Corporation stated that it featured over 300 Chinese and Nigerian businessmen to attract investors from China and the Asian sub-region to invest in the country's oil and gas sector.
It noted that the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe kachikwu, went with a team of top management of the Corporation and some stakeholders in the sector.
The roadshow was a follow-up to the earlier working visit of President Muhammadu Buhari to China in April, it
stated.
It commended the support of the companies and assured them of Federal Government's transparency in ensuring growth in the sector. (NAN)
Tags: Muhammadu, Nigerian newspapers, transparency
Muhammadu
Nigerian newspapers
Giggs 'set to leave' Manchester United
Kenya's Cheruiyot books Rio berth, Kipyego falters


©2016 HID Global Corp./ASSA ABLOY AB. Once only a futuristic concept, mobile IDs have arrived and will fundamentally change the way governments and citizens interact.
A mobile ID is a government-issued identification credential that is securely provisioned on to a citizen's smartphone (i.e., a mobile phone can be used in lieu of or as a complement to a printed driver's licenses or government identification card). These mobile IDs are able to be verified, by authorized parties, using a variety of devices, including phones and tablets.
This technology is an absolute game-changer in the field the government identification for many reasons. However, for the purposes of this paper, we will focus on the top ten ways in which this breakthrough has the potential to affect the relationship between Government and its citizens in the paragraphs below.
According to a 2015 Pew Research study, an overwhelming majority of people in almost every nation surveyed* report owning some form of mobile device. By 2017, over a third of the world's population is projected to own a smartphone, an estimated total of 2.6 billion smartphone users, according to Statista. And according to Ericsson, this number is estimated to rise to 6.1B by 2020, indicating that citizens will be relying on their smart devices to carry out an increasing number of transactions.
Citizens today expect easier, more convenient and more accessible services from governments and businesses, alike. Smartphone capabilities are increasing all the time, improving citizens' experiences — and heightening expectations — in all areas of their lives. It is a natural next step that a citizen will expect to be able to carry their identity documents on a mobile phone.
Mobile IDs make it possible for governments to have a closer relationship with citizens. Rather than limiting interaction to law enforcement, motor vehicle agencies, or border patrol officials, the mobile ID opens up a whole new array of personal interaction between citizens and government through remote services, communications and information.
For citizens, a mobile smartphone containing their identification credentials can add additional layers of security to their identity document (e.g. PIN protection, password protection, biometrics or additional secure tokens). For law enforcement, the challenge of identifying identity documents from multiple jurisdictions can be reduced by the improved functionality afforded by secure devices.
With mobile IDs on a smartphone, citizens can control when and how much information is shared in a given situation, allowing them to better protect their privacy. For example, when a citizen is purchasing age-restricted goods like tobacco or alcohol, they only need to provide their photo and age — none of the other personal information usually loaded and freely readable on a physical driver's license needs to be shared.
In the case of law enforcement, the relationship between police and citizens often begins by answering the question: "Who is this citizen whom I am approaching?" Mobile IDs provide secure retrieval of real-time accident, crime or insurance information, through a transaction can be initiated from a safe distance. This may spell the future of improved police-citizen interactions, with officers potentially having greater ability to assess a situation before approaching the individual.
For government agencies, mobile IDs will allow them to do their jobs better and easier. This technology allows citizens to update their information remotely without coming into the central office and combating long lines. At the same time, governments can issue, revoke or change citizen IDs more efficiently, securely and quickly.
Mobile IDs open the door for Governments to offer new services and functions to their citizen. This not only has the advantage of increasing citizen demand for the mobile ID, but potentially derives new revenue streams for the authorities for premium-level service options. Businesses too will potentially pay for increased efficiencies such as the ability to authenticate and read mobile driver's licenses over the phone.
Mobile IDs allow citizens to identify themselves securely on third party websites and applications directly from their smartphone (e.g. a person might want to prove who they are to a seller on an auction website or confirm their identity to a potential buyer for their car). The will now be able to easily and securely verify their identity both online and offline.
When asked what item you would return home to collect if forgotten, most people would answer their smartphone. (Far fewer would say the wallet or purse.) With their mobile identity securely stored on a smartphone, this information is more likely to be readily available for verification with authorities. When you also add that mobile ID's enable the citizen to carry multiple ID's in one place, you can anticipate that identities will be ready and available for use with much greater regularity.
* 40 countries total were included in the Pew Research survey.
If you'd like to learn more about our Government-to-citizen mobile solution, HID goID™,visit our website (https://www.hidglobal.com/solutions/government-mobile-id). The most advanced solution of its kind, find out to HID goID™can help protect a citizen's identity without compromising their privacy– even off-line.


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Abernathy MacGregor
James Lucas Senior Counselor
Los Angeles T: 213.630.6550 E: jbl@abmac.com
Download VCard LinkedIn Profile
James Lucas joined the firm in 2000 and served as a managing director until 2016, helping lead multiple engagements on behalf of clients such as AECOM, Adobe, Baker Hughes, City National Bank, McAfee, Safeway, Schnitzer Steel, Verisign and Websense.
He advises on corporate PR and investor relations, and has deep experience with corporate transformations including mergers and acquisitions, restructurings and securities offerings, as well as corporate crises, proxy contests and responses to activist investors.
Mr. Lucas' clients include technology, energy and financial-services companies.
Before joining Abernathy MacGregor, he operated his own IR agency and led communications functions at major HMO companies. He began his career as a daily newspaper reporter.
Duke University, M.A. History
Kenyon College, B.A. Political Science
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© Abernathy MacGregor | PRIVACY POLICY | TERMS OF USE | MEMBER OF AMO
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Metabolic Advantage thyroid formula provides essential ingredients for healthy thyroid function.* Since the thyroid gland regulates your metabolic rate, or how fast the body burns calories, it is important to consider your thyroid health when beginning any weight-loss regimen.
Contains no sugar, yeast, wheat, gluten, corn, soy, dairy products, artificial flavoring, or preservatives. All colors used are from natural sources.
Not as good as Research Verified Thyroid Aid and missing a lot of ingredients known to be helpful while have a lot of useless or dangerous ingredients that could cause problems or interact negatively if not careful.My rating is ZERO! Although I HAD to pick a star just to post my review.
You get what you pay for. Did not live up to other reviews. I understand that each person is different so this will have different outcomes for each individual. In two weeks time I had gained 9 pounds, became very tired no energy and in general felt worse after taking this than I did before. At first I did not have any appetite but the longer I was on it, it seemed like it accelerated my appetite. I could not understand the weight gain as before I started this I was maintaining my weight. I eat very healthy foods, no processed foods and use portion control so do not know what went wrong.
This product helped me lose my extra weight. Your metabolism slows down soon as you hit 30. But I'm getting back to the weight I was in my 20s.
I just wanted to share my experience with everyone. I began taking these 2 months ago, however I only take it once a day. I also stopped midnight snacking. 2 months later I've lost 23 pounds and STILL GOING. I am on medications that cause you to gain weight, and most medications cause you to gain weight by slowing down your metabolism. I was 187 and I'm now 162. Truly amazing. However the one thing I didn't take into consideration was, " loose skin " . I wish I knew that would have been a factor. Any How, this product really worked for my personal experience. I don't really review many products but I want to share my good news with you.
Impressed with the claims & very easy to swallow!
I have more energy & I do not snack all day like I used to.
will this help i had thyroid removed and now hypoactive thyroid, so i am wondering if it will help or not?


Clemson snaps two-game skid by posting 51-point first half in victory against Pitt.
CLEMSON – When Clemson's Marcquise Reed returned to campus following Saturday's gut-wrenching loss at N.C. State, he immediately strolled to Littlejohn Coliseum and began shooting free throws.
This from a guy who ranks first in school history in free throw accuracy.
Missing four free throws in the final seconds of a loss at the buzzer will do that to a guy, even if it is a guy who has made 85.5 percent of his free throws as a Tiger.
Reed found the range Tuesday night – both from 3-point range and the free throw line – as Clemson cruised past Pitt 82-69 at Littlejohn Coliseum.
Reed scored 26 points, his ninth 20-point game of the season, making 8-of-13 shots from the floor, including 4-of-7 from 3-point range, and all six of his free throws.
Fellow guards Shelton Mitchell and Clyde Trapp also got in on the fun, each contributing four 3-pointers apiece as the Tigers made a season-high 14 shots from long range.
The effort from Mitchell was particularly noticeable as he'd only made 2 of his 19 3-point attempts in Atlantic Coast Conference play this season. Mitchell was 4-of-4 from beyond the arc, matching a career high.
Trapp also set career highs in both points (16) and 3-pointers (four).
Just about everyone wearing a Clemson uniform scored in the first half as the Tigers bolted to a 51-23 lead.
"It was an outstanding first half by our team," Brownell said.
No kidding. Clemson made 67.7 percent of its shots in the first half, which is the highest first-half percentage in nine seasons under Brownell. The Tigers' 51 points in the first half also matched the most first-half points scored in the Brownell era.
"They got off to a great start and we gave them no resistance," first-year Pitt coach Jeff Capel said.
The victory kept alive the Tigers' hopes for a mid-season turnaround after a 1-5 start in league play. Clemson will take a 12-8 overall record and 2-5 league record into Sunday's home game against Wake Forest.
Pitt, meanwhile, dropped its 19th consecutive road game, including 16 in a row in ACC play. Freshman guard Xavier Johnson paced the Panthers with a career-high 30 points, but the team's second-leading scorer – former Wren High standout Trey McGowens – had an off night, scoring five points and making 2-of-9 shots from the floor.


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Saigon Talks Jay-Z Jacking His Beats
December 15, 2010 | 10:42 PM
by sryon
In a recent interview with The Urban Daily, Saigon talked about working with Jay-Z while he was still signed to Atlantic Records. According to the Brooklyn rhymer – who is currently gearing up to release his long-awaited debut album The Greatest Story Never Told this February 22 via Fort Knocks Entertainment/Suburban Noize Records – Jay-Z relieved him of a number of beats, including the Just Blaze-produced track that later became 2006's "Kingdom Come."
"Jay-Z was jacking for beats baby," Saigon said. "We were working at Baseline [Studios] and we're like a close family. Jay would come around, pop up every now and again and me and Just [Blaze] were in there working hard. Just would give me a gang of beats at a time and every now and again one would come up missing. One I'd write to or really loved then the next thing you know, there'd be a big meeting and they'd say, 'Sai, we need to talk to you. You know that beat we had? The one you were loving? Yeah, big homie's got that now.' And you know big homie's Jay-Z. He did that to me about three or four times. 'Kingdom Come' was mine."
Although Hov may have taken "Kingdom Come" from the Yardfather, he returned the favor by lacing him with his verse the "Come On Baby" remix free of charge. Saigon explains that Jay had initially taken that beat from him as well, but ultimately gave it back with his already recorded verse left in tact.
"'Come On Baby' was mine, he took it, did his thing to it and then gave it back because he didn't want to use it," he explained. "He gave it back to me but was like, 'You can keep the verse I left on there.' So I was like cool, you know what I mean? That was a big homie move because you can't buy a Jay-Z verse. You can't go to Jay-Z and say, 'Hey, we got a hundred thousand for you to get on the record.' He'd wipe his ass with a hundred thousand dollars. That's why he said that line, 'You wanna be in the public, send your budget,' that means your whole recording budget. That means if you get him, there's no money for producers, studio time, nothing. Send your budget."
The full interview can be seen below.


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Home Science Watch how thousands of fire ants survive as "conveyor belts" escape the flood (video)
Watch how thousands of fire ants survive as "conveyor belts" escape the flood (video)
Cary Douglas Jul 01, 2021 0 Comments
It takes a lot of teamwork to escape the flood and thousands of firefighters have to work together to build boats until the water recedes. The timeless video now shows how this brilliant insect on these rafts makes direct conveyor belts to help riders reach dry land.
These scenes show how Ant Raft with a small area changed its shape Ants The ant moves like a boat for a few hours from the main part of the tent. These bridges are formed from the combined action of two groups of ants: so-called structural ants – an insect that floats the colony – rotating from the bottom to the top of the pile, and the surface ants move freely upwards. Then they moved on. To support positions under their friends and relatives.
Related: Image Gallery: Ants of the World
There are more than 20 ants worldwide, but especially in one species, the red imported ant (Solenopsis invicta), Which has large colonies of more than 300,000 workers, According to North Carolina State University.
When their underground tunnels are submerged in fire, fire ants form floating rafts together, which, if necessary, can move the colony together until the water recedes. The outer skeleton of a fire ant naturally chases away water and its hard structure traps air bubbles. Thus, the tightly bound bodies of ants can create a vibrant, waterproof base for the floating boat, The science of living Previously announced.
As a result of the record in 2017, there were plenty of areas for ants in South Texas Hurricane Harvey. Those who escaped the storm's floodwaters were advised to stay away from the boat as the ants' venomous bite was so painful. Live Science said that year.
See also A bold theory that solves the mystery of Venus: in its atmosphere, creatures we have never seen can live!
Although previous research showed that the ant boat had a fixed structure, its shape was constantly changing and the tents were looking in different directions – but scientists did not know exactly how it happened.
"As far as we know, these protrusions are not documented or explained in the existing literature," the researchers wrote in a new study published on June 30. Journal of the Royal Society Interface.
Free-moving ants climb on fixed ants, which anchor each other and form fire boats. (Image credit: Robert Wagner / University of Colorado Boulder)
They collected about 3,000 to 10,000 ants at a time and placed the insects in a container in the middle of the water with a stick, around which the ants collected and produced rafts. Scientists then photographed the ants, which captured images of timelessness and real-time images of the boat's formation and transformation. Image tracking and computer modeling data revealed which parts of the ant were fixed, which parts were moving – and where all the ants in the various layers of the boat were going.
The authors of the study found that the boat's study tents were formed by the movement of ants, which the authors of this study called "treadmilling". When the structural ants hit the surface of the boat, the free-moving ants were buried at lower structural levels. Together, this circle moved and widened, creating narrow bridges of ants on the outside where the colony could spread safely.
Other factors, such as weather, daylight hours, and colony habitat, may influence the behavior of ants and may also play a role in the aerodynamics of ants' fences. The researchers concluded that these variables were not found in experiments, but could be explored in future studies.
See also Researchers have suggested that other planets may be made of diamonds
First published on the LiveScience website.


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S O U U N
Kanji Artist
A B O U T S O U U N
Souun is one of the most famous calligraphers (Kanji artist) in Japan. His artwork is highly praised for its innovative, yet traditional way of expressing the beauty of the Japanese language and spirit.
Born in 1975 in Kumamoto, Souun Takeda was first exposed to calligraphy at the age of three by his mother Souyou Takeda, a professional calligrapher in her own right.
After graduating from Science and Research University, Takeda Souun chose to work for Japan's largest telecom company, NTT. However, after three years, he realized that there was a better path and a better life waiting for him, and he determined to become a professional calligrapher.
Soon after, he left NTT to pursue calligraphy full-time and immediately opened his own studio in order to teach calligraphy to students of all ages and levels. He also started an online business, designing nameplates, calling cards and Japanese fans. He also began his calligraphy career, working as a street artist creating calligraphy for passersby, in much the same way musicians perform on the streets and in the subway stations of New York and London.
The quality of Souun's work and its power to move people has made him one of the most respected and sought after calligraphers in the world. He has been invited to participate in a variety of projects and engage in a wide range of activities; calligraphy workshops and calligraphy live performances at Fuji Rock Festival, Russia, Switzerland, and Belgium, as well as a two month excursion to Vietnam and Indonesia as a cultural ambassador appointed by the Japanese government.
His unique perspective on calligraphy and the world around him can be seen clearly in the solo exhibitions he holds around the world. His latest solo exhibition took place in California, U.S.A. in August, 2015. He is the author of over 40 books. Currently there are 300 people in his calligraphy school. Below is a list of just some of the things Takeda Souun has been a part of in recent years.
Example of his selected representative projects For full CV please download the PDF.
-VOGUE JAPAN FASHION NIGHT OUT Event Logo
-YAMAHA VOCALOID 3 Library ZOLA PROJECT
-Ray Ban sunglass
-Coca-Cola campaign logo
-NISSAN campaign logo
-Kleenex logo "SHIKOU"
-The World Cultural Heritage site, Hiraizumi, Logo
-World's fastest computer, The K computer Logo Design
-Japanese language text book for Junior High School
-Designed CITIZEN watch limited edition model
-Created calligraphy artwork for Expo 2005 Aichi Japan at each main pavilion
-Sony Ericsson. Samantha Thavasa and Takeda Souun's original Cellphone cover "成王" Logo Design
-Buddhist sutra for Buddhist magazine "Waraku"
-MSN environmental program "WA cology" Title Logo
-Japanese Drum Group "Tao" Title Logo
-Movie "Yamamoto Isoroku"
-"Tenchijiin"Titile Logo Design, NHK's period drama for 2009
Selected Performances /
Live Art Events
-TOYOTA commendation ceremony
-YAMAHA music festival, Japan
-World Cultural Heritage site,Hiraizumi
-Madonna, American entertainer
-11th IAAF World Championships in Athletics ceremony
-Art work displayed in NAMM Show, Anaheim, California, U.S.A
-10th anniversary of Kingdom of Belgium accession to the throne
-Live Performance as a Port opening event at the Yokohama Port Festival, Yokohama, Japan
-Exhibition, Live performance collaborated with Cole Hann Japan at Mutukoshi department, Japan
-Dedicated his artwork to the god of the Ise Grand Shrine
-Live Performance in collaboration with the musicians at Fuji Rock Festival,Japan
-TV show "Special Takeshi Kitano's Japan Education White Book"
Selected TV/ Radio/
Website Appearance
-Discovery Channel TV commercial
-Documentary features on Takeda Souun by BBC
-Promotional video of NPB, Professional baseball in Japan
-TV Talk show (Host Takeda Souun ) "Oishii Shun Banashi" by BS Fuji Television Network
-Yahoo special Coverage page
Selected Awards and Honors
-Longhuacui Art Award from Shanghai Art Museum, China
-The Constanza Medici Award in Firenze, Italy
-Become tourism ambassadors to World Cultural Heritage site,Hiraizumi
-Dedicated an artwork to the god of the Ise Grand Shrine.(November 20th)
-Design the Logo "魂(Soul)" for Short Short film festival of an Asian division, also he set on jury
-Become cultural ambassador of Kingdom of Belgium
-"Life" in Narita Airport Art Gallery, Narita, Japan
-The anniversary of the opening of the Shinkansen, Bullet Train, to Hakata Terminal at Hankyu Department, Japan
-"My past and my future" at Hyakudan Kaidan, Meguro Gajoen, Tokyo, Japan
-Takashimaya Shinjuku department store, Tokyo, Japan
-"Tanoshika (What Fun!)" at Hotel Okura, Tokyo, Japan, attracted more than 9.000 people in five days
-"BAKANCE" in Ojai, California, U.S.A.
-Created public art "HOPE" for Meiji-Jingūmae Station
He has pablished over 40 books in 8 years.
-Kizuna "Bonds" (Art work and massage book) comes with English translations
「絆」(ダイヤモンド社)
-Ikiru noga rakuninaru Zengo50 (50 Zen words make life easier)
「生きるのが楽になる 禅語50」(三笠書房)
-Kanji Power (The magical "power" of Kanji) comes with English translations
「漢字パワー」(BNN新社)
-Message Book Tanoshika (What fun!) comes with English translations
「たのしか」(ダイヤモンド社)
Go to the books
Selected Lectures
-YAHOO Live talk with Sudo Genki on November 22nd
-World Cultural Heritage site,Hiraizumi as a tourism ambassador, Hiraizumi, Japan
-The K computer Event, Japan
-MARIST JUNIOR&SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL, Kumamoto, Japan
-Japanese Association of Medical Technologists Conference in Kyushu, Japan
-Keio university Marunouchi City Campus, Tokyo, Japan
-Throw out the ceremonial first pitch at Kleenex Stadium Miyagi, Japan
-Nogi Shrine, Japan
Takeda Souun has a lifelong goal,
"To sow seeds of joyful living and to create thankful cycle for whole human family."
He always tries to create artwork, which inspires people to enjoy active lives and fills people with appreciation and happiness. He believes that if a person is filled with a sense of well-being and gratitude, she/he can return these feeling for others. The wave of well-being and gratitude will spread exponentially through society, and eventually build a peaceful and better world.
He creates his works and always seeks the best way to achieve this goal. While he respects traditional calligraphic ways, he does not hesitate to take new approaches creating calligraphic work.
Souun's attitude towards Calligraphy
Takeda Souun believes that calligraphy is one of the powerful, spiritual art form and is a combination of skill and creator's energy and spirits and is also defined one of the simplest art form.Calligrapher attempt to bring words to life and she/he work reflects her/his vision, mind, thoughts, energy and spirits. That is one of the reasons why he begins from meditation in the creative process to purify the mind and soul so that he can endure word's power with character. He educes the words' original power and freeze people's thoughts, mind, image, and spirits into a black and white simple art form. He also transmits a glimpse of the universe in his heart, his energy through his brush and breathes new life into every single work. This is why people say his calligraphy art work has affirmative power, positive energy, and awareness within. The work talks to your heart and can enhance your emotional and spiritual health.
See Full CV
書道家 武田双雲 へのお問い合わせは、info@souun.netまで。
© 2013 by Souun Office


crossroads is an online market place and SaaS software company transforming the experience for all automobile assistance and repairs. Wide range of dependable and quality services for emergency road side assistance, flat beds, tow trucks and garage repairs. We had changed the way automobile care businesses acquire and service customers. We bring transparency to the whole process.
The genesis of our market place model comes from our expertise in handling the road side assistance for over a million clients across our B2B and B2C portfolios.
It was difficult to find trust worthy qualified local mechanics who could provide quality service at fair price. crossroads however now offers a market place that allows customers to auction their repair jobs, compare quotes from nearby garages, read customer reviews and book service with repair shops that provide high quality service in neighborhood.
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Single platform for all car needs, RSA, Service , Garage network, Insurance, auto service deals n offers, Service Auction, garage locator.
Developed the Back-end ERP system connecting & integrating all the garage network onto a single platform enabling more monetization avenues and to get real time updates, convenience for the clients to locate garage bear them, check deals n offers across garages, auction their car service to get best offer.


A striking range of buildings - once the offices and public house of Mauldons White Horse brewery. The oriel windows with small upper panes are characteristic of the Edwardian era, reflecting major rebuilding work after a fire in 1908. An important element in the local townscape and of local historical importance.


My last Ava is probably one of my most worn Me-Mades despite it's issues because it's looser fit makes it so comfy and it also seems less dressy than my various Simplicity 2444s. So I thought it was about time I took a break from S2444 and re-tried Ava. This is some cheapo (£2.18/m) floral polycotton and contrast navy polycotton (£3.06/m) from Trago Mills (just for a change!). I still have over 1/2 a metre (of 2m purchased) of the floral and 1/2 of the 0.5m of the navy left, so the dress was £4.83, plus a £0.04 Malaysian zipper from my stash.
However when I measured the pattern pieces and minused the seam allowances (5/8″ or 1.6cm), the finished garment size for the size 12 was 113cm at the chest and 86cm at the waist. What?? So I decided to go down two sizes and make the 8 this time. I also redrew the seam line between the back upper and lower bodice to be a straight line as I think the original curved line kind of emphasises the curve in my spine. I also decided to try my hand at piping, but as it was all a bit of a whim I had to DIY some piping cord by twisting 4 strands of the yarn I'm using on my jumper (yes, it's still in progress, 1/2 an arm and the hood to go) then using my widest zig-zag stitch to bind them together. I haven't used piping before so I can't comment on how it is in comparison, or how it will wash (cheapo acrylic yarn that's meant to be machine washable at 40), but I like the effect. From a distance the piping matches up either side of the zipper, but up close the bottom line is out by a few mm's, but not enough that I could be bothered to redo it. I had to re-sew the centre of the 'v' between the two front bodice sections because I stupidly thought I could get away with not stay stitching and just pinning loads. It made a nasty, wonky 'v', but once I stay-stitched the 'v' on both pieces, they came together well are are pretty even. Instead of doubling over my bias binding the neck and arm holes, I used the bias binding as a sort of reverse facing. All the interior seams are serged because I was being too lazy to french them, and the hem is serged, double turned under and machine stitched. I made covers for the top and bottom of the zip to stop any scratching and look nicer! As you can see in the top zipper cover photo, I ended up having to increase the SA at the top of the bodice by 1.5cm, tapering into the original seam line about 5cm above the waist, as there was still a lot of gape especially if I raised my arms. And I couldn't be bothered to trim and re-serge the edges obviously.
Altogether, despite how grumpy I look in the photos, I'm pretty happy with this version; it is a better fit, but then I can't be fatty and eat too much, and I'm not 100% convinced about the fabric. I think something other than floral should be next…except I have one last piece of floral in my stash to use up.


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Mississippi Prisons: No One's Safe, Not Even the Guards
Too many prisoners, too few officers leads to violence.
Juan Bernabeu for The Marshall Project
By Alysia Santo and Joseph Neff
Graphics by Weihua Li
The attack on Jennifer White came as she started a morning shift at the most dangerous unit at the Mississippi State Penitentiary, the sprawling Delta prison farm here.
Just two officers had been guarding dorms housing more than 250 men. A prisoner charged them at shift's end, beating them badly. White arrived in time to blast him with pepper spray. He knocked her to the floor.
This investigation was published in partnership with the USA Today Network, the Jackson Clarion Ledger, Mississippi Today and the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting
White, now 50, says the next few seconds have replayed thousands of times in her mind: the man on top of her, smashing her in the jaw, his eyes full of rage. The popping feeling in her knee. It took nine long minutes for help to get there, according to an incident report.
After the 2016 attack, White left Parchman and holed up in her house, away from family, friends and church. Using a wheelchair while she recovered from her knee injury, she grew so haunted by suicidal and homicidal thoughts that she checked herself into a mental hospital.
"I don't trust anyone anymore," she says. "Everybody is a threat to me."
Jennifer White left her career as a correctional supervisor at Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman in 2016 after a serious attack by a prisoner.
Barbara Gauntt/Clarion Ledger
Violence against and among people incarcerated in Mississippi has become a national scandal. Since Christmas, at least 10 prisoners have been murdered or died by suicide, prompting the U.S. Department of Justice this month to say it will investigate conditions at four of the state's six large prisons.
But violence against guards is also a scourge of the Mississippi system, an investigation by The Marshall Project found. Our analysis of state records and hundreds of pages of court documents, along with interviews with more than 30 prison employees, revealed a profoundly dangerous environment for everyone behind bars.
Prisoners have attacked guards more than 340 times a year, on average, since 2016, according to our analysis; there were an average of 1,300 guards on the job each year. They were beaten, stabbed with makeshift knives, sexually assaulted and often "dashed"—prison slang for being doused with urine, feces or hot water—according to state records and interviews. The state acknowledged that about 115 of these assaults each year caused serious injuries.
Inmates, officers and experts agree about the principal cause of the violence: Mississippi prisons are so short staffed that nobody there is safe.
As more staff leave, the threat to the remaining officers grows, making it harder to hire and keep workers. Guards say many colleagues don't show up for work every day, so it's common for a single officer to try to control 200 people in cells or dorms.
Half of all correctional-officer jobs in Mississippi's state-run prisons are empty. A Marshall Project survey of state corrections systems nationwide found only Alabama had a higher vacancy rate, at 58 percent. At least 12 states reported vacancies over 20 percent.
Most Understaffed Prisons Are In the South and West
State prison systems across the country are understaffed. At least 12 have officer vacancy rates of 20 percent or more. Many experts believe the inability to hire and retain guards is one of the biggest problems facing prisons nationally.
Source: Data compiled by The Marshall Project from state prison systems and unions.
Violence has erupted in understaffed prisons in Alabama, Oklahoma, South Carolina and New Mexico in recent years. In North Carolina, five prison workers were killed in 2017; a federal report said understaffing—one in four positions were unfilled—opened the door to mayhem.
Corrections officials across the country agree that the lack of guards is one of their biggest problems. Yet lawmakers in many states have had little appetite for confining fewer people or raising officers' salaries—especially in Mississippi, where starting pay for guards is $25,650. Officers at privately run prisons in the state start at $23,400.
Other states, especially those with corrections-officer unions, pay more—as much as $58,680 in Massachusetts. Nationwide, prison guards and jailers made an average of $49,300 in 2018, according to federal data. In Mississippi, that number was far lower: $30,840.
"You have legislators down there acting like they're shocked that something happened at their prison," says Bryan Stirling, the corrections director in South Carolina who pushed through pay raises there. "They're just sticking their heads in the sand and hoping the problem goes away."
Mississippi corrections officials did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Corrections officers have the reputation, sometimes deserved, for excessive violence and indifference to the humanity of the people they watch. But many guards say they are trying to do their best in a low paying, low status job in a dangerous workplace. And they understand that sometimes people in prison attack them out of desperation.
Leslie Jones, a thick-set and blunt-spoken former corrections officer, says he fought with prisoners several times a week during his three years at the Wilkinson County Correctional Facility on the border with Louisiana. It's one of three Mississippi prisons operated by a private company, Management & Training Corporation.
Jones says he couldn't get angry with a man who knocked him out and busted his lips and eyebrows in 2017. Gangs had threatened the attacker, who, fearing for his life, wanted out of his unit.
"His life was in jeopardy," Jones says. "The quickest way to get off a zone is attacking an officer."
Leslie Jones was twice attacked by prisoners when he was an officer at Wilkinson County Correctional Facility in Woodville, Mississippi.
Sarah Warnock/Clarion Ledger
Jones saves his anger for MTC, which he says runs a prison that puts everyone in danger. He says that at its worst, Wilkinson had only seven guards when it should have had 28 on a shift. The physical conditions are terrible, Jones says, and inmates face few consequences for assaulting officers.
"Your life ain't worth two ramen noodle packs, and the thing is, MTC could stop it," Jones says. He left Wilkinson in 2018.
A spokesman for Utah-based MTC did not respond to Jones's allegations or to questions about attacks at the prison.
But in a statement, Issa Arnita says the company is working to improve safety at its facilities: "Our brave correctional professionals work in an environment that has inherent risk, and we do everything we can to minimize those risks."
Monthly reports to the state show guards at Wilkinson had the highest rate of assaults and injuries among the state's large prisons in the 36 months ending in mid-2019. A lawyer for the state described the reports as internal working documents that were not "verified and/or reconciled for accuracy."
Fewer Guards with More Prisoners in Mississippi
Between fiscal years 2016 and 2019, the largest state and private prisons in Mississippi lost more than one-third of their correctional officers. At the same time, the population in those prisons grew slightly.
Correctional officers
Average Daily Population
Source: Mississippi state legislature records
A functional prison needs guards to walk the floor, supervise people in the units, break up fights and help when a fellow officer is in danger. Without enough staff, incarcerated men and women can't take showers, visit with their families, get medical care or exercise, among other things. At Wilkinson, the men missed about 70 percent of scheduled medical visits in 2018, according to an internal audit. The audit also said video surveillance showed men locked in cells when staff reported them bathing or exercising.
Arnita says MTC has retrained staff and set new procedures to ensure inmates make their medical appointments.
In the vacuum left by staff shortages, gangs have taken control of several Mississippi prisons. Some officers work with gangs, providing contraband and preferential treatment, which contributes to the violence, according to staff interviews and court filings. A smuggled cell phone can bring in as much as a week's pay for a guard, according to many officers we interviewed.
Prisoners can't escape the violence, but corrections officers do—by leaving their jobs. Turnover is high, and the total number of guards at the state's six large prisons has fallen by a third since 2016, from 1,616 to 1,060 last year. The biggest losses occurred at publicly run prisons. As the staff shrank, the number of attacks also fell. Over the same period, the population in the large prisons grew by 4 percent to more than 13,000.
As officers quit, those remaining must guard more and more people on their own. The worst problem has been at Southern Mississippi Correctional Institution, in Leakesville near the Alabama border, the site of the first killing in the recent spate of violence. It had only one officer for every 20 prisoners in 2019, up from one for every 12 in 2016, state records show.
Mississippi Among the Worst in Guard Vacancies
While New York State prisons have no empty positions for correctional officers, half of those jobs in Mississippi state prisons are empty. Only one state—Alabama—has a higher rate of open officer jobs to fill.
When there isn't enough staff, prison managers often resort to "lockdowns," keeping people in cells or dorms almost 24 hours a day, sometimes for months at a time. The constant caging creates a pressure cooker that leads to violence.
Adding to the problem: the electronic door locking systems at Parchman and Wilkinson failed in the mid-2010s, several staffers say, allowing prisoners to open their cell doors and go on the attack.
That's what happened to Colton Smith. When he first started working at Wilkinson in 2014, he was enthusiastic. The job paid $9.50 an hour, more than many others in the area, and he could work overtime. Smith had seen his father make a successful living as a prison officer, and he planned to follow in his footsteps. He recalls telling the warden, "I'm gunning for your job," on his first day of work.
A few months in, Smith dozed off during an overnight shift in the long-term solitary unit, he says. A prisoner popped open one of the malfunctioning cell locks, blasted Smith with the officer's own pepper spray and stabbed him twice with a prison-made knife.
The attacks kept coming, Smith says. Another prisoner doused him with boiling water. A third slipped out of his handcuffs and used them like brass knuckles to beat Smith unconscious. After a fourth prisoner sliced him 10 times with a shank, Smith says he began reliving the attacks in his dreams. He went on medication for anxiety and depression.
Stress like Smith's is endemic among guards. Research papers and government studies have found that correctional officers suffer high rates of PTSD, depression, divorce and alcoholism.
In interviews, Smith grew teary as he described growing sullen and irritable while neglecting his wife and son. "The anger and hate embeds itself in you," he says. "I almost lost my family."
Smith quit in 2018, even though he had worked his way up to sergeant, a job that paid $13 an hour. He now works for $8 an hour as a housekeeper at a hospital and attends nursing school. MTC did not respond to questions about Smith's attacks.
Prison officials went back to using traditional locks, which caused its own set of problems. At Wilkinson, a prisoner seized keys from a female officer working solo in long-term solitary, the prison's most dangerous unit. He unlocked three friends; they opened the cell of Jerome Harris and stabbed him in the head, chest and back, according to an MTC incident report. Harris lost his left eye and almost all vision in his right in the 2018 attack, according to a lawsuit that MTC settled.
Dashing is designed to humiliate more than hurt.
Bryan Gaston is 6 foot 9 and 300 pounds, a Navy veteran with 16 years of correctional experience in Oklahoma and Colorado. He says that before coming to Wilkinson prison in 2017, only one prisoner threw liquid at him.
At Wilkinson? "Countless," he says.
"The nastiest feeling you could ever feel in your entire life is to have another person's human waste dripping off of you," he says. The dashings left him with a recurring infection that's blurred his vision in one eye. A lifelong hunter, Gaston can barely pass marksmanship tests he used to ace. He says his doctor ordered twice yearly tests for hepatitis and HIV. He now works at a prison in a nearby state.
Bryan Gaston's wife shows a photo of an injury to his eyelid that appeared after a prisoner threw feces and urine in his face while he worked at Wilkinson County Correctional Facility.
Kathleen Flynn for The Marshall Project
Of 33 Mississippi prison employees The Marshall Project interviewed, all but seven say they had been dashed.
In this environment, even guards who say they want to do their job well and care for the people inside ended up disillusioned at best, depressed and suicidal at worst.
That's what happened to White, the former Parchman lieutenant, who sought out mental health care. Today, she advocates counseling for staff and prisoners alike: "They aren't getting that type of help to straighten their mind out."
She says she has forgiven her attacker and prays daily that God will also soften the heart of the man she once wanted to murder. But she also feels a profound sense of loss.
"He took away my life," she says. "He took it all."
Alysia Santo is a staff writer. She has investigated criminal justice issues including for-profit prisoner transportation, the bail industry, victim compensation and the sexual abuse of people behind bars. Her reporting has spurred state and federal investigations, and was awarded Harvard's Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting in 2021. She is also a three-time finalist for the Livingston Award and was twice named runner-up for the John Jay College/H.F. Guggenheim Prize for Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting.
Joseph Neff is a staff writer who has investigated wrongful convictions, prosecutorial and police misconduct, probation, cash bail and forensic 'science'. He was a Pulitzer finalist and has won the Goldsmith, RFK, MOLLY, SPJ's Sigma Delta Chi, Gerald Loeb, Michael Kelly and other awards. He previously worked at The News & Observer (Raleigh) and The Associated Press.
Tags: →Regional reporting →Dangerous Conditions in Prisons/Jails →Prison Guard(s) →Mississippi →Parchman state prison →Prison Life →Parchman prison →Prison Violence
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Home / Branding / Internal Branding
by David Heitman
This oft-neglected element of marketing can have a big influence on your company.
Have you ever noticed when walking into a company's office or warehouse for the first time, that within minutes, you detect a refreshing level of enthusiasm and commitment among the people you meet? There is something positive animating the whole environment. What you're sensing is the employees' collective loyalty to the company and its brand.
The effort to consciously cultivate this experience is often referred to as internal branding—a concept predicated on the belief that your employees are just as important an audience as your customers and prospects.
As with all branding efforts, authenticity is key. If a company attempts to instill excitement around brand attributes and virtues that it really doesn't possess, it only generates cynicism among employees. Mission statement posters that claim one thing while management attitudes and behaviors say another, end up breeding low-level negativity—a passive aggressive attitude that ultimately seeps out into interactions with customers. It's like a low-grade fever that passes from employees to customers, and never quite gets cured.
On the other hand, brand loyalty is equally contagious. Customers can't help but be swept up in the excitement when a company is living out the highest virtues of its brand every day. To create this positive flywheel effect within a business, internal branding must be reinforced 1) from the inside out; 2) from the top down; and 3) from the bottom up.
"Our internal branding is really all about our company's culture. It grows from the inside out," says my colleague Steve Gade, vice president of sales and marketing at Duncan Aviation. "We set expectations from day one with all new employees regarding our brand values, beginning with an orientation that includes a dialogue with our chairman, president or the most senior leader at each hiring location."
Another way that Duncan Aviation reinforces its brand is by sharing companywide each Friday, how various customers have mentioned the positive experiences they've had with specific employees. "Our people thrive on this positive feedback," Gade says. "It encourages us all to be our best."
From the Top Down
Internal branding goes far beyond what the marketing department can deliver. Unless an organization's top leadership is actively and consciously cultivating the brand within the organization, the effort will never reach its full potential.
For business leaders to assure that such internal branding is given proper attention, it is good to set aside some time annually to take a pulse on the company culture, and to talk to customers about what they are experiencing. The late Steve Jobs was known for periodically manning the customer service phones at Apple just so he could hear this kind of first-hand feedback. His commitment to delivering the Apple brand experience across all customer touch-points is what has made the company so fanatically beloved and so immensely profitable.
When we work with company leaders on their branding or re-branding efforts, one of the exercises involves asking questions such as:
What is the first word that should come to mind when people hear your company mentioned?
What are the core brand values to which you are willing to hold fast, even if it means losing business?
What is the greatest compliment your fiercest competitor would have to pay your organization?
What is the most frequent compliment you hear from your customers?
What behaviors are most rewarded in your organization?
Would all your employees give the same answers to the questions above?
Simple questions like these provide much-needed clarity on the path to developing a coherent, authentic and relevant brand. It then remains to give creative expression to it, both within and outside the company.
From the Bottom Up
There's a world of difference between employees giving passive assent to a company's brand virtues and actively finding ways to reinforce them in their daily lives. The sure sign of a company's successful internal branding effort is overhearing employees talking about the brand virtues in conversations with each other and with customers.
And because you'll never find employees more receptive to imbibing the brand than when they are first hired, orientation is a crucial time to be highly intentional about internal branding. Rather than viewing this opportunity as some sort of passive corporate "indoctrination" process, new hires should be encouraged to apply the brand in their everyday work, and even be empowered to challenge company policies, procedures and experiences that are inconsistent with the brand.
As with all marketing efforts, simplicity is crucial to success with internal branding. A complex mission statement will never fire the hearts and imaginations of employees. They won't be able to remember it, let alone apply it to their daily lives. But a clear, simple brand is a clarion call that enables employees to reinforce it with customers every day.
For example, Ritz-Carlton's legendary mantra—Ladies and Gentlemen Serving Ladies and Gentlemen—is a simple but elegant encapsulation of the hotel's internal brand. Because it is so simple, it requires the conscious, intelligent application by all employees. It doesn't tell people what to do. It tells them who they are as employees of the Ritz-Carlton. You only need to stay at a Ritz property once to realize that this internal branding effort is working.
Perhaps the most powerful tactic in this area is to encourage employees to treat each other like customers. Such internal reinforcement of the brand among coworkers will result in a greater consistency of the brand experience for customers
Ambassadors of an Embassy
In most industries, strict adherence to checklists, protocols and standards of professionalism are indispensable. The same is true of internal branding. Ultimately, the goal of internal branding is to make every employee a brand ambassador—someone who is loyal to the brand, who defends and promotes it to those outside the organization, and whose day-to-day decisions are defined by the freedom and empowerment to apply the brand. As Steve Gade at Duncan Aviation says, "Our customers tell us that we have something different going on here. That's how we know we are doing things right."
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Schuylkill County History
On April 1, 1898, a Port Carbon Man Bought the First Car in America
Local Community News Local Fire News Local News Schuylkill County History
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Sept. 27, 1925 - Pottsville Maroons 28, Buffalo Bisons 0
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On This Date in 1986, The Hooters Play at Martz Hall
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Pottsville Library Announces Plans for O'Hara 115th Celebration
The Not-so-secret Ashland Abortion Clinic
"Tremont in a Blaze" During Wide Awake Campaign for Lincoln in 1860
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1920 Pottsville Woman on Suffrage: "As for a woman's party I do not approve ... Women, as a whole, are so hysterical" 🤣
Check Out This Video of the 1940 Pottsville-Reading Thanksgiving Day Football Game
Interesting Souls at Tamaqua's Odd Fellows Cemetery
Pottsville's Luther Mansion Now Has New Purpose
No foolin' — a guy from Port Carbon bought the first car in America.
It happened on this day, April 1, 1898.
That's the day Robert Allison, of Port Carbon, purchased the first automobile in America.
OK, technically, Allison paid the Winton Motor Carriage Company $1,000 on March 24 that year.
But it took more than a week for the money to get to the owner of the company, Alexander Winton. He was in Cleveland, Ohio.
When Winton got the money, he shipped the first Winton Motor Carriage to Allison in Port Carbon.
He wrote about the experience in a 1913 edition of Saturday Evening Post. In that article, Winton writes:
"The exact date of the sale was March 24, 1898, and about a week later — on April 1, 1898 — I received payment and shipped the car to its new owner, Robert Allison, a mechanical engineer of Port Carbon, Pennsylvania. I bought it back after Allison had used it a few years, and it is now in the Smithsonian Institution, in Washington." (It's now believed the vehicle is no longer there.)
Port Carbon Man Buys America's First Car
So, how did the first "car" in America end up in Port Carbon?
A year prior to the sale, Winton and a friend drove a prototype from Cleveland to New York.
The trip got a lot of press but no investors. Winton took out an ad in Scientific American magazine.
Check it out …
Allison reportedly drove the carriage from Port Carbon to Philadelphia. It took 3 days.
There were no gas stations, of course. So Allison and Winton had to buy alcohol from local drug stores along the way.
There was another thing Allison and Winton shared in common. Actually, we all share it in common with them. They each had the same complaint after their first automobile trip … the roads suck!
In this article:Port Carbon