View all Seneca houses for sale below. You can also search for Seneca IL houses by map. To search by City, Zip, Address, Neighborhood or Proximity click here!
Seneca is a village in LaSalle and Grundy counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. The population was 2,371 at the 2010 census.The LaSalle County portion of Seneca is part of the Ottawa–Streator Micropolitan Statistical Area, while the small portion that lies in Grundy County is part of the Chicago–Naperville–Joliet Metropolitan Statistical Area.Seneca is home to the LaSalle County Generating Station, a nuclear power plant.


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Become A True Coffee Connoisseur With Our Guide To Single Origin Beans
We love to wow our friends at dinner parties and brag about our wine expertise like it's an Olympic sport, but we'll admit we're not that knowledgeable when it comes to our morning coffee.
So, if you're seeking to up the ante on your morning conversations, we've got you covered.
We met down with Zarraffa's Coffee founder Kenton Campbell, armed with a steaming cup of coffee, to get the lowdown on everyone's favourite golden brew.
The Basics of Single-Origin Coffee
It all comes down to the fact that single origin coffee is only grown in one place. Single origin beans, like wine, are a reflection of the terroir of the coffee. Its flavour and aroma are influenced by where it is cultivated. "Altitude, plant type, farming practises, and climate will all play a role in the details of single origin coffee," Campbell explains.
"Single origin wine is similar to estate-grown wine, which is made from grapes cultivated in a specific area of the estate. Single origin refers to either a single farm or a single country, and has both micro and macro connotations."
Single origin beans, on the other hand, have the most natural and unaffected flavour profiles, whereas coffee combines characteristics from other beans.
"Each bean has its own own flavour profile, which can easily be lost in a combination. Campbell argues that single origin coffee is a premium coffee experience since it is a higher quality coffee bean with ethical practises.
"This is because specialised roasters have direct knowledge of the influence of farming and processing on their beans and how this improves coffee quality." Investing in local farmers? That's something we can surely support.
"For example, Kenyan Ntongoro (pronounced en-tonn-goro), Zarraffa's first Black Label Single Origin coffee, is cultivated in red volcanic soils and hand-picked by the local Farmers' Cooperative Society in Meru County, Kenya. Kenyan Ntongoro has a dark chocolate and walnut flavour with citrous acidity, and a plum sweetness with strong acidity and a balanced body, making it ideal for espresso, drip filter, and cold brew coffee."
There's no doubting that we're preoccupied with food, the way it's prepared, and the origins of the components. We enjoy forming bonds with farmers, producers, makers, and brewers. Our morning coffee is no different, according to Campbell, which is why single origin beans are so popular right now.
Read more • theurbanlist.com
Tags: Single Origin Coffee
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Q: The Websocket events listener in nestjs gateway not working in production The websocket connection is working very well local instance, using nest js framework and generated the gateway to integrateb the websocket functionality for including chat feature in the app.
when executed locally the client is able to connect to the socket instance and emit the message and recieve message from the server
on Production app is running on nginx server and configured the app for the websocket were it location is socket.io
When user opens the app it connects to the server and the websocket assigned to it
The client app is unable to emit any message to the server and recieve from the server.
The app catches the new connection to websocket and it disconnection.
It is unable to listen to the event which are emitted from the client app.
Nest JS CLI v7.5.1
Node version v 12.19.0
npm version v6.14.8

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Have your carpets reached a state of dullness? Does one would like you may rejuvenate them and improve their quality? You'll be able to offer your carpets the aesthetic attractiveness they once had by obtaining them cleaned. The subsequent article contains a group of tips which will assist you rent an honest carpet cleaning company.
Ensure that the carpet cleaning company you are looking to rent has the expertise to try and do an honest job. Is that the company able to treat every type of carpet soiling? What varieties of floor cover will the company clean? A knowledgeable company are going to be able to provide you with associate degree estimate of what your carpet can look once it's cleaned.
Ask the carpet cleaning company if they vacuum before they begin the cleaning method. There's an enormous distinction within the outcome of the task counting on this issue. If they tell you that they do not, you ought to decision somebody else. You wish the task to induce done as effectively as attainable.
Always confirm you vacuum a carpet before you utilize a machine to wash your carpet. You may find yourself breaking the machine if you are doing not, cost accounting you quite a little bit of cash. Confirm you vacuum before you have got skilled carpet cleaners work in your home, also.
Talk to your carpet cleaners regarding what you'll be able to do to still look after the carpet once the cleaning is complete. They will provide you with valuable recommendation on the day to day processes to require care of your carpet. After you follow their recommendation, your carpets can continuously look recent and clean.
The most effective thanks to preserve your new carpet is to stop soil from returning in-tuned with it. Use carpet runners in high-traffic areas and confirm members of the family take away their shoes before walking onto carpeted areas. Spot cleaning is also necessary simply within the entry door of a carpeted room.
Step one in hiring a carpet cleaner is selecting which sort you want to use. As an example, there are companies that clean through steam, others who use wet chemicals and even additional who use dry chemicals. You want to analysis every sort and weigh it against your budget and desires to decide on.
Who you rent to wash your carpets depends on what sort of cleaning services they provide and what sort of carpet you have got. If you have got carpet exploitation artificial fibres, you'll be able to use a wet carpet cleaner, like a steamer or wet chemicals. If it's natural fibres, you have got to use dry chemicals.
Before a carpet cleaner involves your home cleaning and home improvement, raise them if they'll be vacuuming your carpet first. If they are saying no, then you, yourself, ought to offer the carpets a fast vacuum. Doing thus can facilitate to get rid of dirt and trash from the highest layer of the carpet, creating it easier for them to induce deeper into it.
Up-selling is common with carpet cleaning businesses. They quote you one value, a value that appears terribly affordable, then again they hook you on additional services afterward that you simply assume you wish. Spot treatments, cleaning high traffic areas and additional can typically be mentioned once the work has started and can increase the value considerably.
Try to vacuum your high-traffic areas everyday if you'll be able to. Dirt will quickly compile in these areas, solely to be emotional round the remainder of your home. In addition, it piles on high of itself, creating it terribly laborious to get rid of if it's left alone. The additional you vacuum these areas, the cleaner your carpet are going to be normally.
Make sure you raise the carpet cleaning company you're considering whether or not or not they need a guarantee. Sensible firms ought to have some form of guarantee, whether or not it's period or thirty days. This guarantee ought to embody a further cleaning freed from charge just in case issues arise with their original work. If the corporate doesn't embody any guarantee, this can be in all probability an indication you mustn't rent them.
Carpets will lose their life once years of use, however that is fine. The carpets will be created to appear new once more with an easy cleaning from an expert. It solely takes a brief quantity of your time to possess a carpet cleaned. Use the enclosed tips and rent the correct carpet cleaner for you carpets. You will find many website where you will find a carpet cleaning hacks and tricks but best way to find a right cleaners.


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Big Brother (German TV series)
For the recent season, see Big Brother (German season 13). For the celebrity edition of the series, see Promi Big Brother.
Big Brother is the German version of the international reality television franchise Big Brother created by producer John de Mol in 1997.[1] Following the premise of other versions of the format, the show followed a number of contestants, known as housemates, who are isolated from the outside world for an extended period of time in a custom-built house. Each week, one of the housemates is evicted by a public vote, with the last housemate remaining winning a cash prize.
Big Brother Germany 2020 revival logo
by John de Mol
Percy Hoven
Oliver Geissen
Aleksandra Bechtel
Oliver Petszokat
Charlotte Karlinder
Miriam Pielhau
Jochen Schropp
"Big Brother Germany TV Theme"
EndemolShine Germany
RTL Zwei (1–11)
sixx (12)
Sat.1 (13–)
28 February 2000 (2000-02-28) – 12 September 2011 (2011-09-12)
22 September 2015 (2015-09-22) – 22 December 2015 (2015-12-22)
10 February 2020 (2020-02-10) –
18 May 2020 (2020-05-18)
Sat.1 Official website
Big Brother premiered on 28 February 2000 and ran for eleven seasons on RTL Zwei before the network cancelled it in September 2011.[2][3] Big Brother returned on 22 September 2015 on sixx, and lasted for 1 series.[4] After a 5-year break, Sat.1 rebooted the series on 10 February 2020.[5][6]
The series also featured a 24-hour live feed, in which fans could view the inside of the house at any time on German pay channel Premiere and Sky until the twelfth season. In the Sat.1 iteration of the series, however, there was no 24-hour live stream from inside the house.[7]
After a two-year hiatus, the series was bought and revamped by Sat.1 as Promi Big Brother, the first celebrity series of the German version, with the first season premiering on 13 September 2013.[8] Cindy aus Marzahn and Oliver Pocher were announced as the new presenters of the revived show in August 2013.[9] Jochen Schropp is hosting the show since Series 2, and with Jochen Bendel, also hosted Series 5. Since Series 6, Schropp and Marlene Lufen are hosting the show together. The ninth season will begin airing in August 2021.[citation needed]
1.1 Changes of the Concept
1.2 Prize money
1.4 Smoking in the house
2 Broadcasting
2.1 Spin-off shows
3 Presenters
4 Series details
5 Intros
6 Reception and popularity
FormatEdit
Big Brother Germany is based on the international Big Brother series produced by Endemol in the Netherlands which began in 1999. The show's name comes from George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), which revolves around a dystopia in which dictator Big Brother is the all-seeing leader. A group of people (called the Housemates) live together in a house, where 24 hours a day their every word and every action is recorded by cameras and microphones in all the rooms in the house. Access to television, the Internet, print media, and time is prohibited. In addition, the housemates live in complete confinement; they have no access to the outside world. At least once a week, the housemates secretly nominate two housemates they wish to face a public vote to evict. The two or more housemates with the most votes face the public vote. The viewing public decides which of them gets evicted through text message votes or phone calls. The nominee with the most votes is evicted and leaves the house.
Should their stay inside the house become difficult for them to bear, a housemate is allowed to voluntary leave at any time during the game. In the event of a withdrawal from the house, a replacement housemate usually enters in their place.
In the final week of each season, the viewers vote for which of the remaining people in the house should win the prize money and be crowned the winner of Big Brother.
Changes of the ConceptEdit
Since the start of its first season in February 2000, Big Brother Germany went through numerous changes in its concept. Here are some significant examples of the progress of modifying the rules of the original game:
"Only the housemates have to decide which of them gets nominated.": Besides in season 7 the viewers could decide for only 1 time which of them gets nominated.
"None of the housemates know each other before entering the house.": changed in season 3 with a couple in a romantic relationship entering the house.
"The prize money is a certainty": changed in season 4 with letting the final four housemates doing challenges and giving them a quarter of the original prize money for every succeeded nathan challenge.
"The complete household lives together in one group": changed in season 4 with dividing the house into two parts with a "rich" and a "poor" area and splitting the household into two competing teams. On season 6 gets three houses where the housemates have to live in.
"All the housemates live together in one house": changed in season 6 with building a whole "Big Brother village" including five houses and a farm. In season 13 were two houses the "Glasshouse" and the "Blockhouse".
"The show runs for three months": changed in season 5 with expanding the show to one year.
"The show is supposed to run for a certain time": changed in season 6 with the announcement that the show would run as long as the ratings were acceptable, it actually lasted 363 days.
"Only the winner receives prize money": changed in season 6 with the creation of three areas for the housemates where they had to work and earn money, which was given to them when they got evicted (housemates who left the house voluntary did not receive any money).
"The housemates get no information from outside": changed in season 5 where the housemates were allowed to watch the RTL2 News after winning a game and in order to learn about a terrorist attack. In season 13 the viewers can write comments for the housemates and the comments are regularly shown to the house.
Prize moneyEdit
The winner of Big Brother Germany receives a cash prize for being the last remaining housemate.
In Big Brother 1 and Big Brother 2, the winner received DM250,000.
In Big Brother 3, the winner received DM300,000, which was increased from DM250,000.
In Big Brother 4, the winner received €90,000, which was reduced from €100,000.
In Big Brother 5, the winner received after 365 days in the Big Brother House €1,000,000.
From Big Brother 6 until Big Brother 10, the winner received €250,000.
In Big Brother 11, the winner received €125,000, which was increased from €100,000.
In Big Brother 12 and Big Brother 13, the winner received €100,000.
ThemeEdit
Some seasons include a theme.
2 Back to Basics
4 The Battle
5 365 Days - 1 Million Euro
6 The Village
7 Who are you really?
8 Rich vs. Poor
9 Heaven and Hell/Reloaded
10 Everyone got a secret
11 The Secret
12 Back to Basics
13 Big Brother 20
Smoking in the houseEdit
Unlike in many other Big Brother houses, in the Big Brother Germany house smoking is allowed outdoors and indoors. This is because Germany has no smoking ban.
BroadcastingEdit
Big Brother Germany was broadcast by RTL Zwei from season 1 until 11, sixx for season 12 and Sat.1 from season 13.
Highlights Shows (8:15 pm – 9:00 pm) The Decision Shows (8:15 pm – 9:15 pm) Highlights Shows (10:15 pm – 11:00 pm) Highlights Shows (8:15 pm – 9:00 pm)
Highlights Shows (8:15 pm – 9:00 pm) The Decision Shows (9:15 pm – 11:15 pm) Highlights Shows (8:15 pm – 9:00 pm)
Highlights Shows (7:00 pm – 7:45 pm)
The Decision Shows (9:15 pm – 11:15 pm) Highlights Shows (7:00 pm – 7:45 pm)
The Decision Shows (9:15 pm – 11:15 pm - One night a week)
The Decision Shows (9:15 pm – 11:15 pm) Highlights Shows (7:00 pm – 8:00 pm) N/A
Highlights Shows (10:10 pm – 11:10 pm) The Decision Shows (8:15 pm – 10:15 pm) Highlights Shows (10:10 pm – 11:10 pm)
Spin-off showsEdit
In the first season was aired on Sundays a spin-off show with the name Der Talk (The Talk), from 21:15 to 22:15 on RTL Zwei.
In the second and third season were broadcast six nights a week by RTL Zwei and 1 night a week by RTL Television. RTL Zwei broadcast 50min daily recaps from Sunday to Friday at 20:15 to 21:10. RTL Television broadcast 2h decision show (Die Entscheidung) in Saturday at 21:15 to 23:15. Sometimes the decision show had 3h length and begins at 20:15. It also had a spin-off show "Family and Friends", presented by Aleksandra Bechtel. The show was aired live at 16:45 to 17:45
In season thirteen, was aired on sixx every Mondays after The Decision Show a live late-night show with the name Die Late Night Show, in which the debriefing spoke about what was happening in the house. The hosts were Jochen Bendel and Melissa Khalaj.[10] Also every Sunday on IGTV was broadcast a short-minute web show titled Recap mit Aaron Troschke. There Aaron Troschke, as the host, commented on the events from the last week.
PresentersEdit
Co-presenter(s)
Percy Hoven Thorsten Wember Sophie Rosentreter
Oliver Geissen Gudrun Loeb Aleksandra Bechtel
Ruth Moschner Christian Möllmann Oliver Petszokat
Oliver Petszokat Jochen Bendel
Charlotte Karlinder Jürgen Milski
Alida Kurras-Lauenstein
Sonja Zietlow[a]
Jochen Schropp Jochen Bendel Melissa Khalaj Aaron Troschke
^ Sonja Zietlow hosted only the Launch Night.
Series detailsEdit
Originally aired
Last aired
103 13 John Milz Jürgen Milski 116 28 February 2000 (2000-02-28) 9 June 2000 (2000-06-09) RTL Zwei
106 17 Alida Kurras Harry Schmidt 112 16 September 2000 (2000-09-16) 30 December 2000 (2000-12-30)
13 Karina Schreiber Medy Hussein 108 27 January 2001 (2001-01-27) 12 May 2001 (2001-05-12)
99 19 Jan Geilhufe Nadja Steininger 111 31 March 2003 (2003-03-31) 7 July 2003 (2003-07-07)
365 59 Sascha Sirtl Franziska Lewandrowski 419 2 March 2004 (2004-03-02) 1 March 2005 (2005-03-01)
363 Michael Knopf Thomas Motz 369 1 March 2005 (2005-03-01) 26 February 2006 (2006-02-26)
148 17 Michael Carstensen Sonja Ailler 156 5 February 2007 (2007-02-05) 7 July 2007 (2007-07-07)
183 25 Silke "Isi" Kaufmann Marcel Schiefelbein 183 7 January 2008 (2008-01-07) 7 July 2008 (2008-07-07)
211 30 Daniel Schöller Marcel Schiefelbein 211 8 December 2008 (2008-12-08) 6 July 2009 (2009-07-06)
32 Timo Grätsch Marc Maurer 220 11 January 2010 (2010-01-11) 9 August 2010 (2010-08-09)
134 22 Rayo di Sole Dagmar Szlachta 153 2 May 2011 (2011-05-02) 12 September 2011 (2011-09-12)
92 18 Lusy Skaya Alexandra Reiche 92 22 September 2015 (2015-09-22) 22 December 2015 (2015-12-22) sixx
99 Cedric Beidinger Gina Beckmann 85 10 February 2020 (2020-02-10) 18 May 2020 (2020-05-18) Sat.1
IntrosEdit
Song (English translation)
"Leb" (Live) Die 3. Generation
"Zeig mir dein Gesicht" (Show Me Your Face) Berger
"Nur die Wahrheit zählt" (The Truth is only One) Ayman and Naima
"Alles ändert sich" (Everything Changes) Oli P. feat. Lukas
"Alles was du willst" (Everything You Want) Lex
"Deine Welt" (Your World) (Own composition)
"Ich seh was, was du nicht siehst" (I See Something You Do Not See) Senta-Sofia
"Chose to Be Me" Sunrise Avenue
"Everybody" Mousse T.
"Schöne neue Welt" (Brave New World) Culcha Candela
"Sparks" Neon Hitch
"Follow the Leader" Cosby
Reception and popularityEdit
Big Brother was social phenomena when it began in 2000. At some point in the first season it hits 70% rating share. Despite massive popularity, ratings in the third season started to decline. RTL II decided to put the show off air for one year (2002).
The program returned in 2003 with completely modified format and lower expectations. Much higher ratings and sponsors interest resulted in following season. The fifth season reached up to high expectations of the producers. The high success of the fifth series resulted in back-to-back season, which was supposed to run for at least few years. However ratings started to declaim and the show was hiding in the shadow of its former glory. The producers decided to end series after its first year on air.
Year-and-half latter (in 2007) RTL II decided to return old original format of the program, marking the seventh series as "Back To Basics". Despite the re-newed format was not a rating hit, but it reached up to producers low expectations.
The producers tried to renew the format for eleventh series, because of tenth series low achievements (Finale of tenth series had 1.39 million viewers). Viewing figures however decline in eleventh series, but producers made an impression of success with duration and prize extension. The ratings in eleventh series rarely reach 10% share in eleventh series.
^ "Big Brother". www.endemolshine.de (in German). Retrieved 2 November 2018.
^ Meza, Ed (14 September 2009). "Germany's RTL renews 'Big Brother'". Variety. Archived from the original on 25 January 2016. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
^ "Endemol - reality and docu - Big Brother". 2013-03-20. Archived from the original on 20 March 2013. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
^ ""Big Brother" startet bei sixx am 22. September". 2015-08-12.
^ "Sat.1 bringt "Big Brother" 2020 zurück ins TV-Programm". 2019-06-26.
^ "Big Brother 2020 Start: Wann läuft die neue Staffel in Sat.1? Moderator und Termin stehen fest!". bbfun.de. 2020-01-10.
^ "Big Brother Live-Stream: 24 Stunden-Kanal kommt bei Sat.1 nicht zurück". 2020-01-10.
^ "Germany and Portugal comeback for Big Brother". advanced-television.com.
^ Verkaufen, Werben &. "Sat.1 wirbt mit Oliver Pocher und Cindy aus Marzahn für "Promi Big Brother" - W&V".
^ "Big Brother 2020: sixx ist wieder mit Late Night Show dabei". 2020-01-11.
All the housemates
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Big_Brother_(German_TV_series)&oldid=994723314"


M&Y Properties is proud to offer for rent this spacious and very practically furnished office space located on a high floor of Fortune Tower, right next to the JLT Metro Station.
- pantry and guest bathroom within the office.
The building is strategically located in Lake Alma West, Cluster C with the easiest access to and from Sheikh Zayed Road, right next to JLT Metro station with 3 hours free visitor parking areas, surrounded by Carrefour Supermarket, Cafes, Restaurants and a pharmacy.


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Taureandreams's Blog
Category Archives: Shepard Fairey
Sad Times July 23rd 2014
It has not been a very happy year so far and it shows no sign of getting better any time soon. I know I've been off the radar for two years now and I can't seem to get back on the horse. I am putting a link that will tell the tale for me in the hopes of getting some help. Here it is http://www.gofundme.com/bm047c
I never thought it come to this but desperate times call for desperate measures. Thanks for reading, and to any who used my work for term papers and such. I hope you got good grades.
Filed under Alton Brown, Amanda Palmer, Anthony Bourdain, Art, Art Shows, Arthur Miller, Beacon Theater, Brian Viglione, Cafe Reggio, Central Park, Chelsea Market, Christmas, Concerts, Cooking, Cooking Channel, David Letterman, Disaster, Dresden Dolls, East Village, Emeril, Eugene O'Neil, Family, Fast Food, Food, Food Writing, France, French, French Food, Gardening, Good Eats, Greenwich Village, Grilling, Hicksville, History, Hurricane Irene, Italy, Japanese Food, Juan Miro', Late Show, Life, Literature, Little Italy, Long Island, Lower East Side, MacDougal St, Media, Medium Raw, Memories, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Minetta Tavern, Mixed Media, Moby Dick, MOMA, Music, My Truth, New York City, No Reservations, NY, Off Broadway, P J Harvey, Paris, Peter Mayle, Plays, Pop Culture, Provence, Rants, Riebe's, Samuel Beckett, Shepard Fairey, Soul Music, Spanish Food, Street Art, Thai Food, The Best Thing I Ever Ate, Theater, Theatre, Tim Holtz, Travel, Twilight Zone, Uncategorized, Vietnamese Food, Village Voice, Weather, Wine, Writing
Tagged as Anthony Bourdain, Art, Family, Food Writing, Life, Memories, Off Broadway, Pop Culture, Shepard Fairey, Theater, Times Square, Writing
Lower East Side (Slight Return)-April 24th 2010
Today is bright and will be warm and I sit and munch half a bran muffin washed down with a decaf coffee on the train to New York City while I listen to a young couple dote over their three-year old boy, he's a cute kid in a baseball cap who stands on the seat and marvels at everything, looking around in wonder and asks questions, lots of questions. There is three young girls sitting diagonally across from me speaking French, I am shy to go and talk to them I don't want to make a fool of myself, but I push shyness aside and walk over asking if they were from France, which they confirm. I excitedly talk about my love for France and everything French, my ambition to cook French food and to be a tour guide in NYC and to someday ex-pat to France after Mom and Dad are gone and Chris is moved to Vegas or Canada whichever he chooses. They are here for five months and are doing work/study programs although they don't seem to want to share the details or even talk that much too me. The dark-haired girl is friendly and the redhead too I guess, but the mousey girl sitting closest to me looks petrified or at least uncomfortable. They assure me that they are meeting friends who live in the city and will not need my services but I explain that I am not licensed yet so cannot guide them anyway, although I could do it for free… that is not illegal in New York but give them time. So I decide to wish them well and head back to my seat and they talk amongst themselves, laughing occasionally at the older guy who just wanted to meet some people from France, but now I feel like a fool who should have kept his mouth shut. When will I ever learn.
I know I have a tendency to be too excited when I talk about my passions, but I'm not the only one and I remember Drew Barrymore, the actress talking on Late Night about how she scares people with her enthusiasm for a new project, so I can really identify with her, I guess I do too but at least I'm in good company. So I get out at Penn Station and make my way to the blue A,C,E subway line and check my old tickets for credit left on rides, I swipe my old cards and see that I have plenty. While doing so the three girls come up behind me and are busily engaged in trying to use the ticket machine, I say a quick hello again but don't even try to help them, I would have helped them in any way I could just to be nice. But their snobbery being what was I move off quickly to get the next train to West 4th St station and make sure I'm in a forward car so I don't run into them again. It's a quick ride on the subway, whoosh! and your there almost before you know it, I get out and almost immediately I am asked for help by a woman and her daughters from Queens who are looking for the Washington Arch and NYU University, I whip out my flip map and tell them to follow me and we walk up to the 8 Th Ave exit.
It's a beautiful day turning warm as I lead them to the Arch, they walk fast and it's hard for me too keep up, I'm guessing they are looking at the school for the girls to attend after they graduate high school and after we walk past the fountain, still dry. Not in operation yet as I see excited kids running around inside its shallow bowl that will soon be cooling off visitors who brave the (clean?) water to cool off in the heat. I part company with the family on the other side of the park pointing out the NYU buildings to my left and with a few Thank You's they are off to see the wizard and I go to towards the Lower East Side starting point for my tour. I am stopped on my way by a young Asian girl who is lost, looking for an address. She is staring right at a map mounted inside a frame for the students looking for certain buildings in the area but this girl cannot find it and she cannot be late, she's going for an audition! I tell her to follow me and I tell her also that I'm a tour guide in training and it can be very confusing especially with all the construction going on with closed streets and all. We walk a few blocks and a few turns later and I'm beginning to think I screwed this girl up but she turns to her left and says "Here it is!" with glee and with a shake of my hand we wish each other good luck and I continue on my merry way, the triumph of making a difference for two people putting a swagger in my step as I continue on my way. I give a homeless man the other half on my Bran muffin and says God Bless You as I pass him by and a little further on I see a youngish couple looking around in confusion so I stop to help. They are also from France and I tell them how much I love their country and using my flip map show them exactly how to get to the West 4th St Station, and also what train to take to get to 42nd St which is where they want to go next, they also thank me profusely and with smiling "Au Revoir's!" they move off and I holster my map like a smoking gun in its holster ready for the next time. My starting point is a few blocks away but I am in need of nourishment now and I spot an old-looking place just ahead.
I stop in the Cafe Colonial, a Brazilian eatery with a brunch menu and a simple atmosphere with white metal bistro tables and chairs, and a pay phone in the back corner. I order a simple meal of warm steak over field greens and a decaf coffee and after a wash up in the loo begin to make notes on the trip so far, I feel a real optimism about today as my food arrives and that is made more apparent by the delicious food I get. This is the way I should eat at home, no starches just meat and greens with a little whole grain thrown in too. So I pay the bill and start walking down the street when I see a familiar face standing in chefs gear smoking a cigarette, I don't know his name but I recognize his face from the food network Iron Chef show, he was one of the contestants to be the next Iron Chef! I stop and say "Hey I know you from the food network!" "That's right, that was me." he says casually but visibly happy to be recognized. I look at the building , "Is this where your working now?" I ask not being able to see the sign up ahead. "Yeah. you should come in and eat, it's the best!" But I explain I just ate at Cafe Colonial and he suggests I get a paper menu, so I move off to do so and them after I get it I can't resist going back and saying "Dude can I be a real tourist and have you sign this?" as I offer a permanent marker and the menu. He signs it without hesitation and I explain that I'm studying to be a tour guide and will be back to eat here the next time I come to the Bowery to study and eat. I shake hands agin and start walking towards the starting point again. This is shaping up to be a great day! I might just have made my first contact in New York!
(Footnote: I would find out later that he's only been there since February when it opened and on April 4th he was arrested for carrying a two-inch knife on a chain he uses to cut boxes at work as he was walking home between shifts at his restaurant Pulino's Bar and Pizzeria, he was surrounded by three police cars! Nice going New York's finest, way to keep us safe from 2 inch knife wielding chefs, I know I feel a lot safer now!)
Best place for a bagel and a smear in New York City!
So I begin my tour stopping first at the Famous Russ & Daughters Deli appetizers since 1914, it is said to have the best bagels, Nova & Caviar cream cheese in New York, it is packed so I walk down and back getting glimpses of fantastic food in flashes as the space between bodies is small and closes quickly, people are ordering bagels by the bagfull! I leave promising myself that I will have a bagel next time around, next I take a few minutes to photograph the famous Katz's Deli, I wish I was hungry because this place serves up beef brisket or pastrami sandwiches that need their own Zip Code! I peeked in once at this place at night right before the Anya Marina show in 2008, (see Anya Marina Concert Parts 1&2) but didn't want to eat so much as this place gives you between two slices of bread. I move off turning on Norfolk and take it down to Rivington & Orchard, but needing a loo I stop in Nooy's Bar for a cold beer but first a wash up, this is actually the bar for the Kampuchea restaurant, a mix of Cambodian and French Cusine I find out from the young friendly bartender who is cutting and squeezing dozens of limes to fill a Magnum for drink-making. I sip my cold Hennepin Ale and we talk the interesting menu, travels abroad and N.Y.C. He is a Californian studying graphic design who works 50 hours a week and pays $1200 a month for a studio apartment! I find him a great source of info for food and wine, he has re-done the drink menu for the restaurant himself and added his own spin to them. He is smart, friendly, hipster, cool and I admire his ability to multitask and still be a great conversationalist. I can't resist ordering the Chicken Rillettes and another beer, they come with small greens and pickled Rhubarb with toasted slices of Baguette. It is superb, I needed this so bad! I haven't been this relaxed and happy in a long while. I could sit here all afternoon, but I can't eat or drink anymore. I pay the tab and shake my bartenders hand and thank him for his kindness and move on. I walk down the street taking it all in, the sun, the breeze, the easy feeling of being able to do whatever I want with no one telling me what to do or where to stand while I do it.
I move through Chinatown and enter another world where I am the minority and don't speak the language. I sit on a low wall on the corner of Bowery & Canal St and write, cool from the breeze yet warm from the sun. I watch the kids play on a clay soccer field while parents sit on benches and talk on the sidelines. The little park is surrounded on two sides by a grass field about ten feet wide where a young woman sleeps peacefully with a cell phone on her chest while a young hipster lies on his back with his knees up talking on his phone a few yards away. I realize how lucky I am to have a piece of land I can call my own, this is all the nature they get in this urban sprawl of concrete, stone, and the ever-present sound of traffic and machinery. It makes me appreciate the ease with which I walk out my back door and step into nature. I move on into the heart of Chinatown where stalls of fresh fish (some still flipping around) crowd the sidewalks that flow with the runoff of melting ice in a constant stream to the street. The foods here are endless, dried mushrooms, dried fish, and strange vegetables are displayed and in butchers windows whole roasted Peking Ducks and chickens. The crowd is a mix of tourists but mostly natives that live in this enclave and shop here all their lives, vendors hawk their wares and shoppers argue loudly over prices and freshness, at least that's what I think they're saying but who knows. The bucket of still moving blue crabs from some far off place the subject of this particular debate. I pass into Little Italy and the mix of Chinese and Italian turns all Italian as I make my way up Elizabeth St where I see a familiar figure sitting outside his butcher shop, Moe is still going strong at 83, he sits with his son enjoying a Perrier water and enjoys the day. I promise to come back and get a "Got Cha Steak" his trademark aged beef steaks as soon as i fix or replace my grill.
Well, the tour was done a while back on Grand Street and now I am back on the corner of East Houston Street and Elizabeth Street, the Cafe Colonial is a few steps away, across the street is a big mural on the wall of a building painted with the cities permission by Shepard Fairey of Obey giant fame ( see What is Obey Giant Parts 1,2,3,&4 for more) the last time he was in New York, right next to that is Billy's Antiques and Props. My brother and I have plans to cook over the open fire tonight so I better head back to Penn Station, I walk towards 6Th Ave as the strong late afternoon sun burns a little as I pass familiar sights, the basketball park and street vendors on West Houston and easily find my way back to the West 4Th Street subway station. It's an easy ride to Penn and easily grab an express train to Hicksville, three stops to home!
I sit on the train and think about what might have happened if I had a camera crew with me shooting my fun day. Somehow I think it's just possible that I too could have a hit show on the Travel Channel, so what if I'm not tall dark and handsome. I don't have to be a hipster twenty-something with a face full of scruff and a half tucked shirt with vest. I can just be who I am in all my aging hipster, latter-day bohemian, over enthusiastic glory! Those French girls missed out, they could have spent the day with me being shown the ropes, while listening to a good storyteller who knows a few good places to eat and drink. It was a great day nonetheless, and I managed to make a difference for a few people who let me into their life for a few minutes, all in a days work for The Guide Boheme.
Filed under East Village, Food, French, French Food, Greenwich Village, Life, Memories, New York City, Shepard Fairey, Travel
Tagged as Anya Marina, East Village, Food, French Food, Greenwich Village, Life, Memories, New York City, Obey Giant, Shepard Fairey, Washington Square Park
What Is Obey Giant ?- Part 4-November 2008
In 2006, Shepard would publish "Supply & Demand" the quintessential book on his art, a coffee table tome with huge pictures covering all aspects of the man and his manifesto, now in it's second printing. He would go on to have a big show at the Merry Karnowsky Gallery that year in October but he was just getting started, and the next eight months would find him working on his breakthrough pieces.
In June of 2007 he would open for the first time in New York City at the Johnathan Levine Gallery, his new show featured his most groundbreaking art to date. The show was titled "E Pluribus Venom" and was every bit a critical look at nationalism, the blind ambition of capitalism, and the ease with which we still go to war. The images were stunning, the print "Proud Parents" features a couple, dressed in early sixties attire holding a new baby ( but the baby is a bomb!) and the captions U.S. Treasurey-Bringing Dreams To Life, No Cents at the bottom and also has the phrases More Milliterry, Less Skools on the left hand and right hand sides respectively, the whole image looks like an old stamp from my parents younger days. The same couple are also featured standing on shore looking across the water at the city with it's factories belching smoke into the air, and the caption at the bottom "These Sunsets Are To Die For!" also there was a second installation in Brooklyn, in DUMBO where the largest pieces were housed. It is said that South Park's Matt Stone purchased a sixteen foot mural and another was bought by a German collector, in fact the show was sold out! During the remainder of 2007 Shepard would have his first London exhibit in November, called Nineteeneightyphoria and focusing on the culture of surveillance and in December he would be back at Merry Karnowsky's to finish the year in Los Angeles.
But 2008 would prove to go beyond these previous triumphs and place him in the pages of history beyond art. When he got word from the Obama campaign people that they would welcome his input he decided to create a phenomenon. He started making posters featuring a portrait of Barack Obama with the words HOPE and CHANGE and PROGRESS at the bottom, done in his classic style with cool blues and vibrant reds and black they remind me of Andy Warhol's portrait work. Shepard would make over 80,000 posters and 150,000 stickers for the campaign, and his print "Rock the Vote" certainly did. Then after winning the election, Barrack Obama himself would send Fairey a hand written letter thanking him for all his work and saying that his art" has a profound effect on people whether in a gallery or on the back of a stop sign." In Setember of this year he also had a solo show in San Francisco's WhiteWalls Gallery, entitled "The Duality of Humanity" featuring work in collaboration with legendary photographer Al Rockoff, and his images of the Vietnam War.
While he looks forward to the future, Shepard who has work in numerous collections including The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Baltic Center for Contemporary Art, New Castle, UK; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, can look back on his life and work with satisfaction. Since his beginnings in RISD to the sticker campaign, and the early struggle in skateborad shops silkscreening his original t-shirts. To being a founding member of BLK/MKT design studio in which he worked from 1997 to 2003 along with Dave Kinsey and Phillip DeWolff, to his Time interview in 2005, the triumph of his 2007 shows to his direct impact on the 2008 election, Shepard (who hasn't made a dime off the Obama campaign) has done what few artists have done in the past.
What started out as an experiment in what the German Philosopher, Martin Heidegger called Phenomenology (the process of letting things manifest themselves) has evolved into a case study of a man and his art, and the world at large. I am happy to say that after starting my internet search for some hand signed art to invest in two years ago, I too have been able to make a nice collection of works by Shepard Fairey and I have stuck a few stickers up too. But most of all I have seen what art can do for an individuals sense of self, and I have learned many important lessons from Shepard that I can use in my own work. One of Shepards motto's is "The Medium Is The Message," but his message is and always will be-Keep your eyes and mind open…and question everything.
Filed under Art, Shepard Fairey, Street Art
Tagged as Art, Martin Heidegger, Merry Karnowsky, Obama, Obey Giant, Shepard Fairey, Street Art
In 2001 Shepard and Amanda were married and soon would have their first child, this changed the way he approached his art. While still maintaining a punk approach, Shepard had to recognize that he was a parent now, he started to see how everything was connected. From our foreign policy to the environment, to the danger of accepting our governments actions like sheep about to be made into lamb chops. He made sure he was home by seven so he could spend time with his daughter, and his work became more politically questioning and socially conscious. I personally think at the heart of it all was this, what kind of world are we going to leave to our children?
During this time Shepard and Jason Fillipow, his high school friend and head assistant, work in Fairey's two-car garage making stencils, and silk-screening images, producing a huge amount of finished work for the gallery shows he did about twice a year. Amanda and Shepard also co-founded Studio Number One, creating bold graphic media and brand identity for Virgin Megastores, The Henry Rollins Show (whose set was decorated by Shepard, who would later be a guest on the show), Indie 103.1 logo, the L.A. D-fenders basketball team, and many others. They would go on to build a small empire that includes an Obey clothing line, and with friend Rodger Gastman, they would publish Swindle Magazine, a socially conscious art and culture magazine. But he was still stickering and pasting up his iconic Obey face image and others almost every day, sticking to private property and to spaces that were either abandoned or already tagged by graffiti.
In 2001 he stopped to give a water tower a re-application (of a huge Obey paster ) that he had "bombed" as they call it, years before. But on his way down the owner of the property told him to stay put, the police were on their way. Shepard did his best to talk his way out of it, it could be seen from the highways nearby-a perfect spot! He was arrested and later, after posting bail, he went back to see the man and it worked! He showed the owner of the property and his kids some stuff about himself on the computer, and gave the kids some stickers and shirts, then paid the man 300 bucks to have the face removed, and the owner let it stay up for three months and dropped the charges against Fairey.
By this time he also had made posters using such figures in history as Mao, Nixon, Che Guerava, Lenin, and Stalin. Believing that by making Obey art with these faces from history, he could in essence, make a statement about the use of imagery by leaders to manipulate the people, and at the same time tell people to be wary, and to question everything. This tendancy to bring about debate is intentional, and is at the heart of his philosophy on life, stimulating thought and provocative debate is more desireable than keeping quiet for the sake of people's feelings.
Being a child of the punk era hasn't stopped him from being a advocate of sixties radical Angela Davis or Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. he seems to have an affinity for figures like Patty Hearst, he is fascinated by her story and the idea that people are the products of their environments. Shepard has also used worker's rights activist Noam Chomsky in his art, as well as the leader of the Zapatista's, Subcomandante Marcos, who fights the Mexican government on behalf of the people of the state of Chiapas, suffering unfairly treatment from Mexico's leaders. The Black Panthers and all Muselims are represented too, as well as Bob Marley and Joe Strummer of The Clash are all part of Shepard's paradigm of equality and civil liberty, he also believes strongly in women's rights, and in the value of the female psyche in the world at large. All of these belief's will give him a power in the future to influence the world in his own small artistic way, but at this point he is coming to his first big move into the spotlight. In the years to come he will find himself at the crossroads in ways he could not imagine, when he was up on that water tower in Chicago, trying to talk his way down.
Filed under Art, Art Shows, Shepard Fairey, Street Art
Tagged as Art, Henry Rollins, Obey Giant, Shepard Fairey, Street Art, Swindle Magazine, The Clash
What Is Obey Giant ? – Part 2-November 2008
The reaction that first summer in Providence was very motivating to Shepard, people were talking about the Andre stickers on line at the store, and it was written up in the local paper. Shepard began to see that there was a psychological component to this whole process…people needed to interpret the image in a way that meant something to them. He was very fascinated by the reactions he was getting. Then he began making large paper paste ups of his images, the old Andre face was replaced with a more stylized version, a "Big Brother" kind of face. The iconic face also got a tag line added to it "OBEY"….inspired by the the Sci-Fi movie "They Live" in which aliens have taken over the planet and use subliminal messages to keep us in line. But also exposure to Barbera Krueger's use of words in her art was a driving force in his idea that art with words could affect social change, a theme that would be used to this day.
During his many out of town art trips he stopped to paste up his iconic image everywhere, he even went so far as to climb an eight story water tower to paste up an eight foot high Obey face! Nobody would risk life and limb to make a statement on art and provoke thought…unless your an obsessed artist that can't help from doing what he believes is his right-the walls, wheresoever they may be, belong to all of us. The objection is that it's not making anyone any money, and that's where the capitalist piggies put their cloven foot down. You see it's okay for posters to be pasted up on every square inch of available space in "Any City, USA-as long as some money has been made off the people who put it there. So with that being the case, Fairey has been arrested 13 times, often being kept from his medication (he has Type 1 diabetes) in retaliation. He has been very straight forward about taking responsibility for his work, admitting that any of his images seen out there…might have been done by him. But he also has some fanatic fans who go to the trouble of making their own copies of his images and pasting them up themselves. Shepard however, has his standards, he never pastes up over another artists work, he always uses fresh clean walls.
But although Shepard had achieved a real status in the punk world of indie artists living on the edge, he was sleeping in his car when he did art shows out of town, he couldn't even afford a cheap room! So, after much soul searching, he decided to move to San Diego intending to work in his beloved skate industry, but instead he went into graphic design and started to do some commercial work, he co-founded BLK/MKT Design Studio with Dave Kinsey and Phillip DeWolff where he would spend six years before going out on his own. Selling out was what some felt he was doing, but to Shepard it was stayin alive. It was after all, Paris (the center of the art world in the old days) that was covered in paste up advertising way back in the late 1800's, Fairey figured he was in no way encouraging street art tactics to be used to sell products, it had all been done before….long ago.
Things started to happen for him, he was asked to make some posters to advertise "Man on the Moon", the Andy Kaufman biopic in 1999, and he would also create brand logos. But it was also in 1999 that he met his future wife Amanda, who proved her love for the guerilla artist by being the lookout for him on paste up nights, even to the point of having to convince the police she wasn't a prostitute waiting for a John on the street corner!
Fairey would go on to design album covers and movie posters, as well as many concert posters, sometimes the buildings where his meetings with ad reps were taking place by day, would also be the next target for a paste up attack by night, even if he had gotten the commission! Shepard has found a way to get the most "street" into his commercial work without letting it become about the money, often passing up lucrative deals because there was no creative juice in it to make the job attractive. But it was a slow and painful process, that still had not come to the fruition that would come, a few hundred paste ups later.
Tagged as Andy Kaufman, Art, Art Shows, Big Brother, Obey, Obey Giant, Shepard Fairey, Street Art
In 2006 I was searching on Ebay for some hand signed artwork to purchase, inspired by my late friend Harvey Ellner's art collection, I had been buying art for years and putting it in storage to be sold for my retirement. I didn't think that I could expect alot of return on my investment at my level (which is small) but hoped that I could at least realize a profit to finance some travel in my older age. One particular day I was searching for something unusual in hand signed prints and found the words "Obey Giant" attached to auctions, page after page of unique images unlike any I had seen before now began to appear. I started to research what this was and who made this art and why, and will share a little of what I found with you.
The artist who made the images is Shepard Fairey and he is now considered the father of the modern street art movement, he inspired a generation of street artists, pasters (artists who use wheat paste to put up paper images), and stencil spray paint artists like England's "Banksy" and he has the scars to prove it-literally. But before he became the icon of social consciousness in modern graffiti art he was just Frank Fairey, a South Carolina boy who as he puts it just "faded into the woodwork"…that is until he discovered ( in 1984) the two things that would change his life and ultimately the art world forever, punk rock and skateboarding.
In conservative Charleston, S.C. some young people would get into skateboarding and the collecting and pasting up of stickers associated with the skateboarding culture as a passing phase, stickers were not abundantly available but the few that he would see advertising skateboarding were gold and he would buy all he could get, but punk band stickers were another matter, not available in Fairey's experience so far. So he learned to draw all his favorite band logos, and copied them out on sticker paper at his parents business (when they were out of the office) and soon he was stickering to his hearts content. In 1988, Fairey began attending the Rhode Island School of Design and it was here while he was working on an art degree, when he decided to major in Illustration, his life would be changed forever.
One night when a friend asked him to teach him how to cut paper stencils he found a picture of Andre the Giant and suggested to his friend that this would make a great stencil, and they should make it and be Andre's "posse". The friend gave up cutting the stencil after a while saying that it was stupid, and Fairey finished the stencil himself, adding the wrestlers height and weight to the stencil as well as the tag line "Andre the Giant has a posse". Then after making a silkscreen of the stencil, Fairey began to spread these paper stickers all over Providence that summer, and later switched to vinyl inked stickers that would last longer. He is said to have made over a million hand cut stickers between `89 and `96 and after moving to California, he switched to getting them made professionally to save his last few brain cells from the toxic vinyl sticker ink. What started out as a joke and attention getting would later become a full fledged phenomenon, as Shepard (his middle name) would eventually take these stickers to New York and Boston by car, and begin to send them to friends all over the country that had been bitten by the sticker bug-thus sending the image he had created out into the world, where it would find an unsuspecting public that would question the meaning of the image. Speculating that it was somehow tied to a band, a cult of some sorts, and generally something to be mis-trusted and even feared, many people began to ask themselves and others…What is this Obey Giant thing?
Tagged as Andre the Giant, Art, Art Shows, Banksy, Obey Giant, Shepard Fairey, Street Art
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The National Parks Photography Project is much more than just a photography exhibit.
Centered around the Centennial Anniversary of America's National Park Service in 2016, it will celebrate and pay tribute to the important role that the visual image has played in the history and creation of our national parks.
This adaptation of the national park theme into an exhibit offers a wealth of unique visual, informational, and design possibilities. The rich history and heritage of our national parks, incorporated with the inherent elements of nature's scenic grandeur... script a distinctly American story. Of course there is the obvious... our cathedrals of nature, the majestic lands that define the parks. But long ago, there were the early painters and photographers that first captured this natural beauty on canvas and film. In many cases, once these paintings and photographs were viewed by influential politicians back east, the artists work sometimes became more instrumental in the land becoming declared a park than the work of leading businessmen and scientists.
While a portion of the exhibit will pay tribute to those early painters and photographers, the core of this exhibit celebrating the centennial of America's National Park Service is the timeless Black and White photography of American Photographer Mark Burns. These photographs will be made from 2011 through 2015 yet printed in Black and White in a timeless and traditional style. One iconic photograph will be selected from each of America's 59 national parks.
The exhibit will feature unique display components and signage modeled after the traditional look (or Parkitecture) of America's park buildings.
This special 'Centennial' photography section will consist of timeless Black & White landscape images produced of each of the fifty-eight national parks... Contemporary photography, photographed in a style paying tribute to the work of the early photographers working in America's national park lands; while at the same time illustrating a core value of the national park ideal... that nature's vistas within each park are seemingly unchanged since park designation.
Each image will be printed to the highest archival standards on fiber-based exhibition quality paper. Finished prints will be framed utilizing archival conservation methods and materials.
All original photography and print-making will be done by acclaimed American Photographer Mark Burns.
The National Park Foundation, the official charity of America's national parks, raises private funds that directly support and enrich America's nearly 400 national parks and their programs. Chartered by Congress in 1967 as the nonprofit partner of the National Park Service, the Foundation's philanthropic legacy truly began more than a century ago when private citizens took action to first establish, then protect and endow our national parks. They were people from all walks of life, united in their devotion to protect the places they love, and the places they knew would matter long into the future. Today, the National Park Foundation carries on that tradition as the only national charitable partner directly supporting the parks, playing a critical role in conservation and preservation efforts, establishing national parks as powerful learning environments, and giving all audiences an equal and abundant opportunity to experience, enjoy and support America's treasured places.
Basic exhibit display-space design will center around several free-standing units or inter- linked modular wall sections designed to allow entrance and exit visitor flow from the outer gallery into an interior display space. These modular units will vary in size according to the individual display space requirements of each exhibit area. The exterior and interior look of these modular 'rooms' will replicate the distinctive adobe, stone and wood architecture commonly found in America's historic national park buildings and out-buildings.
Most exhibit signage will replicate the dark brown wood with routed-out white lettering styled signs commonly used throughout the parks.
The year 2016 will mark the Centennial Anniversary of America's National Park Service. Few themes can match a venue more perfectly than America's rich national park & National Park Service history exhibited within a Presidential Library venue. Since Abraham Lincoln first signed the bill protecting the Yosemite Grant in 1864, Presidents and Congress have been integral in the creation of our national park system. The combination of America's grandiose scenic wonders, and a Centennial Anniversary make for a worthy and significant photography exhibition.
The exhibit will then be available to travel to potentially two to three additional presidential library venues, (or other suitable venues) during the next year (or more).
*The actual Centennial Anniversary year of the National Park Service is 2016.


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Programs Will Share Excitement of Mars Rovers
One Mars Orbiter Takes First Photos of Other Orbiters
LA's 'Big Squeeze' Continues, Straining Earthquakes
Map of Greater Los Angeles, depicting selected major faults and the region in northern metropolitan Los Angeles being squeezed by movements of Earth's tectonic plates.
New NASA research confirms that northern metropolitan Los Angeles is being squeezed at a rate of 5 millimeters (0.2 inches) a year, straining an area between two earthquake faults that serve as geologic bookends north and south of the affected region.
The compression of the Los Angeles landscape is being monitored by a network of more than 250 precision global positioning system receivers known as the Southern California Integrated Global Positioning System Network, as well as by measurements from interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) satellites operated by the European Space Agency.
Information from these two sources of precision ground deformation measurements is accumulating and enhancing our knowledge of the forces shaping the land surface in the Los Angeles region. These forces include motion along faults due to motions of the North American and Pacific tectonic plates and ground movement caused by human activities, such as oil drilling and pumping water into and out of local aquifers.
A team led by Dr. Donald Argus of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., that includes scientists from the University of California at Los Angeles, set out to distinguish between motions induced by human activity and those generated by movements of Earth's tectonic plates. Their results, recently published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, indicate the human-caused motions are very slow and could not account for the significant ground shift observed in northern Los Angeles.
The new study used space-based navigation to determine the exact position of hundreds of points around the metropolitan area to measure the strain building up across faults. Scientists believe the strain will ultimately be released in earthquakes much like the 1994 Northridge temblor. The study also suggests which faults might be most likely to rupture.
"These findings remove uncertainty about the rate at which strain is building up in northern metropolitan Los Angeles," Argus said. "In addition, by taking into account the effects of humans and observations from the many new global positioning system sites established in the past few years, we can identify the areas where strain is building the fastest."
He cautioned, however, that more studies are needed, since scientists do not yet fully understand the consequences and risks of this stress accumulation. "Nevertheless, these data have important implications for hazard management and retrofitting strategies," Argus said.
The study finds strain is rapidly accumulating within an area 12 to 25 kilometers (7.5 to 15.5 miles) south of the San Gabriel Mountains, primarily in the San Gabriel and San Fernando Valleys and nearby hills. The region is located between the Puente Hills fault, which begins south of downtown Los Angeles and extends east, and the Sierra Madre fault, which runs along the base of the San Gabriel Mountains.
The new analysis indicates the crust above the Los Angeles segment of the Puente Hills Fault is being squeezed the most. The finding suggests that the Puente Hills Fault and nearby faults in the area, such as the upper Elysian Park Fault, may be more likely to break than those elsewhere in metropolitan Los Angeles. Previous studies have estimated the Puente Hills Fault might generate an earthquake of magnitude 6.6 to 7.5.
The researchers constructed models of the accumulating strain, varying which faults "creep" (move continuously without producing earthquakes), how fast they creep, and the depths at which the faults go from being "locked" in place (and building strain) to creeping. The model that best fit their actual global positioning system observations is one where a thrust fault (a fault where one block of Earth shifts up or down relative to the other) is locked above 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) deep and creeps at about 9 millimeters (0.4 inches) a year beneath that depth. From that model, they inferred that the deep part of the Los Angeles segment of the Puente Hills Fault is creeping, as is a deep unknown buried fault east of downtown that lies north of the Whittier Fault and south of the Sierra Madre Fault. The model does not allow scientists to infer which fault segments are locked, however.
Argus said a significant discrepancy exists between the relatively shallow locking depth of their model and the historical record showing that earthquakes that struck the region in 1971 and 1994 were much deeper. Scientists speculate the discrepancy may be due to the presence of sediments filling parts of the Los Angeles basin. Further studies are planned to examine how these sediments may be affecting fault strain in the region.
The study used InSAR data collected from 1992 to 2000 from the European Space Agency's European Remote Sensing satellites to estimate vertical ground motion. Horizontal strain buildup measurements were made from Southern California Integrated Global Positioning System Network observations from 1994 to 2004.
JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Alan Buis (818) 354-0474
Erica Hupp/Dolores Beasley (202) 358-1237/1753
A New Plan for Keeping NASA's Oldest Explorers Going
From its perch on the international space station, NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-3 is gathering its very first CO2 data. It's also measuring plant 'glow. '
NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-3 Gets First Data
The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder aboard the Aqua satellite captured the storm as it was just south of Louisiana at around 2 p.m. local time.
NASA's AIRS Images Tropical Storm Barry Before Landfall
The mission produced a map of damage - the most substantial within a 6-mile area of Ridgecrest - caused by the pair of temblors that recently struck Southern California.


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(Re)visiting Fort Edmonton Park Part III: 1885 Street
On November 1, 2013 By lamarkewicz
Last Time: (Re)visiting Fort Edmonton Park Part II: 1905 Street
Dominion Day Bunting: I love the word "bunting". I find it a cheerful piece of vocabulary, although I also associate it the action of booting/kicking for some reason. These are also the colours of the British/Imperial flag, not a celebration of France or the United States, though some visitors do get confused. God save the Queen!
"A tourist's confusion. While I was taking this picture one of the other visitors made the comment about how the bunting (Not a permanent fixture, just a Dominion Day decoration) must be an homage to the French contingent of Canada's history. I'm fairly certain that it's just the colours of the Union Jack and not the French flag though, especially in a province that was named after a member of the British Royalty. Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, daughter of Queen Victoria who at the time was the 'Queen of Canada'."
Goal/Jail: People sometimes come to the park looking for ghosts. Ferkins House on 1905 street is often a target because Creepy Canada invented a ghost story there. Literally: they made up sources telling the story of a dead child and claimed that the artifact doll in the house belonged to him and was found to move around when no-one was there… even though that doll is from the City of Edmonton's artifact collection and is from an entirely different family, and the only resident who died while owning the house (I am told) perished in a car accident on the Yellowhead Highway in the 1970s. Not exactly the stuff of spooky Edwardian/Victorian ghost stories. Nevertheless, many visitors do come to the park looking for haunted houses. Apparently one visitor captured a "spirit" of a prisoner on film in the jailhouse here and sent the photo triumphantly to one of the park supervisors, not knowing that this building is a reconstruction from the 1980s.
I believe in ghosts – there are too many unexplained phenomena in the world for everything to have been explained by science, which as a discipline has really only been around for a few centuries – but I do not believe that any of the buildings on site are haunted. Ferkins House, in particular, is a very warm and cozy place and actually has a very friendly atmosphere. The jail is a bit creepier-looking, to be sure, but the handsome Mounties in their dapper uniforms always hang about there, so it can't be all that bad!
"No flatscreens here! This is the jail. Prisoners were given a cot and a bucket. My brother worked in the construction of a prison centre not too long ago and one of his jobs was installing a flatscreen tv in each cell. Far cry, eh?"
Not A Treasure Chest: There are quite a few of these travelling chests in the park. Some of them are actually behind the scenes and are used as storage. I found one trunk in the basement of one of the buildings on 1920s street (yes, many of them have basements) that contained old flyers and maintenance logs for the park from 1980s. Treasure chests indeed!
Don't Drink and Drive
"Taxi! Visitors to the park can hop a ride on the old fashioned horse drawn mode of transportation for an authentic 1880s street experience! It's fun ok. It will never not be fun whether I'm a little kid or in my twenties."
Horses for Hire
"All the Scary Horses. They actually do keep horses stabled in here. This is also where I got to practice my limited K-drama Korean with some South Korean tourists."
As Near to a Traffic Jam as the 1880s Can Get
"Busiest street in the park! Ok, so in terms of pedestrian traffic it wasn't the busiest but notice that there are two 'vehicles' on the road here. More than one automatically qualifies this as a Fort Edmonton traffic jam."
Your Chariot Awaits: Apparently the interpreters on 1885 street always have to chase people away from sitting in the artifact carriages. They're not up to as much wear and tear as visitors try to subject them to! The chicken coop in the left of the frame is also full of chickens and turkeys, who are also liable to be chased by children. Don't chase the turkeys, please!
"Wait, where are the chickens? I'm pretty sure I shouldn't be admitting this but I used to try my darnedest to catch the chickens that would amble around here when I was a kid. Maybe they're gone now due to too many unruly children chasing them?"
Glee Club: I can only assume that this is the Glee Club program. Some interpreters absolutely love it, others absolutely hate it. Though considering the presence of the Mountie and the fact that this photograph was taken on Dominion Day, perhaps I am mistaken and it was a special program. Singing seems to have been involved in some way, however.
Oh, and that megaphone? There are a handful on site, and they are one of several props that are shared between time periods. It can sometimes be a challenge to find (liberate) them for use in programming. Chalkboards and bicycles that can be used in multiple eras are also guarded jealously.
"God Save the Queen! I haven't heard the interpreters singing this before so I assume it was part of the Dominion Day festivities being held throughout the park. Also, as I mentioned earlier, it was over 30 degrees that day and these interpreters had to stand there all day dressed in heavy, modest period clothing all the while keeping a smile on their face. Respect."
Lining Up: That bakery used to be where the bread was sold in the park; now it's in the restaurant across the street in Jasper House. The Drug Store is now also a retail store that sells some candy, but it wasn't always so. Note the lovely, lovely shade provided by the trees on this street. I found a postcard from the 1970s or 1980s that showed a few of the street across the way, and it looks very similar except for the fact that there is no foliage whatsoever; the trees hadn't been planted yet.
"Favourite Street of the day. Why? Because there was shade and it was really, really hot out."
The Church of the Man Who Stole the Manito Stone: Ah, MacDougall's Church! Founded in 1871, it is the oldest building… in Edmonton, not on its original location. For a while many thought it was the oldest building still standing in Alberta, forgetting about the Father Lacombe chapel in St. Albert, not too far away (Edmonton and St. Albert had telephone service connecting them in the 1880s, not known for long distance telephone calls!), plus a few other building elsewhere, possibly one out by Smokey Lake? Of course, my British and French friends laugh at me when I describe this building from 1871 as one of the oldest buildings in the area. I have a friend whose family's summer house in Southern France in from the 1400s. Still: Macdougall's Church – a part of our history, etc.
MacDougall was also the man who took the sacred Manito stone (possibly a meteorite) away because it was encouraging non-Christian worship among the Cree.
"Preach it, Brother! When my brother and I were little we used to come here quite often with our homeschool group and each kid would be given a notebook of things we had to find, a historical fact we had to learn and write down, etc. At one point everyone piled into this church and while my mom wasn't looking my 8 year old brother climbed up to the pulpit. He got everyone's attention and began giving a 'sermon'."
The Fur Trade Continues: The fur trade didn't completely collapse after Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, started the trend for wearing silk top hats instead of beaver felt top hats in the 1850s, but by the final decades of the nineteenth century it wasn't what it used to be. Even after many fur trading posts gave way to settlements and retail stores, many places still had fur trading depots like the one on 1885 street. This building isn't fun to dust, let me tell you. The furs come in on donation and are generally artifacts or humanely trapped.
God Save the King/Queen: All of us interpreters know the song, but we have to be conscious of what time period we are in, lest we sing in praise the wrong monarch. In 1846 and 1885, it's Queen Victoria, but on 1905 Street it's King Edward and 1920s Street it's King George. For those of you who are just joining us; yes, Canada is still a constitutional monarchy. God save the Queen!
Icon of the West: The chuck wagons are quite iconic of Western settlement. This wagon actually serves as a visual signal to visitors coming from the fort that they are entering a new time period. It's also an "A" location, I believe, which means that it almost always has to be manned. Other "A" locations – where you can usually be sure of finding costumed interpreters – are places such as the Trade Store and the Big House in the Fort, Mellon Farm in 1920s Street, and Rutherford House and Tent City on 1905 Street.
Other Parts in this Series
Part I: 1920s Street (Or here on Kirsten's blog)
Part II: 1905 Street (Or here on Kirsten's blog)
Part IV: the 1846 Fort and the Return to 2013
Related Posts On Costumed Historical Interpretation and Fort Edmonton:
Challenging Visitors and Challenging Visitor Expectations
Immersive Visitor Involvement at Living History Museums, or, Blacksmithing and You!
Get Your Historical Driver's Licence Part I: Motorcars At Fort Edmonton
Beyond the Bob: 1920s Hairstyles for the Rapunzels Among Us
First Person Versus Third Person Interpretation
Where is Fort Edmonton?
1800s1880s1885AlbertaCanadaCanada is a constitutional monarchyCanadianaCostumed Historical InterpretationcostumesDominion of Canadaearly settlementEdmontoneducationFort EdmontonFort Edmonton Parkgod save the queenhistorical siteshistoryhorsesMuseumsVictorian
(Re)visiting Fort Edmonton Park Part II: 1905 Street
(Re)visiting Fort Edmonton Park Part IV: the 1846 Fort and the Return to 2013
3 thoughts on "(Re)visiting Fort Edmonton Park Part III: 1885 Street"
Adriel Michaud
My kids are finally old enough to appreciate the Fort and wow, there's a lot of stuff to do! You definitely need 5-6 hours to get into it.
lamarkewicz
You're totally right – you cannot get the full experience of Fort Edmonton in a single morning or afternoon!
Pingback: (Re)visiting Fort Edmonton Park Part IV: the 1846 Fort and the return to 2013 | History Research Shenanigans


Used to describe instruments played either by striking a membrane such as a drum or a piece of hard material such as wood, metal or plastic (for example, a cymbal), or by shaking (such as a tambourine). They can also be divided into instruments producing sounds of definite pitch such as tympani, and those that do not, such as the snare drum.
Information about tympani, sticks, drum sets, composers and miscellaneous topics.


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Explore pagan books, music, and rituals?
Be mentored by a long-time practicing pagan?
Then this group is for you!!!
I would love to come but live a little too far away. Any chance you can record these sessions?


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Johnson snatches Classic win
metrowebukmetroMonday 21 May 2007 10:45 am
US Masters champion Zach Johnson beat Japan's Ryuji Imada in a play-off to claim victory in the AT&T Classic at Sugarloaf in Duluth, Georgia.
The 31-year-old birdied the first extra hole, the 18th, to take the title after third-round leader Imada had found the water.
Johnson, whose two previous titles – including the Masters – also came in Georgia, carded a superb five-under-par 67 to force the play-off.
Johnson's chance for victory came when Imada fired his second shot on the par-five 18th into the water hazard just in front of the green.
"I admire (Imada's) courage in going for the shot," said Johnson. "I understand why he hit his shot.
"If it was a little bit right it may have carried on.
"We (then) thought about laying up but at the same time I had a perfect lie, perfect yardage. It was a pretty routine shot."
Camilo Villegas, Matt Kuchar and Troy Matteson finished tied for third at 12 under – three adrift of Johnson and Imada.
Ryuji ImadaZach Johnson
The Masters: Ali Carter responds to cheating accusations after John Higgins victory
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Here's an article on a topic that's near and dear to my heart. Black Tea: Covering the Basics, by Richard Goodness, is currently appearing in the latest monthly edition of Adagio Teas' Tea Muse newsletter.
To which Tea Guy says "here, here". While I like all kinds of teas and tea-like substances, black tea's the one that tends to really make me sit up and take notice.


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Danny Perez
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South TX Homies honor songwriter with release of 'Por Fin Decidí'
By Tejano Nation Jan 11, 2022
South TX Homiesreleased the new single "Por Fin Decidí" to all digital music platforms today from M Music Group.
The song is special to the Latin Grammy-nominated group, according to South TX Homies accordionistAnthony Treviñoas the release honors the songrwiter, who recently passed away.
"That song was given to us by a friend,Samuel Rubio, he didn't get to hear it completed. After he gave it to us about a month later he passed away," Treviño tellsTejano Nation. "So the song is kind of special. We had a lot of fun recording it. It's a great song, I like the little hooks in it and we're pretty excited for the new album. We got a lot of stuff going on and we're hyped up."
South TX Homies are currently working on their sophomore album, the follow up to their debut album,It's Time, released in March 2020 which earned a Latin Grammy nomination for Best Tejano Album last year.
"Man, no pressure right," Treviño said with a laugh. "I'm definitely feeling the pressure from that because you always got to figure out how to make the next album greater."
Lead vocalistAndrew Rodriguezhas penned songs for the upcoming album from the South TX Homies.
"He's written probably about four or five songs and we've gone over a few of them already and they're coming out really, really good." added Treviño. "I'm very excited for it, I think this album is definitely going to be a step up fromIt's Time."
The highly-anticipated sophomore album from South TX Homies is scheduled for release in Spring 2022. "Por Fin Decidí" is available to stream or download onall digital music platforms.
FollowTejano NationonFacebook, Twitter, andInstagram, and subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with everything Tejano. Listen to new Tejano music first with our playlists on Spotify and podcast oniHeartRadio.
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Why craft when you can eat?
I can't share too much since I still have to give this gift to the couple it is intended for, but I have a few detail shots to share. I will share the completed work on Friday when I talk about stepping outside your comfort zone to improve your skills. For now, I am just happy to be slowly getting back into my crafting/blogging rhythm. Thanks you all you loyal readers who are sticking out the busy craziness with me.
Gotta have fuel! Mmmmm sweet potatoes and ranch.
Clouds? Flowers? A lake? Who knows...you will have to come back later to see!


The stored procedure GENERATE_STATS gathers and stores the statistics of all the fields of a view (minimum value, maximum value, etc. of each field) and the number of rows of the view.
To gather these statistics, it executes a SELECT statement with several aggregation functions, in order to obtain statistics like the average size of each field, number of distinct values, etc.
If you want to gather and store the statistics of only some fields of the view, see the section GENERATE_STATS_FOR_FIELDS.
Users that have the Connect and Write privileges on this database.
Users that have the Connect privilege on this database and Write privilege on this view.


Dungeon Defenders 2 was on showcase at Sony's Playstation Experience, and we got a chance to play through one of the game's levels and talk a bit with the devs. Much like its predecessor, Dungeon Defenders 2 looks to not only improve on its own formula, but to move a whole genre forward.
Coming to both Steam and PS4, one of the biggest struggles to overcome is integrating good controller support. Thankfully, the control scheme ported perfectly to the Playstation, and Dungeon Defenders 2 handles like a dream on PS4. It was very easy to adjust to the hotkey-combinations and within moments, I was throwing up towers and laying down fire.
It's important to mix towers and character powers together to overcome the tougher waves.
The build I played featured several playable classes, including the monk, knight and mage. There's plenty of equipment options, and in talking to producer Adam Stow, I learned there's been a lot of changes to loot drops. Players will now be much more likely to receive loot they can use; for example, a mage won't play through a level and get nothing but knight's swords.
Also added in the game are environmental hazards, which the player can activate in order to hold off or destroy enemies. In the map I played, there were two carts, one that sprayed out ice shards in an area and another that launched fire. Managing each one, and their respective cooldowns, was vital to ensuring no enemies could breach your defenses.
The loot this time around is always useful, and there's no more loot rush – each drop is just for you.
One of the things that's always been entertaining about the Dungeon Defenders series is the freeform approach to tower construction. Foregoing the grid layout used by many tower defenses, Defenders lets you put towers up anywhere and at any angle, and that philosophy continues into Dungeon Defenders 2.
There were many hills and little areas that were clearly allocated for defense construction, but the opportunity to be inventive with tower layout was incredible. I was able to place towers in strange locations and at odd angles, and as long as it wasn't too crazy (like building it in out-of-bounds or spawn points) I could place it.
There's plenty of inventory and customization options for players to trick out their heroes with.
Speaking of spawn points, another issue that Stow told me the team specifically tried to address was spawn camping. Often times, it was fairly easy to put up towers at the enemy spawns and farm endlessly. Now, there is a forcefield in the immediate area of enemy spawns, so players can't simply pile all their resources into the front of the track and ignore the back half.
The game is still in Early Access on Steam, but Dungeon Defenders 2 looks to launch F2P on both PS4 and Steam in 2015.
For more on the PlayStation Experience, keep an eye on our coverage hub.


2L: "Perhaps the greatest single characteristic of Franz Schubert's Rosamunde Quartet (1823) is the elusive, longing and perhaps even tragically unconsummated atmosphere that pervades the entire work. Only in the Andante are we really allowed to relax in its peaceful serenity.
It is a tribute to Benjamin Britten's inherent "joie de vivre" that optimism and love triumph in his Second String Quartet (1945), composed just after the 2nd World War. The quartet reaches its emotional climax in the magnificent Chacony, a passacaglia with no less than 21 variations, inspired by Henry Purcell. Britten's 2nd string quartet received its premiere on the 21st November 1945, 250 years to the day after Henry Purcell's death.
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The alien on trial was cut off at the shore by one officer, who slipped and fell down the muddy embankment. As the officer was getting back onto his feet, he claimed that the Mexican national—who stood about eight feet away—reached into the murky water and pulled out a large rock, lifting it behind his back. The officer pulled his gun, yelling "Alto, alto" ("stop, stop"), before shooting the man in the hand and apprehending him.
Questions from the case included: Was the Mexican national attempting to enter the United States? Did he pull a rock out of the water? If he did, was he planning to use it as a weapon on the fallen officer? And was there enough available light enough to see this event clearly?
After a week of trial, the jurors were sent to a room to begin deliberations. I volunteered to be the foreman and was elected. The next three days involved intense debates. One female juror insisted on the defendant's innocence. She pointed out how the officers had inconsistent testimonies—each one saw the events from different places on the river—even though I felt the minor discrepancies showed how collusion was not in play.
In my opinion, her presuppositions—and her apparent control over two other jurors with whom she ate lunch every day—caused a hung jury, even though the evidence seemed clear to the other nine jurors that the charges were valid.
The facts in any court case are vital to determine whether or not something is true. To determine the case for Christianity, Paul provided evidence in 1 Corinthians 15. To support the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, Paul showed how Jesus "appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born."' If the resurrection is not true, then Christians "are of all people most to be pitied," Paul argued in verse 19.
An honest look at the evidence could be dangerous to anyone's presuppositions. Mormon Church founder Joseph Smith said, "One of the grand fundamental principles of 'Mormonism' is to receive truth, let it come from whence it may" (History of the Church 5:499). Second president Brigham Young explained, "Our doctrine and practice is, and I have made it mine through life—to receive truth no matter where it comes from" (Discourses of Brigham Young, p. 11).
It was this same Brigham Young who laid out an appropriate challenge: "Take up the Bible, compare the religion of the Latter-day Saints with it, and see if it will stand the test" (Discourses of Brigham Young, p. 126). Each person ought to ponder the claims of the Bible and see how its teachings coincide with one's personal presuppositions. Other faith systems, including Islam, Buddhism, and even Mormonism, ought to also be considered. Everyone should make a critical examination of the different faiths, taking into consideration the history and doctrines. Is the religion under scrutiny internally consistent? Does it coincide with the way things really are? And does the evidence point to the truthfulness of this particular belief system?
"In order to know that the Book of Mormon is true, a person must read, ponder, and pray about it. The honest seeker of truth will soon come to feel that the Book of Mormon is the word of God" (Preach My Gospel, 2004, p. 38).
"A 14-year-old boy recently said to me a little hesitantly, 'Brother Holland, I can't say yet that I know the Church is true, but I believe it is.' I hugged that boy until his eyes bulged out. I told him with all the fervor of my soul that belief is a precious word, an even more precious act, and he need never apologize for 'only believing.'" ("Lord, I Believe," Ensign, May 2013, p. 94).
Psychological desires to accept the LDS gospel—such as wanting to please LDS friends and family—could lead someone to accept a religious system that is not supported by the evidence. Is it possible that good feelings could contradict what God has already provided in His Word? If this is the case, shouldn't these subjective feelings be questioned? Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" Proverbs 14:12 warns, "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death," while Proverbs 28:26 adds that only fools trust in their hearts.
A person who bases his or her entire belief system on the facts—including the juror who insisted on video evidence—is a Rationalist. This means that nothing can be accepted as true unless the facts can be empirically proven.
It is impossible to support the existence of God, the veracity of the Bible, and the belief that salvation comes by grace through faith based on empirical (sensory) testing. As one philosopher put it, a "leap of faith" is required.
"Ultimately, it's the responsibility of jurors to reach a verdict. That doesn't mean they have one-hundred-percent certainty, because we can't have absolute proof about anything in life. In a trial, jurors are asked to weigh the evidence and come to the best possible conclusion" (p. 18).
Some people—including the juror I described above—seem to be fideistic in their outlook. Fideism can be explained as a faith that ignores any evidence that may contradict a religious system. Having a faith that is limited to the conclusions of a particular religion is a difficult position. The Mormon is required to insist that Joseph Smith was a true prophet and the Book of Mormon is historical scripture, even though the evidence seems strong in opposition to both of these assertions. While the Bible encourages faith, it must be understood that "blind faith" is not required. Paul admonished the believers to "test everything" (1 Thess. 5:21) and emphasized studying the Bible (2 Timothy 2:15; Acts 17:11). By considering the evidence, it is possible to possess a reasonable faith.
Without discerning the evidence, it would be impossible to determine if a system is true or false. But our understanding of information should never be the final step in accepting truth. And the here-today-gone-tomorrow feelings that everyone has should never be the litmus test for truth. Unfortunately, Mormonism requires its people and potential converts to accept the LDS gospel despite the fact that its foundations appear contrary to the truth. As Christians, we are commanded to have a reasonable faith that coincides with truth and the way things really are. This truly is a leap into the light and is a faith worth having.