text:
A woman was beaten at a marketplace in India by men who attempted to molest her. The victim of the assault has reportedly threatened to shoot herself if her attackers are not brought to justice
Video of the incident, which took place in Uttar Pradesh in India's Mainpuri district, shows the woman in a brawl with a group of men when another man approaches with a large stick and proceeds to strike her with it.
The woman reportedly asked men at the market for directions before they attempted to grope her and remove her dupatta (head covering). When she resisted, she was beaten with a stick and the men shouted abusive language at her.
The woman's husband was also struck, according to the reports, while her daughter witnessed the incident.
In the video, the woman can be seen bleeding and is reported to have sustained head injuries. She registered a complaint with police and reportedly threatened to shoot herself if the culprits were not arrested.
Three people are being sought by police in relation to the incident, an official told The Indian Express. One of the suspects, Anand Yadav, was arrested Wednesday morning.
Earlier this month, a 10-year-old schoolgirl suffered burns to 60 percent of her body after kerosene was poured on her. She told police she had been resisting rape by two men at the time.
Minor girl who was set ablaze for resisting rape, dies 15 dicembre 2016
Woman beaten with stick in India for resisting sexual assault 22 Dec, 2016
Three men have been arrested for shooting at the mother of a 15-year-old rape victim in south Delhi's Jamia Nagar, with the police saying that they were involved with the conspiracy to frame the rape accused due to rivalry.
Delhi: 3 arrested for shooting at mother of a 15-year-old rape victim in Jamia Nagar PTI | December 30, 2016
Alleging police inaction and improper investigation, the distraught family of a teenaged girl who was raped and murdered by her friend in Haryana's Sonipat district last month, has sought permission from President Pranab Mukherjee for self-immolation.
The family has written a letter to the President, highlighting the inaction of Haryana Police officials in investigating the rape and murder of the 17-year-old victim, the victim's father said on Friday. The family has sought a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the case.
The family wrote to the President after, they alleged, they were not allowed to meet Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar in Gohana town recently.
The father, who belongs to Bhanderi village in Sonipat district, alleged that the police had even failed to recover the body of his daughter despite pleas from the family.
The victim, a first-year science student, has been missing since November 12 after she left for her college.
Police, as per the victim's mobile phone call records, found that the last call made from her phone was to her male friend Vikram, resident of a nearby village.
The victim's family claimed that Vikram was called by police during its investigation but was allowed to go despite claims by the family that he was behind her rape and murder. The family's claims were based on statements of the wife of a local hotel owner who told them that the girl was raped and murdered in the hotel by Vikram.
The accused is absconding since then.
Following protests by the family and fellow villagers, the station house officer of Baroda police station was suspended and the Haryana Police announced a reward of Rs 50,000 for any information on Vikram.
District police officers have admitted to "lapses" in investigation of the case.
Haryana: Family of raped, murdered girl seeks Prez permission to self-immolate INDIA Dec 30, 2016
INDORE: Police on Friday arrested two men for raping a 12-year-old girl in Banganga area. The girl was so traumatised that she fled her home and returned two days later after hunger got better of her.
Two held for raping 12-year-old girl in Indore Karishma Kotwal| TNN | Dec 30, 2016
30-year-old woman killed by her nephew after rape attempt 31 dicembre 2016
35-year-old maid raped, murdered in Nepal 29 dicembre 2016
45-year-old maid gang-raped by a family of lawyers for 3 months 29 dicembre 2016
32-year-old woman gang-raped In Delhi 29 dicembre 2016
25-year-old nurse gang-raped in a private hospital by 3 staff members 27 dicembre 2016
22-year-old gang-rape victim committed suicide 27 dicembre 2016
4-year-old girl brutally raped and murdered in Jharkhand 24 DICEMBRE 2016
13-old-girl raped, hanged to a tree 20 dicembre 2016
Girl gang raped in Amethi dead in hospital 20 dicembre 2016
3-year-old girl raped, killed by 2 teens in Mumbai 26 dicembre 2016
7-year-old girl raped, dumped in a thicket 24 dicembre 2016
Man sentenced to death for raping, killing of 3-and-a-half-year-old girl 24 dicembre 2016
Migrant worker raped, murdered 85-year old woman 24 dicembre 2016
Minor girl raped by her 2 cousins 22 dicembre 2016
10-year-old girl raped by 28-year-old married neighbour for 3 years 21 dicembre 2016
5-year-old girl raped by 50-year-old man in Delhi 20 dicembre 2016
40-year-old held for kidnap, rape, murder of minor 22 dicembre 2016
13-year-old girl commits suicide after being raped in Rajshahi 18 dicembre 2016
15-year-old girl kidnapped, drugged, gang-raped in Delhi 18 dicembre 2016
Woman gang-raped by her husband and his friends in Jharkhand 17 dicembre 2016
20-year-old student raped, murdered, burnt in Jharkhand
India's rape epidemic 26 dicembre 2016
The Child Rape Capital Of India 18 dicembre 2016
10-year-old girl raped on panchayat's order in Pakistan 17 DICEMBRE 2016
35-year-old disabled woman raped, stabbed to death 29 dicembre 2016
15-year-old girl gang-raped by 9 men in Afghanistan 30 dicembre 2016
Malaysian teens gang-raped by 38 men What happened to them? 26 dicembre 2016
"Secret Slave" Kidnapped and abused for 13 years 29 DICEMBRE 2016
"Broken and Betrayed" "Violated" The true story of the Rotherham Abuse Scandal 29 DICEMBRE 2016
21-year-old kidnapped, raped a child girl, sold her as a prostitute 30 DICEMBRE 2016
Sequestra e violenta due ragazze, arrestato 23enne 30 DICEMBRE 2016
12-year-old girl kidnapped, tortured, abused in the woods 29 DICEMBRE 2016
Mum brutally raped by sick rapist 'break the silence' for all victims 19 DICEMBRE 2016
61-year-old man kidnapped, raped, murdered transgender student 10 DICEMBRE 2016
Serial abductor child rapist monster arrested 6 dicembre 2016
Gang Rape Nightmare 25 NOVEMBRE 2016
14-year-old girl forced into prostitution gang-raped by 8 25 novembre 2016
13-year-old girl kidnapped, sold, raped for 5 months 22 dicembre 2016
SOLD Power elite and human trafficking 21 DICEMBRE 2016
Fighting Human Trafficking and Modern Slave Trade 21 DICEMBRE 2016
Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2016 #EndHumanTrafficking 27 DICEMBRE 2016
Evil pensioner 'raped at least 108' including 9-year-old girl 18 DICEMBRE 2016
35 more women victims of the "Grim Sleeper" serial killer 24 DICEMBRE 2016
Serial child rapist abused more than 100 kids over decades 29 dicembre 2016
Child Porn Addiction 29 dicembre 2016
Porn Addicted Rapists 19 27 dicembre 2016
Primary school headmaster raped 4 child girls 26 DICEMBRE 2016
OPERATION DARKROOM Norway's massive pedophile ring 25 DICEMBRE 2016
OPERATION PACIFIER Hacking the Dark Web 25 DICEMBRE 2016
Incubo Pedofilia 15 dicembre 2016
Footbal Sexual Abuse Apocalypse DECEMBER 2, 2016
#Pizzagate: the Pedophile Ring exposed by Podesta's Emails NOVEMBER 27, 2016
CHILD RAPISTS 31 27 dicembre 2016
SERIAL RAPISTS 5 27 dicembre 2016
Sex abuse at deaf school, what Vatican knew 23 DICEMBRE 2016
Transgender Revolution 24 DICEMBRE 2016
Ti piace
Etichette: gang rape, India, rape, rape culture, sexual assault, stupro


This might be the 3rd full-length release from this Swiss band (there has also been a 2003 demo and a 2007 split w/Vancouver released by Zatokrev) , but it's new to these ears. My first instinct was to skip over this one because of that album art. It was simply a case of second guessing myself as I looked over the band's name and the album art. Not only are there deep piles of promos waiting for me on Haulix, but all throughout my inbox and I'm not even going to get into the physical CDs sitting here! So, taking a ride along with any band's promo is dealer's choice anymore (especially since I'm the one hanging around the offices of Heavy Metal Time Machine these days) so this odd one took a back seat for awhile. Here it is the weekend though and the band's style (dubbed "sludge-apocalypse") is staring me in the face. So what if it's all new to me"? Variety is the spice of life and death so this hour long album (which features lyrics sung in English, Czech, and Slovak) was the soundtrack to my life. Or at least it was for a very short while. Now, our good friends over at The Metal Archives say that this Swiss band's name translates to "Blood For This". After an hour spent listening to this mood metal it's fair enough to say that blood could very well be spilled by this band/album if not for this band/album. It was all I could do to keep a level head during this mood-altering, let's go ahead and walk into hell soundtrack. It's rather depressing to say the least. It's sludge/doom/death with black metal rasps. Did I mention how dark and dismal the material is? Well, it's all that and then some. Certainly not the kind of thing you want to listen to if you're just getting over a broken heart or your puppy has died so be warned. Otherwise it's nice and creepy, even sinister really. It doesn't so much crawl toward you as it does ooze. It's all things blacked and ugly for people who like music that's even colder and sadder then doom metal is. If that sounds good then by all means this soundtrack to a nightmare awaits you.


Home / FAQ / Customer Survey / What Participation Percentage Can I Expect From a Customer Survey?
What Participation Percentage Can I Expect From a Customer Survey?
Participation in a customer survey will vary based on a variety of factors. One key factor is the survey deployment method. In person interviews, while extremely time consuming and expensive, have a high response rate, while paper-based surveys have a low response rate of usually less than 10 percent.
Telephone surveys have a high response rate of 30 percent or more, but they are time consuming and expensive. While some companies have attempted to use interactive voice response (IVR) systems to conduct telephone surveys, most customers do not respond as well as they do when a trained individual conducts the survey.
Online surveys typically enjoy a response rate of about 25 percent and a low deployment cost, which makes online surveys an ideal method for a customer survey under most circumstances. However, beware of using free or inexpensive online survey tools that don't provide sufficient guidance for inexperienced survey designers. You will achieve better results working with a team of professionals with the expertise to ensure effective design and the psychological training to interpret the results of a customer survey correctly.


After 10 years of trying, I finally won the lottery for a private, 16-person rafting trip in the Grand Canyon. Two weeks into our journey down the Colorado River, we were still craning our necks upward to gaze in wonder at rust-colored cliffs that loomed like castles. While the views from our rafts were stunning and never grew old, the terrain was equally amazing along the many side trails we hiked.
Whether you join a private rafting trip in the Grand Canyon, or go with a commercial outfitter, you'll likely leave the boat occasionally to explore side canyons and nearby bluffs. While some hikes follow trails, others are more adventurous and require you to scale rock walls and swim through grotto pools. For the most part, the treks are a mile or less, but there are trails that wind for miles.
Of the dozen or so hikes we took, the following six were some of our favorites and cover a wide variety of features, from massive waterfalls to ancient granaries to cascading streams the color of turquoise.
While many Grand Canyon hikes visit exotic canyons and waterfalls, this short walk takes you back in time. On river left, a short approach trail hugs the canyon wall and leads to a small man-made tunnel that dates to the 1940s. Back then, there was a proposal to build a dam on the Colorado River in Marble Canyon for hydroelectric power, and engineers bored this tunnel to test the bedrock. Wearing a headlamp, you can walk comfortably through the rough stone passageway, which measures about 6 feet wide and 7 feet high. In spring or summer, the tunnel is noticeably cooler than outside temperatures, and water sometimes floods the floor. As you examine old sheets of metal and other implements left behind by workers, consider this: if Martin Litton and other Sierra Club members hadn't successfully opposed the dam, much of the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon would be nothing more than a trickle.
Nine hundred years ago, Pueblo Indians stored grain in the cliffs beside the Colorado River to protect it from animals and rival communities. To see one of these granaries up close, you can take a one-mile hike that begins at the large Nankoweap campsite. Beginning in the brush near the beach, a path climbs more than 500 feet to the base of a five-room granary that is remarkably well preserved. While people flock to this trail to see the granaries, they also hike it for the remarkable view of the river about two-thirds of the way up. From a rock outcrop high on the bluff, you can see straight down the canyon for several miles.
Among the many spectacular spots in the Grand Canyon, one of the most striking is the place where the Little Colorado River flows into the Colorado River around mile 61. When you exit your raft, you'll walk a well-worn path that hugs the turquoise waters of the Little Colorado. Filled with high levels of calcium carbonate, the water takes on a milky-blue hue that seems otherworldly, and you can understand why the Hopi believe this is where people moved between the Earth and the spiritual realm. If you walk a quarter mile up the river, you'll reach a shallow set of rapids where you can don your PFD like a diaper (for protection), and slide through the 70-degree water, slipping between boulders and finally floating in a large eddy. After you've gone solo, try it with a whole chain of fellow rafters.
In spring and summer, the Grand Canyon is primarily a hot, dry place the color of rust. But, you'll find cool, lush microclimates in some of the side canyons, such as Elves Chasm. From the bank of the river, you'll walk about a mile, scrambling over boulders and slick travertine rock, as water tumbles through the drainage. Then, you'll drop into a hallway that narrows and dead ends at a waterfall that slides down rocks draped with bright green foliage. If you're feeling adventurous, you can enter a small cave at the base of the waterfall and scramble up through a dark shaft to reach a small platform of stone. From this perch you can leap into the shallow pool below.
You don't have to walk far to see one of the most impressive waterfalls in the canyon. Just yards from the beach, Deer Creek Falls drops 150 feet into an alcove, and you can easily access the base of the falls and snap an awesome picture. From here, a steep path crawls up the bluff and then hugs the rim of a slot canyon. As you follow the edge of the chasm, the trail seems dangerously narrow in spots, and jutting rocks force you to carefully shuffle ahead. However, the payoff at the end of the hike is worth it, as you're greeted by a blue cascading stream that flows through a winding stone passageway. If you hop down into the stream and walk a few yards, you'll reach a perfect picture spot where you can stand before boulders that frame a small waterfall in the background.
From the get-go, the journey through Havasu Creek is impressive, as you park your boats at the mouth of a narrow canyon with chalky white walls and turquoise water. After wading through chest-deep water, you'll climb a rock outcrop and begin a 4-mile hike to Beaver Falls. For most of the walk, you'll skirt an iridescent blue stream that forms powerful cascades and plunges into large pools. Not far into the hike, you'll scramble over boulders and climb up through a short rocky tunnel. Then the trail runs through high brush, thickets of trees and natural rock shelters, eventually crossing the stream several times. Near the 4-mile mark, you reach Beaver Falls, where water plows through a notch and drops into a vast pool.
You can't just see them once, you have to go back!


W.W. Wedderburn Pty Limited has taken all reasonable care to produce information that is accurate, however, we cannot guarantee that it is free from errors, omissions or is suitable for your intended use.
W.W. Wedderburn Pty Limited recommends that before you act on any information on this site you seek independent advice as we shall not be responsible for loss, damage, cost or expense (whether direct or indirect) incurred by you as a result of any error, omission or misrepresentation in any information on this site.
You may download the information provided on this website for your own personal use or in order to inform others about it, but you may not reproduce or modify the information contained on, or referred to in, this web site without written express permission by W.W. Wedderburn Pty Limited.
Some equipment items may only be available in some states or branches. Please make sure to read the information about the particular equipment item to ensure it is available from the state/branch you require it.


text:
Arts/Literature, Philosophy, Psychology/Education, Spirituality/Music, Theology
Hip Hop Mysticism
Posted on June 26, 2011 by erik buys
Three years ago, in 2008, I lost a very dear friend who was also my mentor: Rev. Michaël Ghijs, a priest and conductor of Schola Cantorum Cantate Domino, the choir I have been a member of for nearly 20 years. I remember going through all kinds of different emotions while preparing and rehearsing songs for the funeral. One state of mind prevailed, however, one of great gratitude.
This was enhanced by a particular experience which, in hindsight, contained the seeds of a new and unexpected discovery. The weeks after the funeral I became acquainted with the spiritual power of hip-hop, rap and r&b music – by spiritual I mean the power this music sometimes has to address the paradoxes and complexities of 'reality'. You might ask how that came about. Well, the days before the funeral I was also involved in a creative project at the Jesuit high school where I'm teaching religion. Together with one of our music teachers and a disparate 'bunch' of younger pupils I don't actually teach, I had prepared an acoustic arrangement of Heaven, a hit love song by Canadian rocker Bryan Adams. The night of the 'concert' (actually a 'happening' with all sorts of dramatic acts) I went from rehearsing for the funeral to the stage at our school and back. I didn't even bother my bike got stolen during the process.
Everything I experienced during those days was of an immense intensity. My senses were sharpened. That partic ular night was a high point in that respect. We performed the song Heaven at our beautiful little Baroque church. Laura accompanied on the piano, introducing first singer Sandra – a 'black beauty' who sounds like pop diva Alicia Keys. At the same time I kind of improvised a second voice – falsetto during the verses and then a 'bass line' each time the chorus kicked in. Tim took over for the second verse, while Soufiane led the 'backing vocals' together with Mieke, my colleague. The so-called 'bridge' was sung by Angela and Charlotte, two Philippine girls testifying that they indeed belonged to a 'singing nation'.
It was a wonderful moment, and one of great comfort to me. I'll always be very grateful for what that 'bunch' of young people gave me that evening. The way Rev. Michaël Ghijs always tried to make young people discover their own gifts and talents was present right there. In allowing me and the audience to hear their voices, the eleven, twelve and thirteen year olds brought a message of hope to this world. It was a moment of sheer beauty. They sang, not to 'gain' anything, not because it was 'useful' in any way, but because they received the opportunity to 'be', to 'shine' and to 'enjoy'. In the weeks that followed I more and more discovered how Rev. Michaël Ghijs had been a model for me, and how much I imitated him in dealing with youngsters. Both some of my qualities and flaws can be attributed to him, and I'm willing to accept these flaws because I know they come from someone I love. So it's definitely true I learned a lot from my mentor, but I also learned, and keep on learning, a lot from my pupils – and maybe this willingness to learn from youngsters can also be traced back to how Rev. Michaël Ghijs related to his choristers.
Working together with Laura and Sandra, for example, opened me up to the fascinating world of hip-hop and r&b. They both performed a song by Alicia Keys. Surprisingly perhaps, I discovered traces of Christian mysticism in this music.
So, in this post, I'll try to point out some 'mystical elements' in the world of hip-hop and r&b. I'm guided by two articles on hip-hop and a course by Thomas Merton (1915-1968) on Christian mysticism:
– Alison Burke, A Deeper Rap – Examining the Relationship between Hip-Hop, Rap and Adolescent Spirituality (New Zealand Journal of Counselling 2008; Volume 28/2; p.25-40).
– Christina Zanfagna, Under the Blasphemous W(RAP): Locating the "Spirit" in Hip-Hop (Pacific Review of Ethnomusicology, Vol.12 – Fall 2006).
– Thomas Merton, An Introduction to Christian Mysticism – Initiation into the Monastic Tradition 3, Cistercian Publications, Kalamazoo, Michigan, 2008 (Monastic Wisdom Series: Number Thirteen; edited with an introduction by Patrick F. O'Connell; preface by Lawrence S. Cunningham).
1. MYSTICAL UNION AS A TRANSFORMATION OF LIFE
THROUGH BAPTISMAL VOCATION AND MARTYRDOM
Thomas Merton starts off with a definition of The Oxford Dictionary to describe the mystic person. – Merton, p.29: What is a "mystic"? {The} Oxford Dictionary says: "An exponent of mystical theology; also, one who maintains the importance of this – one who seeks by contemplation and self-surrender to obtain union with or absorption in the deity, or who believes in the spiritual apprehension of truths inaccessible to the understanding."
It is important to stress how this self-surrender should be understood. It does not imply masochism or the glorification of suffering ('dolorism') in any way. Merton refers to the martyrdom of Polycarp to make clear martyrdom is not something we should 'seek deliberately'. As far as contemporary Christian thinkers are concerned, next to Thomas Merton also René Girard is right for having pointed out possible misunderstandings of Christian sacrifice and martyrdom. – Merton, p.45: Martyrdom is a gift of God – it must not be sought deliberately by our own will (see Martyrdom of Polycarp, c.4; Fathers of {the} Church, Apostolic Fathers, p.153 – [Footnote here: This chapter mentions one who "had forced himself and some others to come forward voluntarily" and then apostasized; it concludes, "For this reason, therefore, brethren, we do not approve those who give themselves up, because the Gospel does not teach us this."]). But it should be accepted with humility and joy when God offers it as a great gift.
In the introduction to Merton's course on Christian Mysticism, Patrick F. O'Connell elaborates on this issue and makes clear how Christian sacrifice and self-surrender should be understood as a change in the way people lead their lives (and not in a simple 'replacement' by one life through the destruction of another). – Merton, Introduction, p.xxiv-xxv: […] It is only through dying to the alienated, sinful self and rising to new life with and in the resurrected Christ that one shares in the divine life of Trinitarian love. Asceticism is initially identified, based on Mark 8:34, with taking up one's cross (19) through self-denial and following Christ, and is linked to martyrdom as a participation in Christ's death and resurrection that in Ignatius of Antioch becomes an early articulation of mystical union (43). But the paschal journey is not restricted to the literal surrender of life in physical martyrdom: this pattern must be reproduced in any authentic Christian spiritual life. As Merton summarizes, what the martyr undergoes physically every Christian must undergo spiritually.
The pattern of the 'paschal journey' as a 'change of life' is sacramentally sealed and established by baptism. – Merton, p.46: Martyrdom is a second baptism. It is the perfect fulfillment of our baptismal vocation. In baptism we die to the world and rise in Christ sacramentally. In martyrdom we do so in all truth. To baptize is to symbolically communicate that every human being has a vocation to live a life that is not guided by envy, jealousy and self-assertion (which are the building blocks of what the Gospel calls the life of 'this world').
In short, the mystical experience as an experience of union with God through Christ is a liberating experience, not in the sense that our 'earthly' and 'bodily' conditions are destroyed, but in the sense that these conditions are transformed by being directed at their ultimate goal. Because we are conditioned by the limits of a bodily, mortal life we didn't choose for ourselves, we are able to experience ourselves and the whole of reality as a gift handed over to us ('beyond our will'). So before we can ask how something or someone can be useful to us, we are confronted with the fact that everything and everyone simply 'is' – even if we don't 'need' the things and neighbors we are confronted with. The ultimate goal therefore, from a mystical 'point of view', is precisely to creatively preserve everything handed over to us. In this sense mysticism has to do with a non-utilitarian attitude towards nature and respect for the ecosystem. It also implies valorizing others because of who they are, not because of their eventual 'usefulness'.
Theologically speaking, this means discovering these others as 'imitations' or 'images' of Christ – Him being understood as One revealing our true nature as belonging to and shaped by others and, ultimately 'the' Other (likewise: 'Christ belongs to his Father' and is an 'imitation' of his 'Father'). – Merton, p.128: The logos of a man is therefore something hidden in him, spiritual, simple, profound, unitive, loving, selfless, self-forgetting, oriented to love and to unity with God and other men in Christ. It is not an abstract essence, "rationality plus animality." It is however the divine image in him. More deeply it is Christ in him, either actually or potentially. To love Christ in our brother we must be able to see Him in our brother, and this demands really the gift of theoria physike [p.127: Theoria is contemplation of the splendor of divine wisdom in Christ with nature [Elias] on one side and law [Moses] on the other, both looking to Him as to their fulfillment. In the full development of theoria they both disappear and we see Christ alone.] Christ in us must be liberated, by purification, so that the "image" in us, clothed anew with light of the divine likeness, is able connaturally to recognize the same likeness in another, the same tendency to love, to simplicity, to unity. Without love this is completely impossible.
In other words, to become imitators of Christ means to become loving human beings, and love seeks to be 'materialized', 'incarnated'. It means to valorize our body and our material, natural world to its full potential. True Christian mysticism therefore is not manicheistic, it doesn't separate the 'soul' from the 'body' or 'earth' and 'heaven' in a Cartesian, dualistic split.
Merton, p.128: […] the vision given by theoria physike shows us that all creatures are good and pure. This is the first thing, the complement of the active detachment in apatheia. Evagrius declares, following the desert tradition (especially St. Anthony) that "nothing created by God is evil", and St. Maximus adds, "nothing created is impure."
Merton, p.127: Von Balthasar says: "The meaning of each natural thing and the meaning of every law and commandment is to be an Incarnation of the divine Word; to realize fully its proper nature or its proper law is to cooperate fully in the total realization of the Word in the world".
2. THE MYSTICAL MEANING OF THE LANGUAGE OF THE SENSES:
SPIRITUALITY AT THE 'CROSSROADS'
Pseudo-Denys the Areopagite (5th, 6th century AD) was the first to use the term Theologia Mystica (Merton, p.136). The adjective 'mystical' was first used by Clement (c.150-c.215) and Origen (185-254), and their understanding of the word already makes clear the close connection between mysticism and theology. – Merton, p.67-68: The Greek classical term, mystikos, refers to the hidden rites of the mystery religions – not to a hidden experience, but to the mystery which is revealed only to the initiates and through which they pass. […] Christian use of the term mystic (mystikos): Clement and Origen take over the pagan term and use it in reference to the spiritual (mystical or typological) sense of Scripture. For them the mystical sense is the real sense. To discover the mystical sense is to penetrate to the real meaning of revelation and hence to penetrate into the hidden things of God, the mystery of Christ. This mystery, the mysterion of the Cross, is the central reality of all cosmic life: the salvation of the world, the recapitulation of all in Christ. Hence […] the "gnostic" is the man who has entered into the "mystical" understanding of Scripture. Originally, the mystical sense of Scripture is: (a) that which points to Christ; (b) that which deals with invisible realities of faith; (c) that which is spiritual and not carnal, i.e. not involved in {the} "letter" of the Law and of Scripture. It cannot be too often repeated that this "mystical sense" of Scripture is not a hidden idea about God or a mere complex of difficult or secret truths. It is a reality experienced and lived. One might say that for the Fathers the letter tended to be doctrine and law, the spirit tended to be reality and life. Their theology was therefore not simply constructed with the literal elements of revelation, or of God revealed in the mystery of Christ. Hence it is clear that already to enter into the mystical sense or real sense of Scripture, which is interior and spiritual, one must "die to" the letter, to the exterior and apparent meaning; one must "go beyond", one must "stand outside" (ekstasis) the apparent meaning. This does not necessarily imply a strict opposition between the letter and the spirit, but simply a fulfillment of the letter in the spirit.
In other words, the ultimate goal of studying the Scripture is to be able to experience life 'in Christ'. Merton seems very much in line with the earliest traditions of Christian mysticism when he warns against a separation of 'mystical experience' and 'theological inquiry':
Merton, p.65: [The treatment of divinization by the Fathers in the Anti-Arian controversy] makes very clear the close relationship between mysticism and theology. In a certain sense it shows them to be one and the same thing. By "mysticism" we can mean the personal experience of what is revealed to all and realized in all in the mystery of Christ. And by "theology" we mean the common revelation of the mystery which is to be lived by all. The two belong together. There is no theology without mysticism (for it would have no relation to the real life of God in us) and there is no mysticism without theology (because it would be at the mercy of individual and subjective fantasy).
Theological study forces us to reorient our focus towards 'revelation'. It draws our attention to something we didn't create ourselves. We didn't write the Bible and we didn't create the Christian tradition. Therefore theological study is a preparation, a spiritual exercise to guide our attention towards 'the Other' – and therefore also towards our neighbors, approached, not as 'objects' of our practical concerns (by which we are only interested in others insofar as they respond to the needs we create for ourselves) but as 'irreducible beings'. The more you get to 'know' someone else in the sense that you lovingly experience his or her 'being', the more you might want to develop a language to express, share and communicate that experience. The ongoing theological articulation of Christianity not only tries to do this, but it also establishes the fact that the experience of the God of Christ, of Love itself, is ultimately not communicable. However, to realize the irreducible character of God we should – paradoxically – continue to develop our language! So-called 'spiritual' or 'mystical' experiences that are used to dismiss responsibility for the development of theological dialogue and that are used to disguise actual intellectual laziness should be questioned at any time. Patrick F. O'Connell explains Merton's view on the connection between the experience of love (mystical union) and the desire to study and 'know' the Christian theological traditions:
Merton, Introduction, p.xxvi: Merton much preferred the idea maintained in his own Cistercian tradition, that love was itself a way of knowing ("Amor ipse notitia est" [84]) to any sharp dichotomizing of knowledge and love. Though he made no pretensions to being a systematic theologian himself, Merton makes clear in these lectures that he considers solid systematic theology neither a threat nor a distraction to contemplation, but its vitally necessary foundation.
So, no dualistic 'Cartesian split' between 'body' and 'soul', 'earth' and 'heaven', 'theology' and 'mysticism'. This desire to transcend manicheistic tendencies once again becomes very clear in the way mystics make use of the language of the senses to convey a glimpse of their deeply felt spiritual experience. – Merton, p.82: […] the experience of God by the spiritual senses is in fact more direct and more immediate than the perception of a sensible object by the bodily senses. The mystic has to appeal to ordinary sense experience in order to attempt to express an experience which is ineffable because even more immediate than an experience by the exterior senses. We must understand when the mystic says he is "touched" by God it means that he experiences not only something analogous to a bodily touch but far more, in a spiritual order, which cannot be expressed directly.
Already in the Bible 'spiritual bliss' is expressed in 'earthly' realities. – Merton, p.83: […] It is quite true that when the Bible wishes to express the experience of God it is always in the language of the senses. But at the same time we must realize that there must be a distinction between genuinely spiritual experience which is eo ipso not sensible, and an interior spiritual experience in which the senses (of the body or at least the interior senses) have a part. [See Ps. 33 (34):9.]
Merton sees no dichotomization between the 'bodily' and 'spiritual' senses. – Merton, p.91: Mystical experience is spiritual, and it reaches the senses in a spiritual way through and in the spirit. The "spiritual senses" are thus the senses themselves, but spiritualized and under the sway of the spirit, rather than new spiritual faculties. Also interesting in this regard is Merton's reference to Gregory Palamas (1296-1359): Merton, p.91-92: {See} Gregory Palamas, The Defense of the Holy Hesychasts (tr. In French by Meyendorff): "That which takes place in the body coming from the soul filled with spiritual joy, is a spiritual reality even though it is active in the body" (Meyendorff I:334-5). "The spiritual joy that comes from the spirit into the body is not at all corrupted by communion with the body, but transforms the body and makes it spiritual" (id.). Such spiritual activities do not carnalize the spirit but "deify the body" (id. 342-43).
On the other hand, Merton also warns against an 'unordered' use of the senses. – Merton, p.135-136: […] when sense attains to the material object, the spirit attains to the spiritual logos of that object and the sense pleasure is forgotten. There may indeed be a coincidence of contemplation in the spirit and suffering in sense. Let us be careful not to be misled by legitimate protests against "dolorism" into asserting that the senses have {a} right to more than is naturally due to them—that is to say, to emphasize sense satisfaction as a natural flowering of the spirit, when such satisfaction has to be disciplined and brought into subordination by suffering and sacrifice. Again this 'sacrifice' should not be understood in a masochistic way – as something which is desired because of painfulness itself. It should be understood as a state of wakefulness, really as a 'freedom' of the illusory concerns of this world (caused by self-assertion or envy – René Girard would call this 'mimetic desire') to really direct oneself towards 'the Other'. – Merton, p.304: It is one of the characteristic doctrines of St. John of the Cross [1542-1591] that unless one is passively purified of all imperfections by the divine action, one cannot attain perfectly to union with Him; also, that our cooperation, which is absolutely necessary, consists more in disposing ourselves to accept God's action, without placing obstacles in His way, rather than in any positive action of our own (on the higher levels—in the lower levels of the spiritual life the initiative belongs to us, and this must not be neglected; if one is not generous in sacrifice in the beginning, one cannot go on to the more difficult and mysterious work of cooperating with the mystical purifications sent by God).
3. HIP-HOP, R&B AND MYSTICISM
Thomas Merton and, this time to a lesser extent, René Girard guided me to get a basic understanding of the way the mystical traditions of Catholic Christianity look at human beings and (their place in) the world. In this final, third 'chapter' I'd like to raise the question if and to what extent modern-day hip-hoppers and r&b artists are continuers of this tradition. Of course most of them never received a proper theological training, but they nevertheless experienced moments in their life they clearly refer to in biblical and Christian terms, indeed experiences we could call 'mystical'. They also seem able, although not always but many times, to convey their experiences of 'unity with God' – in other words, of moments in their life almost completely in line with the demands of agape, of Love – in accordance with a 'Catholic' theological framework as described by Thomas Merton. Maybe this is more true for hip-hop than for r&b, although there is a very close connection between these two predominantly African American music genres with respect to their origin. – Burke, p.27: The origins of hip-hop can be traced to black "rhythm and blues" music; to the early days of black slavery in America and its gospel songs; to reggae and Rastafarian culture, and to West Africa where, centuries ago, ancient traditions and folklore were passed down through generations by a select group of revered members of communities who were known as griots. These storytellers orally recited both tribal history and real-time events, to the rhythmic accompaniment of the beat of drums. Today's rap and hip-hop artists, having resurrected these verbal skills, are considered by many to be modern-day prophets, "the new griots… the wellsprings of true knowledge… tell[ing] the real story of the ghetto" (Imani & Vera, 1996, p.170).
3.1 STORIES OF IDOLS IN POPULAR CULTURE – 2PAC AS A 'HERO'
First of all, hip-hop is an important cultural phenomenon for many adolescents in this world, especially for those who have a difficult time growing up (like most of us?). Like other popular music genres, the world of hip-hop contains a host of 'heroes' and 'idols' functioning as 'role models'. René Girard is right to have stressed the importance and tremendous impact of mimetic processes (i.e. processes of imitation) in human life. The impact of certain hip-hoppers, presenting themselves as 'models for imitation', should not be underestimated:
Burke, p.28: In their journey of self-discovery, adolescents push boundaries, test new ground, experiment with different personae, and find a sense of security by identifying with a larger group. While originally created as music by and for the black community, today's hip-hop is a genre that appeals across all cultures and ethnicities internationally. In the words of Dimitriadis (2001), hip-hop, "[i]f nothing else… speaks to the urgency with which youth from all across the economic, ethnic, and racial spectrum are trying to define and redefine themselves in the face of massive and ever-present uncertainties about identity" (p.xii). In this postmodern age, more than ever before, young people are experiencing and struggling with the impact of such issues as poverty, high unemployment, broken families, lack of parental support, and uncertain futures. See also p.29: It is well recognized that adolescents adopt the mannerisms of their heroes through the process of modeling. With respect to hip-hop, this is visible in adolescents' adoption of the same dress code, values, language, and symbols as the artists use: they walk the walk and talk the talk.
Empathizing and identifying with someone else is but a first step in a spiritual enterprise. When hip-hop artists are experienced as mere idols by their fans there's a good chance both artists and fans alike will fall victim to self-referential mechanisms of masochism and sadism. Then any type of 'otherness' disappears. Identification indeed can degenerate into an unhealthy desire to take the place of someone else by attempts to take over his or her very 'being'. Some fans sacrifice their own identity to become another person – to become a flat imitation, a copy of their divinized idol. True spirituality, on the other hand, has to do with the desire to 'love' and 'know' the other. We can only know others if we don't 'destroy' them by completely 'absorbing' their personality. Imitation in a Christian sense therefore has nothing to do with becoming mere copies of Christ and his life (for example, Christ doesn't want us to literally get crucified), but with taking the life of Christ as an inspiration for our own life, in our own historically defined time and place. Eventually, that's also how the more talented hip-hop and r&b artists experience their art. Imitating the artists they look up to themselves means to be as creative as these predecessors. It also means recognizing that 'no man is an island'. Watch for example the induction of legendary pop artist Prince into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Alicia Keys, and how grateful she is for his legacy
In any case contemporary artists, in turn, 'give' themselves to be an inspiration for other people, especially younger people so they can find their own 'place' and 'vocation' in life.
Burke, p.33-34: Rap lyrics narrate the life experiences of the artists, and it is through stories that individuals come to understand themselves, their place in society and their relationship to others. In a study of adolescents' constructions of self, history, and identity, Dimitriadis (2001) found that the most influential narratives are provided by popular culture. Most of hip-hop's raps are centered on a small number of what Dimitriadis (2001) refers to as powerful psychologised figures whose stories – their characters, plots, messages, and powerful symbols – are extremely important in respect to adolescent identity. One such example is the life story of Tupac Shakur, an American hip-hop artist who was killed when in his early twenties. When alive, Tupac drew on myths for his lyrics, and myths have since been created around his life and death.
Much of what Tupac spoke of in his raps centered on a violent and criminal lifestyle. He portrayed himself as invulnerable, living a life of crime whereby all problems were settled with violence, promoting himself as being invincible to any form of retribution. He would verbally attack other rappers, show defiance toward any form of law and authority, but at the same time expressed respect and tenderness towards women, in particular his mother. Since his death he has been "resurrected" and become something of an icon to young people, for through his songs he was an inspiration to many who identified with his stories in their everyday lives. Despite his death, it has been suggested that Tupac has come to represent the modern-day archetype of invulnerability, and indeed, because some believe he knew of it in advance, the events surrounding his death have been likened to the crucifixion, and Tupac as a willing participant in his own sacrifice (Dimitriadis, 2001).
In the telling of these specific narratives, hip-hop artists express themselves creatively through a unique form of language that Shute (2005) believes is an artform in itself, one that has strong links to poetry. He draws attention to the artists' concentration on delivering lyrics against a minimal musical backing, although the rhythmic qualities are built around the rhyme structure of the lines. Each song track has a beat, a base line, and a single melody line, with the lyrics remaining of fundamental importance at its core. In this way, hip-hop links to the history of poetry which exists somewhere between the spoken and singing voice. Shute (2005) points to poetic techniques that hip-hop artists have adopted, such as the use of alliteration, assonance, metaphors, and similes. In addition, words are deliberately misspelled so as to emphasize the language's individuality, and to suggest new meanings.
Yet beyond this take on hip-hop storytelling as a means for mere self-assertion, Alison Burke once again points to the spiritual underpinning of this particular art-form. The ultimate goal of hip-hop is to create a sphere for connections between human beings:
Burke, p.36-37: Hip-hop is more than just music. It is a culture, a way of life that provides not only a unique form of language and dress code but also a value system that raises self-esteem and instills pride in indigenous ethnicity as its rappers call their listeners to unite as a people, take pride in their race, and learn their language. In describing how individuals' spirituality and soulfulness work together to form the foundations of human life, Moore (1992) has said that the "goal of the soul path [is] to feel existence… to know life first hand, to exist fully in context. [That] spiritual practice is sometimes described as walking in the footsteps of another… [and accordingly] [t]he soul becomes greater and deeper through the living out of the messes and the gaps" (p.260). Hip-hop and rap fulfill this spiritual practice and goal of the soul path as their artists speak of the realities of life in the raw as they are experienced. The artists tell the truth; they "tell it like it is." They form a creative and powerful voice that calls to the masses globally, and to individual souls at a deep experiential and emotional level, and in so doing they speak into the soulfulness of adolescent spirituality.
3.2 A 'CHRISTIAN' UNDERSTANDING OF SACRIFICE IN HIP-HOP – 2PAC AS A 'MARTYR'?
From what Alison Burke wrote on 2Pac and on hip-hop storytelling in general so far, it would be tempting to conclude the world of hip-hop shows nothing but a misunderstanding regarding the person of Christ and his life. Instead of writing a story about an invulnerable, invincible hero, the Gospels display Christ as being prepared to take a vulnerable position. Instead of describing a person who was prepared to sacrifice himself in order to gain a 'higher' status for himself, the Gospels display Christ as someone who is prepared to suffer only because he doesn't want others to sacrifice their lives for him. Jesus believed God, whom he calls his Father, demanded 'compassion, not sacrifice' (Matthew 9:13). That's why he always took sides with those who didn't receive compassion, with those who were on the brink of being sacrificed. Hence he always ran the risk of being sacrificed himself. Indeed if, for example, he took sides with an adulterous woman against a crowd that wanted to stone her (John 8:1-11), he could have been stoned himself, but of course he hoped the crowd would turn to compassion. Christ certainly was not on a 'suicide mission'. The Gospels tell he fled his attackers several times, until finally, there was no escaping them anymore. He didn't want others to fight for him, because that would maybe imply their death. So Christ died 'so that others could live'. His love for others was stronger than his fear of his own suffering and death. Finally, the stories of Christ's resurrection show his followers could also believe the God of Jesus (the Compassion and Love – 'Agape' – he lived by) doesn't want sacrifice (the resurrection can be described as 'the Father's refusal of the death of the Son').
Rapper DMX clearly understands the nature of Christ's sacrifice when he prays (in one of his famous Prayers): 'If it takes for me to suffer, for my brother to see the light, give me pain till I die, but Lord treat him right.' Listen to an excerpt from this prayer
Many other hip-hop artists seem to experience this kind of sacrifice, this martyrdom, as a true locus for meeting with God (in other words, for 'union with Love'). Indeed, 'to die for your brother to live' is to transform your life to a creative Love which ultimate goal it is to let others come alive and to give them the opportunity to 'live fully'. That's why a lot of rappers embrace the potential martyrdom as a result of their life 'on the streets' as a 'baptism', as a transformation of their life by God. The terminology rappers use to express their 'mystical' experiences shows a remarkable resemblance with the earliest traditions of Christian mysticism. Many a rapper seems to lead a 'liminal' life, a life 'on the edge', 'on the crossroads', discovering the unexpected, creative power of Love and finding light in the darkest of places. Christina Zanfagna sums up the contradictions of life on the streets and the spiritual power gained from these in her very interesting essay:
Performers and listeners of hip-hop claim to undergo ecstatic experiences – proof that spirituality resides in so-called profane expressions as well. Without the luxury of having religion and spirit exist outside of daily life, Michael Eric Dyson appropriately labels hip-hop's unique brand of spirit-seeking "ghetto spirituality, street religion, urban piety" and "thug theology" (2003:280). The inherent contradiction in these terms reflects the explosive hybridity and "trickster" nature of hip-hop culture, often embodied in African American folklore and literature as the divine trickster, Esu Elegba. Hip-hop's spirituality – its mystical allusions, contradictory images, and profaned exterior – can be "tricky" and elusive to the average outsider not borne of or "baptized" in the streets. Prodigy of rap duo Mobb Deep talks about the comforting presence of God in what seems to be an "evil" situation on the track "Shook Ones Part Two":
If I die I couldn't choose a better location
When the slugs penetrate you feel a burning sensation
Getting closer to God in a tight situation
Similarly, Brooklyn MC, the Notorious B.I.G., who has had an inconsistent relationship to organized religion, hints at the spiritual purification that comes with the blow of his 9mm, in the song, "Long Kiss Goodnight":
My nine flies, baptize, rap guys
With the Holy Ghost, I put holes in most
Both of these excerpts resonate with Cheryl Keyes's interpretation of the "crossroads" – one of rap music's most potent Africanisms – which she describes as "recalling the imaginary location where life ends and death begins" or "the place where all spiritual forces or creations are activated" (2002:219, 1996:235). But these spiritual forces are often secreted in the thorny arenas of sexuality, suffering and materialism. Furthermore, the difficulty of revealing the sacred underbelly of rap music is due to its allusive character. Conjuring up the African nexus again, Keyes explains that rap's poetic speech is a continuation of the linguistic practices developed by enslaved Africans in the New World, who "devised ways by which to encode messages about their condition" (1996:22).
Alison Burke comes to similar conclusions as Zanfagna when she refers to hip-hop as a 'spiritual practice':
Burke, p.35-36: Describing hip-hop as a spiritual practice, Taylor (2003) refers to it as being liminal, liberatory, and integrative. The nature of hip-hop discourse is such that it creates, within its audience, agency of protest, action, social comment, and therefore of liberation. Taylor (2003) views the hip-hop artists' narratives – in relating their criticisms of society and the challenges and indictments they make against hypocrisy and inequality – as being "a struggle for liberatory experience amid entrapment" (p.119). He suggests such actions form spiritual practices that are also liminal, as the discourse is placed "on a threshold… between entrapment and liberation" (p.122). Perkinson (2003) likens the impact of hip-hop and rap to that of shamanism, as he views adolescents as living on a threshold between the death of childhood and the life of adulthood which they are not entitled to join until their late twenties. In this respect, because much of hip-hop focuses on death and "echo[es] with transcendent and tragic power" (p.143), it is liminal, sitting on the threshold between one world and the next.
In an interview with digital magazine Vibe 2Pac describes the experience of liberation exactly in these terms. He refuses a dualistic view, meaning that he doesn't consider liberation as a destruction of one 'bad' world ('earth') in favor of another and second 'good' world ('heaven'). Though it would be tempting to flee the problems of this world in an imaginary 'paradise', especially in the case of 2Pac and other rappers who are sometimes confronted with extremely violent situations, 2Pac doesn't agree with this dynamic. He clearly understands words as 'heaven' and 'hell' in a 'spiritual' sense, thereby avoiding his faith would become an easy 'opiate for the masses' – he even warns against (organized) religion because in his view it often operates in this way. Here are some words from 2Pac from the interview with Vibe:
'[…] I believe God blesses us, I believe God blesses those that hustle. Those that use their minds and those that overall are righteous. I believe that everything you do bad comes back to you. So everything that I do that's bad, I'm going to suffer for it. But in my heart, I believe what I'm doing in my heart is right. So I feel like I'm going to heaven. I think heaven is just when you sleep, you sleep with a good conscience – you don't have nightmares. Hell is when you sleep, the last thing you see is all the fucked up things you did in your life and you just see it over and over again… Because you don't burn. […] There's people that got burned in fires, does that mean they went to hell already? All that [heaven and hell] is here. What do you got there that we ain't seen here? What, we're gonna walk around aimlessly like zombies? That's here! You ain't been on the streets lately? Heaven [is here] now, look [referring to his plush apartment]. We're sitting up here in the living room – big screen TV – this is heaven, for the moment. Hell is jail. I've seen that one. Trust me, this is what's real. And all that other shit is to control you.'
2Pac understands the material world in the same way the earliest mystics of Christianity understood it: as a 'given' – something we didn't create ourselves –, as a 'creation' handed over to us. The right attitude towards this material world therefore is to consider and treat it as exactly that: as something we 'received', something which does not belong to ourselves and which we should respect out of respect for the One who gave it to us. So, from this 'mystical' point of view, we should never try to get rid of our 'bodily' and 'material' conditions, but we should continuously allow our attitude towards 'the natural world' to be transformed. This means, essentially (and as 2Pac testifies it), to realize that 'we don't belong to ourselves' but 'to others'. It means our 'blessings' are not our own merit, but the result of opportunities given to us by these others and by the One who 'created all'. 2Pac is very much in line with the Scriptures when he considers 'salvation' as a transformation of this world we live in (and not as a destruction of this world). In line with Judaism, he understands God's blessings in very 'materialistic' terms. Again, some of his words from the interview with Vibe:
'I'm not saying I'm Jesus but I'm saying we go through that type of thing [the confrontation with violent and dangerous situations] everyday. We don't part the Red Sea but we walk through the hood without getting shot. We don't turn water to wine but we turn dope fiends and dope heads into productive citizens of society. We turn words into money. What greater gift can there be? So I believe God blesses us, I believe God blesses those that hustle.'
Watch 2Pac saying the words you just read
Maybe 2Pac depicts the transformational power of God's creativity best in his beautiful short poem The Rose that grew from Concrete:
Did you hear about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete?
Proving nature's law is wrong it learned to walk without having feet.
Funny it seems, but by keeping its dreams, it learned to breathe fresh air.
Long live the rose that grew from concrete when no one else even cared.
Listen to the poem
3.3 THE ART OF 'BLACK MUSIC' AS 'LIBERATION THEOLOGY'
Soul artist and r&b singer songwriter Alicia Keys begins her album The Element of Freedom with a reference to a quote by Anaïs Nin (1903-1979): 'And the day came when the risk it took to remain tightly closed in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to bloom. This is the element of freedom.' This metaphor of a flower opening up is closely related to the poem of that other black artist discussed in the previous paragraph, rapper 2Pac. Alicia Keys links freedom to 'taking risks'. Her ancestors, the Afro-American slaves, would have understood this very well. They always expressed their longing to become free by singing Psalms and by referring to the Old Testament book of Exodus. Reggae legend Bob Marley (1945-1981) even had a hit song by the same name, wherein he compares the black struggle for freedom to the journey of Israel out of Egyptian slavery. The black struggle for freedom of course entailed many risks. Sometimes it seems indeed safer to remain imprisoned than to strife for liberty. In the story of Exodus the Israelites long for their time as captives of Egypt several times, because their flight through the desert is a time of great incertitude. However, as the late and great Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) has shown in really imitating Christ, sometimes the fear of being 'unsafe' is overwhelmed by the desire to save the oppressed. King was convinced the biblical God wants the oppressed to become free. To consider yourself as an 'image' of that God means then that you desire to become a liberator of the oppressed yourself. This means peaceful opposition against systems of oppression, because in experiencing yourself as a liberator of the oppressed you indeed refuse to become an oppressor overall, including not wanting to become an oppressor of your 'enemies'. Martin Luther King Jr. certainly became an embodiment of peaceful resistance against the forces which eventually demanded his sacrifice.
2Pac already referred to dualistic systems which try to install different kinds of oppressions: oppression of the 'body' by the 'mind', of a 'natural' world by a 'supernatural' one, of so-called 'decadent black' communities by a so-called 'righteous' and 'white' 'civilization'. By looking more closely to the world of black music today, I discovered that black hip-hop and r&b artists are heir to the protest songs of their ancestors. I discovered that their songs sometimes convey deeply spiritual, even mystical experiences. This little investigation also convinced me that, maybe now more than ever, we need artists 'outside the box' to inspire us to enjoy ourselves, each other and the world as a whole 'without ulterior motives'. So that we give 'what we didn't create ourselves' the liberty 'to bloom'. I sincerely hope every one of you might meet a person in his life like I met in Rev. Michaël Ghijs, our late choir master.
The final words of my longest post so far (and perhaps forever) are from Zanfagna and Thomas Merton – just to make you think a little ;-). Zanfagna's depiction of hip-hop's erotic language and symbolism resembles the mystic's use of 'the language of the senses' to express the mystical experience.
Zanfagna: Is it possible that the seemingly blasphemous pairing of sexual and religious symbols in rap videos, where men don diamond encrusted crosses in Jacuzzis full of eager and thonged women, clinking flutes of champagne, actually speaks to a deep spiritual awareness? As theologian Tom Beaudoin has argued, "offensive images or practices may indicate a familiarity with deep religious truths" (1998:123). One must understand the authority of "official" sacraments to forcefully de-valorize them. Likewise, it takes a true believer in the power of worship to turn curses into praise, the word "nigga" into a nomination of the highest respect. Pieties may be permanent qualities in human life, but the shape they take changes through the years. My point here is not to defend the use of degrading terms, but to acknowledge that such rhetorical devices are making a serious philosophical attempt at grasping a practice of inequality that is very real. Marcyliena Morgan's application of "semantic inversion" in hip-hop language ideology (2001) and Lucius Outlaw's concept of "symbolic reversal" – a reversing of symbolic meanings – exemplify the move by hip-hoppers to perform such inversions (1974:403). Just as the blues attempted to dissolve the puritan ethos instilled by white slave masters, hip-hop delivers ironic protest as it turns traditional Christian imagery on its head. Such protest involves a process of reflection and projection that transforms symbols of oppression into symbols of critique and empowerment.
Listen to some excerpts of contemporary 'black' music and catch a glimpse of its spirituality
Zanfagna: To understand the spiritual tradition within black music, one must be familiar with the African American approach to tapping spiritual energies through media, images and vernaculars that European-American culture tends to regard automatically as profane (Royster 1991:60). Returning to the hot tub scene, it is possible to interpret this context as metaphor of a person in the waters of a spiritual struggle, simultaneously wrestling with and delighting in bodily pleasures and religious beliefs, ultimately resisting the destructive legacy of the Cartesian split. By pushing the limits of excess and hedonism, hip-hoppers hint at the other dimension of their being: their stripped down and naked souls. This scene may also speak to the ubiquitous presence of the sacred in popular culture and places regarded as unholy. For many hip-hoppers, their faith in a higher power is not divorced from their sexuality or the material wealth; they are all "in bed" with each other – in the all-inclusive gumbo of life. Rap music also serves as a public outlet for confession and admission. Outkast raps, "We missed a lot of church so the music is our confessional" (1998). They treat music as the sacred wooden stall where one confesses their weaknesses and wrongs, and also where one professes their faith, loyalties and love. And what makes the sin a "sin", the wrong a "wrong"? Outkast continues:
Sin all depends on what you believing in
Faith is what you make it, that's the hardest shit since MC Ren
In other words, morality is fluid, contextual, and self-prescribed. Hip-hop artists apply a sense of playfulness to serious subject matter to reach their own spiritual Truth.
Well, reading on how black artists also profess their faith with their art, I couldn't resist to add some words by Alicia Keys once more. This time she's talking about her faith and God
Merton, p.132: Maximus sums it up: "The whole world is a game of God. As one amuses children with flowers and bright colored clothes and then gets them later used to more serious games, literary studies, so God raises us up first of all by the great game of nature, then by the Scriptures [with their poetic symbols]. Beyond the symbols of Scripture is the Word…" […] By the logoi of things the Divine Creator draws men who are attuned to logoi, the logical men, logikoi, to communion with the Logos. When a man has been purified and humbled, when his eye is single, and he is his own real self, then the logoi of things jump out at him spontaneously. He is then a logikos. […] here we can see the importance of theoria physike for sacred art. The sacred artist of all people should be a logikos. Hence it is not true that he does not need to be purified. He must in some sense be one who has attained to the summit of apatheia—not of course in the conventional way in which the average pious Catholic might conceive it. He does not necessarily have to be fully respectable in a conventional sense. A kind of unconventionality may be in him a form of humility and folly for Christ, and part of his apatheia. We must not forbid the artist a necessary element of paradox in his life. Conformism will perhaps blind him and enslave his talent.
Merton, p.62: In the De Incarnatione, Athanasius tells us to consider the works of Christ and recognize that they are divine, to realize that by His death (Athanasius by no means ignores the redemptive death of Christ) He has given us immortality, and that He has become the choregos in the great work of divine providence. (Note {the} implicit comparison of the economy of redemption to a dance.)
THE END (FOR NOW)
2Pac African American Alicia Keys Alison Burke Anaïs Nin archetypes baptism black music Christ christian sacrifice Christina Zanfagna Clement of Alexandria crossroads DMX ecology fans ghetto heroism Hip-Hop identification idols Kanye West liberation theology liminal experience manicheism martyrdom Michaël Ghijs mimetic process models mystic mystical sense mystical theology mysticism Nas Origen poetry popular culture Pseudo-Denys the Areopagite R&B rap René Girard role models Schola Cantorum Cantate Domino slavery soul spirituality storytelling Thomas Merton Tupac
Vacature van Stef Bos

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Ronnie in a 3E is perfect for those that need a wide fitting lace-up that looks like a trainer.
The inner lining is padded with the softest leather.
Ronnie is made especially for those with problem feet.
Diabetes, Bunions. Corns.and other serious foot issues.


text:
Шостий етап Кубка світу з біатлону 2011—12 проходив в Антхольц-Антерсельві, Італія, з 19 по 22 січня.

Гонки
Розклад гонок наведено нижче

Чоловіки

Спринт
Під час чоловічого спринту в Антхольці йшов невеликий сніг, проте вітру, який міг би перешкодити спортсменам на стрільбищі, практично не було. Багато спортсменів змогли закрити всі мішені при стрільбі з положення лежачи, так що практично всі фаворити змагання уникли проходження штрафного кола. На початку змагання на лідируючі позиції вирвався росіянин Андрій Маковєєв, однак дві неточності на «стійці» не дозволили йому зберегти свої позиції. Мартен Фуркад був точним на обох вогневих рубежах і показував найкращий час на фініші. Йому залишалося тільки чекати, яких результатів досягнуть його безпосередні суперники. Після «стійки», на якій спортсмен закрив усі мішені, Євгеній Гаранічев зовсім небагато поступався Фуркаду. Слідом за росіянином з відставанням всього в 2.5 секунди йшов Андреас Бірнбахер. При проходженні позначки 8.8 км Гаранічев випереджав Фуркада на 5 секунд, а на фініші його перевага над французом скоротилося всього до дев'яти десятих секунди.

Фредрик Ліндстрем, що стартував під номером 75, вирвався в лідери після стрільби з положення лежачи. Його безпосереднім суперником був німець Арнд Пайффер, який зміг добитися 11-секундного переваги. На «стійці» обидва спортсмени відстріляли чисто, а перед останнім колом молодий шведський біатлоніст мав перевагу всього в 3.1 секунди. Після стрільби стоячи Пайффер здав свої позиції і втратив шанси на призове місце. На позначці 8.8 км Ліндстрем випереджав Гаранічева на 15.5 секунди, а на фініші збільшив свій відрив ще на три секунди.

Таким чином 22-річний Ліндстрем здобув першу у своїй кар'єрі перемогу на етапі Кубка світу. До цього моменту найвищим досягненням спортсмена було п'яте місце в мас-старті, яке він посів у Обергофі за два тижні до того.

Друге місце посів росіянин Євген Гаранічев, що поступився переможцеві 18.2 секунди. Усього дев'ять десятих секунди не вистачило французькому біатлоністу Мартену Фуркаду, який в результаті став третім. Усі призери змагання були точні на стрільбищі. Четверте місце з одним промахом і відставанням в 23.2 секунди посів німець Андреас Бірнбахер. Він всього на 4.7 секунди випередив свого товариша по команді Арнд Пайффера, що відстрілявся чисто. Замкнув шістку найкращих російський біатлоніст Євген Устюгов, що допустив один промах і поступився переможцю 46.7 секунди.

Серед українців високий результат показали Сергій Седнєв і Артем Прима. Обидва були стовідсотково точні при стрільбі і посіли відповідно 15-е і 20-е місця. Крім того, в очкову зону потрапив і Сергій Семенов (33 місце), якому показати вищий результат завадили дві помилки при стрільбі на стійці.

У кубку націй досить успішна гонка у виконанні наших хлопців зміцнила їх десяте місце. Українці трохи наблизилися до команди США і суттєво поліпшили свої позиції в порівнянні зі словенцями. Лідирують тут як і раніше росіяни, чия перевага над переслідувачами ще більше зросла за рахунок трьох фінішів у вісімці найсильніших у спринті.

Мас-старт
На початок змагання в Антхольці йшов легкий снігопад, який зробив траси повільнішими, тому перші три кілометри учасники перегонів пройшли щільною групою. На першому вогневому рубежі 18 з 30 спортсменів відстріляли чисто і покинули стадіон у проміжку 14 секунд, при цьому гонку очолив норвежець Уле-Ейнар Б'єрндален. Його найближчими суперниками на той момент були Сімон Фуркад і Алексі Беф. Перед другою стрільбою з положення лежачи пальма першості перейшла до братів Фуркадів, проте потім ситуація змінилася: їх товариш по команді Алексі Беф, чисто і швидко відстрілявшись, вирвався вперед, його найближчими переслідувачами стали німець Андреас Бірнбахер і швейцарський біатлоніст Беньямін Веґер. Загалом на цьому вогневому рубежі лише 10 спортсменів не допустили помилок, причому розкид в часі склав усього 20.5 секунди. Перед першою стрільбою з положення стоячи Веґер і Бірнбахер значно додали у швидкості, задавши темп всій гонці.

На першій «стійці» тільки трьом спортсменам вдалося відстріляти чисто: Фуркаду, Ліндстром і Шлезінгру. Саме в такій послідовності вони покинули стадіон, причому Міхал Шлезінгр відставав від лідерів на 13 секунд. Відразу за ним з вогневого рубежу пішли німецькі біатлоністи Флоріан Граф і Анді Бірнбахер. На останній «стійці» Фуркад і Ліндстрем «синхронно» не закрили другу мішень. Поки вони проходили штрафне коло, Бірнбахер показав ідеальний результат на стрільбищі, так що трійка лідерів покинула стадіон майже одночасно, до них доєднався Антон Шипулін і Міхал Шлезінгр. Їх відставання склало 4.8 та 9.8 секунди відповідно. До позначки 13.6 км перша п'ятірка підійшла щільною групою.

На останніх 400 метрах дистанції Шлезінгр зменшив темп і відстав від лідируючої групи. Таким чином, за 200 метрів до фінішу шанси на перемогу залишилися у Бірнбахера, Фуркада і Шипуліна. У результаті першим фінішну лінію перетнув Бірнбахер, а друге місце зайняв Шипулін, буквально на крок випередивши Фуркада. Четвертим став переможець спринту Фредрик Ліндстрем, який також допустив один промах (+2.4 секунди). Чех Міхал Шлезінгр, який відстрілявся чисто, але поступився лідеру 12.7 секунди і посів п'яте місце. Шостим фінішував росіянин Дмитро Малишко з двома промахами і відставанням в 16 секунд.

Естафета
Коли чоловіки вийшли на старт естафетної гонки, погодні умови в Антхольці були такими ж прекрасними, як і під час жіночого мас-старту сьогодні вранці. Потрібно сказати, що таких сприятливих умов проведення змагань не було поки ні на одному етапі поточного сезону. На першому етапі естафети за збірну Норвегії біг Уле-Ейнар Б'єрндален. Він витратив всього один додатковий патрон на «стійці» і першим прийшов в зону передачі естафети. Слідом за ним із відставанням в 4.2 і 9.1 секунд відповідно йшли збірні Франції та Австрії. На другому етапі естафети основна боротьба зав'язалася між чотирма командами. Німець Андреас Бірнбахер вивів свою команду в лідируючу групу. Сімон Фуркад на «стійці» витратив два додаткових патрона, відіграв 4.7 секунди і очолив гонку. Слідом за ним йшли біатлоністи збірних Австрії та Німеччини. Завдяки зусиллям Андрія Маковєєва збірна Росії перед другою передачею естафети також приєдналася до групи лідерів. Бірнбахер, який зараз знаходиться у чудовій формі, легко обійшов Фуркада і забезпечив для збірної Німеччини 10-секундне перевагу.

На початку третього етапу естафети лідирували команди Німеччини, Франції, Австрії і Росії, слідом за ними йшли норвежці та словенці. Алексі Беф зміг закрити всі мішені на першій стрільбі і зміцнив лідерські позиції своєї збірної. Даніель Мезотіч вивів збірну Австрії на друге місце, випередивши німця Флоріана Графа. Бефу потрібен один додатковий патрон, щоб закрити всі мішені при стрільбі з положення стоячи. На останню передачу естафети він прийшов з перевагою в 10.5 секунд над Графом і Мезотічем. Потім команда Франції збільшила свій відрив від німців до 15 секунд. Австрійці поступалися лідерам 38.9 секунди, росіяни відставали ще на 35 секунд.

На останньому етапі естафети головним завданням Мартена Фуркада було не пропустити вперед німця Арнда Пайффера. На першій стрільбі Фуркаду знадобився додатковий патрон, Пайффер же відстріляв швидко і безпомилково, а його відставання від Фуркада на виході зі стадіону скоротилося до кількох метрів. На вогневий рубіж для стрільби стоячи обидва біатлоніста прийшли одночасно, тут Фуркаду довелося використовувати два додаткові патрони, потім він ще раз перезарядив гвинтівку, думаючи, що не зміг вразити останню мішень. Усвідомивши, що мішень все-таки закрита, здивований Фуркад покинув стрільбищі. Пайффер, в свою чергу, не вистачило і п'яти додаткових патронів, щоб закрити всі мішені, і йому довелося вирушити на штрафне коло. Попри це, він зміг зберегти за собою друге місце в гонці. Домінік Ландертінгер і росіянин Євген Устюгов відстріляли безпомилково. Збірна Австрії лідирувала з мінімальною перевагою, і на останньому кілометрі дистанції саме між цими збірними розгорнулася боротьба за третє призове місце. У результаті Ландертінгер вдалося відірватися від росіянина і принести своїй команді місце на подіумі. П'ятими фінішували шведи, які також змушені були проходити штрафне коло, витратили 11 доппатронів і поступилися французам 1:02.6 хвилини. Команда Білорусі з відставанням у 1:42.3 хвилини і всього шістьма додатковими патронами замкнула шістку найкращих. Українці фінішували восьмими, показавши покищо найкращий результат у сезоні.

Призери

Жінки

Спринт
З самого початку змагання Кайса Мякяряйнен заявила про свій намір поборотися за перемогу: вона швидко і точно відстрілялася на першій стрільбі і показала такий же результат при стрільбі з положення стоячи, що дозволило їй на фініші значно випередити інших учасниць перегонів. Слідом за нею фінішувала російська біатлоністка Ольга Вілухіна, яка також відстрілялася на «нуль», але програла фінці більше тридцяти секунд. Потім настала черга Домрачевої і Нойнер. Після першої засічки часу обидві спортсменки показували найкращий результат у гонці. Домрачева перша прийшла на стрільбищі, закрила три мішені, потім допустила два промахи. Поки вона проходила штрафне коло, Нойнер впевнено закрила всі мішені і вирвалася вперед з перевагою в 49.2 секунди. Вона раніше Домрачевої прийшла на «стійку», знову впевнено відстріляла, але допустила один промах. Дарія, в свою чергу, на стрільбищі вирішила не поспішати і цього разу закрила всі п'ять мішеней.

Нойнер вийшла з штрафного кола, випереджаючи Домрачеву на чотири секунди. Дарія відразу додала в швидкості, намагаючись наздогнати німецьку біатлоністку. На останньому колі дистанції між ними зав'язалася неабияка боротьба, яка, до великої радості вболівальників, вилилася в напружену сутичку на підході до фінішу. На останньому підйомі спортсменки не відставали один від одного ні на крок. Тим не менш, за 200 метрів до фінішу Домрачева змогла на кілька метрів випередити Нойнер і першою перетнула фінішну межу. Однак за підсумками змагання Нойнер, яка допустила на один промах менше, випередила Домрачеву на 30 секунд. Білоруська спортсменка стала третьою, пропустивши вперед фінку Мякяряйнен.

Потім у боротьбу за призові місця вступили Бергер і Екгольм. Обом спортсменкам вдалося безпомилково відстріляти на першій стрільбі, а при стрільбі з положення стоячи Бергер допустила один промах, втративши шанси на перше місце. Екгольм відстріляла чисто і випереджала Домрачеву на вісім секунд, що дозволяло їй сподіватися на третє призове місце. Екхольм не змогла зберегти високий темп і на позначці 6,4 км почала відставати від Домрачевої і Нойнер.

Отже, німкеня Магдалена Нойнер виграла жіночу спринтерську гонку на етапі Кубка світу в Антхольці, допустивши один промах і показавши результат 20:27.7 хвилини. Вона на 17.5 секунди випередила фінку Кайсу Мякяряйнен. Третє місце посіла білоруська спортсменка Дарія Домрачева, яка не вразила дві мішені і поступилася переможниці гонки 30.5 секунди. Норвезька біатлоністка Тура Бергер фінішувала четвертою, допустивши один промах і поступившись Нойнер 42 секунди. П'яте місце зайняла шведка Гелена Егхольм, яка так само як і росіянка Ольга Вілухіна, що фінішувала шостою, відстріляли чисто. Відставання Екхольм склало 45.2 секунди, Вілухіної — 50.6 секунди.

Українські спортсменки провели дуже якісну і рівну гонку, показавши ряд результатів у двадцятці найсильніших. У ТОП-20 гонки пробилися і сестри Семеренко (Валя — 13 місце, Віта — 16 місце), і Олена Підгрушна (14 місце), та Наталія Бурдига (19 місце), таким чином дружно забезпечивши собі право брати участь в недільному мас-старті. Особливо радісно за Валю Семеренко, яка, нарешті, зуміла пройти гонку без промахів.

Правда, незважаючи на успішно проведену гонку. Наші дівчата не зуміли наблизитися до команди Білорусі у боротьбі за п'яте місце. Навпаки, наше відставання збільшилося на 9 балів. У свою чергу, України зуміла збільшити відрив від команди Швеції.

Естафета
Сьогодні вночі в Антхольці йшов сніг, який не припинився і до початку жіночої естафети, що зробило траси більш повільними. Коли на старт гонки вийшли 18 команд, складалося враження, що розвинути швидкість дівчатам було зовсім непросто. На першому етапі естафети кільком спортсменкам довелося проходити штрафне коло, а тон у гонці задавали збірні Франції та Польщі. Потім на «стійці» безпомилково відстріляли шведка Анна Марія Нільссон, вивела свою команду в лідери і змогла зберегти свої позиції до першої передачі естафети. На другому етапі за збірну Швеції бігла Гелена Екгольм, яка пішла на трасу з перевагою в кілька секунд над командами Польщі та Чехії. Збірна Росії на той момент займала 12 місце. Екхольм збільшила перевагу своєї команди до 30 секунд, після того як відмінно відстрілялася, витративши всього два додаткових патрона. Німкеня Магдалена Нойнер, яка також була змушена скористатися доппатронами, після «стійки» йшла на десятому місці, поступаючись лідерам 1:07 хвилини. Вона змогла розвинути гарну швидкість на трасі і в зону передачі естафети прийшла вже шостою.

Ольга Зайцева, що бігла за команду Росії на третьому етапі естафети, пішла на трасу восьмий. Сестра Хелени Екхольм, Єнні Юнссон, змогла зберегти лідерство після стрільби з положення лежачи, однак Зайцева відіграла 14 секунд і вирвалася в лідери. Француженка Анаїс Бескон відстріляли чисто на «стійці» і очолила гонку, слідом за нею йшли біатлоністки збірних Німеччини, Швеції, Росії та Україні, при цьому різниця в часі спортсменок перед останнім етапом становила всього 22 секунди. На останньому етапі ті ж 22 секунди відділяли спортсменок Франції, Німеччини та Росії. Слідом за ними з відставанням в 20 і 30 секунд відповідно йшли збірні України та Білорусі. Марі Дорен Абер зберегла лідерство до стрільби з положення лежачи, слідом за нею йшла німкеня Тіна Бахманн. Обидві спортсменки відстріляли безпомилково і разом пішли зі стадіону. Ользі Вілухіній потрібні були додаткові патрони, вона пішла зі стрільбища на третій позиції, поступаючись суперницям 25 секунд. Слідом за нею з 15-секундним відставанням йшла Дарія Домрачева їз Білорусі. Дорен Абер відстрілялася швидко і чисто і випереджала Вілухіну на 21.5 секунди, у той час як Бахманн змушена була вирушити на штрафне коло. Домрачевій також знадобився доппатрон, щоб закрити всі мішені. Вона покинула стадіон третьою, випереджаючи українок майже на 20 секунд. На останньому колі дистанції Домрачева доклала всіх зусиль, щоб наздогнати французьку спортсменку: вона змогла скоротити відставання до 12 секунд, а при заході на стадіон поступалася суперниці всього 5 секунд. Завдяки останньому ривку на фініші вона скоротила відставання до 3 секунд, однак наздогнати француженку вже не змогла.

Отже збірна Франції змогла вирвати перемогу в жіночій естафетній гонці 4х6 км на етапі КС у Антхольці. На останньому колі дистанції білоруська спортсменка Дарія Домрачева зробила ривок, намагаючись наздогнати Марі Дорен Абер, але все ж поступилася француженці 2.5 секунди. Переможницям знадобилося 1:17:06.5 і дев'ять додаткових патронів, в той час як біатлоністкам збірної Білорусі довелося дозаряджати гвинтівки десять разів. Третіми з відставанням у 21.4 секунди фінішували росіянки, які витратили одинадцять додаткових патронів і один раз змушені були проходити штрафне коло. Четверте місце зайняла команда Норвегії — два промахи, 11 доппатронов, відставання 40.6 секунди. П'ятими стали українські спортсменки — сім додаткових патронів, відставання 56.9 секунди. Шостими фінішували німкені — два промахи, 12 доппатронов, відставання 1:15.5 хвилини.

Мас-старт
Умови змагання під час жіночого мас-старту інакше як «чудовими» не назвеш: у небі яскраво світило сонце, траса була жорсткою, а на стрільбищі було абсолютно безвітряно. На початку змагання лідирувала Магдалена Нойнер, відразу за нею йшли Дарія Домрачева, Тура Бергер і Гелена Екгольм. На першому вогневому рубежі десять учасниць гонки відстріляли безпомилково, у тому числі Нойнер, Анастасія Кузьміна і Світлана Слєпцова. Домрачева допустила два промахи і відкотилася на 26 позицію, поступаючись лідеру змагання більше 50 секунд. На другому вогневому рубежі Нойнер і Кузьміна були точними. Домрачева також закрила всі мішені і перемістилася на 10 місце. При заході на першу «стійку» лідери гонки зберегли свої позиції, а нестримна Домрачева йшла вже третьою. Всі троє — Нойнер, Кузьміна і Домрачева — відстріляли бездоганно, при цьому Кузьміна випереджала Нойнер на 7.7 секунди, а її перевага над Домрачовою становило 28 секунд.

На останній вогневий рубіж Кузьміна і Нойнер прийшли одночасно, Домрачева — через 12 секунд. Кузьміна не закрила одну мішень, Нойнер помилилася двічі, а Домрачева легко вразила всі мішені. На виході зі стадіону вона на 14.8 секунди випереджала Кузьміну і більш ніж на 30 секунд Нойнер. Домрачева, яка, здавалося, після двох промахів поховала свої шанси на перемогу, потім чудово провела гонку і, додавши у швидкості на останньому колі, першою перетнула фінішну межу.

Друге місце з одним промахом і відставанням в 25.2 секунди посіла словацька спортсменка Анастасія Кузьміна. Німкеня Магдалена Нойнер стала третьою. Вона двічі не вразила мішень і поступилася переможниці гонки 32.1 секунди. Четвертою у гонці фінішувала норвежка Тура Бергер (53.1), якій тричі довелося проходити штрафне коло. П'яте місце посіла росіянка Світлана Слєпцова (55.7), шостою стала українка Віта Семеренко (56.5). Слєпцова і Семеренко допустили по два промахи.

Окрім Віти, серед українок дуже хороший результат також показала Олена Підгрушна, обмежившись одним промахом і закінчивши гонку 12-ю. Валя Семеренко та Наталія Бурдига з трьома неураженими мішенями стали відповідно 19-ю і 24-ю.

Призери

Досягнення

 Найкращий виступ за кар'єру

 , 1 місце в спринті
 , 2 місце в спринті
 , 29 місце в спринті
 , 51 місце в спринті
 , 13 місце в мас-старті

 , 17 місце в спринті
 , 44 місце в спринті

 Перша гонка в Кубку світу

Примітки

Кубок світу з біатлону 2011-12
2012 в Італії
2011 у біатлоні
2012 у біатлоні

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


My portrait of singer Adele published in Arkadia magazine (#26, 2012).
My back cover illustration for the latest issue of CR Navigator (#10, 2012) about sustainable houses.
These are four illustrations I made for an alphabet book about design for kids written by Ewa Solarz. The book is simply called Ilustrowany elementarz dizajnu (Illustrated alphabet book of design) published by Wytwórnia (october 2012).
I was chosen among 25 other Polish illustrators to participate on this project. The premiere and accompanying exhibition will take place during the Łódź Design Festival (at Book Art Museum, 24 Tymienieckiego Street in Łódź) 20 – 28.10.2012.
The official site of the book can be found here (in Polish).
A portrait of Pablo Picasso with a pipe.
So I get this call "Can you adapt Vermeer's Milkmaid with a lot of ugly insects for our cover?" Hell yeah! Why not? And here is the result: Issue #9, 2012 of CR Navigator – a quarterly magazine about something called CSR (corporate social responsibility).


Many believed that with Napoleon the world had begun anew. 'God made Napoleon and then rested,' gushed one admirer. How then, could such a paragon fall so comprehensively from grace? And, having fallen, how did he regain the high regard of posterity?


text:
skrl art prjct
© 2015 skrl art prjct
44 Stewart Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11237
skrl art prjct @ Treehouse Theater
154 W 29th Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10001
Opening Reception: Wednesday, April 29, 5:30-7:30pm
Exhibition Dates: April 21 - May 31, 2015
Gallery hours: Monday-Friday, 10am-11pm; Saturday-Sunday, 1-10pm
NYC-SCAPES
Jeff Atwood, Kazuya Morimoto, Shiho Sato
skrl art prjct is pleased to present "NYCscapes," our second pop-up group show, featuring the work of Jeff Atwood, Kazuya Morimoto, and Shiho Sato at the Treehouse Theater Gallery Space, 154 W 29th Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10001, from April 20th to May 31, 2015. The opening reception is on Wednesday, April 29, from 5:30 to 7:30pm.
skrl art prjct is a brand-new online gallery which regularly holds pop-up shows such as curated group exhibitions, art events, and shows of our collections in different locations. The "skrl" comes from the initials of the founders: Sonomi Kobayashi and Renee Larson. We are both female artists, art collectors, and art lovers. Our natural interests have introduced us to a lot of great artists, and much of their amazing work has not yet been exposed to a broad audience. We have also met many art appreciators interested in buying art but who don't know how, or who think buying art is reserved for special people. We would like to connect these great artists with a new generation of art buyers and we aim to be the first stop for a new art collectors.
NYCscapes introduces Jeff Atwood's etchings and collages assembled from his original prints. This series captures the complex visual experiences of New York City's architectural rhythms in systems which often bridge the gap between realism and abstraction. Views are combined, patterns overlaid, and elements multiplied. He amplifies and enhances reality to make you see the commonplace in a new way. The etchings celebrate dramatic perspectives that frame, distort, and layer. They attempt to capture the city's strong contrasts in light and shade, its complex and varied play of patterns, textures, and reflections, and its interesting juxtapositions of disparate elements.
Kazuya Morimoto lately devotes most of his time to painting the streets of New York City, especially historical preservation areas such as Greenwich Village, the West Village, and nearby neighborhoods. He has been documenting old shop fronts and the daily habits of local characters to fix his paintings in the specificity of the present moment. He can be found all over Manhattan, especially in the Village sketching his favorite blocks, drinking good coffee, and enjoying meeting the people who pass by. Morimoto is a New York City-based artist, was born in Japan, and studied at the Art Factory Institution of Art with Makoto Arimichi. He then moved to New York City to study painting at the Art Students League. His work has been exhibited in New York and Washington, DC.
Shiho Sato's oil paintings are very quiet and yet they speak to the audience in a clear, poetic register. She works from observation and then from memory. Sato was born in Yokohama, Japan. After earning a degree in literature, she moved to Mexico and began an art career. During that time, she traveled around Central America, South America, Africa and Europe while painting and writing about her experiences. When she developed a strong interest in figurative expression, she decided to move to Europe, where she spent 3 years as a copyist in different museums learning traditional oil painting techniques. Sato moved to New York City in 2009 to find an art community. She has since received the Art Students League Certificate of Completion in their 4-year prescribed program in 2013.
Contact Information: Renée Larson, Director of skrl art prjct, skrlrenee@gmail.com, (917) 673-5909
www.skrlart.com


The French actress, Camera d'or Jury member, wore a dress from the Paris Cosmopolite 2016/17 Métiers d'Art, at the dinner hosted by Madame Figaro on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Cannes Festival.
The American actress Susan Sarandon wore CHANEL to the screening of Andrey Zvyagintsev's "Nelyubov", the second film presented in competition at the Cannes Film Festival this year.
Todd Haynes's "Wonderstruck", the first film competing for the Palme d'or, was presented in Cannes this Thursday. Its leading actress, Julianne Moore, climbed the steps in a Haute Couture gown from the Spring-Summer 2017 collection.


text:
Mahindra Racing Has A Mixed Weekend
Apr 08,2012 BSM Read News PRINT
Apr 08,2012 BSM Read News
Saturday was a mixed day for Mahindra Racing. On the one hand the young Indian racing outfit was preparing to take part in its first ever qualifying session in the Moto3 category (250cc, four-stroke motorcyfcles) of MotoGP at the Losail Circuit in Doha. On the other, Mahindra Racing riders, Riccardo Moretti and Sarath Kumar were taking part in qualifying at Imola for the second round of the Italian Championship.
Well, things didn't go as well as the team would have hoped for in Moto3. While Sandro Cortese starts at the head of the grid for the Red Bull KTM team, German rider Marcel Schrotter will start 23rd and British rider Danny Webb will start 26th on the grid. Not ideal for their hopes during the race, but given that it's the first round of the new championship, it's early days yet.
And while there might have been some amount of stress for the team at Doha, things were looking up in Imola. After winning the first round of the Italian Championship at Mugello, Riccardo Moretti, the team's Italian rider managed to set the fastest time in qualifying practice. Eventually though, Moretti set the second fastest time in the final session of qualifying which means he will start from second place on the grid. Meanwhile Sarath Kumar had a tricky weekend, crashing both during practice and qualifying. He will line up on the seventh row of the grid in 20th position.
Mahindra Racing
Danny Webb
Marcell Schrotter
Italian Championship
Riccardo Moretti
Sarath Kumar


text:
Indians beat Cubs, one win away
Kluber, deliver as Tribe goes up 3 games to 1
CHICAGO (AP) — One more win and baseball fans everywhere might finally believe in these Cleveland Indians.
That's all it will take for Corey Kluber & Co. to clinch this World Series.
Kluber pitched six sparkling innings on short rest for another win, Jason Kipnis hit a three-run homer in his hometown and the Indians beat the Chicago Cubs 7-2 Saturday night to take a 3-1 lead.
Carlos Santana also connected for the first of his three hits as Cleveland moved closer to its first championship since 1948. Trevor Bauer gets the ball Sunday night at Wrigley Field in Game 5 when the Indians try for the franchise's third World Series title against Jon Lester and the faltering Cubs.
"I think we like the position we're in, but the task isn't done yet," Kluber said. "We still have one more game to win, and we're going to show up tomorrow and play with the same sense of urgency we've played with until this point. We don't want to let them build up any momentum and let them get back in the series."
Still, not bad for a team that seemed like an underdog all year long. Manager Terry Francona's club beat the defending champion Royals and star-studded Tigers for the AL Central title, and then eliminated David Ortiz and the Red Sox and the heavy-hitting Blue Jays on their way to the AL pennant.
Then much of the talk centered on the major league-leading Cubs and their 108-year championship drought. But it's been mostly Indians once more as they moved to 10-2 in this postseason. They did it with Francona pushing all the right buttons while he improved to 11-1 in the World Series.The Indians now will try to bring another crown to Cleveland, adding to the one LeBron James and the Cavaliers earned earlier this year.
Dexter Fowler doubled and scored in the first for the Cubs, and then homered against Andrew Miller in the eighth. Fowler's drive to left-center was the first homer for Chicago in the World Series since Phil Cavaretta connected in Game 1 in 1945 and the first run allowed by Miller during his dominant postseason.
In between Fowler's two hits, the Cubs came up empty every time they had a chance to put any pressure on Cleveland.
The Indians won for the second straight day at Wrigley — those two wins matched the Cubs' entire total of World Series victories in more than a century of playing at their famed ballpark.
Pitching on three days' rest for the second time, Kluber allowed five hits, struck out six and walked one. The steady, stoic right-hander, who struck out nine in a dominant performance in Game 1, improved to 4-1 with a 0.89 ERA in five playoff starts this year.
Francona put Santana at first after starting him in left in Game 3, and Mike Napoli was out of the starting lineup for the time in the playoffs. And just like the rest of October, the decision worked out quite well for Francona and the Indians.
Santana led off the second with a drive to right against John Lackey, tying it at 1. Santana's third homer of the playoffs silenced the crowd of 41,706 at Wrigley Field, and the Indians seized the momentum from there.
Two throwing errors on Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant, including one on Kluber's infield single, led to an unearned run that put Cleveland ahead to stay. Francisco Lindor singled in Kipnis in the third, Lonnie Chisenhall added a sacrifice fly in the sixth and Kipnis' second playoff homer made it 7-1 in the seventh.
Kipnis, who is from a Chicago suburb and grew up a Cubs fan, finished with three hits and scored two runs.
Cubs right fielder Jason Heyward made his first start of the World Series and responded with two hits. The 27-year-old Heyward, who signed a $184 million, eight-year contract with Chicago last winter, was just 2 for 31 in 12 playoff games coming into the night.
Indians: Bauer lasted just 3 2/3 innings in Game 2, allowing two runs and six hits. The right-hander had a career-best 12 wins during the regular season, but is 0-1 with a 5.00 ERA in three playoff starts.Cubs: Lester dropped to 3-1 with a 1.35 ERA in four career World Series starts when he allowed three runs in 5 2/3 innings in the opener Tuesday night. The left-hander was the co-MVP of the NL Championship Series, going 1-0 with a 1.38 ERA in two starts against the Dodgers.


Being a former Australian prison, Fremantle Prison is a 16 hectares area which is a combination of prison, gate house, perimeter walls cottages, tunnels and prison art. Built in 1850s by convict labor, it is now a public museum operated by Government of Western Australia. Widely recognized as Fremantle Gaol, tours are organized in the museum for visitors to explore its eternal beauty.


There's more than one cala in Cala Gracio – this place has two U-shaped coves to its name. The main one buzzes with families and watersports, but it's still quiet – by Ibizan standards. There's a family-run restaurant here, too, which whips up a proper paella. If you fancy switching it up, you can swim or walk to the smaller beach around the corner.
One of the Balearic Islands' buzziest towns is a hop, skip and a jump from Cala Gracio. Hop in a taxi and you can be on a dancefloor on San Antonio's famous Sunset Strip in 10 minutes or less. Daytrip-wise, you're also really close to family fave Cap Blanc Aquarium. This former smugglers' cave is now filled with tanks of octopus, fish and lobsters.