The dramatic 'Houghton Hall: Portrait of an English Country House' opens at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor October 18. This vivid show takes art and history lovers on an inside tour of Houghton Hall's grand rooms hung with historic portraits. It reveals a great English country house with its fine art, eccentricity, beautiful collections, changing fortunes, and a new young owner who is determined to embrace, refresh and revived his inheritance.
I was incredibly fortunate to spend a day at Houghton Hall last fall, when the great exhibit 'Houghton Revisited' presented an opportunity to see some of he greatest European and English Old Master paintings in a Palladian setting.
Houghton Hall (pronounced HOW-tin) is a country house in Norfolk, England. It was built in the 1720s.
Houghton is an approximately two-hour train ride north-east from London, to Kings Lynn. It's quite near the Queen's country residence, Sandringham, and not far from the new residence of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
Houghton Hall is now the family residence of David Cholmondeley, (pronounced CHUMly) 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley and his wife, Rose, and their twin sons. It was once the residence of Sir Robert Walpole, Britains's first prime minister. Walpole's fortunes changed and the art collection—Goya, Rembrandt, Rubens, Murillo, van Dyck, Poussin, Albani—was sold.
In 2013 Houghton staged the once-in-a-lifetime exhibition: purchased a timed ticket to view 'Houghton Revisited', a once-in-a-lifetime exhibit, which reunited many of the works from Sir Robert Walpole's magnificent collection, which had been sold to Catherine the Great in 1779.
The original hang was recreated at Houghton Hall, with many of the Old Master paintings revisiting their old home, which had originally been designed to house the collection. Over 112,000 visitors from all over the world visited the exhibition.
I spent the day walking through the rooms, viewing the paintings, studying the décor, gazing out the windows at miles of parkland with white deer wandering among old oak trees.
In the grounds are mazes with art works by Richard Long and James Turrell.
It's thrilling that Houghton Hall is coming to San Francisco. After the stunning success of the 2013 blockbuster 'Houghton Revisited', everyone wants to view its collections, learn of its family and history, and study decorative objects from its rooms.
The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco present Houghton Hall: Portrait of an English Country House, an exhibition drawn from the collections of a quintessential English country house. Built in Norfolk in the 1720s for England's first prime minister, Sir Robert Walpole, Houghton Hall features suites of grand rooms conceived by architect William Kent as settings for Walpole's old master paintings, furniture, tapestries and Roman antiquities.
"Houghton Hall brings to San Francisco a wonderful array of objects and reflects the history of this magnificent estate across nearly 300 years, from the 18th century to the present day. It is particularly fitting that this exhibition is being displayed at the Legion of Honor, complementing our recently reinstalled collection of British paintings and decorative arts," said Colin B. Bailey, director of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
Houghton Hall: Portrait of an English Country House tells the story of the structure and its inhabitants through displays that convey key architectural spaces, such as the impressive double-height Stone Hall of marble, stucco and silver limestone; the grand state Saloon, upholstered in red velvet; and the more restrained wood-paneled library, which served as Walpole's office away from London. Kent's architectural drawings, also on view, will reveal the geneses of these interiors, which were inspired by both Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio and the style of Baroque-era Rome.
On my visit last year, I learned that the many doors of Houghton have an interesting history. Walpole, the original owner, acquired a very prized cargo of Mahogany wood from the West Indies (then a British colony). He shipped the timber to England and had it made into dozens of grand doors for the formal residence. The richly patterned wood, with its shimmering grain, is enhanced with bands of gilding.
William Kent was the first British architect to design furnishings in concert with architectural interiors, and a selection of pieces that he created specifically for Houghton Hall will be exhibited.
In addition there will be porcelain and silver objects and family portraits and other pictures by notable English painters such as William Hogarth, Thomas Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds that reflect the aesthetic and historical significance of the house.
Other works of art on view will include portraits by Pompeo Batoni, an Italian artist popular among British travelers on the Grand Tour (the traditional journey through Europe undertaken by members of the upper classes), and old master paintings, such as Sir Anthony van Dyck's Philip, Lord Wharton (1632) and Carlo Maratta's The Rest on the Flight to Egypt (circa 1650).
Walpole's death, in 1745, preceded a sharp decline in family fortunes. Houghton became occupied intermittently, and many of its old master paintings were sold in 1779 to Catherine the Great of Russia.
The Walpole inheritance passed to the Cholmondeley family and Houghton was rarely used.
The house came alive again in the early 20th century when Sybil Sassoon, Marchioness of Cholmondeley, took charge of Houghton in 1919, and worked to restore the house to its former splendor.
Sassoon had connections with many artists, most notably the American painter John Singer Sargent, whose paintings she added to the collection along with art works and furniture inherited from her brother, Philip, and pieces of Sèvres porcelain collected by her husband, George Cholmondeley.
More recently, the current inhabitants of Houghton have added further works of art such as Edward Burne-Jones's The Prince Enters the Briar Wood (1869), from the Legend of the Briar Rose series.
The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, comprising the de Young museum in Golden Gate Park and the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, are the largest public arts institution in San Francisco.
The Legion of Honor was inspired by the French pavilion, a replica of the Palais de la Légion d'Honneur in Paris, at San Francisco's Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915. The museum opened in 1924 in the Beaux Arts–style building designed by George Applegarth on a bluff overlooking the Golden Gate. Its holdings span 4,000 years and include European painting, sculpture, and decorative arts; ancient art from the Mediterranean basin; and the largest collection of works on paper in the American West.
Photographs, above, from 'Houghton Hall Portrait of an English Country House', published this month by Rizzoli.
Houghton Hall remains one of England's most admired Palladian houses. A collaboration between the two defining British architects of the age, Colen Campbell and James Gibbs, and with lavish interiors by William Kent, Houghton was built with an eye to reflecting the wealth, taste, and power of its owner.
Guided by the present owner, the seventh Marquess of Cholmondeley the reader watches vivid personalities enter and depart, and studies each new acquisition.
HOUGHTON HALL: Portrait of an English Country House is a highly detailed volume. Photography of the interiors are particularly atmospheric. Some images (there's one with a dog sprawled on a sofa) suggest that the owners have just gone for a walk, and that the rooms are enjoyed and lived in by the young Cholmondeley family.
David Cholmondeley is the 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley and the present owner of Houghton Hall.
Derry Moore has published his photographs in numerous books, including Rooms and In House both published by Rizzoli.
All images of Houghton, and portraits from the Legion of Honor exhibit used here with express permission of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
Photography of the garden by Diane Dorrans Saeks.
Houghton Hall: Portrait of an English Country House will be published by Rizzoli in October 2014.
Dash over quickly to visit Houghton before it closes for the year on October 19. It re-opens next May.
I took the train from London: King's Cross to Kings Lynn. Visitors then take a taxi to Houghton, about fifteen miles. Don't forget to arrange for a taxi to return to pick you up. Houghton's handsome and very uncommercialized setting includes a fine café and restaurant with a terrace overlooking the parklands. Happy travels!
I am thrilled to hear about the upcoming exhibition and the photographs you included were absolutely stunning! Aside from Chatsworth, Houghton Hall has long been one of my favorites of the English country houses.
Thank you. Yes…definitely you are right. In some ways it is a 'smaller' Chatsworth with many of the same concepts (Houghton is smaller…and closer).
I went there for the day…left on the train around 9am…arrived before lunch…had lunch in the great cafe in the former stable block…and then set out to visit the house.
It is spectacular (I see they are having a candlelit dinner in October…)…and very very easy to visit and walk through. I had a timed ticket…with very limited number of other guests.
After walking through the house for hours--I walked out into the parkland to find the art works hidden in mazes of old oaks and hedges…very superb.
Highly recommend…and if NOT in summer when the royal family is there... you could visit SANDRINGHAM the Queen's residence as well…I think it is open in Sept . A wonderful day--and a great train trip through the countryside, no driving to do. It was one of the greats…like a visit in France to VAUX-LE VICOMTE…which also basically does not get very many tourists.
I cannot wait to attend this fabulous exhibit. I've seen the posters around town and have already noted down the dates on my schedule.
I attempted to visit Houghton Hall a couple of years ago, but as it was December, alas, the place was closed.
Thank you for posting these beautiful photographs and sharing them with your loyal readers.
HOUGHTON: Last September, I read that the HERMITAGE exhibit there was about to close…so I booked a ticket/timed for a specific day and time--and booked a flight…and headed over.
Everything went like clockwork. It was a superb day…and the moment I booked the train ticket, and the note…THE HALKIN in London of course…all fell into place.
HOUGHTON: it is fantastic because it is not at all touristy. No signs, no lines, no commercialization at all. There is a shop with chic things but it is very low-key.
Be sure to make arrangements to go there next SPRING and look on their website for events or special happenings that would be worth the trip. Go to Sandringham at the same time, if it is open.
It's a fantastic excursion, a great jaunt. I hope you do it next year! In the meantime there is the brilliant show…just fifteen minutes from home.
Dear Diane, a beautifully comprehensive feature on Houghton Hall and the exhibit to take place in The Palace of Legion of Honor. The book looks like a delight as well! The paintings are equisite.


Metrolink, Southern California's beleaguered commuter rail service, likes to bill itself as one of America's fastest-growing public transit agencies. These days, its charter might just as well be called the tort lawyers' full employment act.
After last week's Chatsworth disaster in which 25 people died and 135 were hurt, The Times' Steve Hymon reported that "Metrolink has amassed the most fatalities among commuter railroads of similar size in the United States over the last decade." Over the last nine years, 74 people have been killed in incidents involving Metrolink.
Only New Jersey Transit, which carries five times as many people over six times the distance, has suffered more fatalities over that period -- 79. Much larger commuter rail systems -- the Long Island Rail Road, Chicago's Metra and the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority -- have markedly better safety records.
Something is wrong here in Southern California -- but what?
Some of the problem seems to originate on the agency's board, where a culture of alibi and denial appears to have taken hold. For example, Keith Millhouse, the vice chairman of the Metrolink board of directors, told The Times this week that the casualty toll is "unfortunately misleading. I don't think you can necessarily say or draw conclusions that these numbers necessarily reflect Metrolink's safety record."
Really? Then what do they reflect?
If no one had died or been injured on Millhouse's trains over the last decade, would it be wrong to say Metrolink had a perfect safety record? Precisely what sort of evidence would allow us to draw conclusions? If numbers won't do, on what are we supposed to rely -- tarot cards?
At various times, Metrolink officials have tried to place the blame for its abysmal safety record on the fact that the 512-mile system, cobbled together from existing rail lines in the early 1990s, forces commuters to share track with freight lines. However, all but a handful of commuter systems share track with freight trains across the nation. The Metrolink system may also have the nation's largest number of grade crossings -- intersections with city streets on which cars travel. Still, Chicago's Metra has had more fatalities at grade crossings over the last nine years than has Metrolink.
Part of the problem may derive from Metrolink's sprawling system of governance. The system's 11-member voting board consists of representatives of L.A. County's Metropolitan Transportation Authority as well as directors from the Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura County transportation authorities. Each county funds service in its territory with sales taxes collected there.
Structurally, it's a formula for unfocused supervision and for operation on the cheap. It's hard not to believe that the latter hasn't had something to do with Metrolink's resistance to adopting new -- but expensive -- technologies that would prevent the sort of deadly collisions that occurred in Chatsworth and in Placentia, where two people were killed in 2002.
Though they're already being employed in parts of the Northeast, Metrolink officials say some of the new technologies are too unproven and too expensive. Moreover, they argue, the situation here is complicated by the fact that their trains and the freight lines use different radio frequencies.
Right. And we can't buy new radios because ... ?
Finally, there's the question of who actually operates Metrolink's trains. For its first 16 years, Metrolink contracted with Amtrak to run its service. In July 2005, it dropped that agency and hired the French multinational Veolia to operate its trains. The engineer who was driving the Chatsworth train was a Veolia employee working a split shift that had him reporting for duty at 5:54 a.m., working until 9:26 a.m., and then returning for a second tour that began at 2 p.m. and ran until 9 p.m.
How's that for a dangerous working arrangement?
Veolia is currently a defendant in a federal court lawsuit in Los Angeles -- a suit that predates the Chatsworth crash -- alleging that it denies its workers rest breaks and overtime pay. Similar suits are being litigated in seven other states.
Sometimes, the lowest bidder isn't a bargain.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa took a major step toward addressing the problem this week when he named former assemblyman and transportation consultant Richard Katz to the Metrolink board. So too the county's Board of Supervisors, when it called for increased funding for a variety of safety measures.
Southern California can't afford to let Metrolink drift any further.


text:
Sylvia A. Harvey (SAH)
Big Apple Vodou A selection of SAH's published work & appearances
ABOUT SAH
SHORT ARTICLES
LONGFORM STORIES
Connect with SAH!
Big Apple Vodou
written by SAH
I walk down the narrow basement stairs with ease, but before I can cross the entryway into the warm candlelit temple, the oungan, a male priest in the Haitian Vodou tradition, hands me a ceramic jar filled with water. Pointing to the entryway floor, he motions towards three spaces and asks me to drop water forPapa Legba, the Vodou spirit who grants or denies human access to communicate with any of the Vodou spirits, or lwas.
I pour the water. My salute to the gatekeeper had been approved. I enter.
"If the spirits aren't happy they'll tell me," he says, smiling slightly. "They'll tell me what kind of energy you have.
"A lot of people come in just to see what Vodou is about," he cautions. "The spirits can tell your intentions."
When I reach for my camera, he objects. "Spirits don't like pictures. As a priest you don't do anything the spirits won't be happy with."
Vodou is no spectacle. That's the primary message I received as an inquiring writer journeying into New York's tightly-knit, yet surprisingly diverse Vodou community. The voyage began in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, at the South Oxford Space arts center, for Verite Sou Tanbou: The Truth about Haitian Vodou. It was the first installment of a three-part series of educational workshops about Vodou. That day, Oungan Dieudonné Jean-Jacques spoke calmly in his native tongue, which was translated for the racially and linguistically diverse attendees who packed the room to capacity. In the crowded hallway, between the moments of silence, attendees whispered amongst each other in Creole, French and English—even a scattering of Spanish.
A Vodou cermony in Brooklyn (Photo courtesy Shannon Taggart)
Benin (formerly Dahomey), a slender sliver of a country in West Africa, is widely considered the cradle of Vodou, which came to Haiti (then called Saint-Domingue) in the eighteenth century. Vodouists believe there is one distant God,Bondyè, who is the creator of all things––but they serve a long list of lwasthrough prayer and by presenting offerings, creating devotional objects and altars, and participating in ceremonies brought to life through traditional song, dance, spirit possession and animal sacrifice. Lwas are said to speak with, guide, and offer protection to the faithful on their journey through life.
While the Vodou community is constantly expanding to people of various ethnic, social and economic backgrounds, it remains a misunderstood spiritual world and a stigmatized religion. Many Vodouists find themselves constantly trying to set the record straight about a culture they respect and love.
"If you consult any dictionary," says Professor Patrick Bellegarde-Smith of the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, an oungan himself, "you shall see that the definitions of 'voodoo'—it won't use generally the Haitian spelling of Vodou—remain static over many decades."
Professor Bellegarde-Smith says the widespread misrepresentation of Vodou came to the fore during the U.S. military occupation of Haiti, from 1915 to 1934, when, as he puts it, "Hollywood, as loyal Americans, come to the rescue of the U.S. state, and justified further that brutish occupation by creating the 'voodoo' we now know, and the zombie films that became a basic staple."
Indeed, when I Googled, "what is voodoo?" the first hit describes not an ancient religion but a black religious cult characterized by sorcery and spirit possession. Even in Haiti itself, it wasn't until 2003 that the country's Catholic president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, acknowledged Vodou as one of Haiti's official religions.
Recently, three New York Vodouists each shared their unique story and deeply personal relationship to the religion: a passionate Haitian-born musician, a priestess and scholar who works to educate the masses about her religion, and a young Arab priest who was unexpectedly summoned by the spirits into the foreign land of Vodou.
MUSIC MOVES THE SPIRIT
Perched on an aged leather chair, Val Jeanty rests the back of one hand over her mouth while the other navigates the track pad on her laptop. Her mahogany eyes are alive and focused on the screen in front of her. As she adjusts the levels on her soundboard, the beat of drums and unidentifiable instruments pulsate throughout her Bedford-Stuyvesant nook. The rest of the world is clearly silenced for Jeanty, her focus on the music so intense it seems as if her studio has solid, soundproof walls that separate it from the rest of her spacious loft, only it doesn't.
"So how long have you been living here?" I venture.
Looking up, she breaks into a wide smile and laughter explodes, her cheek bones reaching for the sky. She's back. She lowers the music.
Jeanty, thirty-eight, is tall and slender, casually clad in army fatigue pants and layered red and black cotton tees. Her amber-toned face is radiant and bare, tiny dark studs rest in her ears, and a black scarf hangs around her neck.
Vodou was a natural part of Jeanty's family and culture growing up in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti.
"You know they say, 'Haitians are 85 percent Catholic, but 100 percent Vodouists,'" she relates, cracking a popular cultural joke. Indeed, many Haitians see no conflict in being both Catholic and Vodouists. Like other ethnic groups in the Americas, they have combined Christian beliefs with distinct traditional practices, and some believe that to be a good Vodouist, you have to be a good Christian.
A handwritten "Free Haiti" sign hangs on Val's lofted bed
Jeanty's late grandmother was amambo. Decrying what she considers "the fancy, mystical description," amambo, says Jeanty, is like a shaman—someone who acts as intermediary between the natural and spiritual worlds.
"It's about being connected to nature," Jeanty explains. Her grandmother communicated with the plants and could identify exactly which one was poisonous or which was meant for healing–which leaf cured a tummy ache and which could put you to sleep. Jeanty herself is a strong believer in animism, the concept that natural objects, phenomena, and the universe itself possess souls. "Everything is alive," says Jeanty. "If I walk next to a tree I'm not going to spit on the tree, because I'm spitting on myself."
For her, "[Vodou] is more of a way of life, less of a religion." It's about listening to the ancestors speak to you and accepting the information they bring.
"I was born in the pouch. In Vodou that kid is a special kid…they carry a heavy burden," says Jeanty, noting that not all Haitian children are born into Vodou, but that those who are tend to stay the course.
Jeanty says the Vodou within her was made evident by childhood experiences of unconsciously, yet systematically, rising from bed in the middle of the night and marching across her family's land to their property gates. From this, her family knew Papa Legba would be a special lwa for her. Described as a small old man dressed in rags who walks with a cane but is particularly powerful, Legba is the chief of crossroads and gates. Jeanty's routine walk to her family's gates seemed to be symbolic.
The soundboard in Val's home studio
In Vodou, certain days of the week are dedicated to particular lwas, which each have distinct personalities and different roles. Some can be quite "feisty," Jeanty says. "If you're not connected to certain deities you should stay away," she laughs.
Jeanty doesn't believe one has to systematically serve all lwas; rather, you naturally navigate towards the ones you connect to. For her, two in particular are important. Jeanty serves Papa Legba on his day, which is Monday, by pouring water at the entryway of her loft. The cleansing element of water clears Jeanty's home and spiritual passageway so whatever needs to happen in her life can, and will.
She also honors Erzulie Dantor on Tuesday by wearing the lwa's favorite colors of red and black. Known as the Black Madonna for her motherly and protective quality, Erzulie Dantor represents the energy Jeanty naturally has within. Jeanty doesn't have children but her face lights up when she speaks of her students at The Door, a local organization that serves disconnected youth, where she teaches drum classes, percussion and DJ skills.
Exchanges with the lwa should happen naturally, Jeanty insists. "I don't think about Legba, I just give him water. You don't do it because of Legba, you do it for you. I naturally reach for red and black on Tuesday. It's synchronicity."
A Vodou shrine in Jenty's home
Jeanty says her Afro-electronica music "is not for commercial use, it's for the spirit"—and for exposing others to Haitian culture. "I always start with a primitive rhythmic pattern, which is definitely influenced by the Vodou culture." From there, she improvises, channeling whatever expression she hears and mixing in high-tech digital instruments alongside the traditional Haitian drum.
Jeanty's goal is to use her unique music and positive energy to subtly expose people to Vodou. She has performed at the Whitney Museum and the Museum of Modern Art, and internationally at music festivals in Austria and Switzerland. In May, she'll perform in Poland at the Planete + Doc Film Festival, which will feature The United States of Hoodoo, a documentary in which she speaks about sound and frequency and how they connect the realms of spirituality.
While she is not an angry warrior—Jeanty emanates peace as much as the wooden Buddha that sits at the center of her shrine—she is passionate about addressing the misrepresentations of Vodou culture, and boils at the thought of it being used as a commodity. The Internet is a hotbed for Vodou commodification and, in many cases, fraud. She recoils at the fact that one can find a "love potion" or "money spell" online from an "authentic" Haitian mambo as long as you have $129.99 and a PayPal account.
"When you go to the priest to get a boyfriend or girlfriend, it becomes mundane, it becomes a circus," she says, her signature laughter buckling into the air. "You get away from the real Vodou, and it becomes a Gucci T-shirt."
Real Vodou, she says, is very subtle. "You don't even have to talk too much. If it's dramatic, it's not real."
The alleged association with evil hexes is what most bothers Jeanty and many other Vodouists.
"Dolls and pins are a creation of Hollywood, closer to German and English witchcraft than to African witchcraft," says Professor Bellegarde-Smith. "Religions and witchcraft are not the same thing. The lwa are beyond good and evil, and since we have free will, one can 'use' them for both, realizing that there will be beneficent outcomes or hell to pay for what each one of us has done with her/his free will."
"It's the person that knows little tricks," says Jeanty. "Don't underestimate the power of the human mind. You can brew up a spell. The people that run the government, the banks – they're sorcerers."
The evil that exists within each of us is real, Jeanty confirms with no hesitation, the question is how individuals—vodouists or not—choose to address this energy.
"Vodou is like a gun," she says, her tone serious. "You can pick it up and save your grandmother's life or shoot yourself." In Vodou, there is no good or bad, she insists. "It's just energy."
Dowoti Desir's dark locks, spiraled on the ends, majestically drape beyond her shoulders. Her eyes lower as she looks at the brightly beaded ason she'd removed from her altar, a sacred rattle made from dried gourd that serves as an instrument of power for a Vodou priest. Initiates are "given the ason" to mark the end of their initiation and new title as oungan or mambo.
"Vodou is my foundation and the foundation of my motherland," says Desir, fifty-two, a mambo asogwe, the highest female member of the priesthood. "We should all know who we are and celebrate our histories, knowledge and ourselves."
Dowoti Desir stands in front of a makeshift Vodou shrine in her Harlem home
Desir, who was born in Port-au-Prince, says the mere fact that she had to be initiated into Vodou speaks volumes about the way history has affected Africans in the Americas, and why it's pertinent to preserve a tie to their traditional roots.
With the soulful and commanding voice of a natural storyteller, Desir speaks about finding her met-tet—master of one's head. The met-tet is said to be the most significant lwa to walk with a person on their journey through life. It's generally the first lwa to possess an individual in ceremony, or the lwa that possesses that individual most often. The met-tet often has characteristics that are parallel to those of the individual.
Historically, one's met-tet was passed on through one's lineage, but the Transatlantic slave trade ruptured that process. "The kinship ties that are there normally, you don't have them, you don't know what they are," says Desir, her almond shaped eyes tightening and her voice raw with emotion. "Even the process of getting initiated or knowing that one has to be initiated is part of it, it's a traumatic experience itself."
In 1791, a Vodou ceremony was the catalyst that mobilized enslaved Africans to rebel against their French colonial oppressors, sparking the Haitian Revolution, which ultimately led to the liberation of the Haitian people and the foundation of the world's first independent black republic. Desir believes the spirit of Vodou she finds present within herself is a gift from both her African lineage and her Haitian heritage.
"Some things keep appearing in your dreams, and at some point you think you're losing your mind," says Desir. "But it's because the thing that is literally in your blood, the memory, the DNA that carries all of this data – it needs to manifest."
A Vodou headdress in Desir's home
As a mambo, Desir has some clients she works with spiritually, but doesn't solicit work or organize ceremonies. Becoming a priestess was, in her belief, a prenatal arrangement. "It's an arrangement we made with our ancestors," she says. "We're all born into the world with a mission, with a crown. Some of us have heavier crowns."
A gold ring with a ruby gem sits above the serpent ring that wraps around Desir's finger. The dual rings are tributes to her met-tet, Damballa Weddo—the powerful serpent sky god and father of all the lwa—his wife Ayida Weddo, the rainbow serpent, and Ogun, the warrior who always walks with Damballa.
Like Jeanty, Desir laments that Vodou has been stigmatized for far too long. "These are sacred spaces that people want to dismiss as being hocus pocus or magic—something that is not real," she says. "Some of us have been fighting the vilification."
It is this commitment to clarifying what Vodou is and is not that has made Desir both an advocate for the tradition and a vocal opponent of those who would muddle its image, particularly people who equate Vodou with devil worship.
As Professor Bellegarde-Smith notes, some Protestants in both Haiti and the United States have argued that the devastating 2010 earthquake was God's wrath against Haitians for insisting on practicing their ancestral religion—most notoriously American televangelist Pat Robertson, who attributed the disaster to the Haitian people's "pact with the devil."
"There is a problem of straight up Afrophobia," says Desir—a problem we must continue to work on, she adds.
Dowoti Desir shows her Vodou beads
Desir is founder and president of the DDPA Watch Group, an international human rights coalition working on democratic, cultural and educational activities related to the United Nations Durban Declaration & Program of Action (DDPA)—a 2009 "moral mandate" by the UN to "end the scourge of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance." The mandate declared the Transatlantic slave trade a crime against humanity, and, in Desir's view, "leaves the door open for African descendants to pursue legal recourse in the form of reparations."
Desir's organization pushes for public policies in support of this struggle, and advocates for financial reparations.
"This political work is what makes Vodou a relevant practice in the twenty-first century," says Desir. "We seek balance, equilibrium, justice and healing. The objectives of social justice and social change are mirrored in Vodou. For me, as a priest this is a means of maintaining that connection between communities of the living and those of the dead."
It has been suggested that part of the problem of Vodou's image is that it doesn't have a go-to "holy book" that could clarify any misconceptions or outline the principles.
But "it's not supposed to," says Desir. "It's an ancient religion with tenets that are passed on orally." Vodou is not text, but experiential, she continues. "We live, and we breathe, and we dance and we engage with the world. It's a body of knowledge. It's not just a religion or form of spiritual practice…it's an ethical and moral way of being in the world. Vodou is a discipline that teaches you how to respect the environment, community, and nation."
The story of Haitian Vodou is the story of the human experience, she says, concluding that "as long as we are afraid of each other, we will never be free."
FROM MOHAMMED TO LWAS
On a recent Sunday evening when the freezing cold choked the life out of usually boisterous Flatbush Avenue, retreating to a warm subterranean space was a delight. The scent of roasting pineapple wafted by as Oungan Amer Ahmed and I sat chair-width apart to discuss his peculiar path into Haitian Vodou.
Ahmed's demeanor is welcoming, his voice calm, his smile inviting, his chestnut eyes piercing. Ahmed was exhausted – he'd just hosted a spiritual client for a full week. She had a "zombie in her body," and he and his spiritual mother "did the work." Being an oungan is hard work and takes a toll on the body, he says. Ahmed takes Sunday off from healing whenever possible. He is joyous and ready to talk about the entry to the spiritual world he loves.
After Oungan Ahmed completes his initiation, his spiritual mom, Supote Bon Mambo, greets him for the first time as her spiritual son (Photo courtesy Shannon Taggart)
Sliding his index finger across an iPad screen, Ahmed swiped through images of the many ceremonies hosted in this converted basement, which serves as a temple. In one photo, wearing a gold trimmed teal boubou (traditional African robe), Ahmed's youthful chai-toned skin seems to glow under the light as he watches his spirit mom—the woman who gave him his "new life" in Haitian Vodou and guides him through his journey—possessed by Erzulie Dantor. Clad in a full-length indigo dress, her tresses resting under a maroon head wrap, she lovingly serves her favorite food, griot (a fried pork dish) to a line of drummers, who open their mouths without missing a beat on the drums. In other photos, the woman appears wide-eyed while Ahmed helps her to stand up.
As a pre-teen, Ahmed came to the United States from the Middle East (he does not wish to share which country). Initially settling in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, his family later purchased a home in Canarsie, a predominately Caribbean neighborhood also in Brooklyn.
"I used to be sick," he recalls, tying a red scarf around his head. Ahmed, now twenty-nine, was known as a child for his sporadic bouts of unconsciousness, during which he would aimlessly roam the streets for varying amounts of time. When he came to, he often had no recollection of where he was or how he'd arrived there. His parents were worried, and his behavior incited curious stares and whispers in his small Muslim hometown. "There were moments when I would talk to myself," he said, stroking his goatee.
The solo conversations were enough to disturb his parents, but more alarming was the fact that he was speaking a language they couldn't understand. Thinking he was either using drugs or possessed by an evil spirit, they took him to the mosque for an exorcism.
Supote Bon Mambo is possessed by Erzulie Dantor, who is feeding the drummers; behind her, Oungan Ahmed translates the energy from the spirit (Photo courtesy Shannon Taggart)
That exorcism didn't seem to work, he says, although before long the bouts of unconsciousness ceased and Ahmed went back to being himself again. It would be years before he experienced such symptoms again, but the voice in his head never stopped. As Ahmed tells it, that voice was what ultimately led him to his current spiritual path.
"I always heard that voice in my head," he says, "But it was normal for me to talk back to it. I never knew it was a language until I got into junior high school."
It wasn't until his school days in Flatbush, Brooklyn, where he had many Haitian classmates, that Ahmed says he realized the voice in his head was speaking to him in Haitian Creole. His friends found it strange, but cool that he could speak their language, recalls Ahmed, and affectionately nicknamed him Ti Blanc – little white boy – in Creole.
Four years ago, he once again experienced the same unexplained roaming of his childhood, this time accompanied by excruciating headaches. Six weeks of Ahmed's problems with no answers was more than enough for his parents to admit him to Kings County Hospital for a three-day psychiatric evaluation. "They thought I was going psycho. They wanted to know if I [had] my mind," says Ahmed.
As part of the evaluation, the doctors asked him a series of basic questions: What is your name? Do you know what today's date is? Do you know where you are? He answered all of the questions accurately, he says, and assured them he did not want to harm himself. Before being released from the hospital, a nurse told him, "There is nothing wrong with you. You have a spiritual problem. You need to connect to your spirit."
Intrigued by the nurse's comment, Ahmed sought a spiritual reading from his friend's godfather, who was active in Santeria, an Afro-Caribbean religion centered on Yoruba beliefs and traditions with Roman Catholic influences. But the man told him he couldn't receive his initiation in Santeria. Half-asking, half-telling, the man said, "I see you speak another language."
"The ancestors of that language want you to come to them," the man continued.
Puzzled, Ahmed replied, "I speak Arabic, English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole."
Oungan Ahmed and his spiritual grandmother, Mambo Rita (Photo courtesy Shannon Taggart)
"That's it—Haitian Creole," the man affirmed. "The ancestors of that language want you to receive your initiation in Haitian Vodou."
"Oh no, I am not going to do that," he said, shaking his head.
Yet he was intrigued. He had to know if they could help. So Ahmed lit a candle and asked the Haitian ancestors for guidance. He didn't hear anything the first week, but then one night, a song came to him in a dream and he saw a serpent, which spoke to him, saying: "I am Damballa Weddo." It was only later that he connected that vision to the serpent lwa.
"I'm going to show you who is going to help you," Ahmed says Damballa told him. "This woman is going to be your mother and give you a better life." The lwainstructed Ahmed to go to St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan, where he would meet a lady. Ahmed acquiesced. "I wanted to meet this miracle lady," he says, seemingly still in awe.
Ahmed visited the church several times over the course of a few weeks.
"On the third week, when I got up to leave, I saw this woman." Clutching his belly, he says, "I got this butterfly feeling in my stomach." It turned out the woman attended St. Patrick's Cathedral and was also a Haitian Vodou priestess.
Ahmed explained his dream to the mambo. He said their energies immediately clicked and they began forming a spiritual connection. She began telling him about Vodou. Ahmed entered a secretive seven-day initiation, partly in New York and partly in Haiti; oath-bound secrets prevent him from divulging exactly what happened.
Under the tutelage of his new spirit mom, Ahmed started regleman, the process for learning the culture and practice of Vodou, including the rituals and the many lwas.
"Your body, your energy travels to the ancestors. You are re-born," he says, shaking his head intently.
The ailments that plagued Ahmed prior to initiation have since dissipated. "I came to Vodou for my own healing," he says, but insists, "I didn't choose. The spirit chose me. Why they chose me, I'll have to call the spirit and let you ask them," he says, laughing.
Three years after his initiation, Ahmed is an active oungan with several clients and three spiritual children (those who he initiated.) He says he's been called to the highest level of priesthood, which is asogwe, his current title. He reads dreams, creates protections, reverses spells and provides other healings.
"I love to do magic," he confirms, noting that he particularly likes "love magic." If you want to re-connect with an estranged family member or resurrect a flailing relationship, Ahmed says he can help, and ensures he is not one of the con artists Jeanty cautions against.
"I didn't come to Vodou to work or to make a dollar," says Ahmed. "I could be in a bar and the spirit tells me to talk to someone. You pay the spirit, not me."
Ahmed says there is no go-to formula for healing. "The spirit is going to come and tell [me] what to do, what items [I] need and where [I] have to do it," he says, adding that he cannot reveal the specifics of his methods. After all, insists Ahmed, "magic is secret."
Sylvia A. Harvey wrote this story for Narratively, photos by Jessica Bal and Shannon Taggart
written by SAH	in Long Form
Haitians
One Comment on "Big Apple Vodou"

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The 63d Annual Art of the Northeast exhibition takes place at the Silvermine Arts Center from April 13th through May 24th, 2013. The list of finalists is here. The exhibition was curated by David Ross, Chair of the School of Visual Arts' MFA Program.
Among the finalists is photographer and client Karen Neems.
There is an opening reception on Saturday, April 13 from 6 - 9 pm. Silvermine is located at 1037 Silvermine Road, New Canaan, CT.


Robbie Martin played for the Mustangs from 1977-80 and scored all three Cal Poly touchdowns in the NCAA Division II national championship game against Eastern Illinois in the Zia Bowl at Albuquerque, NM.
He scored one touchdown by punt return and caught two touchdown passes.
Martin is No. 4 in career receiving yards with 2,249, caught 117 passes in his Mustang career, also No. 4; and his 19 career touchdown receptions is No. 2.
He earned American Football Coaches Association All-American honors in 1980 as a flanker.
Martin played in the National Football League for six seasons. Drafted by Pittsburgh in 1981, he was traded to Detroit and played four seasons (1981-84) with the Lions, followed by two seasons with the Indianapolis Colts (1985-86).
Martin was third in the NFL in 1981 in punt return yardage, second in 1982 and fourth in 1985. His career statistics for six years in the NFL include 72 games played, 13 catches for 196 yards, 175 punt returns for 1,670 yards, a 9.5 average and three TDs, and 112 kickoff returns for 2,084 yards, an 18.6 average, and no TDs.
He currently works as a commercial real estate broker in San Jose.


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India's daily Covid spike lowest since August
By News	 Last updated Oct 6, 2020
India on Tuesday reported 61,267 fresh infections of the novel Coronavirus, taking the case tally to 66,85,082, health officials said. This is the lowest daily spike since August.
Though the cases are increasing, the recovery rate is 84.34 per cent in India which is less that Chile that has over 92 per cent cure rate, while US that tops the Covid-19 cases in the world has around 33 per cent recovery rate.
The fatality rate has come down to 1.55 per cent, the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said.
Of the 20 worst affected nations, India has the lowest mortality rate, while Mexico has the highest of 10.4 per cent and the UK next at 8.8 per cent, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Out of the total cases, 9,19,023 are currently active, 56,62,490 have been discharged, while 1,03,569 lost the battle against the viral disease.
Maharashtra continues to be the worst-hit with a total of 14,53,653 cases, including 38,347 deaths; followed by Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.
According to the data from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), India conducted 10,89,403 sample tests in a single day on Monday, taking the total number of samples tested so far to 8,10,71,797.
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Today you're catching me between projects, so there's odds and ends spread out all over my desk. On the left is what remains of my Counterfeit Kit. I made some cards last weekend which I hope to post soon.
In the middle are 6x6 paper pads from My Mind's Eye and Basic Grey. I'm getting hooked on these. Not only are they great for card making, but the smaller scale is perfect for cutting titles and embellishment with my Slice. I needed a small piece of patterned paper for a layout and was able to use the paper pad instead of cutting into a 12x12 piece. Any one else have tips for using these handy little paper pads?
And on the right are the beginnings of my next scrapbook layout. Photos and a few sketch ideas. Hoping to get started on this later today.
Great desk. It makes me want to pull up a chair and play! I like using the small pads of paper in collage. They add a great look and a wash of gesso can turn lots of disparate papers into a nice group.
So orderly, once again! Love the 6x6 pads for...just about everything! Extra-nice when you want one of everything in a collection, don't you think?
i too love the 6x6 pads!
Wow, your work desk is always so neat! Can't wait to see those cards you made!!!
Yes, the smaller scale patterns on the little pads are great. Those Echo Park papers I was using have four small patterns on the reverse side of some of the papers which is a neat idea.
A Slice? I'm thinking of getting one of those.
Nice and tidy desk Sue. I always buy the smaller pads as I made cards only and large patterns really swamp the design at times, BG stuff is great.
I used a pack of 6x6 cardstock from Coredinations for a mini-album and it was so simple because they were already the same size. Can't wait to see the layout with those cute playpen photos.
Wow, you keep a clean desk!
WOW TIDY DESK - You are so organised !
i love those papers too! I feel I should go tidy up - you put me to shame!
Oh so much to love here. I would love to come play!
Now that's a tidy work area... Looks so inviting to have FUN!
That desk is entirely too neat :-) 6x6 trimmed down just a tad on one side is the perfect size to line an envelope if you have a piece leftover. I also use mine for the Cricut. Small scale patterns are just right for cutting up.
Oh, I love the new My Mind's Eye lines! You were smart to buy them up because most places sold out quickly! Hope you got a lot done today!
I love the pads, and have to stop myself buying them. That's not a tip is it..but you know what I mean! Your desk holds a lot of threads (very pretty too) - how's the old sew it thingy going?
After getting some freebie My Minds Eyes I'm gettting hooked on them too, they are lovely papers/ Your desk is sooo tidy! Unlike mine!!
Even when you're working you desk is still organized. How do you do it?
Mine looks like a tornado everytime I am in there, even when I am doing something fast or tiny.
I'm with you, Tracy. When I am working, my whole room looks as if a bomb has hit it. Even though I am doing a parchment card at the moment, my desk is still littered with tools and things I might need to use. I need lessons from you, Sue, on how to work tidily.


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Written By Derek Leave a Comment
Scrum and software contracts
The software project landscape is littered with failures. A recent example in the UK is the failure of the NHS National Programme for IT. At the point the plug was pulled, £6.4bn had been spent with the final bill expected to be £11.4bn. The post mortems are already under way and what they're finding is not surprising. Large IT contracts continue to make the same mistakes. It's time for a change.
Software contracts and the initial budget
As an IT leader, I've worked on software projects of all sizes for many years. Over those years, I've been asked many times "How much will it cost"? I used to try and answer that question but, I don't any more. Because it's impossible.
Just for fun, imagine that you're Leonardo Da Vinci. Francesco del Giocondo comes to you and says "I want you to paint my wife, Lisa". You nod. He continues "The painting has to capture her beauty, show her enigmatic smile and be a focus of desire for generations". You remove your cap, scratch your head, and wonder how you're going to do that. Then Francesco asks "How much will it cost"?
It's been said that producing a software application is an unholy alliance between engineering and art. You can predict the engineering but, the art? It cannot be done.
Software contracts and the delivery date
Right up there with "How much will it cost?" is that other well-worn favourite "When will it be ready?" Back to our analogy.
Having agreed to accept the commission, you tell Francesco that his painting will cost 4,000 écus. Francesco accepts and then says. "We're celebrating the birth of my second son and moving in to a new home. I'd like to have it on the wall. When will it be ready?" You're back to scratching your head again and you're sure there's a bald patch starting to form.
You consider the work involved. The paints you'll have to source and buy. The poplar wood you'll need to paint it on and whether Salai will be able to find the right quality this time. Then there's that helicopter design you're working on. Not to mention the submarine. You'll need Lisa to sit for the painting too – when will she be available. And what the heck is an 'enigmatic smile' when it's at home?
You suck your teeth and, for some unknown reason the phrase "Tricky, Guv!" enters your mind. You ignore it and say "Three months". You're not sure why you said it but, Francesco has a glint in his eye and the answer seems to have made him smile. Result!
Software contracts and changing requirements
Two months later and you're working on the painting when Francesco drops by to take a look. He stands back, his right hand thoughtfully cupping his chin. "Too many teeth" he says. You turn to him with an enquiring look. "There are too many teeth" says Francesco. Look at her. She looks more like a grinning shark than a beautiful woman!" You look at the painting. Anatomically, she has precisely the right amount of teeth. You know it for a fact. You've carved up enough bodies to know. Probably best not to mention it though.
"Anyway", says Francesco, "I wanted an enigmatic smile. Not a smile that's missing a 'Kiss-me-quick' hat" thus proving that it wasn't only Leonardo who was prescient. Inwardly, you sigh quietly. Externally, you ask how the smile should be made to look. "Well, you know, like an enigmatic smile. It's obvious." Francesco then takes his leave. Just as he's leaving the room. he calls over his shoulder "Oh – don't forget that I need it for a week next Friday. Did I mention that we're moving in early?"
Software contracts and budget over-runs
You grind your teeth. You've ended up with an impossible commission. You've got a customer who doesn't know what he wants but knows when he wants it. Worst of all, Francesco has already paid and you've promised to start work on a new, paying, commission in a months time. You decide you've just got to talk about it with Francesco.
A few days later, you find Francesco and tell him your tale of woe. "You told me you'd be ready in three months!" he exclaims. You explain your problem and how you hadn't planned for the numerically challenged teeth or the 'wrong sort of smile'. "Well", says Francesco, "I suppose I can give you another two weeks. But that's it. It must be ready by then!"
By this stage, you're wringing your hat in nervous anticipation, wondering how to propose the question of remuneration. You decide not to mention your new, impending contract as you imagine Francesco would be unsympathetic. Instead, you say that the extra work will cost more. "What!" exclaims Francesco. "You're late and you want me to pay you more? The cheek of it." But you know the best is yet to come. Because now you have to ask Francesco to explain exactly what an enigmatic smile is as well.
Better software contracts
Leonardo was the victim of a 'fixed-price, fixed-scope' contract. An unwitting participant in a drama that unfolds regularly in software projects today.
Businesses place software contracts with the best of intentions. Over the decades, they've been conditioned to state precisely what they want, up-front. In return, they demand a cost and delivery date. What we've found, time after time, is that this model of software contract rarely works for either party. The main problem is this: The customer does not know what they want up-front and they are unaware that they don't know it.
Ask the central team that designed the NHS National Programme for IT. They'll tell you that they knew exactly what they wanted up-front. But I guarantee that they didn't. The requirements changed regularly over the course of the project. Part of those changes were by customer request.
Embrace Change
What software contracts need, are agile customers. Customers who accept that they won't be able to think of everything up-front. Customers willing to commit a budget, state a delivery date and work with their software provider to produce the best software possible in that time. In Agile / Scrum terms we call that 'fixed-price, variable scope'. It works. Try it!
Filed Under: News, Scrum Tagged With: scrum


In 2004 Frank Warren started a community art project were he asked people to anonymously mail him a postcard with one of their secrets on it. He requested that the secrets submitted be truthful and not something that the person has ever told anyone before. In 2005 he took the project online and it became the blog PostSecret, which is now the largest advertisement free blog on the web (ranked #10 according to Technorati). Recently Frank put together a great video about the project.
The third PostSecret book "A Lifetime of Secrets", is now available for pre-order.


READING DOSSIER UK – Welcome. The "Dossier" covers facts about Reading UK which may help inform about many of the town's political, social and cultural issues.
Welcome. The "Dossier" covers facts about Reading UK which may help inform about many of the town's political, social and cultural issues.
The content on this website is intended to assist with debate and discussion on key topics that have arisen in Reading UK.
Presently issues such as education, leisure, planning, infrastructure and much more have caused consternation with the public. This dossier has been instigated in order to allow individuals to consider alternative perspectives to those portrayed by the political powers. We hope this will assist the democratic and decision making process, encourage greater transparency and accountability.
We hope you find it helpful.


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The Clifftop Churchyard
The churchyard is no more immortal than the humans buried there. Despite many attempts at consolidation, erosion continues to gnaw at the churchyard. Along this part of the coastline, the cliffs recede by almost a metre a year. Fear of continuing ground movement means it is forbidden to dig new tombs in the churchyard.
In French the churchyard is called "le cimetière marin " : "marin" meaning both "marine" and "sailor". It could therefore be supposed that the churchyard contains some sailors' or fishermen's graves. However this is not the case as the cliffs make any port impossible and there have been few fishermen in the village. The churchyard is "marine" by its position, perched on an eighty-metre-high cliff overlooking the sea. The name comes above all from texts written in the Figaro newspaper in 1948 by two members of the French Academy, the brothers Jerome and Jean Tharaud who lived in Varengeville. Some artists compared these texts to a poem, written in 1920 by Paul Valéry called "Le Cimetiere Marin", which described the charm of a similar churchyard at Sète in southern France and so the analogy was made between the two churchyards.
Jean-Francis AUBURTIN (1866-1930)
Born on the 2nd December 1866, Auburtin studied at the Paris Art School and married Marthe in 1892. From 1904 onwards he lived in Varengeville. He tirelessly painted the cliffs and the ever-changing light effects on the sea. He was a friend of Guillaume Mallet and painted a portrait of his daughter Pascaline Mallet as a child.
Auburtin was a symbolist painter, loving the twilight and pink colours of the sky. He died at Dieppe on the 22nd May 1930 and rests in the churchyard dominating for eternity the seascapes he loved so much.
The clifftop sanctuary
Rising sheer above the sea, in a place where the eye discovers a long stretch of coast shaped like a sickle, pebble beaches, grassy plateaux dominating the waves, distant shores, which on certain evenings appear like mirages, immense stretches of water where the light paints realms of changing colours, the Varengeville churchyard is one of the most beautiful places on earth.
Surrounded by graves, the ancient church seems to bend its back under wind and storm. The sea's angry assaults and the rain's insidious infiltration undermine and gnaw at the fields and woodland that form its natural foundation. Concern is felt for the church, concern for the graves gathered under its protection, modest or imposing, equally cradled by the endless murmur of the sea which simultaneously destroys and enchants.
Under the huge, restless sky and the dense clouds, this instinctive concern adds to the splendour of the surroundings, just as the feeling of frailty and threat increases its beauty."
Jérome and Jean Tharaud
Georges BRAQUE (1882-1963)
The bird with outstretched wings is often represented in Braque's paintings and it is this bird in mosaic that watches over his grave.
Georges Braque spent the last forty years of his life in Varengeville and was buried there on the 4th September 1963 in the presence of André Malraux and Jean Paulhan.
Paul Nelson (1895 – 1979)
Nelson was a student at Princeton University when he volunteered for the La Fayette air squadron and then the US Air Force.
He qualified as an architect in Paris in 1927. Throughout his life he worked to establish close cultural links between the United States and France. He spent his holidays at his home on the road leading to the church, surrounded by his family and close friends such as Joan Miro and Calder. He is buried in the cemetery not far from his friend Braque.
Albert ROUSSEL (1869-1937)
The composer has a most imposing carved tomb overlooking the sea. It is perhaps his naval career before he became a musician that made Roussel choose the clifftop churchyard as his last resting place.
Influenced by Debussy's music, Roussel composed melodies and symphonies as well as an opera-ballet inspired by a voyage to India.
Jacques Antoine DANOIS
Danois was born in the village and was one of Napoleon's foot soldiers.
Having fought in the Emperor's army at Wagram, Austerlitz, Jena and Eylau, he was given the job of tax collector in Varengeville and died here in August 1857.
Georges de PORTO-RICHE (1849-1930)
Originally from Bordeaux, Georges de Porto-Riche studied law in Paris. He was only twenty when his first historical plays were put on stage. His later plays depicted the sentimental and psychological relations within couples and he was compared to a "bourgeois Racine" A high-ranking officer of the Legion of Honour, he was elected to the French Academy in May 1923. He is buried with his son Marcel, overlooking the sea under a granite tombstone.
Francis Yard
The pink granite tombstone of the Yard family erected opposite the sea is most striking.
Writer and poet, Francis Yard never lived in Varengeville but no doubt through love of this place swept by sea-spray he wanted his family, Madeleine, Marthe and Réné to be buried here.


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Procedures/formalities
The Consell
New technologies and Communication
Economy and Treasury
Urbanism & territory, Tourism and Economic activities
Urbanism and Territory planning
Infrastructures and services
Tourism planning and Economic activities
Agriculture, Livestock, Fishing & Hunting
Handicraft, trade and markets
Culture and Historical Heritage
Equality policies
Newspaper library
Areas Urbanism & territory, Tourism and Economic activities Mobility
Formentera.eco
Italian, French and German versions of the formentera.eco website added early this week have brought the site's total number of available languages to six, marking a leap forward in terms of the service's reach and accessibility. In the day's since the April 15 launch of the reservations portal, the service has logged close to 2,130 reservations—1,052 for vehicles driven by visiting motorists; 357 for cars registered on the island, and the rest for vehicles that complete a separate set of conditions. No incidents have been reported and applicants have yet to reach any of the vehicle entry caps established under the scheme.
Àrea de Comunicació
Formentera Council
Summer hours in effect for metred parking on Formentera
Tuesday, 30 April 2019 14:54
The Formentera Council's mobility department reports that from tomorrow, Wednesday May 1, summer hours will be enforced across metred parking areas in la Savina, Sant Francesc, Sant Ferran and es Pujols. In la Savina, Sant Francesc and Sant Ferran metred parking rules are in effect from Monday to Sunday 9.00am to 9.00pm and, in es Pujols, Monday to Sunday from 10.00am to 12 midnight.
Blue zone parking passes will be valid in any blue zone (zona blava) spaces on the island, while drivers of vehicles that are ineligible for the blue zone reduction must pay €1.20 per hour.
Drivers can leave their cars parked a maximum of one day in summer, as opposed to the three-day limit applied in winter. As far as green zone (zona verda) parking is concerned, motorists in la Savina can park up to 15 days (drivers of authorised vehicles have up to 24 hours).
15-minute parking
The rollout of 15-minute parking spaces started in November and the scheme will continue through summer. Located in Sant Francesc and Sant Ferran, these spaces are designed to promote vehicle circulation in areas of heavy business activity and parking shortage.
Fiften-minute parking passes can be obtained by any driver for free and are valid for any associated 15-minute space. No other passes will be accepted for vehicles parked in 15-minute spaces.
For more details visit http://www.zonablava.com/.
Island launches www.formentera.eco reservations platform for July and August drivers
The Formentera Council convened the local tourism sector and islanders at large for an unveiling of the www.formentera.eco website, a presentation aimed at bringing people up to speed on the new reservations platform for anyone planning to drive on the island in July and August.
As the event got underway at 10.00am in the Council's Sala de Plens, Jaume Ferrer gave an overview of everything that's happened since the Consell d'Entitats formulated the original request—("regulate the vehicles coming onto Formentera to avoid highway saturation during the core months of the season")—back in 2014.
"We've been at it since then", said Ferrer, "and this year, on January 29, legislation for Formentera's environmental and economic stability finally took effect, giving us the authority to determine how vehicles are brought onto the island". With decision-making authority, plus the buy-in of both the Consell d'Entitats and the administration's plenary assembly, Formentera came up with a cap on the number of vehicles that will be allowed on local roads during the first months of what is a ground-breaking programme in Spain. A key part of getting there was the creation of the www.formentera.eco website, which was unveiled today.
Web: formentera.eco
CiF communications chief Elena Trinidad led a demo of the website, pointing up its four functionalities, the first of which is a search engine which enables tourists to view a calendar of availability and determine (and reserve) the dates of their visit. Tourists must pay one euro per day to bring a car, or fifty cents daily for scooters. A first email will be sent to verify the reservation; a second email contains a link to complete payment.
The second functionality, for individuals, businesses and operators of certain vehicles, is a one-stop process enabling motorists to obtain the authorisation for the rest of the season. With this feature, Formentera residents can register their personal vehicles at no cost and are not submitted to limits.
The third part of the website enables drivers to use their vehicle plate number to check if a reservation has been processed correctly. A fourth section of the platform will feature all the details about the project, including downloadable, shareable material and other useful info like public transport schedules.
Automatic accreditation
CiF mobility councillor Rafael González pointed out that if a vehicle has a blue and green zone parking permit, accreditation to be on the road in July and August is automatic. Council officials say they expect the synching of www.formentera.eco and the administration's own database—enabling islanders to see if they've received the automatic go-ahead—to be completed this May.
González stressed that car-hire companies can complete multiple registrations at the same time for vehicles within the same fleet. Businesses will be contacted in May and provided log-info enabling them access to a dedicated section of the new platform.
Eye on tourism
For her part, CiF tourism councillor Alejandra Ferrer underscored her department's efforts to ensure the aesthetics of the project squared with the island's message for tourists. Staff trawled the department's catalogue of images to put forward a sustainable vision of Formentera. The department has also been contributing information to the site and made it a talking point at travel expos since January. The global response has been extremely positive.
"Travelers from outside Spain don't typically bring their vehicles when they visit", said Ferrer, "but we've detected a great deal of interest at travel expos". "Feedback has been fabulous", she continued, "people get that this is about conservation, which happens to be a core interest for most of our visitors".
The website will be translated in six languages. Today's grand-opening was in Catalan and tomorrow will see the addition of Spanish and English, with the Italian, French and German equivalents expected up in May.
Regulated vehicle entry put to Consell d'Entitats
At 8.00pm last night islanders gathered in the plenary hall of the CiF for a special session of Formentera's council of entities (Consell d'Entitats). Mobility councillor Rafael González went over the proposed bid to manage how motorists bring vehicles to the island, and how they circulate and park whilst here. The effort is an offshoot of legislation, passed on January 29 in a full assembly of the Balearic parliament, for Formentera's environmental and economic sustainability.
The CiF president, Jaume Ferrer, gave an overview of the twists and turns from September 2014, when the Consell d'Entitats called for authorities to begin regulating vehicle ingress on the island, to yestereday, when the proposal came before the coalition. Participants, who requested a week to relay details of the proposal to their associates, will gather again next week to address questions on the issue and listen to Consell representatives' take.
Application period and fee
Drivers on the island will have all of July and August to register for the first year of the programme. Only those individuals from outside the Balearics will be required to pay the associated fee—one euro a day for cars and fifty cents/day for scooters. The mobility councillor described it a "symbolic fee" designed to "help authorities assess the system in its first year".
Visitors arriving from outside the archipelago will benefit from a fifty per cent discount if the vehicle they use is hybrid, while those with electric cars will pay nothing at all. Formentera residents are also dispensed of the fee, as are individuals with a second residence on the island; Eivissa residents employed on Formentera; motorists with authorised rental cars; residents of Eivissa, Menorca and Mallorca; and individuals driving historic vehicles affiliated with classic vehicle clubs.
Exemption from the vehicle-entry fee also extends to individuals with reduced mobility, official vehicles, public service vehicles, freight vehicles and industrial machinery.
An online platform, activated during the first half of April and accessible via computer, tablet and mobile phone, will enable those wishing to visit the island with their vehicle to check availability in advance. If space exists, drivers will pay a fee to obtain authorisation. Residents of the Balearics will complete a similar process, though no fee will be assessed.
Given the Council will use data obtained during the blue and green zone accreditation process, Formentera residents with a parking permit are dispensed of the new formality and will be able to enter and exit the island —plus circulate and park— without impediment. Individuals who do not possess a permit to park will have to complete the formality, while bypassing the associated charge.
Rental car companies must certify their vehicle fleets, either at the Citizen's Information Office (OAC) or online through the Virtual Citizen's Information Office (OVAC). This step must be completed before accessing the platform to receive accreditation, which will be based on number plates of the vehicles in question.
Legislation also provides for "dissuasive penalties" of €1,001 to €10,001.
1. Tracking vehicle entry based on number plate readings in the la Savina port. Software will be deployed to check if vehicles have received the required authorisation. Any unauthorised vehicle entry will trigger an alert.
2. Parking checks (performed by blue zone metre attendants) based on number plate readings.
3. Checks of private rental cars via online platforms.
4. Police checks on local roads.
Vehicle cap
Formentera-based firms will be limited to 2,700 authorisations for cars and 7,000 for scooters. There is no quota for quads, camping cars or motor homes. To obtain authorisation, businesses must register via the "DRIAT" system (Document Responsable d'Inici d'Activitat Turística). Permits will be awarded in the order that applications are received and until quotas have been reached.
Limits of 2,280 cars and 230 scooters will be in effect for Formentera's visiting motorists. No quota will be applied for quads, camping cars or motor homes. Authorisations will be awarded in the order that applications are received and until quotas have been reached.
Maximum entry quotas —220 cars and 20 scooters— will also be imposed on Eivissa residents travelling to Formentera with their vehicles. There is no quota for quads, camping cars or motor homes. Authorisations will be given out in the order that applications are received and until quotas have been reached.
2019 transitional arrangement
Legislation calls for transitional measures to be implemented during the programme's first year. Non-resident visiting motorists and visiting motorists from Eivissa who, prior to the approval of publication in the BOIB of the present arrangement, were already in possession of one of three things —a reservation, accommodation on the island and/or a Formentera-bound boat— will be allowed to access, circulate and park on island roads whether or not quotas have been reached at the time of applying for authorisation.
All other vehicles —of Formentera residents, for example, and emergency services— are exempt from entry limits. An exception exists for persons with a second residence on Formentera; such individuals are by law limited to authorisation for one vehicle. If the proposal is ratified by the Consell d'Entitats and receives the green light at the administration's March plenary assembly, the Formentera Council will pilot an expanded nationwide campaign to raise awareness about the pioneer programme.
Improving public transport
Councillor González also spoke about a series of simultaneous upgrades to public transport. This summer, the L1 and L2 bus lines linking Formentera's largest towns —where most of the island's population is concentrated— will be coordinated to offer transportation service every thirty minutes between la Savina, Sant Francesc and Sant Ferran. Schedules will be coordinated with ferry arrivals and departures. The six remaining bus routes will remain unchanged, providing, in González's words, "an alternative for visitors and residents who choose public transport".
Formentera launches info push for metred parking system
The Formentera Council's mobility department is rolling out a campaign to educate islanders about the"regulated" or metred parking service that has been activated in the largest towns across Formentera in recent years.
Department head Rafael González said the information push sought to "clear up the questions concerning use of blue and green zone parking spaces, not just for islanders, but for visiting tourists as well".
15 minutes for business
One of the campaign's chief messages has to do with the 15-minute spots incorporated into blue zone areas when Sant Francesc and Sant Ferran were prepped for the metred parking system. Anyone —both residents and visitors— can park free for up to 15 minutes; they just need to obtain a ticket.
The 15-minute parking areas have been placed strategically around the two towns and were created in response to requests by local business owners keen to encourage frequent rotation of vehicles. González said the move was about "giving drivers 15 minutes to do their shopping and making it easier to patronise local commerce".
Informational material has been printed to get motorists up to speed about the ins and outs —and timetables— of the metred parking system and tackle the major questions. Metre maids will be charged with handing out the two thousand tracts among drivers who park in blue-zone spots, shop personnel and individuals driving rented vehicles.
An informative poster has also been put together to spotlight the campaign's central "15 minutes for business" message and will be affixed to bus stops and other eye-catching areas. The zonablava.com website has also been created as a one-stop shop for information. A video is also expected before summer to reach out to tourists.
The mobility chief thanked islanders for doing their best to use the blue zone correctly and framed such efforts as key to the parking improvements seen on Formentera in recent years.
New car park in vicinity of Sant Ferran school
Two-way traffic resumes on la Savina road
Aspiring taxi drivers: applications accepted for local chauffeurs' licence
Crews start Monday on Sant Ferran road upgrades
Regulació pàrquing la Savina
c. d'Eivissa cant. Arx. Lluis Salvador
07860 Sant Francesc
tel. 971 32 10 87 · fax 971 32 10 63
mobilitat@conselldeformentera.cat
Urbanism and territory, Tourism and Economic activities
Language advirory service
Procedures and formalities
Phones and information of interest
Consell Insular de Formentera | plaça de la Constitució, 1 · 07860 Sant Francesc Xavier | tel. 971 32 10 87 · fax 971 32 25 56


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There is more than one artist with this name: 1) Ella Rodriguez whose debut album is Die of Love is a singer song writer from southern California with a Latin background. Her music and style was heavily influenced by the reggae and rock scene of the 1960's through 1990s. 2) ELLA: Bristol based band formed in 2003 maintaining to this day despite numerous line up changes through continued touring releasing a demo and EP along the way. Currently working on their debut album of which 2 demo tracks have been released. 3) Norzila binti Haji Aminuddin or Ella (born July 31, 1966) is a popular Malaysian rock musician. Ratu Rock is Malay for "Queen of Rock" and this is an apt title for this compilation of Malaysian female rockstar Ella's more well-known hit songs spanning the 1990s to today. Ella still holds at the time of writing the local record for the bestselling female artist for pushing more than 300,000 copies of her records during the peak of her career. She also become an international icon and one of the 'Richest Artist' in Malaysia. 4) ELLA (Amsterdam, The Netherlands - 2016) a project by Ella van der Woude formally of Houses who released an self titled EP in January 2017: ELLA
Nba (Не Мешай)
ФЕЛЛА
Поезда (Мне Уже Не Важно)
Ол инклюзив
Пустота Внутри
Нет Причин
Эйсид
Baby Tonight
Abstraksi Hujan
Peace.Love.Rindu
Raguku
Peace Love
Ku Sedia
Peace Love Rindu
Istimewah (Remastered)


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Copyright Royalty Judges
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New Copyright Royalty Board Chief Judge Named – Looking at the Issues Considered by the CRB of Importance to Media Companies
By David Oxenford on July 21, 2022
Posted in Broadcast Performance Royalty, Intellectual Property, Internet Radio, Music Rights, Noncommercial Broadcasting, On Line Media, Television
A new Chief Copyright Royalty Judge of the Copyright Royalty Board has just been named by the Librarian of Congress. According to the Press Release announcing his appointment, David Shaw will fill that position after having previously served as an administrative law judge on the International Trade Commission for over 10 years. There, he heard complex cases dealing with detailed financial matters – experience that sounds relevant to the kinds of cases he will be deciding on the CRB. The Copyright Royalty Judges decide cases determining the marketplace value of music when setting royalty rates, and that look at the relative value of programming when deciding the distribution of cable royalties to program copyright holders. In addition to ITC experience, Shaw was a judge at the Social Security Administration and, according to his biography, worked in the General Counsel's office at NPR early in his career. With the appointment of this new Chief Judge, we thought that it would be worth looking at some of the specific areas in which the CRB makes decisions that affect media companies.
The CRB is principally charged with rates and distributions for copyrights governed by a "statutory licenses." A statutory license is created by Congress when it is believed that individual negotiations between copyright holders and copyright users would either be unduly complex so as to be almost unworkable or where an efficient market would not otherwise exist. Essentially, the statutory license means that the copyright owner must license the work that they own – they cannot restrict its use – if the user pays the royalties set by law or established by the CRB and abides by the conditions for use set out in the law. See our article here about music statutory licenses and our articles here and here on some of the issues with the TV statutory licenses. The conditions of use are often carefully restricted so as to only cover very specific uses under the statutory license (see our article here on the conditions placed on the use of music under the statutory license for webcasting – the public performance right for sound recordings used by noninteractive services discussed below).…
Continue Reading New Copyright Royalty Board Chief Judge Named – Looking at the Issues Considered by the CRB of Importance to Media Companies
Copyright Royalty Board Announces Changes in Judges
Posted in Cable Carriage, Intellectual Property, Internet Radio, Music Rights
With the Copyright Royalty Board now in the early stages of the next proceeding to consider webcasting royalties (see our article here) as well as other proceedings including the distribution of cable and satellite television royalties to TV programmers (see these CRB notices), the Chief Judge of the CRB, Suzanne Barnett, announced her…
SoundExchange Seeks Permission to Distribute Royalties Based on Proxy Information
By David Oxenford on April 25, 2011
Posted in Internet Radio, Music Rights
What should SoundExchange do with money that it collects for the performance of sound recordings, when it does not know what sound recordings were played by a particular service? As we've written many times on this blog, SoundExchange collects royalties from digital music services , including satellite radio, cable radio and webcasters, for the performance of sound recordings (i.e. a recording of a song by a particular artist). It is charged with the obligation to distribute these royalties one-half to those who hold of the copyright to the sound recording and one-half to the artists who perform on those recordings. However, SoundExchange, according to a filing recently made with the Copyright Royalty Board, does not always know which songs were played by a particular music service. Thus, it has had difficulty distributing all of the money it collects – currently holding $28 Million in royalties from the period 2004 to 2009 that have not been distributed. Why? According to SoundExchange much of the problem is that not all services report what they played and how often, and other information that is submitted is sometimes inaccurate or otherwise does not adequately identify the music that was played. To deal with this problem, SoundExchange has asked that the Copyright Royalty Board authorize it to use proxy information to distribute these funds from 2004-2009. The CRB has asked for comments on that proposal. Comments are due on May 19.
What is proxy information? Basically, SoundExchange plans to infer from the information that it does have what music was played by the services for which it has no information. According to the SoundExchange filing, they would make these assumptions based on the type of service. Thus, information from webcasters would be used to estimate what other webcasters were playing. Information from background music services who did report would be used to determine what other background music services played, and so on. The CRB, in its request for comments, asks if the proxy should be further broken down so that, for instance, noncommercial webcasters would serve as a proxy for other noncommercial webcasters, and commercial webcasters would serve as a proxy for other commercial webcasters. The Copyright Royalty Judges are also seeking to assess whether SoundExchange has done all that it can do to get the required information, and if the proxy system is a fair way of determining distributions for the money that has not yet been awarded to rightsholders and artists.
Does this proposal have any impact on the services themselves? Apparently not, as SoundExchange is at this point only looking for this authority in order to distribute money collected for royalties that came in from 2004 to 2009. It does not appear to be looking at imposing any new restrictions on webcasters or other digital music services. Instead, it is only looking for the authority to distribute the money that it has already collected based on the information that it has available. What should music services take away from this request?…
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Copyright Royalty Board Sets Comment Date on Internet Radio Minimum Fee Settlement
Posted in Internet Radio
Last year's Court of Appeals decision on Internet radio royalties for 2006-2010 remanded one issue to the Copyright Royalty Board for further consideration – the issue of the minimum annual fee to be paid by each webcaster. The Copyright Royalty Judges ("CRJs") had decided on a $500 per channel minimum fee – a fee that created much concern in the Internet radio community as there was no clear delineation of what a channel was. For services, like Pandora, where there is a unique stream created for each listener, by some definitions there could be an almost infinite number of channels all subject to the $500 minimum fee. Following the CRB's initial decision, a number of the larger webcasters and SoundExchange entered into a settlement capping the minimum fee obligation at $50,000 per webcaster per year. Thus, services with more than 100 channels would only pay a minimum fee of $50,000 at the beginning of each year. However, this settlement was never extended to all webcasters – it applied only to those webcasters who signed the deal. Following the Court remand, SoundExchange and DiMA (the Digital Media Association which represents many webcasters), submitted the 2007 settlement to the CRB to be codified into the rules that govern webcasters generally. Just before Christmas, the CRJs asked for comments on that settlement. Comments are due by January 22.
In many cases, this settlement has been superseded by subsequent events – namely the settlements with webcasters that were entered into in February and then later in the summer under the provisions of the Webcaster Settlement Acts. Settlements with broadcasters, pureplay webcasters, small commercial webcasters and various noncommercial groups all set their own minimum fees (and, for the most part, cover the periods through 2015), and thus this proceeding is largely irrelevant to these webcasters. If this settlement is approved, the only remaining question before the CRJs on the remand of the 2006-2010 proceeding will be the minimum fee for some noncommercial groups that did not enter into any settlement, as this agreement on minimum fees applies only to commercial webcasters.…
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Copyright Royalty Board Proposes Full "Census" Reporting for Services Paying Royalties to SoundExchange
Just when you think that the year will come to a quiet end, something always seems to pop up. Today, the Copyright Royalty Board announced a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would change the reporting requirements for services that pay royalties for the use of sound recordings to SoundExchange. The proposed new rules would require that Reports of Use submitted by services relying on the statutory royalty contain "full census reporting" of all songs played by any service. Services would include all users of music who pay royalties due under Sections 112 or 114 of the Copyright Act – including Internet Radio, satellite radio, digital cable radio, digitally transmitted business establishment services, and radio-like services delivered by other digital means, including deliveries to cell phones. This reporting requirement would replace the current system, about which we wrote here, that only requires reporting for two weeks each quarter. Under the new rules, an Internet radio service would have to submit the name of every song that they play to SoundExchange, along with information as to how many times that song played, the name of the featured artist, and either the recording's ISRC code or both the album title and label. Comments on this proposal are due by January 29.
Currently, the quarterly reports are filed electronically using an ASCII format and using either an Excel or Quattro Pro spreadsheet template as created by SoundExchange. The Board asks for comments as to whether there are technological impediments to providing this information in this manner, and if other changes should be made to more easily facilitate the delivery of this information. The Copyright Royalty Judges who make up the CRB expressed their opinion that the full census reporting is preferable to the limited information now provided, so that SoundExchange does not need to rely on estimates or projections to insure that all artists are fairly compensated when their works are played. Using census reporting, all artists can be paid based on how often their songs are actually played.…
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"Their first proper recording, the 2005 'Le Secret' EP, typifies the shoegaze sound with spacey guitar effects, vocals lingering in the background and moods and rhythms normally reserved for the alternative/indie rock scenes."
Whether they like it or not, Alcest has become the model for explaining the shoegaze/post-rock, black metal phenomenon. Their first proper recording, the 2005 "Le Secret" EP, typifies the shoegaze sound with spacey guitar effects, vocals lingering in the background and moods and rhythms normally reserved for the alternative/indie rock scenes. The atmosphere generated through albums such as this is one of the facets that hooked listeners on this type of music in the first place. So making available one of the figurehead albums seems a just move by Prophecy Productions.
This version of "Le Secret" contains the two, original tracks that comprised the EP, plus better-produced, re-recorded versions. The reworked versions sweep away many of the original impurities, thus volumizing each shimmering guitar note and heavenly keyboard passage. The original tracks are more in line with the raw sound of Alcest's demo "Tristesse Hivernale." I hesitate to call this raw production "necro" though, because that word brings to mind dark, morbid ideas that "Le Secret" simply doesn't channel. Essentially, the album's spry, upbeat tone is what makes it a special listen, whether that translates into a negative or positive experience for the listener.
The title track opens with serene, slumbering clean guitar notes that fans of Opeth and Agalloch should find moving. These soft notes continue until around the three-minute mark, when distorted guitar tones make their presence. Here, the rhythm conveys a triumphant, monumental feeling akin to the newer, progressive era of Enslaved. These tremolo-picked notes keep the rhythm frozen in motion until pounding drums come into the mix. Right up until the song's ending, when the group returns to the lighter theme of the beginning, this song is very much black metal in technique, but the tone and vocals offer little in terms of the black metal ideal.
"Elevation" contains the shrieking vocals that the preceding track lacked; however, like the track's title suggest, "Elevation" delivers uplifting music. The pace follows a similar course as the title track, moving between fast/pounding segments and slow/light passages. Choir keys usher the track in with an ethereal presence, while the fast parts instill feelings of yearning (check out In The Woods "Heart of the Ages" for comparison).
From the swirling guitars to the distant, seemingly disembodied vocals and fierce drumming, "Le Secret" deserves praise in many areas. Alcest sought to create an album of various emotions, an album that expresses happiness. In this regard, Alcest was successful. However, as the name suggests, black metal is meant to express dark, negative emotions. Even the bands that don't hail the man below still keep their music on the dark side. Also, while metal is a form of music that has incorporated other genres, the alternative aspects Alcest brings to "Le Secret" should be left for alternative bands.
Highs: "Le Secret" contains rich ambiance.
Lows: Alcest instills qualities of alternative music that just don't work.
Bottom line: "Le Secret" is too fast and harsh for alternative/indie rock listeners and too upbeat for black metal fans. It's hard to say where this album belongs.
Get more info including news, reviews, interviews, links, etc. on our Alcest band page.


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Khloé Kardashian Talks Fame After Kim Kardashian's Sex Tape
Photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Kardashian/Jenner Apps.
"initial notoriety is one thing…"
Working in media, it's hard to ignore the Kardashian-Jenner family. The Internet is saturated with think pieces about why so-and-so likes them, how they learned to love them, and why they matter. Almost every piece—no matter how valid the argument for them may be—gets bombarded with comments questioning their fame, with a handful directly calling out (and shaming) Kim Kardashian's sex tape as the reason. As a result, their fame is somehow dirtier and less warranted. Khloé Kardashian spoke directly to that point last night, on her ridiculously enjoyable show Kocktails With Khloé.
Toward the end of the episode, when guests sit around Khloé's kitchen table and have a chat, GloZell point-blank asked her host about Kim's adult video, filmed in 2003. She wondered whether Khloé and her family would be here had it not been for the tape. Khloé responded, "I think having initial notoriety is one thing. But having something to sustain—we're filming season 12 and then to have the longevity that we have, you have to give credit to that." The party agreed.
Of course, this question isn't new. Oprah asked Kim Kardashian a similar question in 2012. "That's how I was definitely introduced to the world. I like to think that I'm aware. I'm not naive to that fact," she said. "It was negative way, so I felt like I really had to work ten times harder to get people to see the real me." Indeed, the first season of Keeping Up with the Kardashians kicked off with Kim addressing the sex tape, but the show and the family's subsequent fame soon blossomed into something much more positive than the video. To echo Khloé's statements, the notoriety is an entry point; what you do afterwards, with the platform you find yourself on, is a truer, more honest example of one's character, talent, and savviness.
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