text:
Demand For Digitised Research Increases
Limeglass, a research fintech, has doubled its team since an investment by JP Morgan last year and said remote working had led to an increase in demand for its 'Research Atomisation' technology .
The firm uses proprietary natural language processing, artificial intelligence and machine learning to automatically analyse paragraphs in research documents in real-time, taking into account the underlining context and structure so that readers receive personalised content on a timely basis.
Simon Gregory, Limeglass
Simon Gregory, chief technology officer and co-founder of Limeglass, told Markets Media that the requirement to work from home due to the Covid-19 pandemic has forced banks to embrace cloud technology and external technology providers.
He said: "Our conversations have intensified. Banks have actually been picking up the phone and calling us."
Gregory continued that there has been an increase in demand for research related to Covid-19. The firm has grown its research team since JP Morgan invested in November last year and added more topics and tags to its taxonomy.
"Companies are creating indices on how countries are dealing with the pandemic so we have added tags such as Covid-19 and coronavirus," he added. "We are also broadening our taxonomy to include actions taken by central banks in response to the pandemic such as quantitative easing."
Gregory said Limeglass is increasingly used across asset classes, including fixed income and foreign exchange, which are more driven by macroeconomics and monetary policy.
In a blog he gave the example of an investor who wants to buy bonds in an emerging market economy such as Malaysia.
A search for 'Malaysia COVID-19' and 'Malaysia monetary policy' will present all the relevant paragraphs from numerous documents in an easy-to-access format.
"In this way, the atomisation and tagging processes turn unstructured reports into usefully structured material, giving a comprehensive overview of fixed income for the client," said the blog. "Knowing all the themes, as well as having granular metrics on every topic being written opens up all sorts of interesting opportunities for maximising current research."
Another blog gave an example of the limitations of traditional search methods when applied to foreign exchange, where a search on the 'pound to dollar rate' would only reveal sections of reports that referred to those particular words.
"Other sections containing words and phrases such as 'sterling', 'cable', 'greenback' and 'GBP/USD' or simply 'GBP' would not be revealed," said the blog. "Moreover, adjacent contextual references to topics that affect the FX market, including the current UK interest rate or latest announcement by the US Federal Reserve would also be missed."
The European Union's MiFID II regulation required the unbundling of research payments from the beginning of last year, and most asset managers have chosen to pay for research out of their own revenues. Before MiFID II research costs were often 'bundled' into transaction commissions and paid by investors, with many buy-side firms not monitoring how much of their clients' money was being used to pay for research.
Institutional liquidity pool Liquidnet said in a report in March this year that the research product is changing. Reconstructing Unbundling: Canary in the Coalmine III said that effectively establishing which brokers the buy-side needs to pay for what services has yet to significantly evolve from the traditional broker vote.
Rebecca Healey, Liquidnet
Rebecca Healey, global head of market structure at Liquidnet, and one of the authors said in the report: "The necessary behavioural change to digitalise the research evaluation process – rather then the research distribution process -is still painstakingly slow, making real price discovery harder to ascertain across research providers."
The study concluded that the digitisation of both the research and execution service will ensure that the right information is provided at the relevant time.


My last residency at Ashland University involved the usual guest speakers in the evenings and after lunch craft seminars. My writing workshop was mentored by Joe Mackall, author of "The Last Street Before Cleveland". During the workshop we reviewed each of five student's final thesis. Most still required changes and some completion.
Steve Almond's "Not That You Asked" which is a great book for looking at strong authorial voices, most of the class really appreciated the review of a visit to the library to review Kurt Vonnegut's writing.
Gretel Erlich's "The Solace of Open Space" which is a great book for looking at the rich depth that essays and memoir can contain in terms of detail. She uses a brief narrative arc to order her essays, mostly focused on a quest where she overcomes her grief at the death of her fiance and eventually marries another, but also the quest to become a worker on a Montana sheep ranch.
Both authors were available for our workshop for a question and answer session.
Gretel Erlich focused most on her research work and how she worked in the field to collect information. Steve Almond discussed a basic model of narrative fiction, some problems and how he chooses assignments.
- a eight to ten minute selection to be read for the graduate student reading.
My husband captured mine on video, I hope to load them and make those available.
My thesis, list of memoirs read during the program and introduction to my thesis went into the MFA Director at Ashland University, Stephen Haven, before my birthday. It went through many rounds of edits, growing much more than 200 pages then trimmed back heavily to below 180 pages including poetry and photographs.
The last thesis semester was pretty intense and started with a thesis in its entirety turned into the professor of the previous semester and the current semester mentor, Robert Root. The major complaint about my thesis was a lack of focus and also the complexity. I did write more, sometimes rewriting sections to better fit my intent.
The chief trauma in this semester was I had a terrible time writing the last two chapters, my brain just wouldn't cooperate and tell me what I needed to make it end. Luckily, I did eventually get it written.
A fatal flaw according to Vivian Gornick is to include a self-defense, a scene portraying my entrance into the scene to showcase my own lifespan even if it goes against the purpose for the memoir. So yes, I cut out scenes that talked about where I was in my life during the story of my brother's life. Not all of it was cut, since things that happened in my life connected with things that happened in my brother's life. Essentially having the narrator put too much of their own opinions, life, or experiences slants a book and amounts to authorial intrusion which detracts from the flow of story by taking the attention of the reader and moving it to the narrator.
I often had to cut telling of events and turn it into scene and cut back on scene if it didn't greatly advance the story.
Why did I use mixed genre?
Poems helped place the story with a worry point or more emotional way of looking at a time. Photos helped to show what we saw versus what we remembered experiencing and helped make the point about place and our connections to place. Photos helped humanize the piece.
One source of conflict was my desire to include references that might help an audience following in my footsteps could use for their own search or own understanding.
There is really a solid sense of accomplishment to look back and say, I read all of that.
A major revision for my introduction required that I use more specificity in explaining how an author contributed to my own growth in this area. I expected to have one or two points but I had far more in the final version.
I spent a week and cranked out my critical paper and then had it rejected as a how-to paper rather than a critical review. My Ashland University MFA program mentor Tom Larson requested that I read two other books and focus more narrowly on my topic of family mental health memoirs. So we agreed on "Hurry Down Sunshine" by Michael Greenberg and "Surrounded by Madness" by Rachel Pruchno along with Richard Hine's "Broken Glass". My previous paper is a good start on this upcoming term's paper about lesson's learned or something like that, I will hear more. I've done some planning about that content during the break.
So then I had to focus on finishing the last of my scenes and weaving them together with a frame of narrative, something that was new to me. In the end, I turned in 90,000 words on my draft thesis and a twenty-five page critical paper that grew to 28 pages when I formatted the reference quotes in an indented paragraph when they went more than a line or two, as suggested by the AP Style Guide. I was pleased to get good feedback on the paper.
My rough draft received the commentary that yes, it was a draft and had several stories in it.
By the time I was finished cranking out as clean of a copy as I could in the time available, I was feeling a great deal of stress in my arms and back, my tendinitis flaring up. So I've taken the holiday weeks off to get more exercise. Bob and I managed to finish hiking at each of the Seminole County Wilderness areas, learning two fun new places and once swamp walking up to our ankles.
I've also worked on my gardens, getting them weeded and planting some new plants.
But I haven't forgot about my work. I've worked on outlining one of the extracts from the 90K words as a potential book and figured out where I wanted to break the 90K into two volumes, one early life, one later life. I have a print out that I will start marking up with edits.
I've also been rather laid back about getting my reading list out in the form of reviews--I found out how out of date my Goodreads list is for one, plus outlined a dozen other papers I can write, several that I've already started.
Spent last night organizing my materials needed during the two weeks residency at Ashland University. We were sent our student workshop packets and our reading list. This year, we were allowed to choose from thematic sessions by the instructors. I chose one focused on memoir theme taught by Steven Harvey, who has published several books of essays, acts as editor at the Humble Essayist and Senior Editor at River Teeth, and taught for many years,and one on a variety of techniques in lyricism or connecting poetry and prose taught by Robert Root, who has published many books and taught for many years. So these will be my two mentors during the residency and I will continue on in the fall with Steven Harvey.
I learned last year how difficult it is to keep track of a variety of materials. In each 2.5 hour workshop, we discuss student manuscripts, reading materials required by the instructors, we also work on writing assignments featuring various topics covered by the theme. Following the workshop and lunch, we have a lecture from a visiting speaker, followed by readings from the speaker or instructors in the evening. Between these, student oral dissertation presentations occur. Last year, I attended both prose and poetry reviews and found them very helpful. I think it helps the student to have an audience because it shows we think their writing is valuable. It is also a good way to learn respect for your peers because the reading they do and questions they answer have been rehearsed, revised, formulated into a paper, and then feeds back to instructors who prompt the student to answer questions about their work, their process, areas of difficulty and growth, and long term development. It makes it clear from the start that there is a lot of work to do before reaching the point where a student can graduate.
So, to organize, I've got my calendar and my husband's calendar synchronized--we know where we have time off to be spent together or alone, and when there are readings and music that he might find of interest. I know where I need to be and what I need to do to prepare. I have files of material on my PC, but need to print a few things out. I will need to read and prepare my thoughts yet.
This year, my reading is light, two essays required by Steven Harvey, and five essays required by Robert Root, and three student packets for each week, for a total of 90 pages. I've begun to explore some of the writing of the guest speakers during the residency so that I will have an idea of their style beforehand.
What is happening with my work? Well, it's mostly on hold with the memoir for a few more days, at least in terms of writing. I have been working on identifying what each chapter's main ideas are and main emotions I held and how they were altered over time, by writing brief descriptions.
I've been working on the edits to some complicated poems I wrote last semester. An example, I wrote one five stanza poem, where each stanza was thirty lines or longer. These I trimmed back to have a consistent twelve line stanza, although two of the stanzas was broken into two twelve line stanzas for a total of seven stanzas. I offered connections between the stanzas using image and language. I also worked at fixing some of the holes identified during the manuscript review offered by my class mates and by Ruth Schwartz, last semester's mentor in poetry since I signed on to a multi-genre MFA program. The poem was written about a place in Nicaragua and I found since my travels have mostly been to Central and South America, that they were somewhat connected.
So I decided to try my hand at translating them into Spanish using my course materials from my class in Spanish at UCLA, an English Spanish Dictionary, and the Spanish Dictionary online SpanishDict.com from Curiosity Media. Doing the translation was actually a good practice for me because I had to find verbs that worked in both languages and I had to be more precise about the nouns I used and the tenses. In doing the translation, I tried working it out myself, then used SpanishDict.com to see how they translated the same lines. It was easier to pick up some of the words from the later because of the accent characters used in Spanish, but sometimes they offered alternative verbs, got rid of the pronouns to appear more commanding or active or offered a different connective. It's interesting work but very time consuming. It took me three days to revise and translate the seven twelve line stanzas. I've started a second poem. I do confess it may be avoidance of facing some of the tougher emotions in three of my poems I have still to revise. I've also sorted through my newer work, looking for category types and evaluating whether some could work together as chapbooks and came to the conclusion that several of my poems might work for the emotional statement about each chapter, the immediate reaction at the time that I felt.
My husband and I are working at fixing my second novel, once more checking for any errors that might have found their way into the manuscript--Bob spent three days revising, I spent one reading and noting any changes, then Bob put those in and gave me a copy.
I finished up my work as a reader for The Firecracker Award and it helped me gain new perspective on the quality, range of style, coherence, and organization of contemporary prize winning poetry books.
I'm working as a reader at River Teeth Magazine which is teaching me some good lessons about essay writing. What I have like is well-polished essays--if sentence clarity lacks, or the focus is weak, or the essay incomplete, I find them less appealing. The writing styles have varied as has topics. It makes essay writing an interesting aspect of writing.
I continue on with work with the Pacific Northwest Writer's Association for the tenth or twelfth or something like that year in a row. One of the benefits of PNWA membership is the Author Magazine, which recently offered up an interview with Science Fiction writer, Nancy Kress, which I found very interesting and finally encouraged me to buy one of her books, although I have read some of her short stories.
With my concentration on poetry and memoir, it leaves me very little time to read in my primary area of novel writing. But since this concentration builds areas of personal weakness, I find it a useful thing to do.
I continue my participation with Zooniverse, which is a site that allows volunteers to help process scientific data. Typically, volunteers view photos and click on objects inside the photo and identify them. So far this quarter, I've helped identify animals in the Serengeti, wind flow patterns on Mars, egg-laying behavior of worms, and potential supernova's. I'm up to almost 2000 identifications of various types.
My husband and I took my niece to Nicaragua this spring to help out on an Earthwatch Project Exploring a Volcano in the town of Masaya. My niece is a pre-medical undergraduate with a BS in Biology who hopes to become a doctor. We took her as a graduation present to help encourage her into exploration of the world, the needs of people, and the various ways science impacts our understanding. The project took us inside various craters at Volcan Masaya taking microgravity readings, collecting GPS data and witnessing a project to collect comparative level data (from data 20 years previous).
and sulfur emissions to help scientists understand the impact of volcanic emissions on the surrounding community. We also climbed into a lava tube, spotted bats, and got to see three dimensional renderings of photographs taken during measurement work. I got a bad dose of the flu so I wasn't very inclined to go hopping over rocks in the darkness but I thought the work fascinating.
In line with my usual practice of learning about a country before I go, I collected and started reading some of the literary works from Nicaragua.
I still continue on as a 5th Grade Catholic Religious PREP school teacher, the classes meet every other week and teach children about the seven sacraments of the Catholic faith--Baptism, Eucharist, Penance, Confirmation, Marriage, Priesthood, Healing, while explaining the Catholic calendar (special seasons) and about what it means to be a Catholic.
So far I've completed three packets of material that I have sent in to my mentor, Ruth L. Schwartz, along with an emulation poem for each of the books of poetry we've read so far (see the poetry page, I've started putting out some of my essays about the books) and written an essay about what we can learn in terms of poetry book construction, types of poetry and styles and basic techniques. I've also read several essay books where the author also writes poetry and contrasted the work in the two books.
One of the things I mentioned in my application to Ashland University's MFA program is that I hoped to move my writing of book reviews to a higher level by writing essays about reading material I'm using to help build my list of memoir read during the program (50 memoirs suggested) and for my own purposes (50 poetry books). So I've been reading a lot, and doing the same with my nonfiction resources, taking quotes, or poems and sorting them against a proposed essay book outline. I'm hoping to produce a mixed format, poetry and prose book on completion. I find it is very tedious work to collect source material.
For my memoir, I've focused on taking the "situational" material (from Vivian Gornick's The "Situation and the Story" where I portray how a family event over the course of thirty years helps explain our family's experience with drug and alcohol addiction and its impact, and sorted these out into chapters. Within the chapters, I'm sorting my research data; basically taking quotes that I can use from source material I'm reading and placing them in context. I'm also brainstorming about how my overall concept of what was going on has changed as well as how historical events in those years affected us. This raw data helps me build the "frame" or context for the memoir. I'm hoping that I can connect some of the improvements in science, knowledge, medicine, and social organizations are affecting those who are impacted by addiction as a resource for others who may share these problems.
After I use the basic texts about different problem areas where our family came into contact with various organizations, I plan to look for recent publications, and entered into ResearchGate as a tool for finding source material.
I'm trying to maintain my presence on Facebook, Empire Avenue, Quora, PoetrySoup, and other social media but have slowed down. I tend to socialize online when I am very tired and not able to think about my writing projects. I've started participation on some quorums in LinkedIn, and on a new site called The Prose where a community offers challenges to writers. I've also have been working on Ancestry.com, Newspapers.com, and Archives.com to find out about my family history.
On our way home from the Ashland Residency, my husband and I took a week to visit my sister and explore some of the East coast of the United States. I grew up on the West Coast and much of the East Coast is unfamiliar to me, so that translates as time for travel adventure. We also had the fun of running into old friends moving to the South on our trip, it was fun to have the chance to sit, discuss Boeing, old times and new times.
I selected Fourth Genre: Contemporary Writer's of/on Creative Nonfiction by Robert L. Root Jr. and Michael Steinberg as my optional book because I felt I wanted a better understanding of essay as opposed to memoir (we were told the percentage of narrative played a large part in the definition) as well as a look at some of the variations along the way.
I've completed a first reading of the above books except for the last. I like to reread along with the class curriculum because I find it makes me pay more careful attention and allows me to find the needed references to class discussion questions because I already have a familiarity with the book outline and don't have to rush to finish at the expense of the work.
Besides the reading and cleaning my house so that I now have my reading separated into genre piles and shelves, I have also taken on two new volunteer duties in addition to my upcoming aid to an Earthwatch.org project to help with a global warming study, one as a reader for a contest, the other as a teacher for my church catechism.
I also have a good idea about how I am going to frame my memoir. Framing, I learned in the residency, is what they call the story line as it varies in time and perspective despite having a single narrator. Although the narration will be by me, the story alters during the twenty year time of events as I age, but also as a result of this project and as a result of lessons learned. Some of what alters when selecting a frame, is verb tense, maturity of voice, time, as well as what is driving the project.
I was given a bit of critique flak because of one scene written as a six-year-old, and one as a twenty year old without any framing. At six-years-old, I often just repeated what I had been told without understanding how it might be viewed, especially in modern times. Our family changed many things down the road of life including how my parents disciplined children, roles and responsibilities and diet.
Bonnie Rough very helpfully provided an introductory set of questions to be answered.
Before my idea about how to frame the memoir, I had developed a list of "situations" or "scenes" that I felt were important to cover in the overall story line. I've worked at drafting the situations and at writing attempts at the frames. I heard loudly what readers liked and disliked. I do stubbornly maintain my view of the style of memoir, one with a future look upon it which I have seen used in writing, and my need to have my perspective for the project grounded in research, although the style is something I am going to have to experiment with along the way. In the residency, I did my book report on Da Chen's "Colors of the Mountain" and just doing that based on my earlier reading assignments I found that I hadn't grounded the book in our family. I didn't really want to write about my family so much as the situation we were all involved in, but I can see that without doing a gossip columnist shark attack on all members of my family (I think this has to be the nightmare all writer's face when considering writing memoir), I could still introduce them in such a way that people could see the complexity of their personae and the dynamics within a family, all which had effects on the outcome of the situation.
I especially liked the rich style of essay/memory Steven Harvey used in one of his pieces we read about his mother. I am not quite certain I am up to that level of writing, but maybe. I do have a slightly different tangent because I very much want to write something helpful, useful, upbeat, even if the topic is quite sad and downbeat. I don't want a chirpy voice that says I've got rose-colored glasses.
I had already started many of my situations as essays and when I discussed it with Bonnie Rough and Kate Hopper, they both indicated that "situations" could be within short essays and reframed into our final project/memoir.
So that brings me back to the need to submit my work. I quit submitting until I was firmly into a writing program that I felt comfortable with, and now that I have done much of the spit and polish sort of requirements I should have the next two weeks for writing, editing and submitting. Wish me luck.
My first residency has ended at Ashland University. I am now recovering. Why? Were we overworked? No. Maybe overstimulated, the pace of the residency was busy but allowed for time for writing, reading, rest, exercise, fun, decompression and lots of learning.
I flew into Cleveland, Ohio airport, rented a car, drove to Ashland by way of the Cuyahoga River National Park in Cleveland (many portions of the area are shared with Cleveland Parks) and arrived just in time to check in. You could spend days in this park and still find things to do. My favorite was Deer Lick Cave (see the photograph).
Then I locked my key in my room requiring a call to security to let me back in. After repeating that stunt, I learned to carry my keys around my neck and never forget it.
I signed up for a room in Andrews Hall, a double person dorm room that I shared by myself. This room was perfectly fine, exactly as advertised and had a sole occupant, but I found it terribly claustrophobic despite the bouquet of flowers I bought to cheer the place up. My husband arrived after a week and used the time to rescue me to the Quality Inn and to visit his sister and see some of the sights.
Our residency schedule had us in workshops in the morning from 9-11:45, but I often woke up at 6 a.m. because for some reason I felt I could write at this time. The showers down the hall were perfectly fine, the young dormers fun to watch (once there were five young men nestled in sleeping bags in the tv room having a movie party). See below my morning breakfast in our workshop setting, pretty rough, huh?
Then we dashed to lunch (I bought the lunch meal ticket) which was often hectic due to the number of summer camp students also dining. We all got fed but it was tight. See the entrance to the dining room above.
After lunch, we had a craft session with the guest speaker from the night before. Afterwards, there were either student defense sessions we could attend, or I could retreat to the tables near the coke machine and quietly pay attention to my reading and writing or to take a nap (needed during my first week since I felt terribly exhausted).
Before dinner, there were a couple of bar outings to have wine and relax--I usually skipped these since I don't imbibe much. Dinner was usually good but I often just ate salad and fruit or just skipped it or rushed out to Wendy's or Dairy Queen to top up my sugar level and belief that there was a world outside of me.
At seven we returned to hear a guest reading that would last sometimes to 9 or later. Below is the smaller lecture hall where they held some of the thesis defense sessions.
I managed to attend all sessions but the Orientation which I forgot somehow and to get all my homework in on time and to contribute to the discussions.
My workshops were with Kate Hopper the first week and Bonnie Rough during the second week.
I loved the campus which was small, had really wonderfully comfortable facilities and beautiful gardens. I signed up for the athletic pass to use the huge swimming pool but felt overwhelmed enough to never feel I could slip away. I'll add photos to this when I get home.
I feel like I'm moving in slow motion but I read another fifty pages from Packet 2 for the workshops in my MFA program residency at Ashland University, chose my book for my book presentation, and completed several more reviews. I also almost finished reading "The Situation and the Story" by Vivian Gornick. She makes several good points about organizing your memoir based on memory. I've compiled my source materials so far--memoirs, books similar to mine, and writing books and I already have 25 on the list. I've had some ideas to add to my memoir that should help the opening. I've two ideas for the class exercise. The last thing on the list will be the book presentation. It will be the start of my comparison between 2 or 3 of the memoirs read so far. It will be good to move some of my stack to the shelf again and open up space.
Today I also joined some of the Ashland University sites. I still need to track down a problem with my email and another one with my ticket. I had all the bills paid until a day ago, and also solved some of my banking difficulties. Now just to test the printer and other supplies.
We're still playing get the yard back in order after Germany while also gathering supplies for our trip to the Amazon in Peru. We need rubber boots, protection against mosquitos and expensive rabies shots and new glasses and sunglasses.


text:
De acies triplex was een drievoudige formatie waarin de Romeinse legioenen vochten vanaf het tweede deel van de Republikeinse tijd.

Republikeinse tijd
De traditionele acies triplex bestond uit drie linies:

 hastati, armere burgers bewapend met een hasta, een zware lans en een ovaal schild
 principes, rijkere burgers met een goede wapenrusting met bronzen cassis, gladius, scutum en kuras
 triarii, de laatste linie

In de periode voor de hervormingen van Marius werd  de eerste rang gevormd door de hastati, de jongste en meest onervaren legioensoldaten (legionair). De tweede rang werd gevormd door principes, met iets meer ervaring. De derde en laatste rij werd gevormd door triarii, de betrouwbare veteranen.

De slagorde was gebaseerd op de indeling van de bevolking in centuriae, die op inkomen en vermogen was gebaseerd. Men werd in die tijd geacht zijn eigen uitrusting te betalen. De armsten konden zich alleen een lans (de hasta) veroorloven, een wapen waar weinig brons voor nodig is. De rijken konden met een complete wapenrusting ten strijde trekken. Dit zijn de principes, de "eersten". Als laatste zijn er de triarii, Traditioneel waren in deze linie de ervaren veteranen geposteerd die ingrepen als het misging. "De zaak is tot de triarii gekomen" was dan ook een gevleugeld woord in het oude Rome.

Als de eerste rangen vermoeid werden of het moeilijk kregen, klapte iedere centuria posterior van ieder manipel hastati en principes terug achter de centuria prior. Deze waren zo geordend dat ze bij de hastati en principes elk aan een andere kant een opening vormden. Zo trokken de hastati zich terug en werden de principes in de strijd gezonden. Het procedé werd opnieuw herhaald met de principes en triarii, waarna opnieuw begonnen werd met de uitgeruste hastati. Indien de Romeinen aan de verliezende hand waren, trokken de hastati en principes zich terug achter de linie van triarii, die met hun lange hasta de vijand tegenhielden terwijl ze achterwaarts het slagveld af marcheerden.

Laat-republikeinse en keizertijd

Ook nadat de oorspronkelijke opstelling niet meer werd gebruikt en de milites allang muli Mariani (ezels van Marius, omdat deze de soldaten hun eigen uitrusting liet dragen tijdens de mars) en beroepssoldaten waren, bleven de namen in gebruik als aanduiding voor de manipels, waarvan ieder cohors er drie had.

In de periode na de Mariaanse hervormingen waarbij de verschillende klassen binnen het leger afgeschaft werden, stelden de generaals het legioen niet meer op met de tien cohortes naast elkaar. Nu werd de eerste linie gevormd door vier cohortes, elk cohors met alle zes de centuriae naast elkaar, allen opgesteld in een formatie van tien breed en acht diep. De tweede en de derde linie bestonden elk uit drie cohortes, waarbij elke centuria twaalf breed en zes diep was opgesteld. Om elkaar af te lossen werd de aloude methode toegepast, maar nu zonder verschillen per klasse.

Romeins leger
Militaire tactiek

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
#WeAreHealthcare: Questions with Physician Leaders: Dr. Mohammad Agha
Clinicians more so than ever are making the move into leadership positions.
Leadership Dialogue Series: Matthew Stanley
On this Leadership Dialogue Series podcast, AHA Board Chair Wright L. Lassiter III is joined by Matthew Stanley, D.O., a psychiatrist and clinical vice president of the behavioral health service line at Avera Health, based in Sioux Falls, S.D.
From Recognizing Implicit Bias to Creating Action
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Leadership Dialogue Series: Marcus Whitney
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Leadership Dialogue Series: Debbie Hatmaker
AHA Board Chair Wright L. Lassiter III is joined by Debbie Hatmaker, chief nursing officer of the American Nurses Association Enterprise.
#WeAreHealthcare: Addressing Workforce Challenges in America's Health Care Systems
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The Blue Zone Journey in Klamath Falls, Ore. that Reversed Its Health Trajectory
Rural hospitals are community strongholds, serving as the key point of care for nearly 20% of Americans.
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John Riggi, who spent nearly 30 years as a highly decorated veteran of the FBI and now serves as National Advisor for Cybersecurity and Risk at the American Hospital Association and their 5000+ mem

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


We use Combat Hapkido to teach children how to be powerful and aware so they can live a safe and happy and fulfilling life.
— that's our mission at Alpha Omega Martial Arts Academy.
We teach your child the lessons dearest to your heart as a parent.We use Combat Hapkido to teach how to grow up with honest confidence, knowing the value of teamwork, how to reach for a challenging goal, encouraging others, and all about focus, dignity, life-long love of healthy fitness, and the strength that comes with being cheerfully tough and resilient. We know you want all that for your child.
Combat Hapkido leadership training teaches how to stand up for what is right, how to take care of others in challenging moments, how to look your best — best fitness, best posture, best health — so you stand out in a crowd as a person who matters!
With each seemingly routine but truly magical class, your child practices the art of winning – paying attention, building strength, achieving goals, associating with people who seek centeredness, expanding ability to take care of others, and nurturing a sense of community and connectedness.
Martial Arts are a great way to help your child grow up proud and capable!
Children today need to feel more secure in the world. But they also need to learn they are ultimately responsible for creating that security for themselves. To learn this big life lesson, they must learn to keep going through things that would hold them back. In a systematic, safe and fun way, Alpha Omega Combat Hapkido will help your child explore and stretch all the physical, mental and winning spirit boundaries.
Combat Hapkido training is all about perseverance – intelligence and commitment combined. We transform young lives by teaching children to avoid negative forces while developing their strengths – creating leaders and peacemakers dedicated to using their training to benefit the community.
Leader, follower, or loner – which one do you want your child to become?
True self esteem is earned through struggle, not awarded as a presentKids think we are cool in our black belts, but parents know we are their best allies in helping them raise and empower their children.
Life is all too short and our children grow up so fast. We have limited time to expose them to the ideas, the people, and the experiences that will arm them with the tools they need – not only for material success – but for deep and authentic happiness.
Better health, higher fitness, more mental and emotional clarity, a lot of new friendships, and many adventure experiences await your child.
We invite you to use our Combat Hapkido classes to help raise your child to become a self-actualized adult you will be proud to see walking purposefully in the world.


text:
We all know about brave men and women in uniform—the soldiers, sailors and airmen who serve in the Armed Forces. They serve their country, often with distinction, putting their lives on the line for the good of the nation and its interests. When they come home, they're greeted with flags and honors. If they've been hurt, they're given help to get better. And if they sacrifice their lives for their country, their loss is mourned deeply.
But there are other patriots who serve even though they no longer wear an official military uniform. These contract soldiers, who work for the CIA's Global Response Staff, aren't SEALs or Rangers or Marines anymore, but their experience makes them valuable—and flexible—commodities. They're not given orders to land in the world's hot spots; they're hired to go to those places. And they go wherever they're paid to be, be it Tel Aviv or Timbuktu, Beirut or Benghazi. They don't come home to cheering crowds. Sometimes they don't come home at all.
Jack, one such GRS contract soldier, arrives in Libya at a difficult time. Strongman Muammar Gaddafi has been deposed and killed. Factions squabble for power. Islamic extremists are making deep inroads across the country, and Americans are not always welcomed.
But with tension comes opportunity, and the United States sees plenty of it. The CIA has set up shop in Benghazi, operating out of a not-so-secret compound. Ambassador Christopher Stevens is coming to visit, too, with an eye toward opening regular diplomatic channels with the country. U.S. bigwigs would love to squelch the illegal weapons trade there and foster forces more friendly to America. But to do that, they need people on the ground. And those people need protection.
That's why Jack's there. Same with Tig and Tanto, Oz and Boon. Tyrone Woods, nicknamed Rone, leads them—assigning guards and drivers for CIA agents. And while the ambassador has his compound and employs his own guards, Rone, Jack and the rest of the guys will be just a few dusty streets down should they ever need assistance.
Or so they all assumed.
On Sept. 11, 2012, the ambassador's compound comes under attack by dozens of angry, armed Libyans. By dawn the next morning, four Americans are dead, including the ambassador.
The events of that night, and those leading up to it, have been the topic of a great deal of discussion, much of it politically charged. But Jack and his fellow contractors—these un-uniformed soldiers who put their lives on the line that strange, chaotic night—know what truly went on.
While 13 Hours chronicles a difficult chapter in American history, there's much more to it than just the tragic loss of four American lives.
"Bottom line, this is inspirational," said director Michael Bay at a press conference attended by Plugged In. The movie is based on a book of the same name, which in turn was based on the stories of these so-called "secret soldiers," the contract guards, who lived through it. Bay's mission was simply to tell the story of that violent night (stripped of its political aftermath). And while there are allusions to where things went wrong—a lack of adequate protection at the outset, American dithering during the attacks—the prime focus here is on the heroism of the people on the ground. "A lot of positive things came out of that night," Kris "Tanto" Paronto said at the press conference.
The six GRS contract soldiers at the core of the story are more than a team: They're a makeshift family, each willing to put his life on the line for his fellow warriors. All six risk their lives to save the CIA agents they're assigned to, of course; it's what they're paid to do, after all. But they go above and beyond as well—doing their best to rescue the ambassador and the rest of his staff. And while four people died during the attacks in Benghazi, dozens of lives were also saved, thanks to the skill, dedication and teamwork of these professional defenders.
We also get glimpses of other good people at work, too. Ambassador Stevens is called a "true believer," someone who hopes trust and friendship might foster a better Libya and, by extension, a more secure Middle East. "Relationships between people is the real foundation for democracy," he says to a group of Libyans. A brave Libyan interpreter stays with his CIA employers through thick and thin, and other Libyans volunteer to fight alongside the Americans (though sometimes, these fighters are acting duplicitously).
Militant Islam is, of course, at the root of the problems chronicled in 13 Hours. Islamic extremists were behind the attacks, and we see many Muslims in the act of prayer as their weapons rest against walls nearby. We hear calls to prayer and, ominously, they go silent all at once—a harbinger, Tanto thinks, of another attack.
The movie references the controversy over what supposedly started the attacks: a spontaneous reaction to a YouTube trailer for the movie Innocence of Muslims. One of the GRS employees says that he saw on American news that the attacks were connected with huge demonstrations against the movie. "I didn't see any demonstrations," Tanto says, confused.
In the film's credits, we see how an estimated 100,000 Muslims grieved the attacks, mourned Stevens' death and held signs apologizing for the extremists' violent acts.
Islam is not the only religion represented in the movie, however. During a lull in the action, Tanto voices his belief that the Almighty is watching him, saying, "As long as I'm doing the right thing, God will protect me." Then he adds, "That's crazy, right?" When one of the warriors dies in combat, another says a quick prayer over the body. "God, watch over him," we hear. "Guide him where he needs to be. Take care of his family." When help finally arrives, another contractor says, "Oh Lord, oh Jesus," in thanksgiving. Someone suggests ordering a flyby of F-16s in order to put "the fear of God and the United States" into the terrorists.
A line from Joseph Campbell's The Power of Myth is mentioned several times: "All the gods, all the heavens, all the hells are within you."
Two contract soldiers pretend to flirt with Sona, a chilly FBI agent. Someone watches a YouTube clip of rabbits having sex, and there's also a joke about sheep mating. We hear crude references to the male anatomy and joking allusions to "bromances" and "spooning."
A Chicken's Guide to Talking Turkey With Your Kids About Sex
Even the bravest parents feel timid about discussing sex with their 8- to 14-year-olds! This resource offers reassuring, humorous, real-life anecdotes along with reliable information to help you with this challenging task.
The 13 hours between nightfall on Sept. 11, 2012, and dawn the following day was filled with the sort of terror and death that those of us who've never been in combat can hardly imagine. Accordingly, the movie does its bloody best to replicate the horrors of that night.
Dozens of people die, including four Americans. We see their bodies, and watch one as it's pushed unceremoniously off a rooftop. Other men are horrifically injured. One had much of his forearm nearly taken off by a mortar blast, and we see it hanging from the rest of his arm by tenuous tendrils of flesh. Another suffers a compound fracture, and the bone juts from the body as blood squirts from the wound.
Dozens of Libyan terrorists get gunned down, sometimes dying instantly (and bloodily) via shots to the head or chest. After the battle, wives and mothers run to the dead bodies, crying and mourning.
Bombs go off. An armored vehicle rumbles through the street, peppered with bullets, dodging explosions and finally arrives in the compound with a flaming flat tire. Libyans everywhere are carrying guns—a really tricky situation, because the contractors can't always tell who's a friend, who's an enemy and who just happens to be carrying a gun. Military weapons are sold freely in an open-air market. The Ambassador's residence is set on fire in an effort to flush out those inside.
About 75 f-words and more than 30 s-words. Other profanities include "a--," "b--ch," "d--n," "h---" and "p-ss." God's name is misused at least 10 times, with about half of those instances getting paired with the word "d--n." Jesus' name is abused about five times. We hear several crude references to testicles.
Characters drink beer. A contractor laments that his teenage daughter back home has apparently started drinking.
People vomit. Someone says he needs to urinate.
While the events in Benghazi were horrifically unique, 13 Hours is not, exactly, a unique movie. We've seen several similar "based on a true story" combat narratives in the last few years, from Black Hawk Down to Lone Survivor to American Sniper. And little wonder. These wartime tales are always grimly compelling. The action is relentless. And lots of viewers find these true-life combat stories informative and, of course, entertaining.
But you get a different perspective when you talk with some of the real people involved. For Mark "Oz" Geist, John "Tig" Tiegen and Kris "Tanto" Paronto, 13 Hours is more than a movie. They lived through it. They watched friends die as the real battle unfolded.
So often, onscreen casualties don't feel like a big deal. We only know these unfortunate characters, after all, for a couple of hours before they're gone. And, of course, we know they're not really gone. Death isn't real in the movies.
But the characters in 13 Hours represent real people. Real casualties. Real loss. To hear Tanto talk about his fallen friends … well, it makes it feel disrespectful to munch popcorn while watching those deaths.
Make no mistake: Oz and Tanto and Tig are glad Michael Bay made 13 Hours. After all, they helped him make it. They wanted this story told from their perspective, removed from domestic politics and cable-news bluster. They wanted it to be as true to life as possible.
But it's telling that Tig still hasn't watched 13 Hours. The events in Benghazi still feel too raw for him. He worries he'd get angry all over again. And I can see why: 13 Hours is a well-made, violent, profane, difficult movie. The fact that it depicts real, important events makes it no less difficult.
WarAction/AdventureDrama
John Krasinski as Jack; James Badge Dale as Rone; Pablo Schreiber as Tanto; Max Martini as Oz; David Denman as Boon; Dominic Fumusa as Tig; Toby Stephens as Glen 'Bub' Doherty; Alexia Barlier as Sona Jillani; Freddie Stroma as Brit Vaynor; David Giuntoli as Scott Wickland; Demetrius Grosse as Dave Ubben; David Costabile as The Chief; Wrenn Schmidt as Becky Silva
Michael Bay ( )
Paul Asay
Content Caution


text:
Accountabilityby Mark Reutter8:01 amApr 16, 20190
City Council to push ahead with BGE pipeline deal in Leakin Park
Amid campaign contributions from BGE officials and Healthy Holly book purchases by an Exelon director, utility is set to pay one-seventh of the franchise's reported value
Above: More than 700 trees have been cut down to make way for the BGE pipeline in Leakin Park. (Mark Reutter)
Disregarding a lawsuit filed last week by a Leakin Park environmental group, the City Council plans to move forward with a contentious franchise deal that Mayor Catherine Pugh struck with Baltimore Gas & Electric.
Councilman John Bullock confirmed yesterday that the Housing and Urban Affairs Committee he chairs will vote next week on whether to grant BGE the right to use a 2.2-mile-long pipeline across Leakin Park.
The measure is expected to pass the committee, then go before the full Council for ratification on April 29.
At issue is not the pipeline itself – the project is nearly complete – but the price the city will charge BGE under a 25-year franchise agreement.
The Brew has reported that the Department of Recreation and Parks originally valued the franchise agreement at $14 million.
But over the agency's objections, the Pugh administration settled for one-tenth of that amount – $1.4 million.
Under objections from Friends of Gwynns Falls/Leakin Park, Bullock's committee tabled the franchise agreement last November.
BGE recently agreed to increase the franchise fee to $2 million.
"Ridiculously Low"
That's still just one-seventh of the amount originally proposed by Recreation and Parks.
"The new price is still ridiculously low," says Jack Lattimore, one of three members of the Leakin Park group who filed the lawsuit in Baltimore Circuit Court last Thursday.
"The City Council is trying to rubber-stamp an illegal process" – lawyer for Friends of Leakin Park.
The group's lawyer, Michael R. McCann, said the Pugh-controlled Board of Estimates violated the city charter by granting BGE the right to build the pipeline before the City Council agreed to the franchise agreement.
"The Council is now trying to rubber-stamp an illegal process," he said.
Independent Appraisal
The lawsuit asks the court to declare any ordinance passed by the Council null and void and direct the Board of Estimates to hire a qualified appraiser to determine the true value of the 22 acres of parkland removed for the pipeline's right-of-way.
"That's what should have been done in the first place," said Lattimore.
He noted that the project has caused considerable damage to the park, including the clear-cutting of more than 700 mature-growth trees.
A potent undercurrent of the dispute is the role campaign contributions may have played in City Hall's handling of the project.
The Brew has traced more than $32,000 in campaign funds flowing from utility executives to Pugh's finance committee.
BGE and its chief executive, Calvin G. Butler Jr., were notable backers of Pugh's run for mayor in 2016.
The Brew has traced more than $32,000 in contributions flowing from executives at BGE and its parent companies, Constellation and Exelon, to Pugh's campaign committee during and after the election.
• Council delays natural gas franchise agreement between city and BGE (11/14/18)
• Is BGE pipeline price a sweetheart deal between the utility and Pugh administration? (2/28/19)
This included $18,500 from 30 executives before the April 2016 Democratic Party primary where Pugh narrowly defeated Sheila Dixon.
This tranche of contributions represented the second largest block of donations to Pugh from a single organization.
It was exceeded only by donations from personnel at the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS), where Pugh was on the board of directors.
Recent BGE Cash
In the months before and after the Board of Estimates awarded BGE the right to install the new pipeline, Pugh picked up $12,000 in contributions from utility executives.
And on January 9, 2019, amid talks between city lawyers and BGE over the franchise fee, Butler personally contributed $2,000 to the mayor's finance committee, Maryland Elections Board records show.
According to BGE spokesperson Linda Foy, BGE has not purchased "Healthy Holly" children's books from the mayor.
Nor has it made payments to Healthy Holly LLC, the vehicle in which Pugh received hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments from UMMS and others.
Foy said she could not speak for Exelon or Constellation.
Healthy Holly Purchases
A member of the Exelon board, John W. Rogers Jr., has been identified as paying $3,600 for 400 "Healthy Holly" books – or $9 per copy – plus $80 in shipping.
The purchase was made through Ariel Investments, a Chicago-based company that Rogers founded and serves as CEO.
Environmentalists say Baltimore made a sweetheart deal with BGE to relocate its natural gas pipeline in Leakin Park. (Mark Reutter)
In 2013, the company sponsored a black corporate directors conference in California and invited Pugh, then a state senator from West Baltimore, as one of the speakers.
Ariel distributed the self-published paperback books to attendees of the conference.
The books were purchased through Associated Black Charities, a Baltimore non-profit that manages grant programs for the city, including the Children and Youth Fund and the Ryan White HIV/AIDS program.
Last week in response to the Healthy Holly scandal, Acting Mayor Bernard C. "Jack" Young ordered an audit of ABC's administration of the children fund.
– Fern Shen contributed to this story. To reach the reporter: reuttermark@yahoo.com.
AccountabilityJul 16, 2019
Since taking over as mayor on May 2, Young has been out of town on 16 of his first 75 days in office, according to travel requests reviewed by The Brew.
Police unit thought of using explosives to dislodge boat in harbor
Inspector General describes a Baltimore Police Department team whose botched salvage operation cost taxpayers $30,000 for something that the state would have done for free.


text:
Anopheles walravensi är en tvåvingeart som beskrevs av Edwards 1930. Anopheles walravensi ingår i släktet Anopheles och familjen stickmyggor. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

Källor

Externa länkar

Stickmyggor
walravensi


text:
Zequinha de Abreu (19 de setembre de 1880 - 22 de gener de 1935) va ser un compositor i instrumentista brasiler. A més del piano tocava la flauta, el clarinet i el requint. És l'autor de Tico-tico no fubá, una de les músiques brasileres més enregistrades en el món.

Zequinha de Abreu va néixer a Santa Rita do Passa Quatro, en l'Estat de São Paulo. Va ser un nen prodigi de la música i durant els estudis primaris va organitzar una banda de música a l'escola. El 1894 va entrar en el seminari de São Paulo on va estudiar harmonia, i el 1896 va tornar cap a Santa Rita per treballar a la farmàcia del seu pare.

Va començar a fer les seves primeres composicions, com Flor de la Carretera i Bafo de Onza, i el 1897 va organitzar una nova banda amb la que feia espectacles per l'interior de São Paulo. El 1917 va crear Tico-Tico Fubá (Tico-tico en la farina), que seia la seva composició més famosa, divulgada als Estats Units els anys 40 per Carmen Miranda.

Va marxar cap a São Paulo (1919), per a treballar com a pianista demostrador de la Casa Beethoven, especialitzada en la venda de partitures i instruments musicals. Va tocar en sales de ball i cabarets i va divulgar les seves músiques per les cases de les famílies més riques, i així aprofitar per vendre partitures. El 1933 va fundar la banda Zequinha de Abreu i va morir dos anys després, el 22 de gener de 1935 a São Paulo. Disset anys després, la Companyia Vera Cruz va produir la pel·lícula Tico-Tico Fubá, basada en la seva vida., musica que popularitzaria Xavier Cugat i la seva orquestra per la Walt Disney Company.

Referències

Compositors brasilers
Morts a São Paulo
Músics de l'estat de São Paulo
Clarinetistes americans


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text:
Stolotermitidae is a family of termites in the order Blattodea, with two extant genera formerly placed in the family Termopsidae. There are about 14 described species in Stolotermitidae.

Genera
GBIF and the Termite Catalogue list the following:
 Porotermes Hagen, 1858
 Stolotermes Hagen, 1858
 † Chilgatermes Engel, Pan & Jacobs, 2013

References

Further reading

External links

Termites
Blattodea families


text:
DevelopmentZoning
Zoning for 210 West Exchange
[alert type="danger"]Update: PBN: City Council committee nixes zone change for 17-story hotel, apartments in Federal Hill[/alert]
Did you look at the new zoning map and see a little piece of downtown zoning floating by itself on the back side of Federal Hill? I'm told this piece of downtown zoning in the midst of an otherwise mixed-use manufacturing zone was created by the City Council for a proposed development at 210 West Exchange Street.
The proposed building would top out at 185′, ~17 floors with 198 residential units and a 136 room Aloft Hotel. It would sit up against the highway between West Exchange Street and the former G. Fox building.
A study created for the developer, WestX Capital, describes the project like this:
The proposed 210 WEST EXCHANGE STREET COMPLEX (WSTX) is a 326,860 SF Mixed Use Development including a 136 key Aloft Hotel and 198 residential units. Located at the corner of West Exchange and Fox Place in Providence RI. The project will address urban design aspects such as context scale, nodal location, visual and pedestrian connectivity, all of which respond to the intent of the "Rezoning Providence."
WSTX proposes a program at this location which activates the pedestrian connection with nearby Downcity, the Convention Center, the Dunkin Donuts Center and the Omni Hotel Complex, only twelve hundred feet away. And it is located at an equal short walk from one of the city's most vibrant commercial areas along (Atwells Avenue).
This study uses the corner of West Exchange street and Fox Place as the datum level which corresponds with the foot of the hill (approximately + 20.00′) and also facilitates an understanding of the height context along the west side of the highway. There is currently an existing two story industrial building on the site, the visibility of which is eliminated by the ongoing construction of the new exit ramp on 1-95 S. Page 4 of the study includes a photo montage as you might move along the elevated roadway travelling north or south. The new ramp runs even with the 4th and 5th floor of the proposed tower from certain angles resulting in a view of thirteen floors.
Pages 2 and 3 of this study illustrate thenodal condition and the proximity to the city's down town with the site. This simpatico makes this location and the contiguous area more complementary to the city skyline, not by competing with the taller buildings to the east, but by working in unison to create an extension and visual gate to the city. In this way; a clear visual connectivity is established at the nodal point (where the city in a way vanishes under the the highway) and a reinforced pedestrian connection is activated. Currently the proposed new zoning does little if anything to encourage this activation by continuing to allow the highway to be a wall rather than a construction with a certain level of pedestrian and commercial transparency. Page 2 and 3 also illustrate the relative heights of the existing building relative to the datum. The resulting west side ridge of new development will result in increased commercial activity opening new doorways and increasing the tax base of the Downcity.
It appears that the City Council passed a special ordinance to zone the parcel for this development as D-1-200 (Downtown Zone, 200′ height). Looking at the proposal, and their arguments for not allowing the highway to be an artifcial barrier for Downtown; I like the proposal well enough (there's things to look at in design review for sure) and agree about Downtown bleeding west. I said in the comments on another post, if not for the highway, we'd all probably consider Atwells to be a downtown neighborhood. We do need to be cognizant of where we want downtown to end and building mass to return to neighborhood scale we see on Atwells and Broadway and Westminster, but I've long thought the downtown shouldn't just end at the highway, which is why always call the strip along the west side of the highway, the Near West Side, it is its own thing seperate from the rest of the West Side.
The one big drawback of this proposal is, it would not be filling in a vacant lot, but rather tearing down an existing building:
Image from Google Street View
This project has not gone before the City Plan Commission yet so can, and likely will, change before that, or it might never get to CPC and just vanish, that happens sometimes we all know, but now we know why that little island of Downtown zoning got stuck on Federal Hill.
210 West Exchange Aloft Development Federal Hill Hotel Residential Slider Zoning
Capital Center Commission Meeting – December 10, 2014
Seems like an odd place to put a high-rise.
Looks like a great proposal both aesthetically and its for its location. I agree that it would create a better gateway into the city and would introduce a new route and connection from downtown to the hill. That area has long been neglected and this proposal would certainly revamp the location. I age with Jeff about tearing down another building before developing on an open lot. I would also rather have a high-rise close to the center of downtown to improve the vertical density but still like this project.
It is an odd place for anything really. It is basically right downtown, but you have to walk under the highway and through the horrible tunnel under the convention center to get there. It is also just off Atwells, but you have to walk up a giant hill with nothing around to look at or make the walk at all pleasant to get there.
I don't know how you improve the tunnel. The link to the Hill could be developed more, but we'll see if it will.
Seems like it will end up being very auto-centric if only by virtue of the fact that car-free or car-light people will avoid that location.
If anything, it would be an amazing highway 'billboard' letting travelers on I-95 know that Providence is open for business. Love the density, even though at first glance the image above is, wow, so imposing. Agree with all the comments above. Still promising though?
i hope this gets built! It's an unique area of the city. While reading the article it reminded me of Dallas where the W Hotel is located. Past the AA Arena and an apartment complex there was nothing but an area that needed to be revitalized then someone took the opportunity to build something and the area boomed! So hopefully it will happen in that part of Providence to.
David Rocha says:
Well, I can't say it's beautiful, and the materials will ultimately make or break it (as is the case with this style), but I've always been a strong proponent of height near the highway, so this accomplishes that without dwarfing the hill. Overall, I'd say this is nearly a best case scenario for that location. I'm having a difficult time recalling, but this isn't the same location as the tower that was supposed to have the clock at the top of the tower, is it?
I bring that up because I'd really like to see both proposals built down there. I think that the bottom of the hill along that street should focus on becoming an anchor of density because that's really the only way to prevent the area from consistently feeling somewhat desolate. It's also the best chance to stave off the "parking-lotification" of the area. One or two anchors of high-density development dramatically increases the value of the area for other purposes than supplemental parking for nearby restaurants and such.
@David. I believe the second building you mentioned was supposed to be located at Bradford and Federal Streets with high security at a height around 35 stories. I think there may have been some neighborhood outcry and some sketchy dealings with the project, but I can't recall for certain.
Also, after some digging on the Solus4 website, who drafted the Aloft study for WestX, I came upon "Broadway Gate". Curious if Jef or anyone knows about this project or if its just a pie-in-the-sky architects rendering: http://www.solus4.com/portfolio/commercial/broadway-gate
Again, love the would-be density, but looks like something out of the 1980's and can't help but twitch at the idea of calling anything with "Gate" at the end of it for fear of there been some conspiracy associated with it.
Peter Brassard says:
210 West Exchange is a great design.
If you look at maps from the late 50s or earlier, downtown's orientation was east-west. It did extend beyond the highway to Hoyle Square and Federal Hill. The empty 4-story 206 Broad Street and Crossroads (former YMCA) were all part of downtown. Besides the highway, the city tore down much of the area west of the highway to build the Classical/Central HS buildings and athletic fields in the 60s.
Never saw an image of Broadway Gate. Bold project. It could have been a rendering that was produced by the developer to raise funding. If it was proposed in the mid '00s, the project probably got caught in the financial downtown.
As for the tunnel, there are other cities that have tempered the hostile environment of tunnels or highway underpasses with creative ceiling design and lighting.
http://www.coolon.com.au
http://www.tillettlighting.com
http://www.metroactive.com
Hopefully this means the Cianci for Mayor sign on the roof of the current building will finally come down (and the Almonte sign too).
BTW – From the rendering it looks like the developer will be taking down the Rt 6 to 95 S on ramp. Kudos for him [he says sarcastically]
That Broadway Gate design is a lot of work for just being a "pie in the sky" That would look amazing. That area really needs good development as well.
Regarding the Broadway Gate find, it looks like an updated imagining of the nearly decade old Power Block concept. It appears to include construction on the parking deck at the Hilton, the Old Public Safety Building Memorial Parking Lot™, and the Fogarty Building, which saw a proposal for an extended stay hotel surface this past May. All of those properties are owned by the Procaccianti Group I believe (do they still own the Hilton?). There is also a tower on the circular gas station parcel, which according to City records is owned by an LLC registered to Joe Paolino (the City records are not always the most up to date though).
I have heard whispers about a project trying to come together on the circular gas station parcel that may include a grocery store, but it has not yet raised to the level of going before any City commissions. The Broadway Gate is likely one of many iterative looks at what to do with the Power Block, it is encouraging to see it is continuing to be looked at.
The area framed by the west side of 95, the north side of West Exchange, the Dean Street bridge and the south side of Harris Avenue should all should be re-zoned D1-200.
Granted that most of it is highway, it would legitimize the 510 WSTX site making look less like spot zoning. The former produce market site could also be developed with this bulk.
Besides the push south of downtown, an expansion of downtown could eventually follow the Woonasquatucket corridor leaving existing low(er) density commercial and residential neighborhoods alone as the city grows.
I feel like there was a draft map at one point that showed everything between 6/10, Atwells, and Dean as part of the D-1 zone, don't think a height was settled on.
http://pbn.com/City-Council-nixes-zone-change-for-17-story-hotel-apartment-tower-in-Federal-Hill,101866
The project I was speaking about earlier was 50 Cedar street, which I'd still like to see happen.
http://www.gcpvd.org/2011/04/07/building-proposed-at-50-cedar-street/
In regards to the "Broadway Gate" renderings, while I like the general concept of four buildings working on variations of a theme (much like the Omni complex), the theme itself is underwhelming, to put it nicely.
So does anyone know how much tax revenue a 326,860 SF mixed-use project with 136 key hotel, 178 residential units produce at a tax rate of $36.75 per 1,000?
From the PBN article:
But Ward 13 City Councilor Bryan Principe – who represents Federal Hill and initially advocated for including the West Exchange zoning in the citywide rewrite this fall – changed his mind about it.
Principe said the reversal on the zoning change was a result of concerns about how quickly the West Exchange measure went through and the fact that the community did not get a full opportunity to debate it.
"Ultimately what I am supporting is a complete process that goes through what would be a typical request to change zoning," Principe said. "I am looking for an opportunity for public discourse and dialogue. My ears are open and I have not made a decision to say I would be against any variance or zoning change if there is a public dialogue."
I'm all for transparency and public dialogue, though anything that goes through the City Council is public record and posted publicly. The Council's process for making things public could use a whole hell of a lot of work, but it is the system we use to do everything.
This is the main problem, the developer asked the Council to do something for them, the Council did it. Then the Council was all like, "well, no, actually, we changed our mind." Who is ever going to come to do business in this City when that is the way you get treated. Say whatever you will about if you particularly like this project or not, or you like that developers flex their muscles with he Council. No one did anything illegal, this is how things get done, then they get undone. There's plenty of cities who actually want economic development people can invest in.
And the fact of the matter is, we did have public dialogue on this, way back in 2007 the Providence Tomorrow neighborhood charrette process resulted in a recommendation that this area be zoned as part of Downtown. (see page A-5 )
PVD Council posts special meeting Thursday to receive proposed West Exchange zoning reversal ordinance
http://providenceri.iqm2.com/Citizens/Detail_Meeting.aspx?ID=2497
Great points to the PBN article, Jef. I hope you're at the meeting Thursday to voice them! So frustrating. Council has a history of getting us all excited and then knocking us down which adds to the dismay of so many here. Ugh.
@David. Not sure about the current standing of that 50 Cedar project, I think there was some concern over a two level parking structure associated with it? Perhaps I'm wrong. However, the Solus4 study shows the proposed 50 Cedar St. project on its maps surveying the area for the Aloft proposal.
What a moronic decision BUILD SOMETHING IN THIS CITY
Mental757 says:
I hope this doesn't get screwed up over politics. I feel there is momentum finally starting to build. There is actual talk of projects going vertical. This could be the start of several larger projects, the one that breaks the ice so to speak. So frustrating! Would be so awesome to add a 200 footer to the skyline!
To those that feel strongly about this project moving forward, I suggest emailing Councilman Principe directly in anticipation of today's council meeting.
ward13@providenceri.com
Letter sent.
Anything from the City Council?
I second that question. Did the Council actually address this?
I wrote a letter, as well. It would be very disappointing to allow this project to walk away. The incoming administration should be fighting to "send a message" and supporting this. It'd be a nice addition to the view when motorists drive through Providence, connects the West to the East, and it also sends a message that we are open for business. How great it'd be if we saw this under construction, along with all the potential projects in the Jewelry District — all at the same time. I know this isn't the proper thread, but does anyone know anything that may explain why there has not been any office to residential conversions in downtown/downcity? There seems to be so many underutilized capacity that just sits there empty…most of which with a "paolino" sign. It's very unfortunate. Providence needs people living downtown, and some of these buidlings would make beautiful urban residences.
City Council doesn't want a prosperous city. They are happy with the way things are now.
I was at the City Council meeting. Principe spoke in support of the resolution. He said his issue was that this rezoning happened as part of the citywide zoning ordinance revision and therefore did not have a public meeting explicitly for the rezoning of this parcel. By returning this parcel to M-MU-90, the landowners can go through a public process to achieve their desired building height with the opportunity for abutters and concerned citizens to be heard as well. There were about 15 people there with signs in support of the resolution. Maybe 6 or so opposed (but no signage). Like the rest of the meeting, everything happened very quickly. I'm assuming this is how City Council Meetings go.
Have to agree with the previous opinion: BUILD something. Quit shooting down legal, publicly vetted, appropriate, urban projects for no good (or given) reason. Very frustrating.
ProJo: Providence City Council vote puts planned high-rise hotel in doubt
I don't think that the project is completely dead. I have an issue with height restrictions. I can understand that "creating an island of 200-foot zone in the middle of a 90-foot limit area" is a bit ethically iffy, but in Providence, we need to make it easy as possible for developers. I also understand that height isn't always the best kind of density.
Sounds to me like a case of a politician terrified of his constituents.
Why would the abutters here have any problem with this proposal? If built, it does nothing but dramatically enhance their property values.
It just boggles my mind that a short distance away, a Jewelry District hotel proposal is shot down behind closed doors with no explanation given, and a short while later this publicly vetted and approved and project is nixed post facto because politicians have their doubts. In a climate like this, why would any developer want to invest in Providence anytime soon? Obviously, from a developer's Pont of view, it's a no-win situation. If I has money to invest, I'd take it elsewhere …
I am perennially disappointed by decisions like this. I've already emailed Councilman Principe, and his reply, though unsatisfying, nevertheless seemed to indicate that he supports the proposal. With that in mind, who can I contact next? I feel like SOMEONE needs to know how obscene this is and how many people feel that way. And I would love to directly contact the developer to encourage continued work on this proposal despite this setback.
@Aaron. The committee chair – Councilman Seth Yurdin, the Mayor's office, every council member and the hotel and builders unions.
Councilman Yurdin: ward1@providenceri.com | (401) 521-7477
WPRI: Council wants public hearings for proposed Federal Hill hotel
First they approved it. Then they killed it. Now they want to talk about it.
The Providence City Council agreed Monday to hold public hearings before it considers allowing a developer to build a 17-story hotel and apartment complex at 210 West Exchange Street, steps away from the city's premier restaurant district on Atwells Avenue.
The vote to begin discussing the project came seconds after the council voted unanimously to rescind a zoning change that would have allowed the developer move forward with his 200-foot building.
ProJo: Providence City Council ratifies vote to reverse zoning change on West Exchange Street
Councilman Bryan Principe, who represents Federal Hill, had spoken in favor of the map change in October when the Ordinance Committee initially endorsed it, but said Monday night that it would be better for the hotel project to go the route of seeking a variance from the 90-foot requirement.
Uhm, no, it would not be better for the developer to go for a variance. The entire reason we've spent the last 8+ years re-working the zoning ordinance is so we can stop having developers zone the city through variances.
Last week Derek Mesolella said he wasn't looking for a fight with the city and if the council didn't want an approximately $80-million hotel on the site, his company would instead develop the land in accordance with the 90-foot height limit, but probably for less value.
"I'd like to reiterate the fact that we refuse to get into a situation where we do not have full support from the city on the proposed development," he said. The reversal was more evidence that the city is unwelcoming to business development, he added.
mothra says:
Was this a project that was on the docket for review (of some sort) before the election, was postponed until after the election and there was a reversal of the previous position (I know this was a reversal for Councilman Principe, but I am wondering whether this was a kind of done-ish deal before the election then put on hold til after, etc)
claude masse says:
The city will bring up several red carpet projects.Just like her big brother ,Boston,we have the talent.I'd expect something close to this project(venture) happening.I must add that the two talls need to drop down in height.
DevelopmentFeatured
Providence City Plan Commission Meeting – April 23, 2019
The City Plan Commission reviews plans for an expanded building at 210 West Exchange, an extension for 12 Piedmont Street, and more at their April 23rd meeting.
New proposal for 210 West Exchange Street
5-story addition proposed on top of 2-story building on West Exchange Street on Federal Hill.
City Plan Commission Meeting May 15, 2012
Notice of Regular Meeting Tuesday, May 15, 2012 – 4:45pm Department of Planning and Development 1st Floor Meeting Room 444 Westminster Street, Providence Opening Session Call to Order Roll Call Approval of meeting...


I have just bought a book. Although I bought it for 24 times the original cover price, I think I have a bargain. After all, who could fail to admire a book with claims such as these?
This code is put into your hands in the sincere hope that the study and observance of its provisions will make the roads safer and more convenient for you and all others who use the King's Highway. …In every human activity there is a standard of conduct to which in the common interest we are expected to conform….Respect for the code and for the spirit underlying it is so much a moral duty that its practice should become a habit and its breach a reproach.
There are priceless illustrations too. Look at this gentleman motorist signalling his intentions to a Police Constable.
Not only that – but look at the road sign for a school. Is that back in the days when they were ALL beacons, I wonder?
In case you haven't guessed by now, the book is a very old Highway Code. Originally sold for 1d, I picked it up at a car boot sale for the equivalent of Two Shillings (10p).
A bargain, don't you think?
'Job for everyone' sounds a bit like one of those manifesto promises made by politicians which they never fulfill. In the case of John Goldingay's little book, I believe it delivers on the promise. In all honesty, most Bible readers find Job to be amongst the Bible's most challenging books. Not only is there the problem of its name, and whether it should be pronounced Job (as in 'hob') or Job (as in 'robe') – but also its content. In it we see a good man brought down with God's consent, and a bunch of his supposed friends proffering him theological platitudes dressed up as comfort.
You learn to lift one weight, and you can't imagine that you could lift one which was twice as heavy, but gradually you learn to lift heavier and heavier weights.
If you are looking for an in-depth theological analysis of Job from which to preach, then this is probably not the book for you. If, on the other hand. you want to reacquaint yourself with a Bible book which you have avoided – then you could not do better.
I love Twitter. I love the elegance and linguistic economy of its 140-character limit. I love its accessibility via handheld devices – which means that you can tweet from a sunny beach, the edges of a storm, or the middle of a riot. I love its democracy – where anyone can join in the debate and contribute their 'two pennorth' without stricture. Sometimes, though, it is precisely these things which lead to knee-jerk tweeting, from which nobody benefits. Sadly, religious people can be the worst offenders when it comes to tweeting with their knees.
In the overwhelming flood of Twitter reactions to the machete attack in Woolwich last night, many of the religious tweets showed the worst kind of reductionism. My primary school teacher used to tell me that 'if you can't say it nicely, don't say it at all'. Maybe the same applies here? One of the grossest offenders was a smug Christian tweet along the lines of "you never see someone attacking a person with a machete in the name of Christ, do you"? Had they never heard of the Crusades, I wonder?
Those of us with a profound faith would do better to pray from our knees, rather than with them, I feel.
One of the great delights of being on sabbatical is the opportunity to spend time in the company of different people. Yesterday I spent a very pleasant couple of hours with different friends in Central London. As I travelled to and fro, I was accompanied on the journey by the two gentlemen below: Kosuke Koyama and the Venerable Bede.
"How much technology can we use without being victimized by the technological Maya"? (Where Maya means "illusion").
For me his most startling image is that of "theological ventriloquism", where the Bible is made to speak with the voice of those who hold it or manipulate it. As a person who preaches, and trains others to do so, I am constantly on my guard against that particular pitfall.
With Koyama's book read, I have turned to a very different tome – Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People , written in the Eighth Century. With my hopes set on walking part of St Cuthbert's pilgrimage route later in the Summer, this ancient tome is part of my homework. As you can imagine, it abounds with fantastical descriptions of healings and miracles. It overflows too, with commons sense. Consider, for instance, Aidan's advice to a fellow preacher: "methinks, brother, that you were more severe to your unlearned hearers than you ought to have been" . Sound advice indeed. No room for any ventriloquist theology in Aidan's pulpit!
Those who have been following the story of my forthcoming #richard100 ride will know all about the special cycle jersey I shall be wearing. For more details click here. Designed in Sussex, funded in Teddington, printed in Wales…and yet to be worn in Central London on June 8th.
Over the past two days I have been visiting some of the delightful business sponsors who have donated over £200 between them towards the cycle ride. As you can see from the photo below- we had a lot of fun. If you are wondering what that is in the background, you can click HERE to find out – a kind gift from a well-wisher!
I feel privileged to wear this cycle jersey for so many reasons. In the first place, it is an honour to support the life-enhancing work of the Princess Alice Hospice as they devote time, love expertise and creativity to enhancing end of life care for so many. Secondly, it is a reminder of the vibrant, colourful, friendly business community in Teddington, amongst whom I am glad to work. I am not seriously expecting them to be there to cheer me on at midnight, but wearing their logo will be the next best thing.
During our photo stop at Moore's cycles yesterday, a kind friend shot this little video. It is NOT pay per view, but if you felt like adding to the £2000 already raised, you could do it here.
Just been listening to yet another discussion of church attendance figures on the radio. Every time these things are published there is a flurry of comments from either side. On the one hand there are the pundits who shake their heads knowingly and say that this is evidence of the inevitable decline of an anachronistic religion. On the other hand, there are the church spokespeople who say that the figures do not mean what they appear to. On this particular occasion, some have pointed to poor Christmas church attendance on account of bad weather…and sound a little desperate as they do so.
How big an impact does your church have on its immediate community, I wonder?
Just this week I have been tidying out a whole load of old cassette tapes from home. As they clanked and clattered in the bag on the way to the charity shop I was struck by how clunky they seem in comparison to Cds…or to downloads. The other thought they inspired was the memory of a sweet old lady in the church where I first came to faith.
At the time we had a lively youth group with twenty or more teenagers, and she had a tiny cottage. At her invitation, we all squeezed into every nook and cranny of her minute sitting room two weeks' running to listen to a 'tape' on her mono cassette player. The tape was the two-part testimony of greengrocer-turned villain-turned Christian Fred Lemon. Although the story was gripping, the sound quality was barely audible and there was nothing visual to keep our interest.
So why did we come back, twice, to sit uncomfortably and listen? The answer is simple – because she loved us…and the feeling was reciprocated. Thank God for those who love the teenagers in your church – simply, artlessly and unconditionally. They are priceless, and their investment will pay unimaginable dividends.
I have just been writing a sermon about persistence – a topic which comes back again and again when you start to investigate pilgrimage. In doing so, I was trying to remember where my fascination with the subject first began.
It all goes back to a visit in the Summer of 2007 to the little port of Port a la Duc on the North Brittany coast. The port is now largely silted up, and consists of a string of pretty cottages, one of which is pictured below. Just to the left of the cottage is a grassy path, and beside it stands a sign. Click on the picture and you can see it for yourself, courtesy of the Cap Frehel Tourist Board.
Hundreds of years ago, pilgrims, blessed by their Bishop back home, would arrive by rowing boat from Weymouth in this little port. Stepping out onto an unfamiliar shore where people spoke a strange tongue, they would begin their long journey on foot all the way to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Along the way, watched over by Templars (see above) they would face all manner of dangers. Ever since then I have been seized with a fascination about what made them do it then, and what makes people do it now.
Discomfiture – an unease which makes the pilgrim leave home and look for something more.
Discomfort – in the rowing boat, under a hot and unfamiliar sun, reliant on the kindness and provision of strangers.
Uncertainty – little or no certainty about where each night would be spent and where each meal might come from.
Conspicuousness – by name, outfit and language the pilgrims were sure to stand out. Modern pilgrimages, such as the annual Northern Cross walk to Holy Island, emphasize this aspect.
Homesickness – how much did the pilgrims long for the home they had left..or did their thoughts turn increasingly to the home to which they would one day come?
Tenacity – to sustain a journey of up to 1000 miles on foot would have taken real endurance.
These, surely, are all qualities and challenges faced even by the most modern of disciples?
they take people predisposed to be in a hurry and entice them to go even quicker.
I do not work in the city, but I know exactly the symptoms he describes. For the past seven years I have been accustomed to a busy diary. There is even a certain buzz to the plate-spinner's art of adding things to it in order to extract the most from life. Occasionally we fall prey to the myth of our own indispensability and that just sends the plates spinning even faster. I am now fortunate enough to be on sabbatical, and everything looks different.
Today was my first unplanned day since this change of pace began last Wednesday, and for a diary-driven person I could feel a slight panic rising to the surface. There are so many things I want to do: jobs in the house, jobs in the garden, things to read, things to write, people to pray for, cycle training to do…oh and some pause for rest and reflection too! For a chronological agoraphobic, the prospect of an unplanned diary can seem a little scary at first.
In the end, I opted for a small amount of admin and an hour or so of combative gardening. I'm not sure how effective it was, but my companion (pictured below) seemed grateful for the prospect of new snacks it provided. He seemed to fix me with a particularly knowing expression between mouthfuls. Maybe, like the sparrows, he knows he is precious…or maybe he just recognizes a fellow busy addict when he sees one?
I would love to know – does anyone else out there recognize the symptoms of chronological agoraphobia, or am I alone?


The work of the experimental British company Forced Entertainment distinguishes itself among much contemporary performance by its unique relationship to the elemental conditions of theater. Forced Entertainment's work proceeds from and responds to the expectations and limitations of theatrical circumstance, emphasizing to extremity (and beyond to Brechtian estrangement) the particularities of theater's most ordinary aspects—narrative, costume, duration, suspension of disbelief, the performer-audience relationship. Their performances tend to either messily exceed the limits of coherent representation or to deliberately underdetermine their own theatricality, always strategically missing the mark. During a rare US residency at the Museum of Contemporary Art these past few weeks, Chicago audiences have experienced an intermissionless 140-minute epic about childhood during wartime read from identical notebooks by two men without acting anything out, and a six-hour-long non-narrative performance in which the company collectively tried to confess to everything.
The third Forced Entertainment project presented in Chicago, (In) Complete Works: Table Top Shakespeare, brought twelve of the one-hour versions of Shakespeare's plays created for Complete Works: Table Top Shakespeare, which premiered last year in the UK with every play in the canon. Presented here four per night, these performances featured a single member of Forced Entertainment seated at a large wooden table, relating the plot of one of Shakespeare's plays to the audience, using ordinary household objects and products as illustrative props, and summarizing the action rather than quoting the plays directly. The night I attended included The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, Macbeth and The Winter's Tale in a marathon relay between company members Claire Marshall, Robin Arthur, Richard Lowdon and Cathy Naden (remaining company members Terry O'Connor and Artistic Director Tim Etchells were not in Chicago.) Each of these plays deals in part with characters in disguise or substituting for one another, in much the same way that the narrators substituted ordinary objects for Shakespeare's characters, and plot summaries for the texts of the plays.
Organizing everyday objects on the tabletop and synopsizing the stories, the performers engaged the audience with their capacity to approximate the content of the plays using a limited set of tools, which at a different scale could describe the constraints under which all theater operates. After all, Shakespeare also uses summary and approximation where the limits of theatrical representation assert themselves. As You Like It has Oliver reporting on his unseen rescue from a lion by Orlando, which Robin Arthur related in much the same way that Oliver presents this pivotal instance of storytelling. And the offstage mauling of Antigonus in The Winter's Tale is merely implied by the famous stage direction "Exit pursued by a bear," here satisfyingly cast by Cathy Naden as a half-full bag of trail mix.
Forced Entertainment is able to make use of Shakespeare in this performance about the provisional nature of theater because in the theater Shakespeare is always close at hand, almost to the point of ubiquity. Like the common objects and products sitting in our kitchen cupboards, our bathroom cabinets, our garages and workshops, we may go years without thinking about one of Shakespeare's plays only to find, on encountering one, that it has been there all along, and that it functions much as we remember. Engaging Shakespeare is like riding a bike, or like fixing a bike with an old set of tools you forgot you had and then riding. Some assembly is required, but in the end it still works just fine. Given what most audiences for this performance will know, when Robin Arthur, presenting As You Like It, says of the bottle he cast as Jaques, "Then he makes a long speech where he compares the world to a theater," it might be argued that it does much the same work as hearing "All the world's a stage…" recited; similarly Richard Lowdon telling us that the old aerosol can playing Macbeth "feels nothing and everything feels pointless" upon hearing of Lady Macbeth's suicide supplies the "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow…" speech without it being quoted.
An orientation toward approximation and provisionality in dramatic storytelling informs this encounter between the priorities of postdramatic performance and the assumptions of traditional theatre, as it has similarly amongst Forced Entertainment's contemporaries. The Nature Theater of Oklahoma's 2010 Romeo and Juliet, for instance, was comprised not of the text of the play, but of transcribed summaries of what of interviewees remembered of the plot. Theatre has become more and more a context to think about theatricality and the dynamics of representation, under which conditions the table has often proved a space simultaneously within and outside of the literal theater where the divides between performance and criticism, actor and audience, the fictional and the actual can be examined and bridged. The non-illusory direct address of John Cage's lectures or Spalding Gray's autobiographical monologues presented at tables much like Forced Entertainment's suggests a theater that is both dramatically coherent and anti-spectacular. But the table is, at the same time, a model for the theatrical dynamic itself, a literal platform behind which sits a controlling intelligence attempting to bring a story to life on that surface. Table Top Shakespeare might promise transcendent puppetry, like that of the New York street performer Stuart Sherman who staged his miniature spectacles with ordinary objects on portable tables, but it delivers instead something purposely a bit more static and self-reflexive. By diagramming but never fully realizing the potential relationship between narrator, story and object, Table Top Shakespeare tasks the audience with the act of assembly.
Forced Entertainment is insisting on the contingent, provisional, collectively navigated nature of the performance event, and certainly this is not everybody's cup of tea. Indeed, audience attrition appeared to be an anticipated side effect if not a goal of the work. After the single brief intermission in the four-hour program MCA Director of Performance Programs Peter Taub congratulated those of us who had stayed, inviting us to move closer, as if we had passed the test and the evening could finally proceed as intended. One pleasure of durational performance like this is the satisfaction of having endured, together with others, and making it to the end (although that could also be said to be a pleasure of seeing any production of Shakespeare.) Among those I shared the theater with, I certainly encountered some who felt that something was missing, some opportunity had been lost, whether the possibilities of representational spectacle or the texture of Shakespeare's language itself. They imagined the clever, acrobatic uses that could have been made of the objects, and lamented the absence of Shakespeare's poetry. But that disappointment, too, might be productive, offering the audience a stage on which to perform versions of the plays they might hope for or imagine or remember. Like much of Forced Entertainment's work, the whole evening felt like both too much and too little—from one angle we had both seen four Shakespeare plays over the course of as many hours, from another we had seen none at all. Table Top Shakespeare substituted for something much vaster and more fantastical than any of us saw on stage that night, yet it also insisted that the theater that we had, the theater we were making do with and enduring, was, or should be, good enough.