text:
Washington's Duplicitous Approach to Russia and Crimea and It's Unintended Consequences
In a recent interview with RBC, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, sets the record straight on Crimea and Washington's imposition of sanctions against Russia after the citizens of Crimea voted overwhelmingly to join Russia.
Let's open by looking at what Mr. Lavrov has to say about the current sanctions environment, the impact that it has had and how the problem of U.S.-led sanctions can be negated:
"...…the sanctions, which have become the hallmark of the US administration, a number of EU countries and other Western states – to which we were forced to respond and will continue to do so in such a way as not to do harm to ourselves – are clearly damaging everyone, including the US companies and companies from the European countries whose governments resort to these sanctions. But, despite the difficulties, companies are working and trying to find opportunities that are not blocked by illegal actions of their governments."
Here, he outlines the key part of the problem:
"If we talk about this more comprehensively, it becomes clear that now that the US dollar is used in a vast share of global economic relations and financial settlements, the majority of non-US companies are forced to make compromises. They are not interested in losing a portion of their businesses overnight. The governments of their respective countries are forced to take this into account and try to negotiate with the Americans in order to create a political framework for resolving the current fleeting issues caused by the US economic aggression – let's call things by their proper names."
...and here, he outlines how the problem of American-imposed sanctions can be defeated:
"In the long run, the thinking process has already started with regard to how to get rid of the US dollar and create a system that will not be dependent on the whims of a particular US administration, or its behaviour in international economic relations, or turn into a tool of domestic political strife in the United States." (my bold)
If Mr. Lavrov is right, thanks to Washington's indiscriminate use of sanctions against Russia, China and other nations could result in the end of the U.S. dollar hegemony.
Now, let's look at the three reasons why Mr. Lavrov believes that Washington imposed sanctions on Russia back in 2014:
"The main reason behind the sanctions is, first, to punish Russia for its independent foreign policy. As President Putin said more than once, the US ruling class now understands that the 1990s were an anomaly, and the traditions of Russian civilisation, history, self-sufficiency, its multi-ethnic and multi-layered structure prevailed. The genetic code of our nation didn't go anywhere. Certain US politicians, including those who tied President Trump's hands, not allowing him to deliver on his campaign promises to normalise and improve relations with Russia, are still unable to accept this fact.
The second reason is unfair competition and an attempt to gain competitive advantages by using sanction pressure methods.
The third, more global, reason is the realisation of the irreversible nature of the processes leading to a polycentric world order, where many more than one or two states have strong influence on the global economy and politics. This realisation is not expressed in the desire to establish new forms of functioning of the world order with many, not just two poles or one pole. It manifests itself in an effort to slow down these processes, part of which is the sanction pressure. After all, sanctions are applied to China as well. If we classify increased tariffs as sanctions, I won't be able to name a single more or less important country on the planet that is not currently hit by the US sanctions." (my bolds)
For some background, let's look back at what happened in 2014. On March 16, 2014, the legislature of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the local government of the city of Sevastopol held a vote on whether the population of Crimea wanted to join Russia and separate from Ukraine in light of the fact that the Supreme Council of Crimea's claim that the new interim government in Ukraine (after the ousting of Viktor Yanukovych) was illegitimate. Prior to the vote and while it was taking place, Russia soldiers were present on the peninsula. A total of 83.1 percent of eligible voters voted in the referendum with an overwhelming 96.77 percent of voters voting in favour of secession from Ukraine and integration of the region into the Russian Federation. The United States (among others) declared the referendum as illegitimate and illegal under international law and, as a result, President Obama declared sanctions against Russia and Crimea starting on March 6, 2014, more than a week before the referendum took place and the results were known by the world as shown here:
These sanctions were expanded the day after the vote as shown here:
At this link, you can find a list of Washington's Executive Orders and legislation related to the Crimea situation. The Trump Administration has inherited and enhanced the anti-Russia sanctions environment. On March 4, 2019, anti-Russia sanctions were extended by President Trump who declared a national emergency pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act as shown here:
Note that the extension was put in place because of the "actions and policies (of Russia)" that "posed an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States".
With that background, let's look at Mr. Lavrov's key comments regarding the Crimean referendum:
"There are sanctions that are motivated and explained by Crimea, but they forget the fact that the vote in Crimea was absolutely free. This is no big secret, but in April 2014, former US Secretary of State John Kerry told me: "Everything is clear. Everything happened as the Crimean people wanted. But hold another referendum just for the sake of appearances." Why would anyone do that? If everything is clear to you, why make people vote again? I hope John won't mind I told you this. In his memoirs, he talks about some confidential aspects of our conversations."
Please note that John Kerry's solution was that another referendum should be held "for the sake of appearances".
If, indeed, Mr. Lavrov is not prevaricating, it would appear that the Obama Administration very clearly understood that the people of Crimea wanted to separate from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation and that the results of the March 2014 referendum were valid. If this is the true narrative, the past five years of Russia-bashing by Washington was built on a foundation of lies to the American people and to the world. Here are, however, serious repercussions that are a result of this lie; according to Mr. Lavrov, the unintended consequence of poorly executed foreign policy could be the potential end of the U.S. dollar as the world's currency of choice in international trade as nations around the world attempt to minimize the impact of Washington's sanctions.
Posted by A Political Junkie at 8:30 AM
Labels: economic sanctions, Russia, United States
Bill Beeby June 28, 2019 at 2:34 PM
Good article speaking the truth
A Political Junkie
I have been an avid follower of the world's political and economic scene since the great gold rush of 1979 - 1980 when it seemed that the world's economic system was on the verge of collapse. I am most concerned about the mounting level of government debt and the lack of political will to solve the problem. Actions need to be taken sooner rather than later when demographic issues will make solutions far more difficult. As a geoscientist, I am also concerned about the world's energy future; as we reach peak cheap oil, we need to find viable long-term solutions to what will ultimately become a supply-demand imbalance.
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Camille Claudel (1988)
User Reviews (34)
Helpfulness Review Date Total Votes Prolific Reviewer Review Rating
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poemlady14 July 2002
Wonderful! A must see for those who appreciate quality films.
I couldn't take my eyes away from the television, and it wasn't because it was in French with English subtitles. This is a superbly acted film depicting two artists' work, passion, fears and ultimately her downfall, falling victim to her own creative mind.
Now that this wonderful story will be a Broadway musical in 2003 under the finesse of Frank Wildhorn and the magical voice of lovely Linda Eder, one will certainly appreciate familiarizing themselves with the background of the subject of this movie, Camille Claudel.
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saucyjack196822 January 2008
Extremely underrated. Adjani's performance is epic!
This film is beyond beautiful and beyond heartbreaking. After 19 years, it still tears the heart right out of me. I first saw "Camille Claudel" while it was on it's Oscar campaign in 1990 for "Best Foreign Film" and "Best Actress - Isabelle Adjani". I hadn't really begun to appreciate foreign film yet so I had no idea what to expect. What I saw was an angel beyond description giving one of the greatest acting performances I had EVER seen, still to this day. This film is heart-wrenching in it's beauty and romantic tragedy. In fact it makes art of it. I went back to the theater to watch it six times, I even dragged friends along. Yes the film was brilliant, but what I went back to see was perhaps the most beautiful woman I've ever seen on the big screen. Isabelle Adjani's beauty in this film is breath-taking and her performance is one of the most intense and deeply moving in history. I have this film on VHS and DVD. I still love to watch it.
ULVAEUS13 July 1999
one of the most brilliant acting in a movie
How the american academy award could have forgotten one of the best performance of an actress ? it's a total mystery! The talent of Isabelle ADJANI is not at all recognized as it deserves. She's absolutely poignant in this part, from the young Camille to the crackin'up mature sculptor falling in despair and madness. The scene where Rodin touch her art in the dark and leads him to a scene where their respective egos fight each other, discovering the deep scars let by their devastating passion is an highlight of acting. At his level, it can be compared to "sunset boulevard" or "a streetcar named Desire".
Banquo1325 December 2002
Adjani was robbed of her Oscar!
Isabelle Adjani is stunning as the title character in this rich and passionate film. I am amazed anytime an actor or actresses changes physically in the part of a film (and without tons of make-up and special effects, either!)and Adjani does this remarkably well! We as an audience are just as stunned as Eugene Blot when he finds Camille drunk and spiraling into the depths of madness. Her appearance is nothing less than shocking.
The film as a whole is engaging with a whirlwind of emotions--rage, sadness, torment, bliss; by the time the nearly 3 hours are up, I am exhausted. Adjani and Depardieu are part of that emotional energy as they passionately go at it--sex, sculpture and anger; especially when it comes to the latter. It is almost worth it to stop reading the subtitles and listen to them rage and lash out at one another.
Adjani is powerful in so much of this film...I am amazed she didn't receive that best actress Oscar she was up for. Her torment and pain is riveting--especially in French. I am glad they did not decide to dub this film into English; hearing Adjani sob and ask "Pourquoi? Pourquoi?" would be empty with her mouthing the words "Why? why?" in English.
The film as a whole is a bit long, but overall is stunning. The sad epilogue is even sadder if you know that Claudel's remains were interred in a mass grave after her brother Paul failed to claim them from her original grave [the asylums only interred bodies in individual plots for a certain amount of time; space was at a premium.] So, the brilliant Camille Claudel's remains ended up in an unmarked grave mixed in with others who went unclaimed, as well.
Tim-23025 February 2000
This film is about the tragic failure of a genius. She fails not so much because of her tendency to make fatal mistakes but because of the shape those mistakes took in her mind. This, even as lesser personages prospered (e.g., Camille's brother Paul, the famous Catholic poet and diplomat) because they were not adverse to espousing convenient "beliefs" for the sake of earthly success. Many viewers will feel a strong affinity with Camille, not because they consider themselves geniuses but rather for the interior world she constructed that, without religion, gave the exterior world meaning. I say she was without religion, but in fact sculpture was her religion--at least until her final failure to gain the respect and patronage of capricious buyers. It was then that her religion (her meaningful myth) took the form of a conspiracy delusion. Powerful people, she thought (mostly, the sculptor Rodin, who had been her lover), were out to get her, thwarting her every move.
What we experience here is a thoughtful, scary exploration of the darkness that is a paradoxical part of all brilliance.
w-koenigsmann20 July 2005
Camille Claudel is an Excellent Film
This is an excellent film and I highly recommend it. The imagery and soundtrack is lush, and the story focuses intensely on Camille's perfectionism and fortitude, all the while depicting her descent into madness, although some claim she wasn't mad, merely a woman ahead of her time, and thus ostracized.
From what I have read of various biographies of Camille Claudel, I understand that she was a woman ahead of her time; she scorned the bourgeois, just as many artists, writer, and musicians did -- in the same way that modern artists scorn the common, small-minded, and narrow society (read Hermann Hesse's Steppenwolf for a good understanding of the artist's situation in society).
Following the pattern of Vincent van Gogh and Franz Schubert, Camille Claudel was not a great "promoter" of her works, and, to make things worse, the bourgeois society, just like today, failed to understand her art (again, like the plight of Vincent van Gogh and many others).
At her core, Camille Claudel was a true rebel, not because she wanted to be, but because she had to. Camille Claudel was a true artist, in the very deepest sense.
hspm13 December 2004
Isabelle Adjani is impressive
This is one of the films I actually would give more than 10 points ! Judging from other comments, it seems that people either love this film very much, or they hate it. I was particularly impressed by Isabelle Adjani's performance as an artist and lover of Rodin who changed between devotion and obsession. Until I saw that film I had the impression that her (IA's) most important task in films was to look good. Admittedly, I did not know that many films with her in it. And she was, and is, pretty good at fulfilling that task. Her multi-faceted role as Camille Claudel was truly spectacular, considerably better than that of her colleague Gérard Depardieu who, nevertheless, was quite impressive as Rodin.
neelvk21 October 1999
Watch at your own peril!
A *very* powerful film about a woman and her life. Acting and setup is so good that it can leave permanent scars on your psyche. Hitchcock can scare for a few minutes, while this movie can scare you for life. Do not watch while depressed. I give it a minimum of 8 out of 10. Wonderful job.
gcrokus8 July 2004
Seeing What Is Not There
An exhibit of Rodin's sculptures was circling the Western United States a few years back. In any gallery in which they were exhibited they snapped heads; there are few figures that speak with such authority or superiority, mute testimony, like the Easter Island figures, to as much effort and skill. And so the movie `Camille Claudel', in like fashion, snaps heads in its understated power and commitment to craft.
Like Ansel Adams, Rodin stretched nature beyond what was possible – they both showed us something that was not there and in the rendering made representations so striking they had no precedent and thus set the bar higher for subsequent generations of artists. As history played out, the far less well known sculptor Camille Claudel made substantial contributions but her tie to Rodin (and eventually her personal decline) for a period in the late nineteenth century is the focus in this instance. In truth, her story demanded to be filmed; she stands a remarkable artist and most importantly the passion, talent and influence (inarguably on Rodin) she possessed went well beyond the `colorful' label oft attached to the gifted.
Historically, this film is probably not a bad representation of how events turned in her life. There are many issues and turns, and years for that matter, the details of which remain unclear to this day. But in its entirety this is a marvelous interpretation of the record. And without doubt Isabelle Adjani was the right actor for the job.
Stunningly beautiful, there are few women in history as arresting as Isabelle is; certainly Camille was not as lovely, but the resemblance is darned good as compared to actors chosen to portray historical figures in most movies based on true events and the people that were part of them. That Adjani brings some of the passion is certain. After all, bizarre, or at least socially unacceptable, behavior resulted in her eventual incarceration, so we know she was a handful.
Many of the key points of her upbringing are addressed; her father's stern and inconsistent yet lovingly supportive position in her life (this is more forcefully impressed on us as the years progress); her mother's complete non-support and dismissal of all that Camille does; her relationship with her less understanding and conflicted brother. But it is the period when she meets and falls for Rodin (and he with her) and their consequent tumultuous affair runs its course that is actually the focus of the film.
Gérard Depardieu's contribution as Rodin is probably the best work he has done. He looks (Rodin was 40 when he met the 21 year old Camille) very much as Rodin did in this period of his life. His love for his work, Camille and promoting his own career are his passions. We are lead through the minefield of his own making (his inability to get off a dime and marry Camille is their eventual downfall) and we are not totally sympathetic to his behavior. But this is the stuff of real life; as Seneca said, all art is but imitation of nature and both his and her own work convey their conflicted convictions.
The musical score haunts us, as it should, right from the opening of the film. Almost never detracting, it instead correctly underscores certain points in the narrative; but it is the opening where we see Camille scooping clay from beneath a Parisian street (and this is a well-crafted sequence) where we feel the upsurge of powerful currents operating. The music heightens our interest as we determine exactly what we are seeing.
Other nice touches in the film include an occasion where Camille and Rodin together study a model on a turntable, spinning the model about as metaphor for the emotional maelstrom gathering momentum. We also see a great moment when Rodin is caressing Camille's face, intercut with shots of him working clay into an as yet unidentifiable sculpture.
What follows the breakup of Camille and Rodin is essentially a retrospective of the downslide of a remarkable talent. The story of Claudel's own diminishing output of work and the steady erosion of her inability to cope with reality is frightening in its telling. At a meeting with Rodin some time after they have parted company she remarks that she has changed, and offers that `Nothing that's monstrous is foreign to me'. And so she truly (and sadly) withdraws into a world of her own making.
Rating: Four Stars.
sandover17 November 2009
Warning: Spoilers
I wonder how is it possible that, since so many of the comments deal with the level of acting in this film, no one pays tribute to Alain Cuny portraying Camille Claudel's father. His presence is, to say the least, commanding. Watch the scene, when Rodin visits the family at their cottage, where the two lovers half-hidden behind curtains indulge in their lust in the front of the tableau, while father Claudel slaps his son at the background. This is crucial, for two reasons: it displays that the actors here are working as an ensemble, and that the steeling and always, thoughtfully, underplayed tension between father and son, cuttingly explain Laurent Grevill's portrait of Paul Claudel as a believer's thrust undercut by a profoundly melancholic repression and the guilt of the witness who spills into being an onlooker. This is, perhaps, the grimmest intuition the film offers us in terms of the artist's relation to his place in society.
All this is brought to sublime heights when Alain Cuny recites some verses of Paul Claudel: not one of the film's tensions is left out and, yet, the instance breaks out of its context. This is a masterclass of acting in a nutshell.
MarieGabrielle21 September 2009
Biography of a female artist...
And rarely shown on US television, I recently caught this on Ovation channel; luckily I have satellite.
Isabelle Adjani is wonderful as tragic Camille Claudel, apprentice to narcissistic sculptor Auguste Rodin, who is at the nadir of his profession when he meets Claudel. Claudel is at first naive and young, falling for Rodin and his grandiosity, he declares her work genius, but gradually undermines her spirit and mental health. We see a foreshadowing of his envy when he first meets Claudel, and comments that at least she still has a passion for her art, which he has lost long ago.
The photography of the stark and cold Paris studio in February is haunting, we feel the cold as Claudel sets up her clay in the crumbling white studio, with no heat or fire. Paris is freezing in February.
Claudel's family denigrates her ambition, except for her brother who empathizes but cannot really help an aspiring female artist (unheard of, and certainly a bane to Rodin's ego).
Eventually her unraveling begins, as she feels Rodin is conspiring her downfall; Claudel had suffered a form of paranoid schizophrenia, interesting that as a female artist she garners less sympathetic reviews than the ego-maniacal Picasso or misogynistic Man Ray.
Overall this film is a do not miss which deserves 10/10 for tackling a difficult and painful subject some would rather turn a blind eye toward: women artists in history.
ccthemovieman-125 April 2006
Nice Face, Nice Sculptures!
There's some nice photography in here, which is what helped me get through this long (159 minutes) soap opera-type story about the girlfriend (the title name, played by Isabelle Adjani) of the famous sculptor Rodin (Gerard Depardieu).
There are a lot of closeups of Adjani which was fine with me as I never get tired of seeing her looks. "Camille" also was a sculptor but when the romance with Rodin went sour, she went literally crazy. This movie details that saga.
In addition to the cinematography, you get to see some great sculptures - really good pieces of work. I just wish they had shown how the artists accomplished these pieces. Since they are just actors, all it did was show the two leads chipping away chunks of clay, never showing any detail work.
At least, the film made me appreciate the art form more.
writers_reign19 July 2005
Uncommon Clay
Opinion - on this board - appears to be divided on this one and I find myself on the side of the boosters. This movie is nothing if not sumptuous, crammed with images and imagery that fill the screen and spill over the sides - not for nothing did Nyuttens photograph Manon des Sources among others - so that decent acting and a workable plot would almost be a bonus. In fact the film has it all; an interesting and little explored background (sculpting) a story of two real artists who were active almost, if not quite, within living memory who are portrayed by two exceptional actors - Adjani and Depardieu teamed up again a couple of years ago in another 'period' story, Bon Voyage - who are able to extract the last nuance out of their characters. Rumour has it that it was Adjani who originated the project and even if her only object was to provide a meaty role for her herself she is to be applauded for doing so. Whoever and however this project was originated and brought to fruition it was a great idea which has been magnificently realized.
Myshkin_Karamazov12 February 2008
A Celebration Of A Mourning
While and after seeing Camille Claudel, one wonders if one should celebrate the artist that could have been, or rather mourn the moronic hypocrites populating her world. A world whose Marquesean death was foretold.
Almost everyone played by the supporting cast displayed (or tried to hide) how acutely and incurably they were suffering with diseases, physical and mental. With the sole and occasional exception of her father, everyone else treated the artist in a less than human manner. Despot mother, Hypocrite brother, Deceitful love! What real treasures had this Genius woman of her times to cope with! To top it all she happened to be living in such a dysfunctional society which years later, a great filmmaker and artist of the same nation, Jean Renoir, was to label as "corrupt to the core". Amen to Renoir. This film like most any other film depicting the real dilemma of a society, makes one pay an additional salute to his Le Regle Du Ju.
sem-224 February 2001
superb acting, brilliant cinematography
This is the film that shows that French cinema is still the best in the world. Adjani's acting is mesmerizing, cinematographer uses his camera with such an ease that Hollywood would never match. While watching the film, I lost sense of time... I didn't expect much from this movie after reading complaints that it's too long. What a pleasant surprise! Don't listen to anybody: if you like the cinema, this film will impress you, if you think that Titanic is the best romantic movie ever made - then you might never get it...
DVR_Brale6 July 2017
Camille stays a mystery
You might want to ask yourself what is wrong with a particular society. There are several ways to approach that question one of which is observing scars society (together with culture) inflicts on you and other people. One major difficulty with that approach is distinguishing between ones' emotional problems and real cultural problems. That difficulty is what we are faced with when watching Camille Claudel.
A brilliant young sculptress starts going mad after going through a tragic romantic experience. We see so many talent and potential wasted at such an early age in such a sad way. Immediately we question is there always a simple and reliable explanation for such a tragic failure. Her behavior inflicts her family and almost everybody around her. She becomes obsessed with sculpting; what has now become her religion. She's tormented by hypocrisy of French bourgeois. We see many factors being taken into account in re-telling her story - something we see very rarely in American cinematography.
Back to the question. She undoubtedly is going mad but the reason behind it stays mystery for us. Not only for us but her family as well. Camille doesn't even realize how mistaken she is and she is eventually hospitalized for the rest of her life. That's the genius behind this biographical drama: nobody knows what is happening inside Camille's heart. Her genius and fragility cannot be analyzed; she's taken them into her grave. Nevertheless we may conjecture about it and at best learn a thing or two.
It's obvious that playing this role is delicate. Isabelle Adjani is absolutely gorgeous here; one of the most beautiful female characters ever - that is until she goes demented. She was able to appear as an undivided personality in a sense that her happiness and failures are not disconnected from each other but form an unanimous whole. Only Ellen Burstyn's role in Requiem for a Dream is this impressive although she takes much less screen time. Other members of the cast have been very successful in communicating complex emotions too.
I've always held that atmosphere and spirit is what makes a movie memorable and convincing. Seeing this drama was for me more than a movie experience - it gave me a deeper insight about French esprit libre. I strongly recommend this movie to all of you who are looking for a movie not made for pure fun but for reflection.
SnoopyStyle6 November 2015
compelling performances
It's 1885. Camille Claudel (Isabelle Adjani) is a French sculptor and sister of writer Paul Claudel. Famed sculptor Auguste Rodin (Gérard Depardieu) is taken with her work and hires her as an assistant. She becomes both his mistress and protégé. There is prejudice against woman sculptors. The complicated relationship and professional difficulties cause Camille to descend into madness.
Isabelle Adjani is terrific. Her performance is compelling and so is Depardieu. I really like the actors doing their sculpting. I like the obsessive nature of the art work. The plot lacks a certain intensity. It would be helpful to foreshadow her madness earlier in the movie or else the romance caused her mental issues. That's very old fashion melodrama. The running time is also a bit long at almost three hours.
mjneu599 November 2010
dynamic period piece with a strong lead performance
The familiar line dividing creativity and madness narrows and disappears in this downbeat but dramatic biography of the 19th century sculptress, who after meeting Auguste Rodin went from apprentice to mistress to madwoman, driven to the asylum and professional obscurity by her inability to escape from under the shadow of her celebrated lover. Isabelle Adjani gives the title character a headstrong, stubborn vitality that turns electrifying as she loses her sanity; in contrast, Rodin (pronounced by an associate "the biggest lecher since Victor Hugo") fades into the background clay, and not even the reliable Gerard Depardieu can flesh out the underwritten role. The film is beautifully produced, and even at such a punishing length (almost two and a half hours) the pace never flags. It moves twice as quickly as any film half its length, using a brisk, hopscotch style that almost seems rushed trying to get all the facts in.
Madfilm14 May 1999
A brilliant film for the intellectual romantic.
A very mind-blowing glimpse into the lives of two sculptors, mad with love and the insanity that often plagues people of artistic genius. Superb acting that allows you to forget you are watching a film, drowning you in the art, love, and madness of Rodin and Camille Claudel. A definite must for the intellectual film fanatic (movies that feed your mind) or fan of foreign film. I'd rate this a solid 8 stars out of ten. A breathtaking piece of film. Rent it tonight!
snoozer16 April 2005
Just expensive melodrama .....
What is it about French *EPICS* that makes them so dreary? 'Camille Claudel' suffers from the same intrinsic problems as its predecessors ('Entre Nous' comes to mind). Too much style ... not enough substance. Make no mistake folks ... this is a very lavish (read expensive) production. Perhaps that is the problem. Too much time and money spent on production design and cinematography and not enough time on script development. This is supposed to be a character driven piece yet somehow the 'story' just gets lost in all that grandeur. It's only during the last 3rd of the film do we we actually get to see any sort of 'performance' from Isabelle Adjani. For the rest, both her and Depardieu are minnows lost at sea in a maze of bloated film sets awash with moody lighting.
Yes .. the cinematography IS breathtaking so kudos to Pierre Lhomme. I beg to differ with other reviewers about the musical score tho. It's one of the worst i have endured in recent times. More often than not it seems to be totally out of place (and out of context) to the scene we are witnessing ... almost as if it had been scored without actually *seeing* the film.
I cant help but feel how this story would have been handled by a director with some understanding of the nature of art, but more importantly ... the ARTIST. Those having seen Jacques Rivette's 'La Belle Noiseuse' will understand. And for those interested in Depardieu driven historical pieces, seek out (the hard to find) Le Colonel Chabert. He's performance in that film is exquisite.
This is an overly melodramatic film and a sad waste of money. They could have made 3 films for what this one must have cost. Not recommended.
tedg31 May 2004
In the Hole
Spoilers herein.
Like the life it depicts, this has flashes of brilliance but is overall a failure. On the plus side, we have an appealing enough actress who has what it takes to convince her she would be desirable to Rodin. But there is no conveyance of the realities and burdens of talent, no glimpses into the mind of madness and creative genius.
There is a nice, somewhat sculptural framing, beginning with the `stealing' clay from a workmens' ditch (and hen going to incestual, erotic visual poetry. This is recalled near the end with her similarly burying her work.
But in between is rather dull, predictable march through some events. What a great film this could have been.
Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.
ferdinand19322 January 2010
Read a book; go for a walk
While the design and locations and photography are strong assets in this film; it is a turgid and melodramatic affair which demonstrates the limits of cinema to convey truth.
The case is the use of the soundtrack music: a mix of Gustav Mahler and Andrew Lloyd-Webber that plays constantly and loudly, and would have made Max Steiner grimace at its over use as it instructs the audience how difficult; how ecstatic; how tortured it is to be an artist. And then it really counts the story elides the details at the end.
This heightened and kitsch exploitation of emotions was once well ridiculed by Peter Ackroyd about a Yukio Mishima book: This is not writing, this is Barbara Cartland. Precisely the same critique can be made of this film: a deceptive, mawkish vanity project.
Figtree20 October 2001
Beautiful cinematography
This film is very beautiful to watch. The composition and colors of the shots are both exquisite. The scenes of Camille Claudel and Auguste Rodin together are very powerful. Adjani and Depardieu have some chemistry together, and it shows.
Although Adjani does a good job of acting, I thought that this movie did drag in places. I had rented it, and started glancing at a magazine after about an hour or so -- not a good sign! Still, it has a lot going for it with the good acting and beautiful shots. It is worth seeing for those who love art history as well. It is about 2.5 hours long, not extremely long as films go.
HotToastyRag29 July 2019
Isabelle Adjani gives an incredible performance
Everything you'd ever expect out of a biopic of an artist you can find in Camille Claudel. Passion, romance, anger, unacceptable behavior-everything artists are renowned for doing that regular people can't get away with. Isabelle Adjani picked up her third César for Best Actress, and her second Best Actress Oscar nod, for her tumultuous role as the sculptor who helped pave the way for female artists.
Isabelle has an affair with Gérard Depardieu, who plays sculptor Auguste Rodin, and as their artist temperaments cause ups and downs in their relationships, their careers also get in the way. Gérard, bearded and in a rare appearance without his signature long locks, pours his usual amount of intense energy and sensitivity in another larger-than-life role, but it's Isabelle who steals the show. And stealing the show away from Gérard Depardieu is quite a feat! She runs through an incredible amount of emotions, taking the audience on a terrifying ride throughout the movie. Art lovers will particularly love this movie, showing the sculpting process and countless beautiful finished works.
dromasca6 May 2017
tragedy of a woman artist
The year is 2017, Camille Claudel is back in town and she seems to go through a revival and reevaluation of her work and short artistic career. A museum dedicated to her life and art opened in March in the small French town of Nogent-sur-Seine, and the museum includes many of the works that survived the agitated 20th century and the destruction by the artist's own hands. Books are being written about her, and art history starts to take her seriously into account. Before this however, there were the films, and especially this one Camille Claudel from 1988. It is not exaggerated to say, I believe, that the film prepared her comeback to the world of arts.
Camille Claudel deals more with the character of Camille Claudel, her love story with Auguste Rodin, her relationship with her brother Paul, one of the important French poets of the first half of the 20th century than with her art. Actually one of the few critical observations one may have about the visual part of the film is that there is so little art in it, and from the film we cannot make to ourselves an idea about how good she was. We see an artist fighting with her material, we see a woman fighting prejudice in a world and at a time when women were far from being recognized as equal professionally to men, even less in arts. We see the young woman and artist falling under the fascination of her master and being torn between love and admiration for him, and the need to express herself, to be herself. We see her falling down the spiral of vanity and then madness, and it's up to us to judge whether the roots of her fall are in the social environment, in the attitude of her lover who may be a great artist but is also a womanizer and small human being in terms of relations, or in her own vanity and narcissism. Add to this the ambiguity of the relationship to her brother, and we can now understand the willingly or not, the focus of the script and director Bruno Nuytten was on her personal path rather than on her art.
For Bruno Nuytten this was the first film as director, but he already had in 1988 a long career as cinematographer, including a few superb films by Claude Berri. Not everything works or better said, not everything stood the almost 30 years since the film was made. Isabelle Adjani is superb, beautiful and ambitious, a fighter but fragile at the same time, turn between love and vanity. This is one of her best roles. Gérard Depardieu is very fit to Rodin's role, at that time his physical qualities were also perfect and added to his huge talent. The cinematography of the film (signed by Pierre Lhomme ) is excellent, and there are many scenes to remember - in the studio where Rodin and Claudel are shown fighting with the material from which they extracted their works, and out in the nature with clear allusions to the period of the Impressionists when this film is set. On the other hand the soundtrack is horrible. The use of violin music which would have been exaggerated even for a melodrama made in 1938, it's simply a disaster for this film about art and artists made in 1988. Add to this the poor quality of the sound (at least in the copy screened by ARTE TV) which makes half of the dialog incomprehensible even when it is not covered by violins. Maybe digital sound re-working will sometimes in the future save this film. It is highly deserved.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Located on the Ella Grasso Turnpike, the La Quinta Inn Hartford-Bradley Airport is only about a 5-minute drive from Bradley International Airport. The inn is in the town of Windsor Locks that hosts the airport serving the entire Hartford, Connecticut and Springfield, Massachusetts region. This La Quinta Inn offers quality lodging and great prices. Guests of the hotel will find flat screen TVs with HD and electronic connection ports. All rooms have high speed internet and cable TV as well as an alarm clock, coffee maker and phones with data ports and answering service. The beds are comfortable and the rooms quiet. La Quinta also provides guests with a free breakfast that includes waffles and many extras. With 4 floors, the inn has 102 regular rooms and 14 luxury suites. Complimentary for all customers, a guest laundry is available and shuttle bus airport service. The inn also has conference rooms. Besides the delicious breakfast that comes with a stay, the inn is surrounded by dining options. Right on the Ella Grasso Turnpike guests can choose from Skooters Restaurant Incorporated serving American cuisine and seafood, Skyline Restaurant offering American and Mediterranean favorites and Izumi providing Japanese food. Chain restaurants and fast food are also in the area. For those guests staying in the town of Windsor Locks, the area has fascinating local sites. The New England Air Museum is at the Bradley airport. Other museums, art galleries, golf courses and more are close to La Quinta Inn Hartford-Bradley Airport.


Eagle Mountain is a premier master planned golf community located in Fountain Hills, Arizona, exquisitely nestled upon the the ravines of the famed McDowell Mountains offering spectacular view of the mountains, desert, golf course, distant Phoenix and the whole valley. This gated community assures privacy and tranquility as well as promoting an active lifestyle for its residents.
One of the major amenities with this community is the Country club and golf course. The Eagle Mountain Golf Club is a 4-star recipient of Golf Digest's Places to Play. Aspiring golfers can hone their golfing skills and sign up for a lesson with the finest fully-trained staff professionals or become a Resort Golf Academy member – Arizona's premier golf school destination. With two large putting greens, a chipping area, a practice bunker and a full-length driving range, it is no surprise that Eagle Mountain is in the top of the "must-play in Arizona" list. This community was recently voted as "Best New Public Course" by the Arizona Republic Golf Section.
Eagle Mountain real estate is sought after for its wide array of homes from condominium and town homes to luxury estates. Homes in Eagle Mountain feature gorgeous architecture, stunning landscaping, and a panoramic view of the valley, these and more at an affordable price.
Homeowners and guests can relax in the peaceful ambiance an exclusive retreat while being in close proximity to everyday conveniences in Scottsdale. Find your dream home and own a beautiful golf property in Eagle Mountain where you can wake up to a gorgeous sunrise and enjoy golden desert sunsets.


Doing brake service at your location.
After receiving an extremely expensive estimate from a well known local tire/brake store, we called Paul. He fixed my daughters brakes at half the price. He also checked my brakes after I was told they needed repaired, and he said they were good for another year or two and didn't charge me anything for taking off the tires to check them. He could have replaced them and charged me a bundle but he is super honest and didn't take advantage of a woman who knows nothing about brakes. Highly recommend!!!!!


As long as it is big enough to not cause any back pressure I think it would be fine. A two inch muffler has quite a bit a flow and would be plenty big for a small two cylinder engine I would think.
Maybe a it would be good to consider running it thru a car muffler once it is under the truck.
I have been thinking of doing the same thing to my box truck this winter. It will help put the noise down under the truck along with the fumes!! I am still in the thinking stage as well Guy!!
I have heard that the EBC concrete cleaner is some good stuff...I really should try some!!
We have used a little Roof Snot this fall and the guys loved it. It works great for roof cleaning cling and also rinses off the windows nice.
Be interesting to know if you got this and how it went. When I was a young chap I helped a guy sandblast and paint a 5 million gallon like this. It was 50 feet tall. There were only two of us and we were at it for 4 months I think it was. I don't know how much the job paid but I know I got $10k which was a lot of money for a 16 year old!!
I love that!!! That makes it worth the while!!
Lots of free give aways!! How about a set of Summit stacking hose reels! A $448.00 value!
No you do not need to be a ***** member to attend. Just keeping the original name and keeping it going!! Are you coming Alexy??
iPad Internet service....any good deals out there?
I have the ipad with wifi only and if I am on the road and want to use it I just use my smart phone as a hotspot. Don't have to pay any extra for more data that way, plus the wifi only ipads are cheaper.
Larry Hinckley "True industry legend" retiring.
Haven't really dealt with Larry any but did meet him there at the shop one day. Was a great guy!!


text:
Dorcadion pavesii is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Pesarini and Sabbadini in 1998. It is known from Turkey.

References

pavesii
Beetles described in 1998

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Q: How to add a new line using sub and regex python? how can I add a new line (\n) between a "." and "[A-Z]" if there is no space or character between them? eg.
story = "Hello World. Hello World.Hello World.Hello World"

new_lines = findall('\.[A-Z]', story)
for new_line in new_lines:
    story = sub(new_line, '.\n[A-Z]', story)

print(story)

Output I'm trying to get is:
"Hello World. Hello World.\nHello World.\nHello World."

or
Hello World. Hello World.
Hello World.
Hello World.

A: You may try this regex:
(?<=\.)(?=[A-Z])

*

*(?<=\.) positive lookbehind, find a .

*(?=[A-Z]) positive lookahead, find a uppercased letter.

Using python:
import re

story = "Hello World. Hello World.Hello World.Hello World."

story = re.sub(r'(?<=\.)(?=[A-Z])', '\n', story)

print(story)

Output:
Hello World. Hello World.
Hello World.
Hello World.

A: In your code you are looping the results of findall (re.findall) and then for item that findall returns, replace that with .\n[A-Z] setting that as the value of story
What you might do is match a dot, and assert a char A-Z to the right and just use re.sub and replace with a dot.
\.(?=[A-Z])

Regex demo
import re

regex = r"\.(?=[A-Z])"
story = "Hello World. Hello World.Hello World.Hello World"
story = re.sub(r"\.(?=[A-Z])", r".\n", story)
print (story)

Output
Hello World. Hello World.
Hello World.
Hello World

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


RE : Existing sample could offer in free. For customized sample,we will charge mold fee based on client's requirement,and freight payment by your side.
2.What is the shipping method?
RE : DHL,UPS,FedEx is available. All is up to you.
3.Could we made customized products?
RE : Yes,We have own design department to meet your requirement.
4. What material do you major in?
RE : high-grade zinc alloy.


The aim of the Heavy-Duty Diesel Initiative of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition is to virtually eliminate black carbon and fine particulate emissions from the on-road vehicle fleet by 2030. The Soot-Free Urban Bus Fleets Project puts this aim into practice with a focus on eliminating diesel black carbon emissions from coach and transit buses in 20 megacities. The cities targeted are: Abidjan, Accra, Addis Ababa, Bangkok, Bogotá, Buenos Aires, Casablanca, Dar es Salaam, Dhaka, Istanbul, Jakarta, Johannesburg, Lagos, Lima, Manila, Mexico City, Nairobi, Santiago, Sao Paulo, and Sydney. These cities all have a population of 3 million or greater, have access to a wide range of fuel quality, are geographically disperse, and at the time of project initiation had no requirements for soot-free emission in the urban bus fleet.
This report summarizes the major activities, policy milestones, technical developments, key challenges, and lessons learned over the course of this project.


THE Guardia Civil, in collaboration with the Treasury Ministry, has seized more than 41 tonnes of tobacco in the largest tobacco seizure in Spanish history. The amount of tobacco is estimated to be enough to fill four million packets of cigarettes and has a market value of about €6,640,000.
Eleven members of the organisation have been arrested. They are being charged with smuggling and tax fraud, with the total amount of fraud adding up to €5,500,000 when taking into account IVA, special taxes and customs laws.
The investigation started at the beginning of the year after an increased amount of loose tobacco and roll-up cigarettes was noted in different parts of Jaen. At the same time, the police force began to receive numerous reports from local tobacco shops and tobacco distribution companies that sales were down about 30 per cent.
Increased police presence was established in order to determine if it was the result of smuggling. Officers began to carry out checks on establishments in the province in order to ensure that those selling tobacco were authorised to do so.
Officers carried out nine searches in the towns of Jodar and Linares, where they seized 400 kilos of tobacco, a large quantity of cigarettes, and numerous machines for cutting and rolling tobacco.
Afterwards, the Guardia Civil, in collaboration with the Tax Agency of Granada, detected that the supply company of the tobacco and the machines was doing its manufacturing in two industrial areas near Madrid. Upon investigation of these areas, the officers discovered that the supply company was not registered as a manufacturer, importer, or distributor of tobacco, which is required by Spanish law. Further investigation revealed that the company was buying tobacco in bulk from companies in Spain, Poland and Bangladesh, and the rolling and packaging machines from the United States.
The company had a large number of clients. Clients were found by means of phone calls or through the company´s website, which had servers located in France and Bangladesh. The distribution of the merchandise was carried out through a shipping company that makes daily shipments to all parts of Spain and Portugal. The receivers resold the products either in person or on the internet.


text:
Breaking: Crawford And Lomachenko To Fight On ESPN This August
By: Sean Crose
It's now official – ESPNs interest in Manny Pacquiao is far from a one-off. Today it's been announced that the network will also showcase two of the biggest names in the sport this August. For Bud Crawford and Vasyl Lomachenko will be appearing on basic cable this summer, courtesy of ESPN and promoter Bob Arum.
To make things perhaps more interesting, both men will be engaged in fights that are competitive, at least on paper. Crawford will have a junior welterweight title unification with Julius Indongo in Nebraska on August 19th. Two weeks earlier, on the 5th, Lomachenko will be facing off against Miguel Marriaga, who has battled the likes of Oscar Valedez and Nicholas Walters, in a super featherweight title scrap in LA.
After a long, dry spell with HBO, it's clear Arum is moving on to what he hopes are greener pastures. Rival Al Haymon has tried his hand at basic cable broadcasts with uneven success. Arum, however, is bringing out his stable's big guns right out the gate. Things are certainly getting interesting as boxing's bombastic 2017 thunders along.


text:
Poetry Is Salt
How to Read Poems for Pleasure
Weekly Poems
Baby Poems
Other Stars Audio
The Other Stars Hover
FACC Summer Prayer
Category: Poems
Epithalamion
Sit in the sun surrounded by love,
head heavy as a peony,
a blessing of petals swaying it toward prayer.
Listen, eyes closed, to the hum of guests,
of bees, dusting dance of pollen
visited on others in a fertile chain.
Mistress, this joy is from you,
brushing, as we do, your palms, your face,
entering the faith you're making real.
Citadels you've taken with your hope
harbor tired refugees,
enemies of war divorced and tender in our flight.
Inspire us. Share your rings.
Lead your husband toward the band,
every step declaring peace.
Clasp him in your arms,
holding his gaze, accord
level as a field where nothing is submerged.
Eat cake as the communion that it is,
votive offering, potential to love mindfully
and well. We are bruised.
Help us bite gently from each other's hands,
brother speaking kindnesses to brother,
every glass lifted to a common, needful praise.
After the toasts, throw us your bouquet,
reminder we are chosen,
marked for high regard that calls us by our names.
Even your garter is a quiet glimpse, a knowing
nod to armistice, the intimate, the delicate
occasion of our joining, our guard at last let down.
Value yourself, the risk you undertake,
the symbol you become.
As hardened as we are, we need your blush,
your fire, our pillar in the night.
If we make too much of your small day, forgive us.
Children trust the sun, haunted by its cooling,
honored by its light.
About This Poem
Selena Moore is getting married. (She'll be in a botanical garden – hence the Alaskan peonies.) She and I spent time last week talking about ceremonies, vows, and ways of making meaning on the day. She pointed me to a poem by Stephen Dunn, his "Epithalamion," which means poem celebrating a marriage, and that inspired me to try my own. I've written many wedding poems as blessings and gifts, but this one is more general, a celebration of the radical act of hope that every marriage is. In keeping with my project of writing through the Psalms, I chose to examine Psalm 122 through the lens of marriage, particularly verse 7: "May there be peace within your walls and security within your citadels," following the Hebrew transliteration shalovm becheilech levah bearmenovtayich as an acrostic guide. Psalm 122 is a love song to Jerusalem and a call to pray for its peace. I'm smitten with the notion of casting our sacred commitments as holy cities, fortresses, citadels that protect and inspire our people. In this draft, I'm looking to the bride especially as a conquering hero, a symbol of courage and the saving force of love. At weddings, I believe we live vicariously for a brief time, participating in renewal and fresh faith. It's no accident that the New Testament features a metaphor of wedding in the union of Jesus and Church. I also like the reverse effect of figuring Jerusalem as a blushing bride, one you might pray for with the same ardent affection you have for the brides you've held most dear.
Invitation to Write
Draft a poem of instruction to a person you esteem.
With Your Right Hand You Save Me
The boot we find in the river, empty
as a homestead – dishes on the table, owners gone –
recalls a pharaoh emptied from his skin, still watertight.
Hieroglyphic smoke rises, honoring the dead.
I have mine. You have yours. We hold
vigil, burning, small offerings by firelight.
Early next morning, you in the tent asleep,
narcissism and I spell my name with a stick
in the stillness of the ash.
Once daylight comes, who can believe in death?
Zealot that I am, I walk into the water to feel real –
venial, I know, but I matter so sharply to myself.
Even your silence is, animal and warm,
not enough to draw me from this temple,
alert, awake to runoff, cold as living will.
For breakfast, you packed berries,
sweet and fat. You'll share with me, pretending you don't
hear confession in my voice: regret –
I will take them all.
Photo by Brooke Gottmeier
I'm selfish, and much of the time it doesn't even occur to me feel bad about it. Why would it? After all, I can and will only ever be me, for my whole life. Why wouldn't my own be the most sacred to me? Yet what seems natural in myself often appalls me in others. It's not a pretty tension. In this draft, I'm confronting the urgency we all feel about ourselves as I reckon with Brooke Gottmeier's photo in concert with Psalm 138. David is unapologetic about his desire for his own life to be preserved, even enhanced. His praise is based on the bald statement that God will vindicate him. He writes, "When I called, You answered me; You greatly emboldened me." That line provides the acrostic guiding this draft: tarhiveni oz venafshi. Emboldened, in the Hebrew, has connotations of stormy or boisterous arrogance, and I'm interested in our instinctive move to assure our own well-being. It's normal to want more for ourselves – the bigger slice, the better seat, the brighter love. We've all read stories of heroic sacrifice of self, but I've put someone else between myself and the angry beast or unpredictable stranger too many times to believe sacrifice can ever be an untutored response. Brooke's photo presents a situation we all recognize: the haunting absence of the wearer reminds us he has not survived. It's an image steeped in mortality, no matter how we try to clothe or protect our bodies. And so the speaker standing hip-deep in the river is an age-old portrait of prayer that serves mainly self. I am committed to continual training in selflessness, and grateful for models of it, but I'm still eyeing that bowl of berries in an admittedly wolfish way.
Draft from an empty homestead. What comforts or confronts you there?
I Hear There is a River Underground
Murmuring voices whisper my fears
at the lip of the cave.
You swear they are just
_____a susurrus of streams,
indifference mounting an echo,
making mouths
_____at nothing,
_____but the growling
hollows me the way a tree dies
at the core:
_____diseased heartwood
moribund while cambium persists.
Another swimmer, local girl,
hovers for a moment at the edge, small
caution, then she leaps.
_____I can almost
hear the wind slide through her
agile body like a flute,
meting out a trill
as she, brave embouchure, finds
rest around the province of the tune.
https://poetryissalt.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/River-Underground.m4a
The acrostic guiding this draft is mayim hamah chamar: "though its waters roar and foam," from Psalm 46. Verses 2-5 describe the terrors of earthquake and storm as "mountains quake with their surging." Yet the psalmist resolves not to be afraid: "There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day." I'm using a photograph by Brooke Gottmeier to consider, through this poem, what happens when the refuge itself is scary? Brooke visited an underground lagoon known mostly to locals in Kauai, yet couldn't bring herself to swim in the darkness once she'd climbed down into the cave's entrance to the pool. Her photograph is her failure, in a sense, taken as she emerged from the cave without enjoying its refuge. Trusting what we can't see is terrifying. Refuge isn't peaceful every time, and often introduces its own set of challenges. The image of the hollowed tree, dying from the inside, led me to reflect that letting go that core of self, diseased by fear and ego, can lead to courage – pictured in the confident girl who has trusted the cave before. The local girl, in her practiced faith, occupies her own stanza without indented lines. There is no hesitation or afterthought for her, which the narrator admires yet cannot quite approach. In the trusting leap, the girl becomes another form of hollowed wood, and the wind or spirit surging through her makes a beautiful music that provides its own wisdom and comfort. This reminds me that I do better in my practice of compassion, mindfulness, joy, peace, when I am not the origin or end, but a channel through which other forces do their necessary work.
Draft from a susurrus. What is whispering near you now?
Her Tattoo
Elegantly seeded in the furrow of her spine,
even rows of letters
repeat: my dream
is to be powerful and free.
Cherish the audacity.
Hands that hold the whip must
underline that strength.
Lechers face the speechless roar:
existing is resisting.
Maybe her voice is soft
as alchemy, the silence of base metals
admitting they are gold.
Nonetheless. She is
indelible, marked now,
translated by the dream.
Adamant as philosopher's stone,
matter beyond measure rests beneath her skin.
https://poetryissalt.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/her-tattoo.m4a
"Plowmen have plowed my back and made their furrows long." The third line of Psalm 129 is chilling. The image of a human back scored like the earth in an act of brutality and domination is horrific, all the more terrifying because it is also familiar. The image is very old, too often repeated in the human story. Whether with whip or word, we take the cowardly approach, attacking the exposed and vulnerable. In this poem, I'm using the Hebrew transliteration of "they made their furrows long" – heerichu lemaanitam – as an acrostic guide to help me consider the response of resistance. I know a beautiful woman who has felt greatly oppressed from youth, and spent years as a hostile stranger to her own body. Part of her reclamation project arrived as a tattoo across her back. I'm taken with her placement of her message in a space where she can't see it. The message is of her, but for others, for any enemy, in fact, who steals up from behind to violate her victory. The message is her loudest voice. With it, she is "cut free from the cords of the wicked," and transformed into what is precious. In the psalm, the final lines revoke a blessing from the evildoer. Their deepest punishment is to withhold: "May those who pass by not say to them, 'The blessing of the Lord be on you.'" I can imagine nothing more just than stripping protection from those who exploit others without mercy or remorse, and I delight in the divine alchemy that restores dignity and strength, marking us permanently as blessed.
Resist. Draft using your philosopher's stone to transform something in peril.
In the Absence of a Word for a Woman Who Is Not a Mother
"Your dream, then, is of a nothingness where an investment of love lives on."
~ Charles D'Ambrosio
Under the pitted crust of April snow, blind and
rooting, everything waits. It's not like you'd
expect, not having children. It's not
elegy or effigy, but some days even this resolve must
hold its breath, tested
by lily bulbs and history of rose.
Again, the promises of thorn and orange tongue
near their glory, needle through the loam
in interrupting green.
My love with its own labors,
liquid, runs it channels,
energizing what it didn't fix in place.
By now, I know no ghosts will share my bearing,
and there is peace in what one waters.
No trace or debt, one just
evaporates. My children's children, offer this
kindness: bless the rain that patters
as a pilgrim loves the road.
https://poetryissalt.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/absence.m4a
The last verse of Psalm 128 reads, "May you live to see your children's children." I've used the transliteration as my acrostic guide in this draft: ureeh banim lebaneka. It's one of the most precious blessings in the Hebrew text, and it stands for me as an invitation to reckon with how the blessing comes for those of us without children. I've been told I've opted out of blessing, but I'm slow to believe that God has no gifts for me because there are no olive shoots around my table. Outside my window sits a garden still under snow. The waiting lilies and roses will return; I trust that as surely as I trust that I will hold scores of infants in the years to come. But they are not mine. I'll tend them, though I didn't make them. My offering is water. As a Psalm of Ascent, this blessing is the recitation of pilgrims. In my role as teacher, even as mentor, I am not the origin nor destination, but I'm present along the path. The final stanza addresses my children's children, whom I believe in because I trust that love, like energy, is neither created not destroyed. If they will give a moment, now and then, of gratitude for rain that refreshes between one home and the next, I'll have my blessing. (As for my parents, they are regularly bombarded with my students' affection for me as they meet families I've taught in town. There is for them, I hope, a sense of legacy, even without blood.)
Photograph by Walt McLaughlin
What is there no word for in your life? Write a draft defining it.
Yesterday Your House Was Vandalized
I know you keep antiques, beauty,
venerable objects you love
not for looks, but what they've seen,
every imperfection a history,
human record, necessary as
vows. And now
a wanderer,
your vandal, of the tribe that once sacked Rome,
imprints here her own report.
That scratch on the chiffonier,
almost unnoticeable, rings with violation,
mouths at you both rising and at rest:
Empty your home.
Let me unsettle, help you
understand the lies of lock and key.
Set up sawhorses,
hew the doorframe
as you will, inscribe a prayer for
vagaries, vicissitudes, invasions
enough to keep your shutters banging, open as a palm.
https://poetryissalt.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Vandalized.m4a
Drafting from Psalm 127, I'm following the Psalms of Ascent for a spell. The acrostic follows the transliteration of verse 1: "Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain." The vanity of what we accumulate and the way we revere it resonate with me, especially in the wake of hearing last week about a break-in and burglary in a colleague's home. I'm a big fan of locks and keys. I bought a lockset for my bedroom door when I was a thirteen to keep my younger brother out of my things. The Psalm and the invasion both un-settle me, making me more temporary in my securities and safeguards. In the poem, I'm questioning whether I might grow to see the invader as part of a tribe, too – like the Germanic Vandals who plundered Rome, and whether I could ever come to reinterpret damage to possessions as more of the story of an object, and not as an attack to my belonging. The poem is a confession that I can value stuff more than people if I'm not mindful. While I might not be ready to thank the intruder, it's valuable for me to reassess the certainties I ask for and the costs they may incur.
Write a draft joining someone you'd rather keep at distance. Look for what there is to learn in getting closer.
For the Harvest in the Barrel and the Day that Calls us Home
for Tessa
Kiln-fired hopes still shatter
easily enough. She lives in the city,
cultivating orchards in her mind,
harrowing the rows, tending to her
once-dreamed apple farm.
Long homestead evenings,
emptying cider from the press,
melt of winters lavish
in the ground, restoring health,
mending what the cold had slowed.
Kintsukuroi, she says, golden repair.
Every fracture part of history, rich
composite of lacquer and gold
healing in the cracks.
Our dreams are open veins,
land ready for the seed,
emerging finally in
many-colored leaves,
in fruit as sweet as laughter, as
men's songs who now live free.
https://poetryissalt.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/harvest.m4a
Welcome to April! This is National Poetry Month, thus the fitting return of a handful of salt. After taking a break during March to consider where to go next with this project, I've decided to shift my focus away from more finished work, to work decidedly in progress. I need a reason to keep writing and a deadline to nudge me along, as we all do, so I invite you back into the weekly prompts and the honest transparency of someone trying. I hope it encourages you in your own creative work, and I hope to be able to share eventual news of publications as these pieces mature in revision.
My welcome-back draft is another in the acrostic Psalms series that excites me right now. A friend asked me to try on Psalm 126 because she loves the first two verses: "When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy." I also happen to be in a study on the Psalms of Ascent, and this is one, so the challenge was perfect. In thinking about dreams, I draw from my friend's own dream deferred. She wants desperately to be an apple farmer, but she's years away from moving toward that reality. In the Hebrew, our dreams, or chalam, are synonymous with health. The fulfillment of a dream restores wellness. It also binds us together. In class last week, a student introduced the Japanese art form of kintsugi or kintsukuroi, where broken ceramics are repaired with a mixture of gold dust and resin, following the philosophy of embracing the flawed and imperfect. I'm in love with "golden repair," and so the poem positions the dream as the precious compound restoring health to our breakage. In the season anticipating Easter, the dream of restoration is especially prevalent for me.
Where are you broken at the moment? Write a draft respecting the cracks.
A Man of Unclean Lips Considers Prayer
for Nicole
The angel was kind, a school nurse
applying the live coal like a bandage. Antiseptic
white, wings rolled to his elbows,
his hands were like my own, which should have seemed
more strange. His voice was feather-soft,
familiar. I guess I expected to go under –
wasn't surgery required?
The infection went so deep
I was certain it would take a blade.
Just a touch of heat.
No scalded stub of cigarette on flesh
or punishment of metal on the skin.
Just a touch of heat,
as if he'd rubbed his palms together fast and light,
then laid them on my wound.
Prayer is simply this:
I have nothing to explain.
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Rock & Sling, A Journal of Witness just published this poem in its most recent issue (11.2), and I am happy to share it with you as the final love poem of February. I wrote it for a friend, a nurse who loves this story. It's a picture of love that comes out of Isaiah 6, where the prophet receives his calling from God. Isaiah's unworthiness seems to come crashing down on him in one mighty wave, when an angel appears at the ready to touch his lips with burning coal as a symbol of forgiveness. The image can look cruel, a scalding punishment required to make amends, but I don't see it that way. I see healing. I see the kindness of a wound cauterized to prevent infection. And I see grace. As Isaiah prays, I watch him labor under the burden of some elaborate confession or explanation of his failings. I don't read his silencing as a stifling, but as mercy. It's not that there is nothing to forgive, but he doesn't need to offer an eloquent defense. He simply needs to receive what he need not, can not, earn. This is the best love I can imagine, a love that doesn't rely on my ability to talk my way into it. I hope to offer it to others, and I long for it myself. For all of us, may we feel, from time to time, freedom from the need to measure up. May we truly fall in love, certain of the arms that catch us.
Let that be my parting note for a little while. I'm going to take the month of March off from weekly postings. I've been at this for about ten months, and it's time to rest and to finish the final step in the project that started this whole affair. I'll be ordering and mailing out the hardcover copies of The Other Stars Hover & Wait during March, and I want to do that well. I'll see you in April, and we'll figure out what's next.
Write a human profession for an angel. What does an angel bring to mundane tasks? What delights an angel in the daily earthly round?
First Thing I Tell You
It needn't be much.
After all, the genius of
is warm and simple,
always sung by a child.
It's enough to say
you are a watermelon seed,
small and smooth,
pleasant to sort out
from other pleasantness.
Linger over this.
Later, I will give you more.
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I wrote this snippet thirteen years ago in the sweetness of a beginning. I like it for being small, and for its watermelon seed. I like the promise of more to come, slowly and surely, over a love's lifetime. I like the invitation to linger. In the background of this poem, I hear Frank Sinatra singing, "Let's take it nice and easy…". I am reminded by a younger self that I don't have to deliver myself up all at once. I, too, am pleasant to sort out. I don't have to decode myself or offer an authoritative map. A friend picked out a candy conversation heart at lunch today that read, mysteriously, "I'm me." It turns out to be true. And you are you, which is wondrous. Later, we'll know more.
Draft a love poem from a seed. What type of seed is it? Where will it grow? What will it produce, for whom?
Turtle on a Swing
Tell me again how I will be
okay without a shell, outside myself,
with you. Let me feel your hands
behind me, offer of new carapace –
wind in my face, my own legs pumping,
even with the monkey bars, the slide,
swinging up and back, pendulous
affection: suspended, held, released.
Loose is not my way, but you
lift me up like all we have to do is
anchor a ladder against your
heart and climb, and beauty
will be waiting, rich and full,
enough to forgive a world its
roughness. Forgive me,
attached as I am to shelter.
Believe me when I say I want to try.
https://poetryissalt.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/turtle.m4a
I was improvising an image in class a couple weeks ago and ended up at a turtle on a swing set, which tickled a student so much that he issued this poetry challenge. Since I'm offering small love poems during February, and since I've been using Hebrew acrostics to explore the Psalms, this result is a wild and drafty little mash-up of inspirations. I took Psalm 86 as my guide, particularly the notion of God's beautiful readiness to forgive with plenteous abundance. The transliterated Hebrew phrase is towb wesallah werab – pleasant and ready to forgive with a muchness. Salach, forgiveness, comes from the Hebrew root for lifting up, as in lifting a load or carrying up a ladder, having the power to remove. A turtle can't live without the carapace that is as much a part of it as I often feel my personal defenses and self-reliance are an essential part of me, but maybe there's a way, in love, to accept the vulnerability of a new shell, a covering for the spine made from the careful, shielding hands of the beloved. My experience of love, both human and divine, is fused with receiving forgiveness, having a burden lifted. Initially I feel exposure in that debt, but it's followed by the freedom of never being asked to earn it. For me, that lifting naturally evokes the sensation of lifting on a swing, and the forward boost of power from someone pushing behind you. I'm not a natural on a swing. I don't like to go too high, or trust too much. But I do want to try, heavy and hidden as I am.
Draft a love poem from two images that don't match. As much as we say otherwise, none of us fit like hand in glove. We are all umbrella and coffeepot, left sock and strawberry jam.
How to Read This Poem
Find out which way is up. Read through once to see what's literally happening - no symbols, nothing hidden, nothing "deep." Where are we? Who are we with? What are they doing?
Read through again. Pick up a small detail or comparison and turn it over in your mind. Look for surprises. Read for what feels right.
Read once more. Watch the shape unfold. See where lines break, where meaning doubles, where stanzas walk you from room to room in the house of idea.
We Are With You
To Dwell in Unity
Shake Loose the Real
Read a poem. No pressure, no rush, nothing to prove.
Let impressions form. Allow the poem to open up. Enjoy a small note about the ideas that got me into the poem, and the ideas the poem got into me.
Continue the conversation. Share this poem, or start your own from the invitation to write.
Suggestions for Use
Sit down to a cup of tea with a friend and use the invitation to write as a conversation starter. See where talking takes you.
Start a reading group. Use these reading tips and writing reflections to spark your own responses to a shared poem or short story.
Start a writing group. Gather friends weekly or monthly, in a living room, coffee shop, or google doc, to share a fresh draft grown from invitations you find here.


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Knudson: Resiliency the mantra for Chad Bettis, Rockies
The Colorado Rockies will have to learn to overcome injury and illness like the LA Dodgers did in 2016.
Knudson: Resiliency the mantra for Chad Bettis, Rockies The Colorado Rockies will have to learn to overcome injury and illness like the LA Dodgers did in 2016. Check out this story on coloradoan.com: http://noconow.co/2mMBnpM
The Coloradoan Published 12:06 p.m. MT March 21, 2017 | Updated 12:45 p.m. MT March 21, 2017
Colorado Rockies pitcher Chad Bettis.(Photo: AP)
As the start of the season approaches, the good wishes and support for Colorado Rockies starting pitcher Chad Bettis are flowing in from all corners of Major League Baseball and beyond. After first facing down the most dreaded of enemies last fall and believing he'd won, Bettis is now facing a renewed bout with testicular cancer. He's begun chemotherapy and will be battling a far greater opponent than the Milwaukee Brewers when Opening Day arrives. Everyone associated with the game of baseball is in his corner.
As for his teammates, they're on their own.
While empathy and prayers are being directed at Bettis, no one's feeling sorry for the Rockies. Losing players to injury and illness — no matter how severe — is an unfortunate part of the game. When the season starts, every team has to send out their best available nine and hope for the best.
Losing one of the stalwarts of their starting rotation is painful on the personal and baseball front. Bettis' teammates are hurting for him and when the season arrives, they have to be able to separate the off-field stuff from what happens when the games count. That will be a difficult task. Bettis himself is making it as easy as he can for them.
Knudson:Broncos in same questionable position as last offseason
"He has handled this so gracefully and courageously," Rockies Manager Bud Black said. "He's kept such a positive frame of mind around the clubhouse. It's been great. You can see why so many players gravitate toward him and the role that he has taken on with this team in a leadership position. His work with guys in the clubhouse, he's shown and even through this, he's been a pillar of strength, which in getting to know him is not surprising."
That's not all Black and his team have to deal with. The injury bug has zero empathy. It has bit Colorado hard this spring. Projected starters David Dahl, Ian Desmond and Tom Murphy have all missed significant playing time, and none will be ready for the start of the season. Add Bettis to that list and those are four significant losses.
The question is, are they too much to overcome?
Like every other big league club, Colorado has to be prepared to overcome injuries. The Los Angeles Dodgers were hit as hard by injuries than any team in baseball last season and still won the National League West. Doing so took resiliency and fortitude — common characteristics of championship teams. "Next man up" is not just a catchy slogan.
Players like Gerardo Parra, Mark Reynolds and Tony Wolters, and youngsters Kyle Freeland and German Marquez have to — and are more than capable of — stepping up to fill voids.
Knudson:CSU football coming home to a stadium with no name
As we saw with the Colorado State University men's basketball team this season, difficulties like these often times pull a team closer together and create singular focus and drive. Sometimes the challenge of overcoming something like the loss of an important player or players is just the rallying cry a young team needs.
Playoff teams don't avoid injuries, they overcome them.
Bettis isn't feeling sorry for himself or giving up on the season, and Black knows it.
"All through this (cancer treatment), his intent is to pitch for the Rockies sometime this summer," the manager said.
So the question for his teammates is: When he makes his return, will Bettis be coming back to a team that has thrown in the towel due to bad luck, or will he be returning to a clubhouse full of the same kind of resolve he's showing in his fight with cancer?
It's a good bet it will be the latter.
Listen to Mark Knudson Monday's at 11:30am with Brady Hull on "Agfinity Sport Day" on AM 1310 KFKA.


Whether we're dealing with an under-performing employee, disagreeing with our spouse about money or child-rearing, negotiating with a difficult client, or simply saying, "no," or "I'm sorry," or "I love you," we attempt to avoid difficult conversations every day. No matter how competent we are, we all have conversations that cause anxiety and frustration.
This book can help. Based on fifteen years of research at the Harvard Negotiation Project, Difficult Conversations walks you through a proven step-by-step approach for how to have your toughest conversations with less stress and more success. It shows you how to prepare yourself; how to start the conversation without defensiveness; and how to keep it constructive and focused regardless of how the other person responds.
Filled with examples from everyday life, Difficult Conversations will help you at home, on the job, or out in the world. It is a book you'll turn to again and again, for advice, practical skills, and reassurance.


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A Look At The Temp Agencies Of The Future
Silicon Valley is making it easier than ever to hire flexible workforces. But is it good for the temp workers themselves?
[Photo: Flickr user Tracey & Doug]
By Sarah Kessler 6 minute Read
Thanks to the on-demand economy—a term so sweeping it's become almost meaningless—you can summon a massage, a dog walker, a Starbucks latte, a handle of whiskey, or legal advice with a few taps on your phone. A new crop of startups wants to make it just as easy for businesses to find temporary workers.
These "on-demand labor" startups, which offer more automated, efficient versions of traditional staffing agencies, say that they are adding more jobs to a well-established part of the labor economy. "We're not saying, replace 100 workers [with our app]," says A.J. Brustein, the CEO of an on-demand staffing platform called Wonolo. "There is no way a Wonoloer is going to come in on the first day and be as productive as someone who has been working there for three years. In our mind, our platform has tens of thousands of jobs that wouldn't have existed before." Others, like Susan Houseman, a labor economist at the Upjohn Institute, have suggested that companies' increasing ability to expand workforces to cover peak times and then downsize them when there's less work–a trend that has been around for a while–is cutting into the supply of dependable work and income.
The number of workers employed through temp agencies is already at a record high. However you feel about the impact of this kind of work, on-demand labor could push that number even higher.
Photo: Flickr user _Imaji_
The Uber Of Temp Agencies
The largest startup in the still nascent on-demand labor space, Wonolo (the name is a take on "work now locally"), is backed by Coca-Cola and has several hundred businesses signed up as clients. It sets up temp work in the same way that companies like Uber and Handy broker rides and cleaning appointments: Its app pushes short-term jobs like event staffing and warehouse work to potential temp workers via a smartphone app. Workers, who are not classified as employees, but as independent contractors, can choose to accept them or reject them whenever they want.
Most traditional staffing agencies hire their workers as employees (some exceptions have faced lawsuits alleging they misclassified workers as independent contractors). Independent contractors have no right to minimum wage, overtime pay, unemployment insurance, benefits like health insurance, or collective bargaining. Consequently, they cost about 30% less to hire.
Brustein says that part of what makes this classification appropriate is that Wonolo fills a different niche than a traditional staffing agency. "What staffing is great for is helping you deal with predictable work," he says. "You know you'll need people over Christmas? Temp staffing is great. Have someone going on maternal leave? Temp staffing is great. Temp staffing generally can't help you if seven people call in sick with a cold." Richard Wahlquist, the president and CEO of the American Staffing Association, says temp agencies usually handle jobs with a longer lead time than a day. "Tomorrow is tough," he says. "Next week is easier. I would say that it would be good to expect at least five days."
Another startup called BlueCrew has the same quick-employment goals as Wonolo, but it hires its temp workers as W2 employees. W2 jobs are not necessarily better than 1099 jobs (see just-in-time scheduling), but the company pays into Social Security, Medicare, workers' compensation, and unemployment insurance on workers' behalf, and, if BlueCrew workers hit full-time hours, helps pay for their health benefits. Like Wonolo workers, they can still choose to accept or reject jobs offered to them via an app.
Both startups aim to make temp work more efficient by doing away with brick-and-mortar offices and the human staff who would do the job of placing workers at a traditional agency. But traditional temp agencies aren't strangers to digital marketplaces, either. Kelly Services has teamed up with online job platforms like Upwork to source more skilled jobs, for instance, and some agencies have started to incorporate mobile technology in their scheduling efforts. But Wonolo and BlueCrew say their jobs are mostly in call centers, warehouses, and at events, and that they're putting short-term work into an on-demand format.
Photo: Flickr user Micadew
On-Demand Labor Meets The On-Demand Economy
For a while, it looked like on-demand companies could just plug labor into their technology platforms as though it were an API: Hire independent contractors, have their apps dole out jobs and instructions, and voila! Then they started getting sued for employee misclassification. They faced high turnover and an inability to train workers to offer consistent service. Many, like Instacart and Shyp, transitioned large portions of their workforces to W2 employees. When they hire W2 employees, however, they lose the ability to expand and contract their workforce as the amount of work available changes.
Work Genius, a company so new that it barely exists, wants to give on-demand companies the best of both worlds by hiring employees on their behalf, training those employees, and then scheduling them to work with on-demand companies at peak times. It's not unlike what Trinet does by becoming a co-employer for more traditional companies. "We basically own that relationship, bear all the burden, and allow the companies to have flexibility and not have all this liability on their books," says Work Genius founder Ben Bear.
Recently, the startup ran a small pilot with 10 workers who filled delivery shifts for Instacart, meal delivery service Bento, and liquor-delivery startup Saucy.
Andrew Carlone, an adviser to Work Genius who is also the former head of operations at Shyp, which recently transitioned some of its workforce from 1099 to W2 employees, explains the benefit to on-demand companies like this: "[With employees], you undoubtedly get a situation where you call people to work, and then if demand drops down to zero, you're stuck paying people who aren't doing any work," he says. "Instead, [with Work Genius], you just do something similar to what you were doing [with contract workers]–say how many hours you need, and then Work Genius supplies the people."
Sounds great for the companies–but is this good for the people actually doing the work? A recent report from the National Employment Law Project argues that on-demand companies should have to accept the responsibilities of becoming employers if they want to train and schedule their workforces. "These companies' success may be due in part to their ability to attract consumers through the ease of their applications," it says. "But it owes just as much to the efficiency with which they squeeze labor from their workforces, spreading business risks downward to their workers, without whom they cannot succeed but to whom they have no commitment or accountability."
Gig economy companies often argue, meanwhile, that employees want to be independent. When Uber was sued for misclassification, for instance, it provided 400 notes from drivers who praised the job for its independent nature.
Bear says that Work Genius's middle ground will be better for workers because his company can guarantee them shifts, even if they're cobbled together from multiple sources, instead of asking them to sign up on a gig-by-gig basis, which can create a problem of unreliable income. His argument for how this is better for employees is basically the same as that of a traditional staffing agency. "For the individuals who are assigned through temporary staffing firms," Wahlquist says, "they've also increased their job security in that they have many, many, many companies where they could be assigned, as opposed to being married to the fate of one particular company . . . Every time they get a new assignment, they have something new to put on their resume."
Meanwhile, instead of becoming employers, the growing sector of tech companies that supply services like food delivery may have a new route to finally getting its labor API.
Sarah Kessler is a senior writer at Fast Company, where she writes about the on-demand/gig/sharing "economies" and the future of work.
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This entry was posted on Oct 8, 2018 by Tire Discounters.
Family-owned and operated Tire Discounters, the nation's seventh-largest independent tire retailer, was honored with the title of Best Tire Store of 2018 by the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
The annual competition, which is hosted by the Times Free Press, highlights the best people, places, businesses, eats and arts in Chattanooga, as chosen by the readers. This is the second year in a row Tire Discounters won Best Tire Store. "We're incredibly thankful to the loyal customers and growing TD family we have created here in Chattanooga. I am so proud of my team for their devotion and continuing to provide unparalleled customer service" Dave Chirello, Tire Discounters regional manager.
The company has quickly become a local favorite since opening its first Chattanooga store in 2015. Tire Discounters now has 6 local stores and 2 more nearby in Dalton. It's not stopping there- a new store in Signal Mountain is expected to open in late November. The company expects to hire 10-15 local professionals to staff the new store. "As a family owned and operated company we're proud to hire local professionals to run each of our stores. Chattanooga has warmly welcomed our Tire Discounters family and the TD way, treating customers the way they want to be treated" says Charles Curlee, vice president retail sales.


A boy at the Wishbone Day event walk with his eyes covered to experience OI which may affect eyesight in some cases.
A group of 300 people took part in a charity hiking event held on May 6 at Chaoyang Park in Beijing to celebrate Wishbone Day, an international awareness event to highlight osteogenesis imperfecta - a brittle bone disease known as "China doll syndrome".
The participants included 10 sufferers of the genetic condition, supporting members of the public, staff members from the China-Dolls Center for Rare Disorders, the organizers behind the event, as well as volunteers from its partner organizations.
The Beijing center, founded by patients with rare disorders in 2008, is a nonprofit organization that provides care and relief services to OI sufferers and people with other rare diseases.
The center estimates that there are 100,000 people in China affected by OI, one of the lesser-known congenital disorders, which is characterized by fragile bones that are prone to breaking.
Osteogenesis imperfecta is the result of a mutation error of a gene that is responsible for the body's production of collagen, a fibrous protein found in bones and other tissues.
"Collagen in the bones is like what reinforced concrete is to buildings. Without enough concrete, buildings can easily collapse," explains OI expert Wang Yanzhou, director of the pediatric orthopedics department of Shandong Provincial Hospital.
According to Wang, sufferers of the disorder are not only afflicted by the constant threat of multiple bone fractures, but they can also develop other medical issues, such as muscle weakness, hearing loss, fatigue, joint laxity, curved bones, curvature of the spine, blue sclera, brittle teeth and a shortened stature.


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Alanis Morissette on postpartum depression | Inquirer Entertainment
Alanis Morissette on postpartum depression: 'Everything feels heavy'
INQUIRER.net / 12:16 PM June 27, 2019
This Dec. 2, 2018 file photo shows singer Alanis Morissette at One Love Malibu in Calabasas, Calif. Morissette is pregnant with her third child. The Grammy-winning singer posted a black-and-white photo of herself Monday to her Instagram account, revealing her round belly while also singing with headphones covering her ears. Her representative confirmed the pregnancy to The Associated Press. Image: AP/Amy Harris/Invision
Singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette kept it real when she recently opened up on pregnancy and postpartum depression.
Morissette, who is married to American rapper Mario "Souleye" Treadway, is 45 years old and pregnant with her third child. She first gave birth to son Ever in 2010 and then daughter Onyx, who turned 3 this June.
"It's this whole chemistry of emotions," Morissette said of pregnancy in an exclusive interview on SELF on June 26. "Hormones and chemicals that are just coursing through your body. It [can] be triggering, or flash backing, or re-traumatizing."
It was noted she gave birth to Ever and Onyx at home, in the presence of her midwife, doula and husband. But her midwife was delayed and Morissette felt she had to be her own coach.
"I felt I was the coach. 'She's coming, you don't have to manipulate anything,'" she recalled saying. "'The next contraction she's coming out, I guarantee it.'"
She also opened about her personal experience with postpartum depression, describing the feeling as akin to being "covered in tar."
"For me I would just wake up and feel like I was covered in tar and it wasn't the first time I'd experienced depression so I just thought, 'Oh, well, this feels familiar, I'm depressed, I think…'" she added. "It does feel like tar, like everything feels heavy."
For her third pregnancy, Morissette will be tackling postpartum depression differently after she gives birth in a few months. This time around, she said she would no longer be relying on herself to diagnose herself.
"Because the first time around I waited," she said. "Often what had pulled me out of my depression pre-family was service. Service for me has been through my songs… And then I had my various forms of self-medicating [that also didn't help]. So, creativity's not doing it, tequila's not doing it… and I even sang about it."
As she and her little brood await the latest addition to their family, Morissette admitted she still feels a bit dissociated when it comes to the archetypal role of mother.
"I still have moments where it feels like it's not dawning on me that I'm a mother. But when I look at them, I just think I'm so responsible for you…" said Morissette. "I think a lot of women who had one way of life, myself included, and [having a baby created] a complete sea change overnight." Cody Cepeda/JB
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TAGS: Alanis Morissette, Mario Treadway, motherhood, Postpartum Depression, Pregnancy
Cody Cepeda