text:
OLD HOLLYWOOD IN COLOR
…because it was never black & white
DON JUAN (1926) – A Video Tour of Two Original Souvenir Programs
Souvenir movie programs have always been highly collectible items. In fact, the more vintage the program, the more expensive they tend to be, especially if the item is in top condition. Among my personal collection I have two souvenir programs from DON JUAN (1926), the first feature film to have a synchronized music score (with a few sound effects).
Here is the cover of the deluxe American program that was sold at the special "road show" engagements of the film.
This is the cover of the German program that was printed on such thin paper that I immediately digitized the pages before they crumbled.
And now, please take a video tour of both programs accompanied by musical excerpts from the film's original score.
Video Tour of DON JUAN Souvenir Programs
on November 24, 2019 at 9:08 PM Comments (2)
Tags: classic film, Don Juan, John Barrymore, Mary Astor, Montagu Love, Myrna Loy, old Hollywood, silent film, sound film, Souvenir Movie Programs, talkies, Vitaphone, Warner Bros., Warner Oland
Surviving Color Footage of 1929 Talkie Musical – THE GOLD DIGGERS OF BROADWAY
The Granddaddy of the legendary Gold Diggers films of the 1930s is THE GOLD DIGGERS OF BROADWAY, made during the first year of talkie features in 1929. Besides being an "all-talkie," that is, a feature with no "silent" footage, GOLD DIGGERS also boasted early two-tone Technicolor. Unlike the later three-strip Technicolor (WIZARD OF OZ, GONE WITH THE WIND), two-tone Technicolor offered a pastel view of the world.
The big hit song was "Tip Toe Through the Tulips" performed by Nick Lucas. This song later became popular in the 1960s when it was sung by Tiny Tim:
Here is a precious eight minutes of re-discovered Technicolor footage from this pioneering musical that starred Winnie Lightner, Ann Pennington, Lilyan Tashman, and Nick Lucas:
Color Footage from THE GOLD DIGGERS OF BROADWAY (1929)
on April 29, 2016 at 9:15 PM Leave a Comment
Tags: Nick Lucas, Tip Toe Through the Tulips, two-tone Technicolor, Warner Bros., Winnie Lightner
Golden Age Stars and Their Dogs
Film stars with their pets have always attracted attention and it's rare that a major celebrity of the screen would decline an opportunity to pose with a four-legged friend. Sometimes the pet was as famous as the pet parent. Here are a galaxy of vintage stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood who seem only too happy to be upstaged.
First, Anna May Wong shows off her dachshund circa 1938:
Buster Keaton wants to be sure he can always find his canine pal circa 1930:
John Barrymore shared some inspired comic moments with this St. Bernard at the beginning of MOBY DICK (1930):
Bette Davis seems entranced by this dog as she waits between filming scenes circa 1937:
Douglas Fairbanks Sr.evidently considers this German Shepherd his equal, circa 1920:
W.C. Fields famously observed that "any man who hates kids and dogs can't be all bad" but he got along nicely with his co-star in IT'S A GIFT (1934):
Jean Harlow with one of her many dogs, circa 1935:
Rudolph Valentino inspired much grieving with his untimely death in August 1926. But none grieved more than his dog who was adopted by Rudy's brother, Alberto. Regardless, the dog pined away for his master until his own passing some years later:
Warner Oland, famous as Charlie Chan, doted on his schnauzer Raggedy Ann and was a proud papa when she had this litter:
Star meets Star: Al Jolson meets Rin Tin Tin on the Warner Bros. lot in 1928:
Carole Lombard and friend in 1932:
Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein wants to chat with Rin Tin Tin during his 1929 visit to the United States:
George Arliss seems perplexed as he juggles his wife's dog and business papers, circa 1925:
Finally, a poignant photo commemorating the passing of Lon Chaney, the Man of 1,000 Faces, who left us much too soon in 1930 at the age of 47. The photo shows two of Lon's most precious possessions – his makeup case and his dog:
on June 18, 2014 at 9:36 PM Leave a Comment
Tags: Al Jolson, Anna May Wong, Bette Davis, Buster Keaton, Carole Lombard, classic film, color in films, Douglas Fairbanks Sr., Jean Harlow, John Barrymore, lon Chaney, old Hollywood, Rin Tin Tin, Rudolph Valentino, Sergei Eisenstein, silent film, sound film, talkies, W. C. Fields, Warner Bros., Warner Oland
The Classic John Barrymore Swashbucklers of the 1920s
New Book: We're proud to announce the first-ever pictorial review of the classic John Barrymore swashbucklers. These productions energetically displayed the talents of "America's Finest Actor" and remain among the most captivating adventure films ever made:
This large 8.5×11 inch volume displays rare posters, photos, programs, and even paintings by Barrymore himself, in full color:
Before the Academy Awards were instituted, top films of the year were recognized by other organizations. Here Rudolph Valentino presented his own Valentino Award to John Barrymore for BEAU BRUMMEL (1924):
Rare lobby cards restored to their original colors are among the highlights of the book such as this one from THE SEA BEAST (1926), Barrymore's first version of MOBY DICK:
Our book features vintage souvenir programs such as this from DON JUAN (1926):
Lost and Found: THE BELOVED ROGUE (1927), one of the most imaginative films made by Hollywood during the 1920s was considered lost for decades but is now on DVD and streaming video:
John Barrymore would not be the only star of swashbucklers – think Douglas Fairbanks, Errol Flynn, Tyrone Power, among others – but Barrymore was the only star whose films spanned both the silent and sound film eras. Here is his first talkie, GENERAL CRACK (1930):
Jack reprised his role of Captain Ahab in THE SEA BEAST talkie remake, MOBY DICK (1930) with Joan Bennett:
The back cover of our book with a painting of John Barrymore from TEMPEST (1928), a story of the Russian Revolution:
Bonus material includes 3-D photos and a link to Barrymore's 1937 radio broadcast of THE TAMING OF THE SHREW. Our book is available exclusively from Amazon in both paperback and Kindle ebook editions:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1481166549/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d1_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=0EEDG1R8J2NGF1G6KZ4T&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1630072202&pf_rd_i=507846
Classic John Barrymore Swashbucklers
on November 16, 2013 at 4:52 PM Leave a Comment
Tags: classic film, John Barrymore, old Hollywood, old time radio, Rudolph Valentino, silent film, sound film, swashbucklers, talkies, Warner Bros.
On the Set with Al Jolson
This time we turn the spotlight on Al Jolson (1886-1950) who by sheer force of his personality became known as "The World's Greatest Entertainer." It's said that he bestowed the title on himself but the point is that nobody disputed it.
There were four great male pop singers during the 20th century and in chronological order they were Al Jolson, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and Elvis Presley. They all excelled in singing love songs but two of them were gentlemen – Crosby and Presley – and two of them were tough guys – Jolson and Sinatra:
Al isn't glaring at the camera in this production shot from WONDER BAR (1934). His scorn is directed towards an off-camera Ricardo Cortez who plays a gigolo in the story:
The New York premiere of THE SINGING KID in April 1936. Al is partially hidden behind the microphone while Mrs. Jack Oakie speaks into it as her husband looks on. On the left is none other than Ruth Roland, the serial queen of the silent screen. After retiring from films, Ruth made a fortune in real estate. No wonder she's smiling!
Jolson played only one historical role in films – other than himself, that is. Al's characterization of E.P. Christy, the minstrel man of the 19th century, won critical praises and stole the show. That's Don Ameche as Stephen Foster and Andrea Leeds as his long-suffering wife in the Technicolor production, SWANEE RIVER (1939):
Jolson was active in the Republican Party during the 1920s, campaigning for Warren Harding and even writing a song for him. Here Al visits President Calvin Coolidge at the White House in October 1924:
Al was a sportsman and proudly displays his day's catch:
A deleted scene from ROSE OF WASHINGTON SQUARE (1939), a nostalgic musical of the 1920s, which even in 1939 seemed like a long time ago:
Al and his third wife Ruby Keeler in 1929, singing songs over the air to promote his new film, SAY IT WITH SONGS:
After Broadway and Hollywood, Jolson became a major radio star during the 1930s and thereafter. But what's the point in talking about Al – let's listen to him. Click below to hear the Colgate Tooth Powder Show of January 5, 1943. Right smack in the middle of the Second World War, this show has plenty of jokes to keep up morale in dealing with the wartime challenges of rationing and shortages. Broadcast live from New York City, Al's guest, Monty Woolley (The Man Who Came To Dinner) was such a hit that he became a regular on the show. Al performs a terrific medley of George Gershwin songs at the end:
https://oldhollywoodincolor.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/colgate-show-jan-5-1943.mp3
All of the Jolson movies mentioned in this post are now available on DVD. Of course, the film that Al is primarily remembered for, THE JAZZ SINGER (1927), is also out on Blu-ray. Check 'em out!
on June 15, 2013 at 12:23 AM Leave a Comment
Tags: Al Jolson, Andrea Leeds, Calvin Coolidge, classic film, Don Ameche, Frank Sinatra, George Gershwin, Jack Oakie, Monty Woolley, old Hollywood, old time radio, ROSE OF WASHINGTON SQUARE, Ruby Keeler, Ruth Roland, sound film, SWANEE RIVER, talkies, THE SINGING KID, Vitaphone, Warner Bros., WONDER BAR
On the Set with …
The original Rin Tin Tin (1918-1932) lived a more adventurous life than most people. As a puppy he was found among the rubble of a bombed-out kennel in France in September 1918 by American airman Lee Duncan. After the First World War ended that November, Duncan arranged to bring the pup back to the states when his own deployment ended. Duncan named the German Shepherd after a French clown and was impressed by the dog's intelligence and his ability to follow complex direction. Hollywood seemed a logical outlet for the talented canine but none of the studios were interested – at first:
Dog films were popular in the early 1920s and no pooch was more popular than Strongheart, another German Shepherd. But anti-German prejudice in the United States ran high due to the war so public relations experts came up with a novel idea – henceforth German Shepherds would be called Police Dogs. Rinty's big break came in 1922 while Duncan was watching a film crew working with another dog who was supposed to portray a wolf. The dog wouldn't follow directions so Duncan stepped forward and assured the harried director that Rinty could handle the bit. Legend claims that Rinty was letter-perfect in this first, albeit uncredited, movie role.
Rin Tin Tin achieved his first screen credit in MAN FROM HELL'S RIVER (1922), in fact he is the only performer credited in the lobby card above.
A small but up-and-coming studio, Warner Brothers (later abbreviated to "Bros."), noted both the popularity of the Strongheart films and the relatively low expense to make them. Here is writer and future movie mogul Darryl Zanuck (note he is holding a book), studio boss Jack Warner (apparently reading a contract), Lee Duncan, and Rinty himself as arrangements are made to star Rinty in his first film:
WHERE THE NORTH BEGINS (1923) – Rinty's first (of twenty-five!) starring feature films also has the distinction of being one of a handful to survive and available on dvd. Note that the human actors continue to appear anonymously in posters:
Rinty's second starring feature, THE LIGHTHOUSE BY THE SEA (1924) survives in somewhat truncated form but is available on dvd. By now, Warners realized they had their first major box office star. LIGHTHOUSE was followed by the now-lost FIND YOUR MAN (1924):
Above and below, a greatly enlarged "movie herald," a small flimsy handout used by theaters to promote an upcoming attraction:
Studios provided their big stars with private bungalows on the lot but Rinty was given more practical housing – a large kennel. Here the silent film camera grinds while Lee Duncan supervises Rinty posing with various awards:
A photo of the same session:
This photo even feels cold. Unlike the Lassie films of the 1940s, the silent Rintys are rugged outdoor adventures as this image suggests from the lost TRACKED IN THE SNOW COUNTRY (1925):
Never count Rinty out – a 35mm print of CLASH OF THE WOLVES (1925) was discovered in South Africa about ten years ago and repatriated to the Library of Congress. Now beautifully restored and on dvd, this film has been named to the National Film Registry of significant motion pictures:
The title role in THE NIGHT CRY (1926) was played by a condor, at the time the only one in captivity. Poor Rinty is blamed for the condor's attacks on livestock but swings into action when the giant bird kidnaps a baby. One of the most exciting of the surviving Rintys:
A premium card to promote Ken-L-Ration, a dog food still sold today:
Another movie herald for another lost film from 1926:
Human actors are now recognized but strictly in support of the star:
Youngsters were encouraged to read about Rinty's exploits as well as see them on the screen:
Nanette co-starred in several films with Rinty and in the 1930s appeared in films with Rin Tin Tin Jr. The stories often forced Rinty to choose between saving the heroine or saving Nanette. Of course, he chose his mistress but Nanette fended for herself just fine:
Rinty helps the police track down a killer in the Limehouse district of London in this lost film. By now in 1927 Rinty's silouette alone identified him:
Dorothy Gulliver and Rinty spend an idyllic day as the clouds of World War I gather in the lost A DOG OF THE REGIMENT (1927):
Rinty on the western front where all is far from quiet. During World War II, Duncan and Rin Tin Tin III organized the K-9 Corps for the U.S. Army where they trained over 5,000 dogs for military service:
A surviving Rinty, though somewhat truncated, TRACKED BY THE POLICE (1927) provides non-stop action:
Al Jolson takes time out at Warners from revolutionizing silent films into talkies with THE JAZZ SINGER (1927) by paying a call on Rinty:
With the talkie revolution now underway, Rinty makes his first "barkie" with LAND OF THE SILVER FOX (1928):
Rinty seemed to be born to keep kids out of trouble:
Rin Tin Tin in Palestine. The title in this Hebrew ad is BETWEEN THE SNOWY MOUNTAINS, which may be A HERO OF THE SNOWS or possibly TRACKED IN SNOW COUNTRY. In any event, this Rinty played the Ophir Cinema in Tel Aviv on January 12, 1930:
An enlarged postcard from TIGER ROSE (1929):
Rinty continued making three to four features per year in the 1929-30 sound film era. However, in December 1929 a Warners executive notified Lee Duncan that due to the advent of sound films, Warners would no longer produce the Rin Tin Tin films "because dogs don't talk." Here's a nice portrait of Duncan and what's-his-name:
It also seems likely that two other factors were involved: first, Warners now had an impressive roster of stars of the stage and screen, and Rinty may have been an embarrassing reminder of earlier days when a dog kept the studio solvent. Second, by 1930, Rinty was twelve years old, rather elderly for a German Shepherd, and the studio felt it was time for him to retire. A poster from the lost talkie, ON THE BORDER (1930):
But Rinty kept busy by starring in a twelve chapter serial in 1930, THE LONE DEFENDER, and had his own radio show over NBC called "The Wonder Dog:"
Rinty's final film was THE LIGHTNING WARRIOR (1931), another twelve chapter serial. Just one month shy of turning 14 (about 90 in German Shepherd years), Rinty died suddenly on the front lawn of his home on August 10, 1932. Legend says that neighbor Jean Harlow (whom Duncan had given one of Rinty's pups) came running over and cradled Rinty's head in her arms as he died. But Rinty's progeny continues to this day, the current heir in a direct line is Rin Tin Tin XII. Meanwhile, the original Rin Tin Tin rests in an honored grave site at the Lile aux Chiens (Cimetiere Des Chiens), Asnieres-sur-seine, Ile-de-France Region, France:
But thanks to films, the original Rin Tin Tin's exploits can be enjoyed in the 21st century:
On the Set with Rin Tin Tin
on September 1, 2011 at 10:10 PM Comments (3)
Tags: Al Jolson, classic film, Darryl Zanuck, dogs in films, Jack Warner, Lee Duncan, Rin Tin Tin, silent film, talkies, Vitaphone, Warner Bros.
DON JUAN – 85th Anniversary of World Premiere – August 6, 1926
The Dawn of Sound Films arrived, oddly enough, with a silent film on the evening of August 6, 1926, in New York City at the Warner Theater. Musical accompaniment was provided by the 107 members of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra – via recording heard over the theater's public address system. But a series of short films preceded the main feature in which various performers from the opera, theater, and vaudville spoke, sang, and played instruments. The main feature was DON JUAN, starring a real-life Don Juan – John Barrymore, who had just taken two continents by storm with his modernized version of HAMLET on the stage. The Great Profile, as Barrymore was nicknamed, spoke not an audible word but the audience was captivated by the unerring synchronization of music and action (plus a few sound effects like church bells) through a system called Vitaphone. Nobody suspected it on that night, but the tolling of those church bells turned out to be a funeral dirge for silent film (a beautiful artform, by the way):
It comes as a surprise to 21st century audiences that DON JUAN is one of the best swashbuckler action films EVER – quite apart from its position in film history. In case you're wondering, DON JUAN can be seen on Turner Classic Movies several times a year and Warners Archives recently issued this film on dvd with all of the Vitaphone shorts from the program on that August 6th, 85 years ago:
In Germany, this film was known as Don Juan – Der große Liebhaber, and here is the complete German souvenir program as restored by your blogmeister (from a bile green back to cool blue):
Montagu Love, seen below on the upper left, played the villain Count Donati. Love specialized in screen villainy and continued his nefarious schemes well into the sound era as the corrupt Bishop of the Black Cannons in THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (1938) and King Phillip of Spain in THE SEA HAWK (1940), among many other films:
Count Donati was a fictional villain but DON JUAN also featured two historical villains that made Donati look almost like a good guy – Cesare and Lucretia Borgia. Estelle Taylor on the left below played Lucretia and at the time was the wife of boxing champ Jack Dempsey. Warner Oland on the right below played Cesare Borgia but his most enduring role was ahead in the 1930s starring in the popular Charlie Chan detective films:
The film was climaxed by a rousing sword duel between Don Juan and Count Donati. But instead of providing the film's ending as all Errol Flynn fans would later expect, the sword fight triggers a series of action sequences that have never been equaled these many years:
The back cover of the souvenir program features this rather seductive portrait of Mary Astor, the film's heroine. Astor and Barrymore had enjoyed, uh, a relationship prior to making DON JUAN that had ended some time earlier. Their pairing in this film proved awkward for both of them. They would not be reteamed until 1939 in the classic romantic comedy, MIDNIGHT – but that's another story:
DON JUAN 85th Anniversary of World Premiere
on August 5, 2011 at 7:28 PM Leave a Comment
Tags: 1926 anniversary, Don Juan, John Barrymore, Mary Astor, Montagu Love, silent film, sound film, talkies, Vitaphone, Warner Bros., Warner Oland
Arliss Archives
Lon Chaney – Man of 1,000 Faces
Silent Films Today
Click on the Book Cover for More Info:
George Arliss and Bette Davis in The Working Man (1933):
"The color goes kind of crazy"
2014 Old Hollywood in Color Calendar(s)
2016 Old Hollywood in Color Calendars
2019 Gallery of Color Transfers
2020 Old Hollywood Calendars
3-D Scenes
A Golden Age Christmas at the Opera
A New Gallery of Color Transfers
An Interview with Mary Pickford at Pickfair
An Old Hollywood Christmas
Douglas Fairbanks in ROBIN HOOD and THE BLACK PIRATE
Garbo on the Air
Glass Slides Celebrate Classic Horror Films + An Interview with Colin Clive!
Halloween 2014 – From the Artists' Viewpoint
Happy July 4th – Will Rogers Style
Hollywood Party at Twentieth Century-Fox – 1938 Live!
Humphrey Bogart in Shakespeare
Jean Harlow – Live!
Lon Chaney Faces – in Motion
Lon Chaney in LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT (1927)
Lon Chaney in VICTORY (1920)
Lost Films We'd Like To See
New 2018 Gallery of Color Transfers
Old Hollywood in 3D Color
On the Set Again with Karloff & Lugosi
On the Set with Bela Lugosi
On the Set with Colin Clive
On the Set with Conrad Veidt
On the Set with Karloff and Lugosi
On the Set with King Kong
On the Set with Lon Chaney Sr.
On the Set with Olsen and Johnson
On the Set with Ronald Colman
On the Set with Rudolph Valentino
BLOOD AND SAND (1922) on TV's "Silents Please"
On the Set with Warner Oland
On the Set with…the 2017 Edition!
Rediscovering a Treasure from Christmas Past – THE JUGGLER OF OUR LADY
Rediscovering Bing Crosby
Santa Bela
Silent Screen Stars on Radio
Clive Brook and Anna May Wong
Silent Stars on Radio Part 2
Stars of Lost Films of the 1920s
THE BIG PARADE (1925) New on Blu-ray
THE LOST WORLD (1925) – The Original Continuity Script
The Original BEN-HUR (1925)
The Spirit of Christmas Past
Video Tour of the Souvenir Program from BEN-HUR (1925)
Vintage Stars & Cigarette Cards
THE SHERIFF'S YELLOW STREAK (1915)
The Book That Started It All:
The Original Rin Tin Tin on NBC Radio in 1930:
Humphrey Bogart in 1937:
Jean Harlow in 1935:
Bette Davis (1933):
Program Brochure for MARIE ANTOINETTE (1938):
W.C. Fields circa 1934:
Original Glass Slide 1927:
Lillian Gish circa 1919:
DeMille's KING OF KINGS (1927) – Mary Magdalene and Judas:
Program for the covered wagon (1923):
1925 Painting of Rudolph Valentino from the film Monsieur Beaucaire (1924):
Glass Slide for the "lost" Disraeli (1921):
John Gilbert in 1933:
Lobby card from frankenstein (1931):
Warner Oland as Himself:
Douglas Fairbanks Sr and Edward Everett Horton in reaching for the moon (1931):
Silent film western star harry carey still going strong in 1941, with betty field:
Colin Clive in 1935:
Hoot Gibson, another silent film/talkie cowboy star:
W.C. Fields and George Arliss in 1939:
Conrad Veidt in 1941:
Douglas Fairbanks Sr and Mary Pickford in the taming of the shrew (1929):
Charles Chaplin circa 1915:
Gary Cooper in the lost film BEAU SABREUR (1928):
Ramon Novarro in THE PAGAN (1929):
Original glass slide with Wallace Reid (1918):
Mary Astor & John Gilbert in 1935:
Original glass slide for the colleen moore-gary cooper silent film lilac time(1928):
Rudolph Valentino in the young rajah (1922):
The Brides of Dracula from the 1931 version of DRACULA:
Original glass slide for the al jolson part-talkie the singing fool (1928):
Bela Lugosi in his Prime:
A "lost" Valentino film from 1924:
Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy circa 1932:
Vilma Banky circa 1926:
Al Jolson and Rin Tin Tin 1927:
Lon Chaney Sr. in THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1925):
mary astor and clark gable in red dust (1932):
Clara Bow in 1928:
Helen Chandler and Ramon Novarro in DAYBREAK (1931):


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Civil-Military "Rules of the Game"
On the Eve of China's 19th Party Congress
by Andrew Scobell
This essay assesses the role and influence of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) by challenging conventional assumptions about "rules of the game" for military participation in China's political system.
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Conventional scholarly wisdom presumes that civilian control of the military is firmly institutionalized in the People's Republic of China, built on clearly defined normative rules and well-established structural mechanisms. This essay calls into question such assumptions through an articulation of commonly agreed on rules of the game, which highlight the conditional nature of civil-military relations in contemporary China. The analysis suggests a more nuanced framework for the PLA's participation in politics than is widely assumed. Although the rules identified in this essay have proved resilient over the course of three decades, they are far from immutable and are subject to challenge and change.
As the organizational reforms in China's national security system are fully implemented in coming years, existing civil-military rules of the game are likely to evolve in minor ways and possibly become transformed in major ways.
If Xi Jinping continues to vigorously enforce his will on the PLA at the 19th Party Congress and beyond, then his tenure as paramount leader will have a significant impact on civil-military relations.
While the precise policy implications of Xi's reforms are difficult to discern, significant changes in civil-military relations have the potential to alter fundamentally the national security policymaking process in 21st-century China.
Andrew Scobell is a Senior Political Scientist at the RAND Corporation. His publications include PLA Influence on China's National Security Policymaking (2015), China's Search for Security (2012), and China's Use of Military Force: Beyond the Great Wall and the Long March (2003).
Note: This essay was prepared for the conference "Continuity and Change in the PLA: Evolution, Adaptation, and Reform," held by the National Bureau of Asian Research, Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College, U.S. Pacific Command, and Department of the Army at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, October 21–23, 2016.
Andrew Scobell
PLA Conference
People's Liberation Army
About the People's Liberation Army Conference
In collaboration with the Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) of the U.S. Army War College and U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM), NBR convenes an invitation-only conference assembling the world's leading specialists from academe, government, the military, and policy think tanks to examine critical trends in the study of China's military. Learn more.
Civil-Military "Rules of the Game" on the Eve of China's 19th Party Congress

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Parents Oppose JHL on West 97th Street - No JHL at PWV!
We have all read recent news stories about tragic construction accidents. In the event of falling debris, there is no way to protect 4 and 5-year-olds in trailers only 75 feet away from the proposed site.
How will JHL physically protect local school children during construction?


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Q: a++ vs a = a + 1 which is useful in efficient memory programming and how? This was my Interview question in HP. I answered a++ takes less instruction compared to a = a +1;
I want to know which is useful in efficient programming, and how both are different from each other..?
Hoping for quick and positive response..

A: First of all, in C++ this will depend on type of a. Clearly a can be of class type and have those operators overloaded and without knowing the details it's impossible to decide which is more efficient.
That said, both in C and C++ whatever looks cleaner is preferable. First write clear code, then profile it and see if it's intolerably slow.

A: I think I would answer in an implementation independent way. The a++ is easier to read to me because it's just showing me what it does. Whereas for a = a + 1 I first have to scan all the addition. I prefer to go for the choice that's more foolproof.
The former, a++, evaluates to the prior value, so you can use it to express things in sometimes surprisingly simpler manners. For instance
// copy, until '\0' is hit.
while(*dest++ = *source++) ;

Apart from these considerations, I don't think any of them is more efficient, assuming you have to do with basic integer types.

A: I am not an expert in microprocessor design, but I guess many processors have a INC or DEC instruction. If the data type is int then increment can be done in one instruction. But a = a + 1 requires more, first add and then assignment. So a++ should be faster, obviously assuming that a is not a complex data type.
However a smart compile should do this kind of optimization.

A: In C, there would be no difference, if the compiler is smart.
In C++, it depends on what type a is, and whether the ++ operator is overloaded. To complicate matters even more, the = operator can be overloaded too, and a = a + 1 might not be the same as a++. For even more complication, the + operator can also be overloaded, so an innocent looking piece of code such as a = a + 1 might have drastic implications.
So, without some context, you simply cannot know.

A: With an optimizing compiler they are identical. The interview question is moot.

A: As far as I know, there's no difference between a++ and a = a + 1.
HOWEVER, there is a difference between ++a and a = a + 1
Let's take the first case, a = a + 1.
a = a + 1 will have to take the value of a, add one to it, and then store the result back to a.
++a will be a single assembly instruction.
You can notice the difference with these two examples:
Example 1
int a = 1;
int x = a++; //x will be 1

Example 2
int a = 1;
int x = ++a; //x will be 2

BE AWARE! Most compilers optimize this today. If you have a++ somewhere in your code it will MOST likely be optimized to a single assembly instruction.

A: Even more efficient in many cases in ++a. When a is an int or a pointer though it is not going to make any difference.
The rationale of why these increments are more efficient though than a=a+1 is because the instruction of increment is one instruction whereas the instructions involved in adding 1 to a then assigning it back is something like:
get the address of a
push its contents onto the stack
push 1 to the stack
add them
get the address of a (possibly already stored)
write (pop) from the stack into this address

A: Really it all boils down to what your compiler does optimize.
Lets take the optimal case of a is an int. Then normally your compiler will make a++ and a=a+1 be exactly the same.
Now what can be pointed out, is that a = a + 1; is purely incrementing the value of the fixed amount 1,
whereas a++ is incrementing the value of 1 of the type of the variable. So if it is an int, float etc you'll get 1->2, 3.4->4.4 in both cases.
But if a is a pointer to a array/list etc, you'll be able to change pointer to the next element in the list/array when using a++, while a = a+1 might do something else or not work at all.

Long answer short, I'd say a++ is better:

*

*your code is clearer and shorter

*your can manipulate a wider range of varaibles types

*and should be more efficient since (I think but I'm not sure) ++ is a basic operator on the same level as << etc.: it modifies directly the variable, while a = a + 1, if not optimized by your compiler, will require more operations by adding a with another number.

A: a++ is better than a+1 because in the case of floating point numbers a++ increments more efficiently than a=a+1. I.e. a++ increments exactly 1 and no rounding takes place.

A: from http://www.parashift.com/c++-faq-lite/operator-overloading.html#faq-13.15 :

++i is sometimes faster than, and is never slower than, i++.

A: ++a;
a+=1;
a=a+1;

Which notation should we use? Why?
We prefer the first version, ++a, because it more directly expresses the idea of incrementing. It says what we want to do (increment a) rather than how to do it.

(add 1 to a and then write the result to a).
In general, a way of saying something in a program is better than another if it more directly expresses an idea.
The result is more concise and easier for a reader to understand. If we wrote a=a+1, a reader could easily wonder whether we really meant to increment by 1.
Maybe we just mistyped a=b+1, a=a+2, or even a=a–1.
With ++a there are far fewer opportunities for such doubts.
Note: This is a logical argument about readability and correctness, not an  argument about efficiency. Contrary to popular belief.
Modern compilers tend to generate exactly the same code from a=a+1 as for ++a when a is one of the built-in types.

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Kela Robinson is a Detroit area native and visual artist specializing in painting. She received her Bachelor's of Fine Arts from the College of Creative Studies in 2013.
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The Penguins waren eine US-amerikanische Doo-Wop-Gruppe der 1950er Jahre, die vor allem durch den R&B-#1-Hit Earth Angel (Will You Be Mine) bekannt wurde.

Geschichte
Die Band wurde 1954 in Los Angeles gegründet, als Duncan, Williams, Tate und Tisby gemeinsam die Fremont High School besuchten. Benannt haben sie sich nach der Werbefigur Willie the Penguin der Zigarettenmarke Kool. Noch im selben Jahr bekamen die Penguins einen Plattenvertrag bei dem Indie-Label Dootone Records und veröffentlichten Ende des Jahres ihre erste Single Hey Senorita – mit Earth Angel als B-Seite. Doch schon bald wurde deutlich, dass Earth Angel mehr Anklang fand als Hey Senorita. Anfang 1955 kam Earth Angel dann in die Single-Charts, und zwar an die Spitze der R&B- und in die Top 10 der Pop-Charts. Der Song zählt zu den erfolgreichsten Doo-Wop-Titeln und wurde als Filmmusik unter anderem in Zurück in die Zukunft verwendet.

Nur kurze Zeit nach dem Erfolg von Earth Angel verließ Tate die Band und wurde durch Randolph Jones ersetzt. 1956 wechselten die Penguins zunächst zu Mercury Records und dann zu Atlantic, wo sie 1957 mit Pledge of Love, das Platz 15 in den R&B-Charts erreichte, ihren zweiten Hit hatten. Außerdem veröffentlichten sie in diesem Jahr ihr einziges Album The Cool, Cool Penguins. 1959 zog die Band zurück nach Los Angeles und trennte sich kurze Zeit später.

Durch Duncan kam es ab den 1960er-Jahren zu einigen Wiedervereinigungen der Penguins, so nahm die Band 1963 Memories of El Monte auf, das Frank Zappa und Ray Collins extra für sie geschrieben hatten. Die Single floppte jedoch, worauf sich die Band wieder trennte. Bis in das neue Jahrtausend traten die Penguins noch gelegentlich gemeinsam auf, beispielsweise für eine PBS-Fernsehshow im Jahre 1999. 2004 wurden sie in die Vocal Group Hall of Fame aufgenommen. Leadsänger Cleveland Duncan starb am 7. November 2012 im Alter von 77 Jahren.

Diskografie
Album
 The Cool, Cool Penguins (1957)

Singles

Chartplatzierungen

Singleveröffentlichungen
 No There Ain't No News Today (1954, Split-Single mit When I Am Gone von Dootsie Williams)
 Hey Senorita / Earth Angel (Will You Be Mine) (1954)
 Love Will Make Your Mind Go Wild / Ookey Ook (1954)
 Baby Let's Make Some Love / Kiss a Fool Goodbye (1955)
 Be Mine or Be a Fool / Don't Do It (1955)
 It Only Happens with You / Walkin' down Broadway (1955)
 Devil That I See / Promises, Promises, Promises (1955)
 A Christmas Prayer / Jingle Jangle (1955)
 She's Gone, Gone / My Troubles Are Not at an End (1956)
 Dealer of Dreams / Peace of Mind (1956)
 Earth Angel / Ice (1956)
 Will You Be Mine / Cool Baby Cool (1957)
 Pledge of Love / I Knew I'd Fall in Love (1957)
 That's How Much I Need You / Be My Lovin' Baby (1957)
 Sweet Love / Let Me Make Up Your Mind (1958)
 Do Not Pretend / If You're Mine (1958)
 Believe Me / The Pony Rock (1962)
 Memories of El Monte / Never Let You Go (1963)
 Heavenly Angel / Big Bobo's Party Train (1965)

Auszeichnungen
 The Penguins
 Vocal Group Hall of Fame (2004)

 Earth Angel (Lied)
 Grammy Hall of Fame (1998)
 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
 National Recording Registry (2004)
 Platz 152 der 500 Greatest Songs of All Time (Rolling Stone)
 Platz 237 der Songs of the Century (NEA/RIAA)

Literatur
 Lynn Ellis McCutcheon: Rhythm and Blues. An Experience and Adventure in Its Origin and Development. Arlington / Virginia: R.W. Beatty Ltd, 1971, S. 199–204.
 Jay Warner: The Billboard Book Of American Singing Groups. A History 1940-1990. New York City / New York: Billboard Books, 1992, S. 272–275.

Weblinks
 Ausführliche Biografie von Marv Goldberg (englisch)
 Die Penguins und ihr 'Earth Angel' (englisch)
 The Penguins bei Rate Your Music
 The Penguins - Discography bei 45cat

Einzelnachweise

Penguins, The
Penguins, The

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The Indian retail market is expected to triple in size by fiscal '25. Food and grocery and the apparel segments are likely to witness a compound annual growth rate of 27 per cent and 22 per cent.
While stores in India may have suffered at the hands of e-commerce, they are likely to stay as a formidable force. Retailers have witnessed an expansion in their footprint, revenue and overall growth. In fact the strong demand in the food and grocery and apparel categories may require 4000 new retail stores over the next eight years offering a huge runway of 15 per cent CAGR in retail footprint.
Big startups such as Paytm have partnered with retail chains such as Croma, Reliance Digital to provide customers with a tactile experience. Paytm has experienced customers in India prefer to touch and feel the product before making a purchase. To ensure this, it has partnered with large format retail stores.
However, retailers are likely to employ a few measures as well in a bid to cut operational costs. Stores are looking to make their businesses more profitable with leaner store layouts, cluster-based growth, focus on private labels and membership-based models in the future.


Maxine has over 20 years of experience in the London property market and has worked as sales manager at the KFH Beckenham branch since 2004. Having lived in the area for the past 16 years, Maxine is incredibly knowledgeable about Beckenham and all it has to offer. When she's not in the office, you can find Maxine spending time with her two children or keeping fit at the local gym.


Lets look at a useful phone app called ShortStories. This app has been released by Nick Rout Casual. The app description in Google Play read as "ShortStories provides a platform to play text-based games using the various elements of the Android System UI"
Unique colors, icons, vibration patterns and sounds exist for different types of scenarios, and are used to theme the Notifications. Emoji provide a contextual icon for scenarios and choices. Stories are defined in XML. A basic structure of Story, Choice, Scenario, Achievement and Finish tags allows ShortStories to parse and play almost any kind of text-based, multiple choice game. Available on Android 7.1 (Nougat MR1) and above. Ensure that your launcher supports App Shortcuts (tested and works with Pixel Launcher, Google Now Launcher, Nova Launcher and Action Launcher).
ShortStories has been installed between 100 - 500 times by users at the time of this review and has an average rating of 4.8 in Google apps store.
ShortStories app has been reviewed by 5 Users and 4 users have rated 5 stars. ShortStories app size Varies with device and can be installed on any Android device running version Varies with device.


Sometimes, hockey folks show off their stick skills in other sporting venues. Please recall Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins attempting 70-yard "field goals" with a hockey puck to promote the 2011 Winter Classic at Heinz Field, for example.
Rather than pitching one to home plate, Boucher opted for something a little more hockey-centric: Taking a stick to the mound and shooting the baseball into the mitt of catcher Stephen Vogt, who also was carrying some hockey lumber.
And a perfect strike, no less.
Now why didn't Tom Glavine — MLB legend and Los Angeles Kings draft pick in 1984 — ever think of that?
"I'd be a liar to say I'm not afraid (of a lengthy lockout)," Boucher said. "Especially as a group right now, the organization from top to bottom are very enthusiastic about the momentum we have with our fans and the building, the new players we acquired this summer. There is so much positive stuff going for us, it would be sad if (the lockout) was long. But you have to take care of the business before you get down to the fun part, and I'm lucky enough not to be part of it. I just sit on the fence waiting for both sides to get something done while staying positive until it gets done."
Hey, if the lockout does carry over into 2013, hopefully Boucher just earned an invite for when pitchers and catchers report.


Thanks for bringing to my attention that LED lighting lasts longer. My husband and I are going to be making some changes in our landscape, and I was thinking that some up lighting would be nice, so maybe we could use LED lights so we don't have to worry about replacing them for a while.
Although LED landscape lighting costs more upfront, the bulbs last ten years or longer, depending on usage.
Very interesting and valid points or benefit about LED Landscape Lighting you've discussed here. LED landscape lighting has many advantages, including More Energy Efficient. LED lights are 90% more efficient than bulbs used in traditional landscape lighting systems.
You make a good point that LED lights are more effective than bulbs by 90%. It seems like this would be really good for work areas because that would help you get more light for less cost. You'd just need to find somewhere to get LED work lights.
Of the things that you said, what caught my attention was the idea that LED lighting produces lower carbon footprint because they have less carbon dioxide content. I am sure that is enough of a reason to convince my mom to use this kind of lighting for the landscaping. After all, she is an environmentalist whose main purpose is to save the earth through small actions. I will talk to her about this.
Thanks for pointing out that LED lights don't attract insects like halogen light bulbs do. My husband and I recently finished remodeling our entire back yard. I love how it turned out, but the outdoor lighting we installed attracts way too many bugs. I'll definitely talk with my husband about switching to LED lighting!
It's crazy how you said that an LED light can work for up to 20,000 hours! My wife and I are trying to find some outdoor lighting that we can use all throughout the summer and this seems like it would be great! We'll have to see if there are colors that we would like to use in our backyard to help it look great!
For inside? is it more feasible to use or one should go for traditional lighting system?
I didn't know that LED lights last up to 20,000 hours and are 90% more energy efficient! I think that's so important because it would help you save a significant sum of money on lighting, and you wouldn't have to replace the bulb very frequently. I have a friend who is starting up a small business and is looking for some way to advertise outside his business at any hour of the day. After reading this article about LED lights and how efficient they are, I will definitely recommend that he look into a type of sign that uses LED lights, that he can save money as well as energy, and draw more traffic to his business.
I really liked what you said about how LED landscape lighting is energy efficient and a greener technology. My husband and I are redoing our yard and want to decorate our landscaping with lights. Thank you for the information about how LEDs emit less carbon dioxide and are 90% more efficient than traditional landscape lighting systems.
To give your place a brand new look, you need to give your exterior a makeover. Of course LED lighting is the most convenient option to modern day lighting decor. You have briefed outdoor lighting installation in such a wonderful way. Kudos to you dear.


Outside of most developed countries, very few places in the world offer a rehabilitation program for burn victims. While a patient might survive the actual burn and hospitalization, there is a long process of wound healing that requires preventative attention to avoid debilitating problems. Burn Care International is dedicated to improving the lives of burn victims in developing countries around the world based on the experiences of its founder Cindy Jackson.
During the holidays of 2001, God orchestrated events in Cindy's life that would change her forever. In an accident at her home in Bolivia, South America where she and her husband were working as missionaries, Cindy was seriously burned with third degree burns on over 35% of her body. She spent the next two years undergoing rehabilitation.
Five months after the accident, Cindy and her family returned to Bolivia to continue their ministry and for her to continue the healing process. Unknowingly she began what was to eventually become Burn Care International when she visited a teenager that was seriously burned and had been in the public hospital for eight months.
That led to more frequent visits to the public hospital for burned children which led to the foundation of Burn Care International which sews and fits custom made pressure garments for the 15 bed pediatric burn unit of the Vietma Hospital in Cochabamba Bolivia. The clinic operates a low cost program that effectively works with burn patients, and from this experience, other mission hospitals in other countries have learned how to implement their own burn care program.
Cindy established a designated endowment fund for Burn Care International to attract outside donations to the work and also to provide a dedicated funding stream for the organization which will grow as the endowment grows. For more information on her work, visit www.burncareinternational.com.


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July 12, 2019 July 7, 2019 / Linda Funnell	/ Leave a comment
The first page of Sarah Hopkins' fourth novel contains a diagram of the brain – the thalamus, hypothalamus, amygdala and the rest all neatly labelled. So, yes, this is a novel about brains – specifically about brainwaves, what they can reveal and how they might be influenced – but it's also about young offenders, outsourcing correctional services to private providers, the ethics of research, and how we shape the stories we tell ourselves.
Narrated by Daniel G, now 47, who was diagnosed with PTSD at the age of 10, The Subjects largely focuses on when he was 16 and convicted of trafficking prescription drugs to his classmates. With a history of 'going berserko', as his mother puts it, he is ordered by the judge to attend a ''residential program to address the issues underlying your behaviour'' in a remote part of the Australian countryside. There he joins 11 other adolescents who have all had some kind of run-in with the law.
There are echoes of Charlotte Wood's The Natural Way of Things and Robert Lukins' Everlasting Sunday in this throwing-together of perceived troublemakers in a remote location. However, unlike Wood's and Lukins' cohorts, Hopkins' teenagers live in comfort, their needs given considerable attention.
This review appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald on 21 June 2019. You can read the full review here.
July 7, 2019 / Linda Funnell	/ Leave a comment
Bluebottles are common on Australian beaches, their attractive hue concealing the painful poison within. Belinda Castles' new novel (she previously won the Vogel for The River Baptists and published a historical novel, Hannah and Emil, in 2012) opens at the beach on Christmas Day, 1994. It is an iconic Australian scene, with people 'wandering between the baking orange sand and the cool, invigorating surf'. Among them, one figure draws the eye:
… a small pink-shouldered man leaping about at the water's edge. He galloped one way and then the other along a five-metre stretch of sand, like a coach on the touchline, raising his fist to the sky, calling out to the sea. He jumped in the air. He leaned on his knees and shook his head. … Some [of the others on the beach] … kept half an eye on him as he called out to his children from the shore … oblivious as he was to the atmosphere of the beach, its softness, its air of gentle pleasure … feelings surging through him like a heavy swell pushing towards the shore.
There is an effortless sensuality in Castles' writing, here contrasting the languor of a hot afternoon with the frenetic activity of the man, who, we come to learn, is Charlie Bright.
This review originally appeared in the Newtown Review of Books. You can read the full review here.
February 28, 2019 / Linda Funnell	/ Leave a comment
The author of The Dressmaker returns with The Year of the Farmer – a novel of romance and skullduggery in a small farming community.
Part mystery, part romance, part social comedy and part slapstick, The Year of the Farmer brings together an engaging cast of less-than-perfect characters in its small Australian town, and follows their rivalries, discontents and passions as they battle the carpetbaggers of the Water Authority.
Rosalie Ham's fourth novel was published last year, before the scandal of the recent fish kills in the Murray-Darling basin and the release of the report of the South Australian government's royal commission into the management of the river system and its findings of maladministration and malfeasance. For those of us living in the city, The Year of the Farmer has plenty to teach us about the water market and the ways of irrigation, introducing us to things such as Dethridge wheels, flume gates and above-ground lateral sprinklers. In its description of the challenges faced by small farmers dependent on irrigation water, and the sharp practices surrounding allocations, the novel could not be more timely.
At its heart is Mitchell Bishop, 'a lean, broad-shouldered young man in his prime, expectation in his heart despite the drought and his just mildly successful marriage.' When we first meet Mitch, he is handfeeding sheep on the farm his father has worked before him. As the 'thread of skinny, unhandsome sheep were falling into line, like a zipper closing, either side of the thread of golden feed', he tells his faithful dog Tinka, 'This is my year, our year. Rain will fall and life will change.'
In the course of the novel Mitch's life does change and rain does fall, but nothing is simple. If Mitch is the hardworking hero with a heart of gold, running his farm as best he can despite the drought and the bank, looking after his aged father, seeing through the wiles of the Water Authority, putting up with his marriage, yearning for rain and his childhood sweetheart Neralie, his wife Mandy is the most interesting.
Even though Mitch is 'the most popular bloke in town', the town has been unable to prevent the catastrophe of his marriage:
The whole town was at the pub the night Mandy Roper smiled at Mitch and told him she'd like to buy his dead mother's little white wagon. 'Can you come and take me for a ride in it?'
Lana said, 'Do something,' but Kevin said, 'You can't deny anyone a root,' and Jasey said, 'She'll be hard to get rid of.'
Mandy is awful. Pitiable, too, but mostly awful. As Denise from the op shop says, 'Mandy Roper's been like a knife slicing through polystyrene since she was born.'
A study in frustration and vindictiveness, Mandy is desperate to belong but pathologically unable to act in her own best interests. At one point she sits down to a meal at the hotel, feels the eyes of everyone on her and cannot eat for thinking that her food has been poisoned. She knows that Mitch only married her because she said she was pregnant and Neralie was out of town. And now Neralie's back.
Ham has assembled a large cast, and it can take time to get to keep everyone straight in the early stages. Aside from Mitch, Mandy and Neralie (who has returned to take over the town's only pub), there's Jasey who runs the IGA and her best friend Lana; Kellie the hairdresser with her fancy manicures; Kevin who runs the service station and is owed money by everyone because of the drought; the ferals camped by the river; Mitch's sister Isobel Prestwich and her fine-fleeced merinos; Mitch's arthritic father Cal; and 85-year-old Esther Shrugg, whose farm is a haven for vermin and weeds.
Then there is the uncompromising Glenys Dingle from the Water Authority, keen to keep her masters happy and to see that the lake beside her lakeside apartment actually contains water. As she explains to her henchman, local man Cyril Horrick:
… you will get your farmers to install new irrigation systems to save water then you will cut water allocations so that I can please the minister and the Federal Government and the green factions and every other club, organisation and committee that's arguing over water.
Cyril undertakes this task with a garage full of brand-new water pumps and meters that he believes will provide a useful addition to his superannuation.
The novel opens with a pack of dogs:
… outrunning the westbound flow of the sluggish river to the sleeping sheep captured in their paddocks and yards, innocent to the coming game.
And it's not a bad metaphor for the behaviour of the Water Authority towards the farmers trapped on their land by drought and debt.
Ham is clear-eyed but not unsympathetic to her characters, and has a fine sense of the absurd and a keen ear for dialogue. After the slightly chaotic start when we meet so many characters at once, it's not long before you start to feel like a local, and the novel's sly exuberance becomes irresistible.
Rosalie Ham The Year of the Farmer Pan Macmillan 2018 PB 336pp $32.99
This review originally appeared in the Newtown Review of Books on 19 February 2019.
Glenda Guest A Week in the Life of Cassandra Aberline
Glenda Guest's follow-up to her prizewinning debut Siddon Rock (2009) is a novel of memory and betrayal. It opens with a brief, arresting scene:
On the kitchen table lies a brown-paper-wrapped package.
Promise, he says.
He pushes it towards her.
The 'her' is 20-year-old Cassandra Aberline, and the kitchen belongs to the Blanchards, her family's neighbours in the WA wheat belt. The package contains a large sum of money. 'Use it to be safe,' Cassie's told. 'Buy a house, or make a career.'
Carrying the brown paper parcel securely beneath her jumper, Cassie takes the train across the country to Sydney. But as the novel reveals, the money has come at a hefty price.
These events occurred 45 years ago, and now Cassandra Aberline is an actor of some distinction teaching drama classes at a university in Sydney. She is independent, a loner who prefers her own company; a runner who relishes her early morning routine around the streets of her inner-city neighbourhood.
However, a visit to a neurologist has revealed her vulnerability: she has the early stages of Alzheimer's disease.
The diagnosis spurs her to take a trip back into her past, to once again cross the continent on the Indian Pacific, but this time in the opposite direction, and with a luxurious 'platinum class' cabin all to herself. Her hope is to 'somehow in three days and nights … resolve the niggling doubt that has held her to ransom for some forty-odd years'.
It's a common enough trope, protagonists in search of the past, returning to a particular location and testing their memories, but here the Alzheimer's diagnosis and the mystery of the money add additional layers. How much damage has the disease done to her brain? Are her memories accurate? Or has she spent a lifetime constructing a version of events to justify her own actions?
The novel is structured around the train journey from Sydney to Perth, broken into sections such as Sydney to Broken Hill, Broken Hill to Adelaide, etc, each section moving fluidly between the present of the train and episodes from the past.
Despite her refusal to accept the implications of her diagnosis — she is determined to return to teaching once this trip is over and 'not forget Brecht's name again' — on the train we see the reality of it when mental blanks leave her stranded in confusion, unable to find her way back to her cabin from the dining car. A kindly steward eventually leads her back to the correct carriage: 'She tries to tell him she is not drunk but lost, but the words are too large and can't be said.'
She remembers setting out on that first train journey:
Fragments of that day are embedded like stone chips in her mind: the creak and click of the flyscreen of the farmhouse back door more used to being slammed shut than firmly closed on a life; the drive to the siding, a whistlestop for the new cross-continental train; the sudden thought that there might not be a vacant berth, even though she had phoned that morning and booked her passage; and would the driver remember to make the unusual stop, to pick her up?
When Cassie arrives in Sydney, the Vietnam War is still raging and US servicemen throng the streets of Kings Cross on R&R. Having made good her escape from the west and everything she has ever known, and banked that cumbersome bundle of cash, she falls into working at a tattoo parlour.
There's an immediacy to these memories, even if at times they do feel like a checklist for Sydney of the era, with glimpses of Madam Lash 'sauntering' down the street and the heiress activist Nita (who disappears à la Juanita Neilsen) dropping in for a chat at the tattoo parlour. However the scenes with Bammy, the owner of the tattoo parlour, and Cassie's clumsy attempts to help a homeless woman, beat strongly.
But it's the more distant past that is calling Cassandra: her childhood and young adulthood at the family farm, Home Ground, with her father, Alec, and older sister Helen. She and Helen fight 'like two cats in a sack', and Cassie feels more at home on the neighbouring property with Mary and Hec Blanchard and their identical twin sons, Dion and Coe.
The boys become like brothers to her (Cassie claims only she and Mary can tell which twin is which), and Mary and Hec surrogate parents. Mary had been an actor in her native Greece but gave it up to marry her Australian soldier and become a farmer's wife. As the children grow older, Cassie comes to accept that the boys are not her brothers, and her relationship with Coe intensifies. When the twins decide to enlist for Vietnam, she has to accept that there is nothing she can do about it, and their enlistment becomes the touchpaper that ignites what follows.
According to her biography at the front of the book, Glenda Guest grew up in the wheat belt of Western Australia and she describes life on a farm there without sentimentality, showing the isolation and the sheer hard physical work the land requires, and with a poet's eye for the landscape.
Cassandra has a longstanding love of Shakespeare and there are echoes of Shakespeare in the ultimate unwinding of the plot: there are twins, tragedy, betrayal, and serendipitous encounters. In this otherwise naturalistic novel these slightly larger-than-life elements undercut some of the real pathos at the heart of Cassandra's story.
But the passion for Shakespeare that infuses the novel can also illuminate tragedy:
Now it seems her mind is reaching for its own darkness: to be made human by the faculty of memory and then to have it ripped away is the ultimate satire, worthy of Shakespeare.
Unlike Siddon Rock, here Guest eschews magic realism, but with its unreliable narrator and Shakespearean plot dimensions, A Week in the Life of Cassandra Aberline isn't a completely naturalistic work either. It exists on the plane of memories, where grief can enlarge small events and erase larger ones. Guest's transcontinental journey provides an engaging and disturbing account of the terrain.
David Dyer The Midnight Watch
August 30, 2016 August 30, 2016 / Linda Funnell	/ 2 Comments
This debut novel asks why the Californian, a mere 20 miles away, did not come to the stricken Titanic's aid.
What more could there possibly be to say about that extraordinary story of hubris, the Titanic? Surely we all know how it ends: how, in 1912 the biggest cruise liner in the world foundered on an unseasonal iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean in the early hours of the morning and 1500 people perished.
David Dyer's triumph in this beautifully observed and gripping story is to illuminate a little-known aspect of the tragedy – that another ship, the Californian, was a mere 20 miles away in the hours before the Titanic finally sank and could have rendered assistance but didn't – and to do it with sensitivity and a deep understanding of the sea (in his non-writing life he served in the merchant navy and worked as a lawyer specialising in maritime law). It also asks a larger question about how we respond when we see others in danger. How might we convince ourselves that something dreadful is not happening? Or that we cannot do anything? Or that we do not know?
History is littered with examples of those who chose not to know (tobacco companies and the link between their products and cancer, for example; Nauru).
The central mystery of the Californian's inaction is neatly encapsulated the morning after the disaster by Cyril Evans, the ship's Marconi telegraph operator:
Now his friend on the Birma was asking him directly, 'Did your ship see the Titanic?' He sensed the rhythm of 'yes' in his hand; he felt the tiny ripple of muscle in the forefinger that would send it. It would take but an instant, and the rest would follow in a few seconds more: 'We saw her distress rockets.' But he did not send them. His left hand slid over to clasp tightly his right and he sat still, head hanging low, waiting, wondering, thinking of the captain and Mr Stone. Why had they not gone to the Titanic during the midnight watch? There must be a reason, but he could not think of it.
On the Californian, Dyer's focus is the ship's Second Officer, Herbert Stone, who took the midnight watch between 12 and 4 am, the hours when the Titanic sent up her distress rockets. He evokes the depth of the cold that night, 'the heavy, still air [that] soaked through to the skin as if it were liquid', the moonless dark, and the smell of the ice in the sea.
Stone would have preferred a career as an English teacher, but he has made the best of being forced by his father to go to sea, and his copy of Moby-Dick is as much a guide to the sea for him as his officer training. He particularly admires the character of Starbuck and his loyalty to Captain Ahab.
But the Californian's Captain Lord is no Ahab, and the difficult relationship between Stone and his captain goes some way to explaining what follows. Both are actual historical figures, and it's clear from his author's note at the end of the book that Dyer has based his novel on extensive research.
The novel is in three parts, and the first is told alternately from the point of view of Stone and directly in first person by a fictional character, the journalist John Steadman, who works for the Boston American.
Steadman has experienced tragedy in his own life with the death of his baby son some years earlier. Estranged from his wife, his sole joy is his daughter, Harriet, who has grown into a young woman campaigning for women's suffrage. He has a gift for reporting on the dead, and has covered a number of maritime and other disasters, including the Triangle fire at the shirtwaist factory in Manhattan, which claimed the lives of nearly 150 workers:
I gave those girls a voice and returned them to the world of the living. Dead bodies are gone too soon in this country. People never look long enough upon a corpse, and whenever they do look they see only a blank nothingness, or otherwise a fearful vision of their own future. I don't see these things – I see a very great richness in the present. It takes courage to look upon the dead. It's not ghoulish.
When news first reaches Boston that the Titanic is in trouble, his editor immediately sends him to New York to report on the dead – 'There are bodies here, John, I can smell 'em' – though at this stage no one knows that the ship has sunk.
Steadman arrives at the offices of International Mercantile Marine, the owners of the Titanic's White Star line, to hear the company's vice president, Philip Franklin, report that all have been saved and that the Titanic is limping towards Halifax, where the company has organised trains to transport passengers on to New York. When the truth is finally received, it is devastating. Franklin calls the press into his office to read the Marconigram confirming the loss:
No one in the room spoke. I watched Franklin's face, transfixed. I saw something reborn, something washed clean, something breathtakingly honest. In one word, I saw courage: the courage to face the world anew, courage to stare down the truth. 'The Titanic,' he said at last, his sobs subsiding, 'has gone.'
When news comes that the Californian will be recovering the bodies, Steadman, determined to get the story first, makes it his target. From this point on, Steadman becomes obsessed with what did or didn't happen on the Californian, with explaining the seemingly inexplicable. The second part of the novel is his account of the formal inquiries into the disaster, first in Washington and then in London, and his own inquiries in Liverpool (home to both Lord and Stone).
The third part, 'Eight White Rockets', is Steadman's imagining of the experiences of a family of third-class passengers on the Titanic en route from England to a new life in Florida. It describes what would have happened to them that fateful night and returns the focus to the dead, reminding us just what has been at stake here.
Steadman is both a hard-drinking journalist and a progressive; he is supportive of his teenage daughter's suffragette activity (touchingly, he believes the 20th century will belong to women), and ultimately chooses to write about the fate of the third-class passengers rather than the celebrities and millionaires who have received so much publicity. It is his dogged persistence that assembles the pieces of the puzzle and allows the story to unfold, and his eloquence that does so so movingly.
Here is his account of how, less than a week after the sinking, the liner Bremen comes across the bodies of the Titanic's dead:
The Bremen's passengers had seen a man in formal evening dress lashed to a door; a young man lying on a steamer chair; a girl tied to a wooden grating. Men and women clung to each other, others were still holding onto children 'The sight was an awful one to gaze upon,' said one passenger. 'I saw the body of a woman with a life preserver strapped to her waist and the bodies of two little children clasped in her arms.' What must it have been like for these people, I wondered, in those dark minutes after the Titanic left them?
This is a novel of multiple human failings, of stomach-turning stubbornness and lingering humanity. It takes the popular trope of 'what if' and ties it to these well-worn events with compassion and flair.
Within it, too, is the story of a world in the grip of change. Steam-powered ships such as the Titanic and the Californian have only recently replaced the great sailing ships; the Californian's Captain Lord learned his craft under sail and has a poor opinion of those sailors, like Stone, who trained under steam. The Marconi telegraph is also new; if only the Titanic's distress calls had been made a little earlier, telegraph operator Cyril Evans may have picked them up before he turned into bed at 11 pm. If only …
The Midnight Watch is David Dyer's first novel, and its assurance suggests it will not be his last. It will be interesting to observe whether the sea will continue to be his subject, but whatever arena he chooses, he is a writer to watch.
David Dyer The Midnight Watch 2016 Penguin Hamish Hamilton PB 336pp $32.99
This review was originally published in the Newtown Review of Books on 23 August 2016
Emily Maguire An Isolated Incident
June 9, 2016 / Linda Funnell	/ 1 Comment
Emily Maguire combines a page-turner with a provocative reflection on violence against women.
Emily Maguire's latest novel tells the story of the aftermath of the murder of a young woman, aged-care worker Bella Michaels, in the little town of Strathdee, somewhere off the Hume Highway in rural New South Wales. It is narrated alternately by Bella's older sister Chris, and from the point of view of May, a Sydney journalist who comes to Strathdee to cover the case. The murder is particularly brutal (we aren't given the details, but the ghost of Anita Cobby hovers just offstage) and there are no immediate suspects.
But what drives the story is not so much what happened to Bella, but what will happen to Chris.
This is far more than a page-turning crime drama, though it is also that. Maguire's focus is on those left behind, the often unacknowledged victims of violent crimes, and roiling beneath it all is a bigger picture of accepted, commonplace and insidious attitudes to women. We do find out whodunnit in the end, but in this context it's almost a footnote.
The novel holds a mirror up to the casual denigration of women. These are things every woman has experienced and is encouraged to 'deal with' and not make a fuss about: things like insulting language (being referred to as a 'gash', for example), threatening behaviour (such as being stalked), and dismissive assumptions ('asking for it', etc.).
When, just days after Bella's death, May tells the local policeman that while out for a jog she's been tailed for blocks by a strange man in a car, the policeman guesses who is responsible and tells her:
'… he's all piss and wind. If it happens again, tell him to bugger off, give him the finger, something like that and he'll go on his way … He's harmless …'
Do these attitudes explain a terrible crime like Bella's murder? Towards the end of the novel May recalls being sent scary pictures by a boy in her class at school –pornographic drawings he'd done of her – and muses:
This had nothing to do with what happened to Bella and what happened to Bella had nothing to do with Tegan Miller [a Strathdee woman killed by her husband] and none of it had to do with the rich Sydney housewife left out to rot in the street which had nothing to do with the Nigerian girls stolen as sex slaves or the Indian woman eviscerated on a bus or the man grabbing women off the streets of Brunswick.
None of it connected, she knew, and yet, and yet, it felt like it.
Surely Emily Maguire chose the title of her novel with deliberate irony. These sorts of killings are often described as isolated incidents, meaning they are not the work of a serial killer. But they are not isolated; they are part of a pattern of violence against women that knows no barriers of class, education or geography.
However, the novel is not a crude anti-men polemic. It is a nuanced portrait of a group of flawed characters, male and female, responding to a tragedy.
Chris encapsulates the complexity at the heart of it: smart, vulnerable, angry, self-aware, she works as a barmaid in the truckies' pub. She hears this kind of talk regularly, but ignores it and leans forward to show off her generous cleavage to encourage tips. She could get work at the smarter hotel in the middle of town, but she likes the truckies, feels comfortable where she is, even though the pay is lousy, and falls into casual prostitution for extra cash. (Something the police are salaciously keen to seize on as they investigate her sister's death.)
When finally the persistent May gets to interview Chris, she remarks on Chris's relationships with the men in the pub:
'You obviously really like men … It's so unusual and you don't even realise it. You don't realise how much most men dislike women. And knowing that, most women can't relax around men the way you do. Can't let ourselves show that we like them even if we really do.'
'Ah. That's a different thing, though. I like 'em fine, but I'm never relaxed, not fully. It's like with dogs. All the joy in the world, but once you've seen a labrador rip the face off a kid, you can't ever forget what they're capable of.'
When she was a toddler, Chris saw just what a labrador could do when one attacked her cousin Kylie. As a teenager she also saw what men could do when her mother took up with an abusive boyfriend called Brett. As adults the younger Bella took a parental attitude towards Chris, but when Bella was little it was Chris who took her from the house to escape Brett's violence.
Their fathers absent, their mother dead, the sisters only have each other and consequently have shared a special bond. Little wonder Chris's grief is all-consuming.
May's story provides much of the backdrop, as she interviews various locals and tries to paint a fuller picture of the town and what has happened. She also tussles with where to draw the line in reporting a crime like this. Is she exploiting a tragedy or performing a public service in pursuing the story? In pursuing Chris? How much is the public entitled to know? Chris has her own views:
I was making coffee when my phone rang. Unknown number, but I answered it anyway. I'd never do that now, but this was early days. I didn't get that a bunch of strangers saw themselves as lead characters in a thrilling story which began with the discovery of a pretty dead girl, who happened to have been played by my sister. Feel free to take that personally, by the way.
Chris is a compelling character, utterly believable in her earthiness and honesty. Her grief is raw and unflinching and it's impossible not to be moved by it. In contrast the dilemmas of May's life, interesting as they are in their own way, inevitably pale. Yet May provides a necessary counterpoint to the intensity of Chris's narrative. May seeks to understand what has happened and why; Chris's task is to accept what has happened – that her sister is gone.
Within its gripping storytelling An Isolated Incident raises many disturbing questions about men and women and about attitudes to what can seem the inevitability of violence by one sex upon the other. But above all this is a powerful and provocative examination of grief, and in Chris Emily Maguire has created a character who resounds in the imagination.
Emily Maguire An Isolated Incident Picador 2016 PB 352pp $32.99
This review was originally published in the Newtown Review of Books on 7 June 2016.
Robyn Cadwallader The Anchoress
May 8, 2015 / Linda Funnell	/ Leave a comment
From its medieval cell this debut novel soars into the light.
In 1255 a young Englishwoman, Sarah, chooses to become an anchoress – that is, to be walled up in a cell adjoining the Church of St Juliana in the village of Hartham in the English Midlands. Immediately prior to her immuring, she undergoes a form of funeral service for her previous life: walled up, she is between life and death, her days to be given over to prayer and contemplation.
Her cell is nine paces by seven paces; its window is a 'squint', an aperture no thicker than a wrist that allows her to see the altar – and nothing else – of the church. The cell door is nailed shut, never to be opened. If she were to leave, the bishop counsels her, 'it would be grievous sin against our Lord, and grievous sin against the Church'.
Her situation is not unique. This particular anchorhold, as such cells were known, has had two previous occupants, one of whom, Agnes, has been buried directly beneath it. The village reveres Agnes as a saint, and the arrival of a new anchoress is considered a blessing. The fate of Agnes's successor, Isabella, is less clear, however.
Why would a young woman choose such a thing for herself? If she must pursue a religious vocation, why not join a convent, where at least there is the possibility of daylight and some kind of companionship?
Cadwallader never quite answers this question, but deftly captures the limitations of medieval women's lives and attitudes to them. Ranaulf, Sarah's confessor, has been taught to regard women as:
… lustful and tempting; [at school] he had been told that if he touched a woman, he would feel his flesh burn like the fires of hell. After that, Ranaulf had flinched whenever his mother hugged him. Later, he had fought temptation by reciting to himself the words of the Fathers: 'daughters of Eve', 'gateway of sin', 'foul flesh', 'deformed male'.
Sarah's situation is one of relative privilege. Her father is a cloth merchant, she has been taught to read and write and, thanks to her father's business, has had no lack of beautiful clothes.
But she has seen her mother die after giving birth to her brother, and, more recently and piercingly, her sister has died in childbirth. When her father's ship founders, its valuable cargo lost to the sea, Sarah's nascent hopes of a religious life are confronted by reality. Her father tells her:
'You owe it to me to help, girl. Be more friendly with men and we'll make a marriage, get a loan. I've seen Sir Thomas look at you. Forget this foolishness of God and purity.'
Sarah immediately resolves to 'resist this man and his demands'. And resisting the demands of men (not only those of her father, it must be said) is a significant part of her decision to become an anchoress. (It's also fairly clear that she sees marriage as having only one outcome: death in childbed.) The catalyst is Sir Thomas's father, the local lord, who has noticed his son's interest in the merchant's daughter and, determined to prevent his son making an 'unsuitable' match – and with an eye on his immortal soul – agrees to fund the anchorhold.
This is not an insignificant commitment. In addition to basic supplies, the anchoress requires the services of two maids, who pass food to her (and remove waste) through a special low-set serving hatch. The lord's endowment includes a grant of lands to the abbey, which must in turn provide a confessor to visit the anchoress once a week. Cadwallader is good on the details of how such an enclosed life is possible, not only in terms of Sarah's daily routines, but the support required by the community and the abbey.
For Sarah, there are the rounds of prayers for each part of the day. There are also her efforts to subdue the needs of the body in the service of the spirit.
Yet Sarah is not without company. In fact at times the anchorhold seems more convivial than contemplative. There are the daily interactions with her maids – the older, widowed Louise, and the younger Anna – and the weekly pastoral visits from her confessor, as well as visits from the village women, for whom the anchoress is a source of spiritual advice and comfort. The confessor and villagers speak to Sarah via a narrow curtained window in the cell that opens onto a parlour guarded by the maids. Inevitably, as Sarah gets to know the women, she also gets to know the doings of the village and the world outside.
The walls, she learns, are porous, and not simply in terms of the cold (why Sarah doesn't die from pneumonia in her first year is a miracle in itself). At one point of crisis she finds:
The stones around me were no longer firm. When I touched them they shifted like water, gave way beneath my fingers. I'd been so sure they were solid, sealing me in, sealing out the world, but now I could see right through them. The world could thrust its way in.
For a vocation that values sexual abstinence (Sarah's virginity is a 'fragile treasure, your jewel, the blossom of your body offered to the Lord' according to the bishop), there is a robust sensuality running through life in the anchorhold. Whether memories of Sarah's own desire, or ecstatic visions of sensual union with Christ, or the activities of the villagers (one night two lovers use the anchorhold's parlour for their tryst), there seems no escape from awareness of the body and its demands.
Village women come to her with stories of wife-bashing, the progress of the seasons, the difficulties of harvest, of the lord's enclosure of common lands, of rape and possibly arson. All Sarah can do is pray for them. Is it enough? For the women, it seems so.
The contest between the physical and the spiritual is central to the novel and to the Rule governing anchorites, which acknowledges that the 'outer rule' of physical comfort may need to be varied to ensure the functioning of the 'inner rule' of spiritual practice.
This dualism of inner and outer, physical and spiritual, is echoed in the paradoxical image of the acrobat that recurs throughout the book. As a child Sarah saw an acrobat flying through the air, and longed to have his freedom:
But that was as a child, when my body was secure, like that of a boy, and I felt myself whole and able to try anything.
As a woman, her options are more limited. However, by choosing enclosure, Sarah believes she has achieved a superior kind of flight:
I'd thrown away everything in this world and leaped into the air, lighter than I'd ever been, flying to God, who would catch me in his arms. Here … I was a body without a body. Even inside the thick walls of my cell I felt I could see the sky all around me, blue and clear …
It is Sarah's interior story that flies highest. Part of what the anchorhold teaches her is to face her own past. As Ranaulf tells her during a heated exchange after she has had a particularly disturbing visitor, 'Don't come to God and ask to be safe, Sister.'
The exterior story, of the abbey, the villagers, the local lord and Sarah's relationship with her confessor, keeps things moving but can at times feel a little forced (there is a fire at one point that feels a bit like wishful thinking). Nevertheless, Robyn Cadwallader has avoided easy options with her plot.
This is a novel of visions, demons, and ghostly presences, balanced against the world of the flesh and its temptations. There is – literally – often an apple to hand. It is also a novel of page-turning grace. The language is frequently beautiful, and Sarah's choices linger long in the mind.
Robyn Cadwallader The Anchoress Fourth Estate 2015 PB 320pp $32.99
This review originally appeared in the Newtown Review of Books.
Ellen van Neerven Heat and Light
March 5, 2015 March 5, 2015 / Linda Funnell	/ Leave a comment
This award-winning young writer delivers a debut collection of stories that ranges widely across themes of longing, identity, destiny and desire.
Heat and Light is divided into three parts: 'Heat', 'Water' and 'Light'. Each part has a distinct character, but a restless yearning underlies all three.
'Heat' is a sequence of five linked stories that unspool the secrets of the Kerrigan family. It is a strong, sinewy sequence, almost a novella, with a definite gothic undertone of carelessness and retribution. It opens with 20-something Amy discovering that the woman she has known as her grandmother is in fact her grandmother's sister. Her real grandmother is Pearl, a beautiful, mysterious woman with an affinity for the wind …
Read the rest of this review at the Newtown Review of Books.


This incredibly versatile product supports up to two 32" monitors each with a maximum individual weight of 33.1 lbs! Not only will this strong and sturdy mount have no trouble holding a VESA certified 75x75 or 100x100 monitors, (fitting the above criteria), it is also extremely adjustable!
This product uses the classic stand structure base as opposed to clamp or pole/grommet style mounts.


Enterprise Transformation is WPI's significant update of the existing technology infrastructure on campus. Once implemented, the project will dramatically improve processes and procedures across the university.
This initiative will roll out over the next four years and touch every person on campus. Enterprise Transformation will improve the user experience for faculty, staff, and students while also providing the university with the cutting-edge security standards necessary at such a competitive, research-focused institution.
We will make decisions swiftly and through established governance.
We will follow best practices and adjust WPI's processes as necessary to streamline and simplify.
We will strive for easy to use solutions based on standardized & simplified processes.
We will buy, not build, applications whenever possible.
We will provide support and training to make change as pain-free as possible.
We will communicate what we know when we know it.


Shoghi Communications design and development specific Military Grade Crypto System, Shoghi provides end-to-end communication Security (COMSEC) and secure information transfer. Shoghi has strong experience in creating customer specific Algorithms and Key management schemes. All the hardware, in spite of all the complexities can be loaded by the customer themselves with their own algorithm, to enhance the whole security environment.


Our mission statement is to provide transitional supports and housing to women, with or without children, who are leaving an abusing relationships.
We value respect. Through our staff, volunteers, space, programs and services we strive to create an environment that is safe, caring, trusting, friendly, supportive and understanding.
We value equity. We believe that all people should have access to services and programs and the right to achieve their fullest potential through access to the prerequisites for safety and well-being.
We value professionalism. Our client and program participants have the right to well planned, reliable and confidential programs and services delivered by professionals, engaged in life long learning and who are accountable to themselves, each other, their organization and the community they serve.
We value responsiveness. In order to meet the community needs we are well versed in women abuse issues and proactive, focused and flexible service.
Transitional Housing & Support Program - Transitional support is offered to women that are waiting to move into the residential program. These supports include emotional support and safety planning in order that the woman can transition into the program in a safe manner. Referrals and advocacy are offered based on identified needs. Follow-up supports are offered to women as they exit the program.
Residential Counselling Program - Group and individual counselling is offered to women and children. Group content focuses on helping women gain an understanding of the impacts of abuse, understand feelings, develop problem-solving skills and coping strategies, build social networks, enhance self-esteem, understand and name issues of power and control, assess personal options and develop skills in setting goals for their futures. The psycho-educational groups are offered weekly and in the week that follows group, women and children meet individually with a counsellor to discuss group content and apply it personally.
Children's Program - The children's support group offers education about family violence, safety planning, problem solving skills and feelings. One to one counselling is available to the children in order for them to talk about issues privately. Children of all ages are offered support during recreational activities throughout the week.
In 1989, a group of concerned citizens from St. Thomas who were interested in promoting housing development became aware of the need for second stage housing for women, with or without children, leaving abusive relationships. They learned of the concerns of front-line shelter workers in Canada who saw women leave first stage shelters to return to abusive partners because of a lack of affordable, secure, and supportive housing options.
In February 1991, the Federal Government, through Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, announced the provision of $20.6 million new funding for 250 units of additional housing for abused women and their children. Funding was secured to build a 12-unit apartment complex at 15 Golding Place, St. Thomas, Ontario.
The first staff member was hired in February 1994 and the first resident moved in April 27, 1994.
Operational funding for the program was secured in 1994 through the Provincial Ministry of Community and Social Services.
provided, were too important to the women and children of Elgin County to be withdrawn. A business plan was developed and the Board of Directors and the staff went forward with a plan that would support the program's growth and development.
United Way (11%), and Rent (25%). The United Way funding supports the Children's Program.
skills groups, parenting support, referrals and advocacy. The Children's program also offers preschool groups, school-aged group and individual counselling along with recreational groups.


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Home » Musicians » Vince Wilburn Jr.
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Vince Wilburn Jr.
Vince Wilburn, Jr., nephew of late jazz icon Miles Davis, oversees Miles Davis Properties, LLC, along with Erin Davis (son of Miles) and Cheryl Davis (daughter of Miles). Wilburn, Jr. is a highly accomplished drummer and producer, who has both toured and recorded with Miles on many legendary recordings from 1984 through 1987, including: The GRAMMY-Award winning album "AURA" — which he co-produced; "Decoy" - which he also co-produced; "You're Under Arrest", and the 2008 GRAMMY nominated "Miles From India" – which hit #8 on the Billboard jazz charts. Wilburn, Jr. also toured internationally with the All-Star "Miles From India" ensemble to sell-out crowds. More recently, Wilburn, Jr. performed with the Miles Electric Band to sold-out crowds at Lotos Jazz Festival (February 2014), SF Jazz Center (August 2014) and at the Hollywood Bowl (June 2012). The Bowl event celebrated the launch of the USPS and La Post (France) issued Miles Davis/Edith Piaf Forever stamps. To date, the stamp has sold more than 23 million units and is by far the top selling celebrity stamp of 2012. Wilburn, Jr. is also a key participant on industry panels taking place at the GRAMMY Museum, GRAMMY Career Day, SXSW, SF MusicTech Summit and CMJ, in addition to partnering with Apple for their "Meet The Musicians" series at Apple SoHo. He is also a co-host of Miles Davis House at SXSW with Erin Davis, an annual day party featuring the widest cross genre of visionary buzz bands hitting Austin.
In 1989, he founded Nefdrum Productions and has been busy with numerous projects, featuring all-star performances by music icons Billy Preston, Ray Parker, Jr., Bernard Fowler, Darryl Jones, Charley Drayton, Ivan Neville, Wah Wah Watson, Freddie Washington, Randy Hall and Phil Upchurch among others. He was highly influential in putting together the record-breaking cross-genre release entitled "Everything Is Beautiful," a reimagined project, produced by GRAMMY winning artist Robert Glasper, which features contemporary artists paying tribute to the classic work of Miles Davis. "Everything Is Beautiful" scored impressive first week chart numbers including: #1 Jazz; #10 R&B/Hip Hop; #152 Top 200, and #5 Top current R&B. The project was influenced by the great success of a re-mix EP that Wilburn, Jr. co-produced with Nas and Santana called "Evolution of the Groove." Wilburn, Jr. serves as producer of the feature film "Miles Ahead" starring Don Cheadle and Ewan McGregor. He's an active member of NARAS. Show less
Vince Wilburn Jr. Drums Los Angeles
Miles Electric Band at Koerner Hall
Miles Electric Band at SFJAZZ
Miles Electric Band: Bitches Brew To Tutu At SFJAZZ
Instrument: Drums
Management: Monterey International
Publicist: Rogers & Cowan
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Windows 2000 introduces many new great features for us system programmers. Perhaps the best of these features is Microsoft's implementation of WBEM. WBEM is an industry-wide initiative to make system management a more cross platform endeavour. WBEM is incorporated deeply into Windows 2000, and is the facility by which all local and remote system information is gathered.
WBEM is implemented on the Windows 2000 platform as a system service. This service acts as a object request broker for almost any object in Windows (i.e. Process, Eventlog, Perfmon counters, Drivers, and so on) and can be used to create, query, or modify any of these objects via well documented COM calls.
Below I have implemented a class the will allow the creation of any specified process on a remote or local machine. I have included a test project implemented via a simple MFC dialog. Although simplistic, the source should give you an idea of what can be accomplished with this new technology.
return E_FAIL; // Program has failed.
// Connect to the Root\Default namespace with the current user.
return E_FAIL;	   // Program has failed.
// Set the proxy so that impersonation of the client occurs.