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By ASHLEY GARRETT, OCTOBER 2013
Choreographer and performer Molissa Fenley has created more than 75 dance works in her ongoing career. Her work has been presented throughout the United States, South America, Europe, Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Born in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1954, she earned her BA in 1975 at Mills College in Oakland, California, and in 1977 she formed the Molissa Fenley Company in New York City.
Fenley has collaborated with many visual artists throughout her career, including Kiki Smith, Richard Long, Francesco Clemente, Merrill Wagner, Keith Haring, and Roy Fowler; and she has also incorporated the musical compositions of Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson and John Cage. Her work has been commissioned by the American Dance Festival, the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival, the Joyce Theater, DIA Art Foundation, Jacob's Pillow, Lincoln Center, the New National Theater of Tokyo, the National Institute of Performing Arts in Seoul, The Kitchen, Dance Theater Workshop and many others.
She is a Guggenheim Fellow, a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome and a Master Artist of the Atlantic Center of the Arts. Recent awards include the NEA American Masterpieces Initiative for the reconstruction of Regions. Fenley received a New York Dance and Performance "Bessie" Award for Choreography for Cenotaph (1985) and State of Darkness (1988). She is Professor of Dance at Mills College, in residence each spring semester, and often teaches choreography at the Experimental Theater Wing of New York University and repertory workshops at other universities, most recently at Bennington College.
Recent works include The Vessel Stories, with music by Philip Glass, Credo in US, with music by John Cage and Cross Bridge: a collaboration with Holley Farmer, John Jesurun, David Moodey and Rosemary Quinn. I sat down with Molissa at her loft in Tribeca, New York on October 8th.
I'd like to start by responding to your recent performance for New York Live Arts. Program B began with a re-staging of Witches' Float, the collaboration you did with sculptures by Kiki Smith, which originally debuted in 1993. There was a reddish-brown body paint on the torso, arms, neck and face of the dancer. The contrast between the texture of the skin of the dancer and the sculptures was really interesting—the sculptures had a desaturated quality or lack of color. As the dancer sweated the body paint texture changed and it melted off, it seemed to be an expression of bleeding. I'm really interested to hear about your thinking and decision making that went into that piece.
Body paint is really its own sort of business. It's really hard to know what it's going to do on a body. When I danced Witches' Float years ago, the body paint that we used was either another type or my skin is of a very different texture than Holley's and also I'm not a big sweater, so it pretty much stayed intact through the duration of the dance, which is about an 18 minute-long piece. Holley sweats a lot more, and I think this is also a very different type of body paint - we actually sprayed it with a fixative. For the performance on Friday night we did the fixative first which was not how you're supposed to do it—haha! We learned over the night. The fixative first on her skin made it actually hard to apply the body paint, so we figured out that it's the other way around. And of course the instructions are tiny and we didn't have a magnifying glass and we just said, well, it must go on first! So it turns out for this particular brand you spray it on after you have the body paint intact and then it acts as a seal. The night you were there, it was running, and one point in time it probably looked like blood—so she actually looked bloody…
Yeah, that's what we were thinking!
The idea of that piece was really interesting. Kiki and I were talking about how everyone's outer skin is of a particular color, whatever their race or heritage, but if you were to flay that, the inside of everybody is bright red. It was a means of getting to an idea of the "every body." This shamanic figure could really be anybody—male, female, and the idea of the costume suggests that too. The dancer is bare-breasted but covered in body paint, which is kind of like a costume in and of itself. And on the bottom she was wearing pants that look both masculine and feminine, the top is feminine and the bottom is masculine—the pants are a kind of dhoti, designed by Gabriel Berry. It's like a human form of both female and male being presented. And it's of any race, because it's flayed, a very raw idea.
Where does the 'witch' element come into that?
Kiki and I had been discussing the women (witches) tried during the Salem Witch Trials. Women were tied to chairs and thrown into the river—if they floated they were a witch, and if they sank they were not a witch, but they were dead. Well of course everyone dies! If you notice in the title, 'witches' is possessive, so it's like the float of the witch—well now, what would that be? We started thinking about a kind of shamanic transformation that might take place during a possession, being immersed in something in a very deep way. The practitioner starts underneath the floating witch, whom is a sort of overseer; this is where it all begins. And then once some kind of transference has taken place, the practitioner travels into the middle of the space to where two halves of a sculpture lay side by side—one upside up, the other upside down. It's as if two halves of the same person, but it also a kind of mold. And in essence, it is: it's the mold that the floater came out of. The dancer then continues to stand in front of the sculpture as a standing witness, which is actually a plaster cast of me. Kiki and I made the original work in '93.
It has a slight angle forward, right?
Yes, she's really staring in and watching.
It has an aggressive feeling to it.
There's a confrontational feeling to it, yeah. There's sort of like a "you're being watched" feeling, and then at one point the practitioner comes very close and puts her arm around the witness, leans in and listens to what the witness is "saying", a very intense moment, I love that moment!
I loved the way it was lit, the viewer's frame of reference was so molded around it, shaping the way we see the sculptures and the dancer.
My lighting designer David Moodey has been working with me since 1986. He has a really uncannily completely clear idea of how to light my work. And I explained that this dance is really in three parts—around the floater zone, then it's around the cocoon zone, and then it's around the witness. The witness is ultimately sort of 'all-seeing,' perhaps, and then at the end of the dance the floater sculpture lowers to just hovering above the stage floor. I'm not sure what the significance of that is for me but certainly the practitioner takes on the authority of the space. There's nothing over her anymore.
I'm really interested in the way you're describing the dancer as a practitioner. Can you explain your choice of language?
For that piece in particular, when you think of shamanic rites, you think of a subject that goes through the practice. And so the practitioner is the person who is undergoing this journey, this rite of passage, or this rite of entrance into another world. So practitioner makes sense to me in terms of that piece. I wouldn't use that term for the other dances.
I can see what you're saying about the transformation in the movements in Witches' Float, the movements start out really slow and intense and they build up to these rapid, jagged movements—
It's interesting, I made that piece right after I'd been in India for two weeks and in India everyone's going around like this—and I'm shaking my head in the way that the practitioner does in Witches' Float. Everyone's doing it all the time! And if you ask someone a question, it's just like—well, are you saying yes or no, or—what are you saying! I can't understand what it is exactly, but it's an Indian trait that I noticed when I was there and so I wanted to use that because I found it to be so reverberate. And the music is very beautiful, by Alvin Lucier, "Music On a Long Thin Wire," and it's built on the idea of vibration. And so this idea of a vibration inside the body really manifesting in the neck and head, I thought was just fascinating. And that whole thing of the stirring hands, again very kind of spell-like. Not necessarily casting a spell because I don't think of the dancer as a 'witch' as such, but she is inside of some other kind of worldly presence or other worldly state of being. And then her movements—you called them jagged, that's right. There are a lot of very staccato actions, meaning very abrupt and percussive. There are two very different actions that are going on, two different types of movements. The legato versus a very tight gesture.
It seems to come out of nowhere, it breaks the space in this really gestural way even though it doesn't feel gestural. It's sort of severe, and very intense.
A lot of that is taken from my idea of a kind of Hindu dance. I've also really been interested in Asian art for a very long time, and in Indian art the dancers are always like "this," they call it tribanga, it's three bends—there's a bend at the hip, a bend at the torso and a bend at the neck, so I really like that idea that the body is seen almost like a river—as a serpentine form. In Hindu dance the positions of the hands are called 'mudras.' If you think of Hawaiian dance, the hands are saying some kind of communicative message or telling a story and I wanted to really abstract that but to have an other-worldly thing going on in the hands and the upper body that is eluding to something coming from a whole other ethnography.
In Found Object which debuted at New York Live Arts, you were responding to other artists' instructions while also responding to dance notes of your own as a kind of instruction?
It started with a piece I did in 2012 called Cross Bridge which started from looking back at one of my choreographic journals in my archive at Mills College. I found a series of phrases that had been written out in language but had never been made into a dance. I'll show you some of the language—not necessarily of those pieces but just in general:
Arabesque out to the right and tilt back.
Place, reach left arm, end in plie, extend legs and torso,
Arm twist, lunge forward on the right and elbow forearm twisting.
This is the language I use to write down my phrases. That's how I memorize them—I sit on the subway and read, almost like memorizing lines. And once the piece is performed a video is made, and that's how the piece is documented, between the notes and the video. For those particular phrases that formed the source of Cross Bridge there was no video made to actually show exactly what the language meant. The phrases were written around the year 2000, and I was looking at them in 2012, so it's twelve years later and I have no idea exactly what it means. I found that very interesting because it was like finding some instructions that I knew had been made by me at some point but their meaning was not clear anymore. I made a new translation interpreting what the language described to me. I thought that was really interesting following instructions, and so enjoying that, I decided that for this new piece I would ask for instructions from others and I wanted to work with writers for this found object. I wrote to each writer, Joy Harjo, John Guare and Rudy Wurlitzer and asked if they would send instructions that my working on or solving would come up to about five minutes of stage time. Also in asking for instructions, I made the stipulation to myself that whatever they give me I accept, so that it really becomes in essence a found object. If you find these instructions buried somewhere and just use them, then you don't really have a judgment about them. I really like that.
I like the idea of the piece's title. That it's a found object, but it's not an object at all. It's abstract instructions that can be interpreted and even though they're specific, it's still completely up to you how you do it—that's sort of the opposite of a real object.
Right. And in John Guare's found object instruction, there were the two instructions—one about drying flowers, and one about your rights as a POW under the Geneva Convention. In part of the language of drying flowers, when he says what you need—you need scissors, you need string, you need a ruler, you need newspaper, and you need two small vases. I was memorizing my lines one day and I just thought it would be hilarious if all of a sudden two GIGANTIC vases arrive on stage! So I asked painter Roy Fowler to paint a backdrop of some vases and he almost immediately got into that idea of the Rubin vases which is the trompe l'oeil thing–if you look at it one way, it's a profile, if you look at it another way, it's a vase. So there are two of them, one is Rosemary's profile, the actress I was working with, and one is mine. And then at the end, the last statement is "place arrangements in small vases, display or give as a gift," and we place ourselves in front of the canvases. I love that!
In the fourth part—those two things, flowers and POWs are objects, they're things to be acted upon, they don't have their own wills, really. So that's sort of another interesting interpretation of it.
Yeah. And in the very beginning of the dance were the hand props made by Jene Highstein who made them for me for a piece in 2010, called Pieces of Land, which was one of five of the Prop Dances, and the idea was that when you look down from an airplane, and see the topography of the land – there's a square there of farmland, there's a diamond over here of forest, you see things in geometric forms. That was the idea—that these were pieces of land that we're carrying on our bodies. And they've just been sitting in my closet, so they were another found object for me. I just found them in my closet and Jene had just recently died of an illness and so it was a nice remembrance of him to wear them.
I loved Energizer. I loved the repetition in the piece, the music was fabulous, and I read that it was recovered from your archive and the sound recording had to be baked in the oven in order to recover the quality. Can you talk a little about that?
Yes, the tape is one of those big reel-to-reels, and when Maggi Payne, who is a professor out at Mills—she's a wonderful conservator of music as well as a music professor and composer—she put it on to listen to it and there was nothing there. The music was composed in 1980 and this is 2013, over the years what had happened was that the music cells embedded themselves inside the tape, into the inner workings of the tape, the cells get "lost." It's hard to explain but they are not apparent anymore, they're not at the surface so you can't record them anymore. She baked them at 110 degrees for twelve hours. The heat coaxes the cells of the music up to the surface of the tape so that you can re-record it. She did such an incredible job and the music sounds like it was made yesterday. That was the really fun thing about bringing a piece back like Energizer, choreographed in 1980, not danced since 1982, so 33 years old. And not having been even thought about for 31 years. That's just like one of my pieces that's just been sitting in the video can all these many years and so to bring it out I wanted to do a pure reconstruction of it—the costumes, the movement, the music, all but the lighting was new—the lighting was by David Moodey. The original lighting had been by Phil Standstrom. It was just amazing to do.
I was wondering that—what is it like for you to see your work from when you were first beginning and now restaged?
Well it's just fascinating! And I wanted to do it so that it was a true translation, I didn't monkey with it, make it so-called "better" or come at it with a more mature choreographic eye or anything. I thought that the mathematical construction of it was really interesting and there are these different variations of things—I mean, it's a very dense piece. Very complex—there's a lot of vocabulary in there that's minutely different each time it's danced and then phrases were cut up so that sometimes you get part of phrase A and ended it with phrase B and then sometimes you'd get one measure of phrase C on top of that. I mean, it was really complex!
Really ambitious, just so packed.
Yeah, and I was just 25.
The layering—the movement and the energy, it kept unfolding and coming and coming, I really enjoyed it.
The thing that was funny was that when it was made Anna Kisselgoff really loved it and gave it a big boom, but everybody else just derided it. Saying it was like marathon dance, and a flash in the pan, and all this stuff, it was just so confrontational.
The new lighting was really interesting, the projection in the back had a landscape quality, almost twig-like but at the same time abstract, and it had a strange visual interference to it. It wasn't a straight projection, it had sort of a weird pixelated feel to it.
Yeah, that was on a scrim. And then the pattern on the floor was really interesting. We all worked on that dance really hard all summer. Peiling and Becky and I started working on it last March when I was at Mills. Peiling got her MFA at Mills in 2010 and she lives in Oakland, and Becky is at Stanford working on her doctorate in performance studies. And so we would get together once or twice a week and just pour over the video and put it on slo-mo and try to figure out what the steps were. Then I got back here in the summer and I started with Cassy and then Chris came in about halfway through the summer, and it's just painstaking to reconstruct it. It was so much fun, it was so rewarding when we finally found a phrase and then we'd do it and then we'd look at the video one more time and correct ourselves and then figuring out who went where, it was just really great.
That's what I was wondering, as a visual artist myself, wondering about the differences between that and what you do. How do you make work? What's your working process? How do you self-edit?
Well it's really different for each piece. It's hard to know exactly what the working process for that piece was because it was so many years ago. But I doubt it would be too much different from now. The way I work now and have for as long as I've been aware of how I'm working is that I start making phrases of movement, and they get written down. And they get memorized and uncannily enough I almost always work chronologically, it starts at the beginning and just goes. I rarely start with music, music comes often quite a bit later. I start with my own forms of rhythmic structuring. In Energizer, it's just a real solid base of 4/4 all the way through. Dances made after that would be rhythmically all over the place, you know, a measure of 5, a measure of 7, like the piece I did in 1983 called Hemispheres with Anthony Davis was really polymetric, so that formatting changed. I'm pretty sure at that time, in 1980, I would have dancers come in probably maybe an hour or two after I'd been working by myself and then I'd teach them what I'd made, and then I would set it spatially. For Energizer I was really interested in a circle, and then within that there's the square of the axis, so there's this sort of pie thing going on—there's the top axis, the horizontal axis, the vertical axis and then the diagonal axes, and there's a sense that a rotational idea is going on, and then there's also a big square around the whole thing, so there's an outer perimeter square and then an inner circle. It gets cut up and re-seen over and over—a dancer will do something and then another dancer comes immediately and does the same pathway but then maybe has a different ending and goes off and does something else, and then that might be echoed by another dancer. So it's very intricate, moment by moment. And then as I said, I work very intuitively. I'm sure that in Energizer, once I would get something done—and we didn't have video back then! —you just did stuff, and you either remembered it or you didn't. Of course the piece was video taped, because that's how I was able to reconstruct it. The piece that was playing out in the lobby (at New York Live Arts on October 2nd-5th) was the original, that's the tape that we reconstructed from, so you could see it was really fuzzy, but we managed. As far as daily doings or daily remembering of what we've made, it's all just memorization. It's writing it down and memorizing, and then the dancers will do the same thing, come in day after day, and you just drill over and over and over and over until it gets completely intact and completely known.
What is it like to work with other dancers? Do you see their bodies and their energies as yours? How do you form other people to make the spatial expressions that you want?
Well I work with people who are really well trained; they have a lot of physical ability. I don't want them to look exactly like me necessarily, I don't teach my dancers class every day or something like that. People come to me already warmed up, and either they're from a ballet background or a Cunningham background—whatever their dance background is, what I take into consideration is the means of how they will translate. And everybody tries very hard to do exactly what I'm doing—I'll put my hands like that and they do it. But it looks different on everybody because it's a different body. I really love that. I'm not interested in having everyone look the same, I'm interested in there being a vocabulary that's translated from person to person in their own idiosyncratic way. In terms of a commonality, we're all working towards this very particular vocabulary and how to present it in its most clear form from person to person.
What was your first memory of wanting to move through space to express yourself?
Well when I was a little girl I used to make dances for my dog and me. I had a dog named Shadow and I used to dance around the living room with Shadow all the time. I grew up in Nigeria and was always outside, and I saw a lot of Nigerian dance. I just felt really at home in moving my body.
The Energizer piece seemed to really express some of that rawness, that sort of grounded excitement about learning how to work as a dancer. Is that right?
Yes, that's exactly right. There's a total exhilaration there. And also you have to understand, I graduated from Mills College in 1975. I was 20, I got on a bus and came here to New York, and my first major piece was in '77, and then in '79 The Kitchen commissioned a work. So it was very quick, I just jumped in and started being a choreographer right away. I came from a training that was modern dance—we studied Graham technique, Cunningham technique, and Limon technique. I had one semester of ballet, from a woman named Paulette Sears, who was one of the MFA graduate students. I'm not from a ballet background whatsoever. The movement is coming from my interest in the upper body being a very translational mechanism of communication. I guess you could say it started off referencing Egyptian hieroglyphics that I then I twisted into three dimensions. I started forging this vocabulary on my own.
Can you talk more about growing up in Nigeria and attending high school in Spain? What was that like and what made you decide to come back to the states to go to college?
Well I went to high school in Spain because I wanted to go to an American college and the high schools in Nigeria were not accredited. All the American embassy kids—my Dad worked with USAID— kids from North and West Africa went to high schools in Spain at American air force bases. The first year I was there I was in Sevilla, which is in the south and the second year which was my senior year I was in Zaragosa in the north. On an air force base, which is so-called "American soil" in Spain, we would take weekend trips into the city. I saw a lot of flamenco dance, which I was very influenced by, and although I didn't study it, I really loved the whole extension of the back and the hands behind the head. There's a lot of that in my work, particularly in my early work. I really loved the extreme verticality with really flamboyant arms. You know when you're a kid, you just grow up where you grow up, and you don't really have an opinion about it. When I got older I realized how lucky I was to have grown up in Nigeria. We were in Ibadan, which is about 90 miles inland of Lagos when we first got there, and then later we moved to Lagos on the coast. Our house in Ibadan was right up next to the bush; my brother and I were always on the bush paths. It was a really magical life, and I think about that now, I just think I was so lucky to have had that kind of nature around me, that deep, dark rainforest. Deep and complex and thick rainforest, beautiful—it was absolutely beautiful.
The earlier work that was restaged for the performance felt like that—it felt really grounded in real stuff, the landscape.
The landscape, there's also a lot of social dance, dancers coming together a lot in these circles.
You've done a lot with props and projections and live feeds, and that's all in addition to working with other creative people. What was the first inanimate object you put into one of your pieces and why did you decide to go in that direction?
I guess the first one—well you saw in the lobby the video of the piece I made with Keith Haring, that was my first piece. That was 1979, I think. The first object though was by the artist Steve Keister for a piece called Boca Raton at The Kitchen for an event called Dance Day. The piece was a small sculpture attached to the ceiling, that was probably the first object. I didn't relate to it, except that we were underneath it.
He was a substitute for one of my sculpture classes at SVA, he's really nice and an interesting artist.
Yeah, I actually know him now; he's a very good friend of Roy's. But as far as an object that I dealt with—in 1983 there was a project called Hemispheres and it had a series of drawings by Francesco Clemente. The drawings came in packages of ten and when the audience came in they were handed a package of ten —there were four different sets, so the idea was that you got package A and your friend got B, then the next person got C, and D and so on. So the person sitting next to you if you came in as a pair would get another set. Francesco liked this idea of possible commerce; it was the idea of the set design being actually in your hand rather than on the stage. That was very interesting.
And an audience participation which doesn't overshadow the performance.
Yeah. So the drawings were there for that kind of intimate feel of looking at something that's small. And actually I unfortunately don't even have one package left. Somebody walked off with my last one. Francesco probably has a package somewhere.
I read that you're referred to as a "postmodern" dancer. What does that term mean as it relates to dance?
Yes, it's a very unclear term. Modern dance would be the so-called pioneers. Martha Graham, Jose Limon, Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, Anna Sokolow, Pauline Koner, Doris Humphrey—Isadora Duncan is the mother of them and Balanchine is sort of in there, but he's in the ballet world. It's an era. And you would think of that era as spanning the 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's and then the era of the Judson Church people started—Yvonne Rainer, Trisha Brown, David Gordon, Valda Setterfield and Steve Paxton. They were called postmodern because they were after modern. Then you have people like me who aren't really postmodern because I am not of that group. The original postmoderns were dealing with the idea of a much more 'pedestrian' movement, less trained movement. They're dealing with task-oriented things, coming out of Happenings a little bit, they would have these events and experiments—so that's a particular type of investigation. And my investigation was once again going back to a more virtuosic physical technically trained expression, but not modern dance, so not coming out of Taylor, not coming out of Graham. I've always found it to be a very confusing term and prefer to use the term 'contemporary,' but then that's gotten commandeered. That now can mean hip hop, "So You Think You Can Dance," all this stuff is now floating around with categories, it's really hard to say. So when I'm called a postmodernist it doesn't make sense to me either.2-d,
It's very interesting in the art world for that word; it becomes so open that it means everything, so it then has no meaning at all.
Yeah, I think it's the same in dance. Now it's sort of like a catch-all, not sure what to call it—it's not modern, it's not ballet, those are two distinct forms. So then uh, what is it?
What drew you to work with visual artists—in dealing with a static two-dimensional or three-dimensional work, paintings or sculptures, what attracted you to that in your work?
Well I just I really love the idea of the stage space being a volume, I'm talking about the 'true stage' in the sense that the theater stage space is there and the audience is out here. Not site-specific work, rather thinking about the volume of the stage area itself as a thing to be filled—you can fill it with light, you can fill it with movement, you can fill it with sound. And I really like the idea of objects or other ideas coming in—like for instance the Richard Long setting for the circle of stones, of where the actual space itself is completely shifted. And that I as a choreographer then not only deal with whatever choreographic concepts I have going on in my own experiments in phrasing or movement vocabulary, to being placed inside this space that's changed, it's not empty space anymore. I love empty space, but I also really like the idea of being challenged by either responding or not responding or working in tandem with a thing, of having another flavor in the space. How that space is now different because of this thing that's inside it. What I do I as a choreographer to make either a larger picture or a smaller picture. It moves me along choreographically, it's a challenge, it's like using a piece of music—it has a flavor, it has a sense of structure. It asks: do you use that structure, do you make something in parallel to that structure? It's like that. I find it as a great soundboard that I can hit off of and get ideas from.
Before I came over I was watching some clips of 94 Feathers, and I was wondering about the props used in that piece. It's so beautifully integrated and the objects don't seem to have any natural weight.
I love that piece. 94 Feathers was part of the Prop Dances, which also had the Jene Highstein objects with feathered props made by Merrill Wagner. For the Prop Dances I asked five visual artists to give me something I could either carry or wear. And whatever they gave me, again, I said okay to. Merrill has a huge table in her living room with a big bowl with glass top, in the bowl are all these feathers of birds she's had over the years—parakeets, turkeys, hawks—feathers she's either found or they're from pets. She was interested in using those feathers and she had these metal trays that she had found in a steel foundry near where she lives in Pennsylvania that had holes in them, they were some kind of leftovers. She put the feathers into the holes and made these beautiful forms, they were just extraordinary. I was dancing at that time with Cassie Mey and Katie McGreevy, two dancers that I'd worked with for quite a while and they're not in the company anymore. ?They moved on in their lives—that's the other thing, dancers come and go—Cassie worked with me for ten years, and Katie for two or three, so you know it's a solid group—and we made these pieces. When 94 Feathers was made, it was probably my first instruction piece. Where I made a dance and wrote it down, I was at Mills teaching and they were here in New York. The premiere was going to be here in New York in March during Mills' spring break. And so I sent them the language of the phrases and asked them to make up what they thought the language was. It was really wonderful. That was the first idea of the method of following instructions and I have just continued further along with that.
Yeah, I really liked that piece—when you were lying down with the feathered object on top of you–
Oh I know, beautiful.
When you're co-choreographing with other dancers how is it different for you?
Well for instance, in the third part of Found Object is the poem by Joy Harjo. The poem had instructions written within it, and those instructions I gave to Peiling and Becky and myself to interpret. We each came up with movement for those instructions and then we put it all together. They showed me what their phrases were, what they'd come up with, I'd asked them to make something that's within the stylistic body of what I might do. Not that I wanted them to make what I would make, but to make something that's within-the-family-of—
Right, stay in the language.
Right. So they both did and then I thought okay, as one more unifying thing, there were two phrases that I taught of mine that they could do at any time during their rendition of what they were doing. We set it, they dance their phrases, and they insert my phrase 1 somewhere, and then later on insert phrase 2. Then I wanted to add the instruction of where you could replace somebody, or might echo someone for a second. There's a part where Peiling is standing like this, and I come up and put my hand under hers, I replace her hand and she goes off and I stay there for a second. I really enjoy this method of working, which started with 94 Feathers—to trust. These dancers are all so lovely and they all work so hard and they make really good decisions. They're very responsible. I can trust the art in them is what I'm saying. I can trust that they will carry the art feeling—my art feeling through their bodies, and that they will make the right choreographic decisions. I found that really interesting to allow that, to have another way of working.
Do you plan on continuing to work with other artists in different mediums in the future?
Oh yeah, always!
So what's next for you?
I'm going on a really nice residency at the Bogliasco Center in Genoa. I'll be there from November 18th through December 20th. As a sort of clearing zone, I always find when I'm starting to make a new work I have no idea what it will be, but I know that I will almost always start with a vocabulary. One big source of vocabulary for me is Greek and Roman sculpture of the body. I'll get a bunch of books and mimic whatever the sculptures are doing, and I'll find that suddenly I've got some phrases—that's always been a big source material.
How long does it typically take you to start something, finish something, work with it, or is just all completely different from piece to piece?
It's different. For instance I was at the American Academy in Rome in 2008 for six months and I made a pretty major work there called Cosmati Variations. It premiered there in June. I made four parts there but only performed three, towards the end of July I made another part. I worked with Italian dancers, I had an audition and people came in. So it varies. I know that in Bogliasco being there a month I will not necessarily come back with a completed pice but certainly with material.
Thanks Molissa!
I think we cooked it!
Published in Figure/Ground December 6th, 2013.


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From Maine, USA:
I really want to get my ears pierced but my mother wants the okay from a doctor. I was wondering if you could help. Thank you.
Speak to your health care team, but in general, if your diabetes is in good control there would be no different recommendations for you than for a person without diabetes.
[Editor's comment: My daughter Marissa, age 10 and diabetic since she was 2 years old, has had pierced ears for six years (she wanted them pierced at age four!). She has had no problems at all with her pierced ears. JSH.]
Original posting 13 Jan 98
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subset: commoncrawl


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This photo is proof of how effective kratom is for pain relief in many parts of the world. You'll read more about this painful-looking ankle shortly.
But first it's important to know that using kratom for pain relief has been a practice in parts of Southeast Asia for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.
The FDA has not approved kratom for internal use in the United States, so I can't tell you to use kratom for pain relief here. Kratom is sold in this country as incense for aromatherapy, for use in soap-making, and for other crafts.
But in other parts of the world, for people looking for alternatives to prescription medications, kratom is a natural and in many cases safer way of reducing acute or chronic pain.
If you just want to know which specific kratom strains are the best for relieving pain (in countries where kratom is approved for internal use) you can read this other article.
Please note that I am not a doctor. The information in this article is for informational purposes only and is not medical advice. Please do your own research in partnership with your healthcare provider. If you are pregnant, nursing, have a medical condition or are taking any medication, please consult your physician.
Avoiding Drugs & Synthetic Chemicals
Addiction to pain-killers is a very real problem in the U.S. You may know someone close to you who struggles with this.
Often this addiction leads to use of stronger and sometimes illegal narcotics.
Many people who legitimately are prescribed pain medication for severe or persistent pain also have to deal with the side-effects that these drugs may cause.
Long-term Effects Of Painkillers
The long-term effects of many synthetic chemicals have not been well-studied. Many of today's painkillers were only recently developed within the past few decades.
This makes it difficult or near-impossible to study the effects of using these drugs over years and years.
How often do we hear on the news of a drug being recalled after decades on the market because it has just now been discovered that it has life-threatening side effects?
These are just some of the reasons why many people seek a natural alternative to pain relief drugs.
Kratom Is A Natural Herbal Remedy In Other Countries
The kratom plant grows in the wild and is also harvested commercially in parts of Southeast Asia.
The scientific name for kratom is Mitragyna speciosa. It is closely related to the coffee plant.
The effects of kratom may include pain relief, reduced anxiety, increased energy, a desire to be more social, feelings of well-being, and improvement in overall mood.
Using poor-quality kratom or using too much may have adverse effects. These may include dizziness, nausea and vomiting, increased anxiety, sleepiness, dehydration, constipation, and lack of concentration. Some users also report a lowered libido (everything still works fine, just the desire is reduced).
The negative effects can be avoided when using kratom responsibly and buying high quality kratom from a trusted source.
Kratom Has Been Used For Centuries
People in Southeast Asia have used kratom for at least several hundred, if not thousands, of years. People report that it provides extra energy as well as reducing pain.
Kratom has proven to be helpful for toiling in hard labor. If you imagine working in humid tropical conditions year-round you can see how helpful it would be to have the necessary energy to work in such conditions.
Kratom's pain-relieving effects are also well-known in other countries.
Millions of people use kratom to feel better every day and have done so for many, many years.
In one of these countries, can you picture waking up each morning to a cup of kratom tea to help reduce pain and suffering instead of swallowing a harsh chemical pill with unknown consequences?
My Own Experience Using Kratom For Pain Relief
When I first began using kratom it wasn't for pain relief. I was interested in the energy boosting and pro-social aspects.
I'm married, raising two children, working full time, going to school part-time, and working on side projects such as this website.
And I know everyone is just as busy as I am. It seems everybody is burning the candle at both ends these days!
So my interest was in using a natural and safe supplement to help me be more productive and to help me better deal with (sometimes) frustrating co-workers and fellow students.
Over time, I noticed that kratom worked extremely well at improving my attitude toward pain, as well. I noticed this on days after working out – my muscles were not as sore after using kratom.
Unexpectedly, I also noticed that kratom relieved the head and neck tension from a night of drinking too much alcohol. Combined with the energizing effects I felt almost 100% normal.
I'd read about people using kratom to feel better about dealing with chronic pain, but I hadn't experienced this for myself.
But I know that many people wake up each morning knowing that they're going to have to deal with a hurt that may seem unbearable at times. Perhaps this is you.
A Badly Sprained Ankle
What finally opened my eyes to just how powerful kratom can be for improving one's attitude toward pain relief is when my wife suffered a badly sprained ankle.
My wife works at a daycare. If you've been around children and toys, you can probably imagine what it's like when you have a dozen kids in one room with hundreds of toys.
As my wife was taking a step, she didn't see the large building block which happened to be the same shade of green as the colorful part of the carpet it was lying on.
My wife stepped on the block and her ankle turned sideways. When she described it to me later she said that the outside of her ankle came all the way down and touched the carpet.
My wife was barely able to walk after that. She had to hobble around on one foot. Her boss and her co-workers kept asking her if she needed to go to the doctor.
Just like many of you would do, she decided to suck it up and deal with the pain. She told everybody at work that she would see how she felt the next morning and then decide if she needed to see a doctor.
Unbearable Pain
The next day my wife woke up in excruciating pain. She couldn't put any weight on her badly twisted ankle.
She gave in and went to urgent care where they diagnosed her with a severe sprain. They prescribed pain medication and insisted that my wife attend physical therapy.
As days went by the pain was relieved only by the painkillers, but my wife didn't like how she felt when medicated. This is a photo of her foot a few days after the injury. Notice the bruising and severe swelling.
Kratom To The Rescue
By the fourth day, with the pain barely tolerable with the prescribed painkillers, I suggested my wife try kratom to see if it would help her. She didn't like how the painkiller was making her feel dull and sluggish.
My wife uses kratom a couple of times per week for extra energy when doing chores or when a particularly stressful event is coming up and she would like to feel better about anxious thoughts.
She had not been using any kratom during this time. She took me up on my suggestion and used two and a half grams of kratom on an empty stomach first thing in the morning.
To her relief, and also her pleasant surprise, she felt as though the pain in her ankle melted away within the first thirty minutes of using the kratom.
She got to experience the happiness that millions of others have felt for thousands of years as the kratom helped her feel better about the pain in her ankle.
My wife was able to use kratom successfully and found herself not even using the pain medications any more. Thanks to kratom and to the physical therapy I'm happy to report that my wife's ankle is back to normal.
How Does Kratom Relieve Pain?
The kratom plant contains alkaloids which act on the opioid receptors in the brain.
However, kratom is not an opiate.
Different strains of kratom contain different alkaloids in different ratios. This is responsible for the different effects from different strains of kratom.
Also, the more kratom you use the more sedating the effect will be. Vice versa, the less kratom, the more energizing the effects.
Earlier I listed the negative side effects of kratom which can be avoided by not using too much and by using high-quality kratom.
The price must also be considered. If kratom is going to be used daily it's important to weigh the cost ahead of time and budget accordingly.
Finally, Kratom cannot be shipped to Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, or Wisconsin. Each of these has state laws prohibiting the sale of kratom.
Best Kratom For Pain Relief
Due to the nature of kratom, different strains may have slightly different effects on different people.
In countries where kratom is permitted for internal use, most people find that the best strains for pain relief are the red vein varieties of kratom. A good example of a high-quality red vein strain is Smiley Horned Hippo kratom from Happy Hippo Herbals. You can view it here.
After this the green vein varieties would be the next option for pain relief. One of my favorite strains of kratom is a green strain called Hulu Hippo. You can see it here.
Ranked in order from most to least helpful helping one feel a better attitude toward pain relief the kratom varieties are as follows (the color refers to the vein): red, dark green, green, yellow, then white.
How Much Kratom To Use
This will vary from person to person. It can vary anywhere from 1.5 to 5 grams of high-quality kratom.
Your best bet will be to start with high quality kratom and then follow the instructions in the article linked here to find the amount that works best for you.
Personally, I use between 2.5 and 3 grams of kratom – but again, I'm not a doctor and this is not medical advice. I'm sharing my experience and relating to you what people in other parts of the world have experienced.
How To Use Kratom
In Southeast Asia, kratom was traditionally boiled as a tea. Many people like that method. I've tried it but it just doesn't work for me.
What I take powders (such as protein powders) I prefer what's called the "toss and wash" method. I take a small sip of water, hold it in my mouth, pour the powder into my mouth, and then wash it down with a big gulp of water. You can read exactly how I do it here (link).
In other countries, people mix kratom with a flavored drink to hide its taste (it tastes bitter). Avoid dairy-based drinks because the combination tastes terrible.
Here is a recipe for pairing kratom with iced hibiscus kratom tea. This is especially good on hot days. It's very refreshing!
By the way, you don't smoke or snort kratom. It doesn't work that way.
Where To Buy Kratom
I wrote an entire article about the best sources of kratom. You can read that here.
Personally, I prefer online vendors. I've tried several of them and best kratom is sold by Happy Hippo Herbals.
You can also read reviews online before you buy if you're unsure of a vendor. Quality can vary greatly with online vendors. I've had very weak kratom that had no effect at all.
You can save yourself that headache by going with a trusted kratom source.
Price Of Kratom
An ounce of kratom will vary between $12 to $18. Doing some rough math, with an average usage size of 3 grams, this gives you about ten uses per ounce. So a single use will cost between $1.20 to $1.80.
You can save a lot of money by buying in bulk. Many vendors offer this option.
You can also take advantage of sales and coupons. If you subscribe to most kratom vendors' email lists they'll regularly send you coupon codes.
Happy Hippo has a sale on a different strain of kratom each week. You will save between 40% to 50%. Sign up for their newsletter or check the site every Monday morning.
In parts of Southeast Asia, for people suffering with pain and looking for an alternative to painkillers, kratom is a natural herbal remedy that has been used for thousands of years.
The red vein varieties of kratom will provide the greatest pain relief, followed by green vein kratom.
When used responsibly the pain relief, relaxation, anti-anxiety and pleasant properties of kratom are benefits that I've experienced personally. So has my wife, and so have millions of people over the years.
In those countries, kratom gives people control and the choice of an affordable, natural remedy for pain relief.
Magic Hippo is another variety of red vein kratom that is popular among many for its properties.
I've found its effects to be quite strong and I like to save it for special occasions.
Click Here To Order Magic Hippo
A sample pack of kratom is also a good investment so you can test three different strains and their effects to find the best effect you're looking for.


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A former Fort Lauderdale police officer was one of four men indicted by a federal grand jury Tuesday on charges of trafficking in 900 pounds of cocaine, valued at $180 million.
Gerald Robert Smith, 39, joined the Police Department in January 1970 and resigned five years later after a dispute with his supervisor.
Since that time, he had been wanted on drug charges for about six years prior to his arrest on the cocaine trafficking charges in late August, according to Vince Mazzilli, a special agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration office in West Palm Beach.
Smith gave the alias Stephen Warga when he was arrested in August along with Randy Vacel of Hollywood at an airstrip in Okeechobee County.
Law enforcement officials said they saw the two men hastily unload 12 duffel bags of cocaine from a plane.
Also named in Tuesday's indictment were Alton Bird and Clifford Ray Hensley, who is also known as Jacob Clifford Pasknell. Additional information on Bird and Hensley was not available Tuesday.
In September 1984, law enforcement agents confiscated two houses and a 62- foot fishing trawler owned by Smith in New Smyrna Beach.
Smith had previously received notoriety in a series of incidents while he was a member of the Police Department, according to investigators.
Nine months after joining the police force, he was captured at gunpoint by two bandits who took his gun in a daytime robbery of a jewelry store.
In October 1971 Smith was suspended from the police force for five days after writing a letter to the Fort Lauderdale News criticizing a decision by the city on how long boats could dock at New River Sound.


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Could two major makers of trains be on track to merge?
US firm General Electric has reportedly been talking to Alstom, builder of turbines and France's high speed trains about buying it for $13 billion (9.4 billion euros).
According to Bloomberg, a General Electric bid would have the support of French conglomerate Bouygues, which own 29 percent of Alstom's shares.
Those shares gained 10.9 percent on Thursday in response to the report. That was a big bounce back considering they have slumped 20 percent over the past year due to concerns about Alstom's cash flow.
Alstom has been hit hard by economic weakness in Europe and a drop in orders for power equipment. It is currently shedding 1,300 jobs. Its train business has held up better and secured record orders.
Alstom denied the GE rumour, but in a not very convincing way. It said it had not been informed of any potential public tender offer, which could be interpreted as a Watergate style non-denial denial – that responding to a question that had not been asked.
There is also a political element. The big question is – could a takeover by a US company get the approval of the French government and unions?
Pierre Briancon, European Editor of Reuters BreakingViews thinks it would be difficult: "We've a government, a new prime minister, who's trying to engineer the famous, or infamous, supply side shock that François Hollande wants to instill. They're trying to reform, cutting spending, cutting labour costs, doing overall very business friendly policies. Which is proving to be a hard sell in France."
Prime Minister Manuel Valls would not comment on the report. He did say that, as with other big French companies, the government would keep a close eye on jobs, technology and decision-making.
The Economy Minister Arnaud Montebourg is known to oppose foreign companies buying French firms.
Montebourg has in the past verbally attacked big business and the European Commission. Last year he intervened to prevent Yahoo from taking over French online video-sharing site Dailymotion from telecoms operator Orange.


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CARDIFF-BY-THE-SEA — The street fair for dogs and dog lovers in Southern California is set from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Aug. 11 on Aberdeen Drive and Newcastle Avenue in Cardiff-by-the-Sea.The seventh annual Cardiff Dog Days of Summer, hosted by the Cardiff 101 Main Street, is especially for four-legged friends, fans and family members. Dog Days of Summer is a completely dog-centric event. Come enjoy dog contests, custom pet products and animal adoptions. The community and their canine friends come together for contests, games, one silent auction, vendors and, of course, food for both humans and canines.
Highlights of this year include free samples, giveaways and in-store sales from Dirty Dogs as well as a Dirty Dogs fashion show, a blessing of the dogs, dog contests including Best Kisser and Best Dressed, live music by Bucket Ruckus, free samples from Souplantation, an agility course sponsored by K-9 Connection, a doggie photo booth courtesy of Photography by Gabriela, doggie pedicures by 20 Lounge Nail Bar, a doggie beach for your pups to cool off, a children's zone, and a silent auction.
Also new this year, DOGTV will be setting up a lounge area that will have multiple monitors playing DOGTV for your pooches and comfy chairs and couches for the pet parents to relax. Proceeds benefit local animal charities and Cardiff 101 Main Street, which sponsors other community events throughout the year. Visit cardiffdogdaysofsummer.com for more information.


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Janaki, Pascal and Lola went on what Janaki described as the best trip of her life. But she didn't have to say a word for me to know it. How she felt was obvious from the smile on her face , as she stood in the middle of piles on top of piles of wool goods in her living room.
About a month ago Janaki was tipped off about a town in the central mountainous region of Mexico, which specialized in the manufacturing of various wool items. It took all but two weeks for her to plan the trip out there to see the wool promised land for herself. On the trip, the whole family were treated to a once in a life time experience getting to visit the shops and meet artisans behind the products. A, curiously, male driven industry Janaki discovered.
The most depressing part of Janaki's trip was finding out how close to extinction the trade is becoming; fifty years ago at 5 O'clock in the morning the town would be buzzing with a symphony of looms. At the time of their visit, there were only nine people keeping the traditional wool making alive. This largely because the work on 100 year old colonial looms is labour intensive and competing fabrics imported from China are now widely available at significantly lower prices. The material and craft, Janaki tells me "are not respected"; "It'll comeback" quickly added an optimistic Pascal. In some cases, Marché St. George bought out an entire years worth of production from certain artisans whose methods take an entire week to produce a single garment.
This field trip to Mexico was undeniably one of the most eye opening voyages the Larsen/Roy has been on, and they have not come back empty handed. A plethora of goods from a small and dying industry are now available in Vancouver at our shop. Unfortunately, some of the items, for aforementioned reasons, come in an extremely limited supply.
Photography | Janaki Larsen
Discourse | Luis Valdizon


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As one of the four pairs of sinuses, the frontal sinuses serve the purpose of producing and draining mucus to the nose. They are located above the eyes on either side of the forehead area.
The frontal sinuses, along with the sphenoid sinuses, develop in the teen years. The function of the sinuses is multifold:
- Filter and humidify the air a person breathes
- Lighten the weight of the head
- Protect vital organs
- Maximize voice quality
Cedars-Sinai states that the main function of the sinuses is to produce the mucus that drains into and moisturizes the nose. The mucus itself is important, in that it helps carry pollutants like dust, dirt and microorganisms. When the draining process is hindered, inflammations or infections can result.


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As the City of Cambridge moves forward with the process of creating a citywide plan to better guide future development, Cambridge Day has recognized the "citizen power" and "council follow-through" that sparked the new planning process as among the "Best of Cambridge in 2014."
To read the full column, which includes other local highlights from the past twelve months, click here: http://www.cambridgeday.com/2015/01/01/the-best-of-cambridge-in-2014/
Since taking office last year, Councillor Dennis Carlone has been working with his colleagues, city staff, and neighborhood leaders to help initiate the new planning process. The first phase of the project, Cambridge Conversations, was intensive effort for open-ended discussions to hear concerns, thoughts, and ideas about the citywide plan. Working with an independent consultant, Kathryn Madden of Madden Planning Group, the substance of these discussions was used to help shape the Strategic Recommendations for a Citywide Plan.
In an email message to interested residents, Councillor Carlone thanked people for their engagement on this issue and put the initial steps of the new planning process in perspective:
I want to say thank you to everyone who signed on to the petition to kick-start the planning process last spring -- and thanks as well to all Cambridge residents who have been advocating for better planning for many years.
It's important to remember that it was only about twelve months ago that residents who were concerned about the city's piecemeal approach to development were basically told that we did indeed have a "plan" -- a sprawling collection of disparate documents dating back many years.
But this past spring, we challenged the city on the need for a comprehensive plan, and after a vigorous debate with my colleagues on the council, including a "dueling policy order" that implied that the problem was that neighborhood organizations couldn't understand the complexity of urban planning, we have successfully brought the concerns of residents to the forefront.
Today, thanks to the tireless efforts of many residents and neighborhood groups, it is now impossible to deny that the city has to do a better job with planning and development issues. Now, publications such as the Boston Globe are recognizing the fact that we have a compelling interest in establishing a better framework for future development. One that is truly sustainable, more contextual in nature, and socially just.
To be sure, the start of the Citywide Plan doesn't solve all of our problems -- this will be a multi-year process, and we are sure to have some big debates in the meantime. But nevertheless, the Citywide Plan is still very important right now, because it means that residents have finally won a commitment from city to address their biggest concerns in a comprehensive fashion.
Moving forward, it's up to all of us to work together to make sure the plan is the very best it can be and to continue building on the progress that was made in 2014.
We will continue to update this blog with news on next steps for the Citywide Plan. Please do not hesitate to reach out to our office with any questions or concerns on this or any other matter.


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Below you will find links to other organisations that you may find useful. These provision of these links does not necessarily constitute a recommendation and AMEND cannot be held responsible for information on external websites.
NET Patient Foundation - UK
Information and support for sporadic neuroendocrine tumours
British Thyroid Foundation - UK
Information on thyroid diseases (including cancer) and thyroid medication
Addison's Disease Self Help Group (ADSHG) - UK
Resources for those with adrenal insufficiency
Pituitary Foundation - UK
Resources and support for those with pituitary conditions and tumours
You and Your Hormones - UK
Information resource from the Society for Endocrinology
ACC Support UK
Information and support for those affected by adrenocortical cancer (ACC)


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The Wells College men's volleyball team earned a five-set victory over Lancaster Bible College on Friday, April 14 in a North Eastern Athletic Conference playoff semifinal match in Altoona, Pa. Wells won by set scores of 26-24, 20-25, 25-20, 13-25, 16-14. The Express advances to Saturday's championship match at 1 p.m. Wells will take on tournament host and top seed Penn State Altoona.
The victory lifted Wells' record to 19-12 on the year and Lancaster Bible is 25-9. It was the first-ever postseason victory for the Wells men's volleyball program, and the second time in program history that Wells has qualified for the NEAC playoffs.
Wells took the opening set 26-24 depite the Express recording just seven kills in the set. Wells picked up seven more points on Lancaster Bible service errors. Lancaster Bible won the first three points of the set, but Wells scored the next three to tie the score 3-3. Neither team led by more than two points the rest of the way, and Wells won the final two points of the set after it was tied 24-24.
LBC came back to win the second set by a 25-20 score, and then Wells took the third set 25-20. In the third set, Wells took a 19-13 lead and went on to claim the win. Lancaster Bible overwhelmed Wells in the fourth set and took a 25-13 victory to force a deciding fifth set.
Both teams hit effectively in the fifth set. Wells had 10 kills and a .348 hitting percentage. Lancaster Bible had 11 kills and a .409 percentage. Wells edged ahead 11-6 and forced a timeout from Lancaster Bible. The Chargers responded and went on an 8-2 run and had match point, leading 14-13. Brannon Perdicho had a kill to deny the set point, and Wells won the next two points on a kill from Caden O'Loughlin and service ace from Brannon Perdicho.
Perdicho led Wells with 16 kills and O'Loughlin had 12 kills. Perdicho served four aces and had 13 digs. Kevin Batmunkh had 10 digs. Josh Undari had 24 assists and Scott Litvin had 21 assists. Jonathan Haines had one solo block and two block assists.
Prior to the match, Perdicho, O'Loughlin, and Ryan Turner were presented with their all-conference awards.


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Skip to comments.Rand Paul signals support for Red Flags
Posted on 08/13/2019 11:32:24 AM PDT by RandFan
Paul, a strong gun-rights advocate, signaled his willingness to support something along the lines of "red flag" laws that allow guns to be removed from those who may be a danger to themselves and others.
"I'm not opposed to sort of an emergency order for 48 hours and then you get a hearing in a court where you get the full due-process protections," he said in the interview. "It's the one thing that could fix a lot of stuff. I think most of these homicidal attackers ... are sending off signals to their family and community."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Either a crime has been committed or it hasnt. Anything else is pre-crime.
However, what makes this unique is it is not a blanket law. It is applied only to specific people based on their actions and threatening words.
And the key is this: It is only temporary, unless a solid case can be made regarding mental health. It's akin to be ing arrested by the police. They can lock you up and take away your rights for a certain amount of time before they have to either charge you with a crime or let you go.
i.e. the state is already allowed to take away your rights for a short time even if you are never charged with a crime. And as is the case now, if they just do it willie nillie, they will have problems. It's why it doesn't happen often.
It's also a little like that stop and frisk thing NYC had going for it. Sure, they harassed "innocent" people, but we all know who was really getting "harassed", and that, yes, it WAS effective against crime.
Same thing here.
If they are such a danger, then why aren't they being institutionalized? That's the way it used to be done before we had all these mass shootings. If they are crazy and want to kill, just taking away their guns isn't going to stop them.
Pretty disappointed over this one myself.
"The only option that works effectively is constitutional carry."
Maybe so, but we're a generation or so removed from having a public that can deal with large numbers of armed people in public. Walk around your block open-carrying and you'll quickly light up 911.
Rand watched as a gunman mowed down congressmen on the ball field. That had to affect him.
No flaming here. I agree with you.
Thanks dude!
Rand Paul has lost his effing mind.
The guy in MD that was killed did not make any threats. It was a heated political discussion and his sister in law was frightened by how upset he was.
What the problem is with the 48 hr red flag law is gun owners simply do not trust the US or state governments to abide by the law and fully expect it to be abused by these entities. Why? FISA court abuses and enough lies from the US government the last 70 yrs. for Pinocchio's nose to be in the Andromeda galaxy if he worked for them.
It all boils down to no one trusts the US government to follow the law, wonder why.
But this isnt secret. Its also a much lower impact sort of thing.
The first is a good point, not sure about the second yet. Guess we'll have to see.
I suppose ALL states don't have something similar in place for involuntary commitment, but seeing how Californiastan is already enacting illegal laws just to spite Trump....
I have a feeling that pwned LEO will be very likely to dispose of the collected weaponry sooner than they "should".
I'm still trusting Trump, but am growing more concerned about 2025.
If Trump can't put away at least some of the worst of our domestic enemies, he and his family and anyone who expresses support for him will be attacked the rest of our lives.
Same for Sarah Palin, by REPUBLICANS.
Constitutional carry is for concealed. Open carry is like a MAGA hat.
The next step is that owning too many guns, or too many of the "wrong" guns is a felony and suddenly — innocent people are disarmed and prohibited from ever owning a gun again.
That process does a lot more than just take away firearms. That takes away the ability of the person to post on the internet, threaten people, use other dangerous weapons like their car or a knife, and it provides time for an actual determination of dangerousness. Of course the psychiatry community has shown that it is difficult to identify dangerous people, several recent mass murderers passed their psychiatrist's examinations.
If somebody is too dangerous to have a gun aren't they too dangerous to be, for example, flying a commercial jetliner?
The reason politicians want to focus on guns is that provides them a way to disarm the population without raising the concerns that are raised when you force someone into a mental hospital for 3 days. I suspect if you just proposed a 30 day ban on internet usage and video game playing along with the firearms seizures the Democrats would vote the bills down.
True - I was confusing that. I do think concealed works, and works fine.
But given the condition of Democrats today, they'll probably get more 'triggered' by a MAGA hat than if you're spinning a loaded revolver on your index finger.
Not really, When I moved to Az in 2000 just about everyone open carried and it was not alarming to anyone at all. Everyone was used to the fact it was just part of the culture and common normal everyday attire like suits and ties were are in the city. Or Bib overalls in farming country, or Cowboy hats here.
"It was a heated political discussion and his sister in law was frightened by how upset he was."
Was the SIL a liberal and the dead guy a conservative who voiced an objection to her in some way? Because simply disagreeing with them is considered 'violence' and 'shouting'.
Cuz this is how it will work out every. single. time. with these laws.
He would.
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in the kitchen with: coffee-flavoured cake
My former boss was from Adelaide, and she looovveed to cook, bake and try new restaurants. She knew I did, too, so she always shared typical Australian things with me, like the Green and Gold Cookery Book, or the book that this week's recipe came from, the South Australian Country Women's Association Calendar of Cakes: A Cake a Day for 365 Days. And I shared things with her, like Junior League Cookbooks from regions of the US with very typical cuisines (like New England, the West, Texas, the South). We had a bit of a recipe swap going on when she was my boss.
This week's recipe is a bit of a cheat because it is the recipe for November 4th, instead of the November 11th recipe; however, the November 11th recipe required a cup of yeast, and I don't know where to get that. So we must thank Mrs. S. A. Kelly from Port Victoria in South Australia for her Coffee-Flavoured Cake contribution to the Calendar of Cakes. The original recipe, which I've copied below, calls for this to be made in layers and then filled with whatever icing/cream you'd like, and I can think of TONS of things — like a wonderful chocolate whipped cream or something hazelnut-ty — that would be divine with this. However, I went the simple route and made individual 3 oz. cakes because I can easily freeze them.
If you've read my book reviews at MattBites.com, you know that I love old community-sourced cookbooks for what they tell us about the time periods when the recipes were produced. I love learning about great ones, so if you know of a school, church, junior league or any other community-sourced cookbook that you'd passionately recommend, leave me a tip! — Kristina
Read the full post after the jump!
Coffee-Flavoured Cake
- 4 oz butter (1 stick)
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 good tablespoons treacle (or molasses)
- 2 cups self-rising flour (or make your own with 1.5 teaspoons baking powder + 1/2 teaspoon salt per cup of all-purpose flour)
- pinch of salt
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 to 3/4 cup strong coffee
1. Cream butter and sugar, and add eggs one at a time. Beat well, and add treacle.
2. Fold in thoroughly sifted dry ingredients alternately with black coffee.
3. Fill two greased 8-inch sandwich tins (regular round cake pans).
4. Bake in a moderate oven for 25 to 30 minutes (I did it at 350ºF/180ºC). Leave in tins for a while.
5. When cool, fill and ice as desired.
— MRS S. A. KELLY (Port Victoria)
Photography by Kristina Gill; cake wrappers from Wheel & Barrow; linen from Merci


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This reflection is a follow up to James Ford's post a little while back, Jiufeng Does Not Approve: A Brief Meditation.
I've been chewing on this old case for twenty years or so – an important pointer in my ongoing search for what Dogen calls the wondrous method of practice-enlightenment (aka, shikantaza).
Katagiri Roshi would often say that there are only a few people who really know this wondrous method. I took that to heart and launched a pilgrimage that has been dragging on for thirty-five years.
The koan work that I've been doing, fyi, is also in service of this inquiry – what is the heart of shikantaza?
Here's the koan.
Book of Serenity, Case 96:
Jiufeng Daoqian served Shishuang Qingzhu as his attendant. When the master died, the assembly elected the head monk as the new abbot. Jiufeng was unsure of the new master's realization. He declared "I will test him, and if he understands what our late master understood, then I will continue as his attendant."
The two men met. Jiufeng said, "our late teacher said, 'You should extinguish all delusive thoughts. You should let consciousness expire. You should let your one awareness continue for ten thousand years. You should let your awareness become like winter ashes, or a withered tree. You should let your consciousness become like one strip of pure white silk.' So, tell me, what matter was he intending to clarify with these words?"
The head monk said "Our late master intended to clarify the matter of absolute emptiness."
Jiufeng replied, "If that is your understanding, you have failed to achieve the insight of our late master."
The head monk was taken aback. He said, "Pass me that incense." When Jiufeng did, the head monk lit it, saying "If I didn't understand him, I would not be able to die as the incense smoke rises." And with these words, he assumed the zazen posture and died.
Jiufeng reached over and gently caressed the late head monk's shoulder, saying, "Even though you can die sitting or standing, you have not dreamt our late master's teaching."
Shishuang (807-88) was a successor to Daowu – the guy who wouldn't say alive or dead, the guy who asked his brother Yunyan about the activity of great compassion, the guy who asked the sweeping Yunyan what he was doing. Daowu was a successor to Yaoshan in the Shitou branch of Zen, the branch that eventually became associated with "silent illumination" and then radicalized by Dogen as "shikantaza" (or earnest, vivid sitting).
Shishuang was a contemporary of Linchi, Yangshan, Dongshan and Xuefeng – living and teaching right in the thick of the dream time for Zen teachings.
Thus Shishuang's zendo was reputed to be a dead-tree hall, so named for the emphasis on long hours of still sitting and fore-shadows the silent illumination school (although these old guys were dead for a hundred years or so before the silent illumination brand arose) as well of this drop-dead trick – a considerable meditation feat and quite beside the point.
James, of course, does a nice job of laying out the issue and making the koan point that the realization of emptiness is alive:
"How do you extinguish all delusive thoughts? Show me. How do you let consciousness expire? What word expresses that? And what about the ten thousand years? Ten thousand moments? Ten thousand breaths? Ten thousand pauses? I can tell you just presenting zazen will not cut it." [emphasis added]
Nor will dying in body or in spirit while sitting necessarily do it.
And this goes to the heart of shikantaza. Demonstrably not simply a silent illumination death camp (aka"just sitting") – a passive practice in the chorus of the do-me-dharma school.
"Dropping body and mind," Dogen's mantra for shikantaza, echoes the withered tree way but is certainly not merely pure receptivity or panoramic awareness as some contemporary skin bags portray it.
Another framing for this conversation is about the two wings of Buddhist meditation, samadhi and insight, that has been in play at least since the Buddha's time. We tend to emphasize one over the other, subtly missing the heart of the wondrous method.
Soto Zen at it's best leans toward samadhi. Koan Zen toward insight.
Case in point, a close student of Suzuki Roshi once told me that he told her, "Zazen is samadhi."
Yes and no.
I once asked Katagiri Roshi if zazen was about samadhi or insight. He held up his hand and turned it back and forth and said, "Like a leaf showing one side then the other. Go into one side deeply and the other appears."
And this is Dogen's great practice. Shikantaza as the "show me," "tell me" resolution of the samadhi/insight issue where samadhi and insight are two foci and the seeming conflict is dynamically resolved through ongoing intimate interaction.
It is this very churning that ripens the sweet cream of the long river.
(Photo above of withered tree is from recent canoeing trip to BWCA)


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This cottage is modeled after Schimpff's Confectionary in Jeffersonville, IN. The Schimpff family, originally from the German state of Bavaria, has been making candy for over 140 years, and have kept up this store since 1891. In addition to a deli and a vast candy selection, Schimpff's also features a candy demonstration area and a museum.
Just 500 of these cottages were made, and a few are still available! Click here to visit their website.


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Family Brings Greek Traditions to Londonderry
Small and quaint, Londonderry's newest restaurant Gigi's Kouzina offers traditional homemade Greek fare in a relaxed atmosphere. Gigi's opened on June 19, 2012 and is owned and operated by Gigi and Billy Palaskas.
The Palaskas family has had experience in the restaurant business for more than 40 years. As owners of Brother's Pizza on South Willow Street in Manchester, NH, the couple took a short break from the restaurant business to spend time with family in Greece before returning to the area to open Gigi's. The couple is assisted by their eldest daughter, Tina.
Cooking from family recipes that she's perfected over the years, Gigi spends much of her time in the kitchen. Gigi's prides itself that 95% of the food is made in the restaurant from scratch. Pizzas are made from hand-stretched, homemade dough; baklava is made fresh with sweet layers of crust and nuts.
Menu items range from pizza and calzones to pasta, salads and wraps. The restaurant also offers a daily Greek dinner dish, baked fresh each day, that include pastitsio, baked lamb, and haddock plaki. Because the special dinners are made daily, there is limited servings. It is recommended that diners call early to reserve a meal.
Gigi's offers delivery to all of Londonderry and hopes to expand into other local towns. Their hours are Monday through Thursday, 11 AM until 9 PM; Fridays and Saturdays, 11 AM until 11 PM; and Sundays, 1 until 8 PM.
Gigi's Kouzina is located at 217 Rockingham Road. Visit them online.


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With refined new styling in the front and the rear, you've never seen an Accord that looks like this.
Forward-thinking technology is always front and center.
Parking sensors embedded in the front and rear bumpers alert you of nearby objects.
Start your Accord with the simple push of a button.
- Exterior
- Interior
The Accord consistently outperforms sedan expectations.
Take a good look at the restyled Accord Sedan.
A bold take on sedan style.
The Accord turns heads even when it's standing still.
Change the music, answer a call and more without ever taking your hands off the wheel, thanks to the steering wheel-mounted controls.
Innovation, style, and comfort. Every aspect was considered when designing the interior of the Accord.
Forward thinking technology is always front and center.
Start your Accord Sedan with the push of a button (V6 models).
Click and Drag
Specifications, features, colors and equipment shown may vary and may not be available in all markets.
When you have limited visibility, the functional halogen headlights & LED fog lights help you see and be seen.
Make sure your Accord is ready by the time you get there with the remote engine start, to pre-heat or cool your vehicle, available on V6 models.


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These days a lot of engaged couples preparing for their weddings are trying to stick to a reasonable budget, and creating their own wedding invitations is part of that process. I hope that these free elegant wedding clipart are useful in helping you create a professional looking invitation.
Good luck with all your preparations, and I wish you a wonderful wedding and happy marriage. :)
(note that these are thumbnails, and may be enlarged by clicking on them)
I hope you found these free elegant wedding clipart useful and attractive. Be sure to check out more of our clipart themes, as we have some other wedding clipart on pther pages.


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First of 2 parts
ONE of the paintings I've always wanted to see in person is Chinese-Canadian Lui Liu's 'Beijing 2008'a.k.a. "Women Playing Mahjong"—an evocative portrait of geopolitical struggle. The painting was finished in 2005 and exhibited at the 2006 New York art fair. It fetched 19.55 million yuan ($3.24 million) during the Poly 2012 autumn auction. It features four women playing strip mahjong, while a little girl watches them. Its eroticism aptly limns the seduction of power struggle in international politics.
Women Playing Mahjong's most famous interpretation, which focused on its supposed geopolitical message, was a short essay by an anonymous writer. Adapting that anonymous essay, I will re-contextualize the painting using post-2012 events.
On the left is Japan, looking intently at her tiles. On the right is Russia, lying seductively supine. Right in front is an Asian lady with pigtails and a tattoo on her back. Her name is China. Across China is USA; she's looking sideways. Standing by the side is Vietnam, wearing a red cheongsam halter top.
It's apt that mahjong is the game symbolizing their geopolitical struggle, not only because mahjong involves skill, strategy, and serendipity, but also because China, where the game originated, is also the longest surviving player in this geopolitical theater. China—her rise, decline, and re-emergence is arguably the longue durée [long, slow process] shaping the geopolitical history of this region. In this mahjong, losing entails removing one item of clothing. A player gets booted out of the game when the only thing to remove is her presence.
Among them, Japan is completely naked. If she loses, she'll have to leave and let another player take her place. This reflects the status quo post-bellum that the US imposed on Japan. Her ability to parlay her economic gains into military might is being constrained by her pacifist Constitution. Yet despite her utter nakedness, her pacific face shows no trace of defeat. She keenly examines her tiles, perhaps looking for a way to rearrange it so she could boost her strengths. Indeed, Japan is slowly breaking away from the post-World War 2 order. In September 2015, the Diet, Japan's parliament, passed a law that would allow their military to fight overseas, a reinterpretation of their Constitution's prohibition against it.
But Japan is not taking any chances. As she slowly breaks free from her post- World War pacifism, she might as well hedge her chances and seek some form of crisis management mechanism with China. As Admiral Katsutoshi Kawano, Chief of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces' Joint Staff, once suggested: There must be a "communication mechanism [covering]both the navies and air forces. Enabling such communication would be a great step forward in avoiding an unexpected situation. We have been pushing for an early implementation all along" (Japan Times, November 29, 2014).
In the game, Russia is left with only her panties. This reflects the post-Cold war political order, ushered in by the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Russia may appear indifferent but it is far from that. Her foot is stepping on US's leg, her right hand extending far to her right side, gesturing the US-led NATO to stop—stop expanding. Her face looks worried. She feels insecure, threatened and betrayed because according to her diplomats, during the reunification of Germany, the US promised the Soviet Union that NATO would not expand eastward. According to Russia's version of events, the US reneged on this promise "as NATO added 12 Eastern European countries in three subsequent rounds of enlargement." As Ukraine's political axis tilted more to the West, Russia's fear worsened. Ukraine is simply not just one of the New Independent States comprising Russia's "near-abroad." Ukraine's significance to Russia is all-encompassing: historical, political, strategic, religious, and emotional. As Kissinger said:
"The West must understand that, to Russia, Ukraine can never be just a foreign country. Russian history began in what was called Kievan-Rus. The Russian religion spread from there. Ukraine has been part of Russia for centuries, and their histories were intertwined before then. Some of the most important battles for Russian freedom, starting with the Battle of Poltava in 1709, were fought on Ukrainian soil. The Black Sea Fleet—Russia's means of projecting power in the Mediterranean—is based by long-term lease in Sevastopol, in Crimea. Even such famed dissidents as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Joseph Brodsky insisted that Ukraine was an integral part of Russian history and, indeed, of Russia" (Washington Post, March 5, 2014).
As Russia's right leg and arm blocks the West's further advance, her left hand reaches out to China. As the Crimean crisis unfolded in 2014, Russia forged an energy deal with China, estimated to be worth $400 billion. This was followed by a second deal in November 2014. And in March 2017, Bank Rossii, Russia's central bank, opened a branch in Beijing, its first branch abroad. The South China Morning Post viewed it as "a small step forward in forging a Beijing-Moscow alliance to bypass the US dollar in the global monetary system" ("Moscow and Beijing join forces to bypass US dollar in world money market," March 17, 2017).
In Part 2, I will focus on China, USA and Vietnam, as well as the significance of mahjong being played on the sea.
(Published in The Manila Times, 6 June 2017)
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Dear Colleagues,
Greetings from The Shipping Tribune!!
The 6th Annual India Ship Management Summit, the most awaited conference in the country, is back. The first five edition of this Summit were hugely successful in bringing together the entire shipping industry and various stakeholders under one roof to deliberate and explore the future course of the industry.
The Shipping Tribune offers an unmissable opportunity To Speak & Promote Your Organisation at "India Ship Management Summit 2019"A One Day Conference on 4th October 2019 at Holiday Inn, Andheri (East), Mumbai. This creates a unique opportunity for organizations to enhance their visibility and promote their brand on such a platform. Our e-Newsletters and promotional mails help the organizations reach more than 100,000 industry professionals in various geographical maritime areas.
The entire Shipping Industry will convene at this prominent conference, a hub of knowledge and ideas, to make this a memorable experience. Who's who of the industry attended this conference last year. This year the conference is going to be even bigger and better.
Introduction & Objective of The Summit:
Global Shipping Industry is under extreme pressure for last several years due to overcapacity. Commercial and Technical fitness of the vessel is of paramount importance in these market conditions. Quality & Safety of operations, Crew management, and reducing costs for ship owners are some of the major challenges faced by the ship managers today.
Third party ship management business is estimated to be over 5 billion US Dollars worldwide. Can India be the hub of ship management business? Why technical management and manning of the foreign vessels is a distant dream for Indian entrepreneurs based in India? Can Mumbai or Chennai be next Hong Kong or Cyprus? Despite having wealth of knowledge and experience, what is impeding Indian entrepreneur's growth? One of the goals of Ministry of Shipping is, increasing the share of Indian Seafarers in the global shipping industry.
What kind of specialization and training is needed for the trade?
Do we have a roadmap to achieve these goals?
India Ship Management Summit will address these important issues that exist for various stakeholders in the industry. The conference aims to provide a common platform for various stakeholders in the ship management & crew recruitment business to exchange ideas and make informed decisions in their business.
Come, join us and benefit from the opportunity to connect, confer and conduct business!
For sponsorship & delegate registration , please contact:
Capt Virendra N. Mishra, Conference Director
+91-22- 41271324


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The Law Office of Morris A. Anyah, LLC. has been helping clients throughout South Holland get the representation they need for many years. We know how difficult it can be to deal with criminal charges in state or Federal court, and even more difficult is dealing with the effects on your life after the dust has settled. We have helped clients throughout South Holland find all sorts of resolutions for their criminal case cases and are confident we can help you do the same.
We are proud of our reputation as one of the most trusted criminal defense firms in South Holland. Here at the Law Office of Morris A. Anyah, LLC., we view handling your case as a privilege and we always pride ourselves in delivering the results that you seek. We believe we are successful at what we do because we put your needs first: your criminal case is unique and you need someone that can pay attention to every detail and then fight aggressively to protect your rights, every step of the way. Wherever you are in the South Holland area and no matter what criminal charges you are facing, do not settle for less than top-quality representation.
If you, your child, or a loved one has been questioned by law enforcement or has been charged with a serious crime, the stakes only get higher with each passing day and you need the guidance of an experienced criminal defense lawyer. At the Law Office of Morris A. Anyah, LLC., we have frank discussions with our clients about the potential consequences of a conviction for drug offenses, rape, murder, assault, theft, burglary, financial crimes, conspiracy, and other serious crimes. Because we know the serious repercussions a conviction could have on your life, we advise, guide, and are there for you every step of the way. Most importantly, we fight vigorously to obtain a "not guilty" outcome in every criminal case we handle. Once you decide to retain the Law Office of Morris A. Anyah, LLC. to handle your criminal case, we waste no time in evaluating and strategizing the best approach to take with your case, and we immediately get to work in mounting a solid defense on your behalf.
When faced with serious criminal charges, you need an attorney who understands and can break-down every aspect of the legal system you are about to face. That includes advising you on what might happen if you go to trial before a jury versus a judge, or if you prefer that we negotiate an alternative resolution with the prosecution, such as deferred prosecution, drug school, boot camp, or plea bargain. We draw on our many years of experience working out plea bargains with area prosecutors in getting you the best result possible, should you elect to avoid going to trial and prefer to resolve your case pre-trial. We never ask or recommend that you plead guilty – instead, we start from the get-go believing in your innocence and being determined to set you free and clear your good name. Once you join us in the fight and decide to take your case to trial, the Law Office of Morris A. Anyah, LLC. will help you along every step of the way from arguing your case at motion hearings to presenting your case to a jury or judge. Jury trials are where we shine and demonstrate our vast experience with criminal cases, and we have a strong understanding of how jurors make decisions in criminal cases. Contact the Law Office of Morris A. Anyah, LLC. to talk with an experienced South Holland attorney about your case today.
The Law Office of Morris A. Anyah, LLC.
53 W Jackson Blvd #1264
Chicago, IL 60604
(312) 528-9022


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I Survived My First RT Conference!!!
I'm going to write a longer post this weekend about my experiences at the RT Convention in Kansas City but right now all I want to do is sleep. I'm thankful I took today off from work but getting back to the normal schedule will be hard this week.
Short list of people I met (I know I will miss some so please bear with me):
Tiffany Reisz (I might have squeed a bit especially when I got a much coveted proof of a certain title)
Lauren Dane
Shannon Stacey
Angela James
Ruthie Knox
Jax Garren
Jeffe Kennedy
Shiloh Walker
Lora Leigh
Cherry Adair
Julie Walker
Vivian Arend
Sarah Wendell from Smart Bitches Trashy Books
Jane Little from Dear Author
The publicist from Kensington who recognized my blog & gave me her card that I can't find in my stupid luggage yet… (Sniffles) *Update* FOUND IT!! Hi Vida!! *waves wildly*
Joy from Joyfully Reviewed
Julie Ann Rowe
Del Dryden
Sierra Dean (from whom I won a book via a Twitter contest I knew nothing about)
Kate (fellow attendee who became our invisible 3rd in lines)
Pam (another fellow attendee who wore same dress as my partner in crime at the ball)
Maya Banks
John Scalzi
Andrew Shaffer (oops should have put him closer to Tiffany)
Sarah M Anderson
Lexxie Couper (who gave me TimTams that will be savored tomorrow as a treat for surviving work)
Julie James
Julie Ann Walker
HelenKay Dimon
Kelley Armstrong
Elisabeth Naughton
Jeanine Frost
E from Bookpushers
Linda from Fish w Sticks
Ok you get the picture. I'll post more this weekend including a pic of the massive book haul I need to still dig through for giveaway materials. Thanks to everyone for being patient and I promise reviews are on their way… 🙂


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Island d Cochin Mulavukad, abodes the famous Bolghatty palace, is one of the islands that forms part of the city of Kochi, Kerala, India. Vypin island and Vallarpadam island lie on its west side and Vaduthala lie to its east. Mulavukad island is connected to Ernakulam city & Vallarpadam by the Gosree bridges and to Container terminal road at north side to connect to Kalamassery and Aluva side. Easy connection to the CBD, Northern and Southern side of Cochin city make the Island unique among other Goshree Islands. This island in particular is very scenic serene and has a picturesque view.
The Bolgatty Palace is located at the southern tip of the Island d Cochin Mulavukad. It was built by the Dutch as a centre for colonial administration, and later taken over by the British. The Palace is a popular tourist attraction and a heritage hotel, managed by the Kerala State Tourism Department (KTDC).
The Lulu International Convention Center and Hyatt Hotels group is launching in Mulavukad in 2016.The Mulavukad island has a golf course and an international marina. The marina was the first of its kind in India and was set up by KITCO, for KTDC. Island is famous for its resorts, farm houses, water sports, safe bicycle routes, jogging tracks and multi cuisine restaurants.
Overlooking the backwater, Cochin seaport, Vallarpadam container terminal and the Arabian Sea is the Bolgatty Event Centre, the venue is ideal for conducting International conferences, Conventions, Exhibitions, Meetings, Wedding receptions and Theme dinners.


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What a game, eh? I can appreciate a good game and that, my friends, was an amazing display even aside from breaking a 108-year Cubs World Series dry spell. Add that in and it was really something! Two GREAT teams giving their all and a butt clencher for all fans start to finish.
For something unique, authorized Birdsong dealer HD Custom Guitar Supply has just posted a special order Cbass crafted from hundred year old brewery tank redwood with custom touches, truly a one time build! You can see that here.
The stereo in the workshop has given its all I'm afraid, so other arrangements have been made temporarily to keep the music going. Last CD successfully played was a 5 song EP from 2006 by a band called The Simon Pure that rotated back into my mental inventory from a dusty CD pile this week. I have the feeling it was sent to me by a client (you out there?), but the band put no last names, locational reference, or any links in the liner notes that are currently active. Would love to talk with them – but it's definitely not the bluegrass band currently with the name. Popped it out and the CD player choked on Aerosmith and that was that.
One year ago our little town was gathering itself up from the second "hundred year flood" of 2015. First was the Blanco River, then the Halloween flood of Cypress Creek. I saw a man the other morning out getting some breakfast tacos, one we were able to do some good for after he lost his home, thanks to the generosity of our clients. You never hear me complain, there's never any drama report here; Birdsong handles its end, takes care of its business and never cries wolf. So when something DOES hit the fan nearby, I put the word out and you always come through – for the flood, we were high ground gratefully and thankful to be on the giving end of some assistance. This man is a good man, a widower, and he was able to refit his garage into a big apartment for himself. You helped. He thanks you, Birdsong family – as do I.
Ok, random pics from the archives, and I'm out of here!
Oh that last picture... while we're on the topic of a rather fuzzy member of the team, here you go - the best ten seconds of your day from Maggie the Heeler - she loves you.
All the best from our circle to yours,
Listening to: The Simon Pure (whoever you are, not the bluegrass band, but from '06) – a little Aerosmith (very little, unfortunately) – and lots of Paul Desmond and Ed Bickert.


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From State Representative Ron Sandack's 2014 Legislative Constituent Survey comes this overwhelming response from voters to push back the 1.5% income tax increase that Governor Pat Quinn, Treasurer Candidate Mike Frerichs, and the rest of the mopes down in Springfield foisted on all of us.
From the survey:
The survey asked three multiple choice questions and also provided people with an opportunity to list the three top issues that were most important to them. For the first question, which was "Do you support rolling back the 67% temporary income tax increase, even if it means a reduction in some state services?," 71.47% of the respondents answered "yes." For that question, 24.86% of the respondents said "no" and 3.67% said they were undecided.