text:
Ran Blake: From Music to Film and Back
More than a four-decade career as a recording artist, a winner of numerous iconic awards (including being named a Mac Arthur fellow in 1988) with more than 30 recordings to his credit collaborating with artists creatively diverse as saxophonist/composer Anthony Braxton, pianist Jaki Byard, and saxophonist Ricky Ford, pianist Ran Blake's music still sounds fresh, alive and unmistakably matchless. In the following interview Ran really was true to form - full of wisdom and beautiful crystallized memories surrounding a myriad of thoughts that just flowed like the Hudson on a warm breezy day. The grace, the wit, the humility, the uniqueness, the generosity, and the charmthat's Ran Blake in a nutshellat 69 years young a true icon that shines like the brilliant genius he truly is.
All About Jazz: Well one of the first things I wanted to talk about is what you're doing in New York in January, what exactly is going on?
Ran Blake: Well there is the 80th birthday concert of George Russell...
AAJ: I see.
RB: Which was done in London, and was done in Jordan Hall [at the New England Conservatory (NEC) in Boston] and will be done in New York and will be done a month later in Sweden, and then there's the [NEC] alumni afternoon at IAJE (International Association of Jazz Educators convention). We hope to get the New York bunch to help us to recruit but I'm also in to what we can do for alumni careers, of course we can't do a great deal –I don't want to make promises, but it will be good to see what the institution can do. And then I hope to get to know my favorite hotel—the Leo House on 23rd and 9th. It's a Jesuit hotel and different nuns and priests patrol the hallway to make sure you're drinking you're water and lemon, and there's a chapel there and a psychiatrist and an organ and a lounge and a coca cola machine!
AAJ: So this visit kind of takes you back. When did you live in New York?
RB: That was my happy period, I came there in August of 1960 and lived in Amelia Lairfield's boarding house on 113th and Amsterdam.
AAJ: Harlem!
RB: Yes. I had curfew, here I was 25, and I had to be home at 10:30 most nights and for the Friday night kosher dinner I had to be there at 8pm. And she had a ruler, she didn't slap me too much but I had to be there on time. I paid twelve dollars a week and did things to help. Then one time she said you may have a guest and George Russell came up and instead of bringing Welch's grape juice it was Bordeaux, and she began smiling and then she called him Georgie, and then we were able to have cheese and wine, and she began liking jazz, studying gospel music, and Stravinsky, and loved the modern jazz quartet, and then her family was thrilled that they could have a little bit of wine there so her whole personality changed. I lived there and I studied with George Russell, Bill Russo, worked as a desk clerk, a waiter, helped an engineering firm, and then I could go out in the evening and wait on tables at jazz clubs and listen.
AAJ: How long were you here and when did you leave NYC?
RB: So I left, I did two trips, of course I mean it was great to be with Jeanne Lee and then in 1967 Jeanne and I went to Europe, and then I took a two week trip to Greece to the world of Vradiazi, and that's when the military coup took place, and then other things happened, and then Gunther [Schuller] invited me to Boston. [Editors note: Ran had gone to Greece to work and also hoped to study with composer Mikis Theodorakis of Zorba the Greek fame. He unfortunately arrived there right before the infamous junta military coup of 1967. He witnessed much violence and specifically atrocities that were being committed against artists but that went virtually unreported in the press. He luckily escaped Greece and made a point to report what he saw and document it in music as well so that it would never be forgotten.]
AAJ: So you said you were in New York in 1960. When did you meet vocalist Jeanne Lee?
RB: Oh we were at college together .We met on a September afternoon at Bard hall [at Bard College in upstate New York], she made the mistake of saying "you sound like Art Tatum", which nobody else had ever said, and I said "what an interesting comment" and she said "I am considered somewhat interesting by some..." and then we had dinner that night and then we began to rehearse.
AAJ: And you began to rehearse, and how soon after you began rehearsing did you record that infamous record? [ The Newest Sound Around, 1962 on RCA]
RB: Oh..., well 7 years. We're not the microwave society like today's people Matana. We took our time and then we met Sunday morning at Ms. Lairfield's--- by then she allowed us to have bleu cheese on our bagels--- and she would come and hear the rehearsals and give her two cents worth. We just loved rehearsing for the sake of it so it was just years and years. I think when we were both sophomores we stopped seeing each other much. She worked with a conventional trio and I did more solos and running to hear [saxophonist] Houston Person in Hartford or musicians in other places. It really was years and years.
AAJ: Well just looking from that record to the newest record you have out which is with the sons of Gunther Schuller- drummer George and Ed Schuller the bassist.[Sonic Temples GM]—you have some compositions on that record that you have recorded many times. A particular favorite seems to be Laura, [by Johnny Mercer and David Raskin] that you recorded also with Jeanne Lee more than once. What do you look for in the compositions that you choose of other composers? RB: I think mood, lyricof course the movie I had liked. And then Jeanne saw it, but I look for something with good lyrics, like "We'll be Together Again" [as sung by Al Green] is very important, and "Good Morning Heartache" by Irene Higgobotham from Worcester [Massachusetts], nobody knows her writing. "You and I" by Stevie Wonder. [I look for] something that's sort of endearing like "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," "Sophisticated Lady," "Lush Life,"--- meaty words, grammaticism, but that doesn't have to be a given. I think some of the words of the song "Dancing in the Dark" [Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz] that talk about eternity there are two there lines in [that song] that are fabulous. I guess I look for a mood but for me the mood that I look for is often gray and dark and has a life span going back to the past, the present, and the future. So those are my favorite ones that[I like] music that has memories.
AAJ: I know that Film Noir is very important to you, why is that? [Editors note: Film Noir means literally 'black film or cinema that was a term coined by French film critics. It is a genre of American films that first appeared in the 1940s, became well-known in post-war time, and lasted in a traditional phase until about 1960. Blake comments on his biographical hand out – Six Key Experiences : "At first I felt my musical life would revolve around the axis of program music but I became less enchanted by its most literal examples, and became more intrigued by the inner corridors of film and real life characters. This occurred without conscious effort and as my early teen years continued, this dark atmospheric mood occupied 80% of my life. Without strategy, I began to form an occasional judicious compilation of a sort of musical glossary that would signify death and law enforcement.]"
RB: Well I think it because it was a part of my childhood--- I discovered [the film] Spiral Staircase [directed by David O. Selnick] in '46; A world of mystery but its not quite supernatural, ghost, or horror and there isn't blood, and it's not big city crime, and I guess why is it?why do some people like gardenias? Really even at this ageI'm going to be 70 in a year and I still don't know why. There's some bad film noir. My favorite director [is] Claude Chabrol, but there's a lot of varietythere can be a romantic, a fantasy film noir, a more biting noir, etc.
AAJ: But you like the noir that's more shaded or gray right?
RB: Yes I do like a few sun cloudsits great when there's a moment of happiness, but it's more subtle and often it's interior and it's a transference of guilt, it's just not somebody [going] bang! bang!its how like a [Alfred] Hitchcock character sometimes is accused by the police and sometimes she or he are very innocent but you're always wondering and sometimes there are great visual shots in the dark and in candlelight. I could go on and on...
AAJ: Well how has that grayness affected your musical sight—what's the connection?
RB: I thinkwell I don't do much psychoanalysis of myself---I don't know it just does. I think because I watch the movies and then I go to the piano. It's different than like a conservatory and budgets and all. Like [the film] Vertigo [ directed by Alfred Hitchcock], my month is not complete if I don't see it--- there's James Stewart looking at Kim Novak looking at her mothers painting and there you see her looking backwards, even if sometimes they're playing con games there's all those sub meanings. There is feeling in that aloneness, going back to the past, the nostalgia.
AAJ: Who introduced you to Noir?
RB: Oh I snuck there, I must of read the papers in Hartford and Springfield Massachusetts I didn't call it noir I just went to the moviesI remember I had a piggy bank with pencils and I snuck in one day and the manager noticed me at the theater and said "you've been here two or three times this week what would your parents say?" I would hide in the back of theaterall people under [age] 14 had to out of the theater at 6pmI knew which back door to sneak out of. I could come back into the theater but then my parents started getting suspicious so they sort of banned [it], they said I could see other movies but they didn't want me to see anything of this nature, I mean the story goes on and on. Well, just a how does one fall in love? or why do some people like scotch and somebody else jack daniels?
AAJ: I wanted to talk a little bit about the Contemporary Improvisation department, formerly known as the Third Stream department, at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts that you've been involved with since...
RB: Since its inception in '72. Gunther [Schuller] is probably one of the most important people in my life and he defined third stream as a combination [of musics]. The original definition was [a combination of] classical and jazz and then I thought what about making it a verb to "third stream"---why can it not be Joao Gilberto of Brazil mixed in with [Claude] Debussy, French harmony and then somebody might add a Cuban rhythm or a Ugandan rhythmyou can also have bad mixtures like chocolate ice-cream over pasta ---maybe that would be somebody's idea of a good meal. I got fascinated by the ear and internalization. I had started when I first began to work at [the] conservatory after the year of helping John Wulp, and delivering mail ,and I helped [the] community services [department].[editor's note Ran was first employed at the conservatory as a mailroom employee] which was very unique in '68 , now everyplace has it. I noticed that some musicians began to play deeper if they really owned some of the music and I thought why do people have trouble memorizing? Maybe it's because they're learning it visually. So I got to be a champion, maybe a little bit to rigid a doctrinaire, [but] I got to be a champion of really investigating the ear and I started to work on the primacy of the ear book a few years later and I suddenly found a young man-[reedist]- Hankus Netskywho [I thought] would be fabulous about bringing his culture into the department. And there were also [vocalist] Dominique Eade, [sitarist] Peter Row from India and Scott Sandvik [from] the [American] delta; then we had Rocky Birigwa from Uganda he had to leave after a while. We had many infusions and at that point young people weren't in such a hurry to get a cd out so there was time to bring this idea of long term memory into focus and this of course was borrowed from Africa and Asia; I didn't invent this, but I don't think many schools developed a curriculum around it at the time.
AAJ: What do you mean borrowed from Africa or Asia?
RB: Well Africa, India, you might not have tape recorders keeping a log and doing it ala "Ran Blake"; they certainly don't know me there, but grandfather to granddaughter—learned by the oral tradition and even though every generation would add things there would be the general brain idea that would be kept from grandparent to grandchild . The European tradition --- I love Europe there's a great traditionbut it began to be purely visual there after a while.
AAJ: So the basic tenet of developing the primacy of the ear has to do with what you call long-term melodic memory?
RB: And [long-term] harmonic [memory]. A lot of people have rhythmical pulse but are they melodic? Matana there are some things we can do better than othersnot everybody is gonna be into noir; I don't want to imprint the "Ran Blake" god forbid I hope they enjoy it a little bit but everybody should graduate with their own story, their own portrait.
AAJ: What's the difference between long-term harmonic memory and long term melodic memory?
RB: Well long term harmonic? I feel there's a lot of ways of holding three note chords in the ear like [my composition] Memphis [ Something to Live For, Hatology 527] has a major chord going to another major chord a sixth up and that's not your Charlie Parker II, V, I [progression][ which doesn't mean we don't want Charlie Parker too--- some people like certain guitar players leap to that and they find other people who like it tooit's a skill that they do. But you're not meant to hear harmonically. Some people may hear a beat or a bass line more than an upper melody. Long term training whether its harmony or rhythm I mean a couple people call it bullshit now because people are in a hurry but it helps you. There are going to be some things you remember better. That's why I think the study of film and looking back, not just only being obsessed by yourself but looking back at other people and saying to yourself "how did they grow?" [Having] a whole sense of history the whole thing can broaden not just the musical stuff. This takes a great deal of time but you do find your personality because after a while your teacher doesn't say " I want you to do these eight things this week" [because] you began to pick your repertoire whether its Chris Connor, Roscoe Mitchell, Billie Holiday, [or Bela] Bartok. The whole field really has not been explored in classical music and of course conductors will need scores. But a lot of people like Gunther [Schuller] can look at a score and can hear it. I mean there's some people, some people don't need this, but it is a way once you get pass that early stage, it really is a wonderful way of maturing and it does take time and it means if you are doing five gigs a week or somebody's wedding you might have to slow down; I mean it seems not to be terribly relevant to some people now. It sounds grandiose but I really want the department to persevere.
AAJ: It will.
RB: I really hope so. I hope we can get enough funding and I hope there will be a small group that will really put aside their career for a year and really find out the glories of the ear and how one's universe, ones vision, and also ones discipline, [how] it can all meld and you can [then] do something beautiful [even if] you may have a failure on the way.
AAJ: Its pretty intensive what you do with some of your students I've spoken with one of your former students who said that they had the hardest time learning some of your melodies, particularly more ethnic sounding melodies for instance like your tune Greek inspired composition about your time in Greece during the military coup in 1967 Vradiazi.
RB: Because that was an alien culture. It does take a little time to hear the melodies through the week – to mold yourself. But once you do you will have found great freedom.
AAJ: You also make your students take a personal inventory of what they like about music, you even make them make an inventory of the records and compact discs they own. What's so important about self inventory?
RB: Well I think first of all I want to know if you've heard the record once or twice because I didn't like Art Ensemble from Chicago the first time I put them on, but now –they're not my inner body—but now I have such respect for them but it doesn't take away my love for Chris Connor. I think that inventory, if you can, its really your playing repertoire, your inventory of what you're listening to, the ability of your ear, your timbre,[albeit] this is not a substitute for getting to your instrument and then your vision of life-those are the components [of it] really. So a cd thing, it doesn't mean if you're not hearing Bach or you don't want to hear Miriam Makeba or if you don't want to hear Abbey Lincoln-you should—but you really have to hear the ten or fifteen things that mean the most [to you], perhaps some that you're learning the repertoire, some that will build up Matana, or [jazz guitarist] Nate Radley or [world music violinist] Claude Chalhoub. Or what was Dominique [Eade's] listening collection? And also three or four things that you get to know that you may not use, like some great Dial records of Charlie Parker, and I'm not bebop Matana but I know its great, and also the world of George Russell—because life is busy--- if you are trying to hear five hundred records and all the new things that come out--- so many things come out that I forget what's on track one or two or three—you really want to know one thing well, and for me, personally for me nothing gives me pleasure as much as the singers.
AAJ: You're pretty legendary for seeing as much live music as possible. You even came to my solo set in Boston a few weeks ago after a full day of teaching!
RB: Well I gotta slow down a little bit because it doesn't always help my teaching the day after, it seems as if Hankus [Netsky]can recuperate and do a very clear class; I guess I really want to be there to support people; I mean part of it's a great pleasure and part of it's a little duty and obligation, but in April I will say when you're up four or five times a week it does not go into my memory and I can not practice what I preach so I am cutting down. Yes it's been a tradition.
AAJ: Where did you establish that tradition?
RB: Well I learned it in New York, and there of course you could hear [Thelonius] Monk, Ornette [Coleman]; there were clubs that had people five [or] six days. So if you wanted to go to classical--- and there goes my doorbell can I call you back when the student leaves?
AAJ: Sure Ran...
AAJ: (later—Ran asking me about my lunch) and I had salsa and beans and I'm going to make a cake today.
RB: Great! Will it be vegan?
AAJ: Yes it will be vegan god dammit yes!(laughter)
RB: well why not!(laughter)
AAJ: yes why not exactly!
RB: will you put a little lemon in it?
AAJ: I'm going to put a little orange in it, I wish you were here so that I could share it with you...
RB: Wish you could put it through the phone.. well anyway...
AAJ: So I think we'll be able to finish this up, so we were talking about before..
RB: The department and long term memory, we [NEC] just hope that we could rather get 8 or 9 students who really want to be here..
AAJ: Tell me some more of what you want people to know about the Contemporary Improvisation department at the New England Conservatory? RB: Well, of course some of our faculty like Dominique Eade, and Scott Sandvik and all that; that ear training is a component that really maybe it's easier to say you wouldn't choose it if you wanted big band, I mean you could--- but your options are more limited—for style design. But [in contemporary improvisation]there is still a repertoire that one would learn of the past and you would learn that you are really out to be an individual that still wants to not be 100% isolated ---with some interest in the history of the music and using the past to refurbish the present . You would learn to certainly be adaptable to do other gigs that pass along---but to really have goals to not just to try and be totally original but you really are or not, but that you have brought independence and occasionally the that you will have curiosity in other people and their career. We want some unselfishness altruism too.
AAJ: I read some interview many years ago from the pianist Bill Evans where he was talking about the Lenox School [ editor's note: The Lenox school of Jazz was a famous summer program that sought to nurture growing musicians through intensive studying, composing and performance located in Lenox, Massachusetts]which you participated in. He was saying that he found a majority of his private students were very adamant about making sure they sounded only like themselves. Originality in creative style was very seemed very important there, why was that?
RB: That might be, one shouldn't brag, I would say, [but] that can be really over done. I'm really glad you brought that up Matana. You shouldn't be thinking about that all the time. I think that too much that's why it's [school is] a pharmacy--- that has to be integrated with some wealth of the history and not just only hearing who ever. I mean you and I have talked about rap and hip hop, what's the best of it and then that there's also Charles Ives and Duke Ellington, so that you gotta pick your models. At first you have a teacher and some interest in really having a mentor, not just changing every semester – really someone to guide you. A teacher who will not impose his or her world only on you not a Svengali or Dr. Mabuse [ reference to one of Ran's favorite Noir movies by director Fritz Lang ]and that you really have a chance. The first few weeks you probably should be a little of what the teachers want and you really develop your models for the ages, mostly musical or philosophers, but for me film directors; You've got to have a sense of proportion.
AAJ: So in the Contemporary Improvisation department what you are trying to do is mold balanced artists.
RB: And caring for another person and perhaps not just trying to get a cd out of your own every week I mean—we want people to stay in love with what we do but we also want to be there for other people. Develop your own healthy ego so you see it's that ego--- but a care for others, your own style---but a care for history and what your peers are doing; You have to master oscillating it and eventually ( I got this from a yoga manual—by doing yin and yang—)you develop some kind of sense of proportion. That word proportion I studied [about it] with Albert Murray—do you know that name? Once and a while Wynton [Marsalis] has his arrogant moments you know but I can also say nice things about Wynton, but Albert Murray—I wasn't a private student of his but I studied history with him for a week at the Smithsonian and that was years ago and I never forgot some words. And also Willis Laurence James was influential; That Lenox School of Jazz was fabulous. It was there that George Russell, John Lewis, Gunther Schuller, Oscar Peterson, the owner Stephanie Barber; it was just a great.
AAJ: Who were some of your peer students there?
RB: I remember the teachers so much more; but of course one peer student was Ornette Coleman , one was Colin Cook a drummer from Bermuda, one was Ron Brown, one was [Edward] "Dizzy Sal" [Saldahna] from Kuwait, India a trumpet player, there many and one was Margo Guryan, one was Cevira Rose from upper east side--- that 96th street where you have a touch of East Harlem and a touch of faded Park avenue--- the people that wanted to still keep a sense of the old Park avenue but who wanted to share things with the neighbors and the new and it was just a beautiful blend—I used to have a key to an apartment—I'll keep on for 10 hours--- the memories of New York...
AAJ: Did you have to apply to it or were you selected?
RB: You applied and I went down to New York City to audition for John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet.
AAJ: Wow.
RB: And John said – he gave me a "kick" and said "you'd better take some medicine with Ray Brown" and then he said "I played unlike anybody." I spent a lot of my life trying to conform and do skill building--- I don't want to just sound like my element that's why Hankus [Netsky] became my teacher even though he says he learned from me and he studied with me but I want to know other traditions.
AAJ: Wait a minute did you just say you auditioned for the Modern Jazz Quartet?
RB: Yes, well not to play in the band [for entrance into the Lenox School]—it was mostly John Lewis, but I think that Connie Kay happened to be around ---it was at Atlantic Record studio which later they were to hire me—that was another great event —working at Atlantic records and meeting Ray Charles and Chris Connor and [Lennie] Tristano all of that happened because of the Lenox school. I went down and John Lewis said "you'd better let that Ray Brown give it to you" and he did and he also said good things about me but he was tough. [Bob]Brookmeyer said I'd never amount to much.
AAJ: That's funny (editor's note: Bob Brookmeyer and Ran now both teach at the New England Conservatory)
RB: And then the guy that I thought that would really shoot me was Oscar Peterson! He said I needed a lot of work; I don't know he said something very kind; my regret is that I didn't go to Canada for a year and study with him.
AAJ: What kept you going if you had people telling you that you had so much you needed to do?
RB: Well I don't think, I didn't, I don't know--- can I answer that more privately?—I felt terrible. Gunther [Schuller], who would also give me many "kicks"... Oscar Peterson of all people endorsing me! Brubek was very kind and George Russell who we know may be self centered, he drove to my concert in Suffolk, Connecticut and [was] very caring. One had to have the balance because I had no, I mean Gunther [Schuller] can really knock me, but it's funny [Stan] Kenton I thought would love me but he said "you're attempts are ludicrous..." and I thought he would be the one—I thought that's what Oscar Peterson would say!who has a speed and velocity on the piano that I don't even hear, it's not that my hands can't ever do a scale; But he was endorseful! So was Bill Evans; I did have a lonely time—guys my age did not, guys and women did not particularly seek me out. But after the Lenox I did play in the Eddie Young rock group in Windsor Locks, Connecticut and I know one man came up and said "What an interesting pianist, he's shocking why don't you fire him?" and Eddie Young said "Not on your life, but I admit he's not for all tastes." And the guy came back a month later and said I was not too bad but this was a guy enjoying bottled drinks that were not from Poland Springs if you know what I mean.
AAJ: I know what you mean. (laughter) So what would you attribute a five plus decade and career as a recording artist to? Why have you been so long lasting?
RB: I don't think half the people at the conservatory know...am I well known?
AAJ: You are so well known (laughter). I was recently in Beirut, Lebanon—halfway around the world and people (non musicians) were asking about you!
RB: Well some people care about music of mine and some don't, I mean that's not for me to say. I can tell you about what's long lasting about Thelonius Monk or George Russell...
AAJ: Well I mean I'm at a period in my musical life where I see other good musicians that I know making some very serious "quality of life" decisions and for most of them that means putting their musical pursuits on the back burner so that they may procure the type of stability that being an artist rarely offers. And though you developed during a different in some ways less volatile time---I'm sure you've seen the same thing happen among your peers, yet it hasn't affected you. What do you attribute that to?
RB: Well because maybe I take months off [and] I practice and do sitting near the tape recorder and then I go near the piano and see the movies and I live alone and [I]really am very private in the world of the subconscious, trying to strain the sub conscious, but I think maybe I'm long lasting because I like to forget myself part of the year with other people; its true if you were to do two concerts the night before my own concerts I might stay in my hotel room and see a film noir because I need to get in that world but I think maybe forgetting yourself part of the time and then of course once and a while taking yourself seriously and remembering the pastthe glorious past and the horrible fascist history of Europe and also the tragedies and the also the great people; to this day I wish my goal was to be able to work on happier/ positive music just because its easy to be in my comfort zone and do only gray dark music.
AAJ: So you've been an educator now for some forty plus years, what differences have you seen in the student realm? With the advances of technology and the different social focus for each generation you must have seen some differences in the students that come through your door at the conservatory?
RB: Of course. In the '80s it was very self absorbed but now with technology, I feel out of it sometimes. Peter Row [New England Conservatory provost] says "as faculty grow older they get more intransigent and closed." I think this is true part of the time and part of the time I keep learning. There is much more of an in impatience with the students. I don't feel it's because people are selfish I just think that so many young musicians are coming out so quickly and are worried because they have economic problems. I wasn't extremely rich but I had it way easier than you have economically – and I worry about the other students and that's what I wish I could do, or rather what we can talk about, at that alumni meeting in New York --- I feel that with all this explosion in tolerance of all music its very hard to have a vertical history—it is important to know about Jelly Roll Morton and Bessie Smith and John Lee Hooker but if you are totally learning every geographical music all over the world., it can be hard. I think we're much more open now but we don't hold the music long enough and then maybe a music of an earlier era is forgotten. You can not hear everybody. And if you've given a certain music a chance then you have to then slim your choices. And I think that for so many students, there's so many clinics, so many distractions at school. We have such a greater faculty [at NEC] that more people want "smorgasbord" work and that's good and bad because there's much more tolerance but not many people will drive in at 85 years of age like Dorothy Wallace to hear a concert. [editor's note: Dorothy Wallace was a famed patron of the arts and a great supporter of Ran Blake's music, she died in 2001] It's all too available so the downside is that I find that like a lot of people really don't know my records very well or can't discuss what the third track is of a particular cd because it's all hurried. I'm beginning to get like that myself --- I'm getting so many records to hear that before I get to know one person they already have two other records out. I worry about the market place, I feel that students are too worried about it and they maybe have to be by necessityyet it's getting in the way of their growth. But yet I'm pained with them when I see how little money they are making and I guess you have to have some validity. I want to figure it out Matana and I wonder if some day I will? I think it's very hard now being a musician.
AAJ: You've done so many solo records—why so many?
RB: Well Jeanne Lee is not around on this earth, Ricky Ford is in Paris, and some people don't want to rehearse and I have all this time. I feel one of my best solos is Unmarked Van. [ Unmarked Van: A Tribute to Sarah Vaughn Soul Note)—particularly the title track. I have been in an isolated bubble. I can't inflict my plots on everyone. I like duo settings too.
AAJ: Yeah you've done a lot of great duo records, Anthony Braxton, Houston Person, Ricky Ford, Jeanne Lee, Christine Correa... do you find duo allows you to explore the music more?
RB: Yes, and I care about James Meranda and the Knife[ Dave Fabris]... I have a duo record coming out with the Knife [ Untitled coming out on Soul Note]
AAJ: That's right you have a record coming out soon with Boston based guitarist Dave Fabris (a.k.a the Knife)
RB: I' m also going to do something in late April at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) with Mark Harvey. When you involve a larger group people are busy and it's not like growing up with Jeanne Lee and sitting and taking time. There is a sense of hurriedness that I find now that, I'm sure it was there Matana, in the '60's but I just don't remember it being quite so rushed.
AAJ: You have a very interesting symbol that you use a lot on your recordings and in your writing. What's the story behind the black bag insignia?
RB: The black bag I had [it] made for me in Riverdale by a wonderful shoe man, and people thought I had a mixed bag in me. It was just great studying you know with Gunther [Schuller], running uptown not that I had to many lessons with Mary Lou Williams who lived at 63 Hamilton Terrace in Sugar Hill Harlem and then I would go down to hear Greek music and I just collected all of this stuff, perhaps I should have another black bag, maybe I should? It died in Dorthy Wallace's attic 20 years ago with holes in and it was just like Jean Lee's sunglasses and shawl... That was my idea for the cover for New Sounds Around and except for the album with Paul Bley it's been with me. She never kept her trademark particularly. It's too long a story people would pick me up at different airports—and they liked me well enough that the black bag meant a lot to them. It's like [how] Alfred Hitchcock appears for 30 seconds in his films it's not the most essential thing in my life, but now it's on my watch and its on my stationary and now I got a letter from the post office addressed to the black bag and somebody at the post office knew it was me so it got delivered. Well Prince has a design, and so do I.
AAJ: Looking back in retrospect what do you feel are some of the major corner stones of your artistic development?
RB: I think noir, being in gospel music, the really encompassing great years 6 or 7 years or how manybut with Gunther wish I kept a log. I think now I'll applaud my ability to get to know other styles like [soul/gospel vocalist] Al Green, as much as I love [Charlie] Parker, he's not in me like the singers Al Green, Billie Holiday, and Ray [Charles] and Stevie [Wonder] and Chris [Connor] and Abbey Lincoln, and I guess the noir and the plots whereas if I just read a paperback? So, well I think also being an educator—how to deal with students---should I try it [teaching concepts] out on myself first etc.? But I don't think I have all the answers I'm still trying to grow and learn more
AAJ: Where did your teaching style come from?
RB: Probably Gunther [Schuller] but I think maybe I had dyslexia as a kid and so I doted on an aural approach [to teaching.] But now I'd rather have people –if you had to learn [ my composition] Horace is Blue to play tonight I'd really rather you get 3 or 4 notes of notation down but then go back to my[aural] source of Horace. I used to be so doctrinaire that I used to tell people to almost burn [notated] music!—Gunther [Schuller] kidded me about that a year or two ago; but I think I think it's just the way I learned and I think that I spent so much time hearing classical music—dissonant 20th century, but like a jazz musician would—in other words instead of hearing solos I heard orchestras—I loved black music—gospel, the vocalists. I heard some of the more virtuoso horn music where as I respected it ---a lot of women and guys heard that growing up--- but hearing Stravinsky and Ives and trying to improvise on itit didn't sound like jazz but I used the ear and then I would blow on it some more. It sounded like to many people that I didn't know what I was doing and sometimes I didn't. And I guess I studied with myself a lot not all consciously, and I realized that isn't it great to do things of Cecil Taylor and Earl Hines but I won't--- my right hand doesn't want to play faster than the singers. So I don't knowso many things now I think I am meandering but, oh, and of course being in Greece was a shock and Argentian—the racial injustice being done..
AAJ: When were you there?
RB: Greece in '67 and Jeanne Lee warned me not to go she said " I don't think the time is right" and that I had a few hundred dollars and she said "keep it for the hard days." but I went and three days later the phones weren't working, the tanks rolled up –April 20th 1967—that's why I want my birthday held a month later because I always think of Vradiazi. In Argentina--- I was there 20 years later—1980 but suddenly there were tanks on the streets there, children were disappearing--- that didn't have the consequences for me. I didn't know what was happening in Greece and we Americans don't speak other languages and suddenly I'm at a hotel... I couldn't use the phone... and some people were very kind... this police van picking me up...I still have nightmares. I guess its memories. And [though] I don't want to try to fight the nightmares it's nice to have happy dreams too.
AAJ: What kind of advice would you give to a struggling artist like myself?
RB: I would say –I'll be universal instead of just particular—I do think one should have a 15 or 20 hour a week job and no more and no less. And then maybe two or five hours a month that you volunteer your musical skill so that it's not your own music that you are playing all of the time. Give maybe 2 or 3 concerts a year, you don't have to guilt trip your friends, but you really want people to hear you and then other times you go hear others. I will have new music for this concert in January—thank you for reminding me it was in January—I thought it was in February. You have to also grow in repertoire. But I do think there are certain networking things you have to do to. We can't do everything, and should there be a month in the year when we don't play and we become musical ecologists---there are too many musicians and we need more listeners and I do think it's important to make announcements or a bulletin notice to try and involve a larger audience in what you're doing. I don't like to get up and talk but I will have a written program and I think some people I go out and hear them and they don't say one word and I don't know where we're at and then there are some people that talk all the time and crack jokes. I have more advice: Don't give up, hang in there. I think you have to pick five people whose career you really hope for and maybe one is ahead of you and maybe be selfish—can they do something to help you? Care about them but every musician has got [to] let someone down once you can't get to every gig, you can't always say yes. But I think there are some people who are 25 years old that might have one cd too many and maybe [you should] buy it. It doesn't bother me. I'm not recording now because there's really enough—I don't want to flood up the market and I think if everybody—just like in blackouts don't you say "turn your lights out two hours a day to preserve the power"--- there has to be a time you are not playing, because you can't grow if you're every minute playing. ...so you have now an earful.


text:
20" BMX BikesRiding a BMX bike injects fun and style into your life and builds friendships. Ready to try it? Proboardshop.com has a huge selection of 20" BMX bikes from the best brands and styles on the market to fit every "reason why." And if that wasn't enough, Proboardshop.com is offering up to 30% off. Whether your dream is to ride in the X Games or just riding around town, BMX riding is fun and exciting and creates new experiences each time out. Summer is fast approaching, so pick up your new 20" BMX bike at Proboardshop.com TODAY!
Please refine here
- Gender: Kid's
SE Ripper Jr BMX Bike Blue Metal 20in - Kids
Size: 20in/18.5in Top Tube
Reg: $529.00
35% Off
35% Off
On Sale: $343.95

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Posts Tagged 'Brent Leonard'
No. 107: Louisiana-Monroe
By Paul Myerberg // May 6, 2012
U.L.M. has an image problem. It's not about L.S.U., because L.S.U. is L.S.U., and that's fine. Louisiana-Monroe doesn't compete with the Tigers, and wouldn't dare try, of course. U.L.M. competes with Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana Tech and Tulane for in-state eyeballs, and as the Warhawks head into the summer, they're losing the battle for public attention. The Ragin' Cajuns are riding a wave of good vibes after earning their first bowl berth on the F.B.S. level, beating U.L.M. to the punch. In addition to hitting its groove under Sonny Dykes, Louisiana Tech is now back in the news thanks to this week's jump into Conference USA. Even Tulane, despite suffering a setback to its hopes for an on-campus stadium, has moved back into the regional conversation since hiring Curtis Johnson in December. In a state with five F.B.S. programs, U.L.M.'s Q rating comes in last. Perhaps being last isn't new for the Warhawks; being a distant last, however, is a recent development.


text:
John Ashton Golden
Chicago, IL - United States
John Ashton Golden
Member Since: 04/21/2011
Born and raised in the beautiful rural countryside of Northern New York State, artist John Ashton Golden (JAG) found pleasure in drawing and painting at an early age. Finding inspiration in the natural environment, his family members' own natural artistic abilities, as well as pop culture iconography of 70s and 80s cartoon, comic book, and movie characters, John developed a versatile style that constantly sought to expand; a force unto itself. He attended the Rochester Institute of Technology, majoring in Illustration, minoring in Graphic Design, and concentrating in Creative Writing. There he developed a popular comic strip 'The Exploits of Aimless Boy', which was featured in the school's weekly 'Reporter' magazine. After graduating in 2001, John eventually moved to Chicago, where he currently resides, and has been working a plethora of intriguing art-related jobs, teaching art on occasion, and freelancing for a wide variety of illustration, independent comics, and graphic design related projects and clientele. Time allowing, John continues to draw and paint purely for pleasure and self-expression.
| Image Count = 64Next32
| Image Count = 64Next32


text:
Go the F**k to Sleep is a bedtime book for parents who live in the real world, where a few snoozing kitties and cutesy rhymes don't always send a toddler sailing blissfully off to dreamland. Profane, affectionate, and radically honest, it captures the familiar � and unspoken � tribulations of putting your little angel down for the night. Beautiful, subversive, and pants-wettingly funny, Go the F**k to Sleep is a book for parents new, old, and expectant. You probably should not play this for your children. �A children's book for grown-ups! I really did laugh out loud�hilarious!� �David Byrne, musician, father of one �Finally, someone tells it like it really is. This is no-guilt funny and a godsend!� �Cristina Garc�a, author of The Lady Matador's Hotel, mother of one �This is the most honest children's book ever written. F**king hilarious.� �A.J. Jacobs, author of The Year of Living Biblically, father of three �Go the F**k to Sleep is the secret anthem of tired parents everywhere.� �Bliss Broyard, author of One Drop: My Father's Hidden Life, mother of two �Captures the beautiful struggle of being a parent at its rawest point: bedtime.� �Daniel Sinker, author of The F***ing Epic Twitter Quest of @MayorEmanuel, father of one
Adam Mansbach's novels include The End of the Jews, winner of the California Book Award, and the best-selling Angry Black White Boy, a San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2005. His fiction and essays have appeared in the New York Times Book Review, the Believer, Granta, the Los Angeles Times, and many other publications. He is the 2010-2011 New Voices Professor of Fiction at Rutgers University. His daughter, Vivien, is three.
There are currently no product reviews for this product.
Overstock.com values your opinion. Please take a moment and share what you like or don't like about a product.
This product has not been released by the Publisher. Preorder today, and we will ship it to you upon its release. *
Items must be returned in new or unused condition and contain all original materials included with the shipment. More details
FINAL SALE EXCLUSION: Items marked as FINAL SALE are not returnable unless the problem you experience is the result of our error.
* For your safety, some orders go through our loss prevention department. If we select your order for this process, we will immediately notify you that there may be up to a 3-day delay on your order.
** Most Oversize orders are delivered within 1-4 weeks. Some orders may take 6 weeks to be delivered.


text:
Stadiums Of Online Retirees
(60 second audio script)
Baseball is America's pastime just as Social Security is America's cornerstone. Every American knows about baseball, and just about every American is touched by Social Security in one way or another. These days, more fans watch games on their television sets than in person. And more people apply for Social Security online than in an office. In fact, more than half of people applying for retirement benefits now do so online. How many people is that? Imagine your favorite full-sized baseball stadium packed full of cheering fans. That's a lot of people, but not even close. Picture more than 140 full-sized stadiums brimming full of fans. That's how many people have applied online for Social Security retirement benefits. More than six million people! When you're up to bat for retirement, join the millions who have applied for retirement benefits online. You're sure to hit a home run at www dot social security dot gov slash apply online.


text:
J.D. ShapiroMore J.D. Shapiro
post of the day Matthew McConaughey—One More Stone Read more
whosay rising stars Rising Star: 5 Reasons to Watch Brett Dalton Read more
puppy love Anson Mount: "It's Official. I've Adopted" Read more
whosay Q&A Yvette Nicole Brown Talks "Community" Season 5 Finale Read more
private eye Debra Messing Reveals "The Mysteries of Laura" Read more
#GOT Jack Gleeson Gives Joffrey Major Eye Roll Read more


text:
The TBA Announces a New Partnership and Member Benefit:
Credit Card Processing Program — Your One Source for Payment Processing
Elavon, endorsed payment processor of the Toledo Bar Association, invites you to take advantage of special discounted rates. Even if you are currently using another payment processor, call us for a FREE rate comparison. You have nothing to lose but higher fees!
Elavon offers:
Contact Danielle Gibson at 800.546.1831 ext. 5434 or email@example.com.
More information about the Elavon/Toledo Bar Association partnership
For questions regarding the TBA and Elavon relationship, contact Sarah Corpening at 419.242.9363 or email@example.com.


text:
I went to the pub the other night. It was empty. Well, actually it was a Tuesday. And that of course was the problem. We just don't have enough people around to drink every night of the week anymore.
But then I got to thinking about what it would be like if our little town was a big city – plenty of people to fill pubs and streets in those, but would it be as nice?
Well, probably not and here's why. Most people would agree that over population is the biggest crisis facing the planet at the moment but living in Pontypridd you'd hardly notice would you? But just for a moment let's compare our town to the seventh largest city in India – Calcutta.
We have a famous old bridge of course – called the Old Bridge. Not sure if it was called the 'old' bridge when William Edwards built it in 1758 but I digress. Well, the inhabitants of Calcutta also have a bridge which they are very fond of too. Unlike our stone version though, we built theirs in 1937 out of steel. So what you say?
Well, while we just marvel at the beauty of the River Taff from the top of our little landmark and watch the world go by the locals of Calcutta are trying to work out how to stop their lovely old bridge falling down because pedestrians use it as a giant spittoon.
Yep! It seems that spit is corroding the base of the mighty bridge. The problem of course is not really spit but over population. While we have a grand total of 6 people a day using our lovely river crossing in Calcutta there are 500,000 pedestrians and the same number of vehicles using it every day.
So I ask you, what would happen if we had more people? Let's say the same number out for a beer on a Saturday night (or a Tuesday even) as in India. Would our gorgeous bridge be able to withstand 500,000 chip cartons, a swimming pool of corrosive curry sauce, a lorry full of vomit, unknown quantities of other bodily fluids and the odd gob from disgruntled tourists?
Nah, it'd never survive, so be glad you live in lovely deserted Ponty, oh yes, and visit a pub on a Tuesday please. I'm getting fed up talking to myself.


text:
Grabe formally advised of charges of first-degree murder
Allen Grabe shot his 13-year-old son repeatedly while the boy was sleeping, telling his wife, "I had to kill him because you were ruining him," according to an arrest affidavit…
Want to read more?
This article and other exclusive local content now require a subscription. (Learn More)


text:
Is evangelical unease about contraception just a cover for white male leaders to keep women out of pulpits?
Is the Internet the enemy of faith?
Mario Tama GETTY IMAGES Ultra-Orthodox Jews take in the view from Citi Field at a meeting to discuss the risks … Continued
We must pray for persecuted Christians
2011 began with some bleak news for Muslim-Christian relations around the world.Recent attacks against churches in Iraq, Nigeria and Egypt … Continued
Marriage disappearing in front of our eyes
A new survey out this week from the National Marriage Project shows that marriage is an institution in decline in … Continued
New political equation for religious right
The meaning of the 2010 election is destined now to be the Great Debate of the next political season. While … Continued
The logic of Christian marriage
Chelsea Clinton, raised Methodist, and Marc Mezvinsky, Jewish, will wed this weekend. Statistics show that 37 percent of Americans have … Continued
The gospel truth behind Beck's inartful words
(Originally published on my blog) Fox News broadcaster Glenn Beck is famous for launching verbal grenades, and he did so … Continued
Preachers who don't believe: The scandal of apostate pastors
The new report "Preachers Who Are Not Believers" gives cause to remove unbelieving ministers from the pulpit.
Does God Hate Haiti?
Q: Many have criticized Pat Robertson's suggestion that the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti was the work of the devil or … Continued
Oral Roberts's spiritual gifts and errors
The death of Oral Roberts marks a significant milestone in the history of American Christianity. His life, spanning from 1918 … Continued


text:
- Home
- News
- Sports
- Opinion
- Obituaries
- Features
- Special Sections
- Classifieds
- Public Notices
Forgot Password? | Not a User? Sign up
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
and KELLY CANTRALL
President Barack Obama signed a new law Wednesday that will allow gays for the first time in history to serve openly in America's military. And he urged those kicked out under the old law to re-enlist.
Local veterans had mixed reactions to the news.
Jesse S. Hall, commander of American Legion Post 113 in Elizabethtown, said the action taken Wednesday was likely correct.
If you currently subscribe or have subscribed in the past to the The News Enterprise, then simply find your account number on your mailing label and enter it below.
Click the question mark below to see where your account ID appears on your mailing label.
If you are new to the award winning The News Enterprise and wish to get a subscription or simply gain access to our online content then please enter your ZIP code below and continue to setup your account.
|ZIP Code:


text:
VRT Advisories
VRT Rules 2012-05-22
Sourcefire VRT Rules Update
Date: 2012-05-22
This release adds and modifies rules in several categories.
The Sourcefire VRT has added and modified multiple rules in the blacklist, botnet-cnc, chat, dos, exploit, file-identify, file-office, file-other, file-pdf, indicator-compromise, indicator-obfuscation, misc, oracle, policy-multimedia, policy-social, pua-p2p, pua-toolbars, scada, server-mail, shellcode, specific-threats, voip, web-activex, web-cgi, web-client, web-iis and web-php rule sets to provide coverage for emerging threats from these technologies.
Rule Pack Summary:
For a complete list of new and modified rules, click here.
Sourcefire VRT rule packs often utilize enhancements made to Snort. Operators should upgrade to the latest revision or patch level for Snort to ensure these enhancements are available before using these rules.
About the VRT:
The Sourcefire VRT is a group of leading edge intrusion detection and prevention experts working to proactively discover, assess and respond to the latest trends in hacking activity, intrusion attempts and vulnerabilities. This team is also supported by the vast resources of the open source Snort community, making it the largest group dedicated to advances in the network security industry.why subscribe? || download rules


text:
To Whom It May Concern:
On a high level, it's difficult to identify specific levels of regulatory flexibility since specific facts and circumstances of a particular pandemic will most likely drive this process. I can only ask that the NASD applies common sense when a disaster occurs and be understanding of industry concerns that you will undoubtedly hear in the event of a disaster. Relief could come in many forms such as additional extensions of time as it relates to performing Net Capital or Customer Reserve computations. Flexibility around Reg. T extensions or short sale reporting requirements may be other areas that the NASD would want to relax. Essentially I would want the NASD to offer the industry or at a minimum, firms in a specific geographic area of the country that experienced a disaster flexibility with their regulatory filings deadlines that would allow employees of the impacted firms the opportunity to better balance their jobs with the specific disaster or pandemic they are experiencing.
Some situations may also require employees (including front-office personnel) to work from home for extended periods where the same level of supervision may not be as robust. I would like to assume that the NASD would not look to increase the regulatory burden for these firms by forcing them to register new branch offices (even on a temporary basis). While it is difficult to speak hypothetically, I can only request that the NASD acts with common sense and assists firms by not necessarily holding them to the same standards prior to the disaster occurring.
If you have any questions, I can be reached at (212) 969-1382
Joseph DeBellis
Director of Compliance
Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC
Subsidiary of AllianceBernstein


text:
OutFit: Holiday trends
By IVY PARNASIUS Special to the Sentinel New Year's Eve is just around the corner, and it's finally on a Friday night! It is time to start planning your outfit for the perfect…
Want to read more?
This article and other exclusive local content now require a subscription. (Learn More)


text:
Soft Structured Carriers
Cybex 2.Go Baby Carrier
DEVELOPED WITH MIDWIVES AND ORTHOPEDISTS. The CYBEX 2.GO offers the possibility to carry the baby in 5 different carrying positions, so you can always find a natural way to have your baby with you. The bonding that occurs through this has a very positive effect on the baby's development. Babies that have been carried a lot tend to be calmer and more content. . COMFORT FIT SEAT. The seat on...
Cybex U.GO Baby Carrier
The U.GO sling combines fashion and function, offering the most natural and individual means of carrying a baby
Jeep 2-in-1 Sport Baby Carrier
The 2-in-1 Baby Carrier gives parents the freedom to explore with baby always close by. This carrier allows newborns to face inward and growing babies to face the world. It also has numerous comfort and safety features you'll love. Accommodates infants from 8-26 pounds. Baby Friendly Features: 2-in-1 Carrier Allows Baby to Face Forward or Face Parent Patent Pending Secure-Fit®...


text:
Listing Image
Koji Sake Lounge
Rated 4 out of 5.0 417 reviews
"Wow... When we arrived at Koji this past Saturday at 8pm, I quickly realized I didn't have to make reservations, which I did. It was dead. Niki and I were..." Read More on Yelp »
Explore the art of sake at the South Bay's only sake lounge... a place where traditional Japanese simplicity and modern urbanism meet. Koji Sake Lounge features a sophisticated selection of premium sakes, signature cocktails made with Japanese spirits and innovative small plates to stimulate taste buds. With a Japanese Zen garden and downtempo beats come enjoy the serenity of the lounge and explore the art of sake.
hot and happening


text:
Panasonic (Matsushita Matshita) CF-18 IGP 82852/82855 gm/gme Free Driver Download
Also Supports:
CF-18 IGP 82852/82855 gm/gme
Manufactured By:
Panasonic (Matsushita Matshita)
Graphics / Video Adapter
Panasonic (Matsushita Matshita)
184.108.40.20656 XDDM (1 Aug 2006)
Supported Operating Systems
Windows Vista x64, Windows 2008, Windows 7
Uploader Notes
This is a modified Windows 7 driver for the Panasonic CF-18 Tablet Toughbook. Be sure and use DriverMax to import these drivers into your fully updated copy of Windows 7 SP1. The video driver will install cleanly and correctly when you use this recommended "freeware" utility. If you have seen online, the only other workaround is to install the secondary video as a 915gm/gme. After hours of coding and I have an xp primary and XDDM Vista secondary of the same chipset. There is a manual rotation registry key available online as well.
Uploaded By
DoD Charlie (DG Member) on 3/30/2012
Related Drivers
Reviews Summary
Already tried it? Give your review
Embed a link to this page


text:
2-star comfortable and modern hotel in the 15th arrondissement of Paris: free WiFi, breakfast buffet
In the Alyss Saphir Cambronne Eiffel hotel, every detail of your stay is designed to make your presence among us most enjoyable.
The team (multilingual) Hotel Alyss Saphir Cambronne Eiffel welcomes you with pleasure and stay at your disposal to answer any questions or advise you throughout your stay.
A buffet breakfast is served from 7.00 to 10.00 in the room or in your room from 7.30 to 10.00. The price is 12 €. We offer: hot drinks (tea, coffee, chocolate), cereals, yogurt, pastries, orange juice, butter and jam.
A lounge at the reception you will allow you to relax reading the newspapers available each morning.
The hotel is completely non-smoking.
Services and facilities of Hotel:
- Reception 24 / 7
- Elevator
- Unlimited free wireless throughout the hotel
- Internet terminal at the reception
- Luggage
- Fax service at reception (fee)
- Pets not allowed
- Hot and cold drinks at reception (fee)
- Taxi reservations and airport shuttle or train station
- Book shows, restaurants, excursions
- Smoke detectors in common areas
Payment methods accepted:
- Cards: American Express, Visa, Mastercard
- Traveler's checks (Travelers Cheques)
- Cheque-Vacances
- Cash


text:
You should be proud of where your aid dollars go
Haiti seared itself onto our consciousness on 12 January 2010. The deadliest earthquake ever to hit the region reduced much of Port-au-Prince to rubble. Buildings with concrete slab roofs in squatter settlements perched on the side of steep hills concertinaed under the stress - leaving their inhabitants no chance.
Speaking to those who experienced the earthquake, the real shock came in the following days when the full extent of the damage was realised. When it was finally tallied the startling reality was 316,000 people lost their lives in a population of only ten million.
Two years on and there is still rubble throughout Port-au-Prince. Last week I watched, along with many other sombre onlookers, the beginning of the demolition of the presidential palace which was irreparably damaged in the earthquake.
But at the same time there has been an enormous amount of reconstruction in Haiti in the last two years. And while almost 400,000 displaced people are still living in tent cities, more than one million have been resettled since the earthquake.
Soon after the earthquake the Australian Government announced it was contributing $26 million to the relief effort. This was matched by another $26 million donated by the Australian public. To Australia's credit, the commitment made in the earthquake's immediate aftermath has been honored.
The overall story has not been as noble - less than half the commitments made by the international community actually materializing.
The images which flashed across our screens at the time of the earthquake seemed to confirm the stereotype of Haiti being an ultra poor country wracked by more than its share of human misery.
To be sure, Haiti places in the poorest ten per cent of countries. Yet to only see Haiti's poverty is to miss a remarkable country inhabited by remarkable people.
Haiti is stunningly beautiful. Port-au-Prince is located on a plain nestled between the harbour with its unmistakable turquoise blue waters of the Caribbean Sea and steep hills covered in shanty towns.
As I commented upon this beauty to my Haitian hosts, all responded with pride: "It's not what they show you on TV, is it?"
In fact during the '70s and '80s, Haiti had a significant tourist industry it would like to recreate.
Haiti, in the last 50 years, has had a difficult political history with Francois Duvalier and his son Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier both dictators with scant regard for human rights. Since 1990 Haiti has been wrestling with democracy with varying success.
Political instability hit its worst moment in 2004 when the United Nations intervened under the banner of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). Since then MINUSTAH has steadily been working with the Haitian Government to better law and order, improve government services and rebuild institutions.
There is no doubting the challenges in each of these areas but there's also no doubting that progress has been made and democracy and human rights are steadily improving.
This progress made the earthquake all the more tragic because - as one senior figure put it to me - just as Haiti was starting to win the fight, the earthquake delivered a knock out punch.
But since 2010 Haiti has been getting back on its feet. Indeed a characteristic of Haiti that is evident from the moment you leave the airport is that this is a country of great activity and purpose. The streets of Port-au-Prince are packed. People sell on the roadside everything from bottles of Coke to bed-frames.The traffic is profoundly dense.
Thankfully our driver had the skills of a concert pianist as he moved our vehicle forward through the smallest of gaps with siren blaring and millimeters to spare. By the time we reached the hotel there could be no doubting that this was a place of energy.
Our Haitian colleagues thanked Australia for its aid. But while aid was important their number one objective now was to attract foreign investment and start building Haitian industry. And as it turns out significant Australian players are looking to take up the invitation by exploring investments in mining and tourism.
As the only country in the world to have been established after a successful slave revolt, defeating the odds is in the Haitian national DNA. Yet for all the struggle and poverty, perhaps the most obvious way in which the Haitian spirit shines is through its art: colorful works on canvas, wooden sculptures, exquisite furniture, and brightly painted metal press butterflies and geckos.
To visit Haiti is to confront one's senses. And while the lasting impression could be many things - tragedy, beauty, misery, determination - for me it was an overwhelming and affirming sense of optimism.
Comments on this post close at 8pm AEST.
Most commented
Little Joe says:
Unfortunately I have an opposite viewpoint.
With the money that has been spent on Haiti I could have -
1) Shipped in a fleet of demolition equipment.
2) Shipped in a concrete recycling system.
3) Shipped in a demolition Training Team
Within 6-mths I would have 10 demolition crews trained up. Together with a landfill recycling crew most of the demolition work would have been completed. Most of the building materials would have been recycled. Most of the infrastructure would have been rebuilt.
Charity Groups, especially the CEO's, love the poor. It buffers their 6-figure salary. They don't want to solve problems ..... they want to make them last as long a possible.
tick tock says:
Ah Richards as long as you enjoyed your tax payer funded holiday, by the way did you take your partner and have a stop over in LA at our expense also? Who cares about the 200+ people who slept rough on the streets of the Gold Coast last night, but hey they dont matter, the looney left wing UN dont recognise the plight of Aussies doing it tough just like this Government who are spending billions just to look good in their eyes not the public in general.
James In Footscray says:
Unfortunately the article oversimplifies. Some aid works, and some doesn't.
There's a big difference between disaster relief (like Haiti, where immediate assistance is essential), and longer-term poverty reduction, where there seems to be little to show for trillions of dollars of spending (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/19/books/review/19postrel.html?pagewanted=print).
marley says:
I'm going to toss up an idea here: why don't western governments sort out a system for focusing disaster relief on areas with which they have political and economic linkages? Haiti is a classic case of the Americans and Canadians being the nearest rich countries; both have significant Haitian populations; and both have had long term political and economic involvement in the Caribbean generally. Canada's last GG was Haitian in origin. Why not leave Haiti to the North Americans, and let Australia focus on its own neighbours, be that the Pacific Islands or Indonesea?
Why use a shotgun approach to aid in general and disaster relief in particular, dispersing small amounts all over the place, when bigger amounts in a few places might actually get more "bang for the buck?"
Just a thought.
john of solomon says:
I suppose we should be proud of the aid we send to Indonesia as well, after all they do a great job in preventing illegal immigrants from coming to our shores - hahaha
john of solomon says:
I suppose we should be proud of the aid we send to Indonesia as well, after all they do a great job in preventing illegal immigrants from coming to our shores - hahaha
Greg says:
Here is one that won't be popular but we shouldn't be sending any foreign aid out until everyone in Australia is living above the poverty line and has a roof over their head and a full belly every night.
Stephen says:
Typical leftist propaganda.
"Be proud of the fact that the Government decides to spend millions of YOUR tax money in a country that at best is a basket case in terms of self management, while YOUR roads go unrepaired, your electricity bills soar to pay for infrastructure and silly carbon taxes, and YOUR pensioners struggle to afford to live."
Yep. I guess pride is one word. Anger, frustration, confusion, amazement and bitterness are others that come to mind.
chuck says:
We should be sending condoms.
No doubt the population has well and truly recovered since the earthquake. Have a squizz at the global satellite images between Haiti and the Dom republic and see if you can see a tree on the Haiti side!
thatmosis says:
Lets get one thing straight, I don't give money to any fund, organisation or whatever that sends my money overseas. I believe that charity begins at home and the 200,000 odd homeless in Australia could well do with peoples help. We should concentrate on helping our own before sending money overseas but it seems that every time there is an earthquake or a tsunami or a natural disaster anywhere in the world then we are asked to dig deep and help. No, No a thousand times No. I'm sick and tired of the billions being sent overseas to help others when we have our own problems that are shoved aside as being too hard or embarrassing. Its time people looked inward and did the right thing for our own first and then if there's any left over send that overseas.
Black Dynamite says:
I love when charity door knockers come to my door now. I just tell them sorry, I pay taxes for this.
john of solomon says:
Rose, what a load of codswallop I have lived in third world countries all recipients of Australian Aid for the past 42 years and although some of the aid may accomplish the ends you have mentioned, much of it is wasted on consultants and projects that achieve little with the result that Australia has the image of being a soft touch.
Facebook Recommendations
Read all about it
Punch live
Up to the minute Twitter chatter
Recent posts
The latest and greatest
The Punch is moving house
Good morning Punchers. After four years of excellent fun and great conversation, this is the final post…
Will Pope Francis have the vision to tackle this?
I have had some close calls, one that involved what looked to me like an AK47 pointed my way, followed…
Advocating risk management is not "victim blaming"
In a world in which there are still people who subscribe to the vile notion that certain victims of sexual…
Nosebleed Section
choice ringside rantings
From: Hasbro, go straight to gaol, do not pass go
Tim says:They should update other things in the game too. Instead of a get out of jail free card, they should have a Dodgy Lawyer card that not only gets you out of jail straight away but also gives you a fat payout in compensation for daring to arrest you in the first place. Instead of getting a hotel when you… [read more]
From: A guide to summer festivals especially if you wouldn't go
Kel says:If you want a festival for older people or for families alike, get amongst the respectable punters at Bluesfest. A truly amazing festival experience to be had of ALL AGES. And all the young "festivalgoers" usually write themselves off on the first night, only to never hear from them again the rest of… [read more]
Gentle jabs to the ribs
Superman needs saving
Can somebody please save Superman? He seems to be going through a bit of a crisis. Eighteen months ago,… Read more


text:
|Early Bird Purchase Period
|4 Oct, 2013 - 31 Oct, 2013
|1 Nov, 2013 - 14 Mar, 2014
|Instalment 1
|Up to 31 Oct, 2013
|Up to 20 Mar, 2014
|Instalment 2
|21 Nov, 2013
|17 April, 2014
|Instalment 3
|19 Dec, 2013
|15 May, 2014
|Instalment 4
|16 Jan, 2014
|Instalment 5
|20 Feb, 2014
|Instalment 6
|20 Mar, 2014
|Instalment 7
|17 April, 2014
|Instalment 8
|15 May, 2014
NZSki Ltd. Terms & Conditions
Terms & Conditions of Purchase and Use pertaining to Coronet Peak, Mt Hutt and The Remarkables ski areas The purchaser and/or user of NZSki Ltd. mypass cards and their associated product and passes agrees to the following Terms & Conditions.
NZSki Ltd. has developed a sophisticated ticketing system that utilises a smart card we call mypass. Most NZSki products do not have a separate form of ticket but are associated to a guest profile that is connected to the mypass card.
- mypass cards and their associated products and passes are personal to the named purchaser/user and are non-transferable and non-refundable with the exception of the mypass card deposit which is non-transferable but fully refundable.
- Products purchased on the mypass card are valid only for the winter season in which they were purchased and will expire at the end of each winter season.
- Transferring or reselling mypass cards is an offence and will result in penalties including loss of access to ski area facilities and possible prosecution.
- If you lose or misplace your mypass card or it is stolen, please report this immediately to the Snow Centre, Guest Services or phone 0800 NZSKIPASS (0800 697 547) so we can suspend/cancel it and re-issue a replacement. A card replacement fee may apply.
- All sundry vouchers that are issued along with your mypass card (i.e. lesson tickets, bus tickets, NZSuperpass Vouchers etc.) can only be issued once and can not be reprinted or reissued if lost or stolen.
- If a third party is found to be using your mypass card without its loss being reported, NZSki Ltd. reserves the right to decline to re-issue the mypass or to issue you with mypasses in the future.
- User assumes all risk of personal injury, property loss and damage.
- Misconduct in the opinion of NZSki Ltd. management and staff may result in mypass card revocation without refund.
- The mypass card holder uses the ski area at his/her own risk.
- Use of the mypass card and its associated products and passes implies the user knows unmarked hazards exist and interaction with people outside the control of NZSki Ltd. will result.
- NZSki Ltd. does not accept responsibility for lost or damaged mypass cards.
- Use of the mypass for commercial purposes is not permitted without prior permission obtained from NZSki Ltd.
- The mypass cardholder agrees to the rules, regulations and directions express or implied of NZSki Ltd.
- The mypass card remains the property of NZSki Ltd.
- A breach of these Terms & Conditions may result in the withdrawal of the mypass card and any benefits thereof.
Terms & Conditions of Lift, Slope, Halfpipe and Terrain Park Use
- A valid lift pass (associated to a valid mypass card) is required to use any of the above facilities at the ski areas.
- Using or attempting to use any of the above facilities without a valid lift pass will result in some/all of the following penalties:
- A requirement to purchase a valid lift pass or passes to cover the fraudulent use.
- Issuance of a trespass notice preventing any future visit to the ski area; and/or
- Report to the police with the option of prosecution to the full extent of the law
Entry to the ski areas constitutes an acceptance of and agreement to these Terms & Conditions
Privacy Policy
NZSki will use information provided by its visitors only to communicate with them. Any information automatically retrieved, such as site browsing patterns, will be used only in aggregate form (so that no individual visitors are identified). Information provided by visitors will not be disclosed to third parties.
The only exception to this is where you enter a competition, or register for any promotional feature provided through the Sites. In this case, information about you may be provided to advertisers for marketing purposes. However, you will be given the option at the time of entering the competition or registering for the feature to decline receiving further information or further contact with NZSki or the advertiser.
NZSki may also be required by law to disclose information you provide. NZSki will only make the disclosure if it believes in good faith that it is required to do so.
It is important to note that this website contains links to other sites not controlled by NZSki. Those sites may not follow the same privacy policy as NZSki.
NZSki uses WebLog Expert website measurement software and systems to help measure traffic visiting our websites. The service anonymously aggregates site visit & activity statistics such as number of pages viewed, time spent on site, accessed files, paths through the site, information about referring pages, search engines, browsers, operating systems, and more. WebLog Expert has been adopted as an accepted audience measurement standard by major New Zealand publishers and corporate websites. WebLog Expert is responsible for aggregating all information; individuals cannot and will not be identified. The information is used by NZSki to better understand usage of its websites.
How Does It Work?
Each web page has a small piece of code that will not be visible as you look at any particular page. The software stores a cookie in your browser (if you have enabled cookies) which contains a unique identifier to allow us to track the number of unique visitors to our website. This information is collected and aggregated by WebLog Expert and in no way can you be identified personally and no personal information is stored about you.
Mypass money is the stored credit facility offered on the mypass card at NZSki ski areas in New Zealand. Terms and Conditions
- NZSki Ltd will not be held liable for misuse, loss, or fraudulent use of mypass money where the mypass money account holder has disclosed their PIN either intentionally or otherwise.
- mypass money accounts will not be enabled until the user has loaded a PIN at an NZSki Guest Services location.
- A mypass money account must be authorised by a parent or guardian for account holders less than 16 years.
- A parent or guardian must be present for children under 16 years to load a PIN and enable a child's account.
- A PIN can only be reset by the mypass account holder at Guest Services provided their identity matches the photograph stored against the account holder's profile.
- mypass money can be used for transactions at NZSki outlets on the basis that 1 mypass money dollar is equivalent to 1 NZ dollar.
- mypass money can be used for part payment of a purchase.
- mypass money can only be redeemed by presentation of the appropriate mypass card.
- mypass money can only be redeemed by account holder verification using a PIN in the same way that bank cards are transacted.
- mypass money can be redeemed by the named mypass holder for the purchase of products for other mypass holders.
- mypass money can only be transferred to other mypass money accounts on-line at nzski.com where the account holder must give 'trusted friend' status to the recipient of the transfer and had this status reciprocated.
- Your mypass money balance will be available only for 'trusted friends' to see.
- mypass money credit balances up to $500 can be refunded to the account holder at any NZSki Guest Services location. Credit balances greater than $500 can be refunded on application through the NZSki.com website. Download form
- mypass money credit balances for account holder under 16 years will only be refunded to the parent or guardian that authorised and enabled the account.
- mypass money credit balance refunds will be in the form of the most recent deposit.
- Any mypass money credit remaining after a period of 24 months since the last activity will expire and the balance retained by NZSki Ltd.
The following Terms & Conditions apply to your NZSki Pass, Queenstown Pass, The Remarkables Pass, Mt Hutt Pass or Mt Hutt Midweek Pass as indicated within the text.
The operating season of the NZSki Limited (NZSki) areas is subject to snow, weather and market conditions and the season may be longer or shorter than publicised. NZSki makes no warrant as to the length of season, number of lifts operating at any time or to the operation or otherwise of an area on any particular day.
Reference to Season Pass, pass or mypass refers to the plastic RFID card and the products that are loaded against the individual that the RFID card identifies with in the NZSki database.
Purchase of a pass implies acceptance of the following Terms & Conditions:
- Season Passes are non-refundable under any circumstances unless the Injury/Medical cover option has been purchased.
- Injury/Medical cover provides for full or partial refund of the Season Pass where;
an injury or medical condition precludes or significantly limits ability to use the pass throughout the entire season.
All applications for refund must be made by completing the NZSki 2014 Season Pass Refund Request Form and supported with a doctor's certificate or other evidence acceptable to NZSki. NZSki reserves the right to obtain independent medical advice to validate any claim.
The value of refunds will be calculated based on the use of the pass according to the table below and in conjunction with the following expiry dates. There will be no refunds after 6 weeks from the pass holders first day of pass use. There will be no refunds after 31 August 2014 irrespective of pass use.
Refunds extend to the value of the pass type purchased only and do not cover any ancillary or other associated costs. The Injury/Medical cover add-on is regarded as an ancillary cost.
Refunds will be made to the credit card used to purchase the pass and the pass will be cancelled.
0 days (pass not used) 100%
1 day - 87.5% refund
2 days - 75% refund
3 days - 62.5% refund
4 days - 50% refund
5 days - 37.5% refund
6 days - 25% refund
7 days - 12.5% refund
8+ days - no refund
- Applications for or issued Season Passes are not transferable. The pass may only be used by the person whose name it bears and photograph it matches in NZSki's records. Transferring or re-selling your Season Pass is an offence and will result in penalties including loss of access to ski area facilities and possible prosecution.
- If you lose your pass or it is stolen please report it immediately on 0800 NZSKIPASS (0800 697 547) so we can suspend/cancel it. An administration fee will apply to replace your pass.
- NZSki reserves the right to decline to reissue the pass or to issue you with passes in the future if a third party is found using your pass without its loss recorded in our system.
- Your pass cannot be used for commercial purposes without the prior approval of NZSki Ltd.
- Photo identification will be required on collection of your pass/card or when updating your photograph.
- All pass holders must abide by the ski area user responsibility code. Misconduct will result in cancelation or suspension of the pass with no refund. Misconduct includes, but is not limited to, reckless or dangerous skiing or riding, excessive speed within a slow or learning zone, disregard for closed areas, unsociable behaviour, skiing or riding under the influence of alcohol or drugs, supply of incorrect information or breach of the conditions as per the Snow Responsibility Code available at www.nzski.com.
- All pass holders must abide by all signs and instructions when driving on ski area access roads. Failure to abide by signs and instructions or reckless and dangerous driving will result in cancelation or suspension of the pass with no refund.
- You must carry your pass with you at all times when skiing or riding.
- Use of any season pass is subject to the Terms & Conditions of the specific ski area at which you are using the pass.
- The NZSki Pass provides the holder with unlimited skiing and riding at Coronet Peak, Mt Hutt and The Remarkables for the 2014 season during standard operating hours of 9am - 4pm, plus Night Skiing at Coronet Peak on Friday and Saturday nights from 4pm - 9pm when available.
- The Queenstown Pass provides holders with unlimited skiing and riding at Coronet Peak and The Remarkables for the 2014 season during standard operating hours of 9am - 4pm. In addition holders are entitled to a $20 discount for adults and $15 discount for youths and seniors on the standard day pass rates at Mt Hutt. The Queenstown Pass includes unlimited Night Skiing at Coronet Peak during the 2014 season on Friday and Saturday nights when available.
- The Remarkables Pass provides holders with unlimited skiing and riding at The Remarkables only for the 2014 season during standard operating hours of 9am - 4pm. The Remarkables pass holders are entitled to a $20 discount for adults and $15 discount for youths and seniors on the standard day pass rates at Coronet Peak and Mt Hutt.
- The Mt Hutt Pass provides holders with unlimited skiing and riding at Mt Hutt only for the 2014 season during standard operating hours of 9am - 4pm. In addition holders are entitled to a $20 discount for adults and $15 discount for youths and seniors on the standard day pass rates at Coronet Peak and The Remarkables.
- The Mt Hutt Midweek Pass provides holders with unlimited skiing and riding, Monday - Friday at Mt Hutt only for the 2014 season during standard operating hours of 9am - 4pm. Mt Hutt Midweek Pass holders are entitled to a $20 discount for adults and $15 discount for youths and seniors at Mt Hutt on the weekends and any day of the week at Coronet Peak and The Remarkables.
- The First Tracks add-on provides access to the Coronet Express lift from 8am - 9am from late June / early July through to late in the 2014 season. The operation of First Tracks is subject to the availability and operation of the lifts and to snow and weather conditions. Access to trails will be subject to operational requirements, weather and snow conditions and any scheduled race/events. Coronet Peak does not guarantee the operation of First Tracks on any particular day.
- The Night Ski add-on provides access to the Coronet Express lift from 4pm - 9pm on designated Night Ski nights at Coronet Peak. The operation of Night Ski is subject to the availability and operation of the lifts and to snow and weather conditions.
- The Mt Hutt First Tracks add-on provides access to the Summit Six Express lift on Saturdays and Sundays from 8am – 9am from late June / early July through to late in the 2014 season. Mt Hutt First Tracks add-on is available to purchase with a Mt Hutt Pass or NZSki Pass. The First Tracks add-on is not available with the Mt Hutt mid-week pass. The operation of First Tracks is subject to the availability and operation of the lifts and to snow & weather conditions. Access to trails will be subject to operational requirements, weather and snow conditions and any scheduled race/events. Mt Hutt does not guarantee the operation of First Tracks on any particular Saturday or Sunday.
- Pass holder conditions as in Part A above also apply.
2014 Terms & Conditions for Season Pass Instalment Option
By selecting to make payment by the instalment option, the customer hereby agrees to NZSki Limited (NZSki) retaining the customer's credit card details and automatically charging the customer's credit card in three or eight (depending on purchase period) equal instalments. The first instalment will be charged at the time of purchase (only available during the Early Bird sales periods) and the remaining instalments on the following dates:
For choosing to pay by instalment, the customer will be charged a credit fee calculated at 3% of the entire transaction value.
- Default of payment
If any instalment payment is not made, e.g. due to the credit card payment being declined or reversed, NZSki reserves the right to charge a default administration fee of $35 per card transaction. Please see cancellations and refunds below for more details.Any changes to credit card details must be advised to NZSki by email firstname.lastname@example.com or by telephone (+64 3 450 1970) at least five working days prior to the instalment due date. This includes notification of new card expiry dates. NZSki will not be responsible for failure by the customer to make payment on the due date for any reason.
- Cancellation and Refunds
Season Passes are non-refundable from the date of the first payment under any circumstances unless the Injury/Medical cover option has been purchased.
- Issue and collection of season passes
Season Passes will not be issued or available for collection until full payment of all instalments has been received.
- Disclosure
The customer consents to NZSki making disclosures required by the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act 2003 in an electronic form, by means of email.


text:
A set of two vintage reproductions of an original watercolor by English artist Miranda Baker who was inspired by her grandmother's collection of Victorian sea life and maritime artifacts.
William Stafford Gallery has a sterling reputation for its reproduction prints. The London-based gallery is a treasure trove of fine art prints, contemporary black-and-white photography, sepia photography, and works in color. By commissioning artists and photographers and then controlling all aspects of print production, the gallery ensures a consistently exceptional quality. Through its collaborations with master framemakers, they offer new and refreshing presentation ideas in pace with today's design trends.