text:
When silence isn't golden
Whether temporary or permanent, hearing loss can be a terrifying experience, but there are cures for many of the causes…
The ability to hear is one of the most important senses that you have, allowing you to communicate with others, entertain yourself through music and keep yourself safe by warning you of dangers, such as approaching road traffic.
However, there are a number of ways your hearing can become impaired, and depending on the type and severity of cause, this hearing loss can be temporary or permanent. Typically, a hearing impediment will result in an earache and/or a constant ringing in the ears, as well as making it difficult for the sufferer to hear conversations in loud places.
We discover why people suffer hearing loss, and what can be done to remedy the situation…
Temporary hearing loss
The hows and whys of non-permanent deafness
Most people probably don't think about much earwax, other than when it needs to be removed, but it serves several useful purposes – it helps to clean and lubricate the ear, as well as trapping dirt and repelling water to protect the lining.
However, when too much earwax builds up, it can cause problems. In addition to the discomfort a blocked ear can bring, you may also suffer from earache, itching, tinnitus – which is when you hear a constant noise, often a ringing sound – and vertigo, the sensation of spinning when standing still.
Some people naturally produce too much earwax, though excessive build-up can occur if you have narrow or deformed ear canals, have a lot of hair in your ear canals, have benign (non-cancerous) bony growths in the outer part of your ear canal, have hard wax, are elderly or have a history of recurrent impacted earwax.
Removing excess earwax needn't be complicated – it can be treated with a syringe, ear drops, or ear irrigation, a method that uses a pressurised flow of water to dislodge the build up of wax.
According to the Clear Ear Clinic (www.clearearclinic.com), there is a 'safer, quicker, neater, better-tolerated, more effective way that does not require pre-treatment with ear drops' – this method is known as microsuction. In this technique, a binocular operating microscope that allows depth perception and magnification is used to let the practitioner to look straight into the ear canal. Then, a very fine suction device is used at low pressure to remove the wax.
Exposure to loud sounds
Noise-induced hearing loss is one of the most common types of temporary hearing loss and occurs when exposure to sudden or constant loud sounds causes damage to the sensitive structures in the inner ear. If you're unable to hear loud speech from a distance of a metre, then it's likely your ears are exposed to dangerous noise levels. Hearing aids are an appropriate remedy in this case.
Noise-induced hearing loss is accompanied by tinnitus – that ringing sound in the ears. If the exposure is continuous and left unattended, the hearing loss could become untreatable and permanent.
'Although hearing aids are not yet perfect, digital technology has revolutionised their quality and performance,' says consultant audiologist Huw Thomas. 'The correct hearing aid prescription, fitted by a professional to recognised protocols, can transform lives.'
Perforated eardrum
Perforations happen because of a sudden tear or rupture in the eardrum caused by an untreated ear infection, or by prodding something into the ear. It may be accompanied by pain and bloody drainage out of the ear. This condition is known as otitis media with perforation. Around 80% of cases clear up within three days without any treatment, but in some cases it may be necessary to carry out surgery to repair the rupture.
Repairing a perforation can improve hearing, reduce tinnitus and prevent water entering the ear while showering, bathing or swimming, which may cause an ear infection. It may also prevent the development of cholesteatoma – a skin cyst in the middle ear that can cause chronic infection and destruction of ear structures.
Damage to the sensory structures
Temporary hearing loss may be a result of damage to the sensory structures (hair cells) of the inner ear, auditory nerve pathway or auditory nerve in the brain. These structures may get damaged by infections, drugs, skull injuries or tumours. Infections can be treated with antibiotics and it might be possible to repair any structural damage with surgery. It's always advisable to seek medical attention as soon as possible to prevent further or permanent damage.
Long-term medication
If you've been taking certain medicines, including ibuprofen or aspirin, more than twice a week over a long period of time, you could be putting yourself at risk of temporary hearing loss. This is especially true in men who are under the age of 50.
It's thought that the drugs reduce blood flow to the cochlea – the small tube in the inner ear that processes sound vibrations. The good news is the condition is reversible and normal hearing should be resumed once the offending medication is stopped.
Permanent hearing loss
The hows and whys of lifelong deafness
Advancing age
Age-related hearing loss is hands-down the most common type of deafness in the UK, with an estimated three-quarters of men and women over 70 suffering some kind of loss of hearing.
One of the reasons why this occurs is down to the tiny hairs inside the ear that help us hear. The hairs pick up sound waves and change them into the nerve signals that the brain interprets as sound.
However, as we age, some of these hair cells get damaged or die and, since they cannot regrow, the hearing loss is permanent.Hearing loss in older people can also be caused by changes to the inner ear, as well as by genetics.
The eternal culprit smoking is also said to be a contributory factor. According to the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID, www.rnid.org.uk), although nothing can be done to 'cure' deafness caused by ageing, modern hearing aids can make a huge difference, making it possible for users to communicate with less stress and take a full part in life.
Sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSHL)
Also known as sudden deafness, SSHL is caused by damage to the pathway between the inner ear and the brain. Although the exact cause of the hearing loss is only unearthed in around 15% of cases, possible reasons include:
- Circulatory problems: trouble with the flow of blood to the ears can cause SSHL. In fact, a lack of blood to the inner ears can result in permanent hearing loss in less than one minute.
- Multiple sclerosis: this is a neurological condition that affects the brain and spinal cord.
- Some cancer treatments: such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
- Certain infections: such as measles, mumps or meningitis, especially in children.
- Ménière's disease: this is acondition of the inner ear that causes hearing loss, balance problems and tinnitus.
- Cholesteatoma: a benign skin growth in the middle ear that can cause deafness and vertigo.
- Genes: some children are born deaf, sometimes because deafness is in the genes and sometimes due to a complication or illness during pregnancy.
'Sensorineural hearing loss not only changes our ability to hear quiet sounds, but it also reduces the quality of the sound that is heard, meaning that individuals with this type of hearing loss will often struggle to understand speech,' says the RNID. 'Once the cochlea hair cells become damaged, they will remain damaged for the rest of a person's life. Therefore, sadly, sensorineural hearing loss is irreversible.'
SSHL usually happens over the space of hours, but can occur over a period of up to three days. It's classed as a medical emergency, so requires immediate attention.
Trauma-induced hearing loss is caused by exposure to extremely loud noise – such as an explosion, airbag discharge or a gunshot – or by an injury to the ear or head.
A head injury can cause damage to structures in the ear, the neural pathways that carry sound to the brain, and the hearing centres of the brain. Sudden changes of inner-ear pressure can also cause trauma-induced hearing loss.
Depending on the severity of the injury, the patient may be able to recover some of their hearing with the help of a hearing aid or a cochlear implant – also known as bionic ear – which is a surgically implanted electronic device that stimulates the cochlear nerve.
This is the abnormal growth of bone of the middle ear. This bone prevents structures within the ear from working properly, which then causes hearing loss. For some otosclerosis patients, the loss may become severe. The condition can be genetic – if one of your parents has it, you have a 25% chance of getting it; if it's both parents, the risk goes up to 50%. It's usually treated through the use of hearing aids or surgery.
Acoustic neuroma
An acoustic neuroma is a benign slow-growing brain tumour. It appears on the acoustic nerve, which helps control hearing and balance. The condition is most likely to be found in middle‑aged adults, especially women. Apart from difficulty in hearing, symptoms include tinnitus and a feeling of fullness in the ear. Sufferers may also have problems when walking and in keeping their balance.
Although radiotherapy or surgery may be used to treat the tumour, some degree of hearing loss in the affected ear may well be permanent. However, a hearing aid to divert sounds from the affected ear to the other ear can be an effective solution.
'Getting on the right side of me helps me to cope'
Gavin Holroyd, 39, has hearing loss in his left ear. Over 10 years, he's developed self-help techniques to help him lead a normal life.
'About 10 years ago, I noticed I was bumping into things a lot, especially in the dark – even when sober! My doctor sent me to have some tests at hospital, which concluded that an earlier infection had caused hearing loss in my left ear. I also discovered that the balance organs inside both ears were badly damaged. They told me there was nothing that could be done about it.
'My hearing has got considerably worse over the years. If I sleep on my right side and have my left ear up, I can hardly hear a thing, which can be an advantage if I'm somewhere noisy, but is a major issue when my alarm clock goes off!
'It's also very difficult to hear people talking to me in a busy pub or restaurant, especially if there's background music. But I'm getting quite good at positioning myself so I have every chance of hearing better: I try to
sit so everyone is to my right and preferably no intrusive noise on my left.
'I get fed up with saying "pardon", and embarrassed at having to ask people to repeat themselves more than once.
'What's worse, I've found that my loss of hearing could prove fatal. I was in Europe recently, and automatically looked right before stepping out into the road. I don't hear traffic coming and I've had a couple of close shaves!'
Dr Christian says… 'In terms of earwax, don't remove it – it comes out by itself. If your ears are really blocked then use some olive oil drops for a week or so to soften the wax and then ask your doctor to syringe your ears clean.'
The above feature was published in at home's Ask the Doctor with Dr Christian Jessen in March 2011. To read more articles from the mag, just click here or visit at home's health section here.
Images: Getty, Shutterstock


text:
Thursday, January 27, 2011
The Possession of David O' Reilly (2010)
Fear 2/5
Gore 1/5
Entertainment 2/5
Creepiness 2/5
The Possession of David O' Reilly starts off interesting enough. A husband and wife awake on their couch after spending a night indoors and falling asleep. Just before the wife does so, she's heard muttering 'Don't open the door.' Shortly thereafter, a knock occurs and the husband answers, finding a distraught friend (David) on the front doorstep. After he's welcomed in, we learn that he recently found out that his significant other was having an affair with another man. Being the good friend that he is, the man of the house asks his friend to stay. But that's not his real reason for showing up.
That night, our distraught friend sees and hears things. We get brief glimpses of a creature in the backyard. Shuffling noises, thumps on doors and heavy breathing add to a slowly building atmosphere. At first, these actions are ignored so as to not disturb the good friends which have allowed him to crash. But each night, with the figures getting closer and closer to the home, it becomes too much for him to ignore and he partly reveals to his friends what's been happening. It isn't until a figure is seen in the light of day and David completely flips his shit does our couple become really concerned about what it is exactly that is troubling our now full-on paranoid and anxiety filled friend.
After this last occurrence, our homeowners don't know what to believe in regards to what's taking place. The husband is inclined to think that these events are really happening while the wife is hesitant to call it anything but a friend who's in desperate need of psychiatric help. But later that night, we come face to face with what is haunting David as the presence makes itself known. A demon-like creature which looks like something straight out of the mind of Clive Barker, presents itself to David but you never really know if his friends actually see or come into contact with the creature themselves. What we do see is them reacting to the hysterics of their friend as well as further confusion developing as to what is actually going on. And confusion starts to develop within the viewer at this point.
This confusion grows as they come into contact with a woman that's living upstairs. Our evil presence comes out again later the next day and all 4 of our story's participants run upstairs and hole themselves up in her apartment. In the darkness of the apartment, we see different newspaper clippings which briefly reveal certain things which may have happened in the complex. And we see our demon as it's followed them into the apartment. But nothing happens to them as they make a clean escape, back downstairs and into the home of our good Samaritan friends.
Here's where things start to really unravel as the film heads into 'I'm not sure where to take this next or how to end it' territory. After a series of more supernatural events, some of our onscreen characters meet an untimely demise. As the story concludes, no clear cut resolve is achieved. We see David blabbering on about what's happening. Our closing shot shows the lady of the house bloodied and on the floor. And then our film abruptly ends. Was David really possessed or just cuckoo nutsos? Did he transfer the demon to his buddy's wife? It would have been fine to have left the film open ended if there were larger themes being explored. But as is, its just one big resounding 'thud.' What a muddled mess of a film.
Cortez the Killer
4 comments:
- arbraun said...
Great blog and nice review! I hadn't even heard about this movie. I agree in that I like to know what's going on, but if it's kept disclosed, it has to be a bigger issue. Keep up the good work.
- January 29, 2011 at 7:55 PM
- TDFC99 said...
Welcome to "FRIGHT CLUB"
You have been selected to be a member.
Share this with anyone you feel worthy.
Frights begin soon...
I am not here...
- January 30, 2011 at 5:51 AM
- Pax Romano said...
In spite of the ambiguous ending, I did enjoy this film - thought the acting was great and the atmosphere menacing.
- January 30, 2011 at 8:05 AM
- Cortez The Killer said...
@arbraun, thank you. Hope to see you around on the blog more. The film kind of made you feel that way. Like there was a bigger issue with the script. Or just a plain lack of how to get to an overall point.
@Pax, I liked the menacing nature and the great atmosphere as well. But in the end, I just felt like it was all for naught. And I was left wondering 'Is that it?' Very disappointing.
- January 30, 2011 at 10:52 AM

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Grumpy Fan Art!
Tard has many, many loyal fans. 15 Photos »
Lil Bub On Grumpy Cat
Oh, it's a cat fight! Read More »
Best Internet Cats
The 10 best cats on the Internet, ever. Read More »
What would Grumpy Cat do? She certainly wouldn't approve of attaching her visage to a pair of nipple tassels. No, the fact that Grumpy Cat nipple tassles exist would no doubt make Grumpy Cat grumpier than ever. And what kind of striptease involves a glaring cat face? Certainly not a very sexy one, that's for sure. Nevertheless, if you must, these Grumpy Cat tassels are available on Etsy site (natch) Montabahn for $85. Get yours, weirdo.


text:
Aetna's Coventry Deal Signals 'Obamacare' Consolidation
Updated to include analyst comments and added data throughout.
NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- Obamacare has another major merger, after health care giant Aetna (AET) buying Coventry Health Care (CVH) $42.08 per share, in a deal that values Coventry at $5.7 billion.
The deal, which comes at a near 20% premium to Coventry's Friday closing share price and was announced Monday, is the second major health care sector merger since President Obama's Affordable Health Care Act was narrowly upheld by the Supreme Court in late June.
For Aetna, a large provider of commercial and individual health care plans, the deal targets Coventry's Medicare and Medicaid customers, which are expected to grow under the expanded coverage of the Act. It also signals that healthcare giants are already planning for drastic change in the sector, even as the Act becomes a key campaign issue and presumptive Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney says he would attempt to strike it down.For Aetna, a large regional healthcare care provider, Coventry will add nearly 4 million medical members and 1.5 million Medicare Part D members to Aetna's membership, substantially increasing its exposure to government sponsored health plans. "
Select the service that is right for you!COMPARE ALL SERVICES
Action Alerts PLUSTry it NOW
Jim Cramer and Stephanie Link actively manage a real portfolio and reveal their money management tactics while giving advanced notice before every trade.
Product Features:
- $2.5+ million portfolio
- Large-cap and dividend focus
- Intraday trade alerts from Cramer
- Weekly roundups
TheStreet Quant RatingsTry it NOW
Only $49.95/yr
Access the tool that DOMINATES the Russell 2000 and the S&P 500.
Product Features:
- Buy, hold, or sell recommendations for over 4,300 stocks
- Unlimited research reports on your favorite stocks
- A custom stock screener
- Upgrade/downgrade alerts
Stocks Under $10Try it NOW
David Peltier, uncovers low dollar stocks with extraordinary upside potential that are flying under Wall Street's radar.
Product Features:
- Model portfolio
- Stocks trading below $10
- Intraday trade alerts
- Weekly roundups
Dividend Stock AdvisorTry it NOW
Jim Cramer's protege, David Peltier, identifies the best of breed dividend stocks that will pay a reliable AND significant income stream.
Product Features:
- Diversified model portfolio of dividend stocks
- Alerts when market news affect the portfolio
- Bi-weekly updates with exact steps to take - BUY, HOLD, SELL
Real Money ProTry it NOW
All of Real Money, plus 15 more of Wall Street's sharpest minds delivering actionable trading ideas, a comprehensive look at the market, and fundamental and technical analysis.
Product Features:
- Real Money + Doug Kass Plus 15 more Wall Street Pros
- Intraday commentary & news
- Ultra-actionable trading ideas
Options ProfitsTry it NOW
Our options trading pros provide daily market commentary and over 100 monthly option trading ideas and strategies to help you become a well-seasoned trader.
Product Features:
- 100+ monthly options trading ideas
- Actionable options commentary & news
- Real-time trading community
- Options TV


text:
It is the system, rather than individuals, that is the source of pollution and degradation. My prison-house environment is but another manifestation of the Midas-hand, whose cursed touch turns everything to the brutal service of Mammon.Alexander Berkman
If I were asked to chose between execution and life in prison I would, of course, chose the latter. Its better to live somehow than not at all.Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
The whole value of solitude depends upon one's self; it may be a sanctuary or a prison, a haven of repose or a place of punishment, a heaven or a hell, as we ourselves make it.John Lubbock
The desire for freedom resides in every human heart. And that desire cannot be contained forever by prison walls, or martial laws, or secret police. Over time, and across the Earth, freedom will find a way.George Walker Bush
One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny.Bertrand Russell
Everywhere all over Africa and South America ... you see these suburbs springing up. They represent the optimum of what people want. There's a certain sort of logic leading towards these immaculate suburbs. And they're terrifying, because they are the death of the soul ... This is the prison this planet is being turned into.James Graham Ballard
To live in prison is to live without mirrors. To live without mirrors is to live without the self. She is living selflessly, she finds a hole in the stone wall and on the other side of the wall, a voice. The voice comes through darkness and has no face. This voice becomes her mirror.Margaret Eleanor Atwood
There is no religion in which everyday life is not considered a prison; there is no philosophy or ideology that does not think that we live in alienation.Eugene Ionesco
His tenacity is unmatched in my opinion. Incredible how someone could have suffered that long and come back out of prison with such a good heart and positive things to say and do.Maurice Ashley
The candle burns not for us, but for all those whom we failed to rescue from prison, who were shot on the way to prison, who were tortured, who were kidnapped, who "disappeared".Peter Benenson
And when they heard that, they entered into the temple early in the morning, and taught. But the high priest came, and they that were with him, and called the council together, and all the senate of the children of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought.Bible
Man is a prisoner who has no right to open the door of his prison and run away ... A man should wait, and not take his own life until God summons him.Plato
Studies have shown that inmate participation in education, vocational and job training, prison work skills development, drug abuse, mental health and other treatment programs, all reduce recidivism, significantly.Bobby Scott
The curse of mortality. You spend the first portion of your life learning, growing stronger, more capable. And then, through no fault of your own, your body begins to fail. You regress. Strong limbs become feeble, keen senses grow dull, hardy constitutions deteriorate. Beauty withers. Organs quit. You remember yourself in your prime, and wonder where that person went. As your wisdom and experience are peaking, your traitorous body becomes a prison.Brandon Mull
But it is better to be destroyed on strange frontiers than to live in a prison of ignorance and fear.Edmund Cooper
It is apparent that prisoners of war are among the most vulnerable of people. Not only are they completely under the control of their captors, but in a time of conflict, the hatred and brutality of the battlefield are very likely to be mirrored within military prison walls.James Earl Carter, Jr.
The world itself is but a large prison, out of which some are daily led to execution.Walter Raleigh, Sr.
An intelligent, energetic, educated woman cannot be kept in four walls even satin-lined, diamond-studded walls without discovering sooner or later that they are still a prison cell.Pearl Sydenstricker Buck
Homosexuality in Russia is a crime and the punishment is seven years in prison, locked up with the other men. There is a three year waiting list.Yakov Smirnoff
Sometimes it seems like we're living in a prison & the crime is how much we hate ourselves.Unknown
The whole value of solitude depends upon one's self; it may be a sanctuary or a prison, a haven of repose or a place of punishment, a heaven or a hell, as we ourselves make itJohn Lubbock
America is the land of the second chance - and when the gates of the prison open, the path ahead should lead to a better life.George W. Bush
Hard work is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning. Once it does, it becomes the kind of thing that makes you grab your wife around the waist and dance a jig.Malcolm Gladwell
And why do we, who say we oppose tyranny and demand freedom of speech, allow people to go to prison and be vilified, and magazines to be closed down on the spot, for suggesting another version of history.David Icke


text:
Tawny Taylor >> See More Cybergirls
Galleries in Full HD!
Galleries in Full HD!
Take it from salon owner Tawny: Hair makes the man—whether he has any or not. "Chest hair is so sexy," she says, "and I'm a sucker for guys who can pull off the sexy bald look." Styling hair is just one of her passions, others being crazy nights out with her girl...
Get this complete pictorial in stunning resolution & HD video! View Full Gallery!


text:
Mens Ski Jackets - MensDiscounted Men's Ski Jackets at terrific prices. Proboardshop.com offers the products you love at great prices. Choose from all the best brands to find your perfect jacket. Save big with deals up to 60% off on a variety of styles, sizes, and colors. Your order will ship out within 24 hours Monday-Friday with 100% satisfaction guaranteed.
Please refine here More in the Outlet.
- Color: Plaid
Columbia Whirlibird Ski Jacket Tradewinds Grey Plaid/Graphite
Size: Medium, Large, X-Large
Our Price: $200.00
Sessions Rebellion Plaid Ski Jacket
Size: X-LargeReg: $179.95
40% OffOn Sale: $107.95


text: This Morning Celebrity chat and lifestyle features Facebook Twitter Google Tumblr Pinterest Blogger Reddit VKontakt Print Email Phillip Schofield completes 24-hour live TV broadcasting marathon on ITV Carousel Navigation 1 Related Phillip Schofield on swearing, toilet and farting fears for 24-hour charity broadcast The host of This Morning and The Cubewill be on air for an entire day in aid of the Text Santa campaign, but he's got a few things on his mind along with charity Phillip Schofield to attempt 24 hours of live presenting This Morning and The Cube star is taking over ITV on December 1st with a full day and night of presenting in aid of the Text Santa charity campaign Richard Madeley: Good Morning Britain can turn things around We struggled to relaunch Richard & Judy... but we got there in the end, says the author and broadcaster Why Marvin and Rochelle Humes are a refreshing change as the hosts of This Morning The Saturdays star and her ex-JLS husband are TV's new power-couple-in-waiting, says Ryan Love Richard Madeley's first novel being developed as a TV drama The onetime darling of daytime TV says he likes occasional presenting - but can't be tempted back into a Richard & Judy-style regular gig Amanda Holden to present This Morning The Britain's Got Talent judge will cover Holly Willoughby's maternity leave alongside Philip Schofield, with Christine Bleakley also filling in When awards ceremonies go wrong Envelope mix-ups, boob slips and expletives – ahead of tonight's TV Baftas, enjoy some of the best awards night mishaps Sarah Millican: I was a daytime TV virgin... "Today I watched it. For you. You're welcome" Dermot O'Leary won't take my This Morning job says Phillip Schofield "He's shorter than I am. And I know people..." says the daytime series presenter after collecting the NTA award for Best Daytime Show Sarah Millican: Phillip Schofield has always been my primary crush "People say, don't meet your heroes. I'd agree, but add, 'unless it's Phillip Schofield'," says Sarah Richard and Judy returning to This Morning in Liverpool for 25th birthday Veteran ITV magazine show will be broadcast from its original home at Albert Dock with special guest stars from yesteryear Richard and Judy on waving goodbye to television and the terrifying prospect of publishing novels "We're not in competition at all but it just would have been embarrassing if my wife could write a bestseller and I couldn't" Andy Murray: "I don't know whether winning Wimbledon deserves a knighthood" "I can't think of anyone who deserves recognition more right now than the person who has ended this 77-year drought," adds David Cameron Holly Willoughby on Peppa Pig, period dramas and happy endings "I don't like a sad ending. I have even watched Titanic and stopped the DVD before they hit the iceberg. Why put myself through it?" TV weatherman Fred Talbot arrested in sex abuse probe The former This Morning weather presenter has been held be police investigating allegations of historic child sex abuse Kate Middleton bikini baby bump photos revealed on This Morning ITV programme accidentally shows uncensored cover of Italian magazine - forcing Eamonn Holmes to make an on-air apology for a "deeply regrettable" incident Sexual chemistry - the secret to This Morning's success! Holly Willoughby, Phillip Schofield, Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes tell RadioTimes.com how it feels to have won at the NTAs for the third year in a row Phillip Schofield to remain on This Morning following list incident ITV's director of television Peter Fincham says the presenter has been disciplined but will remain with the daytime magazine programme Ofcom to investigate Newsnight and This Morning The broadcasting watchdog will consider whether the BBC and ITV programmes breached its code by failing to allow those linked to allegations of child abuse the right to reply Denise Robertson on Love and Marriage: a 20th Century Romance This Morning's agony aunt talks marriage and divorce ahead of tonight's BBC4 show Strictly Come Dancing 2012: Fern Britton From This Morning to those Ryvita adverts and everything in between... Andrew Flintoff attempts 12 world records in a day for Sport Relief From drinking hot chocolate at speed to wrapping Holly Willoughby in paper, the cricket star goes the extra mile for charity The National Television Awards 2012 winners in full Find out who picked up the prizes at this year's awards ceremony, voted for by viewers Fern Britton: I can't watch This Morning – but I'd do Strictly And the former daytime queen faces Ann Widdecombe in her new interview series Rough Cuts: Alex Reid and Chantelle melt hearts on This Morning Blissfully happy couple dazzle the nation with their earnest declarations of love


text:
Become an Advocate
We need your voice. Tell your friends about United Way and speak out about important public policy changes.
Breaking the cycles of dropouts, poverty and poor health in North Texas depends on engaging the entire community. Join tens of thousands of United Way advocates by telling your friends and colleagues about the importance of getting involved.
You can also use your voice to improve critical public policies. In 2011, United Way advocates successfully lobbied the Texas Legislature to strengthen the training requirements for childcare providers, which will enable them to better prepare children for kindergarten.
For the 2013 Texas Legislature, United Way priorities include supporting vocational training, obesity prevention and early education practices that have proven to make a long-term impact on people's lives. You can play an important role in shaping public policy by signing up to receive timely updates about the key issues you support. Also consider familiarizing yourself with who represents you and how the legislative process works.
Be sure to follow us on both Facebook and Twitter to receive action alerts when these bills and other important proposed policies need your help moving.


text:
Search for a name or phrase
Search for a name or phrase
using quick search
Find the right name for your baby using our advanced search tool
's Stuff
My Name Ratings
Review and change the name ratings you've made throughout the site
My Lists
Create a private list of your favorite names or share it with the Nameberry community to flex your naming muscles
Names I Follow
Manage all the name subscription emails you've set up
Account Settings
Change your email address and your password
Or Register
Get email updates on CaineFollow
Would you like to follow Caine?
You will receive an email (no more than once per day) summarizing any new mentions of Caine on Nameberry. Would you like to follow Caine?
Gender: M
Popularity: this week.
Variation of Cain
Famous People Named Caine
Login or Register to Contribute
Michael Caine, English actor
Famous People Named Caine
Daily Delivery
Exclusive Nameberry picks, direct to you.


text:
Schirmer's test is used to determine whether the eye produces enough tears to keep it moist. The test is performed by placing filter paper inside the lower lid of the eye. After a few minutes, the paper is removed and tested for its moisture content. Fluorescein eye drops are also used to test if tears can flow through the lacrimal duct into the nose.
Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center | 5215 Holy Cross Parkway, Mishawaka, IN 46545 | 574-335-5000


text:
Killzone 3 Multiplayer footage
Posted on 06. Sep, 2010 by robdutchmonkey in Games, News, Video
It's no doubt that Killzone 3 is one of the most anticipated exclusives after the great success of Killzone 2 last year. We've seen pictures and trailers and we've all been checking up on the news about it, but not yet have we seen lengthy gameplay. However, there's now a nice long video showing multiplayer footage, and from what I can see, it looks exactly like Killzone 2 multiplayer… Possibly a little different in looks and the terrain makes it difficult to score kills, but either way it looks good. Enjoy. Source


text:
Books Reviews
Sebastian Darke: Prince of Spies, the Final Adventure Book Review
By Angela Youngman Oct 29, 2012, 21:55 GMT
Sebastian Darke together with Max, his talking Buffalope, is on his way to Golmira. Their friend Cornelius has received a strange message from his father. After a long journey across vast ice fields, they find that Golmira has been invaded by the vicious Tannisians. Cornelius's home has been destroyed and his family are camping out in the icy countryside.
Relying on Sebastian's jesting skills, the trio set out to enter the city in disguise - Cornelius is dressed as a woman! Can Sebastian get his magic tricks to work successfully? Can they liberate the Golmirran people and return their city to peaceful rule? Will Max ever stop moaning - especially when sitting on a sledge? There are some lovely descriptive sections within the book such as the jeweled city and the singing voice of Max booming out across Golmirra.
As always there is plenty of action, as well as humor. You cannot help but smile as you read the book. The characters are extremely well drawn, and it is just such a shame that the storyline has now come to an end. There are plenty of surprises in store - Cornelius definitely does not expect what happens to him! A good, enjoyable read which makes a fantastic bedtime story.
Like this article? Please share on Facebook and give Monsters & Critics a "Like" too!
Further Reading on M&C
COMMENTcomments powered by Disqus


text:
Beach walking - Kayak launching - Beach fishing - Water Taxi Nearby - Fishing Charters 1/2 block away
Alaska Base Camp Lodging
Activities & Transportation
Eagles, otters, sea lions, whales and salmon occupy our area through-out the year, with halibut in the deeper waters. Shore fishing is popular as are fishing charters (1/2 day or full day), sight seeing tours (half day & full day), guided kayaking, walking, hiking, sailing, biking, or horseback riding. Here's our list of some activities to explore.
Activities On the Sea
Seward Water Taxi
'Little Gem' operates out of the small boat harbor
KF Sea Treks
Ride on Kenai Fjords kayakers water taxi out of the small boat harbor
Liquid Adventures
Guided kayak adventures for one or a group
Kayak Adventures
Instruction, package adventures, rentals
Miller's Landing
Kayaking, water taxi, fishing charters
Guided kayak/ camping trips, camping gear rentals
Alaska State Parks
Parks around Resurrection Bay & Day Harbor (access by water)
Activities On the Land
Seavey's sled dog tours
Lost Lake Trail
at Mile 5 - gravel pit on left
Exit Glacier Guides
5hr ice hiking or an overnighter, shuttle service
Exit Glacier National Park
3 short day-hiking loop trails around the glacier
Alaska Outdoor Journal
Partial list covering popular trails
Alaska SeaLife Center
Sea lions up close, puffins diving for food & fun
... Full listing of eateries & bars in the area - with maps & menus
Horseback Rides
Guided trail rides
Resurrect Art Coffee House Gallery
Enjoy an Espresso, local Art, hand made Gifts
Transportation Schedules
Alaska Railroad
Schedule & fares page
Alaska Marine Highway System
Schedule & fares page
City of Seward
Free Bus Service 8am-6pm
Exit Glacier Shuttle
Hourly (on the 1/2 hour) shuttle service, 8:30am to 4:30pm
Seward Bike Shop hybrids, cruisers, mountain bike rentals - 907.224.2448
Seward Bus Service
Schedule & fares page
- 907.224.3608
Arriving by rail, ferry
or cruise ship into:
your location on arrival:
Travel hint:
Seward -
@3 1/2 miles north of the yurt - call a taxi or
Whittier -
@80 miles north of Seward
make transportation arrangements ahead of time
Inside & Outside
Rates/ Reservations
Location/ Map
Activities/ Transportation
Alaska Base Camp Lodging 2007-
design by Pam


text:
Saturday, March 27, 2010
EGYPT - Donald And the Wheel (1961)
This is actually one of several segments from a truly humungous master pan BG. Previously I posted the recreated Greek section.
I've been meaning to work on this EGYPT section for months. I finally got around to it! It wasn't easy. There is a chariot race is this scene. I could only build this slowly, one slice at a time. Near the end of the "pan," two horses (with two different Donalds!) actually criss-cross! Here's what I had to contend with:
I couldn't clear the entire image, but I was able to recreate most of the pan background, with Donald and his horse split. Don't even ask me why, it just worked out this way! I did a little clean-up painting in Photoshop, but 99% of this is original and un-retouched,
As usual I have split the sections so you can see more detail. Here's the left side Sphinx section.
Here's a close-up of the right side. I like the little cluster of palm trees in the middle.
I am far from expert at mediums, but it appears to be pastels. Expert opinions - please!
2 comments:
- dinoibo said...
Sesli sohbet Sesli chat
Seslisohbet Seslichat
Sesli sohbet siteleri Sesli chat siteleri
Sesli Chat
Sohbet Sesli siteler
Sohbet siteleri Chat siteleri
Sohbet merkezi chat merkezi
Sesli merkezi sesli Sohbet merkezi
Sesli chat merkezi Sohbetmerkezi
Sesli Sohbet Sesli Chat
SesliSohbet Sesli chat siteleri
Sesli sohbet siteleri SesliChat
Sesli Sesli siteler
Seslimuhabbet sesli muhabbet
sesli sohbet sesli chat siteleri
sesli sohbet siteleri sesli chat
seslisohbet seslichat
seslikent sesli kent
sesli sohbet sesli sohbet siteleri
sesli chat sesli chat siteleri
seslisohbet seslichat
- June 29, 2010 at 2:23 PM
- 每当遇见你 said...
Here's a list of tools you will need to start: Jewelers' pandora jewellery wire cutters - If you can only afford one pair, get memory wire shears. pandora charms These are designed to make clean cuts on tough memory wire, so can also be used for pandora charms uk softer wires. Chain-nose pliers sometimes called cheap pandora charms needle-nose pliers – Very versatile for picking up and grasping small items, pandora charms sale bending eye pins, closing jumps rings, even closing crimp beads. discount pandora charms Round-nose pliers – Used for creating loops on beaded head and eye pins. Can also be used for winding your own jump rings and as the second pliers you'cheap pandora ll need for closing jump rings. Optional pliers – Wire-looping pliers which have several graduated circumferences to allow you to form perfectly uniform jump rings and loops in place of the pandora discount uk round-nose pliers mentioned above. Crimping pliers which have little notches to allow you to both flatten a crimp bead and then bend it to form a rounded finished look instead of the flat crimp you pandora uk get using the chain-nose pliers. As for materials, I recommend some assortment packs of beads in coordinating colors, some decorative metal spacers, seed beads in both silver and gold These can serve as spacers and beautifully set off pandora sale your other beads., tube-shaped crimp beads Buy the best you can find – these are what hold it all together!, head and eye pins. Other than that, let your choice of project be your guide. You might want some silver or pewter charms.
- October 15, 2010 at 1:42 AM


text:
Gutter ProTech® is a rain gutter protection "panel" that can be installed over new or existing rain gutters to keep debris from entering your gutter and clogging it. Gutter ProTech® can be professionally installed with most types of roofs and rain gutters turning them into Self-Cleaning gutters so
"no one will ever need to climb a ladder to maintain your rain gutters".
Available in solid copper and many colors of aluminum to match or blend with
your roof.
"MADE IN THE USA" by "American workers"!
To see how Gutter ProTech® Self-Cleaning gutters perform over time,
click on pictures below.
According to the National Safety Council, falls at home are the #1 cause of over 65,000 accidental deaths and almost 2,000,000 hospital related injuries reported each year in the United States.
for more information
Our premium rain gutter protection system is available in copper panels and many colors of .027 inch thick aluminum panels. Our gutter guards turn once high maintenance rain gutters into very low maintenance Self-Cleaning gutters and if any maintenance is ever required, it can be done safely from the ground. gutter covers are professionally installed and guaranteed. Other caps and helmet type gutter covers are often nailed or screwed into your roof, but our gutter guards are attached only to your secured gutter with stainless steel screws and do not compromise the integrity or warranty of your roof.
Unlike the single piece leaf guard that is a cover and gutter in one, if a tree branch falls and damages an area, one or two panels they can be easily removed and replaced, as opposed to replacing the entire length of gutter.
Another quality features that differentiate from the competition is our two rows of offset filtering louvers on the vertical face of our panels.
Not even pine needles can get inside your gutters once our "pine and leaf proof" covers are installed.
Most of all you'll enjoy the feeling you get with "peace of mind protection"; knowing that you will never have to worry about your rain gutters ever again. Your home will be protected with the absolute best gutter protection you can have installed, at any price. You'll be the envy of your neighbors, friends and family, so go ahead and contact your local dealer now for a free survey and quote.
is a registered trademark of Absolute Gutter Protection,
Woodbury, New Jersey 08096
Dealer Opportunities | Homeowner Inquiries | Photo Album | Color Chart | FAQ
Trade Shows | Useful Links | Home | Copyright, Link & Legal Notice


text:
You are currently browsing the tag archive for the 'Metafiction' tag.
Tag Archive
Postmodern Pretension and Laurent Binet's HHhH
May 25, 2012 in Metafiction | Tags: books, literary criticism, Metafiction, novel, novels, truth/reality | by Kelly Lynn Thomas | 1 comment
I am still officially on hiatus, but when I read James Wood's review of HHhH, a new postmodern historical novel by Laurent Binet, in The New Yorker, I had to post about it. Binet's novel, which revolves around the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, the head of the intelligence service of S.S. in Nazi Germany during WWII.
Binet does not use invented characters, and has asserted that the narrator is not, in fact, a character, but himself. This is significant because throughout the novel, the narrator discusses the fictional techniques the author is using to tell the story. Wood describes this all in much greater detail, and also contrasts Binet's (ultimately shallow, he contends) use of these techniques with those in W.G. Sebald's Austerlitz, another self-aware historical set during WWII.
Basically, it seems to me that HHhH is one of those incredibly pretentious postmodern novels that make me roll my eyes. Like the trashy romance novels of postmodernism. (Not that there's anything wrong with trashy romance novels–except, wait, yes, there is, because most of them rely on horrible sexist stereotypes and cultural norms that are borderline offensive.)
I love weird writing. And of course postmodernism is a hotbed of weird stuff. But I can't stand weirdness for the sake of weirdness, weirdness that screams LOOK AT ME, I'M DIFFERENT AND SMART. I love weird writing that actually says something new and important about the world we live in. The reason I love postmodernism and metafiction so much is because they give us a way to fight against those hurtful, painful cultural norms that constrict us and force us to be things other than who we really are, who we really want to be.
Based on Woods's review, and his quoting of certain glib passages from Binet's novel, it sounds like HHhH, at best, highlights silly fictional techniques, and at worst, makes light of horrible tragedies to prove how smart he is. I think this is a novel I'll skip.
The disruptive narrative in Don Quixote and what it says about the reader
December 26, 2011 in Metafiction | Tags: books, cervantes, Don Quixote, Metafiction, novels, postaweek2011, storytelling | by Kelly Lynn Thomas | 1 comment
Cervantes has a habit of interrupting his stories at critical moments. For example, in Chapter VIII, Character-Cervantes (as I discuss in my post Don Quixote: Meta-Masterpiece) interrupts the story of Don Quixote's battle with the Basque to tell us he doesn't actually know the ending.
Or, for example, the story of Cardenio, which the unfortunate gentleman relates to Don Quixote and Sancho Panza in Chapter XXIV until Quixote takes offense at Cardenio's words about Queen Madásima from the novel Amadis of Gaul and sends Cardenio into a mad rage, effectively cutting off the story until later in the book.
Or again, when Quixote and company find themselves at the infamous inn of Sancho's blanket tossing, where they seek amusement in the story,"The Tale of Ill-Advised Curiosity," only to have the narrative interrupted by Quixote in the throes of a dream about slaying a giant but really destroying some of the innkeepers wine skins. The moment the story stops, is of course, the moment after we learn that one of the tale's main characters will die.
This technique not only builds suspense and tension, but says something about readers, too: They are not passive audience members, but participants in the story.
Keep in mind that Quixote himself is a reader-turned-participant in the extremest sense. He has read all the books of chivalry he can find and has decided to take up the sword himself to do great deeds in the name of his Lady Dulcinea del Toboso. And we are, as Cervantes points out on many occasions, reading a book about his exploits. This makes Quixote the ultimate reader participant.
It's worth noting too, that often, it is Quixote who causes the interruption in the telling of a story, be it on purpose or on accident. In the third example, that of "The Tale of Ill-Advised Curiosity," the characters reading the tale are Cardenio, Dorotea, the curate and the barber. Cardenio and Dorotea are caught up in a love tangle (not triangle) somewhat similar to that in "The Tale of Ill-Advised Curiosity," and all four of them have created a story in which Dorotea plays Princess Micomicona, who needs Quixote to slay a giant for her, in order to get Quixote home. They, too, have become participants in Quixote's story, and it is only fitting that he should interrupt their entertainment to continue the story they've created.
Although Cervantes was ultimately parodying Spain's complete obsession with chivalrous novels, I also read Don Quixote as a parody of the extreme inaction and passivity of those same readers. I doubt Cervantes wants us to put on armor and take up swords and wander around the country slaying wine skins, but interact with the books you read. Think about them critically. Talk about them. Write about them.
Masturbatory metafiction in Jack of Fables
December 17, 2011 in Metafiction | Tags: Bill Willingham, comics, Fables, graphic novel, Metafiction, postaweek2011, storytelling | by Kelly Lynn Thomas | Comments closed
I am still technically on hiatus because of grad school, but I've just finished my first semester and I have some time while I'm on winter break. I hope to get a few posts up before the spring semester starts in January, but I'm not promising anything!
Over the summer I learned that consuming too much metafiction, as with chocolate, wine, margaritas, cheese, berries of any kind, coffee, tea, cake, cookies, candy or anything else delicious and edible, can lead to headaches, indigestion and temporary loss of taste for that food.
I'm not saying Jack of Fables is a bad series. In fact, it does something completely brilliant by making the writing/illustrating process a kind of character in the books. I'm just saying that it's a very bad idea to read eight volumes of it right in a row. This comic by Bill Willingham is a spinoff of one of my all-time favorite comics, ever, Fables. The books follow all our favorite fairytale characters in their lives in New York City after they were run out of their homelands by the adversary. And then other stuff happens. Jack of Fables spins off fairly early in the series, and follows a separate timeline.
The best way for me to describe the metafiction contained within is this:
Many jokes are made about the authors creating the characters (and Jack actually turns fat and ugly and then into a dragon for making fun of the authors–see, the writing/illustrating process has agency in this text! Fracking brilliant!). Literary terms, genres and plot devices like science fiction, fantasy, literary, the fourth wall, the other three walls, deus ex machina, etc. become characters. In every issue (so several times a volume), Babe the Blue Ox gets a page or two to look out at the audience and make jokes.
For the first few volumes the story revolves around the Literals, a family of powerful individuals who created all the Fables. One of them tries to write the Fables and all magic out of existence, and so the Fables must prevent this from happening. The Literals are another way Willingham has characterized the writing process, and made it both hero and villain as certain members of the family fight for the Fables, and others against.
All of it is brilliant, and delicious, and if you read it all at once, thoroughly nauseating. Most of the devices and techniques Willingham uses here are fairly obvious, though the effects of those techniques are varied and as I said earlier, brilliant. My first reaction to this was to roll my eyes and say something to the effect of, "Cervantes was never THIS obvioius," but I was missing the point.
Jack is a self-absorbed prick. Under normal circumstances, only other self-absorbed pricks would have any interest in reading an entire comic book series about such a douche bag. So by making the writing process itself a character, I could stomach Jack's self absorption and laugh about it. It was especially funny to me as a writer, because sometimes your characters turn into assholes when you want them to be nice, and you've got to do horrible things like turn them into dragons in order to make them nice again.
Willingham obviously has a lot of fun with this series, and it's a lot of fun to read.
That being said, don't read it all at once.
Metafiction vs. The Fourth Wall
July 12, 2011 in Metafiction | Tags: books, fourth wall, Metafiction, postaweek2011 | by Kelly Lynn Thomas | 2 comments
I'm not going to name names here, but recently I've seen a slew of people calling metafiction and breaking the fourth wall synonyms.
Let's get one thing straight right now. They are not synonyms. They are not the same thing.
It's like this: Breaking the fourth wall, most frequently used in visual mediums like theater, cinema and comic books, occurs when a character turns to the audience (the fourth wall) and makes some kind of remark only to the audience that the other characters do not hear or are unaware of.
Metafiction, as you well know if you've ever read this blog before, occurs when the author of a work, generally one with words, makes the reader aware of the fact that she is in fact reading a fictional story. Examples of metafictional technique include the author including him or herself as a character who is writing the book (Slaughterhouse-Five, The Things They Carried), a book within a book (Don Quijote) or when the characters know they are characters and then let you, the reader, know they are characters.
But but but, you ask, doesn't a character breaking the fourth wall know she is a character if she is able to break the fourth wall?!
Yes! Yes she does! Therefore, it follows that breaking the fourth wall is a metafictional technique, yes! So it cannot be synonymous with metafiction!
To sum up: Breaking the fourth wall is always metafiction. Metafiction is not always breaking the fourth wall.
Easy, yes/yes? I'm glad we cleared that up! Stay tuned for Thursday's post on "Masturbatory Metafiction in Jack of Fables". It's going to be a
mess good one.
Goings on
April 4, 2011 in Administrative, Metaart | Tags: books, german shepherd, interview, Metafiction, postaweek2011, storytelling, welsh corgi | by Kelly Lynn Thomas | Comments closed
First, I apologize for not posting last week. I have a (at least I think) pretty good reason, and I plan on posting twice this week to make up for it.
This past weekend my husband and I took a trip into New York City and did lots of artsy fartsy things (the MoMA, Phantom of the Opera, a cute little show near Chinatown called Coyote, and Start Again that was quite hilarious), so I've got lots to talk about.
We really needed this vacation, because throughout March I was busily preparing for my first semester as an MFA candidate at Chatham University! I'm very excited, but I had to fill out the FAFSA, register for classes, apply for fellowships and graduate assistanceships, apply for scholarships and get other things taken care of. Most (but certainly not all) of those things are taken care of now so I'm hoping my life will be a bit calmer until classes start at the end of August.
In the meantime, check out this author interview I did with Sherry Shahan, author of the awesomely awesome Purple Daze on Figment! I of course had to cut a few questions from the final draft, but they were really interesting so I will post the "extra" answers here for your reading pleasure either later this week or next week. (I really should come up with some sort of editorial calendar, shouldn't I? I have tried a few times and I never seem to stick to it…)
While you're at it, you can check out all of my book reviews for The Figment Review. Not to toot my own horn, but I think they're enjoyable.
The lovely and talented Anita Nordlunde has also now posted both German and French translations of excerpts from Ruby and the Moon on her website Welsh Corgi News, which is AWESOME! How many authors can say they've been translated into foreign languages before they even publish a book?! Not many, but I'm one of them! =D You can find each version of the translation by clicking on the appropriate country's flag. (And she has like, the cutest little corgi graphics on there ever).
And, finally, here's a list of things you can expect to see here in the coming weeks/months:
- "Extra" questions from my Sherry Shahan interview, as well as a discussion of storytelling techniques in Purple Daze
- An exploration of some of the art we saw at MoMA in New York City
- An article on Phantom of the Opera
- An article on Coyote, and Start Again
- An article on the omniscient narrator and authorial intervention (and Stardust)
- A series of pieces looking at the way The Killers tell stories in their songs/albums
- A series of articles about Bones
Spotlight: Metazen
March 7, 2011 in Metafiction | Tags: Metafiction, postaweek2011 | by Kelly Lynn Thomas | 4 comments
Metazen is an online literary magazine that publishes a story or a few poems Monday through Friday.
If you love metafiction (and presumably if you're reading this, you do), be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed for a daily dose of meta. Many of the stories and poems are fairly short, so you can read them on your commute (as long as you're not driving), or when you're standing in line at the food store, or when your work e-mail is taking forever and a day to load (like mine always does).
I feel in love with this ezine the minute I read the following words from the "How Metazen Works" page: "metazen does not believe in non-fiction, both in a literary sense and an existential sense."
As a journalist and as a creative nonfiction writer, I believe that statement is true on many levels. And that is one reason why my hybrid/metafictional travel memoir contains so much fiction. To say it another way, memory is a slippery eel. What I remember, you may not remember. But what's more, the words we choose shape the reality we create on the page, and there's no way to avoid that.
I do believe in nonfiction in a literary sense, but that doesn't mean I don't believe in Metazen.
My new literary goal is to get a story published on Metzen. I've already got one in mind…
*Join the Facebook group, or Follow @metafictionblog on Twitter!
Postmodern hocus pocus in "The Sexual Life of an Islamist in Paris"
February 28, 2011 in Causes, Metafiction | Tags: clpreadathon11, Metafiction, novel, novels, translations | by Kelly Lynn Thomas | Comments closed
I decided to read Leila Marouane's The Sexual Life of an Islamist in Paris after reading a brief review in The New Yorker. At first I agreed with the reviewer, who thought the "postmodern hijinks" at the end of the book were a bit much.
As I thought about it, though, I came to believe they were essential in telling the story of this confused man trapped between identities and lives.
The basic plot follows Mohamed, an Algerian immigrant to Paris who has changed his name to Basile, whitened his skin and straightened his hair in order to fit in with all the white people. Basile/Momo has lost his faith, and decides that at age 40 it's high time he ditched his v-card. So, he moves out of his mother's house into a nice apartment in a better Parisian neighborhood.
As soon as he moves out, he meets an Algerian woman in a cafe. She's reading a book called Djamila and her Mother. The author of the book is Loubna Minbar, a name rather similar to Leila Marouane. From that point on, Minbar comes up constantly, and the women that Basile/Momo meets all seem to know the author personally. They tell sometimes conflicting stories about her, that she will take your life and turn it into a book and then run away, and that she's really an Arab who changed her name to sound more white (as Leila Marouane herself did when she moved from Algeria to Paris–her birth name is Leyla Zineb Mechentel).
Basile so desperately wants to lose his virginity that I can't help routing for him, but when he has an encounter with a woman named Djamila I knew something was up. The beginning of the book was very linear: it was the straightforward story of Basile getting his apartment and trying to get away from his mother. As time went on, it got increasingly less linear. We missed the beginning or ending of his sexual encounters (none of which ended with actual vaginal intercourse), and got bits and pieces of the story in fits and starts.
Loubna Minbar is the one thing that keeps all the stories together, and toward the end Basile/Mohamed begins to worry that the concierge at his apartment is actually the author Minbar, and that she's writing a book about him.
And she is. Or at least Leila Marouane is. The beginning of every chapter goes like this: "I went back to my apartment, he said, thinking about blah blah blah." "He said" or "he continued" is always right there, so you know from the beginning that while it appears the book is in first person, someone else is relating the story Basile himself told the narrator.
The concierge, who's name is Lisa (another "L" name…), at the end tells Basile's mother that he never leaves the house and that he's constantly reading these books and thinks she is the author, which confirmed my suspicions that none of Basile's sexual encounters actually happened.
While I did find this ruse frustrating, and I did feel slightly cheated and jerked around at the end, these "postmodern hijinks" did accomplish one thing fairly well. They illustrated with clarity how it must feel to be stuck between two worlds: Algeria and France, religion and secularism, mother and girlfriend or sexual partner(s). And indeed, that is what Basile/Mohamed is. Half the people in his life know him as Mohamed, the other half know him as Basile. He wants nothing more than to have sex, but he can't get away from his mother (she calls him constantly). He constantly quotes Muslim scholars and poets, yet no longer prays or goes to the mosque.
Were these sexual "encounters" with these book characters actually real, Marouane would have been exploring a different set of problems (like feminism/masculinity and how men from patriarchal religions view women–a little bit of which we do see in the book). As it is, she's wormed her way into the deep psychological cleft in Basile's mind that is neither one thing nor the other that affects a good many young Muslim immigrants in France.
Basile's delusions were rather quixotic in nature, and the whole book had a Don Quixote vibe to it. The purposes of the two books are also similar: Cervantes parodies popular Spanish culture, Marouane parodies and explores the issues surrounding Muslim immigrants in France. While Sexual Life was funny, I think Don Quixote is funnier, especially because we know he's delusional, while we have to guess with Basile.
The book doesn't conclude so much as end, rather unlike Don Quijote. After I shut the book, I was left with a vague sense of unease, which usually means a story has struck a nerve, or at least got me thinking. The lack of ending in this case is entirely appropriate. Basile/Mohamed has yet to reconcile the differences between his two selves, much as the rest of Muslim France has yet to figure out its own balance.
During the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh's 2011 Winter Read-a-Thon, Jan. 8 – Feb. 19, I will be blogging about the books I read. For more information, to see a list of books I've read, go here.
- Hours read as of 2/19: 50
- Funds raised as of 2/19: $235
*Join the Facebook group, or Follow @metafictionblog on Twitter!
Swooping and bashing: How we write, according to Kurt Vonnegut
February 7, 2011 in Metafiction | Tags: anti-war fiction, audio books, clpreadathon11, kurt vonnegut, literary criticism, Margaret Atwood, Metafiction, novel, novels, postaweek2011, writing | by Kelly Lynn Thomas | 1 comment
Kurt Vonnegut presents an interesting theory about writers in his last novel, Timequake. In it, he says that most women writers are "swoopers" and most men are "bashers."
Swoopers write "higgledy piggledy" and write a first draft as quickly as possible, and then go back and "painstakingly" fix everything that's wrong. Bashers, on the other hand, write very slowly and work on each sentence until it's perfect. "And when they're done, they're done," says Vonnegut.
Now, as I stated in my introduction post to this series of posts about books I'm reading for my public library's Read-a-Thon, the version of Timequake that I read was an abridged audio book. I make that disclaimer because whenever I read an abridged audio book (sometimes unabridged just aren't available and I still use cassettes, so that makes them an even rarer breed) I'm terrified I will miss something important. So, in advance, I apologize if I miss something important. Blame the abridgment.
It's interesting enough to think about the way we write and whether or not it can be more or less split down the gender line (if you're a writer and you're reading this, leave a comment and let me know which group you fall more into process-wise and maybe we can do an informal poll), but Vonnegut takes it a step further.
It was not entirely clear to me whether he meant "swoopers" or "women" when he said the following, but as he lumps them together I suppose we can assume he means both. He says that swoopers/women writers are happy to write about and record the lives of people who are "funny, tragic, whatever" without thinking about "why or even how they're alive in the first place."
Bashers/men on the other hand, chip away and break down the doors of what it means to be human and the nature of existence. Vonnegut then proceeds to tell an anecdote about World War II, in which he fought. Or as he calls it, "my war and Kilgore Trout's war" (Kilgore Trout being Vonnegut's fictional alter ego who appears in many of his novels). The anecdote, which shows us a former Nazi official who is dying, is meant to drive home the point that Vonnegut is a basher.
(I wish I could tell you exactly what the officer said to Vonnegut, but I don't remember and the trouble with audio books is you can't flip back and find what you're looking for!)
Right in the beginning of the novel, Vonnegut tells us he's been working on a novel called Timequake, but it didn't work, and instead he wrote the novel we're reading now. He refers to the failed version as Timequake One, and mentions it frequently, telling us what happened in the original draft. The fact that he abandoned a novel and entirely re-wrote it as a hybrid novel/memoir means that, in essence, his "bashing" did not work. His process failed (as the writing process is often wont to do). He may have struggled and sweated over every sentence, but in the end he had to go back to ground zero and start from scratch.
Granted, that doesn't necessarily mean he got lost in swooper territory, and yes, sometimes stories and novels just don't work. Because he does keep parts of Timequake One in the final, published version of Timequake, I will argue that he probably did have to "painstakingly" fix what was wrong, throw out what didn't work and re-work what he wanted to keep to make it fit the new novel.
So, can anyone really be solely a swooper or solely a basher? Kurt Vonnegut, who claims to be a basher, shows us that sometimes it doesn't always work to write that way, so based on that evidence, I have to go with "No".
I will give him one thing, though: Vonnegut certainly chips away at the meaning of what it is to be human and the nature of existence. (But does that mean women writers can't? No way! Margaret Atwood, is, I think, a prime example of a woman writer who does something similar to Vonnegut in her appraisal and exploration of human nature — but that's another argument altogether.)
During the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh's 2011 Winter Read-a-Thon, Jan. 8 – Feb. 19, I will be blogging about the books I read. For more information, to see a list of books I'm reading, and to make a pledge, go here.
- Hours read as of 2/6: 33.5
- Funds raised as of 2/6: $160.75
*Join the Facebook group, or Follow @metafictionblog on Twitter!
Scott Pilgrim: It's cool to be meta
January 31, 2011 in Metafiction | Tags: clpreadathon11, comic books, comics, graphic novels, Metafiction, postaweek2011, Scott Pilgrim | by Kelly Lynn Thomas | 2 comments
When watching television or reading books like Scott Pilgrim that draw heavily on pop culture, I have to ask myself: Has metafiction become "cool"? Does its use at random points in an episode or chapter indicate to the intelligent that the show or book is smart, and because it's smart, funny as well?
The answer, I'm afraid, is a resounding yes. At least when it comes to this comic book by Bryan Lee O'Malley.
Be forewarned, there are tons of spoilers for the comic ahead. If you haven't read it, you may want to go read it right now, and then come back and read this post. And no, watching the movie doesn't count, because they hardly have anything in common. Despite what I'm about to say, I really did enjoy Scott Pilgrim (book and movie), so if you haven't read it, do so!
Throughout the six-volume Scott Pilgrim, the characters make reference to previous volumes. In book six, for instance, Scott's band mate Stephen Stills reveals that he's gay to Scott, saying that it shocked everyone when he came out in volume five, but Scott seemed really busy so Stephen didn't mention it.
In earlier volumes, whenever Scott's other band mate Kim asks him what happened, Scott tells her to "read the book."
On one hand, I really enjoyed these little moments because they are meta and worth a chuckle. They also add to the general goofy, fun, entertainingly awesome feel of the book.
But on the other hand, they don't DO anything. They are useless, other than proving that Scott Pilgrim is not only pop culture savvy, but intelligent. If you removed them, the book would not lose anything. It would still be a book that breaks a ton of fiction writing rules and gets away with it because it is awesome (even if I had trouble getting behind Scott and Ramona, the story itself was great).
This comic relies on video game tropes to give its story a back bone. Scott's life essentially IS a video game. He has to defeat a series of increasingly difficult "bosses" in order to win Ramona's love. Weird things happen, like traveling on "subspace" highways that are never properly explained. The lack of explanation is okay because that is the expectation the author sets up right from the beginning.
It's also heavily influenced by Japanese manga and video game fandom in general. If you've never played a video game or at least watched someone play a video game, you probably will have a hard time swallowing Scott Pilgrim.
Because of the video game, manga and fandom influences, it's a "cool" comic — in the nerdy way, of course. (But hey, being a nerd is "in" now, anyway.)
So, as I stated above, the self-awareness of the book adds to its over-the-top, ridiculous style. I mean, Scott already has to fight a dancing Indian man, an ex-skateboarder, a butch lesbian ninja (I'm sorry, half-ninja), and an evil overlord who rules the indie music scene with an iron fist and also keeps his ex-girlfriends in a weird tube-thing. So what's a little metafiction?
Kind of stupid, actually.
You could argue that the book's self-awareness points out how ridiculous Scott's life is and that it's funny. But seriously, does it really need a giant blinking arrow pointing to that? No, no it does not. That would be, as they say, beating a dead horse. And, the book is plenty funny without the "go read the book" lines.
Whether or not being funny is enough, the metafiction jokes rubbed me the wrong way. They fell flat. They didn't add anything except easy, cheap laughs. Based on the rest of the writing, which really was good, Bryan Lee O'Malley is better than that.
During the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh's 2011 Winter Read-a-Thon, Jan. 8 – Feb. 19, I will be blogging about the books I read. For more information, to see a list of books I'm reading, and to make a pledge, go here.
- Hours read as of 1/31: 24.75
- Funds raised as of 1/31: $121.38
From Amadis de Gaula to Don Quijote
January 17, 2011 in Metafiction | Tags: books, cervantes, clpreadathon11, Don Quixote, Metafiction, novels, postaweek2011 | by Kelly Lynn Thomas | 5 comments
As a parody of novelas caballarescas, or books of chivalry, Don Quijote does beautifully. But it parodies more than that.
In the prologue, Cervantes laments to a friend about how he has no "preceding verses" to preface his book, or lists of great philosophers and thinkers that he's quoted, as do his peers (mainly Lope de Vega, a playwright — he and Cervantes did not get along, to say the least).
His friend tells him that he doesn't need such things, because the books is whole without them, but suggests if Cervantes must have quotes, he should copy a list of quoted men from another book, because no one will be able to tell the difference, and what place does Aristotle have in the story of Don Quijote, a great knight-errant?
I could spend an entire post on the prologue, but it's what comes after the prologue that I think is really brilliant and drives home the point of how frivolous the preceding verses and quotations are.
Cervantes goes on to write — get this — sonnets and poems from famous knights to Don Quijote, Sancho Panza, Dulcinea del Toboso and even Rocinante, Quijote's horse. His point, with the sonnets, is that a work should stand on its own without a long list of quotations or heavy borrowing on another book.
His book is a parody, which means by necessity he relies heavily on other works. He does so not to puff himself up, but to show how ridiculous it is to do so: Don Quijote is no Amadis of Gaul, that's for sure.
I missed these gems on my first read-through of the novel, which was in Spanish, in Spain, but alas, an abridged version. (I was okay with that at the time since it was for a class and there simply was not time to read the whole thing, which is part of the reason I'm coming back to the book now. Not to mention that it's much easier to understand the jokes in my native tongue.)
Amadis of Gaul is the most famous book of chivalry, and was the most popular in the late 1500s when Cervantes was writing his masterpiece. Quijote often quotes Amadis, as well as other famous knights. So I picked the following sonnet to share (from the Signet Classic 1964 translation by Walter Starkie).
Amadís de Gaula to Don Quijote:
You who my sorrows once did imitate,
When I was scorned and hied me all forlorn,
To Peña Pobre's beetling crags to mourn,
My joy transformed to penance by my fate;
You who of old your pitiless thirst did sate
With saltish tears that flow from both your eyes;
You who all tins and platters did despise,
And on earth what the earth gave you ate,
Live on secure that for eternity,
At least as long as o'er this earthly sphere
Fair-haired Apollo goads his steeds of day,
Your name for valor shall exalted be,
Your fatherland above all lands appear,
Your learned author, unique, men will say.
Taken in perspective, the above sonnet is hilarious, in my opinion, especially the last line. Cervantes may have been a bit bitter about his less-than-ideal life circumstances (he was always poor and suffered an injury that left his left hand lame), but he's not being all that stuck up here. Certainly he's elevating himself, but all of Don Quijote is one big joke, so it makes sense that he's elevating himself partly in jest, as Don Quijote is elevated and "exalted for valor" in jest.
These sonnets add to the overall mood of satire and parody in the book, as well as pointing out how silly they are, not only in this book, but in any book. Amadis de Gaul, an "actual" knight who went on real adventures and fought real evils would never write this kind of thing to a raving lunatic who ran around with a barber's wash basin on his head. But that's why it's funny.
Cervantes does skip the list of quoted authors and philosophers, but I think the sonnets from characters in Amadis de Gaul to characters in Don Quijote more than make up for its lack.
So now a challenge for you writers out there: Write a sonnet (or any kind of poem) from the characters in another book to the characters in one you've written or are writing. If you're not writing a book, just pick two books and write a sonnet from one character in one book to a character in a different book. Leave your poems in the comments or link to your own blog. I'll share mine next week!
During the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh's 2011 Winter Read-a-Thon, Jan. 8 – Feb. 19, I will be blogging about the books I read. For more information or to see a list of books I'm reading, go here. I'm a little behind in hours this week, but not too much, and I've still got lots of time to catch up (I should have 11 so far to reach my goal of 50).
- Hours read as of 1/16: 9.25
- Funds raised as of 1/16: $47


text:
Choose your path
AI Price: $30.00
View Table of Contents
Competence and adherence to high ethical standards are the hallmarks of a professional. In order to meet the requirements of the real estate appraisal profession, you need the guidance provided in Scope of Work, a practical handbook by Stephanie Coleman, MAI, SRA.
The scope of work concept, which is central to the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice, gives appraisers the flexibility to tailor each assignment to the circumstances of the appraisal and the needs of the client. While misuse of the scope of work concept can be disastrous, an appraiser who knows how to apply it in practice and to communicate it clearly in an appraisal report can enjoy increased security, opportunity, and success.
About the Author:
Stephanie Coleman, MAI, SRA, is the Director of Screening for the Appraisal Institute. She has nearly 30 years of experience in the property valuation field and has been actively involved with the Appraisal Institute in the areas of appraisal standards, ethics and counseling, education, and publications. She is the author of Understanding Limited Appraisals and Appraisal Reporting Options, published by the Appraisal Institute in 1994, and co-developed a seminar by the same name. More recently, she has been involved in the development of the Appraisal Institute's Scope of Work seminar. Ms. Coleman is a past member of the Appraisal Standards Board of The Appraisal Foundation, the body responsible for developing and interpreting the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP). She is an AQB-approved USPAP instructor and is actively engaged in teaching classes on USPAP throughout the United States.


text:
Thu 10 Jan 2013
La TraviataPosted by keris9 under Verdi, Giuseppe , Traviata, La , Fischer, Ádám , Hendricks, Scott , Internet streaming , La Monnaie/De Munt , Haller, Salomé , Breth, Andrea , Šaturová, Simona , Wilson, Carole , Guèze, Sébastien
No Comments
Giuseppe Verdi - La Traviata
La Monnaie, Brussels, 2012 | Ádám Fischer, Andrea Breth, Simona Šaturová, Salomé Haller, Carole Wilson, Sébastien Guèze, Scott Hendricks, Dietmar Kerschbaum, Till Fechner, Jean-Luc Ballestra, Guillaume Antoine, Gijs Van der Linden, Matthew Zadow, Kris Belligh | Internet streaming, 15 December 2012
Let's not beat around the bush here, because this controversial new production of Verdi's La Traviata directed by Andrea Breth for La Monnaie in Brussels certainly makes its point directly and in no uncertain terms right from the outset. Prostitution is a nasty business. Courtesans, like Violetta Valéry in La Traviata, may once have had a glamorous allure, but the reality was and is quite different. The ultimate fate of any woman in those circumstances as the years and the lifestyle takes its toll, as they struggle to maintain appearances and simply survive, dependent upon the goodwill of others, is not a pretty one. Giuseppe Verdi acknowledged this as far as censorship allowed in La Traviata - and even then it would not allow the work to be depicted as Verdi wanted as a contemporary drama - showing a 'fallen woman' unable to find love and happiness. Director Andrea Breth goes much further.
Violetta's origins are shown right from the outset of the La Monnaie production during the Overture, the young woman being brought in from some East European country via a human trafficking operation and sold off to a prostitution ring. The opening party scene of the work then retains the forced glamour depicted by Verdi's setting of the scene, while at the same time showing that the underlying reality is not so pleasant. Semi-naked women pose glamorously from display windows behind a party that seems to be taking place in a high-class brothel, one that does a line in S&M, of which Violetta appears to be the Madame. Amid the drunken revelry, one of the guests, wearing a plaster cast, his trousers half on and half around his ankles, vomits over one of the semi-conscious female guests. At the end of the evening as Violetta ponders the shy advances of a new young admirer Alfredo ('Ah! Fors'è lui…'), one straggling reveller, in a state where she is unable to find her stockings and shoes, snorts some cocaine in the background.
That's not a typical way to depict Act I of La Traviata, but the brilliance of this production - a controversial one certainly that has stirred up a great deal of debate and which eventually forced La Monnaie to issue a statement with backing from other artists on the freedom of artistic expression - is that it remains musically and thematically faithful to the strengths of Verdi's writing and the subject, making it contemporary and realistic in a way that the composer himself was prevented from doing by the censor. It's not out to shock through a controversial treatment as much as to shock the audience into understanding and relating to the reality that Verdi was trying to get across. It's a measure of the success of the treatment that this version of La Traviata - a work that unfortunately has all too often become a glamorous star turn for a big-name diva - is one of the most powerful of recent years, revitalised and sparkling, modern and relevant. It's what La Traviata is all about.
The modern revisionist elements and the controversial sexual content of the production elsewhere similarly manage to strike a near-perfect balance between modern relevance and fidelity to the original intentions of the work. Scene 2 of Act I does little more than show an Alfredo so transported with love that he paints some graffiti love messages on a residence that currently has the workmen in. It's the depiction of the revelry however in the pivotal Act II confrontation that is the most troubling part of the work - and it should indeed be a troubling scene. Keeping to the theme of the unpleasant reality of prostitution and the exploitation of women, Breth uses strong imagery and behaviour that is reminiscent of Pasolini's film 'Salò or The 120 Days of Sodom'. (No, that's not chocolate that one of the older guests is smearing over a young under-aged schoolgirl's face). As a very difficult, near-unwatchable work about the dehumanisation and commoditisation of the human body, the corruption of wealth and power (money speaking just as much in Verdi's day as in the present), Salò is a relevant work to reference. It isn't taken to quite the same lengths in La Traviata here, but there's enough to make a point in the strongest way possible, and enough evidently, to cause quite a stir in the world of opera.
As troubling as all this is intended to be, the ultimate degradation of Violetta and women in her position should be just as forceful in the final Act, as Breth's vision proves to be quite as perceptive and capable of conveying the full intent and force of the underlying meaning with all the necessary impact. Violetta's maidservant Annina is forced to pay the doctor through services provided on her knees, out on streets in a dark alley where her mistress is dying, wrapped up in plastic sheeting, as a heroin user shoots up further down from her. It's as powerful an expression as you can imagine of the abject misery that is more than likely to be the fate of any aging prostitute who is seriously ill and has bills to pay. It may not be the romantic death of a tragic heroine through consumption in the bedroom of an elegant Parisian mansion that is more commonly shown in productions of this opera, but this version gets more directly to the heart of what Verdi was writing about and it is actually relatively mild to the harsh daily reality of the violence, abuse and exploitation that takes place on the streets in real life.
While the dramatic and thematic concept has been carefully thought through and put across with fidelity and a sense of purpose, that's only half the battle with putting on La Traviata. The singing and performance of the work itself needs to be just as considerate of the work, and fortunately the casting and the conducting of the La Monnaie orchestra by Ádám Fischer were perfectly in accord with the staging. Early on, I liked how rhythm and tempo employed during Violetta's 'Sempre libera' matched Violetta's tentative exhilaration at the discovery of love, tempered at the same time by the first signs of her illness. The judgement of each of the subsequent scenes however is just as sensitive and precise to the characterisation and the content, while also finding a way to make those diverse scenes and emotions flow naturally one after another. A most impressive account.
The singing is more of a mixed bag, but by and large it worked hand-in-hand with the drama. I always find it difficult to adjust to a new singer in one of the most famous roles in opera, but if Simona Šaturová didn't have the force or technique of some of the more notable sopranos who have sung the role, she nonetheless made a deep impression and gained greater credibility and strength as the work progressed. All the roles were well-cast from the point of view of age and looks - that doesn't often happen - and if Sébastien Guèze wasn't the strongest singer who has ever sung the role, he reflected Alfredo's youth and inexperience well, and with some degree of distinction and personality. Scott Hendricks wouldn't be my ideal Giorgio Germont, but he also fits in well with the production. He can be a bit wayward and over-enthusiastic, but here he was relatively restrained, if still a little mannered and imprecise. In his 'pura siccome un angelo', there's a neat twist where the father uses its seductive appeal as a come-on to Violetta - another instance of the abuse of power - and Hendrix makes it work. It's just one example of how the relationships have been thought through here - the father/son relationship between Hendrix and Guèze also works well - creating a convincing and realistic dynamic, showing a fine and considered understanding of the characters and the situations they find themselves in.
There's a reason why La Traviata is the most performed opera in the world. Verdi's magnificent writing is of course the primary reason. The composer's later works are more sophisticated with greater dramatic expression and through-composition, but La Traviata is unmatched for the brilliance of melody and situational invention that brings its drama to life. But it's also notable for the universality of the uncompromising sentiments the work and the music expresses on human relationships, on love, betrayal and mortality that still have the ability to reach us and touch us through their relevance. La Traviata was designed to show off Verdi's brilliance as a composer - and it does - but it was also intended to create a scandal in its frank depiction of the attitudes of a corrupt and hypocritical society towards "fallen women" who strayed outside the boundaries of what was deemed respectable. This scandalous production at La Monnaie is a thrilling reminder of just how vital a work La Traviata remains.
The live broadcast of the 15th December performance of La Traviata is still available for free viewing on the ARTE Live Web site, without subtitles. La Monnaie's recording of the production, taken from performances of 15th and 18th December, is also available for free viewing from their own website, with French and Dutch subtitles only.