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As I wrote last week, Chapel Hill's 2014-15 theater season is already turning into something really special. Between "A Kid Like Jake" at Deep Dish and "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" at Playmakers, plus Roger Guenveur Smith's one-man "Rodney King" and the launch of a year-long commemoration of World War I at both UNC and the ArtsCenter, it's been a pretty good time to be a local theater buff.
But while those shows have been terrific, they were just the prologue. Deep Dish just opened "The Landing" – a new play from "Chicago" composer John Kander, running now through November 22 – and while opinions on it have been divided, I'm in the camp that believes it's the best show of the season so far. (Bonus: Deep Dish's production is the first time this play has been seen outside New York.)
What is "The Landing"? It's hard to describe. (Check out the program: director Paul Frellick and dramaturg Jenni Rajewski are both given an entire page each to write about the play, and neither one even tries to describe it.) I could start by calling it a musical, but even that's not really true: yes, there's an orchestra, and yes, the actors sing, but there are only a couple full-blown songs. And is it one musical, or three? The play is divided into three parts, "Andra," "The Brick," and "The Landing" (which gives the show its title), and each part is essentially a separate one-act play – with different settings, different characters, and no obvious connection between them except for the fact that the same four actors appear in each. It feels like a night of one-acts, or something akin to "10 By 10 In The Triangle," rather than a single production.
But there are themes, motifs, feelings, little threads that weave between the three acts and tie them together in subtle ways. Playwright Greg Pierce drew inspiration from "The Twilight Zone": each act, each play, presents us with a family that by all outward appearances is happy and normal – but something, something, is amiss. Sometimes (as in "Andra") that something is a common everyday thing; sometimes (as in "The Brick") it's a little more supernatural – but in all three, somewhere, there's a jagged, uncanny element that threatens or undermines the whole foundation. "The Landing" is a series of plays about people who are a little bit lonely, or a little bit unfulfilled, who finally find that one thing, that missing piece, that makes them whole – only to learn there's something juuust a little bit off at the core.
Which sounds very maudlin, doesn't it? But no. It's a serious theme, but there are a bunch of different ways to present it, and that's where "The Landing"'s triptych approach really works. "Andra" – about a lonely boy striking up a friendship with the handyman who's painting his kitchen – is a sweet little piece with a quiet payoff. "The Landing" – the last act of the night, about a gay couple who adopt a teenage boy – has a more powerful dramatic punch. And in between, you have "The Brick," which is about – actually, you know what, I'm not even going to tell you what "The Brick" is about. Let's just say it's a comic riff on 1940s noir and leave it at that. The point is that it's funny. Same overarching themes, loneliness, unfulfillment, happiness not quite attained and all that – but it's fun. (I couldn't stop grinning all the way through it.)
So let's talk about the production. Shout-out first to set designer Thomas Mauney, who had to design a set versatile enough to fit three different settings while simultaneously accommodating a four-piece orchestra, all on a rather small stage. He makes it work: the set looks crowded when you first walk in, but it's perfect for the show itself. Shout-out second to musical director Glenn Mehrbach, who had to figure out a way to keep the music from overpowering the singers – which is hard enough to do at DPAC, let alone a tiny space like Deep Dish. I'd never seen a musical actually work in a small theater, but dang if Mehrbach and his orchestra don't pull it off. The music's terrific.
The four actors, John Allore, Mark Ridenour, Erin Tito, and 14-year-old Neil Bullard, also have a difficult task, playing three very different characters in the course of a single show. Each of them gets a chance to shine. Allore is the star: quietly heartbreaking as the handyman in "Andra," broadly comic in multiple roles in "The Brick." Bullard's singing voice isn't as strong as the other three actors, but he holds his own in three pivotal roles. And Ridenour and Tito are solid throughout – Ridenour in "The Landing" especially – but they'll really blow you away in "The Brick." (Their duet on the song "White Water" is the highlight of the show: it's a noir-y, gangster-y song, and if you'd forgotten the music was composed by the same guy who wrote "Cabaret" and "All That Jazz" and "Mr. Cellophane" and "Cell Block Tango," well, here's your reminder.)
So how to conclude? I will say this: "The Landing" is a polarizing show. I loved it, unreservedly – it's one of the two best plays I've ever seen at Deep Dish – but it's not for everybody. You might really enjoy it, like I did, or you might just be confused as to what the heck is even going on. Different people have had different reactions. It is quirky, it is offbeat, it is weird – there's a reason it opened on Halloween night – and if that's not your thing, well, maybe this isn't your thing. (And even if that is your thing, it's still no guarantee. Several of my friends have seen it, and we're all divided. But if nothing else, this play has generated more thoughtful discussion than anything else we've seen in a while. And one thing we do agree on: of the three acts, "The Brick" is the best. I was still humming "White Water" to myself two days later.)
But if you're okay with something that's just a little off-center, then see this play. "The Landing" absolutely crackles with life. It's worth the challenge.
"The Landing" runs through November 22 at Deep Dish Theater Company, located in University Mall. Visit this link for ticket information, as well as a schedule of related events and discussions.
http://chapelboro.com/columns/aaron-keck/impressive-challenging-landing-deep-dish/It's already been a strong theater season in Chapel Hill – and it gets even stronger this weekend, as an innovative new musical makes its Southeastern debut at Deep Dish and two stage classics open at Playmakers.
At Deep Dish Theater Company, Halloween is opening night for "The Landing," a new musical – or trio of musicals, to be precise – from John Kander, the composer of "Chicago" and "Cabaret." Kander and playwright Greg Pierce have created three mini-musicals, each with a four-person cast (the same four actors appear in all three) and a bit of a Twilight Zone flair. Deep Dish Artistic Director Paul Frellick directs the musical, which stars John Allore, Mark Ridenour, Erin Tito, and Neil Bullard (who's only 13). Frellick says he's particularly excited about this show, because Deep Dish's production is the first time "The Landing" has been staged anywhere in the world outside New York.
Paul Frellick and Neil Bullard joined WCHL's Aaron Keck on the air last week to discuss "The Landing."
Meanwhile, previews begin on Saturday for two shows at Playmakers Repertory Company: Shakespeare's classic "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and the acclaimed Sondheim musical "Into the Woods." Playmakers is staging the two in rotating repertory: previews run throughout the week, then both shows officially open on Saturday, November 8, and run through December 6. In addition to the Playmakers team, the shows feature a number of guest performers and directors – including Lisa Brescia, who's playing the Witch in "Into the Woods." (Brescia has some experience playing musical witches: she's also played Elphaba in "Wicked" on Broadway.)
"Midsummer" director Shana Cooper joined Aaron on the air this week…
…as did Playmakers associate artistic director Jeff Meanza, who's playing the Baker in "Into the Woods."
"The Landing" runs through November 22 at Deep Dish Theater Company, located in University Mall. Visit this link for ticket information, as well as a schedule of related events and discussions.
"Midsummer" and "Into the Woods" run in rotation through December 6 at Playmakers on UNC campus. Visit this link for tickets to "Into the Woods," or this link for tickets to "Midsummer."
http://chapelboro.com/news/arts/strong-chapel-hill-theater-season-continues/Theater season is in full swing in Chapel Hill – this weekend, PlayMakers Repertory Company opens its 2014-15 season with "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" – and as things kick into high gear, you still have one more chance to catch the season's first big don't-miss-it production, the terrific "A Kid Like Jake" at Deep Dish. It closes this weekend after a successful run, with shows in the University Mall theater on Thursday at 7:30 and Friday and Saturday at 8:00.
Making its first appearance here after a successful run in New York last year, "Jake" is the story of Alex (Meredith Sause) and Greg (Jim Moscater), two parents trying to place their four-year-old son Jake in an elite private preschool. It's harder than it sounds: there are dozens of applicants for every open spot, and the schools are looking for any excuse to rule candidates out. They even subject the kids to high-stakes placement exams. (It'd be farcical if it weren't true.) Alex and Greg seek advice from Judy (Rasool Jahan), the renowned expert who runs Jake's current school, and she suggests they emphasize Jake's most distinguishing characteristic – namely his "gender-variant play," the fact that he likes playing with dolls and dressing up as Disney princesses. Alex balks: she doesn't want to force him into a label prematurely. (Her own parents, it's hinted, had done a similar thing to her when she was young, and she's still a bit resentful.) But is Alex right to be worried – or is her fear just masking her own insecurities?
Before the show began its run, I spoke on the air with Meredith Sause and Deep Dish artistic director Paul Frellick.
I got to see "A Kid Like Jake" twice, once with some friends at a preview and again on opening night. "Intense" was the word I heard the most, from audiences on both nights. "Jake" takes a little time to develop – there are many different sources of conflict at play, and the early scenes are there primarily just to set them up – but then tensions quickly simmer, build, bubble over, and finally explode in a pair of breathtaking back-to-back scenes.
In the process, we get an insightful look at a couple in crisis – two generally decent people who are just trying to do right by their son, but who are also very human, and very flawed. The play's best feature is its naturalism, the degree to which Alex and Greg and Judy all talk like real people. To the extent that that's the case, the fact that Sause and Moscater and Jahan are all Trained Actors actually works against them at first – the actors are well-rehearsed, but the characters are clearly making it up as they go, and that creates a bit of a disconnect. Once the play begins building to its climax, though, the emotion takes over, the actors let loose, and it's a roller coaster from there on out. You'll remember the two confrontation scenes near the end, but they're bookended by a pair of quieter but equally powerful moments: Alex having a panic attack in a doctor's office (wonderfully played by Sause) and a dream sequence where – well, I won't give anything away. (Both scenes feature Jess Jones, effective in a smaller role.)
Jim Moscater and Meredith Sause. Photo via DeepDishTheater.org.
Extremely well-written by first-time playwright Daniel Pearle, "A Kid Like Jake" raises and explores a lot of difficult issues without pretending there are any easy answers. Liberal as she claims to be, Alex is squeamish when it comes to violating gender and sexuality norms, and that squeamishness clouds her judgment: she'll gladly indulge Jake's Cinderella fix behind closed doors, but she gets uptight whenever it's mentioned in public. But is she wrong to want to avoid fixing labels on kids before they're ready? "There is such a thing as a phase," she says; we doubt her motives, but is she incorrect? Is Greg's judgment any more trustworthy, any less biased? Is Judy's? It's telling that Jake himself is never seen and never heard: the play doesn't revolve around him so much as his parents' perception of him; and the heart of the conflict is in the fact that neither Alex, nor Greg, nor Judy, nor we in the audience, will ever know how closely the perception matches the reality. All we can do is guess.
Writing those last two sentences reminds me of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, who also wrote about that gap between perception and reality: we can never know what's really there, he argued; we can only know what our senses tell us is there. Kant, as it happened, is also the philosopher who developed this succinct rule for how to act morally: "Act in such a way that you treat (others) never merely as a means to an end, but always at the same time as an end."
"A Kid Like Jake" is about raising a child, it is about family, it is about gender, it is about education, it is about a lot of things – but above all this it is about people who try to reach that moral standard, without ever quite getting there. We're all in the same boat.
"A Kid Like Jake" runs through Saturday at Deep Dish Theater in University Mall.
http://chapelboro.com/columns/aaron-keck/last-chance-kid-like-jake-deep-dish/Photo via DeepDishTheater.org.
The Deep Dish Theater Company opens its 2014-15 season this Friday with Daniel Pearle's "A Kid Like Jake," a moving story about parents seeking a better life for their son.
Directed by Deep Dish veteran Tony Lea, "Jake" stars Meredith Sause and Jim Moscater as Alexandra and Greg, two parents trying to get their four-year-old son into a prestigious kindergarten. Jake loves dressing up like Snow White and Cinderella, and Alexandra and Greg are being encouraged to play that up in their application – and that in turn leads them to question their own beliefs.
Meredith Sause and Deep Dish artistic director Paul Frellick joined WCHL's Aaron Keck on the air this week.
"A Kid Like Jake" just concluded a highly-acclaimed run off Broadway. It opens on Friday at Deep Dish and runs through September 20.
Deep Dish Theater is located in University Mall. For details and ticket information, visit DeepDishTheater.org.
http://chapelboro.com/news/arts/direct-nyc-kid-like-jake-opens-deep-dish/Last Thursday, at my friends' insistence, I finally saw the movie "Thor." It's a big-budget action spectacle, with lots of lights and noise and CGI, but the basic premise is Shakespearean: cast out of his family by the machinations of his scheming half-brother, left broken and penniless in an alien land, our brash, headstrong hero prince (read: he's a jerk) must regain his status as favored son and heir by proving his moral worth to his aged, tough-but-kindly father.
So you'll understand why I was feeling a bit of déjà vu the following evening, sitting in Deep Dish Theater for their production of Pedro Calderón de la Barca's "Life Is A Dream" – a classic Spanish play (often likened to Shakespeare) that follows pretty much exactly the same plot.
Eat your heart out, Joseph Campbell.
Written in 1635 during the Golden Age of Spanish literature, "Life Is A Dream" is the story of Segismundo, a prince who's been imprisoned literally from birth by his father the king. Seems he was born under a dark cloud—the stars have decreed he'll grow up to be a tyrant—and so for the good of the country, his father has kept him locked away, ignorant of his rightful status as heir to the throne. (Why the king doesn't just kill him outright is never entirely explained.) But as the king grows old—and his other would-be heirs begin sparring over succession—he relents: okay, he says, we'll take Segismundo out of his cell, reinstall him as prince, and see how he handles it. If he behaves, terrific. But if he acts like a tyrant—we'll simply drug him, lock him back up, and tell him the whole adventure was all a dream.
Meanwhile, subplots abound: a woman named Rosaura disguises herself as a man (seriously, have I mentioned Shakespeare?) to infiltrate the kingdom and take revenge on the prince Astolfo, who's stolen her honor; the king's closest aide discovers her secret and realizes he's duty-bound to her too; and meanwhile Astolfo schemes to marry his cousin, the princess Estrella, to lay claim to the throne, but he may or may not still be pining for Rosaura. It's not easy to keep up with it all: the plot is about as complex as "Hamlet," but while that narrative unfolds slowly over three-plus hours, Calderón crams all his plot points into an hour and 45 minutes. ("I have no idea what is going on," I overheard one audience member say during intermission.)
But as with Shakespeare, the plot isn't as important as the underlying philosophy. Are we free to chart the course of our own lives, or are we fated to turn out a certain way? How can we tell the difference between dream and reality? Is there a difference, really? Is life itself not just as temporary and fleeting and inscrutable as a dream? And what does that tell us about how to live our lives? The intrigues of kings and princes and spurned lovers abound—there's even a swordfight!—but the real heart of "Life Is A Dream" is in its philosophical musings, and those are handled primarily by two characters: Segismundo himself, and Rosaura's companion Clarin, a stereotypically wise fool reminiscent of the one in "King Lear."
Alphonse Nicholson as Segismundo and Amber Wood as Rosaura, in "Life Is A Dream." Photo by Jonathan Young via DeepDishTheater.org.
So that's "Life Is A Dream."
But more importantly: how good is it?
By the time I took my seat, I was already excited about the potential. In the few minutes before the house opened, as all the playgoers milled around in the lobby, we could hear passionate shouts and the clinking of blades on the other side of the wall—just one more last-minute rehearsal, I guess, but it sounded so cool. And the set design (by Lex van Blommestein) grabs your eye as soon as you walk in: angles and windows and disheveled shelves and an ethereal backdrop that evokes mountains, oceans—attractive and forbidding and foreboding, all at once.
But the play itself takes a long time to find its footing. I still remember a production of Craig Lucas's "Reckless" I saw in college, in which the first act was so bad I almost left at intermission but the second act was some of the best theater I'd ever seen—and I got a similar vibe from "Life Is A Dream." It wasn't quite that extreme this time around—the first act had its good moments, the second act had its flaws—but the difference was definitely there. The first act feels like community theater, with all that that entails: nice costumes, fine production value, and performers going through the motions of acting without really finding the emotional connection to their characters. This is not really the actors' fault, incidentally: "Life Is A Dream" is a fine play, but some of the characters' motivations are simply baffling, especially early on. Why, for instance, does the king choose to imprison Segismundo for life instead of simply killing him? Having chosen to imprison him, why does he then choose to give him a classical education? Having done that, why does he then choose to free him, and why does he go about it in a way that's all but guaranteed to elicit the worst possible reaction? John Boni's performance as Basilio the king is actually quite good (notwithstanding his New York accent), but the character himself is impossible to believe. Same goes for Amber Wood as Rosaura, Anne-Caitlin Donohue as Estrella, and Peter Battis as Clotaldo the king's aide—all of whom deliver fine performances despite having characters who make a number of brow-furrowing life decisions.
But the second act ultimately redeems the first, and it's all thanks to the play's two philosophers, the wronged prince Segismundo and the wise fool Clarin—the two richest and most sympathetic characters, and (as luck or fate would have it) in Deep Dish's production the two best acted as well. As characters, Segismundo and Clarin actually don't figure too much in the first act—but they dominate the second, as Segismundo gets swept up in the royal intrigue and Clarin is left alone with his thoughts. And what thoughts! As Clarin, David Hudson is simultaneously hilarious and insightful and touching and tragic; unburdened by all the mounting plot points, he's free to deliver a memorable performance.
But it's Alphonse Nicholson's dazzling turn as Segismundo that truly makes "Life Is A Dream" worthwhile. Sticking with the Shakespeare theme, Segismundo's journey is a bit like Ophelia's in reverse: he starts the play half-mad, muttering wild things to himself while life goes on around him, and the plot turns on his gradually reconnecting with sanity and society. It's a tough part to play, and Nicholson nails it. Intense, fierce, passionate and sympathetic, he commands the stage from the moment the spotlight first falls on him—and it's his intensity, plus Hudson's, that finally win over the audience in the end, though it takes a while to get there. During intermission, I overheard an audience member in my row cracking jokes about the play; by the end, I heard the same person gasping (with real emotion) during Segismundo's final speech. I felt roughly the same way.
(It's also worth noting, as a side point, that Nicholson is the only black actor in the cast—including Boni, who plays his father. This passes without comment in the play itself—and it's obvious from the get-go that Nicholson was simply the best actor for the part—but casting a black actor in that role also adds an additional dimension to a story about a man who begins his life in bondage, is freed in a callous and capricious manner by a king who doesn't particularly care whether he succeeds, is cast back into bondage and is forced to regain his freedom all over again. But the play is seventeenth-century Spanish, not twentieth-century American—so the audience is left to ruminate on that for itself.)
In the end, if "Life Is A Dream" doesn't quite reach the heights of Deep Dish's last production, the quietly stunning "Arcadia," it's still worthwhile (stick around, it'll win you over) on the strength of Nicholson's performance as Segismundo—who never quite reaches a conclusion on whether life really is a dream, but resolves to make the best of it nonetheless. How that's to be defined is up to you.
"Life Is A Dream" runs through May 31 at Deep Dish Theater in University Mall.
http://chapelboro.com/columns/aaron-keck/life-dream-deep-dish-redemption-just-time/Sitting in the Deep Dish Theater on Friday, waiting for the start of "Arcadia," I overheard a woman in the row in front of me.
"I looked up 'Arcadia' on Wikipedia before we came," she said to her companion. "And thank God I did, because I probably wouldn't have a clue what was going on otherwise."
So it goes with "Arcadia," Tom Stoppard's sweeping, breathtaking magnum opus about knowledge, science, history and fate, now playing at the Deep Dish through March 22. Expertly directed by Paul Frellick (DD's artistic director) and beautifully acted by a cast of twelve, it's an absolute must-see—but your brain better come ready to work overtime.
Here's the Wikipedia entry on "Arcadia," incidentally.
To understand "Arcadia," start with Tom Stoppard. Born in Czechoslovakia in 1938, he fled the Nazis with his family and traveled to Singapore, Australia, India, and finally England—picking up a world of perspective and insight along the way. His plays—"The Real Inspector Hound," "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead," the screenplay for "Shakespeare In Love"—are ruminations on the human condition, the nature of art, the certainty/uncertainty of knowledge, and the thin line separating reality from theater. (Are those four things all one and the same?)
And "Arcadia" is his masterwork. Set in a single room in Sidley Park, an English aristocratic estate, the play jumps back and forth in time between the present day—where three scholars are trying to unravel a historical mystery tangentially involving the poet Lord Byron—and the early 1800s, where we see the events play out as they happened. (Byron himself never appears: turns out he's not as important to the plot as the modern-day scholars think he is.)
What's happening? Well, in 1809, we follow a teenage girl, Thomasina Coverly (Nicole Gabriel), and her tutor, Septimus Hodge (Ryan Brock). Thomasina is a genius: like any teenager, she's curious about "carnal embrace," but she's also about to discover the second law of thermodynamics decades before its time. What is the second law of thermodynamics? Entropy, the inescapable process by which things irreversibly break down. What is done cannot be undone, and order necessarily decays into chaos (this is paralleled by Sidley Park's garden, which—off-stage—is being remodeled from its Enlightenment-era neat geometry into a rough, naturalistic, Romantic-era wildness). Eventually the pair realize the ultimate implication of Thomasina's discovery: all the stars will flicker out and the universe will settle into a lifeless equilibrium. "We're doomed," says Septimus.
Meanwhile, in the present day, two scholars, the hilariously pompous Bernard Nightingale (Eric Carl) and the no-nonsense Hannah Jarvis (Dorothy Recasner Brown), join forces—reluctantly, as they dislike each other—to investigate Sidley Park's documents in order to determine whether Lord Byron killed a fellow poet in a duel. Red herrings lead them astray—Hannah, for instance, misinterprets a doodle of Thomasina's, and Bernard wrongly assumes that Byron wrote an essay that we know was written by Septimus—but gradually, very gradually, the truth (or most of it) comes out.
Also, romantic entanglements abound. By the end of the play, Septimus has been involved or nearly involved with three different people (one of them never seen); Bernard, Hannah and Thomasina have each been involved or nearly involved with two. And there are nine other characters I haven't even mentioned yet. There's a lot going on here.
Eric Carl is Bernard Nightingale and Dorothy Recasner Brown is Hannah Jarvis. (Photo via DeepDishTheater.org.)
Deep Dish's production of "Arcadia" is tremendous. The set is deceptively simple—a large table, a few chairs, three doors and some windows, that's all, but you feel the presence of the house, the gardens, the estate, the swirl of life both on and off stage. The leading actors disappear into their characters—I loved Ryan Brock's wry Septimus and Dorothy Recasner Brown's Hannah, and Eric Carl steals the show as Bernard (Bernard delivering his paper in the second act is a tour de force)—but the rest of the cast shines as well: notable are David Godshall as the clueless poet Ezra Chater, Erika Edwards and Adam Sampieri as the brilliant modern-day siblings Chloe and Valentine, and Nicole Gabriel (a high-schooler!) as Thomasina. The relationships between these characters are very delicate—the earliest buds of a romance between Septimus and Thomasina, the love/hate romantic-professional partnership between Bernard and Hannah—and it's all performed so smoothly that the difficulty doesn't even register. "Arcadia" requires its actors to shift back and forth, often mid-scene, between virtually every imaginable stage of romance—while simultaneously ruminating on life, death, science, art, history, mathematics, landscape architecture, botany, poetry, and fate—and each of the twelve actors here is more than up to the task.
And then there's the play itself. What are the themes? Start with the title. "Arcadia" is a reference to the Latin phrase "Et in Arcadia ego," or "Even in paradise, there am I." The "I" is death: looming over the play is not only Thomasina's discovery about the eventual decay of the universe, but also our advance knowledge of Thomasina's own death—coupled with the end of the Enlightenment, symbolized by the remodeled garden, plus the fact that all the events of 1809, so important to the characters then, will either be forgotten or misinterpreted by history, even when intelligent people are actively trying to piece them all together. (The recurring motif is fire. Pay attention to fire.) It's all very pessimistic. Or is it? The chaos which violates order is romantic love, "carnal embrace." The play ends with a dance that reaches across centuries. And while Thomasina argues that things done cannot be undone, Septimus counters that knowledge lost can be regained—a theory that's apparently confirmed by our present-day scholars, who manage to rediscover the truth almost in spite of themselves.
All of which is to say: good Lord, this play is smart. My friend and I walked out of "Book of Mormon" last week remarking how intelligent a play that was—but "Arcadia" operates on a whole other level. It's the most intelligent play I've ever seen. The best? Well, not quite. But definitely the smartest.
"Arcadia" is two and a half hours long and doesn't waste a second. There's a phenomenal amount of dense dialogue here; if there's a flaw in the production at all, it's that the actors will occasionally stumble over one or two of their hundreds of lines. (But that's just probability theory.) The knock on Stoppard, if there is one, is that his plays appeal to the head without appealing to the heart—and yes, there's an extent to which that's true for "Arcadia." Stoppard is writing at the top of his game; there are thirteen characters in the play (one actor plays a double role), and by my count, at least six are certifiable geniuses. Probably seven. Maybe eight.
So yes, it's not an easy play. (Between the two, I found myself more emotionally moved by "Book of Mormon," a play that actively goes out of its way not to strike an emotional chord.) But you ought to see "Arcadia," not in spite of its difficulty but because of it. You ought to see this play because it's brilliant, because it will make you think, because it will make you smarter for having seen it. Its very intelligence will move you.
Will that motion fade? Yes, eventually.
But man, it's worth it in the meantime.
"Arcadia" runs at the Deep Dish Theater (in University Mall) through March 22. Visit this link for tickets.
http://chapelboro.com/columns/aaron-keck/order-amidst-chaos-vice-versa-arcadia-deep-dish/At 10 a.m. on Tuesday, University Mall is holding a press conference to make an announcement. ("Reimagine University Mall," they're calling it.) We don't know what they're going to say yet, but Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt will be there along with town economic development officer Dwight Bassett and Chamber of Commerce president Aaron Nelson—so clearly they're thinking it's big. Dillard's is likely going to be closing within a couple months, so the best bet is that they'll be announcing a new anchor to replace it—and "movie theater" is the latest rumor—but we won't know until 10:00.
In the meantime, to mark the occasion, I'm devoting my next two entries to writing about the U-Mall. Enjoy.
You know, it might just be the beer talking, but I think I'm really starting to like University Mall.
Wait, wait. Let me go back a bit…
It was Saturday. I was in my apartment and I got a call from my roommate Kit, who's the new theater manager at Deep Dish: could I swing by with his cell phone charger? Sure. So I drove to the mall, dropped off the cord, and then proceeded to do what I always do whenever I'm in any mall at all: obsessively walk the entire thing, from one end to the other and back.
(Side note: I almost never buy anything when I'm there, but for some reason I really love malls. Whenever I'm in a new city, I'm always compelled to visit the mall; it's how I judge metropolii.)
So. I wind up in Southern Season, a Chapel Hill institution that Kit recently overheard a guy describe as "Hillshire Farms on steroids." (Yep, pretty accurate.) My plan was simple: walk around the store, admire all the fancy foods I can't afford, grab a free sample of something if possible, and leave quietly without a trace.
(Oh my God, I'm Chapel Hill white trash.)
But my plan was cruelly thwarted! I wasn't five steps into Southern Season before I was faced with an offer I couldn't refuse, an opportunity I couldn't pass up, a temptation I couldn't resist:
It was Beer Extravaganza day, y'all.
Yes, Southern Season's Beer Extravaganza: eighteen tables set up around the store, each manned by a pair of friendly brewers and local food producers, dishing and pouring out samples of their wares for anyone willing to drop eight bucks on a ticket to get in line. It was heavenly. I spent the next two hours ambling from table to table, stuffing myself with hops and goat cheese, chatting up the farmers and the brewers and eavesdropping on all the other extravaganza-goers in line with me. (Hipsters with beards, mostly.)
This is Doug from Mystery Brewing Co., which was offering two selections: an English ale called "Pickwick" and a Belgian IPA called "Fantine." I recommend the Fantine, partly because it's a damn good beer and partly because it's a damn good musical.
I was buzzed by the time I got to Table Six. It was all a lovely blur from there.
By Table Nine, I'd already imbibed Duck Rabbit's milk stout, Carolina Brewery's winter seasonal ("Santa's Secret"), and something from Double Barley Brewing called "Thrilla in Vanilla." And those were just the highlights. At Table Ten I found Nikko and Kathryn of Starpoint Brewing in Carrboro, who kindly explained to me the difference between an "IPA" and a "double IPA." IPAs are hoppy, they said. Double IPAs are—well, more hoppy. (Their double IPA was called "Duh," which in retrospect I should've seen coming.)
This is Nikko and Kathryn. (The "Duh" was very good, by the way.) Starpoint Brewing doesn't have a storefront right now, partly by choice and partly by circumstance: "We were going to open (a place) at Starpoint," Nikko said, "but then they put a Walmart there." There's your impact of the Chatham Walmart on local business here in Orange, folks. (Incidentally, while you're admiring the picture, get a load of that guy's shirt back there. That was one heck of a t-shirt, let me tell you.)
At Table Twelve a server from the Weathervane came in with a tray of sweet bruschetta topped with honey jelly, candied pecans, and something the Lonerider Brewing reps called "goat cheese mousse."
"I've, uh…never heard those three words in that order before," I said.
It was quite tasty. Apparently it wasn't the first tray either, because as soon as the Weathervane guy set it down, folks swooped in from three different directions to grab a piece. Things were getting pretty hot and heavy at the Beer Extravaganza, y'all.
Clearly it was about time to call it an afternoon. I hit the last six tables, doubled back for one more round of Duh, and staggered out, happier and lighter in the head. There's a lot of good local beer out there, you guys. (And a surprising amount of good goat cheese as well.)
Someone had chalked this next to Table Eight (Gizmo Brewery and Sweet Reasons Barbeque), but they could have just as easily done it anywhere.
Now. Just what was Santa's secret?
http://chapelboro.com/columns/aaron-keck/a-day-at-southern-season-or-from-beer-to-eternity/Monday at 7:00 p.m., Deep Dish Theater Company is holding a book discussion of Alison Bechdel's graphic-novel memoir "Fun Home," in conjunction with its ongoing production of "A Queer Kiss." The discussion (led by Evelyn Daniel) will take place at the Chapel Hill Public Library. Seriously, you should go.
Unfortunately—to my disappointment—I have to be at a different event at the exact same time, so I can't make it. But consider this piece my contribution...
"What's your favorite book?"
For me, that's always been an easy one: Catch-22. After that, in no particular order, Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow, and Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (now back in its rightful place on the shelves in Randolph County). Those four have been my pantheon, for at least the last ten years.
But nowadays I'm not so sure.
Let me tell you about Fun Home.
Fun Home is an autobiographical memoir—written in graphic-novel form—by Alison Bechdel, otherwise best known as the author of the alternative comic strip "Dykes to Watch Out For." (She's also the one who popularized the "Bechdel Test" for movies: a movie passes if it includes at least one scene in which two or more women talk to each other about something other than men. The fact that so few movies do pass that test is a pretty damning indictment of pop culture.)
But Fun Home is her masterpiece. Heck, it might be humanity's masterpiece.
Written out of chronological order, spanning years and revisiting moments again and again—kinda like Catch-22, come to think of it—Fun Home is ostensibly a coming-of-age memoir about Bechdel's childhood in Pennsylvania, growing up in the 1960s and 70s in an intellectual-artistic family dominated by the frosty relationship between her mother (a brilliant actress/musician) and her father (an English teacher/undertaker with a mad genius for design and a manic obsession with beauty).
It's a fascinating bunch in itself, made quirkier by Dad's work with the family funeral home (the "fun home")—a closeness with death that contributes to the family's morbidly icy demeanor.
But that's just the setup. Here's the twist: after years of subconscious questioning, Alison comes out as gay to her parents—only to have her father come out right back.
Then a few weeks later he's dead. Hit by a truck. (A Sunbeam bread truck, as it happens.)
Was it an accident? Was it suicide? Bechdel assumes it was suicide. But she's also self-aware enough to know she could be wrong. To call it suicide is to insist that there was meaning and purpose in her father's death—which is oddly comforting, because the only alternative is to admit that the death was meaningless and absurd. But what's comforting isn't always what's true. (Bechdel concedes the timing may have just been a coincidence, that her father's death may have been unrelated to her coming out—even if it was suicide—but she's "reluctant to let go of that last, tenuous bond.")
And so she's left to put together the jumbled pieces of a puzzle with a missing center, to make sense of a man who's always just, just out of reach. Dad—Bruce Bechdel—was an enigma, an "old artificer" whose obsession with making the family house appear perfect mirrored his drive to make himself appear perfect. But the artifice is phony, the underlying reality never revealed. (Even when the truth does come out, it's uncertain. We get competing stories—both stammering and elliptical—of Bruce's first sexual experience: "He…he was molested by a farmhand when he was young," says Alison's mother Helen; "It was…nice," says Bruce much later. And this is all we ever get to hear. Where is the truth?)
Where is the truth? Bechdel's memoir is a work of postmodern existentialist genius—a narrative with no faith in objectivity, attempting to make sense of nonsense, telling the true story of a man whose life was a fiction. (Indeed Bechdel says she understands her parents best as literary figures—so Fun Home is full of literary references, from Joyce to Proust to Shakespeare.)
(I've personally read two books already—Joyce's Portrait of the Artist and Randy Shilts' And The Band Played On—based solely on Bechdel's dropping them here. I'm working my way up to Proust.)
Truth is something we claim to want—"the truth will set you free," we always say—but truth can also be slippery (as Alison first learns when she starts writing a diary), and truth can also be inconvenient. "I am not a hero," Bruce writes to Alison, and he's right: he lived a lie, lashed out physically, slept with his students (or tried to), and cheated on his wife—with her knowledge, apparently, so her truth isn't particularly convenient either. And hanging over everything is the specter of his death, the inconvenient-est truth of all, coloring every one of Alison's childhood memories. (Sunbeam Bread is everywhere.)
But the truth does set you free, ugly as it is. "The end of his lie coincided with the beginning of my truth," Bechdel writes—and as much as Fun Home pretends to be about Bruce, it's really about Alison all along. It's her journey we're seeing: her coming of age, her coming out, her coming to terms with herself and emerging, as an adult, as a lesbian, and as an artist. For better or worse, Alison is her father's daughter: from Bruce she inherits her artistic skill, her intellect, her sexuality, and perhaps most importantly her gift for restoration—taking something that's not entirely pretty (an old house in Bruce's case, a family history in Alison's) and transforming it into something transcendent and beautiful and meaningful. (Today I learned that Alison's mother Helen passed away earlier this year; I almost cried when I found out.)
We all know about dealing with inconvenient truths. Deep Dish Theater is hosting its discussion of Fun Home—you should go!—in conjunction with its current production of A Queer Kiss, another work about coming to terms with harsh realities. Both stories begin with men and boys whose fear keeps them in the closet, but it's the characters around them—and the different ways they choose to confront the hard truths with which they're faced—that really drive things forward. (Queer Kiss revolves around a shared kiss between two boys and the play puts the boys front and center, but I see the main characters as the parents—one overly supportive, one entirely homophobic, and two completely at a loss for what to do next.)
A Queer Kiss and Fun Home are not the same, of course. Queer Kiss is expressly concerned with making a statement about homophobia in society; Fun Home (surprisingly) doesn't really go there. Though Alison uses hints and background details to suggest a hetero-centric society that makes life difficult for "inverts," the Bechdels themselves run in some pretty tolerant circles. (Alison's mother isn't terribly comfortable with homosexuality, but we understand where she's coming from.) Queer Kiss portrays its characters as victims of societal homophobia, but Fun Home's truth is much more nuanced: on the couple occasions when Alison finds herself leaning toward that interpretation, she immediately pushes away. It's part of her story, but not the whole.
But at the heart of both is that confrontation with truth—slippery, evasive, difficult, damning, and inescapable. We all have to do it. Today I went back in my Facebook page and found something I remembered posting last February: "I might as well get these three harsh truths off my chest: I kinda wish ______ would just _______, I think I may be _______ with ______, and I might have ______ed my _______." (Like Bechdel, I'm self-aware enough to admit the inconvenient truths about myself; unlike Bechdel, I'm not brave enough to broadcast them to the world. Though I'll Vaguebook them from time to time.) We all have sentences like this. The question is: do we deny the inconvenient truths? Do we ignore them, live our lives as if they didn't exist? Or do we confront them, face them head-on and engage them as equals?
At the center of A Queer Kiss (now playing at Deep Dish!) are characters who try to ignore the inconvenient truths; at the center of Fun Home is a character—Alison herself—who faces them. As a result, the two works ironically trade places: Queer Kiss gives you full access to the truth but ends with uncertainty; Fun Home's truth is shrouded in mystery and speculation, but it ends with absolute closure. I must have read Fun Home dozens of times by now, and the last page still, still makes me cry.
But I don't want to spoil nothing. Read it for yourself, if you haven't already. You'll thank me later.
Seriously, go ahead. I'll wait.


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: Religion
The real meaning of Xmas. Slaughter of children
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Dave Lane
Space Cadet and Aczabel
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: Kansas City, Mo, USA
Casino cash: $24096
Originally Posted by
scott free
You dont believe a word of it and thats fine by me, you havent had any experiences in your life that would make you consider it a possibility, again, thats fine.
But you, among others, seem to delight in relentlessly mocking anyone who does.
Its unnecessary and one sided, imo.
Not true. Look how many theists posted in this thread and my laugh at creationist thread. Hell them criticizing each others beliefs is half the thread and they have plenty of treads they have started as well.
Originally Posted by
High Tech is Sorcery and the people who are really powerful are literally telling people to commit crimes using the psychic interspace created by the WWW and Wireless. They are controlling peoples actions like drones . The two things are deeply intertwined. The more man's brain interfaces with machines the creepier it gets. They use brains separate from a human body in a supercomputer and you have The Image of the Beast. The military has been doing this since the 50s
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In our lead segment: Nationwide, squatters are becoming a serious issue for homeowners and new buyers. Correspondent Judy Muller takes a deeper look at the situation here in Southern California and finds out that squatters are not only seeking temporary refuge in empty homes. They're now furnishing them and illegally putting them up for rent on websites like Craigslist.
In the studio, Madeleine Brand checks in with tech expert USC's Andrew Lih on the hottest items from the Consumer Electronics Show opening today in Las Vegas.
In our closing segment, Huffington Post Live host Jacob Soboroff remembers his encounter with Huell Howser.
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Charlie tuna said:Like the factory gasket material, i think the manufacturer would invest, for what it cost, the additional gasket around the neck of the egg. When you claim to be the best, you shouldn't cut corners. Just by the number of people on this forum that have busted their Daisy Wheel, this is a problem area. Mine has only fallen off one time in three years - no harm done! And i want a good seal on my egg no matter if it's the Daisy Wheel or the ceramic cap, any air leak is a problem to me.
It's a labour thing. They use the adhesive backed stuff cause it installs quick
Caledon, ON
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Houston, TX - Buddy LBGE, Don SBGE, Tiny Mini & Shiny Momma Pitts n Spitts
XL BGE and Pellet smoker
i havent used my daisy wheel in a while. find it easier to control temp,only use it for low and slow,220 and under, but when i replace my gasket i will put some on both dw and cap
:-jHouston, TX - Buddy LBGE, Don SBGE, Tiny Mini & Shiny Momma Pitts n Spitts
bbqlearner said:@Mickey so you just have the top vent open without the daisy wheel?


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by Teacher Created Resources
Mardel Price $5.99
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Set includes eight tangram squares, each measuring 4". Each set is a different color. 56 total pieces. Foam is lightweight, soft, quiet, and washable. Comes in a resealable storage bag. Teaching tips are included.
WARNING: CHOKING HAZARD - Small Parts Not for children under 3 yrs.


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Laos: Anything other than portraits
Challenge has finished
What best symbolizes Laos to you? This challenge is for everything related to Laos--other than portraits. Those will be DQ'd. But everything else is fair game. If you had only one image to express what this country means to a viewer, what would you show us? It is just fine to have one or more people in your photo. No person in the image should take up more than 5% of the frame. I'll try to monitor this challenge closely and will let entrants know if I think there is a problem--and I'll do this in a timely fashion, so that people will have plenty of time to re-submit new images if necessary. Please, no images that you've already used in prior challenges . . . let's see something fresh and new from you. (I will likely depend on help from other challenge participants in tracking down violators. So, images that are repeats could be DQ'd at any time . .. even after the challenge ends!) Thanks in advance for this. :-)
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Unlicensed driver hit teen on bike Monday
It might have been a sixth sense, it might just have been a case of being in the right place at the right time. Whatever it was, it was not fun for Farmington police officer Steve Kuyper to see a teenage girl get hit by a car.
Kuyper was just coming back from washing his squad and picking up a soda at 9:30 a.m. Monday. He was at the four-way stop at Pilot Knob Road when he spotted a 14-year-old girl on a bicycle crossing 195th Street. She made it across that street just fine.


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Zlatan Ibrahimovic does not rate his overhead kick as the pick of his four goals against England. The Sweden captain preferred the first goal of the evening, as it made him the first player to score at Stockholm's Friends Arena. The pride he takes in his historic achievement is commendable, but his acrobatic 30-yard bicycle kick will go down as one of the great strikes in history. Here we pick 20 of the best goals scored in international football – have your say below the line.
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Ethernet no shoe - in in data transfer race
PUBLISHED: 15 Feb 2011 00:03:00 | UPDATED: 10 Feb 2012 16:53:52PUBLISHED: 15 Feb 2011 PRINT EDITION: 15 Feb 2011Foot power is still a contender in data transfer. Photo: Louie Douvis
This digital life
John Davidson
It was known as sneakernet: the ethernet alternative, back in the day when ethernet was hopelessly slow. sneakernet was brilliant in its cunning and simplicity. Rather than transfer a file over the 10 megabits-per-second (Mbps) network (which was much slower than that if others were also using it), people would copy the file onto a hard disk, a zip drive or a mag tape, hand it to someone wearing sneakers (hence the name) and have them run it across to the destination computer. As often as not, sneaker would beat the pants off ethernet for both transfer rates and cardio workout.
We've been pondering whether sneakernets might be due for a bit of a resurgence, especially in the home where files are getting huge. Your typical backed-up Blu-ray movie file can get to 30 gigabytes, or more. Rather than shuffle them around the network here at the Digital Life Labs, we've been wondering, is it time to don the sneakers, and move the files around with the old soft-shoe shuffle? So that's what we did.
Our test file: a 30 gigabyte backed-up Blu-ray file. Our test networks: a cabled, gigabit ethernet network; a fancy new 5 gigahertz Wi-Fi network, operating at a frequency that should minimise interference from the neighbours; a regular Wi-Fi network, on the same frequency as every man and his dog; three different 200 Mbps Powerline networks, made by Belkin, Western Digital, and NetComm, which use the house's power sockets to carry data; a portable hard drive; and a thumb drive, those last two being the sneakernets.
Our results? Well, honestly, they're not quite as clear-cut as we hoped. They were all over the place. Instead of doing this experiment the hard way – i.e. actually doing it – we could have sat in a banana lounge by the pool, pulled the results out of our collective derrieres, and they would have been no less variable or implausible than the results we got. No wonder a lot of people find home networking hard. It's nuts! One computer, a brand new netbook, transferred the exact same files over the exact same network at half the speed of another computer, an old notebook. At one stage, the performance of one of our experiments inexplicably dropped tenfold, and it took two hours of rebooting machines and reconfiguring routers to figure out that it was caused by inadvertently changing one of the ethernet cables from a beige one to a black one. Who knew the black ones were slower?
Which is to say, take all this with a grain of salt. What was true in our Labs, with its peculiar mix of black, blue and beige ethernet cables, with its dodgy wiring and noisy Wi-Fi neighbours, may be true nowhere else in the world. Still, our results should be indicative of how various networks will perform in your house.
Despite all the advances in Wi-Fi and Powerline technology, it turns out (a little unsurprisingly) that the gold standard for home network is still ethernet, which (if you use the right cables) nominally operates at 1 gigabit a second nowadays. In our tests, transferring that Blu-ray file from one PC to another with a high-performance Linksys home router in between, we achieved average transfer rates of 61 megabytes per second (MBps). (This translates to roughly 500 Mbps, but we're going to stick to the bytes measure, with the uppercase B, from now on.)
With the black cable, we got 7 MBps with that same transfer. Stay away from those cables.
Using the Wi-Fi connection built into our notebook, we got speeds of 2.2 MBps on a standard, 2.4 GHz 802.11n Wi-Fi network. Yet using nominally the same Wi-Fi technology on the same notebook, only this time using a Wi-Fi dongle rather than the built-in Wi-Fi, we got 9.5 MBps. Go figure.
Similarly, using Wi-Fi running on a new 5 GHz 802.11n network – the frequency you would choose if a lot of your neighbours have Wi-Fi – resulted in transfers of 14.5 MBps using the notebook's built-in adapter, and 18 MBps using the dongle. That last one is the best result we got without ethernet cables. But put a single brick wall between the dongle and the router, and that 18MBps drops to 9.5 MBps.
Then we moved onto the Powerline devices. These are all rated at 200mbps, which should equate to a top transfer rate of roughly 20MBps. We got less than half that: 7.2MBps for the NetComm, 5.8MBps for the Belkin, and 6.8MBps for the Western Digital. Still, if you have a few brick walls inside your house, you could well find Powerline better than the fastest Wi-Fi.
As for the sneakernet? It was a genuine contender against the ethernet alternatives. Just counting the time it takes to copy a file onto a USB drive and then copy it off that drive at the other end (and not counting how long it takes to hunt through your drawers for an empty drive) we calculated sneakernet speeds to be 9.9 MBps for the hard drive, and 3.5 MBps for the solid-state thumbdrive.
All of which leads to one inescapable conclusion: If your home network is running slow, either pull on a pair of sneakers, or replace the ethernet cables. Try some red ones.
The Australian Financial Review
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Topics | Technology /Corporate & Government IT , Technology /Online Services , Technology /Telecommunications |


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Finding Suggestions
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Wednesday, May 09, 2012 · 02:15 pm
On Tuesday, May 22, at 6:30 p.m. the public is invited to the Linkhorn Park Elementary School cafeteria, 977 First Colonial Road, for the third and final phase of the Hilltop Strategic Growth Area (SGA) planning process. This phase, Deciding the Future, presents the initial draft, preferred development alternatives and the long-range vision for the Hilltop SGA. Please join us for this important occasion. Weigh in on development alternatives, offer input and ideas, and help create a plan that contributes to the community's lasting value. The city's Comprehensive Plan designates eight SGAs to accommodate and absorb the city's future urban-type growth. Beginning in January, the city held the first round of public meetings for input on the Hilltop SGA plan. During these meetings, civic leaders, business owners, property owners, residents and student leaders identified positive features of the Hilltop SGA and clarified what should be improved in the future. This resulted in a set of community-derived design principles for the SGA. Based on those principles, a week-long design workshop was held in mid-March to sketch initial future concepts for the SGA and to obtain more specific public input. The result is a proposed new vision for the Hilltop SGA.
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North Carolina Tar Heels' James Michael McAdoo battles for an... Nieuwsfoto'sBasketball - Men's College,Beweging,Charlottesville,James Michael McAdoo,North Carolina Tar Heels,Sport,Terugkomen,Tweede helft - Sport,Verenigde Staten,Verticaal,Virginia CavaliersPhotographer Raleigh News & ObserverCollection: Tribune News Service 2013 MCTNorth Carolina Tar Heels' James Michael McAdoo (43) battles for an offensive rebound with Virginia Cavaliers' Darion Atkins (32) during the second half at John Paul Jones Arena on Sunday, January 6, 2013, in Charlottesville, Virginia. The University of Virginia defeated the University of North Carolina, 61-52. (Robert Willett/Raleigh News & Observer/MCT via Getty Images)


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November 5, 2010 (BRONX, NY) Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University researcher Jeffrey Pollard, Ph.D., has received the prestigious Medal of Honor in Basic Science from the American Cancer Society (ACS) in recognition of his research into the critical role the tumor microenvironment plays in modulating cancer behavior, specifically the role that members of the innate immune cells called macrophages play both in normal development and in promoting tumor progression. These macrophages could hold the key to more targeted cancer treatments.
Insights into how normal body cells support tumor growth have led the way to a new wave of research and the development of therapeutics specifically targeting the support cells in the body that can aid in tumor development. Dr. Pollard's research has found that when macrophages are removed from the tumor microenvironment, the risk of cancer progressing to malignancy is reduced and its spread from the primary tumor site to distant sites lessens.
"I think that one of the major components of the therapeutic arsenal as we go forward will be to combine chemo-therapeutic drugs with drugs that target macrophages so that they can no longer support the tumor's ability to be malignant," said Dr. Pollard. "Further it gives another opportunity for therapy by using vaccination against tumor antigens combined with altering macrophages from tumor promoting to tumor rejecting. It gives us another prong in the attack on cancer."
Dr. Pollard is deputy director of the Albert Einstein Cancer Center, director of the Center for Study of Reproductive Biology and Women's Health and the Louis Goldstein Swan Chair in Women's Cancer Research at Einstein. He is also professor in the departments of developmental and molecular biology and obstetrics & gynecology and women's health at Einstein and Montefiore Medical Center.
This award from the American Cancer Society, the nation's leading voluntary
Contact: Kim Newman firstname.lastname@example.com 718-430-3101 Albert Einstein College of Medicine Source:Eurekalert |


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We see thousands of wedding photos a week. Every once in a while, an image will shine through the formal portraits, cutting-the-cake poses, and couple dance dips. Below are our top 10 favorite standouts, the photo opps that perfectly capture the unedited emotion or serene impact of the day. Some of these may sound sappy, but believe us -- you'll love the results.
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The Candidasa region on the northeast coast is everybody's favorite undeveloped spot in Bali. And the Alila Manggis's two coconut-fringed, colonial-style...more
The sweet-natured staff seem accustomed to seeing guests' jaws drop upon arrival at this contemporary resort a five-minute drive from central Ubud. The 44 rooms...more
If you want to see what Bali was like before the tourists (or, really, anyone) took over, Menjangan Resort is the place, surrounded by the savanna and mangrove...more
Taman Bebek, surrounded by five-star international brands on the prestigious Ayung River gorge, offers amazing value at one of the best locations in the Ubud...more
Recent years have seen the opening in Bali of several small resorts comprising Indonesian farmhouses relocated to quiet settings, yet none of them has quite the...more
This refreshingly low-key resort on the island's southeastern coast is easily the most family-friendly on the island. The 298 guest rooms and suites here are...more


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Noah Wilson, a 6-year-old cancer patient, was at Kauffman Stadium on Wednesday night to see his beloved Royals play the Giants in Game 2 of the World Series, courtesy of Major League Baseball. Read More »
Young starters set for clash of hot Royals, A's
The Royals just swept the Giants at home and have now won seven straight, while the Athletics have won five of their last seven. Yordano Ventura will get the call for Kansas City on Monday in a rematch with Oakland, which will trot out Sonny Gray. Read More »
Young and Mariners proving a perfect match
It's too early in the season to say that the Mariners and Chris Young lived happily ever after. Nobody, however, is complaining about the relationship. Read More »
2011 Kansas 8-Man All-Star Game-Division I West Selections
The Kansas 8-Man All-Star Football Game Selections for the Division I West Squad. Hunter Pittman – Pretty Prairie Ben Webb – Osborne Dillon Salmans – Hoxie Eric VanLoenen – Hill City Charlie Ellis – Ness City Daniel Krehbiel – Pretty Prairie Evan Kreger – Hodgeman County Tryaun Richard – Lincoln Storm Pickens – Peabody-Burns Tyler Bess – Hill City Sam ... Read More »


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Cabaret 313 is thrilled to present Liz Callaway for an intimate evening of song on September 13th at the Players' Club Playhouse in Detroit.
A Tony-nominee and Emmy Award winner, Liz is a singer, actress and recording artist who has performed on Broadway (Cats, Miss Saigon and others), and whose pure soprano voice can be heard on many animated feature films (Aladdin, Anastasia and more). With her long-time association with Stephen Sondheim, she has given many of the classic performances of Sondheim works, in concert and plays.
Early performance: Opening Reception 6:15pm | Show: 7:00 pm
Late performance: Opening Reception 9:00pm | Show: 9:45 pm
Reception includes complimentary Wine/Beer (Detroit Crafted!) and Hors d' oeuvres/Desserts.
This event is part of WDET's Discovery Series, a selection of hand-picked events for WDET members. Members may reserve complimentary tickets by sending an email to firstname.lastname@example.com (Limited Quantity). Please include your member ID # in this email.
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Route Info!
News Flash! The zombie infection has spread! The city of Nashville has discovered that the undead could not be contained within the stretch of downtown between Broadway and Union! So the route has been expanded!
The NEW ZOMBIE ROUTE is as follows:
We will congregate at 2pm on Molloy St, between 1st and 2nd Avenues (you'll see the Second Harvest Food Bank truck parked there). At 3pm, we will begin our shamble through downtown along 2nd Avenue until we reach our dispersal point at Union Street.
Where do I park? Well coincidentally there are a couple of pay parking lots right there at Molloy. When those lots fill up, there are plenty of other lots within walking (dead) distance.
Important General Information
Zombies will gather at 2pm and we will shamble starting at 3pm.
And be sure to check out and visit our sponsors to thank them for helping to make this year's event possible.
Saturday, October 11th, 2014.
The dead gather at 2pm. Walker herd moves out at 3pm.
Come out at 2pm to visit our sponsors, get makeup done, deposit your food donations, and socialize with fellow dead!
PLEASE NOTE: This is a rain or shine event, and we will only cancel the event in the case of severe weather. Please plan accordingly.
This year the walk will start at 2nd Ave. and Molloy St. and end at Public Square Park in downtown Nashville. Click here for the route map.
You will need to find parking on your own, or be dropped off. Info on downtown parking is available here.
You! The Nashville Zombie Walk is an annual tradition, in which a large group of people dress up as zombies, come together as a group to help the hungry, and walk the streets of downtown Nashville as one, undead mob. It's FREE and all ages are welcome.
Just dress-up as a zombie and act the part. No need to sign up or anything, but we'd love for you to RSVP to the Facebook event. You don't have to be a professional actor or master make-up artist. It's close enough to Halloween to find all the supplies you'll need at almost any store.
Aside from delicious human brains, we will be collecting non-perishable food items for donation to Second Harvest of Middle Tennessee. Bring as many food items as you can carry, we will take them from there (you won't have to walk with them).
Do, please, keep the following
simple "house rules" in mind for our walk:
1) If you don't OWN IT, please do not TOUCH IT.
Keep bloody hands under control, please.
2) Play ONLY with other participants and friends
or people who have invited your attention.
3) Respect the city, public spaces, and city personnel
who are helping us out – and please CLEAN UP any mess/litter.


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You have to hand it to Kurt Gray, a doctoral student at Harvard. He knows how to spin a set of three small experiments he conducted to make headlines. Here's what Gray had to say about his findings:
"By perceiving themselves as good or evil, people embody these perceptions, actually becoming more capable of physical endurance."
"But in fact, this research suggests that physical strength may be an effect, not a cause, of moral acts."
Did Gray actually measure a person's inherent "goodness" or capacity for evil (or did he measure artificial situations created in a lab that may or may not actually mimic these qualities)? And if so, did he also measure physical strength (or simply one small aspect of strength, physical endurance)?
Before posting, please read our blog moderation guidelines. The comments below begin with the oldest comments first. Click on the last comments page to jump to the most recent comments.
I think you are missing the point. I don't know the details of the experiment but he clearly uses the word perceive. Which is to say it is not an empirical good or evil(if one does exist) but rather a self perception of good or evil.
It is the same phenomena that explains how prayer and meditation helps sick patients to do better. Most people feel that by giving to charity they are doing something to help other people which gives them a reason and purpose, whereas a person who perceives themselves as evil will see themselves as nothing more than a parasite that could only benefit others by ceasing to exist.
In my former practice of esoteric ritual magick we used to use what was referred to as "god-forms". Which is to say you take on the persona of the "god" you were trying to summon and through the ritual you convince yourself that you are that "god" and in doing so you take on the strengths and abilities of said "god". Obviously, it does not mean you can shoot lightning bolts out of your fingers but what does changes is your approach and perception of yourself and the world around you.
The problem is, he didn't actually measure participants' perceptions of themselves as being "good" or "evil." These are perceptions he simply assumed by the design of the experiment. He assumed that anyone who just received a dollar and then gives it to charity is "good." That's the most amazing leap of logic I've ever heard.
The fact that nobody turned down the charity offer also suggests there was a flaw in the experiment (we'd expect in normal human society that not everyone would donate to charity if given the opportunity).
So all of this is interesting theory and these studies would've been nice foundational (or pilot) studies to explore these concepts further. But he spoke about them to the press as though they were flawlessly designed and came to unquestionable conclusions without limitation.
I agree that he should not present it as the LAW but the hypothesis could grant many benefits.
This is a constant issue when it comes to trying to objectively measure subjective data. We can only talk in generalities and allowed people to measure and choose what applies and what doesn't apply. But people don't want general information the want answers and solutions. They want to feel somebody is in control and taking care of those things.
What "attention" was paid to the control group?
What "neutral" thing were they asked to do?
Not knowing that, maybe the difference was simply having the "researcher" interact more with the 2 groups.
There's not enough information here to evaluate.
I agree that there is stenght in evil but if you have even a little bit of good in you. Your good will come out soon enough and lead you down the right path!
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Smyle Inn is a family run Hostel in Delhi welcoming international guests for the past 16 years. Recipient of Hoscar... More Info »
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text:
4-ps passively mode-locked Nd:Gd0.5Y0.5VO4 laser with a semiconductor saturable-absorber mirror
Optics Letters, Vol. 29, Issue 23, pp. 2803-2805 (2004)
Acrobat PDF (488 KB)
We have demonstrated a passively mode-locked diode end-pumped all-solid-state laser, which is composed of a Nd:Gd>0.5Y0.5VO4 crystal and a folded cavity with a semiconductor saturable-absorber mirror grown by metal-organic chemical-vapor deposition. Stable cw mode locking with a 3.8-ps pulse duration at a repetition rate of 112 MHz was obtained. At 13.6 W of the incident pump power, a clean mode-locked fundamental-mode average output power of 3.9 W was achieved with an overall optical-to-optical efficiency of 29.0%, and the slope efficiency was 38.1%.
© 2004 Optical Society of America
OCIS Codes
(140.3380) Lasers and laser optics : Laser materials
(140.3480) Lasers and laser optics : Lasers, diode-pumped
(140.3530) Lasers and laser optics : Lasers, neodymium
(140.4050) Lasers and laser optics : Mode-locked lasers
(160.6000) Materials : Semiconductor materials
Jing-Liang He, Ya-Xian Fan, Juan Du, Yong-Gang Wang, Sheng Liu, Hui-Tian Wang, Lian-Han Zhang, and Yin Hang, "4-ps passively mode-locked Nd:Gd0.5Y0.5VO4 laser with a semiconductor saturable-absorber
mirror," Opt. Lett. 29, 2803-2805 (2004)
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- U. Keller, D. A. B. Miller, G. D. Boyd, T. H. Chiu, J. F. Ferguson, and M. T. Asom, Opt. Lett. 17, 505 (1992).
- U. Keller, K. J. Weingaryen, F. X. Kärtner, D. Kopf, B. Braum, I. D. Jung, R. Fluck, C. Hönninger, N. Matuschek, and J. Aus der Au, IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron. 2, 435 (1996).
- U. Keller, Nature 424, 831 (2003).
- Y. F. Chen, S. W. Tsai, Y. P. Lan, S. C. Wang, and K. F. Huang, Opt. Lett. 26, 199 (2001).
- D. Burns, M. Hetterich, A. Ferguson, E. Bente, M. D. Dawson, J. I. Davies, and S. W. Bland, J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 17, 919 (2000).
- J. L. He, C. K. Lee, J. Y. J. Huang, S. C. Wang, C. L. Pan, and K. F. Huang, Appl. Opt. 42, 5496 (2003).
- B. Y. Zhang, G. Li, M. Chen, Z. G. Zhang, and Y. G. Wang, Opt. Lett. 28, 1829 (2003).
- L. J. Qin, X. L. Meng, C. L. Du, L. Zhu, B. C. Xu, Z. S. Shao, Zh. G. Liu, Q. Fang, and R. F. Cheng, J. Alloys Compd. 354, 259 (2003).
- J. Liu, Z. Wang, X. Meng, Z. Shao, B. Ozygus, A. Ding, and H. Weber, Opt. Lett. 28, 2330 (2003).
- C. Hönninger, R. Paschotta, F. Morier-Genound, M. Moser, and U. Keller, J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 16, 46 (1999).
- R. Paschotta, J. Aus der Au, G. J. Spuhler, F. Morier-Genoud, R. Hövel, M. Moser, S. Erhand, M. Karszwski, A. Giesen, and U. Keller, Appl. Phys. B 70, S25 (2000).
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Miss USA winner: Erin Brady displays her smarts
Miss USA winner: Erin Brady, the winner of the Miss USA pageant, nailed a question about the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to uphold widespread DNA tests. Brady was a Central Connecticut State University finance major.
(AP Photo/Jeff Bottari)
Las Vegas
The country's newest Miss USA is leaving a white collar job behind for the glamour and excitement that goes with her new role — and she can't wait.
Moments after she was crowned at the Planet Hollywood hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip Sunday, Connecticut accountant Erin Brady said all she could think about was letting her bosses know she won't be coming in tomorrow. Or ever again.
As her family and fiancee looked on, Brady beat out other beauties from every U.S. state and Washington D.C. to take the title, accepting the crown from outgoing queen Miss Maryland Nana Meriwether.
She wore an orange bikini with a matching halter-top as she strutted to the Jonas Brother's "Pom Poms." Later, she donned a strapless gown with a spangled golden corset and long white train.
In the pageant's final minutes, she answered without hesitation a question about the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to uphold widespread DNA tests.
"If someone is being prosecuted and committed a crime, it should happen. There are so many crimes that if that's one step closer to stopping them, then we should be able to do so," she said.
Miss Utah, meanwhile, apparently stumbled in response to a question about income disparity, providing a rambling, halting answer included an invocation to "create education better."
As Miss USA, she will live in a swanky Manhattan apartment and travel the world raising awareness about breast cancer, but Brady has an additional goal of her own: Helping children cope with the effects of drug and alcohol abuse, which have marked those close to her.
"I grew up in a family influenced by that and I think it's really important to help the children of families that are suffering from those problems," she told The Associated Press.
Her father Francis said he always knew his math-oriented daughter was a glamour girl. She and her sisters used to strut around and pretend they were beauty queens.
Her sister Audrey, 20, said with tears in her eyes that her grandmother, who was watching from home, would orchestrate the pretend shows.
"She'd be like, 'Prance around the pool like Miss America.'"


text:
Supreme Court
Amicus Participation Invited
Amicus Participation Invited
The Colorado Supreme Court on occasion will solicit amicus briefs in cases for which it has determined that input from interested non-parties would be useful in the court's weighing of the issues. When such orders are issued, they, together with materials pertinent to the case, will be posted on this page.
12SC672 - Milton Trujillo v. Colorado Division of Insurance
Petition for Writ of Certiorari
Opposition to Petition
Court Order
12SC299 - Cain v. People
Petition for Writ of Certiorari
Opposition to Petition for Writ of Certiorari
Court Order


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I hate calling her that. More so than calling her Senator Clinton. And I pray to the Lord God Almighty that I never have to call her President Clinton.
Is that rant going to be stricken from the record?
I got my NRA mag America's First Freedom yesterday. The article about Secretary Clinton is eye opening. I urge you all to read this article. To think that she could possible orchestrate a Global Gun Ban is depressing. She should have run under the new socialist party. It really disrespects Democrats to call her one.
Sorry if I went over board.


text:
Many people wonder if vaping will set off a smoke alarm, but few are willing to give it a try in their hotel room or the lavatory on a plane. We cannot condone such behavior, however, one enterprising soul did video tape his own experiment.
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text:
Economists' view | Data supports case for rate cut
PUBLISHED: 17 Jan 2013 13:57:12 | UPDATED: 17 Jan 2013 13:59:03PRINT EDITION: 17 Jan 2013Australian employment unexpectedly dipped 5,500 in December while the jobless rate nudged up to 5.4 per cent, a soft report that led markets to narrow the odds of further rate cuts and push down the local dollar.
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Pronunciation: /ˈtambər/
Definition of timbre in English:
The character or quality of a musical sound or voice as distinct from its pitch and intensity: trumpet mutes with different timbres a voice high in pitch but rich in timbre
More example sentences
- Different composers describe perceiving different colours with different keys, instrumental timbres, or harmonic structures.
- How did these women match their pitch, vibrato, and timbres with such precision?
- The plainchant was delivered faultlessly, and gave a flavour of the complementary timbres of the male voices.
Words that rhyme with timbre
amber, camber, caramba, clamber, Cochabamba, gamba, mamba, Maramba, sambaDefinition of timbre in:
- British & World English dictionary
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- US English synonyms
- Spanish dictionary
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Bree's Nashville bachelorette party Jersey style by Tracyann - over 5 years ago
"sister's bachelorette party in nashville tn" view full details
Bree's Nashville bachelorette party Jersey style by Tracyann - over 5 years ago
"My sister's bachelorette party we took 13 Jersey girls to Nashville TN Aug 14-16 2009. Last year for my bachelorette the girls used the same website and we loved the shirts" view full details
Front and Back by dalehollowcrew - over 5 years ago
"5 college basketball teammates and their wives all got together at Dale Hollow Lake in Tennessee for a great weekend of boating, skiing, food and drink! The customink.com shirts were the perfect mo..." view full details
Sanders/Wilburn Family Reunion by Niecee - over 5 years ago
"We are in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee at a 12 bed room log cabin for our family reunion. We thank custom ink for there great job on our t-shirt and they have a great quality of t-shirts Thank you Cu..." view full details
Reunion in the Smoky Mtns June 06 by OBryan - over 5 years ago
"We all gathered in our shirts for this photo. Spent a week in the smoky Mtns TN wonderful!" view full details
"Doing the Alfred" by TaTaPalooza - about 6 years ago
"Our group of friends met online close to 9 years ago. We call ourselves the TaTa Sisterhood. We've remained friends and now have started meeting up once a year face-to-face for a girls weekend away..." view full details
ONE STEP CLOSER by PINKROSES - over 6 years ago
"My experience with Customink was amazing! I loved the service and look forward to using Customink again next year. The route for the Race for the Cure is actually a neighborhood in Memphis, TN. M..." view full details
12 Hour Hill of Truth by PUI - over 6 years ago
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The Pirates of the Cumberland by IngramBargePirates - over 6 years ago
"Our company, Ingram Barge in Nashville, TN, is a sponsor of and participated in the 2nd Annual Dragon Boat Races held on the Cumberland Riverfront in Nashville. Our team was dubbed The Pirates of t..." view full details
Changes in Latitude...Changes in Attitude by HB2K8 - over 6 years ago
"The Houseboat Crew (HB2K8) at Norris Lake, TN. Whether it is Lake Cumberland, Dale Hollow, or Norris Lake this crew always makes the annual trip. This is the 11th year. This was our first year u..." view full details


text:
Danish Delight - Caroline Wozniacki thread - vol 6
View Single Post
Jan 26th, 2013, 12:08 AM
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 8,102
Re: Danish Delight - Caroline Wozniacki thread - vol 6
Originally Posted by
bruce goose
Though I wish that she scheduled a bit more prudently
,I'm proud of Caro
for holding on to her integrity and honor in that area.
It's a stark contrast with certain others who will go nameless here
Same here. I'm proud of Caro's morals and integrity. I hope she never loses that integrity when she sees around her three top players in particular who's word means nothing and can't be trusted to keep it. I was brought up that your word should be trusted. If you commit to do something - you do it or try your best to do it. In real life - It infuriates me to be let down by workmen who say they'll come round and don't turn up. And unless they have a genuine injury - players who don't honour their committment are no better.
Caroline Wozniacki
Chris Evert, Steffi Graf, Kim Clijsters
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text: #4899: Archive mysql-5.6.16 -------------------------+----------------------- Reporter: fo | Owner: fo Type: enhancement | Status: assigned Priority: normal | Milestone: 7.6 Component: BOOK | Version: SVN Severity: normal | Resolution: Keywords: | -------------------------+----------------------- Comment (by fo): Comments, objections? Please speak, because I intend to do this and #4883 as my first two jobs today. -- Ticket URL: <http://wiki.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/ticket/4899#comment:2> BLFS Trac <http://wiki.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs> Beyond Linux From Scratch


text:
We created open-source tools to record neurons. Now we wish to publish experiments that help teachers and amateurs use our kits. Read more
We created open-source tools to record neurons. Now we wish to publish experiments that help teachers and amateurs use our kits.
About this project
Backyard Brains is a small DIY company with the goal of spreading an interest in neuroscience to the public. The brain is poorly understood by most everyone... and neuroscience is typically not taught until late undergrad or graduate school. We feel that exposing people to how the brain works at an earlier age will help get kids thinking about a career in neuroscience. And we could definitely use the help! 1 out of 5 people will suffer from a neurological disease where there is not a known cure!
Why Write a Paper?
We have developed low-costs tools to investigate the brain, but teachers have told us they need help when preparing lesson plans and lectures. We decided it would be a good idea to publish a paper that teachers and amateurs could use to understand and perform experiments. We wrote a paper that outlines four neuroscience experiments for publication in the journal PLoS ONE. The paper includes a teachers guide with background information on the experiments, plus student handouts for use in class. Each experiment has it's own separate hand-out, so educators can choose which section they wish to cover. We have also included an engineering section which details how we designed the SpikerBox, and steps for building one yourself.
Although people are generally interested in how their brain functions, neuroscience education to the public is hampered by a lack of low cost and engaging teaching materials. To address this, we developed an open-source tool, the SpikerBox, which is appropriate for use in middle/high school educational programs and by amateurs. This device can be used in easy experiments in which students insert sewing pins into the leg of a cockroach, or other invertebrate, to amplify and listen to the electrical activity of neurons. With the cockroach leg preparation, students can hear and see (using a smartphone oscilloscope app we have developed) the dramatic changes in activity that occur when the mechanosensitive barbs are touched. Students can also experiment with other manipulations such as temperature, drugs, and microstimulation that affect the neural activity. We include teaching guides and other resources in the supplemental materials. These hands-on lessons with the SpikerBox have proven to be effective in teaching basic neuroscience.
The Experiments
Experiment I: How do nerves carry information about touch? Students learn the concept of "rate-coding" by listening to the changes in neural discharge in response to touch using the cockroach leg preparation. Location-dependent (or "somatotopic") responses can be illuminated by touching several areas along the leg.
Experiment II: How do neurons generate electricity? By selectively heating and cooling the cockroach leg, students can indirectly observe the properties of ion channels and their influence on spikes.
Experiment III: How does your brain tell your muscles to move? By using the analog output of a portable MP3 device or laptop, students can measure the effect of frequency and amplitude on the initiation of movements in the cockroach leg. The use of electricity to create neural or muscle activity is called "microstimulation".
Experiment IV: How do drugs affect neurons? The effects of "neuroactive" agents on the central nervous system can be studied to explain the function of synapses and neurotransmitters. Two types of neurotransmitter agents, chemicals involved in neuron-to-neuron communication, are injected into the CNS of a cricket. Students can analyze the behavioural and neural recording results to determine the effects of each.
About the Publication Process
Most journals charge subscribers to read their articles. We wanted our articles to be available to everyone, so we decided to publish in an open-access journal: PLoS ONE. The idea behind open-access is that the authors pay up front to publish, so the readers can get access to the articles for free.
We are asking for help with the $1,350 required to get our paper published in PLoS ONE (their standard rate for non-institutional authors). If you help us defray the publication costs, you will be added to the acknowledgment section of our paper.
You can get involved in the scientific publication process! You can help teachers access teaching materials for free.
Yes, PLoS One kindly offers waivers if authors do not have money to pay the publishing fee. From what we hear, they have never declined a request to waive the fee for anyone. But we are doing this KickStarter for 2 reasons.
1) We believe strongly in the Open-Access, and want to support PLoS in their efforts. We do not want them to have to cover our costs, as PLoS has to keep lights on too. We'd like to encourage their business model.
2) We'd like to set a precedent where the community, if they are interested in a project, can help fund a project's dissemination and publication. Our teacher colleagues have asked about this option, as the number of open access journals is still pretty limited.
So consider this an experiment in crowd-sourcing projects for educators to publish in open-access journals!
We decided it made for a cleaner narrative to request the exact amount of $1350 on the PLoS One invoice (see update). We've raised $1426 now, which will help offset the cuts Kickstarter and Amazon will take. We also have "skin in the game" too and can add whatever more is needed. So, at this point, we don't need any more backers. Thanks so much though. To the NeuroRevolution!
Yes! It was a long struggle. We were assigned manuscript #PONE-D-11-11302 back on June 27, 2011 when we first submitted it. Three revisions and six months later, we are happy to report the reviewers and editors have signed off on it! The journal is awaiting final proofs. We will add the KickStarter backers to our acknowledgement and submit our final version on Jan 12.
Pledge $1 or more
32 backers
You will be acknowledged in the PLoS One paper for your contribution! Thank you!
Estimated delivery: -
Pledge $25 or more
14 backers
You will be acknowledged in the PLoS One paper for your contribution, plus we will send you a copy of the paper when it is finally published.
Estimated delivery: -
Pledge $50 or more
2 backers
You will be acknowledged in the PLoS One paper for your contribution and receive a copy of the paper, plus we will send you an "El Cheapo" SpikerBox circuit board.
Estimated delivery: -
Pledge $150 or more
5 backers
You will be acknowledged in the PLoS One paper for your contribution and will receive a copy of the paper, plus we will send you a complete DIY Kit so you can build your own SpikerBox.
Estimated delivery: -
Pledge $250 or more
0 backers
You will be acknowledged in the PLoS One Paper for your contribution and will receive a copy of the paper, plus we will send you a signed SpikerBox kit with your name engraved on it!
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text:
Asian Shares Drop on Central Bank Action
Most Asian markets closed down on Friday as worries resurfaced over the global economy, but mainland Chinese stocks climbed following a surprise interest-rate cut.
The People's Bank of China cut borrowing costs for the second time in less than a month, a response to the country's worst slowdown since the global financial crisis.
"Most people were thinking that we might have more rate cuts but not this soon," said Fung Kwok On, chief portfolio manager, Greater China equities at Nikko Asset Management, who helps manage assets worth $600 million.
Mr. Fung added that the Chinese government "wants to convey the message that it really cares about growth."
The rate cut was another blow for Chinese banks, which have performed poorly since the last rate cut, as the lending rate was cut by more than the deposit rate, squeezing their profitability. As a result, all nine of the Hong Kong-listed Chinese banks fell on the news. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China fell 0.7%, exacerbating its 5.4% fall since the June 7 rate cut, while China Construction Bank dropped 2.7%.
"People were expecting a [reserve ratio requirement cut]," said Lorraine Tan, vice president of research Asia at S&P Capital IQ. "They wanted to see the liquidity going into the system," while a cut in the reserve ratio "would have been better for bank margins."
Property developers benefited though because of cheaper funding, with China Overseas Land and Investment and China Resources Land climbing 4.8% and 1% respectively, while Evergrande Real Estate jumped 6.6%. But some analysts say that further upside is limited, as developers have already had a good run since the last rate cut.
Strong performance in consumption and transportation stocks helped the Hang Seng Index overcome the weakness in financials, which finished flat at 19800.64. In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite hit a six-month low at one point before finishing the day up 1% at 2223.58, as investors warmed to the government's pro-growth measures.
Elsewhere, Japan's Nikkei Average was down 0.7% at 9020.75, and Australia's S&P ASX/200 was also 0.3% lower at 4157.80.
Unlike China, where the timing of the rate cut came as a surprise, the European Central Bank's move to lower borrowing costs was widely anticipated by the market.
The European rate cut was bad news for the euro. At $1.2380 the single currency weakened slightly in Asian trading, extending a 1.1% overnight fall that pushed it down to the lowest level late in New York since the end of May.
The next data point that investors are looking to is employment data from the U.S., out later Friday. Data on private-sector job growth in the U.S. topped estimates, which came out on Thursday, increased hopes that the closely watched U.S. nonfarm payrolls figures will also be strong.
There are some fears however, that if hiring has picked up, the Federal Reserve will be less likely to introduce new stimulus measures when it meets later in the month.
Although most markets closed lower on Friday, some major markets were able to notch up respectable gains for the week, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index up 1.9% over the last five sessions. The S&P/ASX 200 was 1.5% higher.
South Korea's Kospi edged 0.9% lower to 1858.20, as the index was weighed down by its largest constituent, Samsung Electronics. The index heavyweight dropped 2% after its earnings guidance for the second quarter disappointed investors.
In company news, Seven & i Holdings climbed 0.7% in Tokyo after the company announced that although its first-quarter operating profit fell 1.4% on year, its revenue gained 7.5%, due to the strength of the company's 7-Eleven convenience stores in Japan and the U.S.
In Taiwan, phone maker HTC dropped 5.2% due to expectations that the company will release weak second quarter results after the market closes, and investors fear the impact of intense competition and a weakening global economy.
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