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A first look at the Fujifilm Film Simulation modes with
Adobe Camera Raw 8.4 | Mirrorlessons
In 2013 I wrote an in-depth article about post-processing the Fuji X100s colours with Adobe Lightroom and many other software programs. One of the most interesting benefits when working with Fuji X-Trans cameras is their unique colour palette rendering. The colours look different, less digital than any other camera. But to completely enjoy them, you need to rely on the OOC JPGs. If you want to work with the raw files and not lose these colours, you have to find a software that can match them as closely as possible. Unfortunately, Adobe Lightroom and Camera Raw were the last on the list regarding colour accuracy. Personally, I've really been looking forward to this update. I always use Lightroom not only because I find it very versatile and fast but also because I have an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, so the software is already included. Why spend money on another one? A few days ago, Adobe released a candidate version of the next Camera Raw update. Candidate means that the update is not the final version that will be officially released to the public. It has already been tested but Adobe has made it available to the public for further feedback. This new 8.4 version includes all the film simulation modes (picture profiles) that we can find on Fuji X cameras. They have been developed by Adobe with Fujifilm supervision. The first time I heard about it was during the X-T1 presentation but it was confidential information at the time. Now, it's finally live…….
Adobe Camera RAW color profiles now match Fujifilm X's! |
Lars Øivind Authen
There's been a lot of talk about the Fuji X cameras JPEG engine and the nice colors you get straight out of the camera. It's hard to recreate these colors when processing the raw files yourself. So a lot of people say they prefer the out of camera JPEG's and don't use raw. Especially there's been criticism and complaints about the Adobe Lightroom/Adobe Camera raw engine. Well it seems like Fujifilm and Adobe has gotten their act together and come up with a solution , at least when it comes to the getting the right colors, and recreating in Lightroom/ACR the look the camera make for its JPEGS. Take a look at these shots below. They are JPEG created in Adobe Camera Raw using the Astia camera profile, and then the same picture as JPEG straight out of the camera with the Astia profile chosen in-cam…….
You can download the latest release candidate of ACR from here: http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/cameraraw8-4.html
See on www.larsauthen.com
New firmware updates for several X series cameras and
Fujinon zoom lenses | Fujifilm Global
Firmware updates allow compatibility with the new XF56mm lens, and also improvements to OIS functions.
Fujifil pleased to announce that new firmware updates are now available for the following products:
- X-Pro1 : 3.20 (current 3.10)
- X-E1 : 2.20 (current 2.10)
- X-E2 : 1.20 (current 1.10)
- X-M1 : 1.10 (current 1.01)
- X-A1 : 1.10 (current 1.01)
- XC16-50mm : 1.12 (current 1.10)
- XF18-55mm : 3.11 (current 3.10)
- XF55-200mm : 1.11 (current 1.10)
The updates for the camera models incorporate the following changes:
- Addition of compatibility with XF56mmF1.2R.
- Improvement of AE accuracy with XF56mmF1.2R
- Improvement of AF accuracy with XF56mmF1.2R (only for X-E2)
For the lenses, the following changes are applied:
- Improvement of OIS function for movie shooting when panning and tilting a camera.
- Improvement of OIS function for still image shooting.
- Fixed a bug where the maximum aperture always displays F5.6. (only for XC16-50mm. )
- Improvement of AF response during continuous shooting with X-E2 and X-T1. (for XF18-55mm and XF55-200mm)
See more on: Fujifilm
Updated X-Trans Sharpening Presets for Lightroom |
Thomas Fitzgerald
A while ago I posted some sharpening presets for sharpening images taken with one of Fujifilm's X Series of cameras in Lightroom. I was attempting to find a way to minimise some of Lightroom's idiosyncrasies when it comes to X-Trans processing. They were well received and people seemed to like them. Since then I've kept working on it and I've been continuing my quest to get the best out of X-Trans files. While I've been focusing on using third party applications in recent blog posts, I've still been working behind the scenes on best practices if you're just using Lightroom……
Processing Fujifilm x-trans raw files in Aperture |
Thomas Fitzgerald
This it the latest instalment in my ongoing series looking at how various raw converters handle raw files shot on one of Fuji's cameras with an X-Trans sensor. In the past I've written a good bit about using Iridient Developer and Lightroom for Processing, but a reader asked if there was a workflow for getting good results with just Aperture. I've been working on it over the last few weeks, and here's the results of my experimentation. Overall, Aperture does a good job with X-Trans files in my opinion. I don't think it's quite as good as Iridient Developer, which of all the raw converters that I've tried, still gives the most natural and clean looking files. (I'm still testing Photo Ninja by the way). Aperture is a close second, or third mind you. I've spent the last few weeks playing around with settings to see just how close I can get it, and while I still can't match the clean and sharp output of Iridient Developer, I can get it pretty near……
Photo Ninja for X-Trans Processing | Thomas Fitzgerald
In an ongoing series looking at alternatives for processing X-Trans images, I've already looked at Iridient Developer and I've written about using Aperture. I've also posted some of my initial thoughts on using Photo Ninja. Now that I've had some time to use it more thoroughly I can share my findings and let you know my thoughts on using it for processing raw files from the ever expanding line of cameras using Fuji's X-Trans sensor. Before I start, here's just a quick recap of what this series is all about. Regular readers of my photo blog will know that I am a big proponent of Iridient Developer for processing files from one of Fujifilm's X-Trans series of cameras. I've noted in previous posts that it gives a much more natural look than Lightroom does, and it is much better at extracting detail in my opinion. Since my posts on the subject, numerous readers have contacted me and suggested that I also give Photo Ninja a look too for it's X-Trans rendering. The good folks over at Picture Code were kind enough to send me an evaluation license, and as mentioned, I had previously posted some initial thoughts. I've finally had the time to write a full review so here it goes………
My Workflow for X-Trans RAW Processing | vk.photo
I was using Lightroom since its first iteration and it worked well with all my cameras and files. Until I acquired Fujifilm X-Pro1. I quickly realized that ACR demosaicing (Lightroom's raw de-coding engine, same as in CS/Photoshop) is not the best choice for x-trans raw files. There are much better raw converters on the market, but Lightroom is still, arguably, the best digital asset management system. I was asking myself, how can I combine the power of LR asset management with the best demosaicing algorithms? After spending hours of testing of various configurations I finally came up with the workflow that works well for me and my x-trans raw files. I am using it for 4 months now and feel comfortable to share with you. I will illustrate my workflow using LR+Iridient Developer integration, albeit the same integration works well with Capture One Express, Aperture or Photo Ninja. As the matter of fact I have all of them and they all are integrated into the same workflow. Here is my setup and step by step instructions. My workflow always starts and ends in Adobe Lightroom. So why Lightroom? I chose this particular product as my main Digital Asset Management system for many reasons but mostly because the combination of…….
See on vkphotoblog.blogspot.de
Firmware V3.1 for X-Pro1 | Fujifilm Global
The firmware update Ver.3.10 from Ver.3.01 incorporates the following issues
Regarding operations of items below from 2 through 6, refer to "X-Pro1 New Features Guide" in this website. X-Pro1 New Features Guide (PDF: 345KB)
- Improve the cover range and accuracy of the bright frame in the OVF
The cover range of the bright frame displaying the shooting area in the optical viewfinder has been improved so that a field of view closer to the actual image can be checked. By maintaining the position of the bright frame with parallax compensation during AF lock, the shooting area can be checked even when letting go of the shutter release.* When use AE-L/AF-L button with the setting of "AF LOCK ONLY" or "AE/AF LOCK" in AE/AF-LOCK BUTTON in SHOOTING MENU.
- See the exposure setting in live-view and histogram
The images and histogram will reflect current exposure levels (with the shutter speed and aperture set during manual exposure also displayed on the image). In scenarios where the live view and the final shot will appear differently, eg: when using flash, this setting can be turned off.
- Aperture and shutter speed can be changed once AE lock is selected
The aperture or shutter speed can be changed while maintaining exposure (EV value) with the AE lock button. The photographer has the ability to tweak settings down to the very last moment before shooting.
- The default and maximum sensitivity and minimum shutter speed can be set when ISO AUTO is selected
When selecting "AUTO" in the ISO setting, users can also set standard ISO, Maximum ISO and a low-speed shutter limit. The low-speed shutter limit has been extended to 1/500 seconds.
- New functionality allowing you to edit image file names
An image file name (DSCF***) is automatically allocated to each picture when shooting, this can now be changed to your file name of choice.* This added functionality is useful when organizing the images after shooting, and sorting the images into groups. * It can be changed to a 4-letter file name when selecting "sRGB" and a 3-letter file name when selecting "Adobe RGB" for the color space.
- Change of numbering for images shot using continuous shooting
When shooting using continuous shooting, only the first image is currently displayed in full screen and subsequent frames are displayed in small on the bottom right, and the file number was set as "S+7-digit number". With the new firmware, all frames in continuous shooting are displayed as full screen shots in playback. The file number has also been altered to follow numerically as per standard single shots, thereby allowing uniform management of images after shooting.
- Improvement of RAW file conversion function
When developing RAF images in-camera using the built-in RAW file converter, the firmware upgrade improves the flow by taking you back to the original RAF image once the conversion has been done, whereas before it left you with the converted JPG file on screen and the user had to go back to the next RAF file manually.
See on www.fujifilm.com
X100S vs. 23mm ƒ/1.4 | Fuji vs. Fuji
This comparison is between the Fuji X100S, which is a fixed 23mm ƒ/2 lens, and the newly released FUJINON XF 23mm ƒ/1.4.
Test specs
All images aside from the light spheres were made using a tripod, and mechanical shutter release. They are Fine quality JPEGs shot at ISO 200, straight from camera. Dynamic Range set to 100. Film Simulation is Provia. White Balance set manually to 5000K. All other settings were set to default.
Sharpness and Bokeh
First up, an outdoor close-focus sharpness and bokeh comparison. The items of interest here how the X100S's ƒ/2 lens stacks up against the 23/1.4 at ƒ/2, and how much of a difference ƒ/1.4 on the 23mm makes in out of focus rendering. I've chosen a rather bland subject matter, but I hope it illustrates the characteristics of the bokeh of each lens in a situation that pushes the dynamic range to the limit…..
See on www.fujivsfuji.com
Fujifilm Fujinon XF 23mm F1.4
Do you love my work and want to support me? If you're planning on buying camera gear, you can check out above-noted links. Prices remain the same for you, but a small percentage of your purchase value is valued back to me. Thank you!
Adobe releases final versions of Camera Raw 8.3 and Lightroom 5.3 |
Digital Photography Review
Adobe has announced the final versions of Camera Raw and DNG Converter 8.3, along with Lightroom 5.3. Different versions for ACR 8.3 are available for Photoshop CC and Photoshop CS6 – both from Adobe.com and through the update mechanisms in the software. DNG Converter is available for free for users of older versions of Photoshop. The latest versions brings support for 20 cameras, including the Nikon Df and Nokia Lumia 1020 that weren't in the release candidate versions.
The latest version becomes the first to offer camera color profiles for Olympus cameras.
Press statement:
Newly added support for Tethered Capture in Lightroom 5.3
- Canon EOS Rebel T4i / EOS 650D / EOS Kiss X6i
New Camera Support in Lightroom 5.3
The following new cameras are now supported:
- Canon EOS M2
- Canon PowerShot S120
- Casio EX-10
- Fujifilm XQ1
- Fujifilm X-E2
- Nikon 1 AW1
- Nikon Coolpix P7800
- Nikon Df
- Nikon D610
- Nikon D5300
- Nokia Lumia 1020
- Olympus OM-D E-M1
- Olympus STYLUS 1
- Panasonic DMC-GM1
- Pentax K-3
- Phase One IQ260
- Phase One IQ280
- Sony A7 (ILCE-7)
- Sony A7R (ILCE-7R)
- Sony DSC-RX10
See on www.dpreview.com


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Dark and tatted Joey Rico is chatting live and that baby face of his is getting everyone riled up! Joey chats about his tattoos and what he does in his free time. He likes to stay active, work out often, and pretty much go do anything that will get his adrenaline pumping. He hasn't had many gay experiences but he is branching out and trying new things. Joey takes off the rest of the clothes and his hard uncut member is mouth-watering. He tugs on his foreskin and plays with his sack. Joey talks about a few times where guys have tried to pick up on him but he denied them the pleasure! He bends over on the couch and spreads his ass apart showing a clear view of this straight-guy, tight hole. After caressing his taint and the rim of of ass, he lays back and plays with his foreskin some more. He pulls it up, twists it around, pulls it all the way back, and every other way he can. Joey's shaft starts begging for attention and he obliges. He starts jerking intensely and his balls hop up and d
Website: CLICK HERE
Added: 21 Jan 13
Views: 6484

subset: commoncrawl


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One reason to keep an eye on Rio after the World Cup? A new initiative to provide freshwater security for its people.
Continue reading "Urban Jungle: Restoring Rio's Water Supply"
One reason to keep an eye on Rio after the World Cup? A new initiative to provide freshwater security for its people.
Continue reading "Urban Jungle: Restoring Rio's Water Supply"
Mexico's "Water Forest" provides water for 23 million people in one of the world's largest metropolitan areas.
Continue reading "Urban Jungle: No Forest, No Water for Mexico City"
A new study shows that accidental bycatch by small-scale fishers is taking a large toll on sea turtle populations.
Continue reading "Small-scale Fisheries Have Big Impacts on Sea Turtles"
For coffee farmers impacted by climate change, growing multiple crops can be an insurance policy against disaster.
Continue reading "Palm Cultivation Helps Struggling Coffee Farmers in Mexico"
Three years of data indicate that the sustainable coffee farming practices developed by CI and Starbucks are working.
Continue reading "New Research Helps Starbucks Improve Ethical Coffee Sourcing"
As a result of their newfound bird knowledge, farmers are leaving more trees standing on their coffee farms.
Continue reading "Coffee Farmers Become Citizen Scientists in Southern Mexico"
Around the world, people are doing amazing things to tackle the environmental challenges we face. Here are some of their stories.
Continue reading "Team Earth: CI's New Storytelling Approach"
As a writer, it's my job to track down CI's most compelling stories. Here are some of my favorites from 2011.
Here's the good news: Even as forests are under assault, there are those who fight back.
Miroslav Honzak is a CI scientist and one of the innovators behind ARIES (Artificial Intelligence for Ecosystem Services), a technological


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Never been, but friends who have gone for years say it's becoming another once gay spot, thats now overun with mommies,daddies, chillrens, and the elders - cramping the gay out
NYC Broker
DataLounge get your fix of gay gossip, news and pointless bitchery.
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1 boy vs a whole bunch of monsters
Is mva "Monsters vs Aliens"?
In that case he'd be fighting B.O.B., Dr Cockroach Ph.D., Missing Link, and Ginormica.
Whilst Goop would defeat B.O.B., Greymatter would beat Dr Cockroach, almost any alien would beat Link, and Way Big or Humungosaur would beat Ginormica, he can't be strong, smart, fast, and durable enough all at the same time. He'd have to fight them 1 on 1.
#3 Posted by Cybrilious4 (1990 posts) - - Show Bio
If this is monsters vs Aliens?
Humongosaur solos
Way Big Horribly solos
Ultimate Big Chill solos
Ultimate Echo-Echo solos
Grey matter with 1 month prep solos
Eon solos
Clock work could solo.
The list goes on....
#4 Posted by dynamite75 (369 posts) - - Show Bio
what about insectersorus
#5 Posted by Cybrilious4 (1990 posts) - - Show Bio
Gets One-shotted by Way Big's cosmic rays. Ben 10's no slouch its just that you gave him the wrong competition.
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#6 Edited by Anal_Vomit (799 posts) - - Show Bio
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Romans rattled by quake rumor despite reassurances
ROME Rome wasn't built in a day, but many Romans feared it might be destroyed in one - on May 11, 2011.
The Italian capital was gripped by a psychosis over a purported prediction by a now-dead seismologist that a devastating temblor would strike the city Wednesday. Even as seismologists and officials including the mayor sought to reassure residents and stress that earthquakes cannot be predicted, the quake myth took on a life of its own in viral rumor-mongering on the Internet.
Spurred by superstition, some Romans left town just in case. The consumer group Aduc estimated that 20 percent of Romans did not go to work. And an agriculture lobby group said a survey of farm-hotels outside the capital indicated some superstitious Romans had headed to the countryside for the day.
Many storefronts were shuttered, for example, in a neighborhood of Chinese-owned shops near the city's central train station. A man in a coffee bar that did stay open in the neighborhood donned a construction worker's helmet as he served morning cappuccinos and croissants, the ANSA news agency said.
By sundown, the fears had not materialized. Instead, two quakes hit another Mediterranean nation, Spain.
The psychosis was based on a purported prediction of a major Roman quake Wednesday attributed to self-taught seismologist Raffaele Bendandi, who died in 1979. However, Paola Lagorio, president of the association in charge of Bendandi's documentation, says there's no evidence Bendandi ever made such a precise prediction.
But that doesn't even matter. The purported prediction has been the subject of Internet blogging, radio shows and dinner conversations alike for months now, many apparently faithful to an old Italian saying that goes, "It's not true, but I believe it."
"Some Roman citizens believed it the same way one can believe wizards, witches and stargazers," said Aduc's secretary Primo Mastrantoni.
The Rome quake prediction has often been mentioned alongside prediction of an apocalypse in 2012, with doomsday theorists citing the Mayan calendar and rare astronomical alignments.
David Schaefer, an author and expert on urban legends, said the Italian earthquake myth qualifies more like a panic than an urban legend.
"Urban legends are often quite innocent - they involve people scaring each other, but no one actually changes their behavior," he said. "Panics can be dangerous. The mechanics of panic are studied in riot control, and in things like stadium disasters where something sets off a crowd that then start moving in one direction for no clear reason."
Still, there was no exodus from the city, and many Romans stayed put. "Rome is Rome, you cannot question that. In Rome you don't die underground," said Enrico Cocchi, a proud resident of the city.
Italian officials have taken extraordinary measures to try to calm nerves and debunk the myth.
The country's Civil Protection department posted information on its website stressing that quakes can't be predicted and that Rome isn't particularly at risk. Toll-free numbers were set aside at city hall to field questions, which came by the hundreds, mostly from people asking at what time the quake would strike, ANSA said.


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F: A Novel by Daniel Kehlmann (Book Club)
Winans, 3510 Pentagon Blvd, Beavercreek; 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm
Join us to talk about this book that was named A New York Times Notable Book, an NPR Best Book of 2014, and a New Yorker Favorite Book of 2014. Come discuss this book with the Wright State community at Winan's Fine Chocolates and Coffee at 3510 Pentagon Park Blvd.
About the book: F is the story of three brothers and the lasting effects of their fathers abandonment of them after an encounter with a hypnotist. As adults, the three brothers are, respectively, a priest who believes more in his Rubik's Cube than in God, a businessman with a fear of ghosts and being caught in his Ponzi scheme, and an artist who turns to forgery to hide his crisis of confidence.
For more information or to join the discussion online, check out the Unwin(e)d blog. Contact Mandy Shannon with any questions.
Add to Calendar 2015-07-02 17:30:00 2015-07-02 19:30:00 15 F: A Novel by Daniel Kehlmann (Book Club) Winans, 3510 Pentagon Blvd, Beavercreek false YYYY/MM/DD
Patenting Your Invention
Room 241/242, Dunbar Library; 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Designed for the beginning inventor/entrepreneur, the workshop offers basic patent information and search techniques for using the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), European Patent Office web sites and online databases.
Add to Calendar 2015-07-16 18:00:00 2015-07-16 20:30:00 15 Patenting Your Invention Room 241/242, Dunbar Library false YYYY/MM/DD
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VIEWS: 62 PAGES: 4 CATEGORY: Emerging Technologies POSTED ON: 10/12/2011 Public Domain
(IJCSIS) International Journal of Computer Science and Information Security, Vol. 9, No. 9, 2011 A Hierarchical view for Level Set Method based on segmentation of Non- Constant Intensity Objects M.Janani D.Kavitha Devi M.Phil Scholar Assistant Professor, P.S.G.R Krishnammal College For Women P.S.G.R Krishnammal College For Women Coimbatore-641004. Coimbatore-641004. . . Abstract—Segmentation of non-constant intensity object has been The active of moving curves and surfaces, called the Level- an important and vital issue for many applications. Segmentation Set Method. The level-set method is one computational of non- constant intensity object is a fundamental importance in technique for tracking a propagating interface over time, which image processing. Segmentation is difficult task in noisy images. in many problems has proven more accurate in handling The complementary method of the Mumford shah model for segmentation of non-constant intensity objects is been intended topological complexities such as corners and cusps, and in by level set method. The level set method retrieve the possible handling complexities in the evolving interface such as entropy multiple membership of the pixels. Additive is forced through conditions and weak solutions. It is a robust scheme that is level set method which allows the user to control the degree of relatively easily to implement. Multiple regions are captured by non-constant intensity objects and is more secure than the soft a single contour demonstrating the topological transitions constraint the enhanced method increase efficiency, improve the allowed by the models in level set implementation. effectiveness of segmentation. The numerical and qualitative analysis show that the level set algorithm provide more accurate II. IMPROVED MUMFORD-SHAH MODEL segmentation result with good robustness. Keywords- level set method, non-constant intensity object, A. Mumford-shah model terzopoulos, kass, witkins, lipschitz. The Mumford-shah model is one of the standard segmentation models. Mumford shah functional has been I. INTRODUCTION extensively used for image segmentation. Mumford shah algorithm obtains simultaneous functionality of both image Segmentation is a process of dividing an image into smoothing and segmentation. The active contour is viewed as meaningful, non-overlapping regions. Level set method is the the set of discontinuities considered in the Mumford-shah process to improve the segmentation and simultaneously formulation. The smooth estimate of the image is continuously solving the non-constant intensity object. Segmentation of non- estimated based on the current position of the curve. constant intensity object and incorporating some knowledge about their spatial relationship is a vital task. The problem of segmenting non-constant intensity object with possible occlusion in a variation setting is been solved. Hard segmentation model is that inherit the original property of the Mumford shah formulation to segment and smooth images in a coupled manner. Chan and Vese proposed a piece wise constant Mumford shah model in by further Mumford shah advances by using a level set formulation. The Hard segmentation is to simplify and/or change the representation of an image into something that is more meaningful and easier to analyze. Image segmentation is typically used to locate objects and boundaries (lines, curves, etc.) in images. In soft segmentation, there is the persistent control of the intensity. In the soft segmentation, the restraint is only loosely Fig. 1 Input image prosecuted. We call this model the soft segmentation. The soft Mumford-shah active contour model can handle image segmentation reduces to the piecewise constant Mumford Shah containing regions with roughly two different mean. Active segmentation model. The solution of the soft segmentation will contours were introduced by Kass, Witkins, and Terzopoulos approach to that of the hard segmentation. for segmenting objects in images using dynamic curves. Munford-Shah model only can segment the image into two 82 http://sites.google.com/site/ijcsis/ ISSN 1947-5500 (IJCSIS) International Journal of Computer Science and Information Security, Vol. 9, No. 9, 2011 parts according to the value of the shade of gray for specific images. The Mumford-shah model is not detecting the noisy image. The improved technique of Mumford-shah model is hard segmentation. For a given image u0, the piecewise constant Mumford-shah model seeks for a partition of Ω into Ν mutually exclusive open segmentsΩ1,……. Ωn together with their interface C and a set of constant c=(c1,c2,….,cn)which minimize the following Here, the over-line denotes the set closure. Although Ω1 energy functional: and Ω2 generally do not constitute a partition of Ω , we still call the pair {Ω1 , Ω2 }a segmentation of Ω for simplicity. The idea is to partition the image so that the intensity of u0 in each segment Ωi is well-approximated by a constant ci . The geometry of the partition is regularized by penalizing the total length of C. This increases the robustness to noise and avoids spurious segments. B. Hard mumford-shah model Image segmentation is the process of assigning a label to every pixel in an image such that pixels with the same label share certain visual characteristics. Given a fixed segmentation, it can be easily shown that the optimal constants are given by formulas denotes the Lebesgue measure of its argument Let us Fig.3 Histogram of hard Mumford-shah model take non-constant intensity regions in that brain MRI image. Here, the over-line denotes the set closure. Although and generally do not constitute a partition, we still call the pair a Given an image u0 , the hard additive model seeks for segmentation of for simplicity. It should be clear that the segmentation {Ω1 , Ω2 } and a set of constants c=( partition is given by (together with the boundary of these c10,c01,c11,coo) which minimize the following energy: segments inside).Given an image, the hard additive model seeks for a segmentation and a set of constants which minimize the energy, subject to an additive constraint .This model enforces a strict additive in the common region. Subject to an additive constraint c11= c10+c01. Thus, this model enforces a strict additive in the common region. C. Soft mumford-shah model The soft segmentation reduces to the piecewise constant Mumford–Shah segmentation model. The solution of the soft segmentation will approach to that of the hard segmentation. Given segmentation, the optimal constants can be obtained by the formulas. The intensity level within each region has a certain degree of variation. A multi phase formulation with membership functions has recently been used with a different regularization term in for soft segmentation. Fig.2 (a). 400 iteration of hard Mumford- shah model, (b). After noise removal in hard Mumford-shah model Let Ω1 and Ω2 be two open regions in Ω that represent two computed objects. The following short hands to simplify the notations: 83 http://sites.google.com/site/ijcsis/ ISSN 1947-5500 (IJCSIS) International Journal of Computer Science and Information Security, Vol. 9, No. 9, 2011 Where ᵞ ≥ 0 is a constant controlling the degree of additive. a given function. The Osher-Sethian level set formulation In this model, c10+c01=c11 the constraint is only loosely allows the development of efficient and stable numerical enforced. We call this model the soft additive model. schemes in which topological changes of the propagating curve are automatically handled. The level set formulation puts curve evolution equation into the level set formulation. The level set method overcomes the problem of soft segmentation model .multiphase level set image segmentation. This method established on explicit correspondence between n region of segmentation and a partition defined using log2n level set functions. Let ⱷI=ΩC R2 →R IE [1,,,,,,M],be M level set function with M=LOG2N. Level set reprentation Fig.4 (a). 400 iteration of soft Mumford- shah model, (b). After noise removal in soft Mumford-shah model Where Ω in is a region in Ω bounded by Γ,and Ωout is defined as the complement of Ω in, i.e. Ωout=Ωin..To avoid unnecessary calculation and statistical errors the level set representation is used. Fig.5 Histogram of soft Mumford-shah model III. LEVEL SET METHOD The level set method is a powerful tool which can be used Fig.6 (a). 730 iteration of level set method, (b). After noise removal in level set for numerical realization. Level set representation is an method established technique for image segmentation .Level set methods is to minimize a given function which aims to extract one or several elements of interest from the background. Level set method is referred to as a curve. In level set method, the curves are implicitly defined as the zeros of a lipschitz continuous function. The level set method depended on the global information of homogeneity region, and is more robust than curve evolution model to detect discontinuities under noisy environment the level set method, can successfully handle the topology changes. Level set method has been applied to a variety of synthetic and medical images in different modalities. The level set method overcome the problem of soft segmentation problem it proves to be more accurate and robust. One way to Fig.7 Histogram of level set method represent a curve is as a level set or an equal-height contour of 84 http://sites.google.com/site/ijcsis/ ISSN 1947-5500 (IJCSIS) International Journal of Computer Science and Information Security, Vol. 9, No. 9, 2011 IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS [3] T. Chan and L. Vese, Active contours without edges, IEEE Trans. On image proc., 10(2):266–277, Feb. 2001. The brain MRI image is used as an object in this paper. The [4] C.A.Cocosco, A.P.Zijdenbos, A.C.Evan, "A Fully Automatic and brain MRI image was segmented using soft and hard Mumford- Robust Brain MRI Tissue Classification Method," Medical image shah model; the segmenentation image is not accurate. So we Analysis, 7, pp.513-527, 2003. validate our model based on; (a) performance comparisons [5] A.Chakraborty, L.H.Staib, and J.S.Duncan, "Deformable Boundary Finding in Medical Images by Integrating Gradient and Region between the hard segmentation, soft segmentation and level set Information," IEEE Trans. On Med. Imag., 15(6) pp. 859-870, 1996. method; (b) non-constant intensity object segmentation. In the [6] V.Caselles, R.Kimmel, and G.Sapiro, "Geodesic Active Contours," Int. hard segmentation the non-constant intensity objects is not Journal of Computer Vision. 22(2), pp. 61-79, 1997. been segmented accurately. In the soft segmentation the non- [7] Faugeras O. and Keriven R., Variation principles, surface evolution and constant intensity objects is segmented but the output of the PDE's level set methods, and the stereo problem. IEEE Trans image processing., 1998, 7(3):336-344. retrieval image is not accurate. In the level set method the non- [8] J. A. Sethian, Level set methods and fast marching methods, Cambridge: constant intensity objects is been segmented. Cambridge University Press, 1999. Table.1 Intensity [9] T Chan and L. Vese, "Active Contour without Edges", IEEE Transaction on Image Processing, 2001, 10(2), pp.266-277. Method Original Overlapped Backgroun [10] D. Mumford. J. shah. "Boundary detection by minimizing functional" image image d image Proc. of IEEE CVPR 1985. 101.0906 0.8208 0.4506 [11] S. Osher. J. Sethian, "Fronts propagating with cur\aturedependent speed: Hard algorithms based on Hamilton-Jacobi Formulation", Journal of segmentation Computatzonal Physzcs. 79. 12-49. 1988. Soft 101.0906 0.8654 0.7973 [12] Li-Tien Cheng, Paul Burchard, Barry Merriman, and Stanley Osher, segmentation "Motion of curves constrained on surfaces using a level set approach". J. Level set 101.0906 0.9923 0.8112 Comput. Phys., 175:604.644, 2002. method Table.2 Standard deviation Method Original Overlapped Background image image image Hard 101.0906 0.9291 0.5282 segmentation Soft 101.0906 0.9499 0.7453 segmentation Level set 101.0906 0.9822 0.8541 method CONCLUSION The alternative method of the Mumford shah model for segmentation of non-constant intensity objects is been intended by level set method. The optimized zero level set indicate their approximate shapes and distributions clearly. Level set model has overcome some refractory challenges in elasticity reconstruction. The level set method is more robust than the soft segmentation with respect to global convergence. Hard segmentation fails to detect multiple non-constant intensity objects. The problem of segmenting non-constant intensity objects with possible occlusion in a variation setting is been solved. Level set method it solves the segmentation with depth problem that aims to recover the spatial order of non-constant intensity objects. Segmentation of multiple objects is been identified accurately. Finally, we demonstrate a hierarchical implementation of our model which leads to a fast and efficient algorithm capable of dealing with important image features. REFERENCES [1] J. Sokolowski and J.P. Zolesio, Introduction to Shape Optimization, Springer, New York, 1991. [2] W. Zhu and T. Chan, "A variational model for capturing illusory contours using curvature," J. Math. Imag. Vis., vol. 27, pp. 29–40, 2007. 85 http://sites.google.com/site/ijcsis/ ISSN 1947-5500
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Cuonzo Martin, Josh Richardson and Jarnell Stokes met with the media before heading to Lexington to take on the Kentucky Wildcats on Saturday at 12 noon.MARTIN | RICHARDSON | STOKES |
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Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank on Wednesday sought an annual green bonus of Rs 1000 crore from the Centre in lieu of the nearly Rs 40,000 crore worth ecological services provided by the forests of the State to the country.
The green bonus will help in conserving the forest cover as well as partly compensate the hardships faced by people for lack of sufficient development avenues that were blocked by the Forest Conservation Act, Mr Nishank said.
The Chief Minister wondered why the Centre was silent on the issue of green bonus despite an assurance from the Union Forests and Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh.
Mr Nishank was critical of the Centre for not giving it funds in the ratio of 90:10 as applicable to special category States. Uttarakhand continues to get funds under most Central schemes in the ratio of 67:33 which hinted at the discriminatory attitude of the Congress-led UPA Government towards the BJP-ruled States He also sought a separate policy for hill States and a separate ministry to deal with them. This would help tide over the large number of problems coming in the way of getting development projects cleared under rules that were plains-centric, he said.


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BOSTON ( TheStreet) -- Four FDA drug approval decisions in July -- headlined by another weight-loss drug and a prescription fish oil pill with blockbuster potential -- will keep biotech investors busy in what is normally one of the sector's slower months.
(VVUS - Get Report) is expected to learn the fate of its weight-loss pill Qnexa on Tues. July 17. Recall, FDA was supposed to rule on Qnexa in April but delayed the decision by three months in order to review a risk management plan ensuring safer use of the drug.
Shares of Vivus are up 24% since the company announced the Qnexa regulatory delay in early April, largely because investors interpreted it as a vote of confidence in the drug's eventual approval.
Seventy-seven percent of contestants in
Summer FDA Drug Approval Contest predict Qnexa's full approval on July 17 against 19% predicting the drug's rejection.


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Dear The FBI, Can We Can Have Our Ball Back, Please?
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We reported on the likely sale of the naming rights to St James Park on here last week, and Newcastle United delivered the punchline this week. Wait for it… until the end of this season, it will be named after Mike Ashley's company. The man, we can only presume, is a comedy genius.
If Mike Ashley is going to try for reconciliation with Newcastle United supporters after taking the club off the market he's going strange way about it, with an announcement from the club that the naming rights for St James Park are up for sale. Does he now hate Newcastle or they that desperate for cash?
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reVisions / Steven Isserlis, cello
1 Super Audio CD / BIS (Sweden) / 2010-07-01Works: Sally Beamish: Suite for cello & orchestra (after Debussy); Maurice Ravel: Mélodies hébraïques (2); Sergey Prokofiev: Concertino for Cello in G minor, Op. 132; Ernest Bloch: From J...
Performers: Isserlis, Steven
Conductors: Takacs-Nagy, Gabor
Recording information: Tapiola Concert Hall, Finland (11/2009)....continue...
1967 Carnegie Hall Marathon / Rostropovich, Rozhdestvensky, et al
6 CD / Doremi / 2009-10-13Works: Edward Elgar: Concerto for Cello; Dmitry Shostakovich: Concerto for Cello no 2 in G major, Op. 126; Walter Piston: Variations for cello & orchestra; Boris Tchaikovsky: Partita for cello, piano, harps...
Performers: Adams, Glynne [viola]; Perlman, Itzhak; Rostropovich, Mstislav
Conductors: Rozhdestvensky, Gennady; Foss, Lukas [Composer]
At Carnegie Hall in 1967, Mstislav Rostropovich presented 30 cello concertos in eight concerts organized by impresario Sol Yurok. This 6-CD set includes 22 of...continue...
Prokofiev: Cello Concerto in E minor Op. 58, Cello Sonata Op. 119, etc / Ivashkin, Polyanskii, et al
2 CD / Chandos Records / 2008-07-29Works: Sergey Prokofiev: Concerto for Cello in E minor, Op. 58; Concertino for Cello in G minor, Op. 132; Symphony-Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in E minor, Op. 125; Sonata for Cello and Piano in C major...
Performers: Ivashkin, Alexander; Lazareva, Tatyana
Conductors: Polyanskii, Valeri
Ensemble: Russian State Symphony Orchestra
Alexander Ivashkin is known internationally for his interpretations of Russian music. 'The Daily Telegraph' said of his performances of Prokofiev, "It would be hard to...continue...
Prokofiev: Songs without Words, Op. 35; Shchedrin / Wallfisch, Over, et al
1 CD / Nimbus Records / 2008-05-13Works: Sergey Prokofiev: Songs (5) without Words for voice & piano, Op. 35; Concertino for Cello in G minor, Op. 132; Symphony no 1 in D major, Op. 25 "Classical"; Rodion Shchedrin: Parabola Concertante, fo...
Performers: Allen, Michael; Wallfisch, Raphael [Cello]
Conductors: Over, Simon
Ensemble: Southbank Sinfonia
Prokofiev's 'Cinq Melodies' was originally a set of five wordless songs with piano, later rearranged by the composer for violin and piano (Op. 35). In...continue...
Trio - Prokofiev: Complete Concertos / Previn, Dutoit, et al
3 CD / Decca / 2003-01-14Works: Sergey Prokofiev: Concerto for Piano no 1 in D flat major, Op. 10; Concerto for Piano no 2 in G minor, Op. 16; Concerto for Piano left hand no 4 in B flat major, Op. 53; Concerto for Piano no 3 in C ...
Performers: Ashkenazy, Vladimir; Bell, Joshua [Violin]; Harrell, Lynn [Cello]
Conductors: Previn, Andre; Dutoit, Charles; Ashkenazy, Vladimir
Ensemble: London Symphony Orchestra; Montreal Symphony Orchestra; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Prokofiev: Symphony-Concerto for Cello, etc / Rudin, Kuchar
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Performers: Rudin, Alexander
Conductors: Kuchar, Theodore
Ensemble: Ukrainian National Symphony Orchestra
"The two cello works from the end of Prokofieff's career are fascinating, if a mite discursive...Rudin has a fine technique: he gets around the pyrotechnics...continue...


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Gear Review
Mountain Warmth
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I love these pants. I straight up love them. I live on a mountain in Pennsylvania and it gets really cold up here in the winter. These pants not only keep me warm, but they are also super comfortable. They do feel like I'm wearing PJs... while at work. They are comfortable and baggy, I even like sleeping in them! They wash well and have held up in all the dirt. I'd recommend them to anyone who likes to be warm and comfortable even in cold conditions.
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Originally written on Fox Sports Midwest | Last updated 11/20/14
ST. LOUIS -- While the nifty footwork to keep his feet inbounds was impressive, Tavon Austin's first NFL touchdown reception was more notable for another reason. When the official raised his arms, Austin simply put down the ball, stood up and made his way back to the sideline. No big deal. No choreographed histrionics, no chest thumping, no leaping into a teammate's arms. In a refreshing and increasingly unusual display of humbleness, the Rams rookie receiver acted like he had done this touchdown thing before. He was just as nonchalant after he scored a second time in the following quarter. Of course, Austin has had plenty of practice visiting end zones after scoring 40 touchdowns in his four years at West Virginia. Perhaps if Austin's scores had beaten the Falcons or even given the Rams a lead, he might have shown a little more excitement. But he saw no cause for celebration in merely cutting a 21-point deficit to two or even one touchdown. Quite the opposite, in fact. Those wh...
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|A to Z | Popular | Random | Origins
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Meaning and name origin
Aswin \a-swin, as-win\ as a boy's name is of Old English origin, and the meaning of Aswin is "spear-friend".
Aswin has 3 variant forms: Aswinn, Aswyn and Aswynn.
Aswin is not a popular first name for males and an equally uncommon surname or last name for all people (2000 U.S. Census).
Displayed below is the baby name popularity of the name Aswin for boys (2015 statistics).
Similar Names
Aswin is also pronounced similarly to Asen, Ossin, Oswin, Oswinn and Oswyn. Other suggested similar baby names are Aikin, Alwin, Arwin, Ashwin, Asim and Aykin. Like Aswin, these names are not commonly used.
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Sneaker Key Chain
Sneaker Key Chain
Your keys will love this Sneaker Key Chain!
Our colorful Sneaker Key Chains have an old school high-top sneaker design. Each canvas sneaker measures 3 inches long and has a chain and split ring attached. This key chain comes in assorted colors of pink, black, red, green blue or purple - let us choose the color for you. Use the Sneaker Key Chain for birthday or sleepover favors.
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This was given out at the end of a women's seminar. The shoe represented the theme of the seminar. Was a cute token to give the ladies, so they could remember the topic of the seminar.
The price is great and there was not a required minimum that need to be purchased as most companies do. I will definetly buy this product again and other items from this company.
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Is this bilge pump wiring as bad as I think?
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Re: Is this bilge pump wiring as bad as I think?
I've had one of the Ultra switches for about 16 years with great results. I never thought much about it until last month, hanging upside-down in a friend's bilge in rough seas trying to fix a flapper that was getting stuck in the "pump" position every hour or so.
For a bilge alarm - a completely independent battery-operated one is a good idea. I picked up a 9V one a long time ago - the battery/buzzer goes anywhere and the float I just epoxied to the side of the bilge. Would be easy enough to make one up. Just an extra layer of safety in case my neighbor accidentally kicks my shore power cord and a hose rots out at the same time and no one notices it pumping for three or four days. (I'm not paranoid if it could really happen, right?)
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In a virulent attack on BJP, Congress President Sonia Gandhi today said the Lok Sabha polls are vital to safeguard cherished national ideals like "unity and secularism" which were under threat.
"2014 is the most important election because it's about what kind of India you want.
Idea of India is under threat by those who don't just seek to rule but to change India's very heart and soul," Gandhi said addressing a special convention of the Congress workers from across Kerala. "The choice is between India of all or India of some serving the interest of few. We want unity, they want uniformity. Our idea joins India together, their's divides," she said. "Our principal opposition will argue that after ten years of the UPA rule, it is time to change. I want to ask a change to what? Do the people of India really want to give up the long-cherished values for lies and untested promises," she said.
Calling upon the workers to toil hard for victory of the party, Gandhi said "you have a choice to build India of 21st century or an India confined to prisons of an ideology." Launching the poll campaign of the United Democratic Front (UDF) it heads in Kerala, Gandhi also had some sharp comments against the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front.
In Kerala, the choice will be between a party that stands for 21st century and one whose ideology is irrelevant, she said. She also berated the CPI(M), though without naming it, as a party that does not believe in non-violence. This, she said, was in contrast to the Congress, which had always stood for consensus and dialogue without deviating from its basic principle of non-violence.
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and newly-appointed KPCC president V M Sudheeran were among the leaders who addressed the convention attended by functionaries from the booth level upwards.


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Bush Theatre book
Sample pages from Close-up Magic: 40 years at the Bush Theatre
`CLOSE-UP MAGIC' 40 Years at the Bush Theatre Edited by Neil Burkey Contents Introduction Editor'sNote Prologue 6 8 10 Section1: Salad Days Nicholas Newton Jack Shepherd Peter Wilson Stephen Poliakoff Snoo Wilson Dusty Hughes Julie Walters 4 Section2: The Burgeoning Bush 18 22 26 30 34 40 44 Jenny Topper and Nicky Pallot Kevin Elyot Terry Johnson Doug Lucie John Byrne Simon Callow Robert Holman 48 52 54 58 60 62 64 Section 3: Distinction Dominic Dromgoole Billy Roche Catherine Johnson Richard Cameron Jonathan Harvey Simon Bent 72 76 80 84 86 90 Section4: Workin' at the Firkin Mike Bradwell Philip Jackson Celia Robertson Tim Fountain Adam Rapp Georgia Fitch 96 102 106 108 112 116 Section5: Looking Ahead Josie Rourke Lucy Osborne Steve Waters Geoffrey Streatfeild Ralf Little 122 132 136 140 142 The Critics Speak List of Plays List of Subscribers Index Acknowledgements 148 158 162 164 168 5 Introduction very clearly remember my first meeting at the Bush, mainly because it was my first meeting with anyone in the business of making professional theatre. I'd sent a huge envelope containing three plays (all together a meaty 234 pages) to every theatre in Britain, having decided this was a clever way to show my `diversity' as a playwright. In return, I received a fistful of polite and not-so-polite rejections. It was six to eight months later that Teresa Topolski, longtime reader of the Bush, left a message on my mum and dad's answerphone saying, `Just read your plays. You seem quite interesting. Why don't you call me back.' I did, slightly breathlessly, and for the next three months Teresa and I spoke quite regularly about what I was doing. In September of that year, we met in the flesh for the first time, and she took me to meet Mike Bradwell and Nicola Wilson � then respectively Artistic Director and Literary Manager of the Bush. The offices were in a dark, pokey basement, so we went to a cafe. I squirmed in my seat as Mike looked me up and down, smiled and declared `I've read your plays. There were a lot of words in them. Some good, some bad. You could be a good writer, you could be a bad writer. But you're interesting and Teresa is good at spotting interesting. Keep in touch.' That was 2001. They added me to the Writers' Night list, and I barely missed a show. I sent them play after play after play, which they dutifully read. In 2004 they found one they liked and commissioned further drafts of it, and Nicola patiently and skilfully led me towards something I was much happier with. In May 2005 they staged a reading, with Mike handling the stage directions, substituting the word `erection' for `stiffy', and chuckling loudly each time he did. Then, that December, with the most amazing cast (Sam Barnett, Morven Christie, Daniel Bayle, Lisa McDonald, and Gwyneth Strong), the Bush put on my first professional play. I didn't become an overnight success, but the press night was, and is, and perhaps always will be, the greatest professional experience of my life. Shaking hands with Jim Broadbent, discussing erections with Roger Lloyd Pack, but more than anything feeling, for the first time in my life, truly part of something. The Bush Theatre is the greatest thing that ever happened to me. And what makes it so special is I'm far from unique in this. The Bush Theatre is the greatest thing that's happened to quite a lot of people � people of serious accomplishment. Catherine Johnson, Tina Brown, Jonathan Harvey, David Eldridge, Simon Callow, Paul Bettany and Mark O'Rowe are just some of the people given an important push by this theatre. The Bush is the place where Keira Knightley was won (Sharman MacDonald was allowed to get pregnant after she sold her play), Victoria Wood first wrote and Daniel Radcliffe sold raffle tickets. This book is about the special mark the Theatre has left on people. The stories inside � from Nicky Pallot persuading a nice Post Office man in Wexford to drop a note through Billy Roche's door telling him they wanted to do his play, to the Hull Truck I 6 theatre troop applauding cottagers as they emerged from the Shepherd's Bush gents public toilets, to Victoria Wood and Julie Walters shouting out of the window at Harold Pinter, to Josie Rourke solving the problem of a broken theatre with a `Broken Space' season, to Geoff Streatfeild receiving blow jobs in a whole number of different lighting states � are all essentially love stories, because the Bush is fundamentally a place which people love. Why do we love it so? Maybe Terry Johnson puts it best when he writes: The reason for this fondness, this unquestioned regard for the place, is quite simply that it represents the pursuit of excellence. It is, of course, not alone in such theatrical ambitions, but there's something about that crowded, hot, intense little space that makes excellence imperative. By virtue of its concision and focus, it teaches new writers the necessity of both. And by virtue of its limitations, it teaches them the limitless possibilities of their work. Jack Thorne Patricia Hodge in Tina Brown's Happy Yellow, 1977. 7 Section 1: Salad Days Robin Soans When we did A Bed of Roses in 1978, once we were backstage there was no way back to the dressing room, or, indeed the lavatory. If we needed a pee during the performance it was either a ladder onto the roof and down the drainpipe, or down the backstairs and across the road to the `cottage' on the corner of Shepherd's Bush Green. I found during the dress rehearsal that I was busting for a piss and opted for the `cottage'. The only thing was I playing a vicar and at the time was dressed in full surplice, cassock and dog collar. I entered the brick toilet where forty men in tight jeans were fiddling with or eyeing each others' willies. On the appearance of a man of the cloth in their midst, there was a mass zipping up of zips and within five seconds I had the entire bank of urinals to myself. " As the 70s moved into the 80s, the Theatre rarely had an empty seat. In fact we shoehorned them in so tightly that on the press night of a show I directed I stepped straight onto a woman's hand as I was rushing to get out at the interval. (`You bastard!' she screamed as the masked ranks of the London critics turned to stare accusingly at me.) So things had changed. We started taking shows on tour. Tommy and P.J. bought a racehorse and Mary's fur coats got grander. We didn't watch her counting the cash any more because we were too busy counting our own and making sure it added up for the Arts Council and was enough to pay Equity wages. Mysteriously the brewers Ind Coope seemed disappointed with the bar takings. `You're packing them in but your audiences don't drink much, do they?' one area manager informed us at one of our regular meetings. This didn't quite square with what we knew and could see with our own eyes. The audiences came early, drank during the show, and mixed with the actors afterwards. Curiouser and curiouser. 42 Section 1: Salad Days Nicholas Newton I left running the Bush but remained on the Board and started to write full time. One day the Conways were out of there faster than Tommy could marmalize a drunk, and not of their own free will. They'd saved enough money to buy a small pub in Paddington. The farewells were genuine and warm but it was the end of an era and every Bush director who has had to share the building with O'Neill's and Walkabout will confirm it. So it really is time to move, and bon voyage! Alan Rickman and George Irving in Commitments, 1980. Dusty Hughes 43 Julie Walters I Section 1: Salad Days t is 32 years since I worked at the Bush Theatre, so my memories are somewhat sporadic. The show was to be called In at the Death, and some might say that the audience were exactly that on some nights. It was a series of playlets (we were instructed not to call them sketches) written by such luminaries as Snoo Wilson, Ken Campbell, Nigel Baldwin, Ron Hutchinson, Nigel Williams, Dusty Hughes (the latter also being our director) and a young woman I'd never heard of before, called Victoria Wood. In the cast were Alison Fiske, Godfrey Jackman, Phil Jackson, Clive Merrison, Victoria and myself. I think it was summertime because I have a very vivid recollection of spending lunchtimes during the rehearsal period hanging out of the window above the entrance to the theatre with my new pal Victoria (we had bonded instantly) and watching the world pass by beneath us in the street below. On one of these occasions we spotted Harold Pinter standing at the bus stop. On a bubble of excitement I screeched down, `Hey Harold, hello! Hello there! ... You write plays don't you?' He looked up blankly, `Pardon? ... What?' `You're a writer, we could do with one of those up here!' after which he promptly turned his back. My cheeks are burning as I remember it. Then a week or so into the run we thought it a hoot to write `H. Pinter, 2 seats' on the booking list and laughed our heads off backstage as we watched a very nervous cast crank their performances up a notch or two to impress the eminent playwright, who never, of course, turned up. And talking of backstage, never before or since has there been a backstage like backstage at the Bush. It was simply a small landing, directly behind the stage, I guess about six foot square, and from it a flight of stone steps, also doubling as the fire escape, lead down to a pair of doors that opened out onto the street. Once the audience were 44 Julie Walters in, this small and precarious space also became the dressing room for the entire cast. There were no toilet facilities and so we took to rushing down the fire escape, out into the street and back in to use the pub toilets. For an interval wee, this had to be done sharpish if you didn't want to be caught queuing with the punters. At an early preview, sitting breathless on the lav after a lightning interval dash, Victoria and I heard a rather upper-middle-class voice intone, `Oh dear! Could do better. Shall we bother with the second half?" After that, it was perfecting our aim into pint glasses and frequent cries of, "Don't drink that!!' as thirsty actors reached for what they thought was a pint of lager in the backstage gloom. The little space became even more hazardous once the show had started, because it was then pitch black apart from a sharp sliver of light that bled through a crack in the scenery. On one particular night we were all on stage � apart, that is, from Victoria, who was to make her appearance in the last few minutes leading up to the interval. Just prior to her entrance, we heard an enormous crash and what sounded like the soft, repeated thud of flesh on stone. When we finally exited, we found Victoria, who of course never managed to get on stage, sprawled halfway down the staircase and covered with blood. She had slipped in the darkness whilst hovering over a pint glass and cut her hand and in doing so had knocked over a number of other glasses, splattering their contents all over the costumes, and needless to say they didn't all contain drinks. What the second half audience must have thought of the badly stained costumes one can only guess at, and as for the smell as they dried under the heat of the stage lights in the wonderful intimacy of the Bush auditorium ... Early Odorama? Oh Mr Pinter ... how you missed out! Left to right: Philip Jackson, Victoria Wood, Alison Fiske, Julie Walters and Godfrey Jackman. In at the Death, 1978. 45 nny Topper + Nicky Pallot Je 8 Joint Artistic Director 1977�8 Joint Artistic Director 1979�9 Section 2: The Burgeoning Bush Previous pages: The Last Elephant, by Stephen Davis, 1981. 0 Jenny Topper t's nearly one in the morning, and the wonderful cast of Doug Lucie's Progress have long cleared the Green Room of their possessions. That room has been restored to some sort of order, while in the theatre yet another set has been dismantled: the mindless but satisfying task of stripping every piece of reusable wood of screws and nails has been completed, the pieces of furniture used for the set are stacked up on the vertiginous seating, waiting to be returned Sunday or Monday. (When I too return to my flat on that Sunday or Monday, those same pieces of furniture, now back in their home, will give me an acute sense of dislocation that won't disappear for days to come.) So, a pause while the first of many pots of tea is made and everyone re-focuses on the work ahead. Time to slip down to the loo, and to try to slip past the saloon bar (or `nobs bar' as the Conway family who run the pub with superb skill and charm would have it) where, as happens every Saturday night, a lock-in has been under way since the final `thank you gents' was uttered. But no luck � I've been spotted and cajoled into joining Tommy, his serene wife, Mary, and their racing buddies seated nonchalantly at the bar. And, before you can even say `thanks but no thanks', at least two glasses of red wine are lined up in front of me and ... well, the pause lasts half an hour but no matter for, being young, the wine only serves to enthuse me for the tasks ahead. So, back up I go, to join Simon and Dusty (later Nicky), Bash (Literary Manager), the stage manager and the production manager (Buzz, later Rik Carmichael then after him Bart Cossee � always such saintly, clever production managers were we blessed with) to work through the night to realize the inspired, memorable sets for which we had become renowned (doing without sofas, chairs and tables for six to eight weeks at a time, a small price to pay for that renown). So, fit-up after fit-up, I acquire � skills is perhaps putting a gloss on it, but tasks, anyway, that I had never had occasion or inclination to learn before: tiling walls, tiling floors, a bit of plumbing, wallpaper hanging, hanging doors, carving a Scottish coastline out of MDF (with scars on my wrists from two operations to prove it) and, years later � when the exquisite taste of Gordon Stewart and Andrew Wood, scenic painters extraordinaire, were brought to bear upon our sets � the art of mixing paint. I even learn to abandon the five-inch heels I had insisted on wearing during my first ever night-long fit-up! And fit-up after fit-up, we watch as the sun rises over Shepherd's Bush Green, sometimes waving to a pal in the business as they disappear into the infamous `cottage' on the corner of the Green, drink far too much coffee and, however dog-tired come Monday morning, never, ever questioning these apparently wasted weekends because we cared: about our reputation, about working as a team, about giving the lie to this word `fringe', I 48 Section 2: The Burgeoning Bush Jenny Topper + Nicky Pallot Pre-rehearsals for Still Crazy After All These Years, 1981. Left to right: Jonathan Kydd, Jenny Topper, Mike Bradwell, Nicky Pallot, Roger Davidson, Thirzie Robinson, Helen Cooper, Geoff Rose and Barry Nettleton. about giving unconditional support, however straitened our circumstances, to each and every artist who came to work at the Bush Theatre. And if anyone had asked us what on earth we were doing we would have given them an even more simple answer: we were creating magic out of apparently thin air. There were many advantages for the Bush Theatre in being run for some 18 years of its life as a directorial triumvirate (for which term, until a degree of specialization eventually crept in, read jacks of all trades). Not least, there was no choice but to acquire nuts-and-bolts skills and experience in areas that might not otherwise have come your way: the hoovering of stairs, bi-weekly stints at the box office, ushering and labouring on fit-ups being perhaps the more obviously lowly. But learning the hard way about budgets and writing copy for the Theatre's publicity (with design for many, many years by the exotic but gentle Oscar Zarate), along with the programming, casting, reading and developing of plays were all tasks shared amongst us, and this sharing of tasks meant that the programme could be and was extraordinarily eclectic. Even if a play was chosen by one director, we were so in tune with each other that there would be, if not instant empathy (though mostly there was), then an absolute closing of the ranks, giving us the outward toughness essential for anyone running a new-play theatre above a pub. Let me emphasize that this was not dull and safe art by committee, but a dialogue amongst passionate practitioners, and if this sometimes led to tears and tantrums, it also meant that we shared in the acclamation, and the failures rested on all our shoulders . And then there were the absolute precious moments when, through a happy conjoining of taste, we all found ourselves raving about a play by a hitherto unknown Jenny Topper + Nicky Pallot 49 Simon Callow O Section 2: The Burgeoning Bush ne afternoon, I dropped by at the Bush and handed Jenny Topper, Simon Stokes and Nicky Pallot Kiss of the Spider Woman; it took as long it took to read for them to decide to do it immediately. That's how it was in those bygone days; and they could tell a masterpiece when they saw one. Mark Rylance and I played out the story of the improbable and tender romance that blossoms between Molina, the camp little queen, and Valentin, the determined heterosexual revolutionary hero incarcerated in the same cell. Despite indifferent or non-existent notices (it was mostly ignored by the broadsheets) it played to bursting houses; Robert De Niro sent his uniformed chauffeur to queue all day for returns, but none showed up. There was talk at the time of transferring to another theatre, but much as I loved the piece, I was glad it never happened. The experience that Mark and I and the few hundred people who saw the show had that sultry summer was unique, and uniquely right � pure Bush. There's nothing quite like it. Drs Jane D. and Jack M. Hochman Our historical relationship with the Bush Theatre does not go back 40 years, but it does reach back to the summer of 1985. My husband and I are Americans; but in July 1985 we were transferred to London, where we lived not far from Shepherd's Bush, on Holland Park Avenue. We were there for only a year when we were transferred back to the USA. However, a couple of years later, we purchased a flat at Notting Hill Gate in which we now live alternately with our home in New Jersey. During the first week in London, we (who are serious theatre people) read in Time Out about your production of Kiss of the Spiderwoman. Intrigued, we telephoned for tickets and learned that we had to become members to purchase tickets. So we did. I think I still have that yellow membership card. I think the tickets cost about three pounds each. We climbed the stairs to the theatre ... and there began our love affair with the Bush. We sat in the second tier of bench seats, and once the play started, we both forgot that there was any reality other than that of the play unfolding before us. We were riveted. I imagined myself a fly on the wall of that prison cell, my own reality suspended. We were both particularly so taken with Simon Callow's performance! We did not know then that he already had a reputation in the theatre; and, indeed, we thought that WE had discovered an amazing talent! Neither of us will ever forget that performance; we have been back to the Bush countless times since and look forward, now, to the next time. " 62 Section 2: The Burgeoning Bush Simon Callow Simon Callow in Manuel Puig's Kiss of the Spider Woman, 1985. Marie Pearlman I remember very clearly an incident in 1985 when I came to see Kiss of the Spider Woman by Manuel Puig. During the first half of the play, Simon Callow has a row with his lover and smashes a cup onto the floor. Unfortunately on this occasion Simon, who was barefoot, trod on one of the pieces of broken china. He did not miss a beat and continued the performance as if nothing had happened. We watched mesmerized as he moved around the stage leaving an increasingly heavy trail of blood behind him. After the interval we noticed his foot had been cleaned up and there was a neat plaster covering the offending cut. A true professional! " 63 Simon Callow Section 3: Distinction Section 3: Distinction Section 3 Distinction Alun Hood I'd been an avid mainstream theatre visitor throughout my youth, but after moving to London in the early 90s I decided to fill in the gaps in my theatregoing by attending all the major fringe venues. I started with the Bush and booked randomly for whatever happened to be playing there on the night I was free. I didn't even read the blurb on the Beautiful Thing leaflet, I just looked at the image of Truman Capote jumping for joy on the poster, paid my money and climbed the stairs. What followed was one of the most unexpectedly uplifting, funny, deeply moving theatrical experiences I've ever had. Breaking the mould once and for all on `gay' plays being worthy/doom-laden/freakish, here was a refreshingly spiky, entirely credible coming-out story with just a hint of camp magic, performed to perfection (by an original cast that included a young Jonny Lee Miller) in Hettie Macdonald's production. As I bounced out of the theatre (this was in the days before online ticketing, so I couldn't go home and book again immediately) I heard a very conservative-looking old lady say to her companion `Wasn't that lovely?!' Yes it was! I saw BT twice more at the Bush (tickets became like gold dust) then several more times during its (inevitable) West End transfer. Since then I have seen more than 30 plays at the Bush, from the harrowing in-yer-face excitement of Trainspotting and Killer Joe through the surreal magic of Sabina and Crooked to the utter delight of Elling, I Like Mine With A Kiss and Jonathan Harvey's subsequent Boom Bang-A-Bang, and I am always struck by the quality of the work on display, and the sheer wonder of being at close quarters to a theatre of this calibre. But that first, magical visit was indeed, like the Bush Theatre itself, a beautiful thing. Killer Joe, 1995. " Section 3: Distinction Jonathan Harvey Sophie Stanton and Mark Letheren, Beautiful Thing. Darren Lee Cole In 1995 I had the pleasure of being a producer at the Bush with Tracy Letts' Killer Joe. The show was a fantastic success culminating in a move to the West End. I fondly remember Dominic Dromgoole and the care he took in receiving the company and nurturing the work. He also was immensely generous in introducing me to Mr Michael Codron and putting together the transfer. The Bush introduced me to people and companies that I continue to work with today. In fact, the pub theatre environment served as a central inspiration to the remodelling of my current theatre, the SoHo Playhouse in New York City. I still make sure to catch a show at the Bush whenever I am in London. I will always be grateful for the doors that fantastic little theatre opened up for me. " 89 Jonathan Harvey Simon Bent y association with the Bush began in the early 1990s with a coproduction of a play of mine called Bad Company. Dominic Dromgoole was the artistic director, with Nick Drake as his literary manager and Deborah Aydon as the general manager. They worked and seemingly lived together in a basement under a launderette on the Shepherd's Bush Road, a tunnelled vault that reminded me not so much of an office as an Anderson air raid shelter, though not as big. Dominic, shoes off, feet up, flicking through lists of actors, on the phone, whilst asking you what's the best thing you've ever seen in the theatre, with occasional interjections from Deborah and Nick, who were likewise involved in telephone conversations and doing business of their own � all engaged in an ongoing and continual dialogue with each other. Also in this cellar: the marketing manager, the publicity manager, the box office manager, the assistant director and a giant photocopier. This was the nerve centre of the Bush. Halfway up the stairs to the left on your way out a cupboard with a sofa in it, a couple of wooden chairs, shelves stacked with play scripts, a window out onto an overgrown garden, some light and a backdoor. The archive and audition room. When an actor arrived, if they chose to sit on the sofa it was best to steer them clear of the side on which the spring was sticking out. Up the road and to the left was the theatre, a room above a scruffy pub on the corner of Shepherd's Bush Green and Goldhawk Road. An empty desolate bar, with a few committed drinkers, at the other end on the left, just before a recess with a fireplace, a ticket booth, behind which stairs lead up to the theatre. A narrow staircase, up past a door on the left, leading to a communal dressing room, lots of mirrors, clothes rack, basin, toilet, shower and bay window looking onto the green. On up into the theatre through a heavy metal door, along a small vomitorium and out onto a surprisingly large stage which you have to cross in order to get to your seat. The stage is wide and narrow, approximately 24 x 12ft, with seating on two sides, steeply raked, in an L shape, no more than a series of deep steps covered in large black velvet cushions. There are only three possibilities for entrances and exits, two along the long back wall and the vom you have just entered through; if you M Section 3: Distinction Before: Neil Stuke and Danny Webb, Goldhawk Road, 1996 ... 90 Section 3: Distinction Simon Bent want an actor to exit through one of the back wall exits then enter through the vom, they have to go down the fire escape out into the street below and back up through the pub. Within these limitations the possibilities were endless. I don't think there is anything that hasn't been done on that stage, except possibly an upside-down production. I remember Paul Miller telling a nervous actor not to worry about the closeness of the audience, to hold his nerve until the lights go up, then, `When you see the whites of their eyes start acting, it's the only defence you've got. Take no prisoners and don't stop till you get to the other end.' Under Dominic's watch there undoubtedly was a sea change. After a decade of being on the margins, new plays suddenly became fashionable and the Bush was at the centre, most notably with Jonathan Harvey's Beautiful Thing and Billy Roche's Wexford Trilogy. It was a genuinely exciting theatre to go to, you never knew what you were going to get next, from an impressionistic coming-of-age play about a group of working class 20-somethings, to an intense historical drama about the persecution of women in 17th-century Ireland, and then back again to a claustrophobic urban landscape and the life of heroin addicts. On the other hand, you knew what you weren't going to get. You weren't going to get a lecture on the state of the nation, or a sermon about the moral welfare of the country. This didn't mean that the plays weren't political, lacked ideas or had no spiritual values, on the contrary, but they wore them casually on their sleeves � at core it was theatre about people. There was an attempt I think to put on stage a portrayal of `Life itself', but this wasn't a trawl through the misery of others seeking vicarious thrills, or a forensic examination of how the poor live, it was a celebration of life from all walks, past and present, in all its brilliant murky glory. The plays were profoundly political with a human `p'. And a lot of laughter. Dominic is a maverick, a showman, with entrepreneurial flare, a belief in the transformative power of theatre, and he injected the Bush with a shot of vitality in much the same way as Stephen Daldry was to do later at the Royal Court. I have been lucky enough to have had plays on at the Bush under the last three artistic directors: Dominic, Mike and Josie. All very different, each with their own style, but united in the ambition to reflect the world back at its self, or as Hamlet says to the players: ... to hold as t'were the mirror up to nature, to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure. After: ... (with Suzanne Hitchmough and John Simm on the couch.) Simon Bent 91 Section4:Workin'attheFirkin Sunetra Sarker in a scene from Richard Bean's The God Botherers, 2003. Bush productions did not play to sufficient numbers and therefore did not represent value for money for the stakeholders. Josie's research uncovered the fact that the Arts Council had underestimated the audience figures by two thirds. In fact over 100,000 stakeholders had seen Bush productions that year. I believe that the Arts Council purposely miscalculated the figures to justify cutting the Bush. Millions had been spent on rebuilding and refurbishing the Royal Court, Hampstead and Soho theatres and providing the increased revenue to run them. Something had to go to pay for it all, and some tosspot at the Arts Council had deemed 100 Section4:Workin'attheFirkin MikeBradwell that the Bush was surplus to requirements. They had not reckoned with the reaction of the public and the theatre community. Josie orchestrated a `Save the Bush' campaign that resulted in national media coverage and support from the great and the good. Letters of complaint appeared in the press signed by 200 leading practitioners, and questions were asked in the House of Commons. For the Arts Council, who had just announced that we were living in a new golden age of artistic endeavour and excellence, the whole affair was a massive own goal. The campaign culminated in an open meeting organized by Equity at the Young Vic during which Arts Council Chief Executive Peter Hewitt was accused of arrogance, incompetence, high-handed behaviour and Stalinism. Nick Hytner (who had not attended the meeting) said that Hewitt was talking bollocks, and Miriam Karlin called for a vote of no confidence that was carried nem con. Sir Christopher Frayling snottily dismissed the protest and later claimed that Mike Leigh had called him a shit in a lift at the Algonquin Hotel in New York. Eventually the Bush had their funding restored. The Bush has now been granted the lease on the old Shepherd's Bush Library and plans to move in in 2011. Here the Theatre will continue to discover and nurture the best new theatre writers from the widest possible range of backgrounds and produce their work to the highest possible standards for the widest possible audience, as it has done for the last 40 years. Real theatre is difficult, provocative, sexy, beautiful and dangerous. It encompasses the humanity of Chekhov and the corruptive power of rock `n' roll. A real playhouse is an emporium of magic, of strange and forbidden delights � `an illconducted place of recreation where imaginations are inflamed to a degree of madness' populated by mop-squeezers and fart-catchers, moochers and mandrakes, pinchcocks and dollymops and redribboned mollies. Theatre is not a luxury. It is as important to society as a school, a university, a hospital, a library, Prince Andrew or a submarine. And the Bush is the most important of them all. Patrons are advised to book early to avoid disappointment. MikeBradwell 101 Section4:Workin'attheFirkin Top: Karl Shiels (foreground) and Aidan Kelly, Howie the Rookie, 2000, by Mark O'Rowe. were paid less than �5 a script, and yet somehow it worked. Over the next four years we managed to find and produce over 30 terrific new plays, set everywhere from Butlins Minehead to a gay brothel in Earls Court. Plays by writers as diverse as Joe Penhall, Doug Lucie, Enda Walsh, Catherine Johnson, Kaite O'Reilly and Adam Rapp. Plays which won awards and which went on to be seen in the West End, around Europe and across America. But of course it's not just the plays that make a theatre � it's the people and the stories, the magical nights which are now part of the Bush Legend: the press night when a pregnant woman projectile vomited down the critic Sheridan Morley's back and he still didn't wake up. The press night I struggled in vain to keep a tired and emotional Mike Bradwell away from the artistic director of the Royal Theatre Northampton, after he'd overheard him say of Catherine Johnson's Shang-ALang, `I suppose this is what passes for art in London.' (This from a man who'd given the good people of Northampton Sleuth eight times in five years.) And then of course there were the nights when everything came together, when all the ducks were firmly in a row. The nights when you knew you'd seen something truly special in that magical jewel box of a space and you could say `I was there,' and know there was nowhere on earth you'd rather have been. Now the Bush is about to embark on a new chapter in the old library. But before it opens the doors to its new venue I have a plea to make. During my years as literary manager I was a regular user of the old library's facilities, particularly during my lunch hour. I developed a real fondness for them and made many friends. Could I ask the architects to consider preserving at least this original feature? If stick comes to lift I'll even sponsor the cubicle, just so long as I can have my name on the seat (and it doesn't cost more than 30 quid). Call it my contribution to the Big Society. After all, theatre is all about bums on toilet seats, isn't it? 110 Section4:Workin'attheFirkin TimFountain Robert Wolstenholme I was in the audience of Simon Bent's play SugarSugarthe night a gent in the back row started making very odd noises. Sue Johnston and Jonny Phillips, who were on stage at the time, started casting nervous glances into the audience as the man's groans grew louder and more frequent. Suddenly, punters parted like the Red Sea as the man projectile vomited down the seats. Luckily, we were in the scene before the interval, so stage management ushered everyone out, cleaned the place up and we started the second half with that scene again. It sounds trite, but there was an odd bond between the actors and the audience after that � the actors were fizzing, seemingly trying to give the punters something extra in return for their `ordeal' and in return, the crowd were rapt and enthusiastic. Would this have happened in any other space? But best of all, Sheridan Morley was in the audience to review the show, having missed press night. He didn't stay for the second half, but the title of his piece the next day? Chunderwonder. " 111 Sue Johnston (left) and Deborah McAndrew in Simon Bent's Sugar Sugar, 1998. TimFountain Section4:Workin'attheFirkin Mark Douet contact sheets featuring Aidan Meech and Miriam Karlin in Mrs Steinberg and the Byker Boy, 2000, written by Michael Wilcox. honest direction got extraordinary performances out of two actors he'd never even met before the first day of rehearsal. I had a two-year playwriting fellowship at Juilliard, but no formal training in directing, so being in a rehearsal room with Mike was for me a master class in how plays should be made. It's an aesthetic that trusts simplicity, a writer's text, intense feeling, patience, precise behavior, and an audience's intelligence. It's what made the Bush Theatre one of the most exciting new writing theatres in the world during his tenure there. Four years ago, I took my play Finer Noble Gases to the 2006 Edinburgh Festival. I directed it (I hadn't directed the two earlier productions, which I'd had very mixed feelings about), and Paul Sparks played the lead. We received a Fringe First Award and Paul was named Best Actor of the Fringe. I was extremely proud that Mike was there to see it. And he liked it enough to invite us to perform it at the Bush for a week following the festival. For Paul and me, despite being as American as you can get (Paul's from Oklahoma, I'm from Illinois), it was a kind of homecoming for us. Returning to the Bush for those five performances was one of the proudest moments of my career. For me, the Bush will always be synonymous with Mike Bradwell and I am grateful for the theatre and the man. 114 Section4:Workin'attheFirkin AdamRapp Aidan Meech I worked at the Bush theatre in 2000 as an actor in a cheeky and charming play, MrsSteinbergandtheBykerBoy, by Michael Wilcox. It was an actor's dream: It was the first professional play I was in and I was so, so, so lucky as I left drama school early in my last year to do it and was so excited and terrified � not just because of the exposing space, but because I was going to have to spend seven shows a week snogging the heartthrob Paul Nicholls, in my pants. Like most young drama school graduates I was naively convinced I was destined to be the next John Gielgud, and I was out of depth (to say the least) when pictures of me eating the face off a former soap star were plastered all over the newspapers and we boldly adorned a full page spread in Heat magazine. I was mortified and delighted in equal measure. There were queues around the block for seats and I loved every minute � from the rehearsals in a nearby church (where there was a murder on the steps during our first week of rehearsals and we were informed about it by a policeman walking into a scene involving a lot of `heavy petting') to the performances, where there were regular outbursts of homophobic shock and `disgust' at the bravely intimate scenes, still quite rare in those days, of two young geordie boys falling in love in a charity shop. I remember the theatre, and indeed the play I was in, to be a tender and protective place. The tiny stage just breathed it effortlessly into life: you had to be spontaneous, brave, instinctive � all the stuff drama schools tell young actors and which I nodded at yet struggled with in acting classes, but only really absorbed properly because of my first job at the Bush. The audience was crammed in to the seats, sweltering in one of the hottest summers, and we really had a sense that we owed the audience the best that we could give them. The intimacy of the space just took us to places where we could do this, exposing everything � the closest to a film a play can be, perhaps. We had to trust and fight against the intimacy at the same time, wear it, almost. The close proximity of the audience to the stage (we were practically cavorting on their laps) made the actors and the audience listen, be still, find truth. It felt like everyone, the actors and the audience were cocooned and protected, able to whisper secrets and lies, laugh and cry but also teeter on some kind of exposed and dangerous knife edge. The space was a real paradox, a gift, and I have such powerful memories of the challenges and warmth of the whole building. " AdamRapp 115 Lucy Osborne T Section5:LookingAhead Lucy Osborne's set design for The Whisky Taster. he Bush is not a beautiful space. The ceiling is too low, the doorways too small and the walls are neither straight nor at right angles to each other. Across one whole wall runs a large and noisy air-conditioning unit which is impossible to remove or disguise. Despite the most vigorous cleaning regime, it is relentlessly dusty. In winter it is perishingly cold and in the summer the only way to cool the space is to open all of the doors onto the roof, and endure the smell of burnt oil from the deep fat fryers in the pub kitchen below. The Bush is an awkward, unyielding and unforgiving space. A combination of features that in any other theatre might be considered quirky and charming make designing plays in the Bush a huge challenge where it sometimes feels like you are fighting every crumbling piece of plaster and inconveniently positioned beam. 132 Section5:LookingAhead LucyOsborne But I absolutely adore this small, cantankerous room. Every physical constraint that it places on you as a designer forces you to interrogate what you are trying to achieve. It demands that you scrutinize every decision and encourages you to be ambitious and brave. Just the process of working out how to fit 81 audience members and a company of actors into the tiny space can feel like an insurmountable task, but it can also be an enormously liberating process. The audience are so close that you can be very simple in your visual vocabulary; something as pure as rain running down a window, or as honest as a beam of torchlight can become extraordinary and magical. Kate O'Flynn and Samuel Barnett in James Graham's The Whisky Taster, 2010. LucyOsborne 133 Ralf Little n my experience the Bush Theatre is an institution that appears to thrive despite, or perhaps because of, the unrelenting adversity it is forced to endure. No funding? Lead the charge on the Arts Council. No lighting grid? Do a season of shows in the dark. One of your actors is stuck in traffic on the M1 and you have to go up half an hour late? Issue a good-natured apology to the audience and soundly kick the actor's arse. Every one of these major (and not quite so major) setbacks would indicate from a distance that the Bush Theatre's days are numbered, and yet it seems to have acquired the knack of turning layer upon layer of bad luck and unfortunate mishap into a series of extraordinary successes. The greatest trick of all is that it has appeared to be all rather effortless, but has in fact taken an incredible amount of originality, dogged self-belief, a healthy amount of stoicism, and a huge dose of good, old-fashioned hard work. And that is as good a way to sum the place up as any. Behind the scenes, people work tirelessly to keep the wheels turning, while on stage, the Bush remains as uncompromising in its choices as ever. A bastion of theatrical bravery in a tiny corner of W12, it champions original thought, new writing, and innovative design and creativity. It juggles a perfectly judged blend of experience and fresh-faced enthusiasm in its choices of directors, writers and actors � and allows us thesps the freedom to make the kind of creative choices we wouldn't necessarily be able to make elsewhere. Against all the physical evidence, the Bush seems to refuse to accept that it is a small theatre. It certainly won't acknowledge any limitation in the scope of work that is staged there, somewhat typically taking the attitude that `where there's a will, there's a way'. And somehow, there always is. It's as though the fact that there are fewer than 100 seats is a sort of irritating inconvenience, rather than a more realistic acceptance that it may be a logistical barrier to theatrical expression. And of course, this is what defines it as a space, both in which to work, and to watch. To be on stage at the Bush is to know that every member of the audience can see every I Section5:LookingAhead Ian Hart I once said `I hate theatre,' a stupid statement on its own but in a certain context I think still it has merit. I don't in any context hate the Bush. I love the Bush: a great space for the lazy actor � never too far to walk across the stage; a great place for the lonely actor � everyone in the same dressing room; and a fantastic opportunity for the physical actor � the fire escape that joins the two. My time there was brief � a blessing for all involved, and it was the best experience I ever had in a theatrical setting. " 142 Section5:LookingAhead RalfLittle Ralf Little (prostrate) and Mackenzie Crook in Annie Baker's The Aliens, 2010. RalfLittle 143


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removal of the C(8) HR as a radical by the active center of the enzyme terminates the sequence, and the disubstituted cyclopropane (1S,2R) is released as the first product. The compound is thermolabile and rearranges via a cis-endo transition state to (6S)-ectocarpene.
In contrast to the terrestrial plant S. isatideus, female gametes of the marine brown algae (model system: female gametes of E. siliculosus) do not utilize dodeca-3,6,9-trienoic acid for production of the C11 hydrocarbons. Instead, the marine plants exploit the pool of unsaturated C20 acids (20:4 → 20:6) for the production of their pheromones. [2H8]Arachidonic acid is very effectively transformed into 6-[2H4]butylcyclohepta-1,4-diene (dictyotene) by a suspension of female gametes of E. siliculosus. A synthetic sample of [2H6]nonadeca-8-11,14,17-tetraenoic acid, which can be thought of as a 20-noranalogue of icosa-5,8,11,14,17-pentaenoic acid, gives the corresponding norectocarpene, together with a labeled norfinavarrene, in high yield (39, 40). Since the icosanoids are not cleaved to unsaturated C12 precursors, their primary functionalization is assumed to be achieved by a 9-lipoxygenase yielding 9-hydroperoxyicosa(5Z,7E,11Z,14Z,17Z)-pentaenoic acid (9-HPEPE), which mimics the functionalization pattern of dodeca-3,6,9-trienoic acid (Figure 5). Assuming a homolytic cleavage of the hydroperoxide (41) as shown in Figure 6, once again, the disubstituted cyclopropane will be released from the active center as a thermolabile intermediate. Although this mechanistic hypothesis has not yet been experimentally confirmed, the concept nevertheless provides a valuable platform for the systematic derivation of all the known C11 hydrocarbons from the fatty acid precursors. It is also conceivable that the oxidative decarboxylation/cyclization of dodeca-3,6,9-trienoic acid in higher plants could proceed via a peroxy acid.
The unusual stereochemistry of the acyclic undeca-(2Z,4Z,6E,8Z)tetraene (giffordene; cf. Figure 1), the major volatile from the brown alga Giffordia mitchellae, follows from the same concept (40, 42). If the 9-HPEPE