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Eliades Ochoa
A La Casa de la Trova (Escondida Music, 2005)
Cuban guitarist/tres player and vocalist Eliades Ochoa is a youngster among the Buena Vista superstars. He's often seen smiling at his fans from beneath a Panama hat. Hailing from the Cuban countryside (he was born on June 22, 1946), his repertoire possesses a rustic and earthy signature. He's known for his sweet vocals and his interpretations of sones, guarachas, trovas and guajiras. His mother taught him how to play the three string guitar, tres during his early childhood.
In the early 1970's, Eliades settled in the city of Santiago de Cuba. It was during this period of his life that he grew into an accomplished guitarist and vocalist. In 1978, Francisco Cobos who founded the
Cuarteto Patria (a group that focused on trova), handed the baton over to Eliades. Eliades augmented the band's repertoire to include sones, guarachas and guajiras.Eliades career developed through the 1980's in which he began to record and perform at noted music festivals. He also appeared in the United States and Spain. By the time he was invited to join the Buena Vista Social Club musicians in 1996, he had already been involved in the music industry for a quarter of a century. His involvement withBuena Vista Social Club brought him international fame and led him to work on projects with international musicians such asRy Cooder, Charlie Musslewhite and Manu
A La Casa De La Trova features 15 tracks recorded from 1981 to 1996. The vocalist-guitarist interprets songs by Antonio Fernandez Ortiz, Pavon Argote Ramon, Nico Saquito, Julio Rodriguez and Compay Segundo among others. The track, El Cuarto De Tula might be familiar to many ears around the world since it's one of the songs featured on the Buena Vista Social Club disc that was released in 1996 and has been covered by other contemporary Cuban musicians such as the Puentes Brothers. The rustic 1992 recording of Rita La Caimana sounds archival even though it was recorded during the last decade. The song is peppered with vocal commentaries throughout and is mirthful. The arpeggio guitar runs are also appreciated.
In fact the guitar work on these songs is immaculate and is backed by earthy beats and sweet vocals. There must be tons of Cuban and other guitarists learning the guitar phrases to El Cuarto De Tula and other songs on this disc. And certainly for those who know Spanish, it would be a joy to sing along with these songs. The other option is to put on dancing shoes and let go of tension in our bodies. Other guitar favorites include, No Quiero Celos Contigo, Son A La Casa De La Trova (which also sports a lovely melody), and well, the whole CD provides fabulous guitar, voice and percussion. But to get an idea of what I'm talking about, take a listen to the lengthy tres (guitar?) solo on the last track, Para Ti Nengon. Eliades Ochoa who has already blazed through vast musical territory still has a long and illustrious career ahead of him. Keep an eye out for that humble smile hidden beneath the shadow of his Panama hat.
Compliments of Cranky Crow World Music
Please visit the new Afro-Latin of the Americas Music page where several Buena Vista Social Club musicians are featured.
Eliades Ochoa recordings: Buena Vista Social Club, Cubafrica (1998), Sublime Ilusión (1999); Tributo a Cuarteto Patria (2000) and Estoy Como Nunca (2002)
Author: PatriciaHerlevi
Patricia Herlevi is a former music journalist turned music researcher. She is especially interested in raising music consciousness. She is looking for an agent and publisher for her book Whole Music (Soul Food for the Mind Body Spirit). She founded and hosts the blog
The Whole Music Experience and has contributed to World Music Central since 2003.


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Photos by David Knapp
As the most visited national park in the country, the Great Smoky Mountains can often feel crowded. The majority of visitors never set foot off the pavement leaving the expansive backcountry available for the (blank) angler. Fisherman that are first time visitors to the park make the mistake of being overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of quality water available to fish in the park. As one drives into the park from any of the major entrances, the first thing you notice will be the beautiful streams that often parallel the roads.
Do yourself a favor and just ignore that beautiful water. Instead grab a trail map and head into the backcountry. Most experienced Smokies anglers head for the many miles of water that require a little effort to get to anytime they want an easy day of fishing. If fishing dry flies to hungry fish is your thing then look no farther than the backcountry jewels in the Great Smoky Mountains. By walking 3-4 miles from the nearest road, you can often find a seemingly unlimited number of willing trout.
A 3 or 4 weight rod with a small box of dry flies is all you need for a day of exploring. The fish are rarely picky and will hammer a #14 Parachute Adams just as well as a #16 Elk Hair Caddis or a #20 Griffiths Gnat. Just in case, its always good to carry a few reliable wet flies as well. Tellico, Pheasant Tail, Prince and Gold Ribbed Hare's Ear nymphs should be carried at all times in case the fish aren't looking up. In the summer include a few ants and beetles and in the winter a few midges and you should be set for some fantastic fishing.
Many of my best days of fishing in the park have come as a result of the hiking I did before starting to fish. While working at Little River Outfitters, I would often tell visiting anglers that everyone would walk a mile or two before fishing and if they wanted to get to the best fishing they should go farther than that. To really put distance between yourself and other fisherman you have to put forth some effort. I set myself a minimum of three miles if I have the time. Generally it is well worth the trouble…
|Please also check out our main website www.littleriveroutfitters.com for daily fishing reports, message board and online catalog.
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subset: commoncrawl


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"The Bad and The Ugly" House Photos
Don't get me wrong, I think it's incredibly sweet when folks write and tell me that my home is so lovely and pretty. But at the same time, I kind of shudder at the thought because, you see, it's not. Our completed projects like the red cabinets and the new windows and french doors in the kitchen, the painted living room and...(*gulp* I think that's it so far!), did turn out nicely and I'm really happy with the results, but I'm truly not joking when I say this place is a "glorified shack" and not very easy on the eyes (or my emotional well-being!). I have to work really hard at not getting extremely depressed here and let's face it - sometimes despite my best efforts, I'm ready to throw in the towel and move. Not that we could actually ever sell the place in it's current state. There is so, so, SO much left to do and with hubs being a busy manager at his company and with our life outside renovating, things get done around here very slowly. I know *now* that when we start anything around here, no matter how small of a project, it will literally take weeks, if not months, to complete. That's our reality, lol, and I'm trying to deal with it as best as I can. Some days I just hate this place and other days I'm thankful to have dry place to lay my head at night.
So moving on...thank you to all who have complimented my home in the past and I'm really sorry that I'm about to majorly disappoint you with these photos, lol. I can say, though, that I truly believe that their is potential in anything - from people to neighborhoods to houses. What I do have going for me is that I can *see* what the house is going to look like when finished. My frustration stems from not being able to bring my visions to fruition say...yesterday! I'm tired of the dirt and dust and ugliness. I'm tired of packing away all my thrifty Goodwill finds until I can use them. I'm tired of the gutted bathroom and looking at studs around every corner. I want a completed house so that I can...bake or sew or something fun!!! (Patting myself on the back while saying, "Patience, my dear...Patience!")
Ok, this first photo is from our storage/sunroom. It's basically a porch with lots of sliding doors. This is where we keep our computer and I freeze my booty off in the winter and sweat like a pig in the summer. What you are seeing is water damage caused by heavy rain the first week we moved into the house. The previous owner gave us $4000 to fix the roof, but wouldn't you know, the central heat and air stopped working the day after we moved in, so we used the "roof money" to replace the heat and air unit. We had to wait a few months to fix the roof, but fortunately, this was the only spot in the house that sustained damage. See all those cobwebs. I know, I know. The ceilings in here are very tall and I haven't yet been motivated to drag the ladder in to clean.
Here you can get a glimpse of how high the ceilings are. There use to be skylights up there but we opted to have them removed because they were improperly installed and not that attractive. When we get around to this room, we'll have to redo the ceiling completely. There are beadboard panels up there right now. I think this would make a great little craft studio, personally. Lots of light in here! See, there's me being positive about an icky room...Yay, me!
This is the threshold between the kitchen and the sunroom stoop/steps. Gotta love that old lino and berber combination. This will all be seamless hardwood when we do the kitchen floor.
*Sigh* This is the lovely threshold between the kitchen and the living room. There use to be berber in the living room, but we pulled it all up and sealed the plywood up with paint until we install the flooring. Can you imagine all the dust that would settle into carpet during a whole house renovation?
"My, ain't it purdy!" *sniff* The contrast between the green primer on the kitchen walls and the yellow living room walls is atrocious in this shot. We'll be adding beadboard halfway up in the kitchen, dining, hallway, AND living room for a more cohesive look. I didn't think I would add it to the living room, too, but I think I've changed my mind.
When you walk into our front door, this is what you see. I find myself apologizing profusely to every soul that comes in. "We're renovating! Excuse the mess!" Those rugs are such a pain and are very unsightly, but they look a little better than the bare white floors that seem to attract dirt like a magnet.
No shiny white pristine baseboards in this house. No baseboards at all!
Here is the entryway. There is no door trim in our house either, lol. We will be removing the coat closet completely and building a built in shelving unit/desk in it's place. The popcorn ceiling will be replaced with the same ceiling treatment in our kitchen, pine planks painted white.
I hate hollow doors.
This is the tile in our entryway. It's the very same tile that was on our fireplace surround. These tiles will go when we put down hardwood.
Oh, yeah...a little glimpse into the kinds of messes we make around here. Messes like this, even after cleaned up, create messes like....
THIS! See all the dust on the ceiling fan and the popcorn ceiling in the living room? I can hear every tidy housewife across the globe gasping collectively right now. I know. I have to bring in the big (12 foot) ladder to clean it all. The 6-footer only gets me so far. This is another reason why I hate popcorn ceilings. They will be replaced with pine planks just like the kitchen, and a new beam will be installed. We took down the old beam when we mudded the living room walls.
From the living room, you get a great view of our currently very scary hallway. It's so dark and depressing. Hopefully, though, the changes we make to it will be very dramatic. We'll be raising the ceiling from 7 feet to 8 feet high and installing pine planks (once again, down with the popcorn!), replacing the ugly light fixture, installing solid pine six panel doors, adding white beadboard halfway up, and painting the wall above the beadboard the same shade of cheery yellow that we have in the living room. And of course, we'll be putting down our flooring in the hallway, too.
This is the bathroom door. We moved it down the hall about 18 inches to create a nook in the bathroom for the toilet. We put off doing the drywall work until we officially get around to working on the hallway ceiling and walls.
The right side of the bathroom door...The electrical junction box use to be here but hubs moved it to the laundry room. It looks much better hidden, but the hole it left in the hallway wall is quite unattractive right now.
A shot to show you just how low the ceiling is in our cave-of-a-hallway. Hopefully raising it a foot will make a huge difference in how the hall feels.
Hubs is going to love me for posting this photo, hehe. But I was trying to capture what our dining room normally looks like (and provide proof that we really do work on the place!). Piles of renovation material everywhere...Hubs was working on walling up the doorway between the dining room and laundry room.
Just another shot to show how we don't have any trim. It's very unpleasant to see. Kind of like looking at someone without eyebrows.
Well, that's all I've photographed though I assure you that there are many more ugly parts to our home. Don't forget that our bathroom is gutted and we haven't even touched the bedrooms yet. I don't think the girls' temporary bedroom makeover counts because it was just make-do-for-overnight-guests-till-we-get-around-to-doing-it-right. Oh, and then there's the exterior....OH, the exterior! I don't even want to think about it.
I hope that in some twisted way,LOL, you've enjoyed these. I will enjoy looking at them, too, *after* our projects are completed and we can do a before and after comparison. Thanks so much for joining us on this crazy journey we call home renovation!
May 2008 UPDATE: Yes, ever so slowly, things are improving here in our little home sweet home:) Here are a few "progress" photos that were taken of our kitchen, living room, and hallway since this post was originally written. Maybe there is hope yet?


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Ex BURNU Dive ASI – Birmingham URNU
In August 2015, 9 members of Birmingham University Royal Naval Unit (BURNU) conducted a major Adventurous Training Expedition to Ascension Island (ASI). Exercise BURNU Dive ASI as it was known had all the ingredients of a classic AT exped from the start, with the experienced diving supervisory team of a Royal Marine Colour Sergeant and Army Warrant Officer, contrasting a group of Novice divers from a University Armed Service Unit. The main aim was to train and qualify divers who had entry level beginner BSAC (British Sub-Aqua Club) Dive qualifications as intermediary BSAC Sports Divers, and this would involve a challenging diving program that developed leadership, physical courage, loyalty and confidence in a new environment.
The exped preparation was hampered by some late withdrawals due to unforeseen circumstances, and an initial difficulty in sourcing all the safety equipment required for such an expedition – and diving, is not a sport without a need for an excessive amount of kit! However, thanks to the Joint Services Sub Aqua Diving Association based in Plymouth, (JSSADC), all of the kit needed was sourced. After some serious packing and re-packing, it was safely stowed for a late flight via the RAF airbridge from Brize Norton (the only way on or off the island).
On landing, it was clear that we were a long way from home. An almost Mars like terrain, with volcanic formations everywhere, we were immediately struck by the sheer abundance of wildlife. From the wild donkeys, sheep and large land crabs which litter the roads to the shores, to the ocean triggerfish and huge Moray Eels that are everywhere in the water. The island also boasts an incredible history and long association with the U.K Armed Forces and Royal Navy in particular – something which we were very keen to carry on.
Without doubt, diving in Ascension Island is challenging, with tidal surges, swells and rip tides leaving all but two beaches on the island unsafe to swim at. However, it also has an abundance of world-class dive sites to explore. Running out of the bespoke RAF Sub Aqua Association Exped centre in a location called English Bay on the North of the island, the Diving increased steadily from a 'shakedown' dive to blow away some cobwebs, and advancing steadily to shore and boat dives, wrecks and night dives all while progressing the depth steadily.
Over the course of 12 days, numerous dives were amassed and recorded, mostly as boat dives from the Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats (RHIBs). On top of the numerous dives per day, the BSAC Sports Diver curriculum involved a series of lectures, and training in buddy rescue techniques, dive planning using air and nitrox tables. The water temperature was warm enough to dive without a wet suit at times, and the visibility was clear to 30metres plus, which not only led to some very good photographs, but also increasing the safety element which is always paramount in any dive.
There was of course time for the group to let their hair down away from the diving, with a particular highlight being a social in the Island Community centre (where it seemed the entire Ascension population turned up) complete with live band, bowling and darts competitions. This also allowed some of the students to impress the Islanders with their dancing, carefully honed in the Student Unions of Birmingham and re-imagined thousands of miles away.
By the end of the expedition, all 9 BURNU members achieved the BSAC Sports Diver qualification, and all are now keen to continue and gain further skills underwater. The expedition allowed 9 divers of minimal experience to turn into more confident, safe and proficient divers thanks to some excellent instruction by the Dive Supervisor staff, and the equipment and assistance of the RAF Sub Aqua Association and Joint Services Sub Aqua Diving Club. Final thanks must go to the Ulysses Trust for their kind support, without which the expedition would not have been able to take place.


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Christine Judges Commarts 2017 Design Annual
This June, Christine had the pleasure of judging the 2017 Communication Arts Design Annual, alongside esteemed collegues, Dan Olson, Bobby C. Martin Jr, Roy Burns & Monique Gamache. Commarts has been the the go to resource for the entire design industry for the past 60 years (as well as being run by a charming and lovely family). The issue comes out in the next few weeks, check your newstands (or better yet, just subscribe: https://store.commarts.com/NewSubscription).
Photos by the amazing Steve Castillo, who has been documenting the judging process for the past few decades (stevecastillo.com)


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The UK Government has no trade negotiators, former Brexit minister reveals
The Government does not have a single trade negotiator, the MP who was in charge of the Whitehall unit charged with preparing to leave the European Union has revealed.
Oliver Letwin, who yesterday left his post as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, explained that all British officials with such expertise would need to be recruited from the EU.
"We don't have trade negotiators because the trade negotiating has been going on in the EU," he explained.
"The trade negotiators who are Brits at the moment are basically working for the EU...
"[There are] quite a number but they're employed there and it's up to them whether they're recruited in Whitehall. There are obviously very experienced trade negotiators elsewhere in the world as well."
Leading figures in the pro-Brexit side had prioritised new trade agreements with nations outside the EU during the referendum campaign, and Theresa May has now set up a new Department for International Trade under Liam Fox.
Earlier this month then Business Secretary Sajid Javid announced the Government would be hiring another 300 specialist staff to work on trade.
Mr Letwin described the new trade department as an "excellent plan", and said trade negotiators would be needed for both that and the Brexit department to be headed by David Davis.
David Cameron set up the 'Brexit unit', overseen by Mr Letwin, after the UK voted to leave the EU on 23 June.
The former prime minister has faced criticism for failing to do more to prepare the Government for the prospect of Brexit, but Mr Letwin defended the last administration.
"What no one could do, of course, in advance was work out all the things which we're going to have to work out over the next year, 18 months, two years," he said.
He also refused to be drawn on how long it could take the UK to extricate itself from the EU: "We'll only know as we go along how tricky this turns out to be."


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Enquiries are ongoing after reports that a woman was robbed at knifepoint at a house in Savile Town.
Four men entered a property entered Scarborough Street at around 4pm yesterday and demanded property and cash.
It is understood that the woman sustained minor slash injuries that were not thought to be life threatening.
A small amount of property was stolen and the men left in an unknown direction.
Anyone in the area at the time who saw anything suspicious or has any information should contact Det Con Shaun Topham at Huddersfield CID via 101.


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Rihanna Talks About The Assault, Finding Happiness Again, Why She Loves 'The Way You Lie'
Rihanna is a happier and stronger person today than she was two years ago, and she's finally opening up and moving on from the assault she encountered at the hands of ex-boyfriend, Chris Brown. In the December Issue of Marie Claire UK, the beautiful pop star admits to crying many nights, and finally having an epiphany serving as her wake up call:
'I was very lost. I have to say I felt really confused. It was really strange because…' Her eyes begin to well up then she scolds herself for being upset. 'Aaagh!' she exclaims outloud. 'I hate talking about it but it was really crazy because I felt so out of touch with myself and when that happens…' It's just this one empty vase. I felt like an empty vessel.' Tears fall down her face but she tells me it's alright. 'I'm just… I feel like… I smile for real this time. 'Eventually, I remember waking up one day and I knew I was over it. One day. I remember I was in New York at the Trump Hotel and I woke up and I just knew I was over it.
As you can see from the quote, you never get over domestic abuse–it stays with you, you just learn to transform the negative thoughts and move on. Rihanna also opens up about dealing with the media, rumors, and the negative comments regarding her assault:
God has a crazy way of working, and sometimes when stuff happens you feel like, "What did I do to deserve this?" Why was it backfiring on me?' I was very lost. I have to say I felt really confused. I hate talking about it but it was really crazy because I felt so out of touch with myself and when that happens.' All this terrible stuff they say to you, it breaks you down,' she says of that time. '[But] once you're back on your feet – if you ever make it back on your feet – that's the ultimate achievement.
Rihanna also reveals why she decide to do the controversial song, The Way You Lie, with Eminem. Many critics feel the songs glorifies domestic violence, but Rihanna has this to say about it:
'He [Eminem] confronted himself on it. He basically gives insight into what goes on in the mind of a couple in a domestically violent relationship. I love that in every verse it just gets to that point where she wants to leave, she wants to leave, she leaves, she leaves, she leaves… but then the hook always comes back'…'Every word in that song is true. It would take somebody who's been on the inside to understand how magical those lyrics are. Everybody loves the song but the lyrics can never hit home until you've seen it, witnessed it, in your home or experienced it yourself.'
Rihanna is back on her feet, and in a more healthy relationship with baseball star Matt Kemp.
'I feel like I smile for real this time. The smiles come from inside, and it exudes in everything I do. 'People feel my energy is different. When I smile they can tell that it's pure bliss and not just a cover up.'
The more she shares about her personal life, the more I like her. It does NOT change my mind about the music or the singing, but it makes her insides seem just as beautiful as her outsides.
Similar Posts:
- OMG! The Lyrics To Eminem & Rihanna's New Song: Love The Way You Lie
- Juicy Tidbits: Who Still Cares About Rihanna & Chris Brown; I'm Over It!
- Drake's 'Days In The East' Is Totally About Rihanna & Chris Brown Love Triangle


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And so things just kind of bumped together. Blogging, kids, family, photography... This past year.. I learned a lot. From sites, blogs, friends, family... a. lot. I know that I've been ignoring this blog. but I don't mind. I know that its here and I can come back on and record about my life and share pictures. And if its just me enjoying it, I'm happy with that because thats what it is all about. And it helps me with my addiction. I cant just stop snapping away. Taking pictures and learning and messing up and learning and getting one shot out of many that I adore... its an addiction. But its also the love of learning.. it never ends.
And so since I ignored the blog for awhile I didn't realize that it has been a year. A year of amazing things. I really wish I can just add all of the pics from this year..but then my computer would shut down from trying to upload like crazy..
Soooooo... how can I just pick some to share.. I can't so there.. just gonna randomly this week post pics that I haven't shared.. stories that I have or haven't shared... memories that I want to keep forever.. and thank goodness for blogging (and facebook) I can... <3.
Today... pictures from Disneyland and more :)
|It snows <3
|Tears of happiness!
|My boy loving the magic in Disneyland...


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"My stepfather owned some bars in Philadelphia, where I used to hang out after school . . . . I loved the bar as the hub of local news amongst the neighbors—from there the voices just started coming to me." That's the way Quiara Alegría Hudes, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and co-creator with Lin-Manuel Miranda of the Off-Broadway and Broadway hit In the Heights, explains how the idea for Daphne's Dive, her new play at the Signature Theatre Company, began. There are seven actors in Daphne's Dive, but there are eight characters: the neighborhood bar in North Philadelphia that shares its name with the play's title, is enough of a presence that it becomes a dramatis persona, a figure in the drama.
Daphne's Dive is Hudes's first offering in her five-year playwriting residency at Signature—and her first play since she completed her Elliot Trilogy. (Hudes is in the first year of her Residency Five term which affords her three productions over five years at the company's Pershing Square Signature Center on Theatre Row.) The play started previews in Signature's Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre, the company's variable-space black box, on 26 April and opened on 15 May; after a week's extension from 5 June, the play's scheduled to close on 12 June. I met Diana, my regular theater companion, at the Pershing Square Center on Friday evening, 20 May.
Hudes, 38, was born in Philadelphia to a Jewish father, a carpenter, and a Puerto Rican mother (with Taíno Indian roots) who came to Philadelphia when she was 12. Later, after her parents separated, her mother married a Puerto Rican businessman. Hudes came to playwriting early, possibly from the influence of her grandmother on her mother's side who was a vivid storyteller; her first play was produced when she was in eighth grade and by tenth grade, she was winning prizes—first place in the Philadelphia Young Playwrights Festival. On her father's side, an aunt instilled in her the love of music and she began writing and composing and studying music in West Philly as a girl. She earned a B.A. in composition from Yale University—where she wrote two musicals as a student—and played with a band in Philadelphia for a few years.
Hudes returned to writing, however, and in 2004 she graduated with an MFA from Brown University's playwriting program, led by playwright Paula Vogel who remains an important influence. Her first adult play, Yemaya's Belly, won several playwriting awards in 2003 but its 2005 mounting at the Portland Stage Company in Maine wasn't critically successful. Her next work, however, was Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue, the first in her Elliot Trilogy, which was a finalist for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The emerging dramatist next collaborated with Lin-Manuel Miranda on his breakthrough musical, In the Heights, for which Hudes wrote the book. The musical was first presented in 2005 at the National Music Theatre Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut, before opening Off-Broadway in 2007. It won and was nominated for a passel of Off-Broadway theater awards (none specifically for the book, however) and it was again a finalist for the Pulitzer. In the Heights transferred to Broadway in 2008 and ran for 29 previews and 1184 regular performances until 2011, winning the Tony for Best Musical and several others Tony wins and nominations (including a nom for best book), and another nomination for the Pulitzer Prize. Hudes's second Elliot play, Water by the Spoonful, produced by the Second Stage Theatre in 2013, was nominated again for a Pulitzer and this time, Hudes won the 2012 drama prize. In 2013, the third play in the Elliot trilogy, The Happiest Song Plays Last, was staged at Chicago's Goodman Theater and Off-Broadway at Second Stage in 2014.
Hudes has also written a children's musical, Barrio Grrrl!, which premièred at Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2009 and has toured nationally. In 2010, she wrote In My Neighborhood, her first children's book, published by Arthur Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic Inc. She's a resident playwright at New Dramatists and the Shapiro Distinguished Professor of Writing and Theater at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. The playwright was tapped in 2015 for a Residency Five spot at STC. She lives in Washington Heights with her husband, a public defender; her friend and former collaborator Miranda is her downstairs neighbor. (Miranda and Thomas Kail, Heights and now Daphne's Dive director, met Hudes in 2004 at an early reading of Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue when they were searching for a librettist for In the Heights.)
As a playwright, Hudes has so far always focused on her own Latino community. (Though she's of mixed backgrounds, half Jewish and half Puerto Rican, and "was always shuffling between communities," Hudes explains, "I was raised by two Puerto Rican parents," referring to her stepfather.) Her plays are all set not only in Philadelphia, but in the Latino community of North Philly, where much of her family—she grew up in West Philly—lives and works. "This is our history: it's not written down, it's not recorded, it could disappear," Hudes's mother told her, and the playwright took it as "a task" her mother had assigned her. "Sometimes I wish I could just write plays that don't have that social context," she mused, "but I haven't been able to escape that yet." Indeed, after finishing the Elliot Trilogy, she tried to compose a play set somewhere else—still Philadelphia, but on the upscale Main Line; however, she abandoned the effort "because it's a lie and I don't like it." So Hudes returned dramaturgically to North Philly and wrote about her stepfather's bar, the play that became Daphne's Dive. If she strays from her dramaturgical comfort zone, it probably won't be soon since she feels "there's still more to go, . . . more depths to look into and explore."
Hudes's musical background, however, stays with her as a dramatist: she composes rhythmically—one interviewer writes, "She is a musician with a pen"—and there's frequently music in her plays. When she sits down to write, one of the first things in her process is choosing the music she'll listen to while working; "Oftentimes it's the playlist for the play I'm writing," she says. In fact, the music comes before the playwright sits down to write a word. She says "My first thought is always what kind of music am I going to have in this play. And I base the world, the language of the play, on that type of music." Hudes, for example, expressly chose three distinct musical styles for each play in the Elliot Trilogy: Western classics, jazz, Puerto Rican/Latin folk. As Hudes was writing Daphne's Dive, the fusion of Latin jazz and classical music of Michel Camilo, with which the playwright had been taken since she was a teen, was the music she listened to; ultimately she asked Camilo, whom Hudes had never met, to write the music for the play.
The playwright has said that Daphne's Dive began with the setting. She explained that after working on the Elliot Trilogy, she wanted something with "longer scenes that had a little bit of breath to them. I thought a bar was the perfect setting . . . ." It's plain Hudes also uses her family and friends as inspiration for her characters; her cousin, for example, was the basis for Elliot in the three plays about the Iraq War vet. They're significantly fictionalized for, as Alexis Soloski says in a New York Times profile of the writer, "each play is a delicate negotiation between fact and fiction, between the experiences of her relatives and the dramatic necessity of the play." Hudes explains that she puts more importance on "why their stories matter than what the particulars of the stories are." The playwright says of her own writing that it's "very character-based" and that for her, "it starts with people and ends with people."
The origin of the story in Daphne's Dive comes from something that happened to a cousin of the writer. She "heard a child crying in the adjacent row home" and when she finally got into the house, she found "that the police had raided the place and the house was empty. Except for a young girl, who . . . had been abandoned." Hudes's cousin took the girl in until her parents got out of jail. "I kept thinking about that girl," said the playwright, "about hearing a kid cry through the walls. I thought, 'This girl is a catalyst that will change the life of a group of people.'" Hudes explained the crux of her thought: "A jolt of empathy can jumpstart adults' hearts. The truth is, we're hardened. We simply are, it's a survival tactic. And then a jolt of empathy can remind us what matters." So, having set upon placing her story in a North Philly dive bar, the dramatist took this family incident, moved it from a row house to an apartment building above the bar, peopled it with characters based on her relatives and regulars at her stepfather's bar, added the piano music of Michel Camilo, and composed her portrait of a community in microcosm. As director Kail sees it, Hudes is writing "about evolving communities and the challenge of leaving a mark, of having a legacy."
While Hudes herself might have been the model for young Ruby, the young girl who actually grows up in her adoptive mother's bar, it seems that her stepfather, the entrepreneur who was active in the Puerto Rican community of Philadelphia, might have become the play's Acosta, the businessman-turned-local politician. Daphne, herself, seems to have been modeled in part on Hudes's own mother, who, among other things, was an herbalist (Daphne chews aloe leaves constantly)—though some traits of her mother became part of Daphne's sister's character as well (Hudes's mother grew up on a farm and sister Inez grows gourds on the lawn of her suburban home; she also talks frankly about sex, a characteristic Hudes attributed to her mother as well). The composer Camilo himself became Daphne's upstairs neighbor, whom we never meet but to whose piano-playing she awakens every morning and which is her companion though the day. Daphne's Dive itself, of course, is Hudes's memory of her stepfather's North Philly bar where she played after doing her homework while getting to know the regulars—some of whom might recognize themselves in Daphne's customers.
As I think I've established, Daphne (Vanessa Aspillaga) is the owner of the "cheap corner bar" (as STC's publicity has it) that bears her name, frequented by a diverse bunch of regulars. Most, like Daphne, are Latinos from North Philadelphia—identified by Hudes as the Puerto Rican neighborhood. There's Pablo (Matt Saldivar), a Cuban-American painter who specializes in art inspired by people's garbage, through which he digs to find stimulating subjects; believe it or not, Pablo gets a gallery show and starts to move up the art-world ladder. Inez (Daphne Rubin-Vega) has married well and has moved on up to the ritzy suburban Main Line—though she sees no reason to discard her roots and insists on growing guiros ("more Puerto Rican than a crucifix on the rearview," Inez boasts) in her yard—and revels in her chic clothes and posh lifestyle; she still stops in at Daphne's bar, however, to keep in contact with her community. Inez's husband, Acosta (Carlos Gomez), is a successful businessman (with a slightly shady past which he's outgrown) who makes a successful run for city council and then state senator. Jenn (KK Moggie), an Asian-American originally from San Francisco, is a politically-engaged dancer and performance artist who stages colorful guerilla protests around the city in support of leftist causes; 50 years ago, she'd have been a hippie. (Modeled by Hudes on Kathy Change, 1950-96, a performance artist and political activist who killed herself in an act of self-immolation on the University of Pennsylvania campus, I found Jenn's character reminiscent of avant-garde—and onetime street—artist Yayoi Kusama.) The only Anglo patron in Daphne's Dive, Rey (Gordon Joseph Weiss), a Willie Nelson look-alike in scruffy jeans, long, graying hair, and a bandana around his head, scorns all possessions except his motorcycle (on which he paid Pablo to paint mermaids), spending his cash—the only payment he'll accept for his work as a glazier—as quickly as he earns it; Rey and Acosta used to run together in their bad old days and still have brotherly affection for one another, irrespective of Acosta's rise in social status.
Near the end of the first scene, when Pablo runs out back to pick through Daphne's trash (which she's forbidden him to do), he returns with a terrified 11-year-old African-American girl in his arms. This is Ruby (Samira Wiley), abandoned when her parents were hauled off to jail in a raid that awakened Daphne during the night. To escape the Philadelphia Department of Human Services, Ruby had jumped out the third-floor window and, scraped and bruised, hid behind the dumpster. Daphne takes the little homeless girl in and eventually adopts her and Ruby becomes a mainstay of Daphne's Dive—and the focal character of the play.
Ruby introduces each of the play's five scenes by announcing her age, starting with the play's first line: "I am 11." As Ruby ages from 11 to 15 to 20 to 25 and finally 29, we watch her grow into a young adult as the lives of her composite family and the changes among them and in the community outside are recounted inside Daphne's Dive. Ruby's new family each gives her advice and support as she grows up, like all the barnyard fowl sharing brooding responsibilities for the Churkendoose egg. There are triumphs—Pablo gets a gallery show; Acosta is elected to Philadelphia's city council and then to Pennsylvania's state senate, both celebrated at the bar—and tragedies—Acosta and Inez split up; Jenn dies in a spectacular way that echoes Kathy Change's death, greatly affecting Ruby—but the life in the bar goes on; only Jenn leaves the fold. In the last full scene—there's a short epilogue that's a flashback to Ruby at 11 that reveals a secret Daphne had kept from everyone else and might be an explanation of why she took so strongly to Ruby—Ruby has taken her adoptive mother's place behind the bar, a signal that the world of Daphne's Dive will continue into the next generation, just with a new Daphne.
Though I'd read the writer's name for a few years, Daphne's Dive is my first experience with a Hudes play. My only intimation of what to expect was the New York Times review (I don't read the other reviews in my round-up until after I've written my report) and I thought Christopher Isherwood was quite positive in all respects: the writing, directing, and acting. Well, I'm here to tell you Daphne's Dive was the longest 100 minutes I've sat through in a pretty long time! As I said to Diana (who mostly agreed with me, but she's always less forgiving than I am) when we'd left the theater (I didn't feel like contending with anyone from the audience who might overhear me): I found everything about Daphne's Dive artificial: the characters, the situation, the dialogue, the acting, the directing—even, to an extent, the set. (The play covers 18 years, from 1994 to 2011, and not one thing in set designer Donyale Werle's bar changes in all that time. Even if Daphne never redecorates or renovates, things break and have to be replaced; electric signs burn out and new ones are brought in by the brewers, distillers, or distributors. But apparently not in North Philly.) I'll go into detail in a bit, but I didn't believe one moment of this play. (In case you're wondering: it's supposed to be Realism, not stylized. Or if it's supposed to be stylized, the director and cast pull way too far back.)
As for the writing, I'll go into that in a moment, too, but I also said to Diana afterwards that I can't believe this was written by a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright. It comes close to amateurism, like an MFA (or maybe even BFA) playwriting student trying something she's not ready to handle yet. It also doesn't seem to have a theme or point, though as a "slice of life," it isn't credible. (Toast, by Brit playwright Richard Bean and on which I reported on 19 May, is a slice-of-life play, with no message or theme, but it was totally credible.)
And speaking of Toast, which was an excellent ensemble production, Daphne's Dive's supposed to be one, too—except it isn't. It's a collection of seven actors—same number as Toast, coincidentally—who are each doing his or her own thing. Where was director Kail in all this? Many reviewers compared Daphne's Dive to Cheers, the '80s TV sitcom where the patrons and staff of the bar formed a sort of ad hoc family (which is what the characters of Toast did as well), but my analogy would be Robert Patrick's Kennedy's Children (Broadway, 1975) in which the bar drinkers are entirely unconnected to each other (by design, not bad acting or directing) and exist in their own cocoons. Of course, Kennedy's Children isn't a very theatrically exciting play—a series of monologues, really.
Hudes said that the idea of Daphne's Dive started with the setting, an evocation of her stepfather's North Philly bar, and Donyale Werle has brought that to life in all its neighborhood comfort and warmth. The place is worn and tattered, but in a friendly and welcoming way. The mismatched tables, the barstools that include one with a torn seat mended with duct tape, the small strip of sidewalk just outside with the newspaper box (one wall of the bar is truncated so we can see outside) all add up to a kind of surrogate home—for some, a get-away; for others, a refuge. That a gang of diverse folks, all with different connections to the neighborhood, would form a microcosmic community here is perfectly believable. It's importance to all of the group is demonstrated when Acosta and Inez watch the election returns in his first race on the TV with the long-broken speakers in the bar with the friends who knew him as a scrounger, rather than at an election headquarters with his campaign workers or in a reception hall with his well-wishers. (That the set doesn't change at all over the span of the play doesn't diminish Werle's fundamental achievement.)
The bar set's lit by Betsy Adams with a light level just low enough to suggest Daphne's Dive is only a few lumens above a Hernando's Hideaway—not "a dark, secluded place" exactly, but not permanent daylight, either. Nevin Steinberg's sound is principally the piano music from the musician's apartment upstairs—which, after the first scene when it's introduced, is mostly used to cover the scene changes for the curtain-less and intermissionless production. (The bar may be an eighth character in Daphne's Dive, but the subliminal presence of Michel Camilo, despite Hudes's insistence on his importance, never really rises to that level. The playing merely remains background music.) The character's clothes, though, are much more significant and Toni-Leslie James's designs are tailored (if you will) for each one's personality and social standing out in the world (not in the bar, by the way: in there, everyone's equal). Acosta's fitted suits, and Inez's fashion wigs (by Robert-Charles Vallance), stylish shoes and dresses—she favors bright colors, too—tell the appropriate tales, just as Rey's worn jeans and bandana or Jenn's boho-theatrical get-ups do.
Director Kail, whose credits include not just In the Heights, his previous collaboration with Hudes, but also Miranda's blockbuster hit, Hamilton, both at the Public Theater and on Broadway, does a good job of keeping the actors moving about the bar without making it look like a square dance. Signature's Courtyard Theater is configured as what an Off-Off-Broadway artistic director I knew called a "butterfly" stage: audience on two opposite sides of the square platform, which is somewhat more problematic than either the three-sided thrust or the all-around arena. While one reviewer registered a complaint about his view of the actor speaking being blocked by another member of the company, I never had that problem from my fourth-row seat, one in from the "upstage" aisle. Other aspects of the actors' work, however, were more troublesome. As I mentioned earlier, there was a lack of connection among the seven members of this impromptu family group. I never really felt that they were as intimately linked as Hudes's words told me they were. Each character was well enough delineated, but it was as if they'd each rehearsed alone somehow and came together just for the performances. (I keep going back to Toast, with which I had a different set of issues, but there was no question in my mind while watching that performance that those men had known each other for a long time. Admittedly, most of that cast had been doing the play since 2014, which may account for some of that intimacy.) In my experience, this deficiency is the director's fault.
To the extent that the performances are partly at fault for the lackluster production, I also blame Kail for either sending the actors in the wrong direction or not pulling them out of a rabbit hole. (It was my experience as an actor that when a cast has absent or inadequate direction, the actors will find their own paths, but each one will be individual.) The clearest example I saw in Daphne's Dive was Daphne Rubin-Vega's Inez. I've never found Rubin-Vega a mannered actor (though I confess that my experience of her work is limited to film and TV; I'd never seen her on stage before this), but in Hudes's play, she flailed her arms and flapped her hands so much I thought she might soon lift off. If this was a character choice, it didn't communicate anything about Inez to me, and if it was just an acting tic, Kail ought to have damped it. As it was, it became a distraction. Nothing else on the Linney stage was that obvious, but everyone seemed to be trying just a little too hard to put the diverse characters across with, as the saying goes, feeling. It all came off as acting rather than behaving. It may have been generated by one of the problems I see in Hudes's writing, which I cover below, where she seems to have loaded—actually overloaded—each character with arbitrary traits which the actors had to scramble to evince. Of course, I'm just guessing at the cause—but the effect was undeniable to me.
I certainly hope (and assume) that the quality of Hudes's dramaturgy is better in her prize-winning play than I found it in Daphne's Dive. I can't say that the playwright was more connected to the story of the troubled war vet than to the patrons of Daphne's bar—after all, characters and situations in both plays are based on her extended family—but that would explain the feeling I had that this script was a slapdash effort. My impression of Daphne's Dive, in addition to what I said before, is that Hudes assembled a bunch of characteristics and incidents she liked and hadn't already used (plus some, I believe, she had), and just lumped them together in a sort of omnibus play—a grab-bag of snips and scraps from her past. She said that Ruby would act as a "catalyst that will change the life of a group of people," but that never really seems to happen. In fact, the one common trait with which Hudes imbued her characters is almost universal goodwill and decency: these people, far from being "hardened," don't need a "jolt of empathy" to hold out a hand to someone from their community who needs help. Ruby's a presence in the bar and the play, but no more than the other six characters; the technique of having her introduce each scene by announcing her age is a theatrical contrivance that doesn't make Ruby the person in the play to whom the story happens, even if that's what Hudes intended. In fact, except for the moment she's found behind the building, Ruby's insertion into this on-going collective hardly affects them at all; no one seems to change what they do or say or how they do or say it because Ruby's there now. Wiley does a nice enough job portraying the character, but she's by no means the mover of this drama.
Hudes's language in Daphne's Dive alternates between ordinary-sounding speech, inflected believably according to each character's background and personality, and hifalutin, not-quite-poetic language that comes off as brittle and studied, the kind of phrases only a writer would compose. (Sometimes lyrical Realism works great: Tennessee Williams did it and so did Ibsen, Chekhov, and Shaw; Neil Simon uses it, too, as did Lorraine Hansberry and Lanford and August Wilson. But Hudes doesn't seem to be in that company yet.) The playwright also seems to have taken characteristics from some of her family and others and just scattered them around like grass seed, hoping that some will take root. There are just too many quirks and personality traits for this little bunch of characters in such a small-scale play; it's like the way I feel about the characters and situations. (According to STC's program for Daphne's Dive, the play had a dramaturg. I have no idea if he worked with Hudes on the composition of the play—she's never mentioned using a dramaturg in any of her descriptions of her writing process and the program credit is for a "production dramaturg," who usually works with the director and writer in rehearsals more than during the creation process—but it seems to me she could have used one in his editorial capacity.)
In its survey of 24 reviews, Show-Score reports that Daphne's Dive received 67% positive notices against no negative ones and 33% mixed reviews for an average score of 73 (out of 100). One of the two strongest reviews in the dailies was in Elisabeth Vincentelli's New York Post omnibus column. The Post reviewer dubbed the play a "dramedy" which "suggests a real sense of community, with people with whom you'd actually want to hang out." Vincentelli devoted the rest of her brief review to praising Samira Wiley's "unassuming skill" and Daphne Rubin-Vega's "best performance in years." In his equally short notice in New York's Daily News, Joe Dziemianowicz reported that Hudes, who "writes about families forged by blood and makeshift means," depicts "a group portrait that packs compassion but lacks cohesion."
Tied with the Post in Show-Score's tally, Christopher Isherwood's New York Times review described Daphne's Dive as a "warm-spirited if loose-jointed new play" which "feels at times like a throwback to television comedies of an earlier era, the politically engaged Norman Lear years." The play's characters, Isherwood affirmed, "may seem an oddly assorted bunch, but as we come to know them, their easygoing, genial interaction and interdependence come to seem natural," demonstrating Hudes's "supple feel for characterization and a wide-ranging sympathy for life's waifs and strays." Not that the Times reviewer found in the play "entirely credible—or free of a sprinkling of sentimentality," noting especially Jenn's death. Kail "displays once again a fine instinct for shaping ensemble work" and though Werle's "nicely funky" set "divides the auditorium so that at times we may not be able to read the characters' faces," the Timesman promised "there's never a point at which we don't feel connected to them and their connections to one another." Isherwood had high praise for the actors: Vanessa Aspillaga's Daphne "combines a certain dryness with submerged warmth," KK Moggie's Jenn "thankfully remains just this side of cloyingly whimsical," and Matt Saldivar's Pablo "radiates confidence." Rubin-Vega "zings out" Inez's quips "with appealing élan" and Carlos Gomez's Acosta "manages to project a swaggering ambition that nevertheless doesn't obscure his instinctive sympathy." Of special note is Wiley's "remarkable skill" in playing Ruby, particularly as the young woman in the middle scenes when, Isherwood felt, the actor's "performance darkens in spirit as Ruby fights her way through her suffering." The review-writer acknowledged, "The play's episodic structure can make it seem like, well, a series of television episodes plucked from different seasons," but insisted that this isn't a fault: "It's more like high praise."
The Guardian's Alexis Soloski wrote that Daphne's Dive "is about the ways in which we seek connection with the people around us, sometimes finding it, sometimes failing it," like her earlier plays, but the "structure of Daphne's Dive, as directed by Hamilton hotshot Thomas Kail, is unhelpfully looser than in past plays." Soloski complained that "the characterizations feel a little schematic," but advised, "These are not stock figures," though they're "not as richly textured as they might be." Also, observed the Guardian reviewer, "Hudes' extraordinary sincerity . . . can sometimes come across as naiveté, although it isn't quite." Soloski added that "the plotting and characterizations don't quite prop up the bar"; however, Hudes's work has "an unassailable heart" which Soloski asserted is a manifestation of "a fierce compassion for the people she creates and an equally ardent love for the ethnically and culturally diverse city that raised her." The review-writer felt that the bar isn't exactly a "melting pot," but "it is the rum punch that Daphne offers, in which the separate flavors mingle, but remain somehow distinct." She concluded, "It's worth downing." In the New Yorker's "Goings On About Town" column, the reviewer remarked that Hudes "hews slavishly to the tavern-drama format: throw a bunch of quirky individuals together in a small room, pour a few drinks, and let 'em talk." The columnist complained, "The characters don't so much converse as trade exposition, and even the surprise reveals are predictable," and concluded, "This unhappy family displays a ponderous lack of imagination."
Marilyn Stasio summed up Daphne's Dive as "a sweet play, but it doesn't have much heft" in Variety. With praise for the actors, Stasio dismissed Hudes's intimation that Ruby "will cleanse their souls and change their lives," saying (as I did) that since the bar's patrons are such "decent folks to begin with," the play's "plot line is a non-starter." Despite Hudes's "juicy dialogue," a play "without a plot or something of consequence at stake . . . slips into the conventional vein of those static ensemble pieces set in diners, barbershops, hair salons, and bars" and even Kail's "joyful inventiveness" can't "pump some life into that static genre format." Concluded Stasio, "Barroom plays are fun to visit, but you don't really want to live there." Time Out New York's David Cote, calling Daphne's Dive an "episodic narrative," described the play as a "slow-burning, vibrantly sketched portrait of a scruffy North Philly booze joint run by love-scarred Daphne." The man from TONY wrote that Aspillaga "anchors" the play as Daphne and is "[s]weetly centered yet able to project panic and terror in a heartbeat"; as Ruby, Wiley is "heartbreaking."
In Entertainment Weekly, Melissa Rose Bernardo complained that Daphne's Dive "could use a little more length and a lot more exposition." Nonetheless, the EW writer promised, "there's plenty of fodder for a boozy barroom drama." The Hollywood Reporter's Frank Scheck stated in his "Bottom Line": "Like the drinks served at the play's dive-bar setting, not very potent." Noting, "Plays set in bars are a time-honored theatrical tradition," Scheck affirmed that they "usually have more depth than" Daphne's Dive. "Not that there's a dearth of drama going on in" the play, reported the HR reviewer, but "it all speeds by so quickly—and paradoxically, sluggishly—that the play feels like a sketch for a more fully worked-out drama that hasn't yet been written." Scheck explained that the playwright "displays a strong feel for her well-drawn characters and their hermetically sealed milieu. But that doesn't prevent the play from feeling both overstuffed and undernourished" and "too much of the dialogue feels forced and rambling." While Wiley is "particularly moving" as Ruby, Kail has directed "evocatively," and Werle's bar setting is "exactly the sort of place you wouldn't mind ducking into," Scheck warned "that the price of a drink includes a lot of listening to other people's problems."
Brian Scott Lipton on Theatre Pizzazz asserted that Hudes puts "alternately poetic and fiercely realistic words" in the mouths of her "well-drawn characters" in Daphne's Dive. Director Kail "lets the piece unfold at its own pace, which may feel a little too leisurely for the show's first 15 minutes. But the momentum builds" as the play progresses. Lipton complimented the "crackerjack cast" and recommended, "So when theater this real is presented to us, we have only one choice: drink it in!" CurtainUp's Elyse Sommer described Hudes's play as "a believable but hardly a feel-good portrait of an era," though she warned, "But don't expect this neatly constructed forward and backward trajectory to wind things up happily." Instead, the CU review-writer said, the playwright "dives into these characters['] pasts and presents, pain and passions" to show "a group of people trying—not always successfully—to help each other to celebrate good times and deal with the sad ones." Sommer's sole complaint was that the plays "flow would have been improved by tightening the script to lose about ten minutes" off its hour-and-40-minute length, even though, with "Kail's direction, the cast taps into the play's most powerful moments." The CU notice also included praise for Werle's set, James's costumes, Vallance's wigs and hairstyles, and Camilo's musical compositions.
On Broadway World, Michael Dale found Hudes's writing in Daphne's Dive "warm and inviting" and added that director Kail's "very strong cast makes this new drama worth a visit," with Werle's set, which is "terrifically accurate," and Camilo's "funky" score, "a snazzy mood-enhancer." Dale noted, however, "Without a continuous plot, DAPHNE'S DIVE is more of a portrait of lives realized through a collage of events." Arpita Mukherjee asserted that Daphne's Dive, "a microcosm of the 'real America,'" is "a testament to the need for diversity in theatre." on Stage Buddy. Hudes's "writing explores each character's story," but "does not always delve deeply"; the "ensemble is top-notch," however, and "rises to the challenge." Our Stage Buddy concluded, "Hudes' latest work is an unapologetic and brave look at America becoming." NY Theatre Guide's Jane Dentinger wrote that Kail's direction "is seamless" and Werle "has provided a perfectly weathered bar," lit with "just the right seedy tones" by Betsy Adams. Hudes's "writing is wonderful," asserted Dentinger, but added that "much of her sly humor is lost here amidst domestic and political polemics, which makes some of the performances seem forced." The cyber reviewer, though, ended by saying, "Still there is fun to be had in Daphne Rubin-Vega's sly turn as Inez." and "Carlos Gomez, whose charisma grounds his Acosta in something more than sheer ambition"; but "it's Samira Wiley's tender and passionate rendering of Ruby. . . that gives this play its heart and meaning."
Tulis McCall of New York Theatre Guide (not to be confused with NY Theatre Guide, above—yeah, I know: one of the sites should get a more distinct name!) suggested that Daphne's Dive "is one of those plays . . . that makes you wonder if anyone read it before they decided to produce it." For one thing, the cast of characters is "excellent," with "[l]ots of potential," providing "all the ingredients for a feast," but McCall found that "while Hudes does try to connect the dots, these people's paths cross with only the barest of connections." The "fine cast has to deal with inconsistencies and missing information" and the play ends up being "a surface offering. This play told me about these people but never let me in." McCall offered a simile for her Daphne's Dive experience:
Kind of like a chef who describes the dish she is about to prepare but forgets to bring it to your table. I want to taste the food. Hell, I want to go into the kitchen and look in the garbage pails. I want the whole deal, not the story of the whole deal.
On Deadline, Jeremy Gerard dubbed the STC production "fine work" in one of Show-Score's highest-rated reviews, affirming that "Hudes has a fine grasp of the friction created by the social tectonic plates that shift according to the waves of gentrification and governance." Gerard also reported, "It's all beautifully calibrated under the direction of Thomas Kail . . . in Donyale Werle's terrific environmental set, atmospherically lit by Betsy Adams." The Deadliner added that Toni-Leslie James's costumes "are also character-perfect" and he complimented the acting as "all of a piece," especially lauding Wiley as "outstanding." Hayley Levitt reported that thanks to Hudes and Kail, Daphne's Dive "breathes the . . . slightly gritt[y], air of a flawed yet united community" on TheaterMania. Levitt complained that, while the relationship of Daphne and Ruby "is by far the most compelling thread of" Hudes's play, "we get only an occasional scene for them to illustrate their . . . bond." "It's difficult to find the eye of the storm in Hudes' busy web of characters and story," explained the TM reviewer, adding, "As much as the ancillary characters help define the community . . ., their sheer multitude makes it difficult to invest in any one journey." In the end, however, Levitt found that "Hudes, Kail, and their accomplished cast have made Daphne's Dive more than the sum of its parts."
[For those born too late to know about The Churkendoose, it was a children's story published as a book by Ben Ross Berenberg in 1946 (Wonder Books). A year later, Decca Records issued a recording of Ray Bolger narrating and singing the story and lyrics of Berenberg, set to music of Alec Wilder, played by an orchestra directed by Mitchell (Mitch) Miller. Just about every Baby Boomer (like, ahem, me) grew up with this tale of a peculiar bird hatched from a mysterious egg on which all the barnyard fowl—a chicken, a turkey, a duck, and a goose—took turns sitting. When it was hatched, the bird was a combination of all four, hence, a "churkendoose." But the new bird was odd-looking and was turned away by the others—until a fox came lurking around the coop. The lesson of the story is that sometimes differences can be a good thing and "it all depends on how you look at things."]


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E-Learning: Where Nurses Turn for Success
Online Learning While hands-on practice will always have a place in the field, more and more nurses are placing an initial emphasis on building an educational foundation—putting down their stethoscopes and picking up their laptops instead.
Your first step in determining if online education is right for you is to conduct a thorough self-assessment to determine which instructional format is most conducive to learning.
Some students learn better in the traditional classroom setting and through face-to-face student-teacher exchanges. Others are more comfortable with technology-facilitated interactions, and prefer to spend more time focused on individual learning. The online learning environment may not be optimal for everyone, so you have to know what works best for you.
Taking it online
Students considering an online program should use the same criteria for selecting a program that they would use in choosing a traditional program, including choosing an accredited program, locating programs that will help you reach your professional goals and finding schools that specializes in your primary area of interest.
"Nurses are choosing online programs to advance their education to remain competitive and meet the expectations of today's employers."
Those taking classes remotely should fully invest in their education by leveraging the many learning resources and opportunities offered by the school of nursing. These may include extensive online libraries, learning labs, skill-building webinars, networking platforms and forums for student engagement.
Bucking misconception
The biggest mistake a student can make is assuming that online courses are less rigorous than in-person classes. Online courses take discipline, strong writing skills and keen organizational abilities. Students in online courses are expected to answer all questions, provide regular feedback through discussion forums and complete just as many assignments. There's no hiding in the back of the class in an online program!
In increasing numbers, nurses are choosing online programs to advance their education to remain competitive and meet the expectations of today's employers. Those considering a distance education program are encouraged to speak with program administrators at their local school of nursing to find out more about what specific skill sets and strategies are most useful to student success in an online environment.


text:
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text:
Iran Announces Eligible Bid Companies
The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has published a list of 29 international companies who are allowed to bid for oil and gas projects in Iran following the less restrictive Iran Petroleum Contract (IPC) model.
Some of the companies included in the pre-qualification list are Shell, Total (France), Eni (Italy), Petronas (Malaysia), Gazprom and Lukoil (Russia). Firms from China, Austria, and Japan are also included in the list. Oil giant BP was not included in the list after they opted out of the bidding due to concerns over possible renewed US-Iran tensions after President-elect Donald Trump takes office on 20 January 2017.
Wintershall (Germany), Maersk (Finland), DNO (Norway), and CEPSA (Spain) are some of the major newcomers, with BP (UK) and Statoil (Norway) being absent from the list.


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Home-schooled students who would be assigned to attend a public school in Sebastian County and who wish to participate in the 2014 Sebastian County Spelling Bee should contact Carl Hill, Spelling Bee Coordinator, at Barling Elementary School. He may be contacted by telephone at 479-452-0211.
Deadline for these students to identify themselves is Friday, October 18, 2013. A list of home-schooled participants will be compiled so a home-schooled bee might be held to determine representatives to the County Spelling Bee.
The County Spelling Bee is open to winners of qualifying bees who are not past the eighth grade and have not reached age 16 prior to the National Spelling Bee.
The County Spelling Bee will be held Saturday, January 25, 2014 in Breedlove Auditorium at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith.
BancorpSouth has been the corporate sponsor for the Sebastian County Spelling Bee for 30 years.
For additional information: Carl Hill – 479-452-0211.


text:
Genuine Download iOS 11 iPSW Links – Jailbreak/ Cydia Install
Download iOS 11 IPSW for iPhone 7 Plus 7 6s SE 6 5s iPod or iPad [Beta 1]
It iPod Gen 6, iPad mini 2 and more, iPhone 5s, SE, 6, 6s, 7 and 7 to install and iOS IPSW 11 Beta 1 Download now possible. The Apple Developer program can only access registered members who are, iOS 11, WWDC introduced in 2017,Apple iDevices to the newest software update. It is no longer the most accepted mobile operating system feature in the All Of world. After a month in the public beta testers iOS 11, 11.0.1 and iOS 11.0.2 final version in the fall, will get to arrive public. The Apple development program can quickly move into 11 changes to the stage before recording people happy and iOS, the first seed pre-seizure again and begin to develop to stand out. In fact, not the Apple developers program at the WWDC to participate this year, enthusiasts, and they are not recruited but Apple's beta software through constant search and Apple firmware iOS is 11 seed tickets receive soon. And iOS 11 jailbreak with Cydia Install developers start the hard work to release PanGu 11 Tool For Install Cydia For iPhone 7/ 7+ and Upcoming iPhone 8 and 8 Plus.
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This Configuration Profile Used To Install iOS 11 Comment Beta 1
- Download the configuration profile of Apple developers Download page. Your iOS 11 device directly to the configuration profile and follow install to download the instructions. Otherwise, your Mac or Windows computer to save the file to your hard drive and an account on your iPhone, you can send an email. See Messaging Setup and press Install and follow the instructions.
- After installing the configuration profiles, go to Settings> General> Software Update.
- Press to download and install. Now upgrade faucet to install. When prompted, enter the password.
This official confirmation means that Apple can finally drop support for a number of devices leaving the final list of supported iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch to 64-bit hardware only:
- iPhone 7
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Before You Begin, Consider The Following: iOS 11
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- If you do not, you can sign up for $ 99 a year. Beta version so please at your own risk will go in general.
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- iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch models, iOS 11 our post-control support, namely: IOS 11 supported Video: iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch models
Download iOS 11 IPSW With iPhone 7+, 7, 6s, 6, 5s, you, iPod and iPad compatible As a result of your support on iPhone, guide iOS 11 steps on how to install the beta. Check if your device is supported, and you can check your qualifications. The primary beta version of iOS 11, and it is recommended to note that you do not install basic because it is prone to problems and errors. Test idevices shall be used.
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Tep iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, iOS 11 to Download and Install
- Go to your https://developer.apple.com/programs/ and register. If you are already registered, skip to step two
- Download iOS 11
- The "Account" program Use your Apple ID to access.
- Install iOS 11 with your Apple UDID on the device as beta recording. ITunes connect your device, select it, and then click the UDID serial number to see. Copy it.
- "Account" button to "ensure identification and profile" Left, will be the "Devices" section. This section is click "all". Click the right pane of "+", then add your UDID.
- UDID set after development -> Downloads to go "to the URL available on this page :. Https://developer.apple.com/download/


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Name: Sean O'Sullivan
DOB: 29th April 1994
Nationality: English
Turned Pro: 2012
Highest Ranking: 91 (2013)
Highest Break: 142 (2013 China Open Qualifiers)
Career Highlights: 2014 Riga Open quarter-finalist, 2012 Q School qualifier, 2013 China Open last 64, 2014 UK Championship last 64
Twitter: @SeanTheStorm147
Amateur Career
Nicknamed 'The Storm', talented Londoner Sean O'Sullivan first came close to qualifying for the main tour in 2011 as he reached the fourth round of the second Q School event of that year, before losing 4-0 to eventual qualifier Tian Pengfei.
A year later however and Sean was to go all the way, seeing off Christopher Keogan, Nick Dyson, Mohammed Al-Shaikh, Michael Wild and Ryan Causton to earn a two-year tour card from 2012/13.
A new professional for 2012/13, Sean was to struggle during the early phase of the season, winning just three matches during the first half of the campaign.
Better was to come early in 2013 however, as he defeated Craig Steadman and Alfie Burden to reach the third qualifying round of the China Open qualifiers, where he lost out 5-3 to Rory McLeod.
The following season was to prove equally tricky for Sean, as he won just seven matches in all events and failed to progress beyond the last 64 stage of a full-ranking event.
He was able to score notable wins against Joe Perry and Anthony Hamilton during the season, but finishing ranked 102nd, his relegation from the tour was confirmed.
Competing as an amateur, Sean O'Sullivan was to enjoy a strong season during 2014/15, reaching the quarter-finals of the Riga Open to all but secure his main tour return from the start of the 2015/16 season thanks to his position on the European Order of Merit.
He would however first qualify from the Asian Order of Merit as his six matches won at Asian Tour events were enough to see him finish high enough up that list to rubber-stamp his professional return.
His season would come to an end at the World Championship qualifiers as he lost a dramatic match 10-8 to Leicester's Ben Woollaston.


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Sunday, January 11, 2009
More Two Towers
When i was working at Stormfront on EA's The Two Towers game, we came up with a good deisgn system for the levels. First the level designer would make a blue print of the level on graph paper. He would indicate height of the terain, positions of buildings, and locations of characters. A lelv modeler would scan the drawing in and lay it over a flat 3d planne, then raise the emsh to the correct height and place in basic shapes to stand in for house and trees. The we owuld throw in soem basic lights. After that we would take 12 or so screen shots of various locatiosn in the level and then draw over them and if we had time color them as well. Then the set and props modelers would take these drawing and build the whole level as closely to the drawings as possible. It worked out pretty good. It was my job to makse sure the final level looked as close to the drawings and aintigns that EA approved as possible. It was fun but that project was very stressful.
5 comments:
it's cool how easy you explain the creation of a level with its shapes and stuff.ReplyDelete
Especially the last painting looks cool. It's the perfect visual comparison of 2 pictures comibined in one.
How long is the process of what you've told especially in that level?
Hey, Bill...I know we talked about this approach for Full Throttle 2. Didn't realize you successfully put it into practice. Very cool.ReplyDelete
The level designer spent 3-5 days on the map, then the 3d modeler spent two to three days making the level in 'gray box' form with the map as a texture. then the level designer would play the level in the game for a few days and make some tweaks with the 3d modeler. Then when the level designer was happy it would go to the level model team, made up of three guys. one would do terrain, the other two FX, props and sets like buildings. Then the level design would script in the enemies and triggers and the like. Took about 6-8 weeks form start to finish. it was a pretty intense assembly line kind of process because we were under an hard deadline to be out in time with the movie.ReplyDelete
So on Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine it was too top down in production, and too free form. Also the levels designer also made the level models and not all of them were good modelers- some were good designers and weak modelers and others were good at both, and other not good modelers so we had a very inconsistent feel from level to level. So i proposed this process in a postmortem and got some good feedback, and Larry and I never got a chance to implement it for FT Payback. But it became the de facto way to get TT done in time. Worked out well. We won awards for art direction and graphics.ReplyDelete
Keep sharing such ideas in the future as well. I am glad to came here! Best of luck for the next! SEO Company in PakistanReplyDelete


text:
Evening dress
about 1915
Object Place: United States
132 x 88 cm (51 15/16 x 34 5/8 in.)
Accession Number
Medium or Technique
Silk satin and gold-colored metallic warppped thread brocade, silk taffeta, silk satin, gold-colored metallic wrapped thread net, gold-colored metallic wrapped thread with white-colored rhinestones net, taffeta (synthetic?), net (synthetic?), metal and rhinestone ornament and metal closures
Not On View
Americas, Textiles and Fashion Arts
An evening dress of green satin brocaded with pink, green, yellow, and blue silks, and gold metal thread in all-over design of serpentine stems bearing a variety of carnation blossoms; low cut neck with surplice line both front and back of bodice, hooked down back of bodice, short straight sleeves, skirt without much fullness, longer in back forming train,open down entire length of left side to show gold fish net over pink taffeta, this opening caught at center by butterfly of rhinestones, left side of bodice and both sleeves made of gold fish net with rhinestones at intersections of netting.
Credit Line
Gift in memory of Mrs. Horatio Appleton Lamb


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Ammon is out of town on a business trip. He left super early yesterday to fly to Minneapolis for a Target meeting. Noah and I have been fine and have been keeping up with our routine but it's sad not to have Ammon here with us. He'll get home late tonight and I'm so glad!
In other news, we didn't get into the Air Force. They told us that we really didn't have a good chance of getting in from the very beginning. They told us that they recruit their officers first from the academy, then from within the AF, and lastly, outside hires... Plus, they are not in need of many officers right now... Not many are leaving the AF! I guess the benefits are too great. Ammon has a good job right now and staying in NC is good too. Not getting in the AF means that we now get to look for a house to buy! We're very excited to get our own house but haven't had any luck finding one yet. We've looked at quite a few and we have more that we're going to look at tomorrow. Hopefully we'll find one soon. We'd like to move before this baby comes! (in about 3 months!)
Noah is slowly getting better with the clinginess. Hooray! He is so funny. He is learning new words all the time and really communicating like a little person! It's fun to see him grow up. Last night we were playing in his room before bedtime and he kept laying down on the floor and saying, "night night." I was hoping he'd stay up a little later since I didn't have Ammon here but, he was ready for bed. Mom says that I would tell her when I was ready to go to bed too as a baby. Like mother, like son. I went in to check on him a few hours later and he had piled his blankets up at the foot of his bed. Then he had put his pillow on top of the blankets and was sleeping on top of his pillow! I wish I could've gotten a picture of it but he is such a light sleeper, it would've woken him up. I am amazed when I see other children sleep through noises and being picked up and moved other places. Not my Noah... he needs to fall asleep in his bed and he will wake up if he hears or feels anything.
I think while Ammon is gone, I'm going to organize our bedroom. I've been doing a good job at keeping the main area and Noah's room clean but our room is another story. Ammon bought me scrapbooking furniture for Mothers' Day and I'm still trying to organize all my stuff to fit in there. So I've got that all over the floor and desk, I've got piles of clean laundry around and who knows what else is in there... Seriously, it's bad. I'm hoping that Noah will sleep awhile so I can get it done. I'm also hoping that putting it up here on the blog will make me do it! We'll see...
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Random Stuff
Ammon is out of town on a business trip. He left super early yesterday to fly to Minneapolis for a Target meeting. Noah and I have been fine and have been keeping up with our routine but it's sad not to have Ammon here with us. He'll get home late tonight and I'm so glad!
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Bubble Time
Chasing the BIG one!
I want to try!
He does this sometimes and it really makes me laugh! "I can't hear you!"
Noah thought it was funny to crawl through Ammon's legs like this. Silly boy!
Lots of bubbles!
I like this one a lot.
Trying to push Daddy over.
ACTUALLY pushing Daddy over. Haha!
Posted by Jessica 4 friends stopped by
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Growing Up
Another thing he's been doing lately is driving! Noah and I are usually outside playing when Ammon gets home from work. As soon as Noah sees the truck pull into the driveway he gets all excited to "drive". He runs right to the passenger side door, Ammon lets him and and he goes to town! He turns the wheel, uses the turn signals, he even shifts! He honks the horn and today Ammon taught him how to turn his hazard lights on. He tries to make car noises, which is pretty funny. It's usually a high pitched tongue roll. Ha! He'll stay in there as long as you'll let him. I should get a video of it before it's not so cute anymore.
And I'll leave you with a picture of Noah. He looks so much older to me these past few weeks! Maybe it's because his hair is getting thicker? Not sure... I haven't taken many pictures lately. I think it's partly due to the whole clingy thing. I told Ammon that I'd like to take some portraits of our family soon. Hopefully we can make that happen. This picture was taken at Sciworks last week. My good friend, Shanna and I took all the kids there. It was fun to get out and be with friends for awhile.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Immortality - Eternal life
Post by Ammon
I am going to make a lot of assumptions as to your understanding and knowledge so that I don't have to do a lot of explaining. I apologize if you are not able to follow this and get lost. If yo uhave questions ask and then I'll explain.
As I read through Russell M. Nelson's talk, Salvation and Exaltation, from this past general conference I came across the following two paragraphs.
Resurrection, or immortality comes to every man and every woman as an unconditional gift.
Eternal life, or celestial glory or exaltation, is a conditional gift. …eternal life, which gift is the greatest of all the gifts of God.
This makes a clear distinction between immortality and eternal life. I would have to say that most of the time these are used together and rarely compared to one another. Did you know there was a difference? Do you know what that difference is? This got me thinking as after some brief research I have found a few interesting tidbits.
Immortality, to my understanding, is to basically not end. If you are immortal you don't end. To contrast this, eternal life is to continue. I'm sure this made things clear as mud. The thing you have to keep in mind is the "life" part. "Eternal life" describes what is going to continue. The example I got in my head to be able to grasp this mind puzzling phenomenon is this:
A rock cannot die, it is immortal. This does not mean that the rock has life. Those that only receive immortality only will not die; this does not mean they have continuing life. Life constitutes growth, adaptation, and most importantly reproduction. Those that meet the conditions to obtain this "greatest of all gifts" are those that will get to have continuing life, without beginning or end, eternal life.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
ok so no one actually tagged me but I wanted in on the fun too! I'm going to start this one and then tag 5 people at the end.
A-Z Tag
A- ATTACHED OR SINGLE: Happily attached to Ammon!
B- BEST FRIEND: My boys, Ammon and Noah, and also Corey.
C- CAKE OR PIE: I actually don't like either so much... I don't have much of a sweet tooth but I must admit that since I've been married, I've grown to like chocolate. If I had to pick, I'd pick pumpkin pie with PLENTY of whipped cream!
D- DAY OF CHOICE: Saturdays! Ammon lets me sleep in every Saturday. Oh and Thursdays too... The Office! Holla! (haha, mom)
E- ESSENTIAL ITEM: My Reef flip flops. Seriously, I wear them every single day. Even in the snow.
F- FAVORITE COLOR: I really can't pick just one. Right now I'm really diggin' green.
G- GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENT: Noah. Man! He is one cool kid!
H- HOMETOWN: Hmmm... Ohio?
I- INDULGENCES: Right now with the pregnancy, I indulge with Resse's milkshakes from
Cookout. Yum!
J- JANUARY OR JULY: This is a toss-up... I hate the awful heat in July but don't like the ice in January either.
K- KIDS: 2 (Noah and Baby Boy 2 in August)
L- LIFE IS INCOMPLETE WITHOUT: My family.
M- MARRIAGE DATE: July 16, 2005
N- NUMBER OF SIBLINGS: 5. 2 brothers and 2 sisters.
O- ORANGES OR APPLES: Yum! Oranges all the way.
P- PHOBIAS OR FEARS: Bad things happening to my family. and spiders.
Q- QUOTES: If you watch the Office, you'll understand. "What part of shorn't don't you understand?!" - Michael
R- REASON TO SMILE: I have an amazing husband who takes care of me. My family is all healthy at the moment! Noah has started to "pretend". It is so cute. He'll pretend to take a bite out of something and then say, "Mmmmm..."
S- SEASON: This one is hard! I have a hard time picking a favorite anything! I pick spring. No, fall. No wait, spring. Ugghh! I don't know...
T- TAG FIVE FRIENDS: I tag Mom, Michelle, Joni, Corey and Beck.
U- UNKNOWN FACT ABOUT ME: I have never broken a bone or been stung by a bee.
V- VERY FAVORITE STORE: Does craigslist count? I find the best deals on there! Other than that, Target.
W- WORST HABIT: I asked Ammon and he said, "not putting stuff away". Yeah, it's true...
X- X-RAY OR ULTRASOUND: what? I'll say ultrasound because you get pictures of your cute baby!
Y- YOUR FAVORITE FOOD: I'm a sucker for bread. I love rolls, breadsticks, garlic bread... All bread!
Z- ZODIAC: Gemini - The twins
Ok, i did it. Now back up to the letter "T" and if I tagged you, then it's your turn to do it! Have fun! And I have a few more of these that I'm sure I'll break out soon. :)
Posted by Jessica 6 friends stopped by
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Home Alone
Any ideas on how to break the clinginess? He really didn't used to be like this. I don't give in and let him have me all the time but that doesn't seem to make things any better... Hopefully outings with his dad will help. Happy Saturday! Back to cleaning for me.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Ammon's Score
I thought I was faster than this...
Posted by Jessica 5 friends stopped by
Sunday, April 13, 2008
1st Family Bike Ride
Posted by Jessica 3 friends stopped by
This is the Good Stuff
My Dad is the COOLEST!!
7 months!
What is Samd, Mommy?
Are these on here yet?
Blog about:
craigslist findings!
fetus status :)
flowers out front
one more easter post
K, so I'll work on getting the pictures for these posts and hopefully get back to you soon!
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Shooting Practice
Posted by Jessica 3 friends stopped by
Easter Egg Hunt
Look Aunt Joni! I can carry 4 eggs at once!
Holding onto Nana's hands.
Noah wasn't really into finding the eggs this year. He just wanted to run and play. Oh well. Maybe next year.
Kiera LOVES Noah
Lathen found one too!