text:
- Why, when my male colleague is out of the office, do students expect me to know when he'll be back? They don't ask him the same question when I'm away.
- I'm the only woman at a meeting along with one senior male academic and two junior male academics from the same department. We're discussing a grant we have recently received. When I make a suggestion, it is ignored. Until the senior male academic says *the same thing* and the junior male academics say gushy things like 'excellent point -- very strategic.' Now I know what you're thinking: this is too much of a cliche to have actually happened. But it did...three times in the same meeting!
- On one of the student evaluations, in response to the question "What aspect of the course and/or the instructor's teaching did you find the least valuable": "prof's loud, shrill voice."
- On the weekend, the subject of being a stay at home mother comes up in conversation and this woman says to me - "But if you were a stay at home mother, what kind of role model would you be? I mean, who would your daughter look up to?" Wow.
- Directly copied and pasted from rateyourprofessor.com: "BEST PROF EVER, AND WHAT GREAT GAMS!!" (and what is even more embarrassing is that I didn't know what "gams" were until a colleague of mine explained it to me...I naively assumed that it was a comment about my sense of humour in the class)
- Being referred to as "Miss." This is a pet peeve of mine, but a default option (at the very least) should be "Ms," and I'm sick of feeling guilty or elitist if I correct people and say "Dr."
- By the end of the first year of a tenure track job I started taking pre-natal vitamins. One clock was ticking louder for me than the other one. When one of my senior (female) colleagues found out she said, "You better not get pregnant. I could be on your tenure and promotion committee, you know. hahahahahahaha." So not funny then, and it still annoys me. But: I now have a kid, tenure, and promotion. hahahahahahaha.
- I had a meeting with a senior partner at a law firm to finalize some documents we began drafting in April, when I was a few months pregnant and just starting to show. When I met with him in September, his first words weren't "Hello, how was your summer" but rather "Wow, you really were pregnant last time I saw you - you look way better now."
- I learned that my son's grade five teacher will insist that we use Miss. Yes, that's right, Miss. Not Ms. and not Mrs. as she's single (and, BTW, maybe 25, at the outside). Apparently it matters whether she is married or not. I also learned that this concern is based on MY (said, with capitals, by the accuser, "YOUR") value system and does not reflect on her teaching skills or style.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
This month in sexism: October
Friday, October 29, 2010
Multitask? Or multipurpose?
That is, I have way more to do but seem to have less time to do it.
It's a pickle, it is. Right now, for example, I'm sitting on my couch in my polar fleece pajamas, sipping gin and decompressing after my second public lecture of the week. Next week, I have an article draft due to a peer-reviewed journal, and soon after that, a deadline for my draft of one chapter of a writing handbook revision. I just handed in a SSHRC SRG grant, it seems.
I used to think I could do it all, if only I would be important enough for people to ask me to do it. I said yes to everything, to increase my profile and test my mettle. My mettle, it turns out, is not unlimited. I am, perforce, shifting my work philosophy from an ethic of multitasking to one of multipurposing.
Here's how it works: Got a contract to revise a writing handbook? Angle to teach a first year course, then assign them the current version of the handbook. BOOM! It's teaching, and it's work on the revision, all at once. Scheduled to give two public talks on something about your research and teaching interests in two different towns two nights in a row? Give a thinly reworked version of the same damn talk (apologize profusely to the one graduate student who attends both events). Bonus points if the talk can use as one of its four case studies the survey results that form the backbone of that article that's due ... next week. Bonus bonus points if you've organized your grad class to have as its assigned readings material you need to complete this current research. All of this work should be drawing liberally from the literature review from the SSHRC SRG bibliography. Doing university service? Can it be on a web design committee that is great fodder for your digital design seminar?
I am so. frigging. busy. that it is a matter of some urgency, lately, try to wring the maximum amount of product from every research activity I undertake. Perhaps this is a 'well, duh' insight for you. Not for me. I used to think (ha!) that every talk, every class, every committee, every article had to be something new. I had this idea that it was somehow cheating to do otherwise, like how students are told not to submit the same paper in two different courses. For me, it's only ever rarely the 'same' paper, but I have really needed to stop creating everything from absolute scratch for every occasion.
So now, I don't multitask anymore. I multipurpose.
In that vein, if you want to know more about social media and privacy, why don't you read this newspaper article? The writer wanted to talk to me about my ideas, but I handed him the paper copy of my lecture when it was over and told him to quote as liberally as he liked. No extra work for me, and, bonus! he quoted me exactly, from my own script. (God bless him, he's made the whole presentation sound coherent, to boot.)
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Why Are Conferences So Bad?
It's like watching a "How Not To" video, all the way through.
The kicker is that all conferences are like that. This summer I explored both ends of the rigor spectrum. One required a 2500-word proposal plus citations and generated four sets of feedback. Reviewers graded us out of 100 (range of marks: 35%-98%) and said things like, "Although it was helpful to have a list of works cited, I would have liked a more representative bibliography. I'm not convinced these scholars are acquainted with the full history of GIS-based scholarship." Bibliography? Did I mention this was for the proposal? for a poster?
The other conference asked for a four-sentence summary and responded within 90 minutes of submission: You're in!
Both conferences were equally bad, and bad in the same ways. By bad I mean, principally, boring. Let me get this out of the way: most academics are nicer - more tolerant, more polite, more attentive, more forgiving, more generous - than I am. Regrettably, this chronic condition shows no sign of improving. In fact, the older and busier I get, the less forgiving I am of having my time wasted.
For instance, by being read to. I have reached my lifetime limit of sitting in a room being read to. I learned to read when I was 5 and I have a PhD in English. Reading is something I can do for myself. So, please. Stop.
If you can't stop, if for some reason you cannot imagine any other way to reach your audience (for instance, if you have spent your entire life in a media deprivation tank), then read. But for the love of all things holy, run through your presentation first, and if it takes longer than the 15 minutes allocated to you, it is too long. What to do? Shorten it. Yeah, that's right: take some stuff out.
Being timely would meet my minimum standard for conference presentations. Not everybody can be brilliant, but everybody can read a clock. If you're ticking that one off Ye Olde List of Lifetime Accomplishments, then I challenge you to the relevance test. Before you present a point-by-point elaboration of an obscure novel dredged from the depths of your field, stop and ask yourself this question: Who cares? Look, I'm sure the use of ellipses in pre-colonial Spanish poetry is fascinating, and I bet you're right that you can only truly understand its implications by contrast with post-colonial Spanish poetry's elimination of ellipses. I'm prepared to concede all of that. In fact, I insist: let me concede the technical details of your argument and give me the good stuff - the punch line, the implications, the reasons I should care.
Finally, a word to session moderators. Moderate! You are the only person in the room who can shut this gong show down. We rely on you to do so. No polite "2 minutes" signs passed along three times. Once: fine, even I can be that polite (or, I can try). But once those two minutes are up, clear your throat, stand up, and interrupt. Reach over and shut off the mic. Start to clap. Not only the other presenters, but every member of the audience will thank you for doing so.
Until that happy day, you can find me in the back row, where I'll be checking my email.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Guest Post: The game's afoot
There is a but coming, and you know it.
However, when I take stock, as I frequently (over)do, of my academic life in all of its contexts, I know that my impatience this year overflows at work. And why? I have designed an ace course ("The ethics and politics of gaming") and the students are, gamely, attempting to work out all of this inquiry-based stuff and perhaps have some fun too (this weekend, watching them try to complete a tournament, has been a blast, which again gives the thoughtful pedagogue in me pause: when did I stop having real fun with students? did I ever? do other professors have fun? perhaps I am not a fun kinda gal, just plain prone to grumpiness). In my older-middle age, aka wisdom, my recent and more frequent fits of mini-lashings out, polite refusals, strategic-if-not-always-clever complaints—as well as inner sighs and eye-rollings at many twists and turns—are triggered by how increasingly and dauntingly our academic lives are slowed down by processes of numbing inefficiency, form-filling (paper, in this day and age?), be-there-or-be-square organizing (sure, I can make that meeting at sunrise), querulousness, posturing and (hear it in this post), defensiveness.
In the end, I worry politically about the inculcation of these values in the first-year students I feel both protective towards and so deeply frustrated by (hear the old cry of the inquiry-teacher: where is their curiosity? their drive to find things out? their connectedness? their gratitude?). Well, duh. Where has ours disappeared to in this place of performance indicators and whoever gets most bums in the seats wins and have we survived the term yes or no? My most memorable moments from the last two weeks have been to hear what is usually unvoiced in our carefully-articulated academic free state. "We will do this because we have been told." "We have to." Worse, I realized that I fully accepted that logic, and then turned on my heel, entered my classroom and expected students in their first term at university not to, to ask the tough and confusing questions while I chatted to them about structures, rules, liberatory pedagogy, and asked them to play card games without rules. [Wonderful game, Fluxx, for the curious.]
Sure, I am having great fun this weekend, but that overlays my jittery anxiety about an ongoing and increasing trend in an academic game (in its most serious sense) that really has forgotten to ask questions that many activists brought to the academy in the first place. What an irony that women, particularly racialized women, or women with illnesses and disabilities (the list is much longer of course) are being overseen and thus overlooked, a trend that is mirrored in the classroom. Back to playing the game, though. One of my students has completed the quest and the blog is abuzz, if confused. Someone has suggested a games night. Hallelujah!
Aruna Srivastava
Monday, October 25, 2010
Thinking about what I need: Notes on the concept of 'Slow Academy'
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Call for submissions to October TMIS
Reminder: stories are short, anonymous, and related to our lives as women of all ranks and roles in the academy.
Friday, October 22, 2010
What do you need?
We're all, it's fair to say, exhausted.
What to do? I can't change my deadlines, or my students, or my workload, or the weather. I probably can't change your deadlines, or your students, or your workload, or your weather, either. But how are we going to get ourselves out of this pit, and maybe with enough energy to spare that we can maybe our students up into the light with us?
Here's the question that's animating my climb: What do I need?
I can be flip and say "I need a sabbatical," or "I need to assign self-grading papers," or "I need an invisibility cloak." However, when I can articulate more seriously to myself what I need, I then can start to think of the steps to take to get it. My mid-term needs, it turns out, involve time and freedom from details, and since I can't magic time out of nothing, I have instead taken my family out for dinner twice this week, which saves me the time involved in cooking, and cleanup, and dishes, and leftovers, and the stressful management of the details of shopping and menu-planning that I just, frankly, don't have it in me to deal with right now. I have also temporarily given up bed-making and laundry. I have enough clean underwear to go for another two weeks, and I just might. This leaves me a bit of energy to take my girl to dance lessons, and to watch The Ultimate Fighter with my husband, and to write two public lectures and bring some life to my teaching.
What do you need to make it to the end of term? It feels great to write 'em down and share 'em--then they seem like goals, and from goals we can create plans, right?
I was pretty sure my first year class needed schooling in Awesome Music as well as New Media Art, and I surely needed a mid-afternoon dance party so you can rock out to this while contemplating what you need:
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Guest Post: Academics and Motherhood: Can We Have it All?
I heard Veronique's pregnant.
Yeah, me too. No surprise there, given she just married that doctor. She won't need a job now. They can easily live off his salary.
No kidding. I was kind of relieved, you know. Now I won't be competing against her on the job market.
She told you she wasn't applying?
No, no. But a baby leads to more babies. Universities won't hire unless she publishes the next big study on CanLit. And with a baby on the way, that's unlikely to happen. How many women do you know who have successful careers and families?
Not many. God, I can barely handle my dog.
Indeed, having a child in grad school could jeopardize or delay a career. Common concerns revolve around the delay of the doctoral thesis, the disappearance of promising publications, and perhaps even the abandonment of the PhD altogether. In my prenatal naïve haze, however, I never worried about postponing my thesis or dumping my career. Rather, I was predominately concerned with writing as much as humanly possible prior to my daughter's birth in order to enjoy a bit more flexibility once she arrived.
When our daughter was born a month ago, I began finding pockets of time to get work done; I sent myself email messages with ideas from my iphone as I fed her at night – I transformed my baby buddy pillow into a laptop desk - I read articles aloud to get her to sleep instead of Goodnight Moon. After a month with a newborn (albeit a very calm and content newborn), I feel I can get the thesis written by the end of this year as planned – at least, a full draft – and although I've had to readjust my schedule and writing habits, I certainly don't think I have to give up on my professional goals and writing ambitions.
What I didn't expect, however, was the obstacle of a baby (and breastfeeding for that matter) when it comes to public academic engagements. I may be writing, but participating in academic discourse beyond the page has become more difficult. I no longer have the luxury of attending every talk hosted by the university (I missed the Markin-Flanagan "passing on the torch" reading for the first time since I moved to Calgary), and I won't be jumping from reading to reading at Wordfest this year. I've had to sacrifice my spontaneous academic interactions, and although none of them are "requirements" for my degree, I do consider them essential to my overall experience. Sure, I can organize childcare when necessary, but this requires pre-planning and money – and even then, sometimes, pre-planning fails.
This month, for instance, I missed my first conference – a conference I was looking forward to for months. I'd registered during my pregnancy and I knew I'd have a one-month-old baby, but the conference was in Edmonton (not too far and where my mother-in-law lives), which seemed manageable at the time (and it should've been). Worst-case scenario, I figured I'd only attend my panel and the plenary talk. I wrote a draft of the paper prior to delivery, and my husband organized his schedule to accommodate mine and watch Lalina as I enjoyed the conference. Then he got sick. He was in no state to drive to Edmonton, let alone watch Lalina under a flu medication haze. My mother-in-law had a dance show, my family is in Quebec, and because of her young age, I couldn't take Lalina to a drop-off day care. Hence I failed to attend the conference and cancelled my presentation.
Never once did I consider taking her to the conference, despite her easy disposition. Not once. It would be unprofessional, no? To show up at my panel with a sleeping baby in a sling? Even if my paper was on balancing motherhood and writing – even though it was a women's writing conference and should, from an outsider's perspective, be supportive of my predicament. But no – I didn't even think to ask or explain what had happened to the organizers. Instead, I said I had a family emergency and missed the conference. Only when I told one of my husband's colleagues why I hadn't attended the conference and she asked "why didn't you just take Lalina with you?" did I find myself wondering why the thought never crossed my mind. My immediate response was, "well, it would be unprofessional." She said, "I don't think so. You were stuck, so why not? We have a preceptor who just had a baby and she brings her to class, and once she even breastfed while teaching." I was filled with envy – this preceptor was comfortable enough with her roles as mother, doctor, and teacher to breastfeed in front of her students. Until that moment, I'd always considered medicine far less accepting of women balancing motherhood and profession – I was wrong.
I still think that showing up at the conference with a newborn would've proved unprofessional. After all, it's not like Lalina was a registered participant and therefore had a right to attend. My problem isn't with how it may have been misperceived if I'd showed up with her, but rather with my assumption that my profession, in this instant, had to be put on hold because of circumstances that seemed on the surface to be beyond my control (husband's illness); and yet, there were options that, unfortunately, never even crossed my mind as possibilities. Was this my subconscious telling me that I can't do it all? Is this post, perhaps, my refusal to admit that academic superwomen are an abominable myth and that women can't balance career and family? But what about that preceptor breastfeeding and teaching? She's got it together – isn't this the type of professional I need to be to raise a daughter who will forge ahead and believe, not in Santa, but in the fact that she can have it all? And I use the word "fact" purposefully because I want her to have it all – and I believe she can have it all. The "all" just needs to be confidently claimed by herself and those around her – starting first and foremost with myself.Veronique Dorais Ram, PhD Candidate
Department of English, University of Calgary
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
I'm wearing purple on 20.10.2010
Mostly, I just live my life. I live the better in 'it gets better.' Although the process of coming out wasn't easy, my family, my employer, and my nation all settled this business long ago, leaving me to ponder big questions like, did I reply to that email yet? or, is this skirt tighter than it was last time I wore it? or, should I have stuck with Plan A, long haul trucking, instead of going to graduate school? As you can imagine, that kind of deep thinking doesn't really allow 'oh yeah, and I'm a lesbian' to come to the surface very often.
But this fall's horrific rash of stories about queer students taking their own lives has brought me back, powerfully, to the perilous fragility of these lives we lead in the midst of such reckless everdayness.
For many people, these stories are visceral reminders of how harrowing it can be to come out to your family and friends. For some, they bring back hideous memories of being bullied. The stories are almost certainly about mental illness or, less clinically, the dark pull of a high bridge: I've been there too, and it does get better.
For me, though, these stories are primarily about students. They remind me of how fundamentally hard it can be to be a student, how difficult it is to succeed in a game you don't necessarily understand, how tough it can be to feel overwhelmed, and anxious, and uncertain, and exposed, and shamed, how hard it is to be away from home, to be out of context, out of your depth, out of touch, out of solutions.
But these stories also call me to the dream I hold for university life as a place where you can be yourself and remake yourself, a place where you can think new thoughts and try new things, a place to start over, if you want, and over and over. A place to figure things out. A place to be creative. A place to be.
And so here in this blog post I want to give a shout-out to the amazing queer students I've taught over the years. Yeah, Kristy, I mean you - and the other Christie, and the Four Corners Press gang, and the brilliant RB, and Cynthia (I still miss you), and M. Almodova, who was in the first class I ever TA'ed for and who came out to me by confessing he was into erasure (and he didn't mean Derrida). I'm thinking about Kim who left grad school to take care of her girlfriend's kids, I'm thinking about HK the public intellectual, slippery A, and all the queer kids in the Edmonton course a couple years back who just up and outed themselves on day one: do you have any idea how thoroughly that blew my mind? I'm thinking about you in the back row with your ball cap: you don't fool me for a second, but don't worry, we can play it that way. I'm thinking about the ridiculously talented Trevor, who understands the couture call of white designer jeans and the siren call of suicide and just recently made a brilliant film about it. And I'm thinking of a whole bunch of other people who might not be comfortable being named.
To all the sissy boys and the gay men, the lesbian feminists, the brave transgenders and the sex-positive grrls, the womyn-identified-womyn, the high femmes and the bears, the gossipy queens, the Real Lesbians, the pretty boys, the hard butches and the soft butches and the baby butches (especially the baby butches):
I'm wearing this kicking purple dress today for you.
Peace, Tyler Clementi, Seth Walsh, Justin Aaberg, Raymond Chase, Asher Brown, Cody J. Barker, Harrison Chase Brown, Billy Lucas, Jeanine Blanchette, and Chantal Dube.
The rest of you: be careful out there.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Feminization of Education? Nah, dearth of critical thinking.
1. Role Models
2. Video Games
3. The Boy Code
4. Developmental Differences
And, wait for it,
5. The Feminization of Education
I'm going to speak to the last point, but I have to say that one of the things that concerns me about this article (which is written about elementary school and high school boys specifically) is its dearth of critical thinking.
Don't get misread me. I'm not implying that I don't want boys to do well in school. I am, however, certainly implying that this article suggests the shift to more single-parent homes, the emergence of stars as role models, the masculinization of "toughness," and the size of one's brain cannot be the only factors in an individual's education. If the system isn't working, it isn't working for everyone. The underlying message in this article seems to be that if these five issues are solved boys will do better.
Huh. Which boys? Where? Boys in Hobbema? Boys in Bella Bella? Boys in the G.T.A? Boys in Yarmouth? But I digress.
OK, let's look at section five: This section is accompanied by a still from the 2008 film remake of Anne of Green Gables. Referred to as "the darling of English teachers everywhere" Anne of Green Gables is also a good way to stop boys from wanting to read. Well, as performance artist Dayna McLeod has shown, Anne can also make you gay. So watch out.
The argument in this section claims that boys don't like flashbacks, but prefer linear narrative; they don't relate to their English teachers who are "mostly all women," and they prefer male protagonists. Disregarding for the moment the lack of evidentiary support here's my issue: making declarative claims about choice seems, oh, I don't know, presumptuous at best. At the worst it is myopic and deterministic. These claims shut down the potential for making choices, they disregard those boys (and men!) who don't prefer linear narrative (or girls and women who do...), and most insidiously, these claims assume that a teacher—male or female—isn't teaching his or her students the critical thinking skills they need to think through a text's construction.
The Globe article is by no means the first to talk about the feminization of education. As one of the commentators notes, Christina Hoff Summers has been writing about this for a while. Yes, this C.H.S...
I've only started to touch on the myriad of issues here. As I see it this article indicates a gendering of education that is binary, Anglo-centric, and dangerously conservative. But maybe I'm being grouchy. What do you think?
Friday, October 15, 2010
Why is peer review so slow?
Most of the journals I submit to and review for have web interfaces that manage the submission, review assignment and tracking, communication of decisions, and editing of manuscripts. There's no lag for postal service, no random piles of papers on desks into which an article might fatally fall. Hell, these tools even create sorted pools of potential reviewers in their databases. My experience might not be the literary norm--I am, I admit, a new media and digital humanities scholar and we always have nicer toys.
However! It does not take six months (or eight, or eighteen) to competently review a paper. It probably takes some time (a week? Two weeks?) for a submissions editor to find and secure an appropriate reviewer or two for a paper. It certainly must take a little bit of time (a week? Two weeks?) for the journal editor or editors to read the reports and settle on a decision. The papers I review take me anywhere from an afternoon to a day to read and report on a submission, and I can fit this into the week or two after it is assigned to me.
By my count, peer review is a process that should take, generously, about eight weeks to do.
I do about five peer reviews a year. Maybe that's too many. Maybe I get asked more frequently because I'm fast and thorough, and write good reports. Maybe everyone else sits on their reviews for six months because they are prioritizing their own research at the expense of service in ways I should be emulating. Maybe they are cannily doing just enough peer review to get some kind of merit credit for it, and no more (and certainly, no faster.) Maybe I'm falling into gendered Mommy-to-the-profession behaviour by taking my reviewing so seriously and doing it so assiduously.
Nevertheless, peer review has to get done by someone, and so I beg of you, colleagues at large: if you agree to do a peer review, just get it done. Don't put it off until the end of the month, the end of term, the end of time. Don't wait until you get an email from the submissions editor telling you it's already late, and then ask for a six week extension. Your colleagues are counting on your feedback to help them advance in their thinking and in their careers. Because I don't want to get stuck doing the reviews you flaked out on, and I also don't want to get stuck in 'under review' limbo for a year when my tenure committee is evaluating my research effectiveness.
* * * * * * *
I wrote up this post as a draft in August, and I'm just coming back to it now. And do you know what? I've got two late peer reviews on my desk right now. Yeah, karma's a bitch, and now that the shoe of righteousness is on the other foot, I guess I'm the bad academic. My high horse has thrown me into the mud. How did that happen?
Oh man. How do you tackle peer review--the deadlines or the waiting or the procrastinating or the report-writing? And how do you handle both yourself and the review when you find yourself, like me, failing so spectacularly to live up to your own standards?
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
It's the small things
- I am thankful for having thick long hair, so that when I trim it on my own with a dull pair of kitchen scissors, because I can either find the time to make an appointment or go to a hair appointment, but not both, my skilllessness doesn't really show.
- I am grateful for a biggish turnout at Pilates the other day, so that the teacher didn't really notice I was dogging it.
- I am thankful that I spent all weekend cooking Thanksgiving dinner for my family, 12 in all, not only because we have leftovers to eat this week but also and more importantly because it means my sister will have to take on Christmas. (Sidebar: grateful not to have leftover Brussells sprouts.)
- I am thankful that I live with a wonderful partner who is approximately my age, so that when I start the same story for the third or fourth time, it still sounds new to her.
- I am thankful for the kind of pleasant fall weather that means you can wear long skirts with bare legs, which means a) you can get away without shaving and b) you don't have to replenish the stocking supply.
- I am supremely thankful that a colleague canceled a meeting yesterday morning. There is no gift sweeter than the gift of an hour on a Tuesday masquerading as a Monday.
- I am thankful for payday, which can come around anytime. Seriously. A-ny-time.
- I am thankful the farmers' market is over for another year, which also makes me feel guilty because I really really love the downtown Edmonton farmers' market and I believe in buying locally and supporting your small producers, but I won't lie to you, I am already daydreaming about lying in bed on Saturday morning reading the newspaper.
- I'm thankful for the invention of the combustion engine, through the wizardry of which I can have locally produced food delivered to my door.
- I am thankful for Dr Phil and Oprah, whose TV guests make me feel better about my life, and in particular help me deal with my white liberal guilt over having local organics delivered to my door by a climate-destroying automobile.
- I am thankful that I live with a wonderful partner who is approximately my age, so that when I -- wait, did I say that already?
- I am thankful that we have a working alarm clock, and I swear to god I will remember to set it tonight.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Heartfelt thanks
Friday, October 8, 2010
I'm giving thanks for my students
- using internet anonymizers to send me reading material related to the course, for fun
- admitting they don't know what they're doing, and cheerfully asking for help to get better
- challenging me when they think I'm wrong
- measuring what we learn in class against what happens in the world
- showing up to a draft workshop even when their drafts aren't done, because they don't want to miss class
- coming to my office during office hours, just to talk to me
- volunteering answers even when they're not sure
- doing such damn good presentations
- taking it seriously
- taking it lightly
- laughing at my jokes
- being open to whatever class brings
- taking their scribbled-over first drafts home and writing kick-ass second drafts
- sharing a little bit of the story of their lives with me
- talking about class in the hallway
- sitting in the sun declaiming poetry
- hunching together over a textbook solving equations together
- reading on the bus, while walking, in lineups, sitting on steps
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Guest Post: Research between the cracks: when you're a PhD without a library
So if I want to access databases like the MLA, peruse online journals, or see what books are in the library system, I have to go physically to campus and work there, in a crowded public lab filled with undergraduates. That's a bit of a drag when you're trying to be an academic researcher in the 21st century, and want to check something on the MLA at 2 in the morning – or briefly at 3 in the afternoon, for that matter.
I don't have an academic job right now. Like so many recent PhDs, I'm cobbling together what I can, teaching sessional, applying for jobs, looking for other options and yes, grateful for the work I do find. But moving forward is not easy when you're not affiliated with a university. It's much more difficult to research and write papers when you don't have good, unlimited access to an academic library. Heck, the moment my card expired after my PhD I was back to borrowing status as a member of the public: 3-week loans on a regional library card, with no way of accessing interlibrary loans.
My former department has been very supportive, and they tried their best to help me. But university policies, and library policies, are very clear: they're meant to exclude me the moment I graduate. In the current economic climate for PhDs – and the current employment climate generally, with its rise in sessional positions and cutbacks to full-time workers – universities should rethink their relationship to their alumni, and offer more institutional support to their PhD graduates. After all, the harder it is to publish, the easier it is for us to perish. Ultimately that makes them look bad too.
--Susanne Marshall
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
What do women want?
We failed. Oh, we had plenty to say about Ottawa, and our universities, and our funding structures, and even our colleagues, but when it came right down to the gnarly question of what we mean by equity - well, when it came down to that, we failed. We could not say what we want.
These last few days, I have been pondering why. I will speak for myself, but perhaps what I say here will resonate with you too.
Partly, I find it hard to say what I want in the name of equity because I want so very many things for the profession. Some of them are directly connected to equity, some are loosely associated, and some are entirely distinct. Among the things I want: cheaper tuition; smaller class sizes; a clear job description; the return of my colleagues' telephones; a reinvention of the conference format; more generous and less aggravating support for research; a broader understanding of university-community relationships; recognition of graduate supervision as part of our workload; academic jobs for grad students who want them; time to think; and a Jil Sander suit.
It's also hard to say what I want because I have been trained in a metacritical / hypercritical tradition that means as soon as something is out of my mouth I can see its pitiable inadequacies. Nothing is ever good enough, and when 'smart' is measured by idealist perfection or theoretical rigor rather than the pragmatic dirty compromise of actually existing postlapsarianism - well, then, it's tough to get the ideas out.
But even though it's hard, and risky, and guaranteed to be inadequate, I'm going to take a crack at saying what I'd like in the name of equity.
First, I support the Employment Equity Act that governs private sector employers, crown corporations, federal contractors and the public service in Canada. There are other ways to arrive at equality, and the federal contractors' legislation may not be perfect, but since C21 conservativism's modus operandi, here and elsewhere, often takes the form of dismantling legislation and institutions, I would like to see us stand behind the State on this one.
I would like the professoriate to resemble the demographics of the country in all four protected categories: gender, visible minorities, Aboriginality, and disability. I thought of keying the demographics to our city or our province but both seem volatile enough that I prefer what I take to be the stabilizing influence of the nation as an analytical category. If 4% of Canada is Aboriginal (wikipedia), then 4% of our university should be Aboriginal. Yup, that's right: I'm proposing quotas. I've never been persuaded by the arguments against American-style affirmative action. (Q: What's worse than getting a job because you're black? A: Not getting one.)
One important equity goal would be to see these numbers reflected across the ranks, from undergraduate student to full professor. So maybe until we get it right - about 58% of undergraduates are women but only 18-38% of full professors are women, depending on your discipline, so we have a ways to go - maybe we should build in a buffer: plus two or three percentage points per category, for instance. Anyone out there numerate enough to run the figures?
There has to be a time limit with hard targets along the way. Given how long it takes for an undergraduate to become a full professor, I figure we won't really arrive until 2025 or so: we need to train the best and brightest, and the system requires flexibility. Equity is a long road. Still, every five years, Canada should be about 30% along. If we're not, we take pan-institutional corrective measures. If by 2025 our equity results are as dismal as they are right now, we strike.
So here, in a nutshell, is my equity demand: I want the professoriate to match Canadian demographics by 2025.There are other things I would like. I would like equity categories to be more broadly understood, as well, so that gender is not just men and women, and "visible difference" (visible to whom?) can differentiate between moneyed immigrants and structurally disadvantaged communities. I wish we had a good way to incorporate social class into these categories. (Interestingly, queer representation doesn't particularly trouble me, though I may be naive about that.) I suspect disability will remain the most difficult for us to wrap our minds around, even though many more academics than you might imagine struggle with invisible disabilities like chronic mental illnesses. On the other hand, how many deaf professors do you know?
So, yes, I would like subtler categories - but I am afraid that at this point I lose the clarity of a simple ask, and so I am willing to work with the categories we have for the time being. I'm pretty flat-footed that way.
Am I prepared to adapt to the changed structures and practices and tenets of our academy in order to help bring about more equitable demographics? I think so. But we would be foolish to think we could foresee all of the changes equity would entail - or to imagine we would necessarily like them. Many English departments are shockingly white, for instance, perhaps even aggressively white, and I'm not sure we would recognize "literature" if we hired more than token minorities. Similarly, it's easy to say that having more women would strengthen arguments for recognizing and rewarding what I've been calling in this blog "emotional labour" - but maybe that's a middle-class desideratum that would not survive equitable demographics. Do we really want mentoring written into our job descriptions? Maybe.... All I'm saying here is that if we go down the road of changing our institutions, we can't presume we'll like each and every alteration.
But I'm certainly willing to find out.
Enough from me. What do you think our institutional equity goals should be?
Monday, October 4, 2010
Change it up!
Well, we've made it!
Friday, October 1, 2010
Go-To Boots
Beyond a well-made, well-fitting, flattering suit, every academic gal needs a miracle piece of footwear--a boot, a shoe, or maybe a sandal, depending on the climate you work in--that goes with everything. It has to work with a skirt, with a dress, with dress pants, and with jeans. Hell, nowadays it even has to work with leggings. It has to be hip enough to wear in the off-hours, comfortable enough to stand up in for a 90 minute class or two (or three), sturdy enough to have equal purchase on waxed institutional flooring and unshoveled winter bus stops alike, and dressy enough to plausibly wear to a job interview, whether your own or someone else's. It should have enough of a heel to add a little height and keep your hems out of the mud but not so high as to tip you, ass-over-teakettle, as they say, into said mud. A real winner in this department will also manage to be waterproof and salt-stain proof.
I have worn these boots nearly every day between September and April since 2006:
Why place such a heavy burden on one poor set of soles? Why not hip suede sneakers with your jeans? A nice t-strap pump with the skirt, a dressy ankle boot with the suit, and Sorels for the bus stop? There are two main reasons why I at least lean so heavily on my one favorite pair of boots.
First: when I was a poor graduate student, and when I was a postdoc, and like many of my friends tenuously / temporarily / contingently employed, there wasn't money to fill the shoe closet to brimming, and what money there was, frankly, could be better spent. Come to think of it, there was no shoe closet in that bachelor apartment, either. So: cost. I imagine that some among you might face similar constraints. And really, no matter my income level, I would rather have one really nice thing, than three things that will just fall apart before the end of term (I'm looking at you, Zellers sandals that broke my heart!)
Second: now that I'm a faculty member, I travel a lot, to conferences and unconferences and workshops and such. I try to concoct the maximum sartorial variety from the minimum number of pieces of clothing, to minimize, obviously, the size and weight of luggage I am inevitably going to drag from terminal to terminal in Minneapolis or Denver or Amsterdam or Calgary, and then up fif-ty-se-ven-se-pa-rate stairs to a stifling garret room at a bed and breakfast in Brighton (for example) or across a bumpy acre of parking lot at midnight at UVic (for another example). I want to travel light, but I don't want to look like someone who's traveling light. I want to be stylin' and comfortable without carting around my bodyweight in luggage. I know many of you travel a lot more than me, so I'm confident I'm not the only one facing this issue, either.
So tell me: do you have a go-to boot, or shoe? A miracle scarf or pashmina or rain jacket? A pantsuit for all occasions? My boots have already been re-heeled once, and I know they're not going to last forever. I'm looking for inspiration on this front, if you have any to send this way.


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About Us
Mission Statement
The Moore Public School District creates a safe environment for all students in an atmosphere of open communication and mutual respect. We engage students in stimulating academic challenges and in positive social interaction so they will become contributing members of society.
Moore Public Schools is the third largest school system in the state, with a student population of more than 21,000. The district encompasses 159 square miles in Moore and south Oklahoma City, south of 82nd Street.
Moore Public Schools is divided into school attendance areas. Students enroll in the school dictated by their residence. (For more information about enrollment, please go to enrollment.) The district includes:
Moore Public Schools is accredited by the
Financial Facts
Employees (Approximate numbers as of January, 2013)
(See employment information for further details.)
Enrollment (As of February 6, 2014)
Student Performance ( Source: Office of Educational Quality and Accountability, 2013 District Report)

subset: commoncrawl


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10 Best Albums From 1988
Mainstream radio finally started to recognize modern rock in 1988. In September of that year, 'Billboard' gave the music its own weekly airplay chart (the first No. 1? Siouxsie & the Banshees' 'Peek-A-Boo'). But modern rock — or indie rock or alternative rock — had been kicking around the underground for most of the decade, albeit on the left side of the dial. But 1988 is the year that indie rock began seeping into the mainstream. It would be another few years before it staged a takeover. Here are the 10 Best Albums From 1988.
Yes, My Bloody Valentine released records before they made the mythical 'Loveless' in 1991. Lots of EPs, in fact, and this debut album, which set the hazy template for 'Loveless': woozy guitars, ethereal vocals, sounds that appear to be transmitting from outer space. 'Loveless' is My Bloody Valentine's masterpiece, but 'Isn't Anything' sets the stage for it.
Morrissey's debut solo album pretty much picks up where the Smiths left off, right down to that wry title. Of course, Johnny Marr's ringing guitar lines are missed throughout 'Viva Hate,' but the singer delivers one of his most consistent set of songs, some of them aimed at his former bandmates. But most of them are aimed at his usual subjects (see 'Margaret on the Guillotine').
U2's sixth album is part concert souvenir, part chronicle of the Irish band's digging of American roots. A handful of cuts come from the group's world-dominating tour following the gargantuan success of 'The Joshua Tree' the year before. But the keepers are the new tunes, recorded in Memphis and injected with Irish soul.
The final album by the influential NYC art-punk group is one of their most organic sounding. After their genre-busting records of the early '80s, the quartet scaled back on their world-music globetrotting as the decade progressed. By 1988, knowing their end was near, Talking Heads employed a bunch of global sounds and musicians on 'Naked,' a finale that sounds like a world dance party.
'Life's Too Good'
When the Sugarcubes released their debut album in 1988, they really didn't sound like were from Iceland. In fact, they didn't sound like they came from anyplace you could get to without a space shuttle. Fronted by Björk (who'd go on to have her own outer-space-pixie adventures as a solo artist) and some dude who barked something incomprehensible every 30 seconds just to be sure you were paying attention, the Sugarcubes made late-'80s indie rock safe for art-rock weirdos.
'Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart'
Camper Van Beethoven's fourth album marked their major-label debut, and the bigger budget led to the band's most accessible record. Fortunately, their fuzzy mix of folk, rock, pop, psychedelia, roots and world music remained intact on this colorful collection of songs about death, ancient amulets and Patty Hearst.
Like Camper Van Beethoven (see No. 5 on our list of the 10 Best Albums From 1988), R.E.M. made their major-label debut this year. And the music sounded bigger, bolder and more assured than anything the indie-rock giants had ever recorded. It's partly a natural progression of their five previous albums; it's partly stepping up to the expectations of their new bosses, who reportedly signed the band to a $10 million contract. Either way, 'Green' was their most muscular work to date.
Jane's Addiction's first album scared a lot of indie fans used to mopey, jangly music (see Nos. 9 and 4 on our list of the 10 Best Albums From 1988). These Los Angeles rockers were into spazzy guitar freakouts, skeevy sex and lifestyle choices that were way closer to hair-metal excess than alt-rock pensiveness. It couldn't last, and they predictably burned out after two great albums (the reunion records are lifeless, so we don't count them). 'Nothing's Shocking' is staggeringly great.
Before the Pixies' debut LP, indie-rock albums sounded one way. After 'Surfer Rosa,' they sounded another. Working a quiet-loud-quiet dynamic in most of their songs, the quartet balanced unhinged blasts of abrasive noise with moments of true cloud-busting beauty. The whole boy-girl thing they have going on is hugely influential too.
This double-record opus by NYC's noisiest art rockers packs a whole lotta ambition into its sprawling version of an underground uprising. The guitars, of course, cut the paths that these songs weave through, but there's plenty of hooks soaring through this plugged-in set of disciplined chaos. Sonic Youth tightened up over the next decade, but they were never better or more aggressively tuned-in than they are here.


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Regular Meeting
July 17, 2012
I. The regular meeting of the Watertown-Mayer School Board in the Watertown-Mayer Teaching and Learning Center on Tuesday, July 17, 2012 was called to order at 7:07 PM by Chair McCain. Board members present: Hoover, Janikula, McCain, Koehler, Salonek and Burns. Absent: Thompson. Administration team members present: Superintendent Marlette and Hennen. Absent: Hittle, Fitzsimonds, Guertin and Busacker.
II. Visitor requests and consideration of agenda. MMS (Motion made and Seconded by) Burns and Koehler to approve the agenda as amended. Passes 6-0
III. General Business Items
MMS Salonek and Burns to approve the following consent agenda items: Minutes of the Regular Board Meeting of June 27, 2012; Personnel consent agenda; business consent agenda – operations update. Passes 6-0.
IV. Recognitions/Presentations: The board recognized the Principal Bob Hennen for his commendation from the Governor in helping Drake Mosford and his family through difficult times.
V. MMS Burns and Salonek to close the meeting at 7:11 PM for negotiation discussions.
Meeting reopened at 7:23 PM.
I. Reports by Guests, Administration and Board
Knutson Construction representatives, Steve Curry, Mike Wolf, Dave Carr, Ryan Ryberg, Rick Vrendenburg and Marvin T. Fabyanske presented information to the board regarding construction issues. Marlette reminded the board of the upcoming elections – 4-four term vacancies in November.
VII. Old Business
None at this time
VIII. New Business
A MMS Salonek and Burns to approve the Resolution Providing for Sale of General Obligation School Building Refunding Bonds, Series 2012B: Covenanting and Obligating the District to be Bound by and to Use the Provisions of Minnesota Statutes, Section 16C.55 to Guarantee the Payment of the Principal and Interest on the Bonds. Ayes: Salonek, Burns, Hoover, Janikula, Koehler and McCain. Nays: None. Passes 6-0.
B. MMS Salonek and Burns to approve the 2012-2013 Miscellaneous Pay Rates for Athletic Officials and Workers (No Change for FY 2013). Passes 6-0.
C. MMS Burns and Janikula to approve the 2012-2013 Ticket Prices for Home Events (No Change for FY 2013). Passes 6-0.
D. MMS to approve the 2012-2013 Parking Fees (No Change for FY 2013). Passes 6-0.
E. The board had the First Reading of Policy 514: Bullying Prohibition Policy.
F. The board had the First Reading of Policy 524: Technology Resource Acceptable Use
and Safety Policy.
G. MMS Salonek and Burns to approve the Agreement between Watertown-Mayer Public Schools and the City of Watertown – Right of Entry and Waiver of Trespass. Passes 6-0.
IX. Discussion of issues or open comments by School Board Directors.
Reminder of upcoming School Board Meetings:
Regular School Board August 27, 2012 7:00 PM Watertown City Hall
X. MMS Burns and Salonek to adjourn the meeting at 8:42 PM and was duly passed.
John McCain, Chair
\Jennifer Hoover, Clerk
(Published in Carver County News Sept. 6, 2012)


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Another hot day in Hong Kong. I do love the heat though, so I should hardly be complaining. The sky is blue, the birds are singing. The only thing ruining this perfect morning is that I am walking to class laden like a packhorse, or a packed donkey. I find the image of a donkey carrying a heavy load somehow more believable than a horse. I digress. The fact is that I am now covered in sweat and cannot wait to enter the air-conditioned bliss that is the front hall.
© The Financial Times Ltd 2016 FT and 'Financial Times' are trademarks of The Financial Times Ltd.


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keynote connector for the 2nd time this week has not sent me back to the original site I have taken the survey at and when I contacted them they claim its the survey sites fault and would not acknowlede any fault with themselves or give me some kind of credit for their surveys. I will not download their Keynote connector anymore (which you have to take out of your computer after your done with the survey or they are probably watching every move on your computer). Last survey you will ever see from me Keynote connector unless I'm credited and I will take this back
Took a $10 Amazon survey finished it completing page timed out and could not fill in personal info. Attempted to contact their customer service many times with emails. They have responded to none of them. IMHO avoid this company
[email protected]
I just signed up so I really don't know if I recommend it or not, but they do NOT use Firefox at all. They don't use Mac either. Just Windows (so they say) and you must use IE.
Been with them about 3 years. Surveys always involve website evaluations. Some interesting some not so. Started off bad with no credit for the first evaluation but since then I've made $190. Invites have slowed over the past year. Was getting at least one invite a month but have only seen 2 or 3 this year and qualified for one. Good site but not stellar!
I've done two surveys with this company, both of which offers a 10 dollar amazon gift card. I gave my opinion, and answers and took my time. I emailed them to see why I haven't received my incentive and they won't respond. First message I sent was on Sept. 9th for the first one I took. 2nd Message I sent on Oct 7., and have still not received a reply.
Customer service is non-existent. If you want to have consumer opinions, you might want to actually treat the consumer correctly.. since your business ethics are lacking greatly.


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K38 USA - K38 Water Safety
Our motto is 'The Life You Save May Be Your Own'. Our K38 Philosophy and Way of Training is our way of life. Join us in exceeding the status quo by focusing on the horizons that lay ahead. The wake you leave behind matters.
Shawn Alladio of K38 Water Safety USA is the creator of the K38 Way of Training Standards. The training program began in 1989 and is enjoying support from Kawasaki Motors Corporation USA, Hydroturf, Liquid Militia Clothing, Gath Headgear, and K38 GEAR; Shawn has personally managed safety for big wave surfing contests, athletes and team training. She is the creator of IJSBA/APBA racing events Course Marshal Training and accreditation programs, and currently enjoys working with UIM in 2013. K38 is recognized as the sole source creator for international training programs regarding personal watercraft, consultation, curriculum development and legislative matters.
Shawn is a certified National Safe Boating Instructor since 1997. She has received numerous awards such as the National Safe Boating Council, National Association of State Boating Law Administrators and the National Water Safety Congress Regional Award, National Water Safety Congress 2009 Award of Merit, The National Award, Higgins and Langley Memorial Awards for Swiftwater and Flood Rescue Commendation Award, numerous heroism awards and was inducted into the National Safe Boating Councils prestigious 2011 Boating Safety Hall of Fame. Many people and companies stand behind these awards, it is a united effort for the greater good.
Shawn Alladio is a motivational speaker for corporations and groups that desire to improve communications, team work and problem solving solutions. She is the creator of mentorship and career development programs for youth for both male and females in competitive sports and creating goals towards direction in employment. This ongoing relationship with various water related communities worldwide, the continuing development of Rescue Water Craft products, combined with dedication and knowledge, create an evolution of experience on the part of Shawn Alladio and her organization that is unequaled worldwide in so many diverse formats.


text: The pressure building at the short of the Treasury curve should nudge rates higher in the second half of 2014, which should sit fine with Fed Chief Janet Yellen as long as she sees U.S. economic growth, said Alan Cauberghs, Investment Director of Fixed Income Management at Schroders. Cauberghs said investors need to remain flexible in their fixed income allocations and embrace currency risk, especially when "rock star" central bankers are engaged in global monetary warfare. Finally, Cauberghs said European corporate bonds are a better buy than US corporates considering the hefty support coming from the ECB.


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Definition of anthropometric
a. - Alt. of Anthropometrical 2
The word "anthropometric" uses 14 letters: A C E H I M N O O P R R T T.
No direct anagrams for anthropometric found in this word list.
Adding one letter to anthropometric does not form any other word in this word list.Words within anthropometric not shown as it has more than seven letters.
List all words starting with anthropometric, words containing anthropometric or words ending with anthropometric
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Other words with the same letter pairs: an nt th hr ro op po om me et tr ri ic
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Stellar: Baptiste Debombourg's 1,000 Chair Installation
Patience is a virtue. According to Beautiful/Decay, it took "Baptiste Debombourg 1200 chairs, 300 meters of steel tubes and 11 months to set up the installation in the middle of plaza du Bouffay in Nantes, France." Situated in a plaza with multiple coffee shops and cafes, the chairs represent a communal effect, and each cafe gets a unique vantage point of the sculpture.August 11, 2015


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The Cyber Commander System is a fully integrated 2.4 GHz radio remote system with multiple capabilities from simple remote firing of flash units to complete control, metering and display of complex 16-light studio systems. A complete system includes one transmitter (at camera position) and one receiver for each light in the setup. A minimum setup for triggering can be accomplished with one transmitter and one receiver placed on just one light in the setup (leaving any additional lights in the setup to fire via their built-in slave trippers).
Offers complete control of up to 16 lights on 16 frequencies
Interference-free wireless control up to 400 feet on 2.4 GHz band
For Paul C. Buff units with CSR+ or CSRB+ receivers and Einstein units with CSXCV transceivers
Adjusts flashpower and modeling in 1/10 f-stop increments
Stores and retrieves complex lighting setups
Built-in flashmeter measures single lights, groups or setup


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Remembering Anna Conte - a Face of the New York Medical Marijuana Law
Last week, nine year-old Anna Conte died after a long battle with a seizure disorder. Anna and her family had been at the center of a successful fight to pass a medical marijuana law in New York. Medical marijuana has dramatically reduced life-threatening seizures in other children with Anna's condition.
Her family, working with patients and caregivers across New York, persuaded lawmakers, who had been considering legislation for eighteen years, to finally pass a medical marijuana law this June. Unfortunately, this legislation came too late for Anna. New York's Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who signed the bill into law three days after Anna slipped into a coma, has said it will take 18 months or longer to implement the program.
I got to know Anna and her family because their fierce and unrelenting love led them to the halls of Albany where they told their story of Anna's condition and stood shoulder to shoulder with cancer patients, people living with HIV/AIDS, those living with multiple sclerosis, and other caregivers and patients. They generated thousands of phone calls and signatures to leaders in Albany and organized a community forum in Buffalo that was standing room only.
Despite Anna's illness, the life-and-death circumstances they faced daily, and the difficulty of engaging in such intense advocacy with a sick child, they made the multiple trips to Albany and always did so with great warmth, humor and passion.
Even now, in the midst of their tragic loss, the Conte family has said they will continue to fight for expedited access to medical marijuana for patients, like Anna, who cannot wait 18 months for the program to be implemented.
Indeed, there are families all across New York who, like the Contes, have lost a loved one since the bill was signed or who are facing the real possibility that their child, parent or partner will simply not survive the 18 months that Gov. Cuomo has said it will take to implement New York's full medical marijuana patient access system. While not all of these deaths can be prevented by medical marijuana, we have a moral obligation to make this medicine available as soon as possible to those for whom 18 months is simply too long.
That's why Compassionate Care NY is calling on the Gov. Cuomo and leaders in Albany to work swiftly to establish a temporary emergency program for expediting access to medical marijuana for those with life-threatening or terminal illnesses. By establishing a temporary, interim emergency access program, patients with life-threatening or terminal illnesses won't have to wait 18 months or longer for the full system to come online.
We can immediately save lives and ease suffering at the end of life by establishing emergency, expedited access. New York cannot stand by while more people die needlessly.
Julie Netherland is the New York deputy state director for the Drug Policy Alliance.


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THOUSANDS of visitors based themselves at the Rapha Tempest Festival at Broughton Hall for the Tour de France weekend.
After spending the night camping out in the grounds, the vast majority walked or cycled into Skipton.
Meanwhile, back at Broughton, hundreds remained to enjoy the spectacle on a massive live screen.
Richard Steele, and his 14-year-old daughter, Elaine, from Hull, were planning to head into Skipton to watch the race.
"We'll go into Skipton and watch the race go through and will then probably go onto Harrogate, we'll just see how much is going on in Skipton first," he said.
They had arrived on Friday afternoon and put their tent up in strong winds.
"Its been fine, apart from some rain this morning, and the cyclists won't be bothered by the rain at all," he added.
Visitors were treated to a selection of food, from Mexican to French and Yorkshire Dales ice cream.


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Now if you're still reading, here goes an attempted summary of me:
I like playing Everquest (although it's been a while since I've been serious about it) and chatting with friends online or the phone... I miss horseback riding, going OUT with friends, meeting new people in person FIRST, and tons of other stuff...
I type like I talk which means grammatical errors are usually there (although I actually laugh in person). I use sarcasm like a weapon or so I've been told. And I will type Ok and so more than most people can stand.
I am a tease! I am very open about it. But I don't play games. (Although, currently I'm learning how to play Hard-To-Get, but it's more as a favor than as a lesson on life for me.)
And now, basic facts...
(For Quickmatch users: eq_liking)
I am taken, bored, and self-serving
What I'm planning on doing with my life:
I'd like to go back to school for or teach myself software design (Although I'm working on this with the Java there's tons of other languages I'd like to learn as well.). Right now my primary focus on here is meeting new friends.
Inside: I tend to care deeply and quickly about people. I lose interest in things quickly and my hands need to constantly be doing something. IOW, don't expect to have my complete and undivided attention for too long. I do not play games with people. If I don't like you, you'll know very quickly.
Favorite authors include Laurell K. Hamilton, Clive Cussler and Dean Koontz. I read Harlequinn Historical Romances and a lot of Sci-Fi and anything else that comes with a recommendation. My classic favorites include East of Eden, Catcher in the Rye, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.
I'll watch most anything once, (well, I'll sit down to watch it at least, I can't guarantee I won't fall asleep). Some of my favorites include Legend, American Outlaws, A Man Apart, Uptown Girls, Sweet Home Alabama, About A Boy, Mean Girls, Wild Things, Cruel Intentions, Simply Irresistible, 40 Days and 40 Nights, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Papparazzi, Serving Sara, Swordfish, etc...
Just like my movies I'll listen to anything once (but I usually don't fall asleep mid-song). Some of my favorite artists are Nickelback, Coldplay, Fall Out Boy, 3 Days Grace, Breaking Benjamin, Reba McEntire, Little Texas, Los Lonely Boys, Tim McGraw, Eminem, DMX, TuPac, etc. Although, I have to say the last three are about the only rap I've ever listened to and liked. I've recently discovered Panic! At The Disco and am quickly falling in love with this band.
Television (Even though you didn't ask.):
GILMORE GIRLS!!! I watch mostly WB programming. The ones I don't miss are Gilmore Girls, Everwood, Supernatural, One Tree Hill and Related. Before they were taken off the air Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel were a part of that list.
Italian food. And I LOVE sweets. Chocolate is GOOD!
Mechanical Pencils.
Hope, Chance and Faith.


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Forums: Index > The Wizengamot archive > Monaco Sidebar
As you may have noticed, along with the banner and logo, the sidebar links have also been updated. Some have been removed since they were deemed not to be useful, and some were added. However, we're taking suggestions on what links everyone else thinks should be included in the sidebar. List your suggestions below with your reason for its inclusion. - Cavalier One(Wizarding Wireless Network) 00:34, 18 May 2008 (UTC)
- Just one thing I want to comment on. Under the "Harry Potter series" it lists each iteration and then when you mouseover those lists "Film" and "Game" for each (except DH cause there is no article on the game as far as I know). Should "Book" also be listed here? Currently you can get to the book just by click "Philosopher's Stone" or "Prisoner of Azkaban," etc. I'm not sure this is intuitive though. What do you guys think? -- DarkJedi613 (Talk) 15:41, 18 May 2008 (UTC)


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This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
As soon as today, the U.S. Supreme Court justices may decide if the court will hear a case and then rule on whether gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to marry ("Supreme Court to consider right of gays to marry," Tribune, Nov. 25).
If they eventually rule that gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to marry, would siblings or first cousins also finally have an unrestricted constitutional right to marry? Would older, single-adult parents have an unrestricted constitutional right to marry one of their adult offspring?
Is the goal really equality for all?


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Magic Make Things Happen......: Carnival Magic Cruise Review by surfergina
Overall Member Rating
Magic Make Things Happen......
Destination: Western Caribbean
Embarkation: Galveston
Clean, fresh, new, and not too hard to find where you want to go at. The layout takes a day or so to get used to. There are a few floors that cut off or don't span the entire ship. Which means at least once you will have to go up or down a floor, walk the length of the boat, and then back up or down to reach your desired location. The elevators were never TOO crowded beyond what you expect on a cruise ship. Rooms were alittle smaller on the other ship I have been on, Disney Dream. But Magic provided better storage spaces than Disney. If you need storage spaces in your cabin, don't get the modifier cabin (cabin for wheelchair user) because my friends had those cabin and there are no storage spaces. She wished she had gotten a regular cabin instead. The mid pool is always packed after breakfast to before dinner. My favorite swimming pool is located at the back of the ship. It's closer to bar service (really great service and quick), India buffet, and hot panini More sandwich stands.
My cabin is Cove Balcony. The reason why I wanted to book this type of cabin is because this cabin type is really new to me and I want to be the first to experience it. I really, really love this Cove Balcony because when you get on the balcony, you get to see everything up close, especially at each port stop. I am lucky to book this cabin number because there are no safe boats hanging above my cabin (others do), so I got more sunshine in my cabin and open viewing. If you plan to book a cove balcony, look at the deck map and make sure that there are no safe boats hanging above it.
My cabin is in the middle of the deck. The only downfall is when the ocean get wavy, you can feel the ocean mist on your face. Sometime splash, if wave gets too rough (it will IF you have cove balcony in front of ship). I noticed some sands on my balcony once and it's no wonder why Carnival worker had to hose water down on all cove balcony night before returning to home port. The next downfall is you cannot open the outside balcony divider door between two cabins. It stay locked and that divider is to cover your cabin's outside door if the wave get too rough or storm. I didn't have any problems with cove balcony and I would definitely book this type of cabin again.
Cabin steward, waiters, guest services, lido buffet, and the rest have a great service EXCEPT at the Spotlight Lounge (Comedy Club). The cocktail servers are very slow workers. We attended Comedy show twice nightly (Percy Crew II & Cowboy Bill). Few time I ordered a drink, but didn't receive it until near the show is about to ended, other time waiters were nowhere to be seen. Magic need more cocktail servers to meet our demands.
The foods are okay, in my opinion. Lido buffet has plenty of foods to choose from and I tried all of them. I noticed that some foods are warm, which was supposed to be chilled, like red kidney beans & chick peas, sliced fruits. The Mongolian wok is my favorite, but I really hate to waste my time standing in lines for an hour to get my plate from wok. I only went there once. My suggestion is to go there early before more people arrive. The last three days of cruise - Lido buffet ran out of bananas. No bananas for breakfast and lunch, disappointed. The most disappointed part is their food placement - at Lido, you have to look everywhere for butter, cream cheese, jelly, horseradish sauce. As it turns out, butter is on left side of buffet, while cream cheese/jelly is on the right side. They should put all close together. Foods at assigned nightly dinner time - no problem. Great foods and services. Room service foods - no problem. Love, love, love to order room service foods FROM my cabin flat TV - so easy and quick.
I don't drink soda, so I drank mostly water, hot tea, and coffee. I brought my own water bottles (24) on the ship from a local Galveston drugstore. They allow me to bring it, but I have to carry it myself until my cabin is ready on the first day. Bring a little bag with wheels to haul your soda cans/water bottles.
No problem.
Grand Cayman - Stingray City. Best trip I've ever taken. Will go there again.
Montego Bay, Jamaica - Horseback Riding. Fun, but long wait and hot. Relieved to get in the ocean with my horse to cool off.
Cozumel, Mexico: originally booked for Secret River Cave, but had to back out due to claustrophobia. Changed it to GoJeep! Beach. It was fun and we got to learn how Tequila was made, sip all kinds of tequila flavor and head to the beach by Jeep. Restaurant and saltwater pool are available to use. You must know how to use stick-shift. No auto is available. Long drive, but it was fun.
Do I want to go on the Magic again? Maybe, if I bring my teen son along with me and I'm sure he'll have a blast playing in dodgeball, skyrope, kid's activities, and more. I have sailed on Carnival before and so far, my most favorite ship is Carnival Liberty. If I was given two choices - Magic or Liberty, for my next cruise trip, I'll pick Liberty. Less
Published 09/08/12
Cabin review: 7C2315 Cove BalconyCove Balcony (7C) Reviews >>
Read Cruise Critic's Carnival Magic Review >>
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In simple terms the body has two very different and complex systems of energy producing sources. As energy is vital to the very existence of human activity and survival the two energy style depend on each other for support. This book shows you what foods give you the most energy.
It occurs so very frequently - we resolve to go on with a health and physical fitness program with zest and likely much fanfare too; however in the first week of going into the plan, everything peters out.
Why is it that we don't stick with the diet plans, the morning jogging plans, the physical exercise plans that we make?
And what may we do to ensure we keep going with these plans, for our own sake and for the sake of the individuals that are dependent on us?
Are you eating simply to satisfy your appetite or to make your taste buds happy? Or are you eating in order to take better command of your life? In this app, we see how you are able to make your life much more optimal simply by making a point that you eat correctly.
The Publisher has strived to be as accurate and complete as possible in the creation of this APP, notwithstanding the fact that he does not warrant or represent at any time that the contents within are accurate due to the rapidly changing nature of the Internet.
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At MIS we understand the importance of using core activities that focuses on student centered learning. Mastery of academic-required materials, professional qualification and development of the teaching staff through continuous workshops and training seminars contribute to this effect. MIS is a Pre K – 12, English medium language college preparatory school, that offers students from the international community and the State of Qatar an American curriculum based on the California standards. Particularly, in the core subject areas of math, science, social studies and English, leading to a high school diploma upon completion of Grades 9 -12 and 24 credit. They include:
Students in grades 6 – 12 are able to access our biology, chemistry and physics laboratories, as an integral part of their science curriculum programs.
MIS offers students an expanded curriculum that could include electives and approved on-line courses not offered at MIS (i.e., Computer Science, Advance Placement (AP) courses/11 & 12 grades, SAT preparation, honor courses, Spanish, Chinese etc.).
We also offer students a wide variety of elective courses like art, Information Communication Technology (ICT), marketing, and we include the history of Qatar in our world history curriculum. Integrated technology provides a high quality of instruction through the use of computers, laboratories, and technical skills are also included in the education program.
Seniors are required to take either the SAT's or the ACT and all tenth grade students are required to take the PSAT, in preparation for the SATs, in October of each academic year. MIS is an authorized testing center for the PSAT.
Additionally, all high school students must read four (4) novels per year in English. Seniors are required to submit a research project, using universally recognize research principles, as well as an essay that reflects the student's five (5) year career plan, and a community service project.
MIS is committed to providing the highest standard of academics and dedicated to giving students the level of education that will result in the increase in student's achievements and performance, as well as maximizing their potentials. The School is now engaged in comprehensive reform efforts. The usage of new assessment forms for assessing the effectiveness of our curriculum, teaching, and student performance are now being applied. General reviews and surveys are to be conducted bi-annually for the entire education program, in order to remain updated with the most recent internationally accepted American curriculum. Professional relationships are established among teachers, instructional supervisors, administrators, parents, student council and students.
The self-review program we have in place is intended to capture the strengths of MIS, as well as indicate areas of need and improvement.
|Our Vision
Today, in Qatar, we prepare students for their future, one that can hardly be imagined. What we know is that critical thinking skills will be crucial to their success. Theirs is a digital world; their future will be more strongly affected by technology. Excellence in education as we enter the 21st Century presupposes that technology is seamlessly integrated throughout our instructional program.
|Our Mission
Our mission is learning at high levels while integrating technology seamlessly throughout our curriculum, and for preparing our students to be competitive in the international community.
To achieve our mission we will provide a supportive environment and an exemplary educational program built upon a foundation of respect and high standards for achievement and effort.


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Understanding Business Improvement District formation: An analysis of neighborhoods and boundaries
Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) provide supplemental services to urban commercial corridors using funds from member assessments. They have become a very popular urban revitalization tool, but their formation is still largely unexplained. Theory implies that BIDs will form if they add to aggregate welfare and if the marginal net benefit of membership is positive. I test this for the neighborhood overall and at the BID boundary. Using unique, micro-level and longitudinal data from New York City, I employ survival analysis methods to estimate the likelihood of a neighborhood forming a BID. I then estimate the likelihood of the marginal property's BID membership by comparing the characteristics of properties located immediately inside and outside of the BID boundaries. I find that BIDs are more likely to form when there is more commercial space over which the BID benefits can be capitalized and when there is homogeneity in service and spending preferences across properties. BIDs also tend to form in neighborhoods that possess signs of appreciation and growth. Generally, BIDs are more likely to form in neighborhoods with higher valued properties with the exception of very wealthy areas. The BID boundary, however, is comprised of relatively less valuable properties.
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.
Volume (Year): 71 (2012)
Issue (Month): 1 ()
Pages: 66-78
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| Web page: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622905
References listed on IDEAS
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- Sandra E. Black, 1999.
"Do Better Schools Matter? Parental Valuation of Elementary Education,"
The Quarterly Journal of Economics,
Oxford University Press, vol. 114(2), pages 577-599.
- Sandra E. Black, 1997. "Do better schools matter? Parental valuation of elementary education," Research Paper 9729, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
- Bergstrom, Theodore C & Goodman, Robert P, 1973. "Private Demands for Public Goods," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 63(3), pages 280-296, June.
- Robert T. Greenbaum & John B. Engberg, 2004. "The impact of state enterprise zones on urban manufacturing establishments," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(2), pages 315-339.
- William C. Strange & Robert W. Helsley, 2000. "Social Interactions and the Institutions of Local Government," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(5), pages 1477-1490, December.
- Brooks, Leah, 2007. "Unveiling Hidden Districts: Assessing the Adoption Patterns of Business Improvement Districts in California," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 60(1), pages 5-24, March.
- Leah Brooks, 2006. "Unveiling Hidden Districts: Assessing The Adoption Patterns Of Business Improvement Districts In California," Departmental Working Papers 2006-03, McGill University, Department of Economics.
- Helsley, Robert W. & Strange, William C., 2000. "Potential competition and public sector performance," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 405-428, July.
- Jan K. Brueckner & Stuart S. Rosenthal, 2009. "Gentrification and Neighborhood Housing Cycles: Will America's Future Downtowns Be Rich?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 91(4), pages 725-743, November.
- Jan K. Brueckner & Stuart S. Rosenthal, 2005. "Gentrification and Neighborhood Housing Cycles: Will America's Future Downtowns Be Rich?," Working Papers 050611, University of California-Irvine, Department of Economics.
- Jan K. Brueckner & Stuart S. Rosenthal, 2005. "Gentrification and Neighborhood Housing Cycles: Will America's Future Downtowns be Rich?," CESifo Working Paper Series 1579, CESifo Group Munich.
- Helsley, Robert W. & Strange, William C., 1998. "Private government," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 281-304, June.
- Howard R. Bowen, 1943. "The Interpretation of Voting in the Allocation of Economic Resources," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 58(1), pages 27-48.
- Leah Brooks, 2006. "Does Spatial Variation in Heterogeneity Matter? Assessing the Adoption Patterns of Business Improvement Districts," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 23(6), pages 1219-1234, November.
- Neumark, David & Kolko, Jed, 2010. "Do enterprise zones create jobs? Evidence from California's enterprise zone program," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 1-19, July.
- David Neumark & Jed Kolko, 2008. "Do Enterprise Zones Create Jobs? Evidence from California's Enterprise Zone Program," NBER Working Papers 14530, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
- Robert Greenbaum & John Engberg, 2000. "An Evaluation Of State Enterprise Zone Policies," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 17(2-3), pages 29-45, 06.
- Bond, Eric W. & Coulson, N. Edward, 1989. "Externalities, filtering, and neighborhood change," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 231-249, September. Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)
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My husband is 58 and has type 2 diabetes. Two days ago his breath started to smell very strongly, and he was suddenly very tired and slightly nauseated. He recovered from this, and the smell went away. I've read about acetone breath in diabetics. Do you think that is what he had? What's the cause?
— Alice, Connecticut
Acetone breath in diabetics is caused by an excess production of acetone. Acetone, hydroxybutyrate, and acetoacetate are ketones, byproducts of fat metabolism. When the body does not have enough insulin (as is the case in people with diabetes), a hormone that is key in glucose metabolism, it instead uses fatty acids as an alternative source of energy, and ketones are the result of this process. Ketones are also produced during a fasting state or when consuming a ketogenic (high-fat, low-carbohydrate) diet.
Ketones can cause nausea, vomiting, and fatigue. But I am concerned that your husband might be experiencing diabetic ketoacidosis, which is a serious and life-threatening condition. I suggest that you check your husband's sugar level at the time you notice his acetone breath and contact his doctor for further advice. It is also quite likely that his acetone breath might be a result of missing meals.
Learn more in the Everyday Health Type 2 Diabetes Center.


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Welcome to Form Nation!
As this is my first post as part of the Adobe blogging community I will provide you with the obligatory details on who I am and what I do.
My name is Anthony Rumsey and I am a software developer at Adobe. I am currently busy developing new technology that integrates Adobe Live Cycle Forms and Adobe Flex. Both of these products are extremely powerful on their own but when combined the possibilities will knock your socks off! Prior to entering the world of Flex I was one of the main developers on the Form Server product, which later became Live Cycle Forms. I also dabbled in software verification when I first started at Adobe in 1998 fresh out of University.
That is me in a nutshell. As for this blog I plan to write mainly about Live Cycle Forms and Flex with particular attention being paid to their integration since they is where my experience lies. I am sure I will also throw in other topis periodically just to keep things interesting.
Let the quest begin!
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Reg Livermore is hoping to recapture the magic with a new musical and an autobiography out this week. Bryce Hallett remembers the ups and downs of a fabulous career.
Reg Livermore was walking on air when he ventured to London's West End but it wasn't long before he fell to earth with a crashing thud. The year was 1980, after the home-turf triumphs of his brilliantly theatrical one-man stage shows Betty Blokk Buster Follies, Wonder Woman and Sacred Cow.
The omens for success in London, and possibly Broadway a few months later, looked good.
Why, even the legendary director Hal Prince said as much while insisting that Livermore be as bold as ever and not think twice about including his unapologetically vulgar character Vaseline Amalnitrate in his show at the Phoenix Theatre.
The auditorium was packed. Stephen Sondheim was there and, so was a relatively unknown Julian Clary who sat transfixed in the front row. He loved every minute of the bawdy burlesque. But not everyone did.
Within two minutes of conjuring the foul-mouthed Vaseline Amalnitrate, some people in the audience loudly protested - one of the more painful and humiliating episodes recounted in the performer's autobiography Chapters and Chances, launched in Sydney this week.
One punter yelled, "I'll give you two weeks in this town!" followed soon after by a lady in the dress circle calling, "More wit without the filth, please!" Another heckler interjected: "When are you going to stop being disgusting and say something funny?"
The rest, as they say, is theatre history. The reviews talked of "deportation" back to Botany Bay for the "Aussie invader", while the media back home had a field day reporting his demise. There were plenty of tears in the Livermore camp but, like so much of the entertainer's singular career, no sooner did one door slam than another opened.
These days Livermore, who lives in Wentworth Falls, is philosophical, even sanguine, about career pitfalls, not least the disappointments of his musicals Ned Kelly and Big Sister, or the detractors quick to write him off.
He mentions with amusement how Germaine Greer bluntly told him at a party that his version of Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild Side was awful. The book also recalls how in the mid-'70s Harry M.Miller told rival producer Eric Dare that Livermore "lacked charisma": this of the marvel-making entertainer whose shows at the Bijou in Balmain were sold out night after night. (Miller emerges in Livermore's eyes as a hard-headed businessman: nothing less, nothing more.)
"Australia's greatest white-faced clown, the inimitable Livermore, sweetheart and bawd ... Piaf, Punch, Ariel, Pagliacci and Charlie Chaplin. The heart of Reg's show is that we are forced to see the self, teeming with life and ransomed with death ... he is everyone's nightmare and everyone's dream. - Dorothy Hewett, 1979
In April next year, Livermore hopes to recapture some of the old magic. He's been cast in Mel Brooks's hit musical The Producers, in the role of the erstwhile entrepreneur Max Bialystock. In the meantime, his long-awaited life story holds sway.
Chapters and Chances, co-written by his partner, Rob McMicking, is packed with photographs and lavishly presented in the style of a coffee table book. It charts the fertile and fallow patches - not just the star turns in Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Rocky Horror Show, Betty Blokk Buster Follies and Firing Squad but also his personal life, the lure of restaurant management, cooking, gardening and an abiding love of nature. There are photos of family, friends, colleagues, lovers and mentors - and of his Blue Mountains paradise, Pirramirra (Aboriginal for "moon and stars").
One of the book's most touching passages tells of his one-time partner Gary Edwards, a talented chef, and the Blue Mountains restaurant they ran called La Sala. After a long illness, Edwards died in 1995 at the age of 32. It forced Livermore to confront his mortality and again, he would turn to his garden for solace and find answers in nature.
"I worked on the book for a very long time," he said. "In the end you have to get it all out and be true to yourself ... I was greatly encouraged by my editor who said: 'Remember, the reader is on your side'.
"I've never kept a journal and often in the process of recollecting different events I had the sense of 'how did that happen' ... There was never a plan as such and there are many sides to a story. The things I've written about happened and I didn't want to deny things."
It's a career of peaks and troughs, thrills and spills. The performer not only seized opportunities but created them, be it the outlandishly fierce Betty Blokk Buster or the chauvinistic old codger Leonard. Spurring him on were those producers prepared to take a gamble, notably the aptly named impresario Eric Dare. He got behind Livermore's one-man entertainments with the canny decisiveness of a mogul backing one of Hollywood most saleable stars.
When Dare saw a publicity photo of Livermore cheekily clad in a skimpy apron that exposed his bare bum, he asked if the as yet un-named character could be included in the show. The photo had been done for a lark, and on this near-accidental basis the theatre legend of Betty Blokk Buster was born in Carlton, Melbourne.
"It came together haphazardly and I had no idea what was being created," says Livermore, of his first one-man vaudeville directed by Peter Batey. It was big and bold and Livermore cast himself as a ringmaster of sorts. His shows in the '70s and early '80s were skilful, expressive and daring.
But for all the triumphs, there were periods of soul-searching and, to his fans at least, a feeling that he'd gone into exile when the going got tough.
The recurring pattern in Livermore's life is that things could have turned out very differently. The fine line between success and failure is firmly etched.
For instance, had Livermore's ill-fated musical Ned Kelly premiered anywhere other than a hostile Adelaide, the show may have got more than one chance. The out-of-town try-out system long established in the US has never got off the ground in Australia. Almost inevitably, when opening night comes, so does crunch time.
History would also consign another of Livermore's brash panto-dame musicals, Big Sister, a Larrikin's Opera, to the dubious archive marked "Australian musical - not to be released". It was, however, a big-hearted, tuneful, raw and distinctly Australian piece but the odds of a long commercial run were stacked against it. A company had been formed to raise the finances but it was soon dubbed a commercial flop. As Livermore notes, the show-going hordes at that time didn't so much go to Parramatta as pass through it.
These noble efforts came after the performer had tasted the fruits of staggering success. Busloads of people, many of them women, came to his one-man shows, first at the Balmain Bijou, then Her Majesty's. His name was up in lights, a star in his own name and right after putting his theatrical stamp and stamina on Jesus Christ Superstar and The Rocky Horror Show.
The role of Herod, as written, lasts a few minutes but, true to form, Livermore expanded it into a nine-minute bravura turn which made audiences marvel at his energy and theatrical might. More spectacularly, he interpreted Frank N Furter as a debauched, dangerous creature fashioned in the guise of Bette Davis.
It cemented Livermore's reputation as an electrifying stage personality with the talent and flair to lead a company. Away from the greasepaint and lights, Livermore, who is charming, watchful and somewhat shy, doesn't mind being one of the crowd but, on stage, it's a different matter.
He was not cut out to be a mere part of an ensemble or company as his one-time mentor, the late Hayes Gordon, soon realised. Livermore had been part of John Sumner's repertory company in Melbourne but it was clear that some of the grand singularity of Gordon Chater and Barry Humphries, who Livermore worked with for a short time at the Phillip Street Theatre, had rubbed off. His stamina and independence gave strength and afforded protection from the ill winds that would occasionally blow through Livermore's rollercoaster.
If Ned Kelly in Adelaide was a dream gone sour, then Sacred Cow in London was a full-blown nightmare. He found the experience hard to live down but before too long he was up on the precarious high-wire again, literally, in the musical Barnum, a role enabling him to lick his wounds and entertain as best he could.
Time and again, the hard knocks would toughen Livermore's creative resolve. "The carnival is not over!" he declares at one point, partly in response to a Herald review of his show Leonard's Last Hurrah at the Opera House a few years ago. Audiences stayed away, it lost money and led to an artistic rethink.
Critics and commentators feature a lot in Chapters and Chances, for good and bad, exposing his strengths and vulnerabilities as an artist. Livermore's recollections also reveal that without "our sweetheart and bawd" the history of Australia's performing arts would be a great deal poorer and far less colourful.
Chapters and Chances by Reg Livermore, Hardie Grant, RRP $65.
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Moby's Vegan BBQ at SXSW
Hi, guys! I'm working on a couple posts about our Disney trip, but in the meantime, I have another guest post for you today by a very special guest – the man behind the scenes here at C'est La Vegan. Enjoy! Well, hello there. I'm Ryan, Kim's husband, and for the past two years, I've [...]Read more