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This is another recipe I got through a whatsapp chat. My dear friend, Deena Baby Mathews sent me the recipe and it took me 3 days to convince myself that baking a cake and for that matter, having a biiiiig slice is not going to tighten my pants. But the problem is not that. I baked and O my God, I knew it wasnt going to be one slice. Well, already 3 slices in my tummy and believe me when I say, I might not even consider sharing this with anyone....that good it is.
So, What is Medovik. I googled and found this:
From Wikipedia: The medovik is a sweet spread to Russia and countries of the former Soviet Union , whose main ingredients are honey and condensed milk. It is a dessert that requires a long preparation and is made of layers of biscuit with cream filling and covered with nuts.
Ok, when you go through the recipe, you will find that there is no condensed milk mentioned.... Well Dulce de lechi is made by heating condensed milk. Since I didnt get a can of that, I made it by caramelizing sugar and adding cream.....same effect!!!!
For layers
All purpose flour - 500g
Sugar - 200g
Eggs - 3
Unsalted butter - 8 tbsp/1 Stick
Honey = 2 tbsp
Baking soda - 1 1/2 tsp
For cream
Milk - 2 cups
Egg - 3
Corn Starch - 2 tbsp
Milk caramel or dulce de lechi - 8 oz (I made caramel cream since I didnt get Dulce De Leche here)
Honey - 2 tbsp
Butter - 1 stick @ room temperature
Pre heat oven to 180C
Whisk eggs, set aside
Place the sugar butter honey in a heat proof bowl and set over simmering water
Melt stirring occasionally
Add eggs & mix until pale color.
Add baking soda & cook for 1 more min. The mixture should be fluffy & double the size
Transfer the egg-butter mixture from heat and add flour. Mix in low speed until combined, about 2 min. The dough should be warm soft and little sticky. But do not add more flour.
Turn out dough onto a lightly floured work surface and press together gently.
Knead dough few times and form into a ball.
Divide dough into 8 equal parts
Shape each into a ball. Cover 7 so as to not lose moisture and roll out the remaining ball into a thin circle, similar to our chapati.
Make sure all the balls are rolled out in the same size & thickness as it needs to be stacked on top of each other
The base of a cake tin can be used for cutting out equal size circles.
I used a round plate and a pizza cutter.
Prick the dough in several places and bake each for 3 min to make 8 perfect cake layers
To make Custard cream
Heat 1 1/2 cup milk but do not boil
In a small bowl whisk the remaining 1/2 cup milk with eggs & corn starch till smooth.
Slowly whisk the egg mixture into the warm milk, bring it to simmer over moderate heat, whisking constantly until very thick - 2 minutes
Make sure you dont stop whisking, or else you will get scrambled eggs.
Let it cool.
To make Caramel Cream
Sugar: 2 cups
Water" 2 tbsp
Butter: 1 tbsp
Salt: a pinch
Fresh Cream: 2 cups
Heat Sugar, salt and water on low heat till it is golden brown in colour. Resist your temptation to stir the syrup...Please do not meddle with it but you can swirl the pan
When it is golden brown, add butter, wait for it to melt.
turn off the stove and add the fresh cream and mix well.
Let it cool completely.
To assemble cake
Mix the caramel cream, Custard cream, honey and butter. Whisk properly.
Top each cake layer with about 1/2 cup cream and spread it around evenly.
Repeat with all cake layers
As each layer is placed over each other some frosting will come out of the side, spread it evenly over the sides
Leave in fridge for 8 hours or over night


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Yoga Retreats
Coromandel Coastal Boutique Luxury Retreats
Swami Yogamani and Dhyana Muir, longtime friends and Yoga Colleagues decided to collaborate and host a series of Luxury Boutique sized retreats on the stunning Coromandel Coast, which they recognise as Godzone on our doorstep.
Winter Radiance Retreat
Join us for a weekend dose of wellness. Daily yoga, restorative yoga nidra, meditation and more. A weekend to unwind, to disconnect from daily life. A weekend for you!
Himalayan Adventure
India retreat coming 2018 Journey to and stay in sacred Himalaya and then the untouched Leh… this will be one hell of an exciting adventure details to come…. watch this space.
India Ashram Retreat
Fully guided journey to the home of yoga, India. Enjoy a traditional experience of ashram life and find a greater depth of understanding of what yoga is all about. Participate in the courses below and ashram programs at Rikhiapeeth.
Designer Corporate Retreats
Designed for your company at the destination of your choice.
Specialist retreats could be a unique experience for your conference that is in alignment with your company's philosophy, with scheduled (but optional) Yoga, meditation, and wellness sessions with plenty of time to fit in your meetings in a stress-free environment.
Yoga and Art Retreat on the Sunshine Coast
Indulge in art, photography classes and rejuvenating yoga sessions that will unlock your creativity to a whole new level.

subset: commoncrawl


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We Offer Free Truck Rentals for Our Customers in Hendricks County
If you are moving, chances are good that you have a lot more stuff than can fit in your vehicle. Making multiple trips may not be possible, or it may just be too much of a hassle. That is why Brownsburg Self Storage offers a free truck rental for customers. You can keep your belongings in one of our self storage units in Hendricks County and utilize our moving truck service to make your big move a breeze. An efficient moving van can save you and your family so much trouble, so it is definitely a valuable service worth looking into!
Benefits & Features of Moving Vans
The great thing about getting a truck specifically designed for moving is that it comes with so many additional features to help you out. There is easily enough space to handle the amount of goods you would find in a five-room household. Getting a truck ensures that you have enough space to bring everything, so nothing gets left behind. You are certain to enjoy the addition of "Mom's Attic," which is located directly above the cab. Rental trucks also come with low decks, meaning they are closer to the ground. This makes it much easier to load up all your possessions. They also come with loading ramps, which take a lot of the hassle out of having to load and unload the truck.
Contact Us in the Avon and Plainfield Areas
Everyone can benefit from a little extra help now and then, so do not make your next move any harder than it has to be. You can use our storage units for a convenient place to store certain belongings and utilize our free truck rental service while you are at it. Calling us at 317-852-5050 is the best way to learn more about this service. Since 1997, we have been helping residents of Hendricks County, Avon and Plainfield move, and we can do the same for you!


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It hasn't been the best of weeks for trainer Ron Ellis, who last Saturday watched 2-5 favorite Rail Trip fall victim to a questionable ride in the Hollywood Gold Cup and then, less than 48 hours later, lost the 5-year-old gelding to East Coast trainer Rick Dutrow.
Mace Siegel, who operates Jay Em Ess Stable with his daughter Samantha, decided after the race to ship Rail Trip east and get him acclimated to dirt surfaces before the Breeders' Cup Classic on Nov. 6 at Churchill Downs.
Ellis' plan was to continue to train the horse at Hollywood Park, ship to Del Mar for the $1 million Pacific Classic on Aug.28, then test him on dirt in the weeks leading up to the Breeders' Cup.
The scenario mapped out by Ellis was wiped clean during a phone call he never expected.
"Mace called me on Monday afternoon and said, `We're moving the horse and I'll pick him up on Wednesday.' That was it," Ellis said Thursday.
Ellis wasn't surprised.
"Shocked would be a better word," he said.
A winner of eight of 12 lifetime starts with three seconds and a third, Rail Trip is one of the top older male horses in the country. He surpassed the million-dollar mark in earnings with his runner-up effort behind Awesome Gem in the Gold Cup, but he's now heading to a new barn while Ellis scratches his head and wonders why.
"It's certainly not very common that you're doing well with one of the best horses in the country and they move him," the 50-year-old Arcadia resident said. "It's a big blow, really. Those kind of horses don't come along very often. I thought we were doing pretty well with him. I didn't ride him the other day, so it's hard for me to understand."
Rafael Bejarano, one of the best jockeys on the planet, rode Rail Trip in the Gold Cup and took a lot of heat afterward for having the horse four-wide and in the middle of the pack through painfully slow fractions of 25.82, 50.95 and 1:15.12 for the 1 1/4-mile race.
"He came by the next day and apologized, told me he totally blew it," Ellis said of Bejarano, embroiled in a tight battle with Joel Rosario for the Hollywood Park riding title. "And I don't think anybody would dispute that, going (25.82) with a horse that's capable of running 1:07 for six furlongs."
Rail Trip has raced exclusively on synthetic tracks during his career, but there's no doubt in Ellis' mind that he'll adapt to dirt, which is why he wanted to keep him home until about a month before the Breeders' Cup.
"We're only talking about the Midwest, we're not talking about the East Coast," Ellis said of the Breeders' Cup. "I'm sure Churchill Downs is going to have some sort of prep before the Breeders' Cup, usually about a month before."
Now it's up to Dutrow as to which path to take to the Classic.
"They tell me he's a pretty good trainer, so I guess he'll figure it out," said Ellis, who's never met Dutrow and has no idea if Rail Trip will ever return to the Southland.
"This kinda just caught me out of the blue," he said.
Ellis has trained Rail Trip since the son of Jump Start hit the track at 2. Ellis has turned what was once a speed ball into a horse that can rate off the lead and save his best running for the stretch.
"That's the kind of horse that, as a trainer, helps you get up early every day of the week," Ellis said. "I mean, I invested three years of time into that horse. We've worked hard to get him to relax to the point he's a push-button horse now.
"That was probably one of the problems (in the Gold Cup). When Rafael kind of throttled him down, (Rail Trip) didn't fight him, he just throttled down. It's taken us three years to get to that point."
And Rail Trip is also to the point where, if healthy, he can run with any horse in the country. According to Ellis, it doesn't matter if the race is on dirt or synthetic.
"He's pretty much the type of horse that I think will run over anything," he said.
But much to Ellis' disappointment, he won't be the one saddling Rail Trip if the horse makes it to the Breeders' Cup.
"It's going to be difficult to go to the barn every day," he said. "It's not going to be as hard to watch him run as it is to go to work every day and he's not there."


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Fall Plaid Ribbon Sale
Twelve fall plaids on sale at 20% off! Only for a few days! See below for the link to each ribbon. Click here for our complete sale section or the entire shop!
Top row, left to right: Abundance, Monroe, Fran
Second row: Feona, Forest Check, Berkshire
Third Row: Fall Fancy, Butterscotch, Pumpkin Plaid
Fourth row: Verna Orange, Ivanna Orange, Halloween Tartan


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Einstein and the Mind of God
Speaking at a conference on science, religion and philosophy in 1941, Albert Einstein famously said that "science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind." Einstein, a German-born Jew, considered himself religious. But what he meant by religion was not straightforward. The first episode of a two-part podcast called Einstein and the Mind of God (iTunes - MP3 - Web Site) tries to sort out Einstein's religious sensibility and how it squares with his scientific thinking. For Einstein, religion consisted of a belief, not in a personal God, but a universal spirit that manifests itself in nature. And it was the task of physics to make sense of nature, of God's universe. Or, so that is how it's explained by Freeman Dyson, a famed theoretical physicist who appears on the show. (cont)


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My Training
About Me
Health Coaching
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Work With Me
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What Clients Are Saying
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We've all heard it before: Eat less, move more. Where does exercise fit into your life?
I used to view exercise as a chore - an activity that had to be done so I didn't feel so guilty about the sugar-fix I had that afternoon or the feast I indulged in at dinner. Now it has become part of my lifestyle that I actually crave. The rush I feel after I workout is amazingly satisfing. I feel strong and empowered to conquer my day. Sure, there are days where I am less motivated. There are also times when I am traveling or my schedule simply does not allow a workout. That's OK - that's life - but I just try to get up the next day and get back on schedule.
Moving your body is beneficial for both your body and mind
. Exercise reduces the risk of heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes and other diseases. It releases certain chemicals in the brain that fight depression, improve mood, and increase your attention span. It also reduces stress, helps you sleep better, and improves your appearance by delaying the aging process.
Exercising with weights and other forms of resistance training develops your muscles, bones and ligaments for increased strength and endurance. Your posture can be improved, and your muscles become more firm and toned.
Stretching exercises are also important for good posture. They keep your body limber so that you can bend, reach and twist. Improving your flexibility through exercise reduces the chance of injury and improves balance and coordination. If you have stiff, tense areas, such as the upper back or neck, performing specific stretches can help "loosen" those muscles, helping you feel more relaxed.
I will help you figure out both how to fit exercise into your life and what kind of exercise works best for you
Whether it's hiking with your family, going to a yoga class, power walking through your neighborhood, or running up and down your stairs for 5 minutes first thing in the morning, where there's a will, there's a way.
©2015 Healthy Heartbeet. All rights reserved.
Unused Content:


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For Ryan Mathews, it starts with momentum.
He lost it last year, the broken collarbone that ended his preseason and sidelined him until Week 3. It was difficult to regain, though Mathews would not admit publicly, behind a struggling offensive line.
This year, through two exhibitions, the Chargers running back is rolling.
Mathews carried the ball nine times for 45 yards Thursday night in a 33-28 loss to the Bears. This marked his second straight productive effort, and a healthy one at that, as the regular season nears.
He rushed three times for 19 yards against the Seahawks last week.
"You get used to game situations, how your linemen block and how they handle certain situations," Mathews said. "They're doing a great job, and I've just got to do the easy part: pick a hole and run through it. That's what I'm doing."
Chargers at Bears
- Chargers D gets little help in loss
- Bolts offense not turning over new leaf
- Ryan Mathews finding a groove
- Report Card: Chargers have to be better
- Instant Analysis: Bears 33, Chargers 28
- Chargers schedule, game-by-game snapshots
Danny Woodhead was sidelined Thursday as he works back from an undisclosed injury. He likely will make his preseason debut next week against the Cardinals.
For now, the Chargers can assess their run game in what Mathews has shown.
Last year's struggles in pass protection — quarterback Philip Rivers was sacked a career-high 49 times — were amplified by the inability to run. The team averaged 3.6 yards per carry, and its four rushing touchdowns were the lowest in franchise history.
For Mathews, coach Mike McCoy said "the future is now."
"The way that (he) ran the ball was outstanding," McCoy said. "We ran the ball efficiently tonight. I think the way he's running the football (is) what we're looking for in our back."
Green light
Two weeks, two touchdowns for Ladarius Green.
The Chargers tight end found the end zone on a seam route in the second quarter. He caught all five passes on which he was targeted for a game-high 78 yards.
Last week, the 2012 fourth-round pick came open when rookie Brad Sorensen improvised in the pocket, extending the play with his legs on a rollout to the left.
"This time, I think it was the same thing," Green said. "The quarterback just made a great throw."
The 12-yard touchdown pass was one of two for Charlie Whitehurst. The veteran went 9-of-13 for 97 yards, a rating of 130.4.
Green saw the field sparingly as a rookie. He said he feels "a little more calm" now.
"I'm learning from (Antonio) Gates," Green said. "I've learned from Randy (McMichael) and Dante (Rosario), and now I'm learning from John Phillips as well. All these guys are helping me to just calm down. Everything seems a little bit slower now."
Nuts 'n' Bolts
• Mike Willie hit the Bears where it counts. Inside linebacker Jon Bostic rocked the Chargers wide receiver on a short in-breaking route early in the third quarter, forcing an incompletion. Willie, 23, then caught two touchdown passes in the half. On the second, a cornerback was slow to line up across from Willie. He clapped his hands, the ball was snapped, and quarterback Brad Sorensen found him for a quick 6-yard score. Bostic "put a lick on me, but it's all about bouncing back," Willie said. "I bounced back. That's all that matters. After I got hit, I forgot about it."
• Richard Goodman muffed a first-quarter kickoff in the end zone and slowly trotted back to the football. He would recover, but the delayed reaction nearly resulted in a Bears touchdown as Goodman fumbled the ball upon being tackled shortly after kneeling down.


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The Cheat (1915)
d. Cecil B. DeMille / USA / 59 mins.
Cecil B. DeMille's The Cheat is one of the great early silent films precisely because it feels like it should have been released a decade after its late 1915 premiere. With swiftness and grace DeMille impressively merges the two crucial elements so often undefined in early cinema — narrative and photography — and one-ups his contemporary D.W. Griffith in the process by making the totality of the final work something that's stunningly subtle. There's no doubt Griffith's The Birth of a Nation, released the same year as The Cheat, is one of cinema's truly capital-I-capital-F "Important Films," and there's also no doubt that its size and magnitude allowed it to be literally sweeping in its approach to all elements across the planes of production. DeMille's film is smaller, a third the length of Griffith's, and nowhere near as incendiary, but somehow it matches to be more breathtaking and imminently more watchable.
The story, one of both prurience and possession that DeMille acknowledged in autobiography was both melodramatic and lurid, is tight and focused: a vacuous Long Island socialite named Edith (Fannie Ward) burns through her husband's (Jack Dean) money, and when a ten-thousand-dollar copper investment completely bottoms out, her neighbor Tori (Sessue Hayakawa), a wealthy ivory dealer from Japan, lays hold of her debt in exchange for her body. If that sounds vaguely racist ("East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet," a title card tells us), then yes, it's necessary to say The Cheat cannot escape its possible xenophobic interpretations, particularly near its end when a shocked audience demands vengeance. The depictions of a Japanese man would so infuriate Japan that for its 1918 re-release (and most of the versions available today) the film identifies Tori as Burmese instead of Japanese and changes his name to Haka Arakau.
To those willing to forgive Griffith's Nation for its extraordinary racism, The Cheat will seem profoundly tame. Even against Griffith's Broken Blossoms (which also features an Asian principle character) The Cheat seems to come out ahead of the curve, precisely because its Asian character is not played by a white man (as was the custom of the day, and as Griffith employs in Blossoms) but instead played by Hayakawa, whose performance is dynamic in its control; in praising his performance in 1915, some critics at the time went as far as to say his effect on American was "more electric" than Rudolph Valentino's. Although an "exotic" character, Tori is not an epitome of Eastern stereotypes; his wardrobe is decidedly western, his house elegantly styled, and his syntax well developed. These might seem innocuous, but they go a long way toward making the art of the film go unbothered by the context of the narrative. The action that does him in (meant to interpreted in multiple ways) is his use of a cruel branding iron — "That means it belongs to me," he says as he applies the smoldering device to Ward's shoulder.
But that moment and many that follow demonstrate DeMille's profound interest in cinema for all its visual opportunities. Griffith may have brought the camera outdoors and introduced mobile panorama to his audience, but DeMille ventures into the territory of grounded artistry. Looking back on the film in his autobiography, he says that because the plot had such a great possibility for overblown melodrama (a cardinal sin of much silent cinema), he "resolved to direct its acting with great restraint." More than the image of a branding, DeMille is interested in the image of hot steam wafting off the heated iron from off-screen and slowly and fluidly entering the frame. He utilizes lighting is a painterly fashion, such as in the film's most famous shot, where Edith fires a gun at Tori and he falls to the floor against a back-lit rice paper screen, his shadow slumping downward and leaving a trail of blood behind. Even when DeMille does venture into the wider and more expansive shots (as in the film's culminating moments set in a courtroom full of angry townspeople), there is an authority over the images that one might expect from an august craftsman instead of a relative newcomer who'd only been releasing films as a director for two years.


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When cybersecurity and China are mentioned in the same sentence, it is often about the Asian nation's alleged role in hacking incidents and theft of intellectual property. With state-sponsored hacking incidents on the rise, the Middle Kingdom recently issued a regulation to tighten its own cybersecurity.
According to Chinese government news agency Xinhua, the document requires mandatory national standards for cybersecurity, protection of personal information and cybersecurity information sharing, among others.
The document, issued by the Cyberspace Administration of China, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of China and the Standardization Administration of China, also requires establishing unified national standards "to reduce the burden for companies and to improve the country's overall cybersecurity," Xinhua said.
China's new regulation is very timely, as a recent report by Mandiant found that organizations in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region are unprepared to identify or respond to data breaches, allowing hackers to remain in their networks for three-times longer than the global median.
To keep up with the constantly evolving world of privacy and security sign up for the Bloomberg BNA Privacy and Security Update.
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HR Tech Mena Summit set to begin in Dubai
Dubai is gearing up to host the annual HR Tech Mena Summit, which will feature an extensive line-up of leading industry experts from the IT and human resources (HR) sectors to share their knowledge on a host of topics around HR technology.
Set up by event organiser QnA International, the summit will be held at the St Regis Hotel, Al Habtoor City, Dubai, from May 18 to 19.
Commenting on the concept behind the event, Sidh NC, director of QnA International, said: "It was clear to us, that the Mena region's HR leaders were looking to become more business performance centric and employee centric. It was proving difficult to enable this in mid-size and large enterprises. Further, we knew that the latest technologies would definitely enable streamlining business processes, create engaged employees and help businesses perform better."
"Amidst the many number of HR events focusing on the HR industry and professionals in the region, none focused on HR technology. So we were thoroughly excited at the prospects of this excellent opportunity,'' he added.
The first HR Tech Mena Summit was held in 2015, which attracted a plethora of experts from both the IT and HR sectors, and resulted in lively discussions. This year's edition will include a mixed programme of panel discussions, keynote presentations, roundtables, and networking opportunities.
The keynote presentations will be delivered by industry leading companies such as SAP, Oracle, Infor, Willis Towers Watson, Halogen Software, Avature and IBM who will cover topics ranging from integrated HR; building and converting one's organisation into a 'talent magnet'; the need to shift from legacy HR systems; the use of consumer grade HR portals and shared service centre software; performance management and development; and how SaaS influences policies and strategies around talent management in organisations.
Some other topics that will be covered by experts in HR and IT fields will include the effect of millennials on the workforce; the uses and security of cloud systems; compensation and benefits technology; creating engaged organisations; recruitment; and HR analytics.
Over the two-day summit, panel discussions will be held featuring eminent professionals from both sectors who will tackle probing and thought-provoking topics. "In the last edition of HR Tech, we found that the attendees and delegates thoroughly enjoyed the panel discussions, as it brought on a clash of different view-points and tends to provide lively debates. So this year we have increased the number of panel discussions,'' concluded Sidh. –TradeArabia News Service
You Might Like


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Recent News
Petition for Canadian Horror Films PROM NIGHT and CURTAINS on DVD and Blu-ray Now Online
Jonathan Stryker
Jan 6, 2013 - 8:00:00 AM
of us genre lovers know that horror films are a hot commodity. Some of the most well-known slasher films of
the 1980's have been re-issued on DVD and Blu-ray by companies looking to cash in
on audiences' seemingly insatiable appetite for murder and mayhem while also
introducing them to a new generation of fans with disposable income. Two titles that fans are requesting on DVD
and Blu-ray in the way of special editions are Paul Lynch's PROM NIGHT
(1980) and Richard Ciupka's CURTAINS (1983),
both Canadian productions through Simcom, the former having fared far better on
home video than the latter.
NIGHT was originally released theatrically by Avco Embassy Pictures on July 18,
it came time to releasing the film on home video in 1981, MCA Home Video distributed
it on VHS:
also released a laserdisc pan-and-scan version on their laser rot-prone
DiscoVision line the same year (curiously, the film bypassed the RCA
Select-A-Vision Capacitance Electronic Disc (CED) stylus-based format of the
early 1980's, the direct competitor to laserdisc):
Vision, Inc. released it on VHS in 1988 with this less-than-inspiring cover:
film fared better when a widescreen laserdisc sourced from a 35mm interpositive
followed in 1997 courtesy of Elite Entertainment, however it still lacks the
high resolution of Blu-ray that contemporary audiences have come to expect:
February 1998, Anchor Bay Entertainment released a widescreen DVD that included
the original theatrical trailer (1.85:1 presentation is a must for this title
as a boom mike is clearly visible in several shots in the full frame format, an
issue that also surfaces in Tom DeSimone's HELL NIGHT from 1981). After the rights lapsed, the film was picked
up by Echo Bridge Entertainment and reissued in October 2007, this time
dispensing with said trailer:
PROM NIGHT has been released on home video in three different formats no less
than six times in the United States alone.
This number excludes the international, non-Region 1 releases around the
globe. All of six U.S. versions contain
only the film without any additional extras that are practically a requirement
to home video now: running commentaries, on-set interviews, behind-the-scenes
footage, isolated musical scores, comments from contemporaries, stills
galleries, etc.
on the other hand, is a thriller that has suffered indignities far too numerous
to list. Plagued from the outset by a
problematic production, the financing ran out and put the cast and crew on
hiatus for over one year.
of the crew was replaced, and despite having been released theatrically on
April 8, 1983 to many respectable movie theaters by the long-defunct Jensen
Farley Pictures, CURTAINS has only appeared on home video twice in the United
States. In December 1983 Vestron Video
released it on VHS:
October 2010 Echo Bridge Entertainment released it as part of THE MIDNIGHT
HORROR COLLECTION: BLOODY SLASHERS set which also includes HOBOKEN HOLLOW
(2006), SECRETS OF THE CLOWN (2007), and ROOM 33 (2009). In a maneuver regarded as perfunctory by
those not in the know, CURTAINS appears to be lumped in with these three
contemporary tales for no better reason than to "round out" the other
titles, the original ad slick jettisoned and replaced with an image of a hand
parting a curtain, easily the least inspired artwork used to promote the film:
was also released in April 2007 by Black Horse Entertainment as a Region 0 DVD
in the NTSC format, which means that it will play on all DVD players worldwide. As with the Echo Bridge Entertainment
release, the original poster artwork was not used. Again, an uninspired makeshift cover image
that fails to accurately represent the film in any way adorns the case:
can be found at horror film conventions on DVD-R sporting its beautiful and
atmospheric original one-sheet artwork:
the DVD transfer is sourced from the Vestron VHS cassette and is therefore in
dire need of color correction and a 2K/4K high definition upgrade is long
NIGHT has a very creepy score by Paul Zaza and Carl Zittrer (the latter scored
a handful of films for Bob Clark, including the classic 1974 film BLACK
CHRISTMAS and was also a musical consultant on "Act II" of CURTAINS). Mr. Zaza also scored CURTAINS, which might
have been a rejected score for PROM NIGHT as several cues that appear in PROM
NIGHT also made their way into CURTAINS.
Mr. Zaza also scored 1981's GHOSTKEEPER,
yet another Canadian horror thriller. The
scores to all of these films are beautifully composed and all deserve
soundtrack album releases.
Ciupka's name was also removed from the credits to CURTAINS and the directing
duties are now attributed to Jonathan Stryker, the name of the director within
the film as played by John Vernon (as well as the pen name of Yours Truly);
whether or not this has any bearing on the lack of a DVD release is a
can ponder why these titles are not available in full-blown special editions,
and there are probably many legitimate reasons why the current DVDs turn up in
Walmart discount bins. The original 35mm
film negatives to each respective film may not be available as the whereabouts
may be in question, or they may no longer even exist; management might feel
that an insufficient number of fans willing to pay for the films exists and
there is a fear of losing money on these titles; both films were made as Canadian
shelter projects and this may also pose a problem. With the glut of far lesser quality horror
thrillers available in beautifully designed special editions, the mind reels as
to why these two films in particular have been marginalized (especially
CURTAINS) and seem to be anathema to the royal treatment.
Bridge Entertainment, a DVD company that uses the slogan "The
Entertainment Alternative for What the World Wants to See," is now being
approached by fans on an online petition website respectfully asking them to
release the rights for these two films to Scream Factory, the Shout! Factory
subsidiary that is making a name for itself with beautiful deluxe versions of
genre favorites TERROR TRAIN (1980), THE FUNHOUSE (1981), HALLOWEEN II (1981), HALLOWEEN
III: SEASON OF THE WITCH (1982), and the upcoming DEADLY BLESSING (1981) to
name a few. This company would be an
ideal organization to release these films as their work thus far has proven
that they will spend the time and provide just the proper amount of TLC that
these films deserve.
of this writing, the petition has 245 signatures and is looking for a total of
1200, which is not an impossible number to reach. Please click here to
sign the petition on Petition Buzz requesting licensing of PROM NIGHT and CURTAINS!


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Good show versus no show
Should there be a separate attendance policy for sportspersons who bring fame and glory to India in universities? Gauri Kohli finds out.education Updated: Sep 12, 2012 19:42 IST
Delhi University (DU) gives special consideration to sportspersons during admissions but what if they perform excellently in their chosen sport and fail to log in the attendance mandatory for appearing in exams?
When Unmukt Chand led the Indian team to victory in the final of the ICC under-19 cricket world cup against Australia last month, he was hailed by one and all for his efforts. Off the pitch, things weren't quite so wonderful as his college, St Stephen's, detained him in first year for poor attendance.
The issue seems to have been resolved for now with St Stephen's promoting him to the second year of his undergraduate studies, but the question remains: should there be a separate attendance policy for sportspersons in universities such as DU? HT Education spoke to some principals of DU colleges, officials and international-level players to find out.
A softer touch, please
"Education is the most important thing for anyone. For me, it's a part of cricket. It helps a sportsman in many ways — it shapes your personality and helps you develop a perspective towards what you think and do," says Unmukt Chand, a student of the BA programme.
The Delhi player also wishes the university would be softer on him and other students taking admission under the sports quota. "We don't need extra marks for excelling in sports but if the university is a bit lenient, it will be a good move," he says, adding, "when you are not allowed to sit for the exams because of poor attendance, you lose a little bit of motivation."
Chand says that if a student can manage to score good marks despite poor attendance, then attending a fixed number of classes in college should not be expected of him or her. "But this doesn't mean you don't attend college at all," he adds.
Our sugestions
Badminton champ Saina Nehwal seconds Chand's views, saying relaxation in attendance should be given to sportspersons. She also suggests some ways in which athletes can cope with studies while on tours etc. "It is easy to miss classes up to certain levels, but after high school, studies become more specific and continuous. So missing out classes can make a lot of difference. In such cases colleges can make a special effort to take a few extra classes in technical subjects. Some condensed form of courses should be made available for the players. I could not cope with studies while I was playing so I had to leave midway," says Nehwal, who studied at St Ann's Junior College for Girls, Osmania University, Hyderabad.
According to tennis star Yuki Bhambri, colleges in Delhi are not as cooperative as schools. "I have seen from the experiences of all my sisters, cousins and friends. They have to have a certain percentage of attendance, which is just not possible if you are competing at the international level. Therefore, I enrolled at the School of Open Learning in Delhi University where all I will have to do is just appear for exams," says Bhambri. The 20-year-old, however, feels "it's unfortunate that we do not get a degree for the number of hours we put in for training and competing in sports."
Official verdict
Officials of the Delhi University Sports Council (DUSC) say that currently there's no strong policy that works for the advantage of students taking admission under the sports quota. "We are in the process of framing a policy regarding attendance and examination of sportspersons. Till then, all students are treated on par when it comes to attendance," says Mukesh Agarwal, joint secretary, DUSC.
College principals say they have to adhere to university rules. PC Jain, principal, Shri Ram College of Commerce, says, "For attendance, students can have the director of physical education write to the college. The sports quota students have to get at least one-third attendance to be allowed to write exams. We allow students with an attendance below 66% to take the semester exam on the condition that they will fulfil the criteria in the next semester."
Jain, however, feels undue benefit should not be given to anyone. "If someone is excellent in a particular sport and is unable to attend regular college, he/she should not be considered for a degree in the course he has enrolled for. A proper system of giving honorary degrees to such players should be in place," he adds.
Hindu College officiating principal Pradumn Kumar, however, feels there's a need to modify these rules so that the players do not miss out on studies. "We need to have a policy which is sportsperson-friendly and where all sports are treated on par," says Kumar.
Should players get concessions?
Mridul Anand, ARSD College
I don't think a good sportsperson should be given special concessions. When one gets favours, he might lose interest as he knows that people will favour him no matter what. Giving concessions to some is an unfair practice. Every player should be treated equally
Mihika Morris, St Stephen's College
Special concessions should be granted to good players like Unmukt Chand. Instead of traumatising students because of short attendance, colleges should arrange for extra classes. Not letting them sit for exams could be discouraging, resulting in many losing faith in sports as a career
Vaibhav Maheshwari, SRCC
A good player deserves special treatment when his or her academic performance appraisal is in question. It would be unfair to coerce people into studies when they've got other outstanding talents. Discriminating against them on the basis of the level of their game wouldn't be fair
First Published: Sep 11, 2012 18:05 IST


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Problem solved. I highly recommend going to co.mments.com and signing up for their service. It's free. It's simple. There is even a widget for displaying the conversations you are currently following on the sidebar of your own blog.
There is also a snippet of code that you can insert in your own blog's template so that if a person wants to, they can just click on the link, and they automatically subscribe to the comments of that particular post. (See the orange button at the bottom of this post!)
At 11/01/2006 04:01:00 PM, Dixie
Kep...do those co.Mments links work in IE too or just Firefox? I have co.Mments on my home computer but I use IE and invariably forget to click on the co.Mments button before I post--something that doesn't need to be done with Firefox, I understand. I suppose I should quit acting my age and deal with a little change by moving over to Firefox but...I used to be Lutheran, now I am Orthodox...change can be traumatic for the likes of me! ;)
At 11/01/2006 04:14:00 PM, Kepler
Sorry, Dix, I don't use IE (I'm convinced Microsoft is run by Calvinists! Word is inherently manichaean: always acting as if it knows what I want to do better than I do. Aaaargh!) so I can't help you. It's pretty seamless in Firefox, though.
You just add a bookmarklet to your bookmarks (I put on the toolbar). If someone has it written into their blog, I would just use that, but I haven't yet seen anyone with it installed, so I've never used it that way.
At 11/01/2006 05:31:00 PM, Dixie
Duh! Not only am I old and resistant to change...I am an idiot. (BTW...being old I remember the days when everyone had a different software package for word processing and we could not open each other's files. Because of the pain of living through the infancy of computing...I appreciate what Microsoft did in standardizing things. I know, blasphemy!) I have co.comment...not this software. I will have to look into this. Thanks for posting it.
Track with co.mments


text:
"Assembling Lower Third Project"
Render – Full HD 1920×1080 Quicktime PNG with Alpha Channel at 30 fps.
The project includes total of 22 colors separated in 3 Themes – Dark, Glow, Light.
Dark Theme Colors: Black, Blue, Cyan, Gray, Green, Magenta, Purple.
Glow Theme Colors: Blue, Cyan, Green, Magenta, Glow, Orange, Purple, Yellow.
Light Theme Colors: Blue, Cyan, Gray, Green, Magenta, Orange, Purple, Yellow.
Place for additional text included for every color. Alpha matte (mask) for the main lower third is included.
The background in the video preview is not included. The music is not included. It can be downloaded here:
The background in the video preview is not included. The music is not included it can be found here: http://audiojungle.net/item/house-loop-1/2360218?WT.ac=search_item&WT.seg_1=search_item&WT.z_author=PaulSam
Here is a link to the author of the song: http://audiojungle.net/user/PaulSam
If you need any additional colors or any support feel free to contact me: firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
This document was the final official communication between myself and members of the Socialist Alternative Executive Committee before the Austin branch formally voted to split from the formation and form an independent socialist collective. Though this document was written in the spirit of attempting to remain in Socialist Alternative and reasonably address the concerns from both sides, the aftermath has overwhelmingly confirmed our impulse to leave. However, this document does not represent any kind of "final summation" of the whole branch's decision to leave, nor does it speak for anyone other than myself. Further, after numerous emails from the EC demanding a "serious political response," the EC neglected to respond to any of the points made in this document or make any serious attempt to resolve the crisis between the Austin branch and the EC.
The most "successful" US Marxist formations seem to follow a common pattern: the establishment of "tight-knit politics" based on the affiliation to some particular legacy of Marxism-Leninism, rapid growth up to between 750 – 1200 members across the country, different wings develop, a political crisis ensues, then the formation either splits or collapses. This goes for so-called "Stalinist" formations, Maoist formations (whether Mao Zedong Thought or MLM) and Trotskyist formations. Every single one of these traditions has managed to produce nothing more than an ever dizzying array of micro-sects, each claiming the sole true legacy of the "pure" Marxist-Leninist tradition. In Socialist Alternative's terms, this came across with the nauseating term "Winning Ideas" being bandied about with little reflection or self-awareness.
In addition to the political differences surrounding the development of the sect model of revolutionary organizing, Socialist Alternative leadership was fundamentally incapable of looking reality in the face and admitting that, far from a national organization, Socialist Alternative is a regional organization based in states with high labor union density (Washington, New York, Illinois, California and Massachusetts) and that this reality shapes their overall political strategy: orient towards the left-liberal wing of the Democrats in order to peel off or "split" that wing from the "establishment" wing of the Democrats. Regardless of whether this strategy is prudent in and of itself, in areas with very low union density, like the South, this model is moot. Yet the leadership of SAlt refused to recognize the unevenness of the United States and referred to the Southern demands for more political flexibility and support as calls for "Southern exceptionalism."
I would go so far as to say the overwhelming majority of Socialist Alternative's membership are smart, sincere and capable comrades in the struggle for a socialist world. It was disappointing that SAlt was unable to address the needs and circumstances of so many of the Southern comrades, forcing the overwhelming majority of us to leave the organization. Should Socialist Alternative's political methods remain the same, they will never develop any serious roots in the South, nor will they likely develop much beyond the hard-working but relatively tiny sect that they are today.
The most recent email we received demanding "a serious political reply" came at a rather inopportune time, leading into the critical period before our strike. I've worked to fit as much of what I consider the most pressing disagreements into the response. Please forgive any mistakes in grammar or spelling I may missed in my hurry to get this response out.
Where we have had ideological disagreements, I have chosen to focus on the most pressing political questions that I feel affect the broadest part of the Party. Regarding the Sanders turn, I try to frame it in relation to the South and questions of political consolidation. While I can't answer all the questions that PL, BK and RK have directed at other comrades, such as questions regarding the study program, I tried to pay due attention to the space where I have the most to offer, the Fight for 15. Where there are particularly sharp grievances in our branch, namely the "forced resignations," I chose to address those as best I could, including some suggestions on how to begin moving forward. I understand that the three National comrades will feel strongly inclined to continue this debate, but I would hope it will be taken into account exactly how much drafting and redrafting these responses takes and that the bulk of our branch is made up of full time workers.
On Ideology and Politics
I would like to begin by clarifying what I feel is an important distinction between "ideology" and "politics." It is easy to get the two confused and they often are, but it is important to understand the difference between them. This will, hopefully, help clarify that while there might be a collection of ideological difference within our branch, we have, over the course of our branch's life, functioned faithfully to the politics of the Party.
Indeed, ideology is an abstract understanding of politics; questions of history, of orientations, of splits and mergers, of various theories and ideas produced over the long course of history. Questions of whether the Chinese Trotskyists were correct to remain in the city when Mao began his long march or if Trotsky was correct to choose not to unseat Stalin based on Lenin's final testament are questions of ideology.
This isn't to say ideology is fundamentally unimportant; ideology and theory are vitally important. However, given the limited time and space to address critical issues, I worry that it's easy to get lost in the weeds of ideological debates. In that sense, I will not be addressing questions of Maoism or Identity Politics here, though I think those questions are tremendously important. Hopefully we can take up ideological debates at a later date and under better circumstances.
While this might seem heretical based on the culture of the current Left, Ideological disagreements often hold very little practical bearing on our politics, which is where ideology meets action. Imagine, for instance, how ludicrous it would have been for the Bolsheviks to declare as a point of fundamental unity a single position on Babeuf or whether the Paris Commune should have made a better effort to reach the provinces! Bolshevik unity was always based on unity of action.
Yes, Lenin delineated some clear lines of principle that demarcated the boundaries of the party, but these are principles for Marxists in the same way that natural selection is a principle for biologists. Those principles (the working class as a central actor of revolutionary struggle, the need for revolution, the need for organization, etc) aren't abstract or historically anomalous; these are the key advances that Lenin put forth that are universal in character.
In a similar way, Trotsky provided fundamental advances that are clearly necessary in a genuine proletarian formation. For instance, "Socialism in One Country" is not a question of abstract ideology; it is fundamentally linked to the method of the Popular Front, which has proven to be a historical failure. The question of the Permanent Revolution, in a similar but opposite manner, also holds tremendous practical import, particularly for an International formation that seeks to build revolution across the underdeveloped world. Permanent Revolution is also seamlessly linked with the United Front. I have yet to find anyone in our branch who actively disagrees with any of those principles.
Now, the key task at hand is not ideological, but political, which is to say a question of how our ideas relate to our activity and vice versa.
On Consolidation
The heart of this current conflagration is decidedly political, and I expressed as much to RK when we were meeting for several hours at Taco Cabana. National made a political decision to orient towards the Sanders campaign as its key political task, rather than focusing on consolidation. All across the South, comrades were begging for support, for even just one full-timer to be sent to support us, even for just a few weeks, to help us consolidate our branches.
Is it reasonable to assume that a new, remote branch like Austin, under profoundly different circumstances from the rest of the Party, would be able to mechanically consolidate without deliberate stewardship and investment? Had our branch never engaged in serious work, never made an effort to study CWI politics, never raised money, phone banked or sent volunteers for the Sawant campaign, then the intensity of the EC's response to our branch might be understandable. Perhaps if we had been systematically breaking with Democratic Centralism or publicly undermining work around the Sanders turn (which a long time comrade from Chicago did to Austin regarding our Fight for 15 work), then the sense that our branch is being actively pushed out of the Party, after so many of us who spent so much time, energy and resources working for it in good faith, would seem less shocking.
The Executive Committee made the political decision not only to neglect consolidation in the South, but also to shift a bulk of full-timers to NYC, a city with long established branches and clearly consolidated leadership. Southern comrades were not consulted or informed about this decision; we were left simply twisting on the vine. Coupled with the Sanders turn, in which we were also not included, morale across the South began to decline precipitously. Indeed, on a phone call immediately before this crisis, I told RK that the morale of the branch was low. We had been working hard for over a year and a half to try to build a branch in good faith, with absolutely minimal support from the national center. Had national made a serious effort to keep in touch with the branch, it would have known our situation and worked to help soothe the frustrations and boost our morale.
However, watching what began as a disagreement and misunderstanding continuously escalate has been eye-opening to the political methods of the three comrades with whom we have had exclusive contact in regarding this dispute. This isn't to say that Austin, myself in particular, has been blameless or made no mistakes in handling the situation, but I don't think it can be said that we have not made any attempts in good faith to begin rebuilding the branch's relationship with national. We were working to rebuild our Branch Committee, offer an amenable study program and working to reestablish our dues levels when we learned of the so-called "forced resignations." In what way can what was functionally an expulsion be seen as acting in any kind of good faith?
On Methods of Intervention
Regarding newspaper sales, I would welcome a more active role from National explaining methods and reasons for selling the newspaper. I frequently asked RK to help us set up a table and show us how to sell the paper. Unfortunately, there was only one attempt to do that and it was auxiliary to RK's primary purpose, which was to debate the Sanders turn with us. Even more unfortunately, the one attempt made was at a location with little foot traffic. It would have been very helpful had RK or someone from National taken time to come down for even just a week and help us learn how to find useful locations around the city, set up an attractive table and sell the paper.
Nevertheless, the paper is not the key question around methods of intervention; used properly it is indispensable. However, I personally find the method of intervention that seems to be promoted to our branch – not by the CWI or the tradition of SA – but by the national leadership directly, to be not particularly useful. It seems to me that there is a fixation on our current leadership having already worked out Winning Ideas. In this formulation, the leadership can stand on the outside, and through contemplative analysis, work out ahead of time the proper line of march for any new movement that might pop up. All that needs to be done is their Winning Ideas must be properly transmitted down the line to the rank and file. The rank and file, now brimming with our as yet untested but still Winning Ideas, will go forth to various meetings and actions and "intervene" through the force of our argumentation style and Winning Ideas.
In Gramsican terms, it is a one-sided focus on the War of Maneuver. War of Position is the space where forces are consolidated and prepped for battle, relationships are built and solidified and an organic, democratic unity is cemented. Without the War of Position, without patient investigation, modification of tactics and perspectives, consolidation of forces, the War of Maneuver will be a disaster. Forces will become disorganized, demoralized and disunited, and interventions will take place in a mechanical and often forced manner, external to the inner life of whatever movement or force we are trying to shape.
Once, when I was in prison, a new inmate was brought into our unit. Short, but well-built, this inmate wore both round framed eyeglasses and a chip on his shoulder. He came in under the impression that, based on his previous experience, he knew exactly how his current experience would play out. He attempted to strong arm an older inmate, only to discover that this older inmate had a much bigger and very protective younger nephew. Because of the new inmate's commitment to his own Winning Ideas, he failed to take the time to investigate the social terrain into which he was entering. He ended up knocked out cold and bleeding on the concrete jailhouse floor.
The lesson here is when entering into new terrain, terrain that has already been held by other, competing social forces, it is wise to prioritize learning and understanding of said terrain before launching into a forceful expression of Ideas that might seem Winning at the time, but without the proper understanding of how to flexibly apply said ideas, they may end up being expressed in a decidedly Losing manner.
The first edition of The Militant contained the line, "We need to educate and be educated." This is a precisely Marxist formulation, yet where in the current leadership's formulation is the information and data that flows to the top? How does the lived experience of our membership in the struggle on the streets find its way to the leadership, to help correct and modify Winning Ideas that might in fact not be so winning? If the leadership practices this two way flow of information and perspectives, it has escaped our Austin branch. This linear relationship is not how the CWI was built. The current leadership stands outside of our own traditions in how it has related to Austin and the broader South.
Of course the CWI has scored tremendous victories in the past, and of course the election of Kshama Sawant was a historic victory that every single member of our branch is proud to have been a part of helping make happen. I have been involved in radical politics for about 14 years and never joined a party before this one. I did not take joining lightly and did so deliberately and because I felt then and continue to feel now that Socialist Alternative represents the best Marxist party in the United States. Though I have had and continue to have sharp disagreements and frustrations with elements of the Executive Committee, I happily acknowledge some of the great achievements over the past year and a half, not only with the reelection of Kshama Sawant, but also with the overwhelmingly successful Million Student March.
However, this does not in any way mean that all of the ideas that come out of the Executive Committee lead automatically to winning conclusions. It is would be hubris to assume that one victory leads automatically to the next. Where there are sharp political disagreements, it is the right of party members to voice those within the party and to the membership and the leadership, whether that is regarding methods of intervention or orientation to active struggles like the Fight for 15.
On the Fight for 15
Our disagreements with the methods of intervention coming from the current leadership does not at all mean our branch does not see itself as "interventionist." It is simply intervening in a traditional Marxist manner, in line with the tradition of the CWI. After all, Militant was built inside the Labor Party over time, working to support workers struggle directly, even if the Labor Party or a particular union was in the grips of a right-wing leadership.
When I talk to people in our Party around the country about their relationship to the Fight for 15, they invariably say they have an awful experience with organizers, or, as they are sometimes referred, bureaucrats. When I investigate the manner of the intervention, it is always at a single, discrete point in time. They attempt to talk to workers at a meeting or at a strike, but when I ask if anyone has gone to try to speak to fast food workers beforethese events ever happen, I get blank responses. The very idea of speaking to workers outside those single moments has never occurred to them.
But let's consider it, no? Let's look through the eyes of the organizer. This person has spent likely somewhere around 60 or more hours a week grinding through the field, talking to workers, driving them to their shifts, helping them get their groceries home, breaking bread with workers' family members. They have suffered emotional disappointment when workers seem fired up and then vanished, when worker leaders suffer family hardships or when those worker leaders find better jobs and leave a vacuum in the local movement and on the shop floor.
The workers that go out on these strikes have seen these organizers many, many times. They have learned to trust these organizers and have faith that they have their best interests at heart. That relationship has been built over time.
What reaction would you expect when, at the moment of spectacle, some stranger comes up, having made no attempt to get to know the worker ahead of time, and says, "Hey, that organizer is actually just using to you to get Hillary elected and they don't really care about you. Come join us because we actually know the way forward. We have the Winning Ideas. Just look at our newspaper."
The organizer is going to treat you like an asshole and the worker is going to think you're a weirdo. Period. Interventions are not moments. They take place over time and respect has to be earned by using building as intervention itself. The "intervention" must be spread over time, building the base necessary to launch a successful intervention. The War of Position and War of Maneuver must interrelate organically and develop dialectically. Going to a meeting and forcefully arguing a good point alone will not succeed in and of itself. The legacy of the CWI and Militant prove that point.
When I wrote that no one in the leadership knows how the Fight for 15 works, I didn't mean abstractly. Of course it was understood that the demand for $15 was critical and the leadership properly oriented to it in Seattle and, it seems, in good but so far less successful ways in other cities. I meant that no one knows the actual mechanics of how the Fight for 15 functions. When I spoke to RK before our Nov 10th strike, I told him that we were taking workers out on strike, yet RK discouraged that. He felt that the workers actually would not go out on strike. Further, neither he nor PL were familiar with how the strikes function, that they were Unfair Labor Practice strikes and thus protected by the Federal government. If we are going to analyze and intervene in such an important movement, doesn't it seem reasonable that these factors might play into developing Winning Ideas? Maybe make them Winninger Ideas?
The question of the difference between the Fight for 15 and the Presidential election is being presented in a superficial and inaccurate way. No one in our branch, at least since late last year, has said we should fundamentally reject developing an active orientation towards the Presidential elections. My argument is where the center of gravity should be. Should we put our center of gravity in the electoral campaign and work to draw social movements into it or vice versa? Based on the lessons of Trotsky, I would have to say the latter. The first formulation smacks of Popular Frontism, linking our program with his and blurring our political lines. The latter is a United Front, which works to engage in a nonsectarian way with mass movements in order to draw the best elements behind proletarian leadership.
There is also a clear disagreement about the role that quantity vs. quality plays in drawing political conclusions. True, the campaign, now, during an elections season, holds all the cards on quantity. There are millions of people who are interested in Sanders, with many of them extremely fired up for his candidacy. There are only several hundred workers across the country going on strike. If quantity is important then the former is obviously the place to prioritize.
However, my point is that quality is a critical factor. As a working class organization, SA seeks to find the most advanced sections of the proletariat in order to win them to the Marxist method of analysis and action. Which holds the cards on quality? The former leans left but holds no clear class dynamic. It is made up of a hodgepodge of people from a wide range of social classes. Yes, Sander's program is a broad, Keynsian program that has some overlap with our own and yes people are drawing important conclusions about how rigged the Democratic Party is, but those who are engaged in the campaign alone are learning how to vote, how to phone bank, how to petition. They are not learning how to strike, how to organize, how to build a shop floor organizing committee. In this sense then, the Fight for 15 as a movement holds the cards on quality.
It is entirely disingenuous to say that the Fight for 15 is just a scheme to get people to vote for Hillary any more than the orientation towards Sanders, who has been clear from day one that he would encourage people to vote for Hillary were she to become the nominee. The formulation of the EC that the FF15 isn't "developing independent worker leaders on a significant scale" is ridiculous. What would you call the National Organizing Committee, which is made up entirely of worker leaders throughout the country? This reflects what can only be considered a fundamental lack of faith in workers to do anything other than what they are told, indeed a fundamental lack of faith in the working class overall.
When you wrote that the leadership of the movement is hostile to independent worker action, could you provide any kind of evidence? How do you define independent worker action? Upon what data or investigation are you basing this? Does independent worker action only mean "Socialist Alternative's ideas"? I know that workers are encouraged to work out strikes even if they don't correspond to national days of action. For instance, in Florida, a group of workers in a single shop went on strike over the issue of air conditioning, getting it immediately replaced. I mean, the whole way our branch got involved with the Fight for 15 is because they supported our organizing at In-N-Out from day one. Is this not independent worker action?
Socialist Alternative has achieved genuine, historic victories in recent times, but this does not guarantee ongoing success on all fronts. Socialist Alternative now struggles to properly integrate the South into itself and wrestles with the implications of the Sanders turn. This is a real problem and should be taken seriously. It is shocking to all those in the South how flippantly leadership has treated Southern branches, with RK explicitly saying that it's perfectly fine for the entire Austin branch to leave the Party, even if this means losing San Marcos and possibly even Mobile. How is that leadership which new Party members in the South are supposed to respect?
Indeed, the leadership methods of the EC do not inspire faith in this new period. Regarding the lowering of dues, no one in the branch contested the loss of voting rights until those dues were raised. We were going to take the time to patiently work with those comrades to convince them to raise their dues or to allow them to resign of their own volition. It is extremely troubling that three of those five comrades immediately responded that they had intended to raise their dues, with KL even explicitly saying so to LP before the expulsions, yet the EC failed to respond to those comrades in a reasonable amount of time in good faith.
This means the "resignations" can only be considered a backdoor disciplinary purge. The question isn't whether it is ok or not to lower dues for political reasons. The question is whether it is appropriate to remove a Party member from the organization by executive action without any due process or deadline to imply inaction will be assumed as resignation. Everything we've come to understand about this Party is that it takes the removal of comrades from the Party extremely seriously, yet this was done in an almost offhand manner. This leads us to believe that the current leadership is directly violating the spirit of the Party it purports to uphold.
It is also hard to swallow that the expulsions were not over political questions when the email we received contained the line: "Should you in the future want to apply to re-join our organization, we are very open to discuss all the issues involved. But the Executive Committee will insist on clarifying our political and organizational methods before this could be accepted." In what way could this backdoor expulsion not be seen as having clear political content? It is plain that these expulsions should be immediately reversed and the leadership should acknowledge their haste in removing these comrades and apologize, regardless of whether the comrades want to remain in the Party or not.
Finally, the timing of the expulsions makes matters even worse. I had just sent out a new BC slate that satisfied both the conditions the EC had sent down (me remaining as BO; not non-male majority; all had restored their dues) plus I had sent a revised version of RK's study program, regarding which we still have yet to receive comment. Suddenly, and without warning, and a week before an actual workers strike, we receive notice that five of our branch comrades were no longer in the Party. This looks like an attempt to sabotage the branch as a whole, disrupting our attempts to rebuild our BC and take up consistent study, with the intention of pushing the entire branch out of the Party.
These leadership decisions are clumsy and unhelpful and do have done little to help build either our branch or the Party. I hope the EC will consider this email sincerely and realize the error of the expulsions and seek a more investigative and collaborative relationship not just with Austin, but with the South as a whole. I also would encourage active mediation via another, neutral member of the National Committee in order to help soothe tensions and begin moving forward in preparation for the National Convention.


text:
News & Gigs
Discography compilation and album's comments © by Adam Baruch
Recorded: 1990
Released: 1990
This is a very special album for me, reaching far beyond the concept of capturing, for eternity, the magic moments of musical creation. Its an epitome of the many bonds of friendship between people involved in the Jazz scene worldwide, as well as a document of the creative process involved with group improvisation. Leszek Zadlo, who left Poland his troubled homeland in the 1970s, to live and create music in Germany, is today one of the most important Jazz musicians in Europe, and for me the best European saxophonist. His technique is brilliant and his improvisational skills unrivaled. This, combined with his charming personality, makes him a wonderful person and a dear friend since many years. Our common Polish cultural background is just one of the many layers of this friendship. Harold is of course another dear friend, with whom I had the privilege to experience some of the most exceptional moments in Israeli Jazz, since the early days of his first group Zaviot. His enormous vitality and esprit de corps (almost hyperactivity) are best illustrated by the fact, that at the time of this recording Harold was the leader of two separate groups, both called Parpar (Hebrew for butterfly). Therefore it was only natural to include both groups in this session. Leszek and Harold met several times in Germany, when Zaviot toured Europe. They developed an instant liking for each other as well as a phenomenal musical rapport. Im happy to be the catalyst behind their friendship and this magnificent music. When the Goethe-Institut in Tel-Aviv decided to help us and bring Leszek for a tour in Israel, I immediately booked studio time to make this recording, since I knew about Leszeks and Harolds urge to play and record together. Their concerts in Israel as well as this recording are the best proof of the fact that human talent and creativity have no limits and know no borders. This album is dedicated to the People of Eastern Europe, for whom the Winter of 1989 / 1990 was really the most wonderful Spring they had experienced in decades.
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(Ingredients for 4-6 people)
1kg large shrimps
150g butter
5 heads of garlic
150ml dry white wine
large bouquet of parsley
Ciabatta bred
Sweet chilli Thai sauce
Cut heads of garlic (with all peel) horizontally on the halfs. Melt the butter in a saucepan or bowler. Put the garlic halfs in it and cook till they get light golden. Add defrosted, drained (with paper towels) gray shrimp. Add a whole bouquet of parsley. Fry it all till shrimps become pink (max for 10 minutes).
Add some pepper, salt and wine, and stew for 3 more minutes until you feel the scent .
Put them in a classy, large bowl so butter drains at the bottom (it will be a sauce where you could dip in the bread). Put the garlic halfs around and all the parsley on the top.
Eat with sweet chili Thai sauce, Ciabatta and white wine.
Bon Apettite!


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About this blog
The original intention of this blog was to help promote my handcrafted jewelry and beading supplies. However, I believe I lead an interesting life (which Dave gets a lot of credit for), so you will often find ramblings about things other than beads and jewelry! Hope you enjoy reading about it as much as I enjoy living it!!!
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Wednesday Whispers
Posted by Shelly's Stuff at 11:39 AM
Labels: color, desert, dusk, grand canyon, nature, shellys stuff, sunset, trees
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I just got back from Vancouver Island late last night, where Amber and I did our doula training course. For those of you who don't know what that is, basically a doula is someone who is a 'professional birth partner'. It isn't medical, so I won't actually be delivering babies, but instead physically and emotionally supporting the mother (and in turn her partner) through childbirth. The research showing benefits is pretty amazing, and I am really excited to start supporting women! You can check out this wiki page for a little more info, if you're interested.
Anyway, it was a lovely weekend with some amazing women and AMAZING vegan and raw food. We were pretty spoilt. Aside from doula stuff, Amber and I checked the local yarn store out (Richards scarf is on hold until I get more yarn) and found this beautiful bulky green Peruvian Highland wool which is almost the softest thing I have ever touched (exaggerating only a little). Since we're both mostly enjoying knitting squares at this stage in our knitting career, we came up with an idea for twisty, scrunchy neckwarmers and both whipped one up while in Courtenay. Richard was good enough to model it for me, and I think he looks rather handsome, although the neckwarmer looks way more brown than it does in real life. I guess this is due to the flecks of red and gold it has in it. I love how high it goes up at the back to keep you cozy and warm.
As much as I had a great time on the island, coming home to my own bed was wonderful, especially as Richard had made sure that the house was all tidy. What a treat! I also came home to notice that our veggie garden is well on its way (ok, really I saw that this morning since I arrived back in Vancouver at midnight last night). I can't believe how well our peas are doing and we even have a cute little eggplant on the way. Our chard is looking very ready to be harvested, so I think we'll be using that for tomorrow nights dinner. Yum.
One more thing to show you before I go. Recently it was the birthday of one of the little girls I nanny, she turned two. She is pretty crazy about her tea set, and about food in general, so I decided to maker her a picnic. I had seen a great tutorial for playmat/bag combo on Soozs Big Adventure and made it in a picnic theme. I had a bunch of felt I was meant to be using on another project that I turned into food (3 iced cookies, 2 popsicles, 2 fortune cookies, 2 fried eggs and ravioli), added some plastic ants for good measure and voila!I think she likes it.
Until next time!


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I just can't imagine me without you…
50% Friendship, 20% Humour, 20% Betrayal,10% Sexual Content. 100% Honest.
It's the mid-1990s, and fifteen year-old Guernsey schoolgirls, Renée and Flo, are not really meant to be friends. Thoughtful, introspective and studious Flo couldn't be more different to ambitious, extroverted and sexually curious Renée. But Renée and Flo are united by loneliness and their dysfunctional families, and an intense bond is formed. Although there are obstacles to their friendship (namely Flo's jealous ex-best friend and Renée's growing infatuation with Flo's brother), fifteen is an age where anything can happen, where life stretches out before you, and when every betrayal feels like the end of the world. For Renée and Flo it is the time of their lives.
With graphic content and some scenes of a sexual nature, PAPER AEROPLANES is a gritty, poignant, often laugh-out-loud funny and powerful novel. It is an unforgettable snapshot of small-town adolescence and the heart-stopping power of female friendship.
Although people on twitter highly recommended Paper Aeroplanes, I really didn't know what to expect.
What I found within the pages was a wonderful story of friendship and youth.
The story follows 15 year old schoolgirls Flo and Renee as they embark on a new friendship through their last year of school.
Both dealing with drama at home, the girls friendship is at times tested to the limit.
Dawn O'Porter has a great writing style that pulls you into the story. Whilst taking you back in your teenage years within minutes.
It's a captivating story that deals with teenage angst in a way that's very real to life.
Flo and Renee are both likeable characters, although at times both have the odd teenage tantrum. But all can be forgiven when you discover the problems they are dealing with.
Although there are light hearted elements to this story, do not expect a comedy, this is a poignant read about the coming of age and dealing with the hand we are dealt!


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(BIRMINGHAM, AL.)--It is a longstanding tradition, the 72nd Annual State Farm Magic City Classic. For nearly a century the last Saturday in October has always been reserved for bragging rights between two great Alabama institutions. Alabama State University and Alabama A&M University will square off at Legion Field in Birmingham this weekend for bragging rights as the best in the SWAC division. Before the kickoff, first check out what the City of Birmingham is hoping will become a new tradition in one of the most anticipated events of the year.
It's only befitting one of the largest radio stations in the Southeast should tap into the rising, successful career of one of their own. 16 year old Kayla "Halo" Wheeler is a product of The Magic City and this weekend she is gearing up for what promises to be a "classic performance" at Legion Field.
Join Halo as she performs LIVE at the 98.7 KISS FM Stage Saturday, October 26th. Halo is expected to play several song from her brand new CD "THIS IS WHO I AM" before the first snap at 11am. Can't wait until Saturday, you don't have to. KISS-FM has been playing Halo's "Therapy" and "Gone" since the CD was released in August. Call in and request her music, trust me you'll be impressed.
The 72nd State Farm Magic City Classic promises to be the biggest and best year yet. The addition of one of "Birmingham's" darling Halo Wheeler is certainly an incredible way of putting the "magic" into this Classic weekend. Halo Wheeler, "Harmoniously and lyrically original!"
For more information on Halo Wheeler--visit her official website: www.halowheeler.com.


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The drummer, Craig, pounds his small kit in a very primitive sense. There are no fills. There are no fancy flourishes. This is just a man pounding on things for the pure joy of giving backbeat to the throbbing, painful guitar lines that are being spit out by Jeff and Steve. Jeff, who happens to look a lot like Norm MacDonald, plays high, tinny notes that repeat and repeat and repeat... like the guitarists equivalent to the ever-popular repetitive piano figure from much trance music--only much harder on the ears. Steve, the non-Norm MacDonald looking guitarist, makes detuned, whooshing vacuum cleaner noises emanate from his instrument. Above all of this, Eric sings and shouts in a nasal voice about bed wetting, tampons and masturbation.
They've released four albums:
In the live setting, it's pure chaos. Steve has a tendency to climb on his amp, and contort in ways so that it appears he is fighting with his guitar. Craig always starts a song by screaming "1 2 3 4" and smashing down on his snare, and Eric leaps about, falling into the audience, running around, tackling audience members and making a bloody mess of himself. After not seeing them for three months, I saw them play a show with The Locust and another Providence band, Lightning Bolt. I was blown away by their intensity and given a renewed appreciation for the machine that is Arab on Radar.
UPDATE: As of 10/2002, Arab on Radar have broken up.
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Isabel Lucas is a Skirt Flirt
Isabel Lucas walks around in a colorful skirt while spending time with her mom drinking smoothies and going shopping in Hollywood on Wednesday (June 24).
The 24-year-old Melbourne-born star's latest movie, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen sold about $60.6 million in tickets sales on Wednesday. This has set a new record for the most tickets sold for a non-Friday opening, surpassing the Saturday record of $51.3 million set by 2007′s Spider-Man 3. Congrats to the cast and crew!
15+ pictures inside of skirt flirt Isabel Lucas…


text: About as exciting as it sounds kids, I'm going to use this place to announce when a style/theme is updated or released. Right now we have: Default Blue Almost Human - Green And our newest: L - Purple! Created for Inverted L, it's the same as Default Blue but...purple. I know I know, doesn't sound like much of a change but it was surprisingly hard to do. So let me know if I missed anything. I had to change each bit by hand. Bleh! Keep an eye out though, more exciting things to come (hopefully) soon!


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CAMP SMITH, Hawaii (AP) - The commander of U.S. Marine Corps Forces in the Pacific is upholding the life sentence and dishonorable discharge of a Marine convicted of murdering a Las Vegas prostitute in Hawaii.
Master Sgt. Nathaniel Cosby was convicted in April of murder in the 2013 killing of Ivanice "Ivy" Harris in a Waikiki hotel room.
The Marine Corps said this week the case will be reviewed by an appellate office.
Cosby's lawyers argued he killed Harris in self-defense.
Harris was originally from Oregon, visiting Hawaii to celebrate her 29th birthday with her boyfriend, who was also her pimp.
Cosby was in Hawaii on a temporary assignment from Japan.
He's confined at the U.S. Military Disciplinary Barracks in Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. It's the Department of Defense's only maximum security correctional facility.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


text: I received a new stiffener bar set and rail for my 57 100-6 BN4 from Moss today and want to confirm the stiffeners should rest on the rail where the red arrow is at in the pic. I installed the rail support pins in the original bolt holes in the fender wells and not sure what the problem is. Any tips or pics of what it should look like would be greatly appreciated. Top.jpgTop.jpg


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Windows Vista is having a major impact on desktop virtualization activity that extends far beyond Microsoft's announcement last week of new licensing deals that are more virtualization friendly. New to the market are a number of third-party virtualization solutions designed to take some of the pain out of massive Vista migration projects by delivering the same consolidation benefits to the desktop infrastructure that virtualization has brought to the server room.
One of the newest is the Citrix Desktop Server, capable of running either Microsoft's Virtual Server or VMware's ESX server. When the user launches a certain application, the system automatically configures a virtual machine with the right OS and application. The system can also tie in to a blade in the data center if more processing power is needed, or it can link up to Windows Terminal Services, which provides Vista apps for those still relying on XP.
Another new system is ClearCube Technology's Sentral 5.5, designed to simplify the management challenges between physical blades and VMware virtual machines. The company claims that its system allows you to provision virtual desktops across the enterprise while centralizing management, using Vista if you prefer, in the data center. The system is designed for VMware Server and ESX3, but features an abstraction layer for future virtual environments from Microsoft and XenSource.
And speaking of those new Vista licensing deals, there are some who think they are not all they're cracked up to be. This article from Computerworld argues that while the deals would benefit members of Microsoft's Software Assurance program, the rest could see increased costs over time. If you're streaming Vista to any number of thin clients, it might just be simpler to outfit them with hard drives and run it locally instead, depending on how aggressively Redmond enforces its licenses.
Still, with so much vendor activity surrounding the virtual desktop, it can be a chore to separate the good from the bad. This blog on Red Orbit at least offers a place to start. It's a rather long read, but it does offer a clean comparison between the top four DV solutions vying for marketshare at the moment: Microsoft Virtual PC, VMware Workstation 6.0 Beta 3, Innotek Virtual Box 1.3, and Parallels Workstation for Windows 2.2.
Just like the server and storage side of the house, there really isn't any reason to avoid desktop virtualization. At some point in the near future, you're likely to migrate to Vista or one (or several) of the competing operating systems. It's a question of handling it one machine at a time or centrally through a virtual environment.
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Da Vinci's Demons Season 3 Contest Giveaway Sweepstakes. This Da Vinci's Demons: Season 3 Blu-ray contest, giveaway, sweepstakes illustrates Da Vinci's Demons: Season 3's release on DVD and Blu-ray on January 26, 2016.
Da Vinci's Demons: Season 3's plot synopsis: this season "shows Leonardo da Vinci's world as it comes crashing down when the city of Otranto is torn apart by an Ottoman invasion. On the battlefield, the Turks use da Vinci's own weapons against him…the designs for which were stolen by someone he trusted. This betrayal will haunt Leo long after the battle is decided, as will the deaths of loved ones lost in the fighting. When Rome instigates a Crusade against the Turks, he seizes the opportunity to join, but his mission is complicated by a series of grisly murders that terrorize Italy and threaten the Crusade itself."
Baltasar Kormákur's Da Vinci's Demons: Season 3 stars Tom Riley, Laura Haddock, Blake Ritson, Gregg Chillin, Lara Pulver, James Faulkner, Elliot Cowan, David Schofield, Alexander Siddig, Ray Fearon, Kieran Bew, Hera Hilmar, Eros Vlahos, and Ian Pirie.
For more Da Vinci's Demons photos, videos, and news, visit our Da Vinci's Demons Page. For more contests, visit our Contest Google+ Page, our Contest Tumblr Page, our Contest Facebook Page, our Contest Twitter Page, and consider subscribing to us by Email, "following" us on Twitter, Tumblr, Google+, or "liking" us on Facebook for quick, new contest updates.
Two (2) winners will receive:
– (1) Da Vinci's Demons Blu-ray
1. Sign up for FilmBook's Newsletter below:
2. Click 'Complete Subscription Request' after entering the supplied text on the next screen.
3. Activate your Email Subscription by clicking the link sent to you in an email entitled 'FeedBurner Email Subscriptions.'
*Only confirmed Email Subscriptions will be used to randomly select winners. The winner will be notified via the email address they use to sign up for the newsletter. If you are already a subscriber, you are already entered in the contest. If you unsubscribe, your contest entry will become invalid.
All entries must be in by February 15, 2016 at 11:59pm EST. United States entries only. No international entries. Void where prohibited.
More sweepstakes will be published in the future. Stay tuned.