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Tuesday, 10 September 2013
From Draught to Craft
19 comments:
- Sriram Khé said...
No surprise that mass-produced, blah-tasting, inexpensive beer sales are flat. Bound to happen. It happened with wine and coffee. My guess is that, here in the US, the growth of those two drinks have also contributed to beer sales not increasing. I think it was a Seinfeld episode, which means it was quite some years ago, that talked about how it is way easier to suggest "let's have coffee" as opposed to "you want a drink?"
Not being a beer-drinker, and not into straying into bars in order to ogle at barmaids, means that I have exhausted my comments here. I certainly can BS a lot more, but I shall not :)
ps: barmaid???? ahem!
- 11/9/13
- The Million Miler said...
I am an avid fan of Beer (gut notwithstanding) and have tried many of them. My favourite rightnow is a craft beer brewed in Marlborough (South Island, NZ, more famous for wonderful Sauvignion Blancs than beers). It's called Moa! Wonderful, tad expensive but possibly the best I've had. The next best is something that is uniquely Bangalorean - It's a light beer called Kingfisher Ultra. Never found it in any city other than BLR.
And ofcourse there is a draught on tap in prettymuch every pub here in Auckland. Interestingly the name of that draught is Buxom Blonde! go figure!
- 11/9/13
- Ramesh said...
@sriram - You should really stop watching sitcoms. Imagine saying lets have a beer to a redhead. Similar to scoring a ton on the cricket field and then suggesting to your mates - lets have a coffee :):)
@Kiwi - One of the connoisseurs I was waiting for an acid comment from. Instead I get a polite tip on a Buxom Blonde !!!
- 11/9/13
- Shachi said...
I'm quite pleased that even though I have never tasted beer, I knew about everything u wrote in this post - and some more :)...all thanks to my mommy group (all Americans), who is very fond of beer.
And, thanks to one friend's dad, who is an expert in brewing: http://faculty.bftv.ucdavis.edu/fst/Bamforth//
Whole Foods here has so many brew-at-home kits and a beer garten....lots of beer connoisseurs around in our town. I'm not surprised about the market being huge.
- 12/9/13
- Ramesh said...
An Endowed Professor of Brewing Science, no less. If there is a definition of a connoisseur, he must be it !
Your mommy group is fond of beer ?? That's strange. Beer is very much a man's drink ......
- 12/9/13
- Shachi said...
Ramesh - nooooooooo. Most women I know love to drink beer and watch football. Americans and Asians, including Indian.
- 13/9/13
- Sriram Khé said...
aha, so that's why I have been striking out with redheads!!! In the language of cricket, what will be the equivalent of "striking out" as an expression????
(we use lots of baseball expressions when it comes to women, love, and sex. "striking out" ... "first base," "home run," ... have I forgotten the old days, or is there nothing like that based on cricket?)
Re. women and beer, oh, yeah, plenty of women drink beer and talk sports too. These are no exclusively "male." A few years ago, when two of our friends drove up here from Southern California, they wanted to check out the microbreweries that this part of the world is famous for. And, yes, both women. And, yes, this non-drinker went with them and had sodas!
I have my beer story from my early US years ... I am sure I will blog about it sometime ;)
- 13/9/13
- Ramesh said...
@Shachi - Sports yes, even the pint or two yes, but I always thought serious beer drinking was a man's domain. Evidently I am hopelessly ill informed.
@sriram - Please don't pollute cricket with euphemisms from baseball :):)
Evidence is piling on that I know nothing when it comes to beer drinking habits of women. Although I must say when I have accompanied various worthies on beer binges, I have rarely seen a woman imbibe the quantities which the guys do.
- 13/9/13
- Deepa said...
I was expecting a downpour of comments on this one :) Beer is everybody's favorite topic! Alas, I know nothing about it because I m not a beer person. And I do want to add here, gals from my (younger) brother's gen, would put men to shame when it comes to beer binging.
- 14/9/13
- Ramesh said...
@Deepa - What are good young lassies doing going on beer binges?? What has the world come to :)
- 15/9/13
- Ravi Rajagopalan said...
@Ramesh - according to a recent paper human beings first learnt to brew beer from grain and water before learning to bake bread. ("What Was Brewing in the Natufian? An Archaeological Assessment of Brewing Technology in the Epipaleolithic Period"; Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, March 2013, Volume 20, Issue 1, pp 102-150). For the early human, drinking beer reduced the angst that was natural when early men were organising into groups. There is increasing archaeological evidence for this.
Beer is an integral part of our heritage as human beings. As Ben Franklin put it - "Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy".
Whenever I used to go walking in rural England, the happiest discovery each time was to go to the local and drink the local brew. Over the last ten years there were more and more local brews to enjoy. My favourite is the India Pale Ale. This was brewed specially to last for the long sea voyage to India for British troops to drink. You could say the empire was forged in beer!
My wife used to detest the taste of beer. However, after the first pregancy, she suddenly developed a taste for it, and now when offered a dainty glass of wine at a Bombay party, she surprises her host by asking for beer!
- 15/9/13
- Ramesh said...
@Ravi - Trust you to find an archaeological angle to beer :):), but please tell the good lady that I am mightily disappointed in her !!!
- 16/9/13
- Vincy said...
Ramesh, I may disappoint you, but I am a beer lover too but with a very limited capacity to drink ust a pint. Craft beer is new to me. Will add to "Things to do ' list when next in US/UK. :-)
- 16/9/13
- Ramesh said...
@Vincy - Oh yes - a pint makes you a connoisseur. Surely you wouldn't dream of going on a binge !!
But why beer, and not wine ? Or both ??
- 16/9/13
- Reflections said...
Have nothing new to offer as I don't drink beer or anything alcoholic....drank tequila once tho and I didnt see what the fuss was all about anyway.
Just remembered a trip to Goa with friends back when I was in college and carting home all the beer bottles offered to me for my father...I think it was called Kings Beer;-D.
- 16/9/13
- Ramesh said...
@Reflections - Really ?? How about a sip of the finest wine. Very ladylike ..... :)
But seriously Kings Beer ??????? If your friends from college ever see this, they will get a serious dose of bellyache from laughing.
- 16/9/13
- Reflections said...
why are u laughing;-D..err I think it was called Kings Beer...it was small dark bottle compared to the usual ones and I seem to remember somebody telling me then that it was only sold in Goa or something like tht;-P
- 17/9/13
- Matilda Hodgson said...
This blogger is not a beer drinker multinational can qualify to make and sell craft beer. Craft beers have evidently loyal clientele and apparently possess great virtues of taste and subtlety.Stoepborden
- 27/9/13
- Ramesh said...
@ Matilda - Thanks for the comment and yes, I am not a beer drinker. Comment would have been nicer without the advertisement plug.
- 28/9/13


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Buy Fine Tuning and Maintaining 00 Gauge Models by Nigel Burkin from Australia's Online Independent Bookstore, Boomerang Books.
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Vitamin K is a fat-soluble vitamin which helps your body and plays a crucial role by making proteins for healthy bones, metabolism and tissues. Mainly it makes blood clotting in the event of an injury. Thus, if there is deficiency of Vitamin K in your body, a small cut to your hand, there is continuous bleeding and it may lead to death. It is linked to lower bone density. Due to this lower bone density, sometimes bones may break and becomes fragile. Vitamin K is a fat-soluble vitamin; so it…Read More
Tag: vitamins
Make Yourself Aware of the Deficiency Symptoms of Vitamin K?
Vitamin K is a fat-soluble type of vitamin which helps your body and plays a crucial role by making proteins for healthy bones, metabolism and tissues. Mainly it makes blood clotting otherwise your blood can can bleed. If there is a lack of Vitamin K in your body, then a small cut to your hand can continuously bleed and leads sometimes to death, and also have been linked with lower bone density. Due to this lower bone density, sometimes bones may break and becomes fragile. Vitamin K is a fat-soluble…Read More
What are the Main Vitamins That Ensure Healthy Skin?
Every one needs healthy skin, healthy skin is possible with right vitamins. Vitamins like A,C and E are important for healthy skin; these vitamins play vital role in getting attractive and healthy skin. Lack of these vitamins in body renders your skin without freshness and youthfulness. Vitamin A is effective for protection of skin tissues. It is effective in reducing sebum production. Oily substances are helpful in producing the skin glands which leads the acne. When the sebum is reduced, acne also reduces. Vitamin A is an effective antioxidant which…Read More
Vitamins and Supplements to be Taken to Control Blood Pressure
Moderate blood pressure must be maintained throughout the body to allow blood to carry oxygen efficiently to tissues in all parts of the body. High blood pressure (hypertension) may result in excessive strain on cardiovascular system, low blood pressure (hypotension) may result in prevention of proper blood flow to some of the tissues in the body. A variety of vitamins are necessary to control blood pressure and also play a key role in preventing hyper and hypotension. Vitamin B3 or niacin is required that helps to control the blood pressure,…Read More
What are the Various Types of Vitamin B?
Intake of vitamin rich diet is very much important for one to enable the normal functioning of the body. Among the two different types of water soluble vitamins, vitamin B plays a major role in various functional activities either simple or complex. It is considered to, however, affect the major activities or functions of various parts of the body. Here is a list of various types of vitamin B. Vitamin B1 also called as thiamin is needed to ensure right function of all the body cells and more prominently the…Read More
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A studio interview and a live performance with Blues singer and musician, JOE LOUIS WALKER. Also: his video ""Blues of the Month Club."" Hosted by: Erin Willis.
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Joe Louis Walker and we will let you know when it becomes available.


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Summit Feature: Cairn on mound 7m E of trig point
Classification: Hill Trigpoint, Dodd, Donald-dewey, Hump, Hugh, Law, P30 Tump, Yeaman.
OS Grid Ref: NT523618 (10 figure Grid Ref: NT5236061805).
UK Area: 28 - Firth of Forth to the River Tweed (OS Maps 1:50k 66. 1:25k 345E.)
Latitude: 55.847085, Longitude: -2.762418, Height: 529 metres (1735 feet)
Prominence: 117 metres (384 feet)
Unique Waypoint POI Name: 0529.p (DoBIH Hill ID: 5084)
Associated Parent Hill:
Meikle Says Law (535m, p267)
Associated Trigpoint:
TP3661 'Lammer Law' Grid Ref: NT5235361808 Separation: 8m from Hill grid ref.
External Links for Lammer Law:
-GeoHack link... -OS Map Bing link... -Google Map link... -Geograph link... -Lammer Law on hill-bagging.co.uk... -Lammer Law on trigpointinguk.com...
Data courtesy of the Database of British and Irish Hills
Selected mapping: Google or Bing / Ordnance Survey:All | :Nearby Hill | :Nearby Trigpoint | : mouseover
Climbed Lammer Law? Log in to tick it off...
Highside Hill (2.0km)Crib Law (2.0km)Hare Law (2.3km)West Hill (3.4km)Seenes Law (3.9km)Harestone Hill (4.5km)Dod Law (5.3km)Ditcher Law (5.7km)Meikle Says Law (5.8km)Meikle Says Law (boundary) (5.8km)
Adrian agentmancuso Anton Bob G Carole Chalky1953 clochandighter Colin Crawford gerrybowes HillmanImp hils iaindbrown IainT jonesy Lindsay M lorettocourt NormanW oakesave rhw RichTea russell61 WJJ
Total = 1 All
Data courtesy of the Database of British and Irish Hills


text: Field Trip My wife and I chaperoned our oldest sons field trip to the Calvin Coolidge Historical Site with a visit to the Plymouth Cheese Factory. **Picture of freshly made Blue Cheese getting ready to be put away for aging.** Share this:TwitterFacebookGoogleLike this:Like Loading... Related June 6, 2016June 24, 2016 by micahjbreshears Tags: Blue Cheese, Cemetery, Cheese, Coolidge, Field Trips, Good times, Plymouth, Vermont Leave a comment


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Week of 1/26: Shakira & Rihanna rise to no. 1, Beyonce breaks BenBoard 10 record
January 25, 2014 | 11:31am
January 25, 2014 | 11:31am
After debuting just last week, Shakira and Rihanna's top-notch collaboration "Can't Remember to Forget You" has risen to no. 1 on the Hot 25. The duo also snags the top spot on the Pop Songs chart, breaking "Timber"'s 11-week reign atop the chart. Shakira's 2014 album is set for a spring release.
Because of Shakira and Rihanna's rise to no. 1, Beyonce has been thrown from the top spot. Nevertheless, Queen Bey makes history this week on the BenBoard 10, as Beyonce is officially the longest-reigning no. 1 album. As of this week, the self-titled visual album has spent six consecutive weeks at no. 1—longer than any other album in the chart's history. She surpassed husband Jay Z's Magna Carta... Holy Grail, which previously stood at no. 1 for five weeks from July 5 through August 8 of last year.
Beyonce isn't the only one breaking records this week, as Kacey Musgraves has officially taken over the country field of BenBoard. This week marks the country star's seventh week atop both the Country Songs and Rock/Country Albums charts. She is also the only artist to top both charts, since they were both introduced just seven weeks ago.
Other artists to debut on the charts this week include Jennifer Nettles, whose newest album That Girl peaks at no. 2 on the Rock/Country Albums chart, and the single "That Girl" lands the no. 4 spot on the Country Songs chart. Miley Cyrus' new single from Bangerz "Adore You" debuts at no. 20 on the Hot 25, and Taylor Swift's "The Lucky One" debuts at no. 18. Bruce Springsteen recently scored his fifteenth no. 1 album on the Billboard 200, and it debuts at no. 4 on the Rock/Country Albums chart as well.
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Yvonne Erickson
The Mothman PropheciesHD
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John Klein is involved in a car accident with his wife, but while he is unharmed, his wife mentions a moth shaped creature appearing. After ...
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The dog everyone loves now leaps into the ྖs in this all-new exciting, updated version of Lassie! Determined to start a new life in the ...
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Like most of my generation I grew up being sternly warned that money "doesn't grow on trees" only to find that – surprise! It did. When you heard people going on about unemployment or the bad old days of the '80s they may as well have been talking about the Famine. The whole idea was that distant and irrelevant to us. Being just poor seemed so…old fashioned.
But now I'm looking at a bleak adulthood of belt tightening and it scares me. I was never inoculated against poverty. Even a small dose of it could kill me. I'm not hardy enough for recession. I've never had a "real" job and I'm pretty sure that 'writer/hack living on his wits' could be one of the first categories of boats to sink in the low tide of bad debts. We're sort of more dispensable, economically speaking, than say, doctors or engineers.
And it's starting already. This week my new bank politely declined to give me a credit card. The lady handling my application gave me a tight little smile as though I personally were responsible for the mortgage crisis. I've also been trying to budget: shiny toilet paper, walking instead of taxis, making sandwiches for lunch. I decided not to have blinds installed in my new apartment on the grounds that I was never likely to be naked or having sex in the kitchen. The horrors of recession are many.
Of course it doesn't help that everyone over the age of 35 in Ireland is secretly delighted that there is a recession. Because it puts an end to the "madness" of house price rises and everyone thinking they were rich (when in fact the only ones who were really rich were the ones who could bear to part with their cash – i.e. the young). Also they love it because it teaches people like me, who fecklessly assumed that there'd always be plenty, that there was life before fake tans, Abercrombie and Fitch and the Dundrum Shopping Centre. My mother sent me an email this week, smugly noting that she wasn't one bit worried because "we all got along just fine before frappucinos", the whole implication being that a bit of penny pinching might be cleansing for the soul. "But I need my Frapuccino", I wept. "With chocolate sprinkles". And my soul doesn't want improving penury. It wants a flat screen TV and 800 thread count sheets. And the thought that my apartment – the only thing I really own – is not some kind of diligent cash cow, working hard while I waste time chatting online, just kills me.
What makes this worse than the '80s is that there's no place to escape to. You can't just "take the boat" to somewhere like England or America and get drunk on the floor of an Irish bar until the storm passes, like in the old days. For one thing, it is their bloody fault we're having a recession in the first place. And for another after so long in namby pampy office jobs and extended education, none of even know how to work in pubs or building sites any more. I'm writing this in New York and the bankers are practically throwing themselves out of windows over here. I've noticed that at the moment Americans actually prefer the word "Depression," they're settling in for the long haul. Also, I've checked and being poor here is nothing like 'RENT' or 'Friends.' You don't get to live in a huge, brightly coloured loft directly opposite your best mate's huge brightly coloured loft. It's more like: rat infested basement studio in Brooklyn with six locks on the door. I started out with Great Expectations but I suspect now that I am now one interest rate rise away from wandering barefoot through Time Square singing "boy, boy for sale, going cheap, only seven guineas."
If there is a silver lining to the dawn of this new dole age it's that maybe it will now finally be acceptable not to work. The boom meant naturally lazy people like me had to get a job: there was no excuse. Now we can just give a little what-can-we-do? shrug and settle back for a life of benefits, daytime television and barely getting by. Just surviving will be enough. If anyone asks we can blame the recession, like they did in the 80s. And we can pretend to future generations that it was really hard, that standing in a queue until the government gave us money was something that we had to suffer so that they could have a better life.
But that sage, I-survived-the-Second-Great-Depression wisdom is a long time in the future. The present will be taken up slowly weaning myself off spur-of-the-moment holidays, glossy property supplements and organic, handcrafted everything. And I'm already getting the shakes and feeling scared. Hold me?
From the Ice Bar to the Dole Age•October 9, 2009 • Leave a Comment
Like most of my generation I grew up being sternly warned that money "doesn't grow on trees" only to find that – surprise! It did. When you heard people going on about unemployment or the bad old days of the '80s they may as well have been talking about the Famine. The whole idea was that distant and irrelevant to us. Being just poor seemed so…old fashioned.
A summer on Fire Island•October 9, 2009 • Leave a Comment
By the time I was 19 I couldn't handle another endless summer in Ireland. I was still living at home, there was scarcely a fast food outlet in Dublin that hadn't fired me and I had so many ketchup sodden uniforms that there was a real danger that one day I'd just lose it and wear my Pizza Hut pinafore to my job as Bewley's coffee wench.
So like all frustrated young men I went online. I googled the words "beach" "gay" and "job" and a smorgasbord of resorts in America popped up. Obviously I went for the one which seemed the most debauched. Fire Island looked sort of like the Playboy Mansion with twinks instead of bunnies and because (weirdly) it was also listed in USIT's student guide I was able to convince my parents that it was faintly respectable.
My first clue that this wasn't going to be a normal job was the management request that I send in a picture of myself "wearing shorts and a t-shirt" along with my application. Some people might have seen such a demand and suspected some kind of people trafficking outfit but I was more flattered than anything when they said they'd take me. My attitude was, 'who cares if they take my passport and force me into a life of slavery; at least they noticed my pecs'.
After a plane to New York, a train ride to the westerly tip of long Island and a ferry ride I landed on Fire Island. It was as beautiful as advertised. There were no roads, only little wooden walkways and at the waterside café rich gays sat sipping gigantic cocktails and wiping traces of cocaine from their noses. Strains of Cher drifted from the speakers. I ran down to the beach and jumped in the turquoise sea.
That would be my last swim for a while. Remember the poor old man in the video for 'Shiny Happy People'? The one who does all the pedalling while Michael Stipe and friends bop out front? Well I was going to be the underpaid pedaller that kept this godforsaken gay Hampton moving.
After drying off and enduring the catcalls at my lack of a tan I was brought down to be introduced to my new boss. John White was the first male fashion model in the world to earn over 100k a year but by the time I stood shivering before him he had become a sort of gay Citizen Kane and sat around counting his own money. Under the watchful eye of his harpy-in-chief, Megan, I started my first day with a 16-hour shift after which I was pronounced a "huge disappointment" (I think I'd sold Bewley's as "five star waiter experience"). I didn't even know how to swipe a credit card.
Despite my general uselessness Karen had no problem working me to the bone. In her nasal "Lawngk Island" whine she would give me little lectures about how she herself had three jobs – one of these was doorman at the local nightclub and she wouldn't let me in if I had a shift the next morning – and how "I wasn't in Ireland now." My 'colleagues' – a motley crew of hustlers, grifters and disused actors – weren't much help. If they felt I was flagging on a shift or feeling annoyed because a patron called me "boy" (as in: "get over here boy") they'd offer me "a bump." Ketamine is packed with vitamins and minerals, apparently.
Fire Island is divided into separate gay and lesbian communities (actually there's some straight areas too but they're tucked discreetly away) and the differences were instructive. In the lesbian area – Cherry Grove – the houses are little Hansel and Gretal-ish wooden huts, still not quite finished and just crying out for a few home repairs. In the Pines, where A-gays like Calvin Klein and David Geffen spend their summers, the places are more like Barbie Dream Homes. Nobody touches a carb after noon and the little convenience store sells such essentials as lubricant and caviar. These two areas were divided down by the infamous "meat rack" – a place where men got biblical, al fresco. I lived in the Grove but worked in the Pines so I had to run this gauntlet nightly. When you've been serving burgers for 18 hours an orgy is really the last thing you want to see.
I somehow survived the Fourth of July and The Invasion – an annual contingent of drag queens who take over the Pines for one day – but with Labor Day fast approaching Megan finally gave me my marching orders. I was given one night to leave "steerage" (fittingly named after the 3rd class quarters in the Titanic). The boat left Fire Island in the dead of night and I vowed never again to set foot in a gay resort.
John White died a couple of years after that and a conglomerate of young businessmen inherited the meat rack and the Barbie dream homes. Ten years later I'm also back in New York and a friend of mine wants us to take "a share" in a house on the island this summer. The plan was to make a triumphant return to the restaurant I worked at and lord it over my former slavemistress, perhaps leaving a large tip to show how far I'd come in the world and that there were no hard feelings. That was before the crash. Now I'm just hoping that the bed bugs are not as bad in steerage. And that I can still pull off those shorts.
10-08-09•October 8, 2009 • Leave a Comment
Hudson River First Person•February 11, 2009 • Leave a Comment
This first appeared in the Life Magazine of the Sunday Independent on February 8, 2009.
Come Armageddon, come.
You know you've become a hardened New Yorker when your block is more or less surrounded by emergency crews and people are running past the door looking panicked and instead of thinking "Al Qaeda!," or "I have to tell my family I love them!" you just calmly steeple your fingers and wonder if this means you won't have to do any work today.
That was pretty much how I felt when I got wind that a plane had landed in the Hudson River about 500 feet from my apartment. My mother had been right all along it seemed: Osama Bin Laden had indeed picked "the one year I came to Manhattan" for his follow up attack. But there was no point in worrying about that now. I may as well lay back and enjoy the trippy high of some A Grade nerve gas.
But then I remembered the protocol for a 9/11 style disaster is to get outside where it's dangerous and film everything with your mobile phone. It could be broadcast later on TV, with the tagline "amateur footage" excusing your shaky hands. And putting my personal safety above the needs of CNN would be to let the terrorists win.
As I cautiously came out onto the street it really didn't look like some nuclear winter was imminent. There were the kids from the local school, buying their drugs as usual. An expensive little dog in a designer coat was taking a dump on the subway grate and being scolded by his "mommy." Basically life at the heart of the known universe was continuing as normal.
I began strolling west toward the river, my camera phone poised in case any turban-wearing maniacs should appear overhead. It was freezing and I was feeling like a front line reporter, ready to address the camera with suitable gravitas; a low budget Anderson Cooper.
As I got closer to the water there were already banks and banks of camera crews and reporters (which had of course gotten there before the emergency services). But these were just the front wave of a sea of people, brandishing their cameras in the air as though at a U2 concert. Unfortunately there was very little to film. Faintly in the distance you could make out the plane bobbing and the passengers on the wing, some terrified, some perhaps wondering who would play them in the movie of this event. Somebody was brought up from the river wearing a blanket and was instantly surrounded by a million notepads and microphones being waved in his face. Then it turned out he was just some homeless guy wearing a blanket. Because it was cold. Somebody with a headset shouted, "Cut away from him!"
There was a general air of disappointment as "geese in the engine" passed down the line to me like Chinese whispers. Geese. That sounded like something kind of Looney Tunes malfunction, not something with Osama Bin Laden's dastardly fingerprints all over it. Everyone had been hoping for something a bit more apocalyptic, a bit more 'Day After Tomorrow'. We were going to be footnotes in the news of 2009, possibly forgotten by the inauguration.
It was also looking less and less likely that we were going to be hailed as heroes just for stoically living here. No plaque would be erected to the plucky immigrant journalist who bravely stopped watching 'Tool Academy' on MTV and left his midtown apartment just so he could go down to the water and wave his Blackberry in the direction of New Jersey. Certainly post traumatic stress disorder would be implausible. Unless the geese turned out to be Islamo-fascists trained suicide drones we were probably all going to have to go back to work tomorrow. No looting, no running, no movie. What a sh**ty circus.
All of which is to say I and everyone I know were of course thrilled that everything turned out all right in the end. The pilot of that plane was a true American hero, and so what if he wasn't one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. If anyone deserves his own primetime slot on CNN it's him, not me. And if we are to erect a plague let it be to the dozen or so noble geese who died that we might live.
Anyway we'll get our Armageddon soon enough. Depending on which television station you watch here it will either be the End of Days, an Inconvenient Truth-esque tidal wave or something to do with the Middle East. They threaten me with all three but whichever it is I can hardly wait. In the meantime I can only sniff the air hopefully. Maybe that is anthrax after all. Or maybe it's just the smell of sewage and hotdogs.
Tommy Hilfiger interview•February 11, 2009 • Leave a Comment
In the Avery Fisher Hall of the Lincoln Centre on Manhattan's Upper West Side it's 4 hours to Showtime and there is a distinct frisson of tension in the air. Severely made-up women hiss last minute instructions into headpieces and an army of caterers hurriedly arrange delicate little morsels (which nobody touches) onto silver trays. A tizzy of stylists nervously flit back and forth, their heels seemingly powered by mini jets. There are banks of alter-like make up tables upon which rest gigantic bouquets of white roses. This is Tommy Hilfiger's war room and for one night only, the rather fraught focal point of New York's fashion week.
On a balcony above the perfumey tumult, perched on a high stool amid a cluster of lamps sits the man himself. Lean, chicly sockless and dressed in a slim fitting navy suit of his own design he sighs thoughtfully at the awful significance of today's date – September 11 – but chooses to dwell on the positive. "Of course I was here that day too and it was a terrible time for all New Yorkers, especially those who lost their lives or those who lost loved ones. I was uptown and I can clearly remember the shock and the terror. You never know when something like that is going to happen. I was living on Central Park West. I saw the second tower collapse. But today is a new day….we have a wonderful space here. And it will be a great show."
Today is also a more jarring personal anniversary in the Hilfiger calendar. It was six months ago at his Spring Show in New York, which took place in this very hall, that his then fiancée, Dee Ocleppo, first paraded her diamond engagement ring before the cream of New York society. The wedding between the designer and the statuesque blonde, who had been previously linked to Prince Albert of Monaco and Bruce Willis, was to happen in two parts. Firstly there was to be a "simple" no-guests wedding on the island of Mustique followed by a gigantic party this month (sub note: October) at Manhattan's Plaza Hotel, at which they would be celebrated by friends like Harvey Weinstein, Vera Wang and Anna Wintour.
And then, without warning, in early August, the announcement came that the nuptials were off and the couple were separating. The split was initially reported to be amicable but the online rumour mill had them wrangling over everything from money to honeymoon destinations. He smiles, when I bring it up, as though suddenly remembering a long forgotten holiday that had fallen through because of inclement weather. "Oh yes. Sure. It was just that I decided that it was awkward with so many kids in the equation (Hilfiger has four from a previous marriage, while Ocleppo has two) and that it was going to be complicated. It was both of our decisions. But you know what? We remain good friends, it was all very amicable. And in fact she is going to be here tonight."
As one of the few heterosexual fashion designers in the industry Hilfiger would seem to have unique access to a bevy of lissom beauties to move on with but he gives a rueful would-that-I-could smile at the suggestion that he would in any way use this position to his advantage. "You know I would say I have the pleasure of working with some very beautiful women," he begins, carefully measuring his words. "But there are certain kinds of men in their fifties who go chasing after young girls in their twenties and I would really never want to be that kind of man."
In person Hilfiger is cool but friendly, mildly batting away each question before moving on. He gives quick, one-sentence answers, punctuating each swiftly made point with a beatific close-lipped smile. He is leanly worked out, exudes a Zen-like calm – the result, he tells me, of daily yoga sessions – and even in a room full of sleek, nattily attired Italian publicists his own personal style stands out. And yet this sartorial self-possession and sharply cut suit seems a million miles from the breezy preppiness and very conspicuous labelling of his brand. Today for obvious reasons he's dressing up, he tells me. Most days he looks "more like you." He notes with approval my Tommy shirt ("that will never go out of style"), fingers my jacket ("is this ours too?") but agrees that he would never do anything so vulgar as flagrantly display a logo himself. "People wear logos because they're looking for status," he tells me. "I don't want to call attention to myself." And you don't need status, I suggest. "Exactly."
In fact it's been a rough few years for his brand, although it's shown strong signs of recovery recently. During the early 1990s the designer had managed the seemingly impossible, out Ralph Laurening Ralph Lauren and selling an even cleaner, preppier Hampton-ish glamour to the masses. For a while every mall in America was crowded with kids wearing Hilfiger's designs. But then in the later part of that decade the brand strayed from the safe ground of crisp polo shirts and into the bolder and baggier fashions of the rap world. In the short term this was a boon for the company and, as the likes of Snoop Dogg and Coolio were seen in Hilfiger gear, the company's share price soared to more than $40 a share. The Hilfiger band had reached its saturation point. With a mixture of pride and regret the designer now tells me it was "everywhere."
But the music industry, particularly rap stars, are fickle in their tastes and as they abandoned the red, white and blue baggies, the company turned back to it's core audience only to discover the prepsters had moved on. At one point the share price dropped to $6 a share. In 2005 the company was sold to a private equity firm, which was charged with turning around its flagging fortunes. They developed a new line, H, which was promoted by David Bowie and Iman but this never really took off and there were some who questioned whether the Hilfiger name could ever be returned to its former glory. Adding to his woes was an 'Apprentice'-style show (in which he selected hopeful designers to work for him), which was quickly cancelled.
Throughout all this there was one sign of hope. It was noted that in Europe the Hilfiger name still enjoyed a certain level of cachet. Without a rap subculture to sully it, and his own public persona to muddy the waters his brand remained at more or less it's pristine original level of exclusivity. It was recently decided that, just as in Britain and Ireland, the clothes would only be stocked in upmarket department stores in America and as of this summer Hilfiger rejected overtures from the likes of Wal-Mart and reached an exclusive agreement with Macy's. "The product in the US was broader and more mainstream but in Europe it was more upper class" he tells me. "So we wanted to make it more like it was Europe. And so we got rid of all the big logos and made a collection that is today much more sophisticated and refined."
If he doesn't give the impression that the success of this strategy keeps him up at night it might be because a lifetime in fashion have taught him that it's better to handle the inevitable ups with a degree of equanimity. Born 57 years ago in upstate New York he was the eldest of seven children and remembers that this meant he had to be "a sort of a parent" to his younger brothers and sisters. "My father was a watchmaker. We were working class. I had to oversee a lot of the goings on in the family and so I became very responsible. I helped bring them (his siblings) up."
A slender preppy young man, his ironic nickname at school was "the bull". "I was this big" he tells me, holding his thumb and forefinger a few inches apart, "my friend who was big was 'the flea' and I was 'the bull', so that was a little joke." He was determined to play football, even if it meant getting hurt. "If you didn't you were a wimp."
By his own account his interest in clothing design sprung up almost from nowhere late in this sporty-preppy adolescence. At 18 he had a job in a shop selling "candles and beads, that sort of thing". With just $150 to his name he bought a few pairs of jeans and began customising them. "I sold them to stores and they were very successful so I decided I would start designing jeans myself. And they did well."
He would open his own store, The People's Place, in upstate New York but with recession looming and the local buying public diverted to a new super mall, which had opened on the outskirts of the town, The People's Place went bankrupt. Hilfiger was just 25 at that point and decided to move to New York City with his now estranged wife Susie, where he turned down jobs with Calvin Klein and Perry Ellis to start his own company. "It was a wild time. I was young and starting out. I was already known in the industry and had won a number of design awards but the wider public wouldn't have been aware of me at all," he remembers. This was not to be the case for long. In the mid 80s he founded The Tommy Hilfiger Corporation, opened his own store and debuted his signature menswear collection. Slowly, a polo short at a time, Hilfiger began a shake up of the fashion industry, pulling the cable-knit rug from under Ralph Lauren and Perry Ellis and selling a sleeker, more modern preppiness to middle America. In 1992 the company went public and by the early part of this decade Hilfiger employed over 5,000 people. His empire expanded from clothes into watches, fragrances, gloves, socks, underwear. An entire Tommy lifestyle was available for purchase. "They were great years," he tells me. "But there were tough times too. And you have to be able to handle the low spots, especially in this industry. You have to be very humble because you can never tell when everything is going to be taken from you. Even now I think of that even though we're on a roll. You have to brace for those moments."
One such moment came a few years ago as an internet rumour that Hilfiger had publicly said that Latins, African-Americans and other minorities were pulling down his brand image and really shouldn't be wearing the clothes gathered some steam. "There are some things you can let slide," he tells me "but this was something I felt I really needed to address". He went on Oprah Winfrey and publicly rubbished the claims. "It was a very warm interview and I was incredibly grateful for Oprah giving me the opportunity to clear that up. It had gone on for years. I don't know how it started."
That Hilfiger was simply able to call Oprah up and ask for an audience gives an idea of his celebrity in America. The RSVP list to the show in a few hours includes Hillary Swank and by the late afternoon there is already a smattering of photographers prowling the sidewalk outside the Lincoln centre. Hilfiger's children, who will be in attendance, are stars in their own rights now. His daughter, Ally, was featured on a sort of precursor 'the Hills', MTV's Rich Girls (which, endearingly, revealed him as a bit of a doting pushover) and his son Rich Hil (the last two syllables jettisoned for coolness) is a hip-hop artist. Ally is now running her own vintage accessories business and has said she regretted making the show. Tommy tells me that it hasn't always been a gilded passage for them. "Certainly my fame made things more difficult for them in a way. If you're a known person in this country (America) certain people will try to tear you down, that's just the way it is. You have to rise above some things."
He's said in the past that designers like himself and Ralph Lauren merely "download ideas onto people" and gives a little bemused smile at the idea that he might do his own sewing. "I've always been upfront about the fact that I'm a businessman and a designer. You know a lot of designers say 'oh all of my ideas just come out of my head' whereas I'll tell people that I'm inspired by rock 'n roll, by photography and by art. There's no huge secret to it."
He has a quiet day-to-day he tells me. He lives on Park Avenue in Manhattan and sees his children off to work before taking his yoga class – "for fitness and relaxation". He then makes the short trip to his office in Chelsea on the door of which there hangs a $37,000 pair of jeans, which were once worn by Marilyn Monroe. "I am happy," he tells me brightly, when I wonder if this has been a tough summer. "I feel better than I did in my forties. I've a lot to be grateful for."
He remains on his perch after I depart, serenely watching the frenetic preparations below him. By the time I return a few hours later a well-heeled Manhattan crowd have already mostly taken their seats in a long, multi tiered room. The men wear brightly coloured bow ties, waistcoats and are conspicuously sockless. The women are immaculately coiffed and wear panoply of designers but nothing that looks like it might have been pulled from the rack at Macy's. Nowhere but nowhere is the famous Tommy Hilfiger crest to be seen. (I realise that I have committed a major fashion faux pas and discreetly pull my jacket closer to my status-hungry chest). The sounds of George Michael singing 'Jesus To A Child' wafts from the speakers and a bank of photographers train their lenses on the celebrities here gathered. There is a quiet hum of conversation, which gives way to a small commotion down one end of the room as the svelte forms of Julianne Moore, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Helena Christiansen take their seats. A few mortals further along Pharrell Williams sits, his earrings glinting in the evening light. In terms of magnetism Anna Wintour in the front row, seems to trump them all. Her huge black shades glare out like some sci-fi robot. In one swift moment the room around the shades goes black and the show begins.
The models strut down the runway, staring straight ahead with dead eyes, and as promised by Tommy there is not a hoodie or rugby shirt in sight. Princess coats, sheath dresses and tunic tops over wide trousers recall the boomer years with the palette of red whites and blues the only link with the brand's immediate past. It's classic Hilfiger Americana; fun, youthful, steeped in nostalgia. At the end he emerges beaming, walks half the runway proffering an impish little wave to the gathered cognoscenti. Within moments people are already filing out of the Lincoln Centre into the warm night air, forsaking the free champagne. This is New York fashion week and there are a lot of shows to get to.
Brad Pitt•February 11, 2009 • Leave a Comment
See: http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/film-cinema/the-time-i-had-my-own-slice-of-brad-1622898.html
The sun is setting over LA and the paparazzi outside my Hollywood hotel have been waiting since early morning.
I occasionally go to the window and rustle the curtains just to tease them a little but in fact their lenses are trained several floors above my room where, in the penthouse suite, Brad and Angelina are possibly making mad passionate love and/or having a good laugh about Jennifer Aniston's catty outburst, which that very week has been wall-to-wall tabloid news.
I try to get the low-down from the Mexican room service guy who somewhat makes up for the fact that coffee and a sandwich cost 60 quid by telling me that Brad had oatmeal and orange juice and left a good tip. I was hoping for something a little wilder, that perhaps he walked in on Angelina wearing a "Rachel" wig or that Brad was morosely drinking himself to sleep having raided the minibar, but even with a big tip the most he would tell me is that Brad is "a little smaller than you'd expect", which I would have known anyway. Midgets rule Tinseltown.
The next day, having conquered my own minibar demons, I make my way towards the iconic Warner Brothers Lot, where Brad and the rest of the cast of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button — a brilliant adaptation of an F Scott Fitzgerald short story — are waiting for the world's press. LA, I notice on the way, is hideous, like a huge car park, divided up by palm tree lined highways. It could be the most soulless place on earth but it's here that what Susan Sarandon calls "the dream factories" are to be found; the big Hollywood studios. Actually "factory" is a fairly apt description because without their stars and sets, the vast, warehouse-like spaces that most movies are shot in look more like timber yards or aircraft hangars. In the middle of one such cavernous lot Brad, Cate Blanchett and the others are waiting to answer questions from the assembled press.
A better description of him than "small" would be "compact". In a grey waistcoat and fitted trousers he looks trim and lean with a flop of blond hair hovering above those pale blue eyes. Sitting bolt upright on his chair he seems intense, articulate and very serious. The fact his name has always been a byword for "handsome" is something of a mystery to me. In fact, nothing about him seems very movie star-ish. I have seen third-rate stage actors with haughtier body language.
Cate Blanchett on the other hand is every inch the diva. She seems to exist in a different light to everyone else — her skin is so translucently perfect that to make her seem like her actual age of 39 the make-up artist for Benjamin Button told me they had to "draw" CGI pores onto her. She purrs and oozes and laughs at herself with the self-confidence of someone who has it all and knows it. At one point she catches herself, saying, "Oh, listen to me going on and on as if everything I say is so fascinating and important." But in fact it was; we listened rapt to every word.
Generally, however, the set-up of the press conference seemed designed to militate against anything terribly fascinating or important being said. Someone from the studio was on hand to break questions into bite-size pieces to feed to Brad, Cate and their co-stars.
The problem with Ireland being counted as part of the "rest of the world" (so far as the dream factories are concerned anyway) is that for an audience with Hollywood royalty we must often sit with European and Asian journalists, who aren't embarrassed to ask things like "if you could be an animal, what would it be?" (As one Japanese hackette once asked a very confused Daniel Craig while I sat to her left with my mouth open). On this occasion a German lady seemed determined to expound at length to Brad and Cate on what she thought of the film (her opinions seemed very similar to what was written in the press notes). They listened politely while the rest of us stared at her back and willed her to have a heart attack.
Despite this deadly combination of stage management and Euro-hackery Brad did come out with a few nuggets. He told me that the film — in which he plays a man who ages in reverse, starting out as a wizened infant and ending as a senile young boy — had given him some interesting insights into his own ageing process. "Once you hit 40 you really have to examine the math of it all," he said (he turned 45 a few days after we had met). "I'll trade wisdom for youth any day."
Of course, everyone in the room wanted to know how he was feeling about Jennifer Aniston — who had just told a magazine that Angelina was "not cool" for saying that she, Angie, had fallen in love with Pitt while they were filming Mr and Mrs Smith and Aniston was still married to the future Mr Jolie. Perhaps sensing this, Brad emphasised his more domestic side — the implication being that he was first and foremost a father and husband and not merely a hunk being torn limb from limb in a Hollywood cat fight. "I had a whole other life and probably got to experience more than I should have," he said cryptically, perhaps referring to his partying bachelor days. "And it kind of ran its course, hit a dead end." Fatherhood, he added, "is a natural direction and one I felt I would go in, but not until it felt right with Angie."
It's a relief to hear her finally mentioned, but then you'd expect Pitt to have some idea of what we're after. He majored in journalism at the University of Missouri after all, though he did leave early to go to LA to make his fortune. His southern Baptist parents may have despaired of his recklessness but this, of course, turned out to be a move that would eventually make him one of the most famous men in the world.
Financing himself with part-time work as a deliveryman and chauffeur he eventually hacked his way on to the set of Dallas, among other shows. His big break came in Thelma and Louise when, as the grifter with the rippling torso, he caused a million hot flushes. From there his ascent up Hollywood's greasy pole was spectacular as he mixed reliably bankable movies (Legends of the Fall, Interview with the Vampire) with quasi-indie fare (Snatch). He also forged a close relationship with David Fincher (Fight Club and Se7en), with whom he also teams up on Benjamin Button.
As all this was happening, of course, he was becoming a synonym for sexy and Brad had leading ladies falling at his feet. Juliette Lewis and Gwyneth Paltrow were but precursors to the media feeding frenzy that would continually surround his union with Jennifer Aniston and the fallout as seemingly he dumped her for Angelina Jolie.
And it is to this subject that we are dying to turn our attention. I try, in a very tortured way, to relate the Angelina-Aniston throwdown back to "the project" by asking Brad if his role in the film had given him insights into the soap opera and "bubble of fame" he found himself at the centre of. He narrows those blue eyes at me and says that growing up he had always had a sense of what it was like to be an outsider — "I think all of us do" — even before he entered that biz they call show. Sensing that there might be a moment of revelation on the cards, the German lady thought of something else she'd forgotten to say earlier and it was clear we would get no further comment on l'affaire d'Aniston.
Before we leave though, I am going to get a little more Brad time. He stops the press conference to hold up a Dictaphone — which I realise with shock and awe is mine — and asks, "Whose is this?" I meekly raise my hand and Brad cheerfully tells me in front of everyone that he's "just going to flip over the tape as it seems to have stopped" and checks if this is OK with me. It's highly surreal. I feel my own hot flush — my tape recorder has been blessed by Brad on the Warner Lot — it's probably worth millions now. And at the same time I have the curious feeling of room full of journalists willing me to have a heart attack.
Finally… my blog goes live!•October 14, 2008 • Comments Off on Finally… my blog goes live!
Welcome to my blog.
I know this is just what the world needs – another wannabe writer sifting through his own vomit for nuggets of gold. If you are too cheap to pay to read me (and who could blame you in these harsh economic times) then you can get the uncensored version for free here.
It will be a little chronicle of my brand new life in New York City, a kvetschy record of my hopes and fears, my bad hair days and my fat days. All waiting for me to look back over in the days – surely not that far off – when I am truly fat and have no hair.
By right it should probably be kept under the bed, in a locked journal.


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Normative criteria to facilitate autonomy universally
The Emerging Fields Project "Human Rights in Healthcare" focuses on highly relevant issues in the intersection of human rights, medicine and medical ethics. Based on the assumption that in order to be able to lead autonomous lives and take autonomous decisions concerning far-reaching health questions, human beings often need facilitating structures; the project deals with conflicting claims to receive such support for personal autonomy in health care. The general purpose is to better understand the implicit criteria which guide decisions taken in clinical practice and to develop normative criteria based on human rights and medical ethics. Practical examples which will be studied intensively include issues of dialysis, transplantation, new conflicts arising from international patient mobility, "health literacy" education, contributions to "health-empowerment" of vulnerable groups in developing countries and end-of-life-questions. Beyond raising public awareness on complicated and important issues, the aspiration is to provide practical orientation based on ethical principles, internationally binding human rights' norms and professional experience in the field. The project develops an intensive cooperation between researchers from different disciplines, including medicine, human rights, ethics, law, philosophy, social sciences, political science and literature studies.
|Frewer, A./Bielefeldt, H. (Hrsg.) (2016)
Das Menschenrecht auf Gesundheit
|Normative Grundlagen und aktuelle Diskurse
Menschenrechte in der Medizin/Human Rights in Healthcare, Band/Vol. 1,


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Ham and Cheese Bread
|my beautiful loaf
|look at the filling - bursting with flavor!
Recipe: (from 65℃ 湯種面包)
171g bread flour
45g cake flour
22g caster sugar
2g salt
4.5g instant yeast
63g water
34g egg
54g tangzhong
11g unsalted butter
diced ham, smoked cheese (i use shredded cheddar), black pepper
salad dressing/mayonnaise, pizza topping
Preparing the bread tin:
Tin must be lined with baking paper first. The author did not explain the rationale for so, but I guess it's to prevent the cheese from sticking to the pan when it has melted. It's easier to remove the bread from the tin this way :)
|lining the tin with baking paper
Preparing the dough:
- Combine (A) together and make a well in the center. Add in (B), and mix till a dough forms.
- If kneading by machine: Turn up the speed of the machine, and let it knead till gluten has developed. Add in the butter, and continue to let the machine work the dough till it reaches the windowpane stage.
- If kneading by hand: Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead till gluten has developed. Then knead in the butter till incorporated; further knead the dough till it's elastic and has reached the windowpane stage.
- Round the dough up and place it into a greased bowl. Cover and let it proof till it's doubled in size. (I took about 1 hour for this)
- On a lightly floured working surface, deflate and divide the dough into three equal portions, with each weighing 120g (approximately). Round up and cover them to let rest for 15 minutes.
- Shaping the dough: Flatten each of the dough (remember to punch out the air!) and roll out into an oval / rectangular shape with a lightly floured rolling pin. Put in the filling, and roll it up, like a swiss roll. Pinch ends to seal the dough tightly. Cut each dough into half and place into the bread tin for final proof.
- Once the bread rises to about 70% full, top off with mayonnaise, and pizza topping.
- Bake at 180℃ for 30 minutes or till the bread is golden brown and cooked through.
- Remove from the oven and turn it out to cool on a wire rack. unmold the bread onto wire rack to let it cool completely. Slice to serve or store airtight once it's thoroughly cooled.
- The butter should not be added in too early, as it will affect the formation of gluten.
- Bread made using the tangzhong method is really very sticky. Don't worry, you are still on the right track. Just remember to flour your hands often.
- It is easier to peel off the baking paper from the bread after it has cooled down and the structure has set.


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Rainbow Families of the Illawarra! Come join us for a catch up and a play, on April 1st in Thirroul, at the Thirroul Beach Playground.
This is a free event and all families in the rainbow are welcome. These monthly events are a great way of meeting other LGBTIQ parents, and for our kids to meet other families that look just like theirs.
The venue changes monthly so everyone in the Illawarra can come along to one close to home.
For more details check out the Facebook Group.


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The deadline for registration for all those wishing to participate in short films International Festival 4K HISPASAT ends on 23 September. The contest is open to works of any nationality and genre (fiction, documentary, experimental, music video, institutional …), with a maximum duration of 20 minutes, recorded and produced in 4K format.
HISPASAT, Spanish satellite communications operator, has launched this international festival with the aim of promoting the creation and exhibition of audiovisual content recorded on 4K or Ultra High Definition (UHD), the last great technological revolution of the audiovisual sector. The event is one of the first of its kind in the world.
This pioneering initiative in Spain has the support of leading technology companies like Samsung, Dolby, Canon or SGO, as RTVE, cinemas Callao City Lights of Madrid and Heavents producer.
The categories and awards established are as follows:
- HISPASAT AWARD FOR BEST SHORT FILM: € 3,000 + SUHD Samsung TV.
- SAMSUNG AWARD FOR BEST SHORT FILM IBEROAMERICANO: € 1,000 + SUHD Samsung TV.
- RTVE AWARD FOR BEST SHORT FILM SCHOOL: € 1,000 + 2 specialization scholarships 4K Institute of RTVE.
- CANON AWARD FOR BEST PHOTOGRAPHY: € 1000 + Canon 4K.
- DOLBY AWARD FOR BEST SOUND: € 1,000 + mastering ATMOS.
The five winning entries will be screened during the closing ceremony, which will take place on November 12, 2015 in the Callao Cinema in Madrid.
The emergence of 4K format offers viewers the opportunity to enjoy an unprecedented cinematic experience with picture quality never seen before. The UHD quadruples the number of pixels in a conventional high definition screen.
HISPASAT has promoted since its inception the development and implementation of the UHD in order to put as soon as possible available to viewers of film and television.
The HISPASAT Group consists of companies with a presence in Spain and Latin America, where its Brazilian subsidiary HISPAMAR is located. The Group is a leader in the broadcasting and distribution of contents in Spanish and Portuguese, including the transmission of important digital platforms of Direct to Home (DTH) and High Definition Television (HDTV) TV.
HISPASAT also provides broadband satellite and other value-added solutions to governments, corporations and telecom operators in America, Europe and North Africa. HISPASAT is one of the leading companies in the world by revenue in its sector and the main communications bridge between Europe and America.


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Leavenworth Quotes
We feel like when we play with a real high energy level, we can play with anybody. For the most part, this team has had a tremendous year. Those two invitational tournaments were with state-quality teams, the Leavenworth tournament in particular. I think we match up well against athletic teams. - Johnny Mason
Page 1 of 2


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We are a flexible team of interaction artists and designers working hand-in-hand with creative technologists, programmers and researchers. We operate as a globally connected network of professionals able to reach any continent and any specific area of technological creativity. We develop custom-made installations, objects, performances, and on-demand exhibitions that employ new interactive technologies.
Source: About us | Ciantinteractive


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With our focus on quality and efficiency, we are able to save money and offer very competitive rates.
We feel we can provide high quality customer service in this industry. In keeping with this mission, feel free to let us know how we're doing!
With multiple years of combined experience in the heating and air conditioning field, Lockey Heating & Air and the dedicated staff will make sure that your home or business remains as comfortable and efficient as possible while saving you money.
We service the area from Waco to Austin, including Killeen, Harker Heights, Temple, Belton and all areas in between.


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4 weeks after I had completed his taxes for him, I asked this friend-first-removed if he had received his refund yet. He confessed that he has the forms signed, but he has not mailed them in yet.
"Well — you know you can't get your money, until you mail the forms in…."
It's the same in life and work. It's more difficult to get what you really want if you don't explicitly ask for it and then follow-through with your plan.
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I received the below great question a few days after my Art of War for Product Managers and High-Performing Professionals. I thought you might be interested in the answer as well. What if two product manager colleagues disagree on something and can only agree to disagree and cannot come to a resolution, what do you […]
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There are things in our professional careers that naturally scare us, but are required for advancement and continued growth. We are normally afraid of places we haven't been before, things we haven't tried before or subject matter that we know nothing about. If fear is a sign that we are pushing our envelop, then conquering that fear is a sign of real personal and professional growth.
So, how do we gather enough courage to take that next step?
Do one scary thing a day.
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I received the below great question a few days after my Art of War for Product Managers and High-Performing Professionals. I thought you might be interested in the answer as well. Q: Many senior employees work under my lead. In this case, many other senior employees think that what a lucky me. Jealousy is coming […]
If you can drive, you can understand project managing.
Most everyone is familiar with Pro and Con lists to help make a decision. Often times the Pro and Con List does very little to clarify the decision – because – well – the reason you are creating the Pro/Con list is because it was a 'close call' to begin with. We don't go to the trouble of making a Pro and Con list on 'no-brainers'. Often times the pro and cons are pretty equal – making the decision still difficult. Our mistake is that we stop at this point. We don't take the next step to reduce the impact of the "Cons".


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New Opening
Visit the new store now open in Serravalle Designer Outlet
Jimmy Choo is a 21st century luxury accessories brand, with shoes at its heart, offering an empowered sense of glamour and a playfully daring spirit.
The brand traces its roots to a bespoke shoemaker named Jimmy Choo, based in the East End of London in the early 1990s, who catered to the global jet set, including Princess Diana. The Jimmy Choo company was founded in 1996, with Mr Choo's niece, Sandra Choi, who had been heading up design in the East End atelier, coming on board as Creative Director, a position she holds to this day.
Today, Jimmy Choo encompasses a complete luxury accessories brand. Women's shoes remain the core of the product offer, alongside handbags, small leather goods, scarves, sunglasses, eyewear, belts, fragrance and men's shoes.
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Don't let those style steals slip away – snap up our top ten shoes, bags and coats before the sale ends.


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Friday 22 February 2019
THE failing of the old approach to evangelism, which persists to this day, is that it started and ended with getting someone along to a church service. The chief problem with this is obvious: if the service is flawed in any way — dull, cliquey, old-fashioned, poorly delivered, sparsely attended, uninspired, doesn't have many in the congregation whom the guest recognises as kindred spirits, has too many noisy children, has too few noisy children, or just too weird: the list of off-putting characteristics is endless, and the chances of encountering at least one major fault is great — then the new guest never darkens the church door again.
The new booklet from the Archbishops' task group, Evangelism for the Local Church, is slight; but for all its calm, non-directive tone, it none the less signals a significant shift in thinking about evangelism. Its advice is, in brief, to acknowledge the contacts that you have as a congregation; think up an occasion to say to these contacts: "Er, you did know we were Christians, didn't you?"; show convincingly how the Christian faith is helpful and relevant to them; then help them to grow in their faith. This style of evangelism does not treat non-Christians as somehow alien, but as people who are already connected to the church, however tentatively. Implicit in this approach is an appreciation that God is already working in their lives, managing, somehow, to do this without the aid of card-carrying Christians. Neither does it regard dragging someone to church as the be all and end all of the process.
What is new is the challenge to be more open and strategic about sharing the good news. The key word here is "intentional". The task force is right to be cautious on this point. They write: "The greatest distance on the journey is between nurture and commitment. People might be interested in faith and willing to discuss it, without wanting to take the step of making it personal." For "distance" read "danger". It has been shown that talking openly about Jesus is as likely to put people off as attract them. This has not been fully explained, but one obvious cause is a sense of betrayal. Whereas the evangelist is encouraged to think of people as contacts, these "contacts" might believe themselves to be friends. If there is one thing fatal to a friendship it is the merest hint that one party is motivated by the wish to sell something to the other.
It is for this reason that prayer is an essential first step in evangelism. Only through prayer and reflection can the Christian hope to fall into step with the way that God is at work in communities and individuals. And the Christian doesn't go far down the path of examining what the good news might be for others before he or she is forced to consider what the good news has been, and should be, for him or herself. Only when those who follow God have a true appreciation of what God has done for them will they be able to convince others to take God seriously.
20 Nov 2015
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This is a superb opportunity to build on the ministry that has already begun, valuing our worship and engaging with a diverse community.
The rural benefice of St James the Great, Gawsworth, and St Michael and All Angels, North Rode near Macclesfield are seeking a Rector with commitment, energy and enthusiasm. S/he would be comfortable embracing different liturgical styles as we seek to reach out to families and also meet the requirements of our existing congregations.
An exciting opportunity has arisen within the Leicester Grammar School Trust to appoint a full-time Chaplain to work across our three schools: Leicester Grammar School (10-18), Leicester Grammar Junior School (3-11) and Stoneygate School (4-16). This is a new role within the Trust and will enable the successful candidate to work proactively to lead and enhance the spiritual development of pupils throughout the Trust
St Mary Magdalene seeks a strong pastor, team player, able theologian and inspiring ordained minister (Church of England) to become Chaplain in this vibrant and busy school community.
Chester Cathedral is seeking to appoint an Assistant Organist to work closely with the Director and Assistant Director of Music from September 2019, or earlier if possible.
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Sara Gillingham is fed up with being treated as 'disordered'
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click & collect
Collect your order in-store R15 or FREE for orders over R150
Clicks Multivit Women Adult 60 Tablets contains B complex vitamins and anti-oxidants that support daily energy and vitality in women aged 18 - 45 years. The time release formula ensures sustained support throughout the day.
Clicks Multivit Women Adult 60 tablets
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What does it do? Multivit women adult has been specially formulated for adult women (aged 18-45). The time release formula provides a steady release of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and trace elements to support good health, energy and vitality. Marketed by Clicks Retailers (Pty) Ltd. Clicks promise: If you are not entirely satisfied with this product please return it for a full refund as per our returns/exchange policy. Talk to us… 0860 254 257. www.clicks.co.za. Recyclable. Carton board. HDPE container. Remember, always separate lids, caps, labels, cartons etc. before recycling.
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60 tablets
Quantity in pack:
Marketing description:
Clicks. New improved formula. Multivit women adult. 18-45. Supports daily energy and vitality. B complex vitamins antioxidants. Time release formula. 60 tablets.
Package type:
Usage instructions:
*NRV (Nutrient Reference Values) for individuals older than 4 years. **NRV not yet established. How do I take it? 2 tablets amount – per day – with or after meal.


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Latina Group Health Companies
Welcome to the test web site for the Planetary Health Schooling Assortment. Please navigate the site using the 2 panels on the left of the web page to search for instructional content by thematic area or by content modality. Be aware: Take a second to also determine in the event you want to document the medical historical past of different members of the family similar to your mother and father or grandparents, and so on. I don't imply tracking particulars, however main diseases and diagnoses that may be important in the future for you or possibly your kids/grandchildren. For example, you might want to doc a family historical past of diabetes or cancer that spans generations.
For most children new to reading journals, telling them to put in writing down their thoughts and emotions about what they just read will elicit a clean stare. They will want more construction than an open ended job and clean paper. That is where reader's response prompts come in useful. Keep the Wellness Program. Use the results of your review and analysis to assist gauge what's working and what might be enhanced.
It's found that most of the college students belonging to a selected ethnic group are slow learners. We have to encourage the students to enhance their self worth and confidence. Students will analyze the influence of household, friends, culture, media, technology, and other components on health behaviors. some people generally would not have the same reaction to a particular food, until an individual ought to know what meals can make the signs become worse or better.
Have you ever ever been disappointed that after making an attempt weight loss program after weight loss program, you found that you had really gained weight? Losing weight requires a new mind-set and laborious work; it … Read More ...Read more


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Book your official transportIt's a busy month as Latics hit the road for npower League One matches at Bournemouth, Hartlepool and Doncaster.
Let us take the strain by booking a place on an official supporters' coach.
Saturday, November 17th: Bournemouth. £25 departing 8am.
Tuesday, November 20th: Hartlepool £15 departing 4pm.
Tuesday, November 27th: Doncaster £13 departing 5pm.
Book your seats at the WE ARE LATICS club shop (0161 785 5169).


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David Pelletier is a partner in the firm and a member of the Business and Litigation Practice Groups. He practices primarily in the areas of bankruptcy, insolvency law, creditor's rights, commercial lending, real estate transactions, Chapter 128 Receiverships and workouts. In his commercial lending practice, Mr. Pelletier represents lenders in real estate and business finance including low-income housing tax credit financing. In his real estate practice, Mr. Pelletier handles landlord tenant and adverse possession disputes, as well as construction defect litigation.
Mr. Pelletier also has extensive experience representing lenders and creditors in farm and agricultural work-outs, foreclosure, replevin actions and Chapter 12 bankruptcies. David is a frequent lecturer on bankruptcy litigation topics, foreclosures, and loan workouts.
Prior to joining Axley, Mr. Pelletier worked for several years as an attorney at the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania law firm of Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP. While there, he represented a wide array of clients in bankruptcy and civil litigation matters. He represented both debtors in large, complex Chapter 11 cases and creditors in large and small Chapter 7, 11 and 13 proceedings, and engaged in the prosecution and defense of adversary proceedings in Bankruptcy court. Mr. Pelletier also has extensive experience representing plaintiffs and defendants in state and federal civil litigation matters, in areas such as breach of contract, fraud, civil RICO, patent infringement and products liability.
Mr. Pelletier graduated from the Villanova University School of Law, where he served as associate editor of the Villanova Law Review, and was a judicial extern for the Honorable Marjorie O. Rendell of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Admitted to practice in the State Courts of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and Federal Courts for the Eastern and Western Districts of Wisconsin and for the District of New Jersey.
EducationJ.D., Villanova University School of Law
B.A., Michigan State University
Involvement & Recognition
- Member, American Bar Association
- Member, Dane County Bar Association
- Member, State Bar of Wisconsin
– Chairman of the Continuing Legal Education Committee
– Member of the Finance Committee
- Member, Western District of Wisconsin Bar Association
- Named a top Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights/Insolvency and Reorganization attorney in The Best Lawyers in America©
- Named to the 2010 – 2012 Wisconsin Rising Stars Lists (Primary Area of Practice: Bankruptcy and Creditor/Debtor Rights Law)
- Received the Pennsylvania Bar Association Pro Bono Award in 2006
- Philadelphia Homeless Advocacy Citation, 2004 and 2006
- Named a Top Rated Bankruptcy: Business Attorney on the 2017 Wisconsin Super Lawyers List
- Fellow, Fellows of the Wisconsin Law Foundation


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Linssen Yachts
The queen of steel yachts. Experience and enjoy absolute perfection in steel. Value retention, exclusivity, comfort and soundness arent just empty words at Linssen Yachts, but a matter of course. Decades of experience in steel construction and a team of innovative specialists convert each model into a dream boat. Customised according to the customers wishes. Be inspired by the range of models, technical features and high-quality, comfortable atmosphere.


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Anathi Busakwe
"Our people had long been forbidden to own land even outside so called White areas, Millions of our people woke up one day soon after land Act of 1913 with out any land of their own, they had to leave their sharecropper shacks in droves and were forced into rural Getto's referred to as "home land", the land set aside for Africans to buy food consisted of small holdings often with water supply and poor soil, those who had been living there for centuries could do so because the land was unsuitable for White farming".ChpE'SKIA MPAHLELE
By AnathiBusakwe
In 1994 Africans in South Africa achieved their independency from Colonial rule of White Supremacy, Former President Nelson Mandela became the first Black president after serving twenty seven years in Prison, quoting his promise "There will be Jobs creation that will end poverty amongst the people". Soon after elections South Africa became every one's country of the World's biggest Corporates, because of business opportunities for well established individuals and its cheap labor Methods that left Black people Shameless and the rich wealthier. Even today black folks are the third class and working citizens of the country. Democracy became a horrible nightmare for the majority, landlessness is the permanent condition of the oppressed and dispossessed of South Africa mean while present Government deliver too much promises instead of giving land to rightful owners, when they want peoples votes they always remind us of great achievement of 1994, you hear Government officials addressing the State that land has been given to people, ignoring the fact that people had lost theirhope long time and their statement is tasteless, if blacks own their land how could we die of poverty?. South Africa is well known as one of the richest land in Africa that produces best Natural resources in the world, but how could indigenous people been so poor?. One could be excused for believing that our government is made of the deaf, It repeats same mistakes even after being advised otherwise, instead of acting as a yeast to boost nation as the whole, they form bands of gangs exploiting grievances of Masses for their own benefit, Some fruits of freedom are sweet some still to come,they own mines, Million dollar trust funds and Big Co-operations while their fellow people kept in burning hell. Anglo American gold mine is calling his slave over the Media to come back to work after Marikana massacre, where 34 people were killed by more than 100 brutal police force , who sets fire on mine workers who carry cardboard sings with their demands, all they want is for the lowest paid miners to get decent wages to feed their families, suddenly the victims were portrait as criminals, Government officials said to cover their statement one mine worker shoots first two policemen men so that was the reason why they killed 34 of them, what about the murders they came out of court smoking their pipes, until today no one of them had faced consequences. South African democracy seemed irreversible for now, land question is not the issue anymore, today indigenous people of the country are refugees in their Mother land, everyone is hunting job for survival, those who suppose to create jobs for themselves finds them bugging the same slave Master whom he already over thrown. This land is the gift from our Ancestors, if someone took from you it's like preventing the baby on sucking Mother's breast, Africans in Africa need to come to Self-realization and understand that if something was taken from you by force you toke it back by force rather than giving other chick, Freedom is land, so we can again practice our religion and culture.
Land First All shall follow.
The Artist is rebelling against disorder, Don Mattera relates the bulldozing of the last houses in Sophia Town in 1960
The Sun stood still
In the sullen wintry sky
A witness
To the impeding destruction
Armed with bulldozers
They came
To do a job nothing more
Just hired killers
We gave way
There was nothing we could do
Although the bitterness stung in us
In the place we know to be part of us
And Earth around
Slowly, painfully slow
Clumsy crushers crawled
Over the firm pillars into the rooms
That held us
And the roof that covered our heads
We stood
Dust clouded our vision
We held back our tears
It was over in minutes
Kofi Awonoor from Ghana is urging us to go back and restore the Ancestral shrines, to return to for purification, he says that he is not only talking to elite, but also to the men in the street who may be tempted to aspire to elitism.
Night of the Blood
Did they whisper to us the miracles of time
Telling us over the dark waters
Where we came from? Did they
Call us unto themselves
With the story of time and beginning ?
We sat in the shadow of our ancient trees
While the waters of the land washed
Washed against our hearts,
Cleansing, Cleansing
The Purifier sat among us
In sackcloth and ashes,
Bearing on himself the burdens
Of these people
Sew the old days for me, my fathers, sew them that I may
Wear them for the feast that is coming,
The feast of the new season that is Coming


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A total of 533 000 Angolan children are suffering from malnutrition, 110 000 of them severely with a mortality rate of 20%, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies says, urgently requesting more than one million USD to assist 12 000 households.
Luanda, the capital city, and the provinces of Kwanza Sul, Huambo and Bie are the most affected regions, where Red Cross says it will initially focus most of its resources. Most humanitarian organisations working in Angola are said to have run out of cash, and are desperately seeking funds to attend to the problem, reports say.
World Vision International, another charity agency working in Angola, is seeking one million USD to help save the lives of thousands of children under five and the elderly – all victims of drought. The UN estimates that 1.8 million people in Angola have been affected by drought.
World Vision was due to start a food distribution programme in December to cater for 100 000 families in the provinces of Kuanza Sul and Huambo, according to its website.
Angola is Africa's second-biggest oil producer and exporter, and its economy has been consistently booming since the end of the civil war in 2002. But many observers wonder why the majority of its population still live in dire poverty, many without electricity, clean water, basic healthcare and adequate sanitation.
Angola is also an important diamond producer on the African continent. The country's production reached a total 10 million carats in 2011 and was expcted to provide revenues of 1.2 billion USD based on an average price per carat of 120 USD, Spanish newspaper O Pais reported, citing industry sources.
Critics believe President Jose Edouardo dos Santos, in power since 1979, and his cronies of the ruling MPLA have massively enriched themselves, while the majority of the people starved and needed food aid.
Red Cross says Angola's needs are still massive, and increasing especially during the food scarcity period (November to March). Up to now, there has been little response from the international community, it says.
*Photo by Mike DuBose (courtesy of UMNS). A child scavenges for food in a garbage pit near Malanje, Angola.


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Nicole Wolverton's The Trajectory of Dreams illuminated psychosis to an extent that I had never experienced before in a novel. In the novel, Lela White is a sleep lab technician who observes the sleep practices of astronauts before they leave on missions into space. She believes that they are asleep when the shuttle takes off into space and that what she does is a necessary endeavor.
Lela had a difficult childhood with a mother who thought her to be weird because she observed her sleep patterns. Her mother also dealt with psychological issues. Her father doted on Lela and stood up for her when her mother ranted against her actions. Lela grew up reading books that were far more advanced than those of her peers and had difficulty relating to her classmates.
Her difficulties relating to others continued into her adulthood and she is closer to her cat, Nike, than anyone else in the world. She believes that her cat converses with her and agrees with her mission to save the astronauts. She thinks that her colleague is working against her and regrets letting her colleague stay with her later in the novel because she thinks that her plan will be figured out and thwarted.
This novel proved to be unique and although it was slow going at points the plot twists more than made up for any issues the book had. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about psychological issues or psychology in general. It was a book unlike any I have ever read before.