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*also, i should note that the clean volume and fuzz volume settings may vary from version to version as i refined/updated the circuit - the settings i am posting are for the current and future versions where unity is around noon.*
when i'm testing each pedal there are a few basic sounds i always check out.trashier low(ish) gain distortion - as the volume of the fuzz/clean get closer, there is more phase cancellation and thinning of the signal, which gives some interesting sounds.
cv: 11-1, fv: 1-3, sh: 2-4, fz: 7-9, in: 2-5sw1: up, sw2: up
heavy heavy saturated fuzzzzzz - this one is a little noisy due to all the gain, but is nicely over-saturated, especially on chords. | {
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attaching wood fence to existing
Extend the height of all other existing wood posts in your fence by attaching one 2- to 3-foot-tall wood post to each of them. Use the same procedure you used for the first existing wood post and 2- to 3-foot-tall post.
25 Sep 2017 Two: I wanted a 6′ tall fence and the existing chainlink fence was only 4′ tall. Meaning my standard 8′ wood fence panels wouldn't be long enough to reach the steel posts to connect together with the Oz-Post brackets,
22 Dec 2010 If the fence posts of your existing fence are in good shape but the fence itself isn't, you can replace the fence panels and attach them to the existing posts. to check whether your existing fence posts are in good enough shape
17 Sep 2015 Is the wood rotted or warped? You can install horizontal fence boards over vertical, but as mentioned already the existing fence and it's frame work must That way the next board butting against it has half a post to attach to.
If the metal rails are in good shape and you want to save money on wood, then you can attach fence boards to them. If you're interested in a complete conversion to a wood fence except for the metal posts, then remove the metal rails as well,
Oz-Post Steel 2 wood fence Bracket Project Pack per - The Seventrust.just saying if any one is going to build a wooden fence with metal poles THESE GUYS will be your best friend they bend and worked great for me :)
Instead of removing all the components of the chain link, the posts can be used for the new fence upgrade. Reusing existing posts will prevent you from having to dig and purchase extra material. Installing a wood fence on chain link posts is a
If you really want to do this, I think jon1270/bonobothegreat's suggestion of attaching the new posts to the side But yeah, wind load plus the sheer weight of an 8ft wood fence is going to want to pull those existing poles over
24 Jun 2013 More Info at: How to Build wood Cedar fence with existing metal posts. You won't see any This idea is brilliant! Most would probably go to all of the work of removing the posts and installing 4x4's.
A general rule (not sure if your neighbors abide to it) is to build the fence 1-2 feet inside your property line. Like if you want front privacy but have nature in the back, it allows you to get away with 6ft in the front and only 4ft in the back. I would speak with both neighbors before installing anything. Then
1 Jan 2017 If I can do this, so can you! I have absolutely no carpentry background, but I've been going crazy on Craigslist tool deals because my wife and I got an old house that is a bit of a fixer upperwell, actually it's pretty nice, we just
That chain link fence may do its job of keeping the kids and dogs inside the yard, but it's not so good at providing privacy. In some areas, chain link is so unloved it's even outlawed. If you don't want to remove the chain link before adding wood
Wire fences provide security and border the yard at a fraction of the cost of wood fencing, but the open spaces between Rather than replace the entire fence -- a costly endeavor -- you can attach bamboo fence panels to the existing wire fence.
8 Apr 2015 I like to do projects myself and have put in several fences already. In this How to: Install a gate in an existing fence. forbid pay for installation) I simply concocted a plan to make a portion of the old wooden fence into a gate.
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} |
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There was plenty of space for 4 people in th apartment ( we were 3), the parking in the garage was very helpful. 10 minutes to the metro but only 50m to the bus, which brings you in 2 minutes to the metro.
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the place is very nice and cozy. The neiborhood is mixed but all people we met were extremely friendly . You walk 7 minutes to the metro. We rented a car and used both car (the house comes with a garage) and metro. Fantastic stay - makes us feel to really know something about Paris
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I Don’t Speak French But That’s A Dirty Hit
Here’s the video of the Lapierre hit on Pat Kaleta. Make sure you stay tuned for Rivet destroying Tom Kostopoulos. Not only is that part fun because Rivet switched hands, but you can hear the fight turning in Rivet’s favor by when the crowd starts booing. Good times.
I know as a Sabres fan it’s hard to sound impartial on this, but Lapierre should be suspended for that hit. Sure Kaleta’s helmet should have been more secure, but he also shouldn’t have had his head driven into the glass while trying to play the puck.
Kaleta didn’t turn his back to him at the last moment, he had established position and made a play along the boards. Contact may be implied, but clearly not to that extent. There is finishing your check and then there is intent to injure, and this hit clearly sits closer to the latter on the slide rule.
Thus far we haven’t had an update on Kaleta’s status, but on Saturday Lindy Ruff said they “deemed him to have a concussion.” That’s not good news this close to the end of the season, especially with the injuries he’s already dealt with this year.
Ruff also said something pretty interesting when asked about the hit:
“You can tell the impact by the fact his helmet flew off his head,” Ruff said. “I disagree with the lack of respect that he showed our player on the play.”
Not to be all over Lindy on this, but I think that’s a big hypocritical given the way Kaleta plays the game. I’m not calling him dirty or saying he doesn’t respect other players, but he’s certainly close to the borderline most of the time. The fact of the matter is that the way Kaleta plays hockey leaves him susceptible to these kind of plays.
Whether justified or not, many players go out there looking to “even the score” with Kaleta, and that’s going to get him hurt. Part of this mentality is just the nature of the game at this point, but it is also impacted by the way Kaleta hits and finishes his checks. This is the second time this season Kaleta has left Montreal with an injury, and that’s not a coincidence. Montreal clearly has a problem with how he plays, and they’ve made a point to get back at him this season. Again, think about how the fans reacted to that hit. Others get upset about what Kaleta does just like we get upset about Avery, Carcillo, and Neil. Whether they are the same degree of dirty or not, that’s the truth.
What Lapierre did on Saturday was clearly dirty and warrants action from the league, but it won’t be the last time we see this happen to Kaleta in his career. It’s also very clear that the NHL needs to address hits from behind soon, before something much worse than a concussion is the consequence. And when they do, it’s going to impact how Kaleta plays in more ways than what kind of hits he receives. | {
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Originally posted by GoldenOne23
I have always felt the same way. My whole life. I am only 20, when i found out about all of this I was only 17, aince thwn my life had drastically
changed. Every day it feels closer and to see all the things that were predicted years ago coming true, its just unnerving. To my understanding, some
people were ment to be knowledge seekers and some were definately not. There are people I know that just will not accept the fact that something is
wrong with our world, they act so blind. I've tried and tried to tell them and warn them and they treat me like I'm crazy. So, typically I stopped
trying years ago. Now I am back to the point where it feels so close an I feel so drawn to keep pumping them with the obvious. The sad part most of
these people are true believers and strong Christians. It seems like it is so hard for them to take in, like they do not want to believe this could be
the end. My father is one of those people, all I want to do is keep my family safe. I want to make a game plan, a way to survive and all he wants to
do is act like everything is okay. Why do people deny the truth? It just kills me that they cannot feel what I feel. The need to be prepared. I have a
baby and a husband, I want him to be safe and a guarantee of survival.
What things predicted years ago are coming true ? You stopped trying to get your point across years ago and you're only 20 ? Didnt give it much of
a shot did you ?
Leave the kid alone, karen. I know you want examples, but if you would only emphasize and open your mind a bit you may be able to understand that she
is obviously referencing some dream, feeling, or intuition that she had at a younger age. Please remember that our age and "time" here is only
relative; as each year passes, people view themselves at their apex of knowledge and experience, which is the cause of naivety. Instead of blasting a
young thinker, a growing mind, don't you think it would be more productive to use your intelligence to aid the kid, rather than miniscule her
attempts at understanding the world around her?
In response to your post:
TIme has felt as if it is speeding up, more and more each year, and now each month and week and day. I've noticed it for about two decades...and it
is so noticeable now that many not yet awake folks in my life are noticing that the seasons fly by increasingly faster - and it's not about
technology or iphones or our busy lives.
I do far less now each day than I did in the late 80s, early 90s - because the hours whip by and I can't seem to get anything more accomplished
before the moon rises. Back then I took care of a young child, commuted on buses (instead of driving now, which cuts commute time way down), worked
tons of hours, came home on the bus and still had time for dinner, doing college studying (I went to school in my 20s), interacting and playing with
my child, talking with friends on the phone, exercising, taking my son to sports, etc. etc. Now, I get up and before know it, I'm laying down to
sleep. It's not age either -- it's time. It's weird.
I'm the same age as you smyleegrl and have had that waiting feeling too. I rationalize it
by the brushes with death I have had and walked away from. Doing something stupid as a teen I almost shot myself and the gun didn't go off although
it should have. That and a couple of other incidents over the years have me convinced I am meant to do something. Sounds campy to me so I can just
imagine what anyone reading this will think, but hey if I'm wrong then my luck has kept me alive when I should have been toast. Still I can't help
but think I have to do something before I am allowed to pass on. Though what I must do eludes me.
Originally posted by ProjectAlice
I've been reading this website for a long time, but I've never in my life heard anyone else ever bring up this subject so I was compelled to
register and reply. I too have felt this my entire life, going back as far as I can remember. (maybe 6 years old?) I'm 46 now. (Blood type is A+)
That feeling of waiting... that something massive is going to happen and I'm going to be there when it does and I will have a purpose
there.
You might be happy to know that this is a recurring theme here on ATS. Some of the threads take slightly different directions, but there are many
saying the same thing.
I am sure if you do a search for things like "strange feeling" etc you will find some of the threads that have been posted in these regards. I
think there have been several with "Do You Feel It?" in the title.
I see quite a bit of confirmation bias present in such threads, but I think the feeling is accurate as there is almost always that "something" for
each generation. Some of the bigger ones, in no specific order, have been the General Theory of Relativity, Firearms, Fire, Agriculture, and many
more. I have no doubt that all of these changed life significantly and there will undoubtedly continue to be these amazing discoveries as long
as we continue exploring the universe around us.
Agreed 1000%.
And to further add, yesterday I was on the phone with my family and a subject which we often discuss is how many times I've been "saved".
Reminiscent of a miracle. Many, many times from car accidents, other times from various hazardous objects, the list goes on.
I wold also assume most people here approach death with curiosity as opposed to fear.
We are not of this place originally me thinks...
edit on 25-2-2013 by Mortalhelix because: (no reason given)
I will turn 30 this year (I know, a youngin'), and as far back as I can remember I have always "felt" I would never live to make 30. To be honest,
I am very surprised I have! When you talk about being "saved", I can think of so many times that I probably should have died but didn't. And I'm
not talking about the normal routine of life, I'm pretty sure my list is far more exhaustive than average.
Was born premature and was in NICU for 6 weeks.
At 4 years old jumped off the garage roof with a sheet becuase I wanted to "fly". Landed flat on my back and not nary a broken bone, even though
the fall was 20+ feet down.
At 8 was attacked by a dog and bit 6 times, but not one of them severed an artery even though they were within millimeters of one.
At 13 was viciously raped and was in the hospital for over a week. Ended up with a broken orbital bone, broken nose, a bruised larynx, and over 40
stitches. Required blood transfusions due to the amount of blood I lost.
At 16 was in a car accident, and was told by the fire department that cut me out of the car if the vehicle that broadsided me had hit just two inches
further up it wouldve taken off my legs and I probably wouldve bled to death. Even now looking at the pictures I am amazed I walked away from
that.
At 20 ended up with blood poisioning that went untreated because I thought it was mono. Ended up in the hospital again for that one.
At 28 was diagnosed with breast and thyroid cancer, diagnosed within a month of eachother. After surgeries, radiation, and chemo I just had my 12
month check up and am cancer free.
I'm due to hit 30 in July, I hope to make it. Maybe that is why I always feel like I am rushing towards something, because maybe a part of me knows
I have stuff I am still supposed to accomplish?
Tick Tock, like grains of sand slowly pouring down the hourglass, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, I think I have waited an eternity, time
really has no meaning, but things come and things go. Yet still waiting, watching, waiting.
Things predicted years ago-
Unmanned surveillance drones on american soil
Gun control
Falling away of Christianity ( yes it has been happening for while , but not as open and mainstream)
Just to name a few
Not a dad here, but the same age and single, and I can feel you on the struggle, otherwise. It's very commonplace to meet someone and about 20
minutes into a conversation, they're like..."I have no idea what you're talking about. That ain't my world." After which they only want to talk
about television, celebrities, or hooking up, and do not understand why they don't hear from me again. lol
When I was in high school I had a crush on this guy. I met him again later in life and we went on a date. He started talking about out of body
experiences and guess what ? He never heard from me again. He wasnt deep he was nuts.
focus for the last year has been the restoration of my soul. Reclaiming fragmentation, resolving past life traumas and dynamics, releasing all the
useless programming and shifting to a heart centered awareness.
What you said rings true for me too. Last couple years I've been doing the inner work, and bringing the pieces of my heart and soul back to me in
wholeness. Not there yet, but it is primary focus. Glad you shared this.
you guys are all doomed. Well if i have to go i will. And i'm planning on it stat. We only have till the end of this year till these guys start
*blowing* up incoming asteroids pretending to be our buddy guys. then they will be all like YOU ARE ALL IN GRAVE DANGER COME WITH ME TO HELL OR YOU
WILL DIE basically.
behold your anti-christ. Smarten up you tards and get with the program. Those towers are in native legend.
This is what everyone is waiting for. Now stop veering off track with all these comments. God. No wonder humanity is such a mess.
They predicted picture phones at the NY Worlds Fair in 1964 and until skyp we didnt have that. Slow. Technology can always be predicted. Name a real
prediction like the end of the world or ascension or something esoteric like this thread opines and I may be inclined to agree. Predicting technology
is nothing. I am sure Mr Ford could have predicted the traffic jam before everyone in America had two cars in their driveway.
Some ATS posters desperately need to find a new hobby like eating dead babies or pulling the wings off of flies or something, because some just can't
seem to resist posting neverending snide remarks... Post after post, thread after thread, day after day...
They predicted picture phones at the NY Worlds Fair in 1964 and until skyp we didnt have that. Slow. Technology can always be predicted. Name a real
prediction like the end of the world or ascension or something esoteric like this thread opines and I may be inclined to agree. Predicting technology
is nothing. I am sure Mr Ford could have predicted the traffic jam before everyone in America had two cars in their driveway.
You said you were leaving this thread to find something that you were
more in tune with!
you arn't going to have any bodies to reincarnate in soon. And those that do are taken to the pleidies. To the red star of fire, Hell. The bible has
all relevance to this. The prophecy of the rattlesnake, And edgay cayce's predictions all respond to exactly what im saying. My dreams everything.
And everyone is blind. Until it will be too late. Those towers have many many pods on them. and they have a fleet of a million of these. They will
blacken the skies with pods flying back and forth picking people up. The government is making their bases to hide from all this and are keeping people
distracted. They wont take us until they have established first contact. And then deceive us.
This content community relies on user-generated content from our member contributors. The opinions of our members are not those of site ownership who maintains strict editorial agnosticism and simply provides a collaborative venue for free expression. | {
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In this Special Report from the New York Law Journal brought to you free by Planet Data: "The Future of Channel Bundling: Full Course Option, or TV à la Carte?," "Overcoming Confusion for Franchisors," "The Bankruptcy Automatic Stay: A Guide for Commercial Litigators" and "Shifting Sands: Practical Advice on Delaware Fee-Shifting Bylaws." | {
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} |
Share This Page
Got forwarded to this forum by a friend of mine since he says you guys are the specialists .
I just bought a Wii U from someone else who said he was using homebrew on it for playing the games and was running on v5.3.x. Now he cleaned the WiiU before he sold it to me and i think that in the process it got updated somehow since it now says 5.5.1 (E) which is the latest and greatest version.
Now to make a start it would be nice to run from a SD/HD but not a pre since most Wii U games go on sale in my region anyway so i don't mind buying software once in a while. But the problem is that the game which came with it gives an errorcode 150-2031. After some investigation this seems to be a pretty common error so i thought this was the fault of the lens.
After some more investigation (and since the fact i only got Nintendoland) I tried the following:
- cleaning the disc (with whipe or alcohol) : result : Still errorcore.
- Try to blow into the reader ( sometimes this helps....) : result : Still Errorcode.
- Tried Wii games : these all seems to work without problems : result : Works!!
- Tried a dvd movie (but not sure if it should be able to play them :S) : disc error.
Is there any way or anyhow for me to check what might be wrong?
I do have a bunch of codes from the error if that helps.
if i remenber correctly there was a wiiu error code where when installing some wiiu games saves and such would make the wiiu unable to read some wiiu discs due to corrupted stuff, maybe try a factory reset?
You always can try the Nintendo official lens cleaner, the one from Wii, works on Wii U aparently (haven't tried myself), and worse case scenario you would need replace the lens, which I really have no idea if possible on Wii U. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
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Alwaleed's $32 Billion: Philanthropy, Saudi-Style
International
I write about banking and finance in Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, one of the world's most powerful individual investors, has said he will donate his personal fortune - which he pegs at $32 billion - to charity.
The world knows Prince Alwaleed as the owner and controller of Kingdom Holdings, a highly significant and influential global investor, but this decision has been announced at the individual level. You can see his announcement in English here. The $32 billion number is the figure stated in the Prince's press release. Forbes values Prince Alwaleed's fortune at $28 billion.
A sum of money like this can generate a considerable amount of good. Some in the west are likely to look at the headline and think: it could also do a lot of bad. So what do we know about the Prince's past behaviour and enthusiasms that will tell us whether Saudi Arabia's Warren Buffett is going to become Saudi Arabia's Bill Gates or something else?
Well, Gates is a good place to start, because the two are far from being strangers: the Alwaleed Philanthropies, the vehicle through which the Prince's charitable commitments operate today, has worked for some time alongside the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as the Carter Center. Gates himself is quoted in the press release, calling the donation "an inspiration to all of us working in philanthropy around the world." The two are believed to have worked together in areas of health care and epidemic reduction, and a recent concrete example of this was a $30 million Memorandum of Collaboration on the eradication of polio.
Disaster relief has long been an Alwaleed priority: he put in a million US dollars to the Nepal Earthquake appeal, and has pitched in everywhere from Hurricane Pam in Vanuatu to the SOMA mine explosion in Turkey and the support of Syrian refugees hit by a snowstorm.
The other three stated priorities of the Alwaleed Philanthropies are more nebulous and a little trickier to pin down: developing communities, empowering women and youth, and bringing cultures together. In practice these have involved a scattershot range of initiatives. Developing communities, for example, has included a child abuse awareness campaign, the support of nursery schools in Saudi, the payment of debts of Egyptian prisoners and an attempt to eliminate river blindness in Ethiopia or help a Downs Syndrome centre in the Gaza Strip. Empowering women has been more about the support of female law graduates and the provision of training programmes, and bringing cultures together can be anything from supporting the Louvre Museum's Islamic Arts Hall to a virtual platform connecting universities.
So far, these efforts have accounted for about $3.5 billion over 35 years; $32 billion on top of that would represent one of the largest one-off injections of wealth in the history of philanthropy. At this stage, it appears it will be committed in similar areas to those that are already underway, but on a much larger scale; the announcement says the donation "will be allocated according to a well-devised plan throughout the coming years," so one can expect the world's fund managers to converge upon him hoping to set up an endowment. The strategy will be supervised and managed by a board of trustees, Alwaleed says, headed by him.
Is there any reason for the west to doubt the man? Rudy Giuliani didn't like him, returning a cheque for $10 million from New York's disaster relief fund after the prince reportedly suggested that US policies in the Middle East had contributed to 9/11; he has, over the years, been linked with occasional controversy, from allegations that he employs a team of dwarfs to cheer him up (he has said he takes pity on people with restricted growth as social outcasts in Saudi Arabia), to a somewhat indelicate offer to buy luxury Bentley cars for fighter pilots who bombed Yemen, and a spat with Forbes over its tally of his wealth on a rich list. It can be hard to spot selflessness in a man who supposedly has a fleet of private jets and over 200 cars. But unlike some institutions and figures in Saudi, Alwaleed has not ever personally been linked with suggestions of terror financing, and within the Saudi Arabian context he is seen as a progressive, international-minded figure, employing a large number of women (perhaps a majority of his workforce) and avoiding segregation of men and women.
Most international financiers know him as a man with an eye for a bargain - recall the reaction when he sold down his stake in NewsCorp - whose holdings in
Citigroup and
Twitter are closely watched, yet who is also prepared to sink billions into an apparent trophy folly in the kilometre-tall Kingdom Tower, the soon-to-be world's tallest building that is taking shape (somewhat unnecessarily, one might argue) in Jeddah. | {
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House wants Senate to accept stronger protections for insurance regulations
House Democrats want the Senate to accept stronger protections for state insurance regulations under the Wall Street overhaul bill.
The 2,000-page regulatory bill, now in a conference between House and Senate lawmakers, sets up a new federal office in the Treasury Department to monitor the industry and have a say on international insurance matters.
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The Senate bill, which is the basis for the negotiations, provides broader powers than the bill approved by the House for the federal office to negotiate international insurance matters and override state rules.
House Democrats on Tuesday will seek to change the bill so it provides stronger judicial review procedures and a narrower scope of the type of international agreements that can be pre-empted. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) asked Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) to speak on Tuesday on behalf of the House version.
House and Senate lawmakers are looking to reconcile differences between the bills before the July 4 recess. Few senators have publicly voiced their positions on the insurance issue, which has received little attention during the regulatory debate. It is unclear if senators are willing to sign off on the House changes.
“He would be supportive of further efforts to limit federal pre-emption,” said David Carle, Leahy’s spokesman. “He’s long supported states’ ability to enact consumer protections that exceed federal standards.”
The issue has split the insurance industry along traditional lines.
Insurers that support a strong federal voice on the industry argue the Senate version would give the U.S. needed power to oversee an increasingly global industry. Nine large insurance trade associations — including the American Insurance Association, American Council of Life Insurers and Reinsurance Association of America — wrote to lawmakers last week to support the Senate language.
Other large insurers favor the existing state-based system of regulations and support the House’s version. They are joined by consumer advocacy groups including Consumer Watchdog, U.S. Public Interest Research Group and Public Citizen.
“These provisions would newly empower Treasury to weaken existing state insurance regulation in the name of expanding access for foreign insurance firms to the U.S. market,” the consumer groups wrote last week of the Senate bill. | {
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} |
Micah Dubinko wrote:
> RelaxNG language definition: (in general) please use compact syntax.
> (this is, after all, primarily human-readable information here)
That's by and large a matter of taste. I don't find RNC particularly
easy to read, though it is more readable than DTD. But part of the
reason we picked RNG was so that people could convert it to RNC if they
wanted to.
> 2.2. The definition Element - asks for comment on "semantics". I
> believe the proper expression is "The definition element defines a
> presentation and behavior binding. It does not affect the intent
> expressed by an element."
That seems to keep coming back to haunt us :) Your wording might do the
trick, though I'm not sure I've seen elements expressing intent. Maybe
I'm just not listening.
> 2.3. The template Element, and 2.4 The content Element - The RelaxNG
> language definition here doesn't seem to indicate any content
> (wildcard) at all.
So far I've pulled all the wildcards (same thing in the SVG RNG) and was
considering NRL as a better way to express this. Comments welcome.
> 2.7. The id attribute of XBL elements - how does this provide
> 'id-ness'? Is xml:id a possibility here?
Word is that xml:id will be ready very soon. I would indeed certainly
recommend that sXBL use xml:id to know about IDs rather than ask people
to rely on DTDs or on Attr.setId.
--
Robin Berjon | {
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Tadlow Music Catalogue
CD | Price: £ 14.95 | TADLOW004
World Premiere Recording Composed by MIKLOS ROZSA from the Billy Wilder Film of 1970 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra Conducted by Nic Raine Solo Violin: Lucie Svehlova Produced by James Fitzpatrick Special Limited … More →
CD | Price: £ 10.95 | TADCLASS 022
TADLOW MUSIC Presents BLESSING THE STUNNING DEBUT ALBUM From the Exciting New Young British Soprano CHRISTINA JOHNSTON From the New Classical Label (Tadlow Classics logo) In Prague Christina is known as the Nightingale because of the purity of her coloratura … More →
2CD | Price: £ 19.95 | TADLOW 026
TADLOW MUSIC Presents THE CLASSIC FILM MUSIC EVENT OF THE DECADE! The World Premiere Digital Recording of the Complete Score to BEN-HUR Composed by MIKLÓS RÓZSA A Special Collector’s Edition 2-CD Set featuring one of the greatest film scores of … More →
2CD | Price: £ 15.95 | QUARTET RECORDS QR 285
QUARTET RECORDS PARAMOUNT PICTURES & TADLOW MUSIC Present The World Premiere Release of the Complete Score to LADY JANE Composed by STEPHEN OLIVER A Special Collectors Edition 2 CD Set featuring one of the finest British Film Scores composed by … More →
2CD | Price: £ 21.95 | PROMETHEUS XPD 180
PROMETHEUS RECORDS & TADLOW MUSIC Present The World Premiere Recording of the Complete Score to DUEL IN THE SUN Composed by DIMTRI TIOMKIN A Special Collectors Edition 2 CD Set featuring one of the greatest film scores from the Composer … More →
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TADLOW MUSIC Presents CECIL B. DeMILLE AMERICAN EPIC Composed and Conducted by ELMER BERNSTEIN A Special Collectors Limited Edition of 1000 featuring the last score by another legendary American Epic, Elmer Bernstein – composer of THE TEN COMMANDMENTS * THE … More →
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TADLOW MUSIC Presents THRILLER Composed by JERRY GOLDSMITH A Special Collectors Edition featuring early cult TV scores from the Composer of THE OMEN * THE WIND AND THE LION* CHINATOWN * STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE * GREMLINS * FIRST … More →
2CD set | Price: £ 21.95 | XPCD179
PROMETHEUS RECORDS & TADLOW MUSIC Present The World Premiere Recording of the Complete Score to THE THIEF OF BAGDAD Composed by MIKLÓS RÓZSA A Special Collectors Edition 2 CD Set featuring one of the greatest film scores from the Composer … More →
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TADLOW MUSIC Presents The 50th Anniversary Recording of the Complete Score to IS PARIS BURNING? Composed by MAURICE JARRE A Special Collectors 2CD Edition featuring undoubtably one of the greatest film scores from the Composer of LAWRENCE OF ARABIA * … More →
2 CD Set | Price: £ 17.95 | TADLOW 020
TADLOW MUSIC Presents The 50th Anniversary Recording of the Complete Score to THE BLUE MAX Composed by JERRY GOLDSMITH A Special 2CD Collectors Edition featuring undoubtably one of the Greatest Film Scores from the Composer of THE OMEN * THE … More →
2 CD Set | Price: £ 11.95 | TADLOW 021
ONE OF THE FILM MUSIC EVENTS OF THE YEAR TADLOW MUSIC Presents EPIC HOLLYWOOD The Film Music of MIKLOS ROZSA A Specially-Priced 2 CD Collectors Edition of the Concert Celebrating the Music of One of the Greatest Composers of the … More →
2CD | Price: £ 19.95 | XPD 178
PROMETHEUS RECORDS & TADLOW MUSIC Present The World Premiere Recording of the Complete Score to SODOM AND GOMORRAH Composed by MIKLÓS RÓZSA A Special Collectors Edition 2 CD Set featuring one of the greatest film scores from the Composer of BEN-HUR * … More →
2 CD Set | Price: £ 16.95 | TADLOW 019
TADLOW MUSIC Presents New Recording of the Complete Score to OBSESSION Composed by BERNARD HERRMANN A Special 2-DISC Edition featuring one of the greatest film scores from the Composer of PSYCHO * NORTH BY NORTHWEST * VERTIGO * CITIZEN KANE … More →
CD | Price: £ 15.95 | XPD 177
The World Premiere Recording of the Complete Score to THE BETSY Composed by JOHN BARRY A Special Collectors Edition featuring one of the finest Film Scores from the Composer of OUT OF AFRICA * THE LION IN WINTER * MARY … More →
CD | Price: £ 15.95 | XPCD 176
The World Premiere Recording of the Complete Score to MISTER MOSES Composed by JOHN BARRY A Special Collectors Edition featuring a fine score from the Composer of OUT OF AFRICA * THE LION IN WINTER * MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS … More →
CD | Price: £ 17.95 | EMP 002
EUROPA MUSIC PRODUCTIONS & TADLOW MUSIC Present The World Premiere Recording of MASTERS OF LIGHT : THE LAST CRUSADE Composed by JEAN-PHILIPPE VANBESELAERE A Marvellous New Symphonic Work that plays “Just like an epic film score in search of an … More →
2CD | Price: £ 19.95 | PROMETHEUS XPD 175
PROMETHEUS RECORDS & TADLOW MUSIC Present The World Premiere Recording of the Complete Score to QB VII Composed by JERRY GOLDSMITH A Special Collectors Edition featuring one of the Greatest Film Scores from the Composer of THE OMEN * THE … More →
CD | Price: £ 16.95 | XPD173
PROMETHEUS RECORDS & TADLOW MUSIC Present The World Premiere Recording of the Complete Score to THE SALAMANDER Composed by JERRY GOLDSMITH A Special Edition featuring one of the Greatest Film Scores from the Composer of THE OMEN * THE BLUE … More →
CD | Price: £ 16.95 | XPD 173
PROMETHEUS RECORDS & TADLOW MUSIC Present The World Premiere Recording of the Complete Score to HOUR OF THE GUN Composed by JERRY GOLDSMITH A Special Collectors Edition featuring one of the greatest film scores from the Composer of THE OMEN … More →
2 CD Set | Price: £ 19.95 | XPD 172
PROMETHEUS RECORDS & TADLOW MUSIC Present The World Premiere Recording of the Complete Score to QUO VADIS Composed byMIKLÓS RÓZSA A Special Collectors Edition 2 CD Set featuring one of the greatest film scores from the Composer of BEN-HUR * … More →
CD | Price: £ 4.95 | TADLOW018
New orchestral film score composed and conducted by NIC RAINE for the German thriller WIR WOLLTEN AUFS MEER (Shores of Hope) Performed by the award-winning The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra TADLOW MUSIC PRESENTS ORIGINAL FILM SOUNDTRACK WIR WOLLTEN AUFS … More →
2CD | Price: £ 16.95 | TADLOW017
RELEASE DATE: JULY 2nd 2012 New recordings featuring some of the finest music by MAURICE JARRE, composer of LAWRENCE OF ARABIA and DOCTOR ZHIVAGO. A 2 CD collection of both rare and popular Film Music by Maurice Jarre, plus the … More →
CD | Price: £ 5.99 | TADLOW016
A Specially Priced 70 minute CD featuring some of the finest award-wiining recordings and performances made with The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra over the last few years. The Music of MIKLOS ROZSA * MAURICE JARRE * FRANZ WAXMAN * … More →
CD | Price: £ 9.99 | INS500
Lesley releases her new and finest album on the 23rd April. In the folk- inspired, classical tradition of Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst and Benjamin Britten, Lesley returns to her north country, folk music roots to record an inspired collection of British … More →
2 CD Set | Price: £ 19.95 | XPCD 171
A Special 2CD Edition featuring the fine film score from BASIL POLEDOURIS Composer of ROBOCOP | THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER | RED DAWN | BIG WEDNESDAY | FAREWELL TO THE KING | STARSHIP TROOPERS And FREE WILLY Recording Produced … More →
2 CD Set | Price: £ 19.95 | XPCD170
ONE OF THE FILM MUSIC EVENTS OF THE YEAR PROMETHEUS RECORDS Presents The World Premiere Recording of the Complete Score to THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE Composed by DIMTRI TIOMKIN A Special 2CD Edition featuring One of the finest … More →
CD | Price: £ 8.95 | TADLOW015
Classical & Film Music Violin Romances A CD of beautiful music for Violin and Orchestra from the Virtuoso Concert Master of the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra Mid Price CD Set Over 75 Minutes of Music Recorded in Stunning and … More →
2 CD Set | Price: £ 16.95 | TADLOW013
ONE OF THE FILM MUSIC EVENTS OF THE YEAR The World Premiere Recording of the Complete Score to TARAS BULBA Composed by FRANZ WAXMAN A Special 2CD Collector‘s Edition 2 Set featuring the finest film score from FRANZ WAXMAN : … More →
CD | Price: £ 13.95 | TADLOW014
A Special Collector‘s Edition featuring the World Premiere Recording of VILLA RIDES! – one of finest film score from MAURICE JARRE: Composer of WITNESS, DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, RYAN’S DAUGHTER, A PASSAGE TO INDIA and GHOST World Premiere Recording of the complete … More →
2 CD Set | Price: £ 19.95 |
A Special 2CD Edition featuring the finest film score from BASIL POLEDOURIS Composer of ROBOCOP | THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER | RED DAWN | BIG WEDNESDAY | FAREWELL TO THE KING | STARSHIP TROOPERS And FREE WILLY Recording Produced … More → | {
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The New England Patriots have placed DL Mike Wright (concussion) on Injured Reserve, ending his 2011 season. In a corresponding move, the team re-signed free-agent CB Phillip Adams. Terms of the contract were not disclosed. | {
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Tenorshare Data Recovery WinPE
Tenorshare Data Recovery WinPE can create an emergency boot disk and recover your lost files when your Windows has booting issues like crashes, keeping rebooting, freezes, even it won't start up at all. It can be used as a LiveCD to boot up inaccessible Windows when your operating system is damaged, corrupted or crashed.
More about Tenorshare Data Recovery WinPE
Discover the features of Tenorshare Data Recovery WinPE v8.0.0.1 with 32.98 MB installer on your PC. Tenorshare Software designed the full edition of this shareware product for $39.95 but you can download its trial version. This program is related to Backup & Recovery in the System Utilities category. Versions 8.0 and 4.0 of the software are the most installed ones that work under Windows XP/7/8/8.1/10. Data Recovery WinPE.exe and tenorsharedatarecovery.exe are among the most popular installers that people use to get this tool. The antivirus system of our website marked the direct download link as safe to use. | {
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Using 'Minutiae' to Match Fingerprints Can Be Accurate
Mar 17, 2006
A study by the National Institute of Standards and Technology shows that computerized systems that match fingerprints using interoperable minutiae templates—mathematical representations of a fingerprint image—can be highly accurate as an alternative to the full fingerprint image.
NIST conducted the study, called the Minutiae Interoperability Exchange Test (MINEX), to determine whether fingerprint system vendors could successfully use a recently approved standard for minutiae data rather than images of actual prints as the medium for exchanging data between different fingerprint matching systems.
Minutiae templates are a fraction of the size of fingerprint images, require less storage memory and can be transmitted electronically faster than images. However, the techniques used by vendors to convert fingerprint images to minutiae are generally proprietary and their systems do not work with each other.
For many years, law enforcement agencies have used automated fingerprint matching devices. Increasingly, smart cards—which include biometric information such as fingerprints—are being used to improve security at borders and at federal facilities. The increased use and the desire to limit storage space needed on these cards is driving the use of minutiae rather than full images.
Fourteen fingerprint vendors from around the world participated in MINEX. Performance depended largely on how many fingerprints from an individual were being matched. Systems using two index fingers were accurate more than 98 percent of the time. For single-index finger matching, the systems produced more accurate results with images than with standard minutia templates. However, systems using images and two fingers had the highest rates of accuracy, 99.8 percent. Results of the test are available at fingerprint.nist.gov/minex04/.
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‘Bones’ – Dr. Gordon Wyatt, Psychologist/Chef Returns February 28
In the final season of Bones, many characters from the past are resurfacing. And Dr. Gordon Wyatt, the psychologist/chef, is no exception. According to imdb, in the Season 12, ninth episode (scheduled for February 28), Booth (David Boreanaz) will have an informal dinner/therapy session with Wyatt to discuss his marriage with Brennan (Emily Deschanel). Last time we saw Wyatt was in 2009, when Booth was still suffering some lingering effects from his brain surgery.
Dr. Gordon Wyatt is portrayed by Stephen Fry. Americans recognize him from his roles on The Great Indoors (Roland), 24: Live Another Day (Prime Minister Alastair Davies), and as the narrator of the animated series Pocoyo. Fry is also recognized for his roles in the films Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (Mycroft Holmes), Alice in Wonderland with Johnny Depp (Cheshire Cat), and V for Vendetta (Deitrich). He often works with comedic partner Hugh Laurie (star of House), too. Bonesairs Tuesdays at 9pm on FOX.
In the final season of Bones, many characters from the past are resurfacing. And Dr. Gordon Wyatt, the psychologist/chef, is no exception. According to imdb, in the Season 12, ninth episode (scheduled for February 28), Booth (David Boreanaz) will have an informal dinner/therapy session with Wyatt to discuss his marriage with Brennan (Emily Deschanel). Last... | {
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Colony Defense Screens and Trailer
Mana Bomb Games has released four screenshots and a movie from Colony Defense, a space-based 360 degree planetary tower defense strategy game. Your mission is to defend your colonies on 34 different planets from invading aliens called the Suona. All the action takes place on the full surface of a 3D planet, so you need to be constantly on the move to keep your colonies safe. You have 10 unique, upgradable towers you place along multiple paths, and an orbital ion cannon for when you really need to bring the pain. As you progress, the number of alien spawn points increase along with the number of bases you must defend. For each level you complete you can unlock special abilities that are vital to wining the war. Colony Defense introduces a new "spin" on tower defense that has to be tried to be understood. The game is now available for PC and Xbox 360. | {
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Statistical analysis demonstrating that Bleach and Naruto carry the least amount of text and have the biggest pictures of any Shonen Jump manga has lately been the cause of even more mockery of their much put upon fans.
Oricon has released a ranking of the top selling manga of 2011, revealing once again the total dominance of Shonen Jump – over half the top 20 are comprised of Jump titles, and One Piece outsells the better part of the top 10 combined.
American publishing industry figures for the top selling manga franchises help underline the superior taste of American audiences when it comes to manga, and (rather more surprisingly) the fact that US manga fans have apparently forsaken the shonen manga holy trinity…
Top mangaka Ken Akamatsu has stated his misgivings about the reliance of the manga industry on the shonen holy trinity of One Piece, Naruto and Bleach, and what would befall publishers if these series were to conclude. | {
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A
malignancy spreads by invading its neighboring cells, taking over
their internal control processes, and inducing the cells to assume
grotesque shapes and sizes.
This
is an apt metaphor for radical feminism, which seduces intelligent,
caring young women; plies them with warmed-over Marxist slogans; and
turns them into gender crusaders who seemingly have lost all semblance
of reason and compassion.
By
its own admission, radical feminism seeks to curtail or destroy the
most cherished values of democratic free market societies: the traditional
family, limited government, and the culture of life itself.
Even
the notion of truth itself has come under attack by postmodern feminism,
which claims that truth is simply another tool for the patriarchal
subjugation of women. “A set of subjective views has emerged as sacrosanct,
beyond criticism,” Howard Schwartz concludes in The Revolt of the
Primitive. “The result is that a vicious bias has triumphed over fact.”
Left
to itself, feminism will eventually collapse under the weight of own
logical inconsistencies, social intolerance, and reluctance to assure
the continuation of the species. But our generation would still have
to answer to our children and grandchildren who one day will ask,
“Why did you sit by and do nothing?”
Thirty-five
years after bra-burners captivated the nation’s campuses, radical
feminism has become firmly entrenched in our society. In order to
cure a cancer, you have to attack the root of the problem.
The
Sisterhood operates from three strongholds: the academy, the government,
and the mainstream media. And this is where we need to apply the tincture
of truth.
1.
The Academy. Women’s studies programs serve as the base camp for feminists
to recruit a new crop of well-educated women. Noting the factual errors
and myths that pervade women’s studies courses, Christine Stolba issues
a cautionary note that “revolutions often end up devouring their own
children.” [www.iwf.org/pdf/roomononesown.pdf]
The
cure? Students need to file lawsuits demanding that these universities
establish men’s studies programs to serve the dwindling male student
body. After all, Title IX of the Civil Rights Act was intended to
benefit men and women alike.
2.
The Government. Over the past 15 years our elected officials have
enacted a bevy of laws intended to appease their female constituents.
Problem is, many of these laws weaken the nuclear family, violate
men’s civil rights, and make women beholden to government hand-outs.
Case in point: the controversial Violence Against Women Act, which
comes up for its five-year renewal in Congress later this month.
The
treatment of choice: Male voters need to start demanding that their
politicians answer to their concerns and needs. And lawmakers need
to consider whether their chivalrous instincts are unfairly biasing
the laws they enact.
3.
The Media. Our feminized society is seemingly addicted to stories
that serve up a daily diet of victimization and gender grievance.
Recently
I came across this 72-point headline in USA Today: “Abuse Found in
Military Schools.” The article goes on to recite this shocking statistic:
“The report cited 2004 Pentagon data showing 50% of women at all three
academies were harassed, mostly verbally but dozens suffering physical
abuse.” [Read]
But
exactly how did the Pentagon researchers assess abuse and harassment?
Was bruising a female cadet’s feelings considered abusive? Was it
exactly 50% of women, with identical percentages at all three military
academies? What is the title of this report, so the reader can verify
its conclusions? Why wasn’t anyone interviewed to provide balance
to the doubtful claim of rampant harassment?
And
come to think of it, how many male cadets experienced any form of
abuse?
The
answer to these important questions is left to the reader’s imagination.
Bottom line, this article bears all the telltale signs of a journalistic
snow job. [Read] But that didn’t stop the USA Today editors from running
the article on the front page of its August 26 edition.
The
treatment? The public needs to contact editors and tell them we’re
sick and tired of being force-fed with feminist agitprop.
Once
we challenge the feminist cultural hegemony and remind them how many
privileges and advantages the average American woman enjoys, the gender
warriors may come to realize that much of their sense of oppression
is self-inflicted.
Thanks
to the advances of medical science, cancer is now a curable disease.
Still, surgery is always painful, and recovery may be slow. But this
we know for certain: acquiescence to the rad-fems’ ever-escalating
demands is the formula for the continued unraveling of the social
order.
Carey Roberts is an analyst and commentator on
political correctness. His best-known work was an exposé on Marxism and
radical feminism. Mr. Roberts’ work has been cited on the Rush Limbaugh
show.
Besides serving as a regular contributor to NewsWithViews.com,
he has published in The Washington Times, LewRockwell.com, RenewAmerica.us,
ifeminists.net, Men’s News Daily, eco.freedom.org, The Federal Observer,
Opinion Editorials, and The Right Report.
Previously, he served on active duty in the Army,
was a professor of psychology, and was a citizen-lobbyist in the US Congress.
In his spare time he admires Norman Rockwell paintings, collects antiques,
and is an avid soccer fan. He now works as an independent researcher and
consultant. | {
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Raising Their Voices – From Fall 2011 into Winter 2012, four critically acclaimed ASCAP songwriter/artists donated songs to the Tar Sands Action for videos supporting this pivotal environmental cause. These songs are now the MAKE A NOISE EP released by NewSong Recordings (member 1% for the Planet) on June 6th 2012 at the Sustainable Brands Conference in San Diego.
Four more songs were added in time for the February 17 #ForwardOnClimate Rally in DC & September 21 #DrawTheLine actions.
We spoke to Tar Sands Action/350.org videographer and the nine ASCAP song donors to see what their inspiration was and how they felt about bringing voice to the movement.
Steve Liptay, Videoprapher, Tar Sands Action: The grassroots effort to stop Keystone XL, a 1,700-mile tar sands pipeline that would transport one of the planet’s dirtiest fossil fuels from Alberta, Canada to refineries on the Texas coast, has united and ignited the environmental movement. The Tar Sands Action campaign, now part of 350 .org, started when a broad coalition of organizations and environmental leaders came together in August 2011 to lead an historic civil disobedience action at the White House in which over 1,200 people were arrested.
In the months following, as activists across the United States and Canada continued to voice opposition to the pipeline, Keystone became a major political issue for the Obama administration. As public awareness grew so did the campaign to stop the pipeline and after 10,000 people converged to circle the White House on November 6, President Obama decided to delay his decision to approve or reject the project until 2013. By January 2012, however, the administration had officially rejected the permit to build Keystone XL. None-the-less, the Keystone "Zombie Pipeline" continues to rear its ugly face and the fight to stop it is very much alive. Stay tuned at 350.org for new developments.
The songs donated by ASCAP members Katie Herzig, Chris Velan, Todd Henkin and Arthur Alligood allow us to cross-pollinate their powerful music with powerful images in videos that spread the word about Keystone. With so many big battles to come we hope these artists and others continue to share their music with the movement and help us activate and inspire the grassroots on our path to solving the climate crisis. Katie, Chris, Todd and Arthur, thank you so, so much!
KS Rhoads: This song came from a place of frustration and anger about my feelings of powerlessness in society. It amazes me that even in our modern world there is more or less a ruling class that makes and breaks the rules as it so chooses. And in all these invisible ways we get stuck serving that class. The title line is based on the opening line in Rousseau's "The Social Contract" where he says "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains."
David Berkeley: I write a lot about the weather. I like when a song can reveal a landscape and trigger more senses than just sound. Lately the weather has been pretty scary. I live in New Mexico, and water is on my brain every day. I grew up in New Jersey where Sandy's impact is still visible. I got married in Vermont right along the path of the flooding from Irene. I've been blown away (perhaps poor word choice) by some of the recent weather events, be they tornadoes or floods or fires. Whether or not one believes that humans have had a cause in their increased severity and frequency, we can, I think, at least agree that our behavior has made the consequences of severe weather more drastic and damaging.
Hopefully we can change our behavior and reverse some bad trends. If not, then maybe we should feel small and humble on the face of a vast planet, under an enormous and sometimes threatening sky. And if that's the case, we're left to hold on to each other, taking the best care we can of those we love. That’s what "Song for the Road" is about. It’s meant to roll in like a storm. It threatens to wash us away. But in the end, the storm rolls out again, and we're still standing. It’s done some damage, no doubt. But it hasn't destroyed what matters most.
Tom Burris: It is so heartening to see the evidence of a vast community of people across all walks of life who understand the challenges we are facing and who share a sense of the rational path forward. I wrote this song about that moment when, out of overwhelming need, like-mindedness, and the hard work of a (relatively) few, a community rises up, forms like Voltron, and changes things for good.
LISTEN HERE: Find Tom Burris' music on Spotify
"DESPERATE TIMES"
Jim Infantino: I write songs that I think stand a chance of jarring people just enough to get a fresh look at the world around them. Sometimes I try to do this with humor, sometimes, just by telling the plainest truth I know how to tell. I wrote Desperate Times after hanging around a folk festival all weekend realizing I hadn't heard a single song about ordinary folks. Songs have the power to open our hearts and open our minds, or they have the power to distract and insulate us. Having heard so many of the latter and too few of the former, I fell into a songwriter's despair, and wrote it all down. Now it seems the issue is bigger. We have the power of distraction not only from our music, which we can plug into non-stop, but also from our socio-networks and 'smart' phones. I'm no hermit, I do it too. But while we lose ourselves in our media slumberland, our one true home is becoming uninhabitable. It's time we rouse ourselves from our cocoons for at least some of the day, in order to try to change the direction our ship is sailing.
Sandra McCracken: 'Dynamite' explores the themes of desire at the most basic human level. When you run after something, when you really want something, that can be a good and noble thing, or it can be self-centered. And at some point, your desire is going to intersect with somebody else’s, and that’s where relationships come into play. It's about exploring the human story by way of that theme, interwoven with our response to the earth and conservation. I’ve tried to put an appropriate lament in this song, but also a very real, palpable experience of hope.
Katie Herzig: I worry a lot about the state of the environment. About the ways we abuse this planet, and essentially ourselves. Sometimes I feel like I spend more time worrying though than doing something about it. I think a lot of us feel that way. I wrote this song encouraging me/us to look around us and speak out about what we see. I truly believe we all want the best for ourselves, and each other. But it really takes guts to speak out for these things we believe in, to feel the power of our own voices. I'm happy that this song would be a part of something proactive and really important.
Arthur Alligood: My song "Darkness to Light" showed up one morning this past fall. Many times for me songs come out of nowhere, and at first seem to have little to do with my own life experience. It's usually after living with the song for a while that I begin to see my own story there. Being a father of three young daughters, I think a lot about the state of the world and what things will be like when they're my age. "Darkness to Light" is a song of hope, the hope that the wrongs will one day be made right. I think each one of us has a role to play in such a restoration. Love for all creation has to be our starting place.
Chris Velan: As a Canadian artist, I've found myself increasingly unable to recognize myself in the country we've become under our current government, which, in its zeal to develop the tar sands, has willfully squandered Canada's reputation as an environmental leader. So, when the Tar Sands Action sprang up as a grassroots movement in the U.S., I felt a strong need to contribute - especially since it's my country that's causing the damage. I wrote "Not Ours to Lose" with a wishful hope that we might yet wake up from this feverish dream of carbon dependency before it's too late. A song is just a song but I hope it can help in some small way.
Todd Henkin, The Great Unknown: Our song came to life in a classroom full of dancing, vibrant, poetic teenagers. We sang of a belief in human ability that these students rightly feel is limitless. 'Last night I had a dream of new inventions, agree to disagree, what will power it all?' Humanity has never been so inventive and self-destructive. Do we deserve to strive for beauty? What will power it all? A willingness to use our creativity for good and to speak out against what's wrong. Growth and positivity is worth the strain of a raised voice, in song and in protest.
Written and performed with the America SCORES students of FDR Middle School
contact / help
And then I rose to the top of the world
and saw that I was blessed
I saw that it was built on the backs of the poor and the oppressed
I saw this endless spinning
Of ending up back at the beginning
Of headlong races to where we sat
But oh the places we could go if the world was flat
And I was tired and defeated
With nothing turned out as I thought
But if I always do what I've always done then I'll only get what I always got
I saw the masses yawning stolen breaths
That they might breath the next
Tall drinks, queen ants and half mast cigarettes
The same lives the same pain
Lay like embers in the rain
And I saw all things invisible that bind me
Lady luck was smiling but it was at the guy behind me
Green and brown girls of the sea
Take me, but don't ever wake me
You want to be free
You want to be free
You want to be free
Why are you living in Chains?
And I saw my supposed enemy
But I looked exactly like him
I saw the boat was sinking
So I got out and learned how to swim
I saw the sorrow of the centuries
In sulfur smoke from the stacks
I saw bullets being buried in our old man's backs
I saw the poetry of the prophets
And they wallpapered over it, they did
The same words written years ago on the back of my eyelids
I saw tax collectors as national protectors
Tables being turned, books being burned, and bodies washing in from the sea
You want to be free
You want to be free
You want to be free
Why are you living in Chains?
You can change into a bird
With nothing but a word
You want to be free
Why are you living in Chains?
You want to be free
You want to be free
You want to be free
Why are you living in Chains?
Track Name: Jim Infantino - Desperate Times
Let me tell you something
all the kids I know say there's no one
who will deal with the problems that are closing in around them
they turn on the radio, it's some regurgitated pop
or some 30 year old love song that was written for their parents
don't come singing about her hair by the window
or her eyes in the moonlight or her kisses in the morning
I don't need another song about the ocean of your love for a sweater
that you gave to your boyfriend - these
these are desperate times
pay attention look up and read the signs
believe
these are desperate times
all the grown ups say that all the best music
was written 20 years ago in their generation
well we've had another 20 years of devastation on this planet
made real by a nation being lulled into submission
shut up! I don't care about the dress that she wore
when she walked through the forest on the cool summer evening
I've had it up to here with all these feel good ditties
about how life would be much better if we'd ignore all the problems - these
these are desperate times
pay attention look up and read the signs
believe
these are desperate times
all around the world the guns are being cocked
and they're pointed at the others caught staring at our table
well drink up americans because the time is running out
before the picture gets flipped and we're all looking down the barrel - these
these are desperate times
pay attention look up and read the signs
believe
these are desperate times - these
these are desperate times
pay attention look up and read the signs
believe
these are desperate times
Track Name: Katie Herzig - Make A Noise
"Make A Noise"
Words and Music by Katie Herzig
--------------------------------------
Look up
You see the sky on fire
Look out
The water's getting higher, now
Believe, that you can change the world
Your dreams, have been living in a code of silence
So let them out
Find your voice, find your voice
Make a noise
You try, to find the words you want to say
You might, be looking much too far away
To recognize, we’re all disguised
Find your voice, find your voice
Make a noise
Oh, we all were born before the war, but worlds collide
Look at all the people fighting for the same side
We all were born before the war, but worlds collide
You can’t have the peace you’re looking for without a fight
Oh, we all were born before the war, but worlds collide
(You see the sky on fire)
Look at all the people fighting for the same side
(The water's getting higher)
Oh, we all were born before the war, but worlds collide
(You see the sky on fire)
If you see the world you want more, then make it right
(The water's getting higher)
You see the sky on fire
The water's getting higher
[repeat]
Find your voice
Make a noise…
Don't run away run away…
Don't run away
Don't run away run away…
Don't run away
Track Name: Arthur Alligood - Darkness To Light
Darkness to Light
Words and Music by Arthur Alligood
------------------------------------------
I'm waiting for the morning
Waiting in the night
When that sun comes over the mountain
She gonna turn this darkness to light
Now its been a long throw
since we first took to this soil
We found an itch to scratch real quick
and called it war
All this fighting it ain't nothing, but
a symptom of our sickness
and we still ain't found a cure
We keep walking down that same path
that worn out, crooked way
Stepping over all of history's little tracks
Falling it don't come first
pride will push you to the edge
and once you start falling
can you ever go back?
How do we answer our children
when they wonder what went wrong?
Do we scratch our heads and tell them
no one know really knows why?
Do we go back to a garden, a perfect little world
to two lovers who couldn't keep it right?
credits
from One Silver Needle, released 25 April 2012
Track Name: Chris Velan - Not Ours To Lose
Not Ours To Lose
Words and Music by Chris Velan
------------------------------------
We’re all outside your house tonight
We’re wondering where you went
No time for left delusion
The money’s all been spent
And the dinosaurs behind closed doors
Seem to have your ear
But we’re still here
Dark storm clouds are forming
Over the land reason’s end
And we all feel the heat
But still they’re trying to defend
Every hour on phantom power
As if it’s going to last
But it’s going fast
CHORUS
Does your mind know that much
Do your eyes see that far
Do you speak for generations
With the risks being what they are
Can you leave it the ground
Or will you help to light the fuse
This world’s not ours
This world’s not ours
This world is not ours to lose
Which master do you bow to
Whose interest it in
Does money buy the outcome
Is the fix already in
Do you represent a few
Or do you represent us all
It’s your call
Those who reap the benefits
Will die happy and blind
To any harm they cause or
To the mess they left behind
History will wonder
How we knew it all along
We still chose wrong
Does your mind know that much
Do your eyes see that far
Do you speak for generations
With the risks being what they are
Can you leave it the ground
Or will you help to light the fuse
This world’s not ours
This world’s not ours
This world is not ours to lose
BRIDGE
Miles of dirty veins
Pumping dead blood through the planes
Leave us strung out
Like a junkie who is lost
Are we so insane
So selfish to complain
That we have a right to progress
At all cost
Does your mind know that much
Do your eyes see that far
Do you speak for generations
With the risks being what they are
Can you leave it the ground
Or will you help to light the fuse
‘Cause this world’s not ours to lose
Does your mind know that much
Do your eyes see that far
Do you speak for generations
With the risks being what they are
Can you leave it the ground
Or will you help to light the fuse
This world’s not ours
This world’s not ours
This world is not ours to lose
This world’s not ours
This world’s not ours
This world is not ours to lose
Track Name: Todd Henkin - What Will Power It All
What Will Power It All
Written by The Great Unknown and the America SCORES students of FDR Middle School, Boston, MA; ALL lyrics by the kids, arranged by & music by The Great Unknown | {
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Southeast Asian arts
Southeast Asian arts, the literary, performing, and visual arts of Southeast Asia. Although the cultural development of the area was once dominated by Indian influence, a number of cohesive traits predate the Indian influence. Wet-rice (or padi) agriculture, metallurgy, navigation, ancestor cults, and worship associated with mountains were both indigenous and widespread, and certain art forms not derived from India—for example, batik textiles, gamelan orchestras, and the wayang puppet theatre—remain popular.
The term Southeast Asia refers to the huge peninsula of Indochina and the extensive archipelago of what is sometimes called the East Indies. The region can be subdivided into mainland Southeast Asia and insular Southeast Asia. The political units contained in this region are Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines. The Philippines originally was not included, because Philippine history has not followed the general historical pattern of Southeast Asia, but, because of its geographic position and the close affinities of its cultures with the cultures of Southeast Asia, it is now usually regarded as the eastern fringe of Southeast Asia.
A common geographic and climatic pattern prevails over all of Southeast Asia and has resulted in a particular pattern of settlement and cultural development. Mountain people generally have a different culture than that of the valley dwellers.
The cultural setting of Southeast Asian arts
Southeast Asia has been the crossroads of many peoples who have been contending against each other for centuries. The first to come were the Austronesians (Malayo-Polynesians), sometimes described as Proto-Malays and Deutero-Malays. At one time they occupied the eastern half of mainland Southeast Asia, but later they were pushed toward the south and the islands by the Austroasiatics. At present, peoples of Austronesian origin occupy Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. There were three main Austroasiatic groups, the Mon, the Khmer, and the Viet-Muong. The Mon were at one time dominant, but they lost their ethnic identity in the 18th century and became absorbed by the Burmese and the Tai; only a few thousand Mon are now found living near the Myanmar-Thailand border. The Khmer from the 9th century to the 15th built a great empire, but much of its territory was lost to its neighbours so that only the small kingdom of Cambodia remains today. The Viet-Muong now occupy Vietnam. A Tibeto-Burmese tribe, the Pyu, founded an empire of city-kingdoms in the Irrawaddy Valley in the early centuries of the Common Era, but the Pyu disappeared, and the Burmese, taking the leadership, founded their kingdom of Pagan and have occupied Burma (now Myanmar) up to the present day. In the 13th century the Tai-Shan lost their kingdom of Nanchao in Yunnan, China, and entered the Mae Nam Chao Phraya Valley to found kingdoms that gradually evolved into the kingdoms of Siam (Thailand) and Laos.
External influences
In Southeast Asia, winds of change often came as storms. Indian commerce expanded into Southeast Asia in the early centuries of the Common Era and, in spite of its peaceful nature, caused revolutionary changes in the life and culture of the peoples of the region. The Indians would sojourn in the region in small numbers for two or three monsoons only. The success of their commercial venture and the safety of their persons depended entirely on the goodwill of the inhabitants. The Indians brought new ideas and new art traditions. Since these ideas had some affinity with indigenous ideas and art forms, the natives accepted them but were not overwhelmed by an influx of new traditions. The Hindu and Buddhist cultures of the Indians made a tremendous impact and came to form the second layer of culture in Southeast Asia, but the first layer of native ideas and traditions has remained strong to the present day.
Changes often came to Southeast Asia, usually because it possessed a commodity that was in great demand by the rest of the world. The Indians came because they were looking for fresh sources of gold after the Roman imperial source had run dry. In the 15th, 16th, and the 17th centuries, insular Southeast Asia attracted Islamic merchants from India and farther west and later the Portuguese and the Dutch as a rich source of spices. As with the Hindu and Buddhist merchants of the past, the Islamic traders came not as missionaries, though they did spread their religion in the region. The Portuguese came as conquerors and as militant missionaries of their Roman Catholic form of Christianity, and, for those reasons, their cultural traditions were unacceptable to the natives. In the 17th century the Dutch came as conquerors and colonists for whom the attraction was first spices and then coffee, rubber, and petroleum. Since mainland Southeast Asia produced no spices for export, it was less vulnerable to the navies of Portugal and The Netherlands, so the region was not greatly affected by the Muslims, Portuguese, and Dutch. In the 19th century, Britain and France became interested in mainland Southeast Asia as the back door to China and sought to possess it as a colony. By the end of the 19th century, Burma had fallen to Britain, Siam was allowed to retain its independence only with the tacit permission of the two powers, and the rest had fallen to France. When in the mid-20th century the whole of Southeast Asia became free again, European culture and European art forms clearly had made little impact.
Indigenous traditions
The peoples of Southeast Asia were once thought to have shared a lack of inventiveness since prehistoric times and to have been “receptive” rather than “creative” in their contacts with foreign civilizations. Later excavations and discoveries in Myanmar and Thailand, however, inspired some scholars to argue against the accepted theory that civilization moved to Southeast Asia from China in prehistoric times; rather, these scholars contended, the peoples of mainland Southeast Asia were cultivating plants, making pottery, and working in bronze about the same time as the peoples of the ancient Middle East, and therefore civilization spread from mainland Southeast Asia to China and India. Southeast Asians do not have a strong tradition of art theory or literary or dramatic criticism, for they are always more concerned with doing the actual work of producing beautiful things. Because the Southeast Asians, especially in the western half of the mainland, worked on nondurable materials, it is not possible to trace the development and evolution of art forms stage by stage. The region has always been thickly forested, so it was natural that the first material to be used for artistic purposes should have been wood. They retained the wood-carving tradition, begun in ancient times, even when they learned to work with metals and with stone; wood carving flourished long after the great age of stone sculpture and stone architecture, which ended in the 13th century. Proto-Neolithic paintings discovered in a cave near the Salween River in the western Shan state of Myanmar have very close affinity with the later carvings on posts of houses among the Nagas on the western hills of Burma. Similarly, cave paintings of a pair of human hands with open palms, one holding the sun and the other holding a human skull, are reflected in the later aesthetic tradition of Southeast Asia: the sun symbol is found as an art motif all over the region, and a suggestion of awe, triumph, and joy at acquiring a human head is found in carvings under the eaves of the Naga houses. The cave painting testifies to the continuity of the magico-religious tradition connected with all the arts of the area.
The art of casting the bronze drums found at Dong Son, near Hanoi, which are similar to the bronze drums used by mountain tribes throughout Southeast Asia, was thought to have come from China, but recent excavations in Thailand proved that the drums and the so-called Dong Son culture itself are native to mainland Southeast Asia. In any case, the continuity of the aesthetic tradition of Southeast Asia can be seen in the bronze drums that were cast by the Karen for centuries until the early years of the 20th century. The mountains of mainland Southeast Asia provided gold, silver, and other metals, and the art of metalworking must have developed quite early. Silver buttons, belts, and ornaments now made and worn by the hill peoples in Southeast Asia have behind them a very ancient tradition of workmanship. The same artistic tradition is found in textile designs.
Music, dance, and song were originally associated with tribal rituals. From the beginning, the main characteristic of Southeast Asian music and dance has been a swift rhythm. The slow and stately dances of the Siamese court were of Indian origin; when they were introduced into Burma in the 16th century, the Burmese quickened the tempo, but, even with that modification, the dances were still called Siamese dances to distinguish them from the native ones. In their oral literature—namely, in folk songs and folktales—the emphasis is on gaiety and humour. Typically, Southeast Asians do not like an unhappy ending.
Fresco of the Preaching Buddha at the Wet-kyi-in, Gu-byauk-gyi, Pagan, c. 1113.J.A. Lavaud, ParisIn all the regions of Southeast Asia, the arts flourished under the patronage of the kings. About the time of the birth of Christ, tribal groups gradually organized themselves, after some years of settled life as rice cultivators, into city-kingdoms, or conglomerations of villages. A king was thus little more than a paramount tribal chieftain. Since the tribes had been accustomed to worshiping local spirits, the kings sought a new spirit that would be worshiped by the whole community. One reason that the gods of Hinduism and Buddhism were so readily acceptable to Southeast Asia was this need for new national gods. The propagation of the new religions was the task of the kings, and consequently the period from the 1st to the 13th century was a great age of temple building all over Southeast Asia. Architecture, sculpture, and painting on the temple walls were the arts that flourished. In the ancient empires of eastern Indochina and the islands, scholars of Sanskrit, the language of the sacred works of Hinduism, became part of the king’s court, producing a local Sanskrit literature of their own. This literary activity was confined to the hereditary nobility and never reached the people, except in stories from the great Hindu epics Mahabharata and Ramayana. Because the Hindu religious writings in Sanskrit were beyond the reach of the common people, Hinduism had to be explained to them by Hindu stories of gods and demons and mighty men. On the other side of the peninsula, in the Pyu-Burmese empire of Prome, which flourished before the 8th century, there was no such development—first, because Hinduism was never widely accepted in Burma and, second, because the more open Burmese society developed neither the institution of a god-king nor that of a hereditary nobility. Although Pali scholars surrounded the king in later Pagan, Pali studies were pursued not at the court but at monasteries throughout the kingdom so that even the humblest villager had some faint contact with Pali teachings. While the courts of the kings in Cambodia and Java remained merely local centres of Sanskrit scholarship, Pagan became a centre of Pali learning for Buddhist monks and scholars even from other lands. As in the case of stories from the Indian epics, stories of the Jatakas (birth stories of the Buddha) were used to explain Buddhism to the common people, who could not read the scriptures written in Pali. Just as scenes from the great epics in carving or in fresco adorned the temples in Cambodia and Java, scenes from the Jatakas adorned the Pagan temples.
Musicians of the Pyu kingdom played before the emperor of China in 801, and the various musical instruments at the performance have their counterparts at the present day, not only in Myanmar but throughout Southeast Asia. At Pagan the people were so fond of music that even the collection of taxes became an occasion to dance and sing, and a royal official, endowing a temple, inscribed a prayer asking that in all his future existences until he reached Nirvana “might he be woken up every morning to the strains of music sweetly played on flute and violin.” In spite of this love for music and dance, no dramatic art seems to have developed in Burma, perhaps because Sanskrit, in which there was a dramatic tradition, was not studied. In contrast, at the courts of Cambodia and Java, the Sanskrit drama, Hindu dances, and native dance traditions combined and produced the court opera ballets. These dramatic elements later reached the common people by way of the shadow play.
The patronage of the king and the religious enthusiasm of the common people could not have produced the great temples without the enormous wealth that suddenly became available in the region following the commercial expansion. With the Khmer and Javanese empires, the wealth was produced by a feudalistic society, and so the temples were built by the riches of the king and his nobles, combined with the compulsory labour of their peasants and slaves, who probably derived some aesthetic pleasure from their work because of their religious fervour. Nonetheless, their monuments, such as Borobudur, in Java, and Angkor Wat, in Cambodia, had an atmosphere of massive, all-conquering power. At Pagan, where wealth was shared by the king, the royal officials, and the common people, the temples and the monasteries were built by all who had enough not only to pay the artisans their wages but also to guarantee their good health, comfort, and safety during the actual construction. The temples were dedicated for use by all monks and lay people as places of worship, meditation, and study, and the kings of Pagan did not build a single tomb for themselves. The Khmer temple of Angkor Wat and the Indonesian temple of Borobudur were tombs in that the ashes of the builders would be enshrined therein; the kings left stone statues representing them as gods for posterity to worship, whereas at Pagan there was only one statue of a king, and it depicted him on his knees with his hands raised in supplication to the Buddha. Consequently, the atmosphere that pervaded the temples of Pagan was one of joy and tranquillity.
This golden age of wealth and splendour in Southeast Asia ended in the 13th century with a sudden violence, when Kublai Khan’s armies destroyed both the Burmese and the Khmer empires and his navy attacked Vietnam and Java. The tiny kingdoms that subsequently sprang up all over Southeast Asia continually fought among themselves; their kings were neither powerful nor rich, and the royal courts became centres of military planning and political intrigue. During the 13th and 14th centuries, in the new Javanese kingdom of Majapahit and the new Burmese kingdom of Ava, vernacular literatures came into being. Again, differences in social structure had aesthetic repercussions. In Majapahit the king was powerful and gave his patronage to the newly arisen literature, confining it to the court. At Ava the vernacular literature bloomed throughout the kingdom, and the king, lacking power and prestige, prevailed upon some established writers to join the court circles and give them glamour.
After Majapahit, a new cultural force—namely, Islam—reached insular Southeast Asia, and over the two layers of indigenous and Hindu–Buddhist cultures was added the third layer of Islam. In mainland Southeast Asia, a new Burmese empire arose over the ruins of the old and continued its task of spreading Buddhism. Hindu tradition reached the Burmese court secondhand in the 18th century as the result of the Burmese conquest of Siam and was one of the factors that contributed to the rise of a Burmese drama. On the other side of the peninsula, Vietnam, reconquered by China, fell more and more under the influence of Chinese culture. After a short period of Islamic bloom, native culture in insular Southeast Asia was subjected to alien rule. In Burma and Siam alone among the states of Southeast Asia, native arts continued to flourish because, after centuries of warfare, they finally emerged as strong kingdoms.
Predominant artistic themes
The Great Departure of Bodhisattva, detail from Episodes from the Life of Buddha, Thai painting on silk panel, 17th–18th century; in the Musée Guimet, Paris. Detail 93 × 93 cm.Ciccione—Rapho/Photo ResearchersThe predominant themes of Southeast Asian arts have been religion and national history. In religion the main interest was not so much in actual doctrine but in the life and personality of the Buddha and the personalities and lives of the Hindu gods. In national history the interest was in the legendary heroes of the past, and this theme appeared only after the great empires had fallen and the memories of their glory and power remained. The Buddha image, which went through various stages of development, remained the favourite motif of sculpture and painting. The depiction of scenes from his previous lives in fresco and relief sculpture also had the purpose of teaching the Buddhist ethics to the people, as the Jatakas emphasized certain moral virtues of the Buddha in his previous lives; it also gave an opportunity to the artist to introduce local colour by using, as background, scenes from his own contemporary time. The depiction of scenes from the Hindu epics also had the same purpose and gave the same opportunity to the artist. Many figures from the Buddhist and Hindu scriptures, such as gods and goddesses, heroes and princesses, hermits and magicians, demons and dragons, flying horses and winged maidens, became fused with similar native figures, and, gradually, folklore plots became merged in the general religious themes.
The naga, a superhuman spirit, was taken from Buddhist and Hindu texts and merged with native counterparts, with the result that different images of the naga appeared in various regions. The Burmese naga was a snake with a crested head. The Mon naga was a crocodile, and the Khmer and Indonesian naga was conceived as a nineheaded snake. The demons of various kinds from all over Southeast Asia became merged under one name of Pali-Sanskrit origin, yakkha or yaksha, but they retained their separate identities in sculpture and paintings of their own different countries. The lion, which was unknown to the monsoon forest but was a figure of Hindu and Buddhist mythology, evolved into a native symbol and art motif. The worship of the snake-dragon as a god of fertility was retained in the Khmer empire; the nineheaded naga became a symbol of security and of royalty, and stone nagas guarded the palaces and temples. Buddhism frowned upon naga worship. In Burmese and Mon sculpture the naga was always shown as a servant of the Buddha, putting his body in coils to make a seat for his master and raising his great hood as an umbrella over his master’s head. According to tradition, the guardian figure of a Mon temple was a two-bodied lion with a man’s head, and the guardian figure of a Burmese temple was the crested lion. The Tai made themselves heirs to both the Khmer and the Mon art traditions relating to the naga, but the guardian figure of their temples was the benevolent demon.
Ancient symbols and animal imagery merged with Indian animals and entered the arts. The Pyu embossed the symbol of the sun on their coins as insignia of their power, and the Burmese transformed it into their favourite bird, the peacock, on the excuse that Buddhist mythology associated the peacock with the sun; the Mons adopted the red sheldrake as their symbol, and in Indonesia the mythical bird called Garuda, the vehicle of Vishnu, became merged with the local eagle. The figures of these birds also became decorative motifs. Animals of the Southeast Asian forests whose figures had adorned dwellings of wood and thatch were stylized and came to adorn palaces and monasteries. Ancient geometrical patterns mixed with new spirals and curves from India, and Indian floral designs merged with those of trees and fruits and flowers copied from the monsoon forests.
The unique aesthetic of the region
The arts of Southeast Asia have no affinity with the arts of other areas, except India. Burma was always an important route to China, but Burmese arts showed very little Chinese influence. The Tai, coming late into Southeast Asia, brought with them some Chinese artistic traditions, but they soon shed them in favour of the Khmer and Mon traditions, and the only indications of their earlier contact with Chinese arts were in the style of their temples, especially the tapering roof, and in their lacquerware. Vietnam was a province of China for 1,000 years, and its arts were Chinese. The Hindu archaeological remains in southern Vietnam belong to the ancient kingdom of Champa, which Vietnam conquered in the 15th century. The Buddhist statues in northern Vietnam were Chinese Buddhist in style. The essential differences in aesthetic aim and style between the arts of East Asia and those of Southeast Asia could be seen in the contrast between the emperors’ tombs of Vietnam and the temple-tombs of Cambodia and Indonesia or the opulent and dignified Buddha images of Vietnam and the ascetic and graceful Buddha images of Cambodia and Burma. Islamic art, with its rejection of animal and human figures and its striving to express the reality behind the false beauty of the mundane world, also has no affinity with Southeast Asian arts. Both Hinduism and Buddhism taught that the sensual world was false and transitory, but this message found no place in the arts of Southeast Asia. The world depicted in Southeast Asian arts was a mixture of realism and fantasy, and the all-pervading atmosphere was a joyous acceptance of life. It has been pointed out that Khmer and Indonesian classical arts were concerned with depicting the life of the gods, but to the Southeast Asian mind the life of the gods was the life of the peoples themselves—joyous, earthy, yet divine. The European theory of “art for art’s sake” found no echo in Southeast Asian arts, nor did the European division into secular and religious arts. The figures tattooed on a Burmese man’s thigh were the same figures that adorned a great temple and decorated a lacquer tray. Unlike the European artist, the Southeast Asian did not need models, for he did not strive to be realistic and correct in every anatomical detail. This intrusion of fantasy and this insistence on the joyousness of human life have made Southeast Asian arts unique.
Literature
General considerations
Regional distinctions
From the point of view of its “classical” literatures, Southeast Asia can be divided into three major regions: (1) the Sanskrit region of Cambodia and Indonesia; (2) the region of Burma where Pali, a dialect related to Sanskrit, was used as a literary and religious language; and (3) the Chinese region of Vietnam.
There are no examples of Chinese literature written in Vietnam while it was under Chinese rule (111 bc–ad 939); there are only scattered examples of Sanskrit inscriptions written in Cambodia and Indonesia; yet most of the literary works produced at the court of Pagan in Burma (flourished c. 1049–1300) have survived because the texts were copied and recopied by monks and students. But in the 14th–15th centuries, vernacular literatures suddenly emerged in Burma and Java, and a “national” literature appeared in Vietnam. The reasons behind the development of each were the same: a feeling of nationalistic pride at the final defeat of Kublai Khan’s invasions, the desire of the people to find solace in literature amidst change and struggles for power, and the lack of wealth and patronage to channel artistic expression into building temples and tombs. In Vietnam and Java literary activity centred on the courts; but in Burma the first writers were the monks and, later, the laymen educated in their monasteries. In the new Burmese kingdom of Ava (flourished after 1364), the Shan kings were proud of their Burmese Buddhist culture, and they appointed the new writers into royal service, with the result that courtiers became writers also. The Tai kings of Laos and Siam led their courts in learning Pali from the Mon, whom they had conquered, and Sanskrit from the Khmer, whom they harassed; nevertheless, seized with national pride and influenced by the Burmese example, they developed their own vernacular literature. But Cambodia itself declined. Although the monks in the Theravada Buddhist (i.e., the Southeast Asian form of Buddhism) monasteries produced a few works in Pali, no vernacular literature emerged until finally Khmer-speaking people (those living in the area comprised approximately of modern Cambodia) were borrowing many words from the Tai.
For its vernacular literatures, Southeast Asia can be divided into (1) Burma; (2) Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia; (3) Vietnam; (4) Malaysia and Indonesia; and (5) the Philippines (which produced a vernacular literature only in the 20th century, after the imposed Spanish and English languages and literatures had made their impact).
Prestige of the writer
During the time of the kings, a Southeast Asian writer enjoyed patronage and a prestigious position in society. He could not, however, make a living by writing as a profession. Manuscripts had to be written by hand, and only in the case of famous works might one or two duplicates be made, again by hand. There was no question of selling the manuscript. A writer could only hope to attract the notice of his king and obtain a monetary reward or a royal office. By the time that printing presses were introduced, in the colonial period in the 19th century, the kings were gone and with them their writers. Colonial rule overwhelmed and destroyed vernacular literary traditions, leaving intact only oral literatures in the forms of folktales and folk songs. Literary criticism, as understood in Western cultures, had never been known, either in the ancient or modern literatures of Southeast Asia. Apart from a few stray writings on versification, therefore, no works of literary criticism or literary history existed until the colonial period. Even then, the interest of European scholars was chiefly confined to archaeology, and only a few made the attempt to study some special type or period of a vernacular literature (for example, vernacular versions of the Ramayana, the great Sanskrit epic of India, or of 14th-century Javanese verse). There is a work in French dealing with Thai literature and a work in Burmese dealing with Burmese literature; but apart from these no study of any Southeast Asian literature as a whole has yet been made. For this neglect, native scholars are much to blame.
Pre-European colonial period
Burma
The Burmese borrowed many words from Pali but not to the extent that the Indonesians, the Khmer, and the Thai borrowed Sanskrit words. The Burmese language was monosyllabic and tonal, and since there was no accent or stress, the feature that distinguished verse from prose was the regular occurrence of rhyme. They modeled their literature not on classic examples from Pali or Sanskrit but on their own traditional folk songs.
The 15th century
In the 15th century, four types of verse existed: (1) pyo (religious verse), which retold stories of Buddha’s birth and teaching and were taken from the Jatakas (a collection of folktales adapted to Buddhist purposes and incorporated into the Pali canon), to which were added imaginative details and a Burmese background; (2) linkar (shorter religious verse), or a devotional poem, characterized by a metaphysical flavour comparable in many ways to that which informs the work of the early 17th-century English poets George Herbert and Robert Herrick; (3) mawgoon (historical verse), half ode, half epic, written in praise of a king or prince and developing out of military marching songs; (4) ayegyin (lullaby), an informative poem usually addressed to a young prince or princess and written in praise of his royal ancestors.
Literature in the 15th century is dominated by three monks: Shin Maha Rahta Thara, who wrote for the court of Ava, and Shin Maha Thila Wuntha and Shin Uttamagyaw, both of whom were of village stock and did not go to court but remained on in their village monasteries. Shin Maha Thila Wuntha, in the closing years of his life, turned to prose and wrote a chronicle history of Buddhism. In this period several courtiers, both men and women, also began to achieve some literary success, and the genre called myittaza (epistle) first evolved, which is a long prose letter written by a monk and addressed to the king to advise him of his duties.
The 16th century
In the 16th century, the Burmese conquered Siam, and their subsequent knowledge of Thai romantic poems gave rise to a new verse form called the yadu (the seasons). They borrowed only the theme, however, and not the form, and they developed it as an emotional poem, passionate, yet with something of the cool intellectual strength of the poems of the English metaphysical poets John Donne and Andrew Marvell. The most famous writers of the yadu were two court poets, Phyu and Nyo; a general of the army called Nawaday; and Natshinnaung, king of Toungoo. The wide popularity of the poems eventually gave rise to a mock-heroic form called yagan (“Kick the yadu”).
Golden age of literature
In the early years of the 18th century, U Kala compiled a history of Burma, written in precise and clear prose; the closing years, which coincided with the establishment of the third Burmese empire, saw a great period of literature. The Thai court, brought as captives to the Burmese capital, introduced to the Burmese poetic romances and their Rama play (based on the Ramayana). Contact with the Thai stimulated the growth of a Burmese court drama and led to the appearance of Burmese court romances in poetic prose. The king’s treasurer, however, made fun of the Thai importations and wrote the Rama Yagan, in which the high romance and courtly elegance of the 4th-century-bcRamayana (“The Life of Rama”) were given a rustic setting, with hilarious results. From the quiet of their monasteries, the monk Awbatha wrote a novel-like rendering of the Ten Long Jatakas and the monk Kyeegan Shingyi wrote homely, pithy, and sometimes even humorous myittaza (“epistles”) from villagers to their relations in the cities.
The defeat suffered by the Burmese in the Anglo-Burmese War of 1824–26—their first defeat since the time of Kublai Khan in the 13th century—introduced a note of melancholy to Burmese literature. During this first half of the 19th century, many of the new melancholy lyrics were set to music. Two great writers were a product of this period: the dramatist U Kyin U and the courtier U Pon Nya, the greatest writer of the time, whose plays, epistles, and songs are full of humour and zest for life.
Until 1824 Thai literature was entirely the province of the king and his court: the king maintained a corps of writers, and it was the custom to attribute authorship of any literary work to the king himself. Thai vernacular literature began with verse, based on Sanskrit models but relying on an elaborate rhyme scheme because the Siamese language was tonal. The two earliest known poems were Yoon Pai (“The Defeat of the Yoons”), an epic-ode having similarities to the Burmese mawgoon genre, and Mahajati (“The Great Jataka”), a poem stressing ethical ideas, similar in form to the Burmese pyo. Both poems, written during the period 1475–85, give ample proof that Thai writers, using Sanskrit, Khmer, and Burmese models, could nonetheless produce a truly Thai work.
All literary activity ceased in the 16th century because of the unsettled conditions that prevailed before and after the annexation of the country by the Burmese. Independence was regained toward the close of the century, and under King Narai (1657–88), at his court in Ayutthaya, Siamese literature achieved its first golden age. Narai was himself a great poet, and during his reign new verse forms were evolved. He wrote poetic romances, based on stories from the “Fifty Jatakas,” which were in fact folktales belonging to the region retold in Pali and disguised as Jatakas by an unknown Tai monk. Narai also wrote the final version of the poem of tragic romance, Pra Lo (“Lord Lo”), which had first been composed by an anonymous author in a much earlier reign. Among courtier poets of this time, the most famous were Maharajaguru; Si Prat, a wild young gallant who wrote the romantic poem Aniruddha (the name of the hero of the poem) and some passionate love songs; Khun Devakavi, author of cradle-songs using many Sanskrit and Khmer words but modeled on the Burmese ayegyin; and Si Mahosot, the author of an ode-epic in praise of King Narai. A new genre, the travel poem, also became popular; and the first versions of the plays Rama and Inao (based on Hindu-Khmer-Javanese models) were composed by the king and his corps of writers. Perhaps the only prose work of the period was the History of Ayutthaya by Luang Prasroeth, which was lost and came to light only in the 20th century. It showed some signs of being influenced by U Kala’s History (of Burma).
Siam was conquered by the Burmese in 1767, and a new dynasty was established in a new capital, Bangkok. Some effort was made to revive the country’s culture, largely destroyed following the sack of the old capital of Ayutthaya; and under the poet-king Rama II a second golden age of Thai literature occurred, during which women achieved prominence as poets for the first time. The king, with his writers, composed the final versions of Rama and Inao and also a popular romance, Khun Chang and Khun Pen, based on an incident in Thai history. The most famous poets were Prince Paramanuchit, whose ode-epic Taleng Phai (“The Defeat of the Mon”) testified to his greatness, and Sunthon Phu, the king’s private secretary, who was born of humble parents but made his way in the court by the excellence of his poetry. A strongly religious king, Rama III disbanded the corps of writers and discouraged the performance of plays at his court. Sunthon Phu lost his position but wrote his most famous poem, Phra Aphaimani, away from the court. A long fantasy-romance, this work can be regarded as the end of court domination in literature. Further, a royal official composed a Thai translation in prose (Sam Kok) of the Chinese classic Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The author, Pra Klang, was admittedly a royal official; nevertheless, the work was meant for the people rather than the court. It was followed by a spate of imitations and finally resulted in the development of the historical novel.
Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam
Laotian literature was in many respects a dialect branch of Tai literature, and, as in Thailand, it was the creation of the royal court. A number of popular romantic poems and prose lives of famous monks were composed, but their authors were unknown: all works, in fact, were by custom written anonymously.
The kings of Cambodia, fallen from high estate and often mere vassals of Thailand, could not inspire the rise of a vernacular literature. Only in the monasteries was there any literary activity, and this was written in the Pali language.
In Vietnam, the emperors of the Tran dynasty (13th–14th century) were themselves poets and patronized a new literature—which, nevertheless, was still written in Chinese and was therefore national rather than vernacular. The writings themselves, however, were by no means a mere branch of Chinese literature. The country was afterward conquered once more by China and it was not until it regained independence that, under the patronage of the Le dynasty emperors (15th–16th century), a new age of literature began. Although the Chinese language was still used, some writers were beginning to use the vernacular (employing Chu Nom script, consisting of modified Chinese characters). Nguyen Trai, Emperor Le Thanh Tong, and Nguyen Binh Khiem were the great poets of this period. In 1651 Father Alexandre de Rhodes, a Roman Catholic missionary priest, invented a new romanized script (Quoc-ngu) that became the national script. Literature then began to reach the common people.
Literary works written before the end of the 18th century have not survived; the best known are those written in the 19th century, before the country became a French colony in 1862. Ho Xuan Huong, Nguyen Cong Tru, Chu Manh Trinh, and Tran Ke Xuong were famous court poets. Nguyen Du (1765–1820) wrote moral tales in verse that appealed not only to the court but to the common people. His most famous work was Kim Van Kieu, a poem of 3,253 lines, showing a strong Chinese influence (the plot was taken from a Chinese historical novel, and its ethical basis was both Confucian and Chinese Buddhist). The plays of the period, although written in Vietnamese, followed Chinese dramatic traditions because the Vietnamese theatre was still Chinese in style and practice.
Malaysia and Indonesia together have about 300 different languages and dialects, but they have a single common linguistic ancestor. Before the coming of Islam to the region in the 14th century, Javanese had been the language of culture; afterward, during the Islamic period, Malay became the most important language—and still more so under later Dutch colonial rule so that, logically, it was recognized in 1949 as the official Indonesian language by the newly independent Republic of Indonesia.
During the period of Indian cultural influence, Sanskrit flourished in the great empires that included both the Malay Peninsula and the islands of present-day Indonesia. In the 11th century, at the court of Emperor Airlangga, a national literature (as distinct from a vernacular literature) emerged. It was written in courtly Javanese mixed with Sanskrit words, and it used Sanskrit metres and poetic style. In the 14th century in Majapahit (the new Javanese empire that had been established after the final defeat of Kublai Khan’s forces) a vernacular literature based on the speech of the common people came into being. The most important work of this new literature was Nagarakertagama (1365), a long poem in praise of the king (though it was not a product of the court) that also contained descriptions of the life of the Javanese people at the time. Although it employed a number of Sanskrit words, the style and metre were Javanese, not Sanskrit.
The Indian Hindu epics had already been popularized in the Malay Peninsula and in the islands of Indonesia (by way of the shadow-puppet play), and in this period fresh versions began to be written in the new Javanese. Romances, called hikayat, both in verse and in prose, also appeared—having as their source native myth and legend. Soon Malay, Balinese, Sundanese, and Madurese vernacular literatures emerged, all dealing with the same themes.
The coming of Islam coincided with the rise of Malacca and the decay of Majapahit; but the popular fantasy-romances were able to survive by adopting a Muslim, instead of a Hindu, guise. New romances, telling the stories of heroes known to Islam, such as Alexander the Great, Amīr Hamzah, and Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥanafiah, were added to their number, and translations of Persian Muslim stories and of works on Muslim law, ethics, and mysticism further enriched Malay literature.
The finest work of all in the Malay language was the Malay Annals, written in about the 15th century. It gave a romanticized account of the history of the kingdom of Malacca and a vivid picture of life in the kingdom. Although a court record that begins with ancestral myths, it goes on to describe latter-day events of the kingdom with realism and humour.
In the Malay Peninsula, the coming of colonial rule did not at once overwhelm the existing native literature. As at the courts of the sultans of the British federated Malay states, the old traditions continued for some time. In Indonesia, however, a complete break was made with the cultural tradition.
European colonial and modern periods
The entire region of Southeast Asia, with the single exception of Thailand, fell under colonial rule, and Thailand itself survived more as a buffer state than as a truly independent kingdom. At the courts of the kings of Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam, which fell under French suzerainty, and in the palaces of the sultans of the British Malay states, vernacular literatures managed to survive for a time; but since these literatures had long ago ceased to develop—as a result of harassment by the Thai in the case of Laos and Cambodia, by the Portuguese in the case of Malaya, and by the French in the case of Vietnam—they soon became moribund. In all of Southeast Asia, except Burma and Thailand, the vernacular languages themselves lost their status, as the languages of the colonial rulers became the languages of administration and of a new elite. A revival of interest in the native languages and literatures occurred only toward the close of the colonial period, as a consequence of national movements for freedom.
In Burma, unlike India and other parts of the British Empire, English did not fully replace Burmese as the language of administration. In the almost classless Burmese society the language of the court and of literature was also the language of the people, which prompted the British government to retain Burmese as a second official language and to make both languages compulsory for study in schools and colleges. As a result, no English-speaking elite emerged, English literature did not dazzle native scholars, and, although its growth was retarded, Burmese literature did not disappear. With the intensification of the movement for freedom, about 1920, political tracts, novels, short stories, and poems reflected a political bias against colonial rule. In 1930, at the University of Rangoon, a group of young writers developed a new style of Burmese prose and poetry, a style little influenced by Western literature. In the post-independence period, novels and poems became centred on biographical and historical writings.
Thailand
Administrative and educational reforms introduced by King Mongkut (1851–68) as an answer to the threat of colonial conquest created a liberal atmosphere and a new reading public, and soon many of the old courtly writings were popularized in the form of romantic prose fiction. About 1914, King Vajiravudh, a graduate of Cambridge University, attempted to win back for the palace the leadership in literature; although he produced some fine adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays, they made no impact on the people, with whom romantic fiction remained popular. Because of increased contact with the West, after World War II novels and short stories based on Western models began to rival the earlier prose romances.
Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam
Because of France’s restrictive colonial educational policy, French language and literature never reached the common people. Moreover, the French-speaking elite, engrossed in French literature, neglected the native literature. With the growing vehemence of the freedom movement in the 1930s, however, there developed in Vietnam a new school of vernacular poetry that was less traditional and more nationalistic. But in the turbulent years that followed, the poets, including Ho Chi Minh himself, became occupied more with war than with literature.
Malaysia and Indonesia
The first Malaysian newspaper in the vernacular language, which appeared in 1876, introduced a new style of prose, less literary and nearer to spoken Malay. Becoming immensely popular, the new style was further developed by other newspapers. (Although the early innovators were influenced by the English language, their followers were influenced by Arabic.) Around 1920 this new “Malaysian Malay” finally replaced the old literary Malay. The Translation Bureau, established by the British government in 1926, translated a great number of English books into the new Malay. In Indonesia, also, the old cultural language, literary Javanese, ceased to be used; by the end of the 19th century young Indonesians, overwhelmed by Dutch literature, started to write in Dutch. For example, a young girl, Raden Adjeng Kartini, wrote in Dutch a remarkable series of letters, containing criticism of Indonesian society, that were later collected and published; and a group of young men wrote poems in Dutch, although with an Indonesian background. By roughly 1920, however, the Dutch government itself had decided for political reasons to discourage further development of a national literature in Dutch, and the nationalist leaders had become eager for a new literature in the native language. This common aim bore fruit in 1933, when a literary journal under the editorship of Takdir Alisjahbana appeared, containing poems and essays written by various authors in the new Malay, which they now called Indonesian. The editor himself later wrote in Indonesian a number of popular novels containing social criticism, which were imitated by other writers. During the Japanese occupation of Indonesia and Malaya, this new Indonesian literature became popular also in Malaya. The adoption of Bahasa Malay (Indonesian) as the official language of Indonesia in 1949 gave further impetus to the development of the vernacular literature in both countries. The new tradition developed after independence, and its outstanding writers in Indonesia were, in poetry, Chairil Anwar and Sitor Situmorang. Important novelists include Pramoedya Ananta Toer and Takdir Alisjahbana.
The Philippines
Philippine literature had its beginnings in great epics that were handed down orally from generation to generation and sung on festive occasions. When the Philippines became part of the Spanish empire in the 16th century, printing was introduced, and all the early published works in the vernacular (Tagalog) were of Christian religious subjects. Eventually, some individual romantic legends taken from the epics were published, but they had acquired a European flavour. An outstanding work in the early years of the 19th century was an epic romance called Florante at Laura by the first native writer to achieve prominence—Francisco Balagtas—who wrote in Tagalog. In the latter half of the 19th century, an intellectual renaissance coincided with the beginnings of a national movement toward freedom; writers began using Spanish, for their work was part of the nationalist propaganda. The most famous author was José Rizal, who wrote a series of brilliant social novels, beginning with Noli me tangere (“Touch Me Not”). Other prominent writers, all essayists, were Mariano Ponce and Rafael Palma. There were poets also—for example, José Palma, whose poem “Filipinas” was later adopted as the national anthem. After the United States had taken over the Philippines, Spanish was gradually replaced by English, and new writers began to use that language as their medium. But before a new national literature could evolve, World War II took a heavy toll of writers, and those who survived became caught up in the political changes that followed. Many still write in English—the Spanish tradition, too, remains strong—but more and more writers are turning to Tagalog for literary expression.
Music
General characteristics
Society and music
Rural and urban music
Gamelan ensemble, with drum (centre), metallophones (left), and gongs (background), Bali, Indonesia.Courtesy of the Indonesian Tourist BoardA general musical division exists between the urban and rural areas of Southeast Asia. Urban centres comprise the islands of Java and Bali and places in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar, where big ensembles of gong families play for court and state ceremonies. Rural areas include other islands and remote places, where smaller ensembles and solo instruments play a simpler music for village feasts, curing ceremonies, and daily activities. In cities and towns influenced by Hindu epics such as the Ramayana and Mahabharata,shadow and masked plays and dances utilizing music play important communal roles, while in less urbanized areas, in lieu of musical plays, chants and songs in spirit worship and rituals are sung in exclusive surroundings—a ritual procession on the headwaters of Borneo, a drinking ceremony in the jungles of Palawan, a feast in the uplands of Luzon.
In both regions the physical setting is usually the open air—in temple yards and courtyards, under the shade of big trees, in house and public yards, fields and clearings. Many musical instruments are made of natural products of a tropical environment, and their sounds are products of this milieu. The music of buzzers, zithers, and harps is thus akin to sounds heard in the tropical vegetation of Southeast Asia. In Bali, for example, special ways of chanting and sounds of the jew’s harp ensemble (genggong) imitate the croaking of frogs and the noise of animals.
Relation to social institutions
Music in Southeast Asia is frequently related to ceremonies connected with religion, the state, community festivals, and family affairs. In Java, important Islamic feasts, such as the birthday of Muhammad or the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, as well as animistic ceremonies marking the harvest and cycles of human life, are celebrated with shadow plays (wayang [wajang]). In Bali, the gamelan gong orchestra opens ceremonies and provides most of the music for temple feasts. The gamelan selunding, an ensemble with iron-keyed metallophones (like xylophones but with metal keys), plays ritual music, and the gamelan angklung, so called because it formerly included tube rattles, or angklung, is used to accompany long processions to symbolic baths near the river.
In what is now Peninsular Malaysia the court orchestra, or nobat, was held almost as sacred as the powers of the sultan himself. Among the Bidayuh and Iban in Borneo, ceremonial chants are sung in feasts related to rice planting, harvesting, and honouring the omen bird kenyalang (rhinoceros hornbill) and other spirits.
The relation of music to dance and theatre
In the Thai masked play, or khon, dancers, chorus, soloists, and orchestra are all coordinated. The musicians know the movements of classical dance and coordinate musical phrases with dance patterns, turns, and movements. In the shadow play, or nang sbek, the dancer, who manipulates a leather puppet, must keep his foot movements in time with vocal recitations. During pauses in which the gong ensemble plays an interlude, the dancer must change steps accordingly. In general, when there is solo singing, the instrumental ensemble remains silent or plays only a few instruments in contrast to interludes of acrobatic shows or scenes of fighting, when the full orchestra clangs on all the instruments. In Balinese dancing, body movements, paces, and directions are dependent on drum strokes and signals from a wood block (keprak) and cymbals (cengceng). The dancers generally rehearse with the musicians to know exactly when choreographic changes take place.
As theatre, the stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata have different musical supports, depending on the country. In Bali, Mahabharata shadow plays are presented to the accompaniment of a quartet of metallophones known as gender wayang. In Cambodia, where the preference is for stories of the Ramayana (which is called Ramker in Cambodia), the music is a full gong ensemble similar to the Thai pi phat ensemble, while in Myanmar, a percussion orchestra of drums and gongs in circular frames accompanies singing, dancing, and dialogues in all types of plays.
Musical traditions and practice
The role of the voice in music making differs from that of European music in both concept and execution. Men’s and women’s voices are each not divided into high and low ranges but are used for their colour qualities. In the Javanese shadow play, for example, the narrator (dalang) assumes many singing and speaking qualities to depict different characters and scenes. Arjuna, the chief wayang hero, is represented with a clear voice, speaking in a single tone. Puppets with bigger bodies are given lower, resonant voices. In Thai masked plays there is no desire to produce full open tones, as in Italian bel canto. A vocal tension accounts for shades of “nasal” singing that can be discerned in commercial recordings of Thai, Javanese, Cambodian, and Vietnamese music. In the Javanese orchestra (gamelan) the voice tries to imitate the nasality of the two-stringed fiddle (rebab). In Bali, a particular use of men’s voices is in the kecak, a ritual in which groups seated in concentric circles combine markedly pronounced syllables into pulsing rhythmic phrases. In village settings among the Kalinga of Luzon, in the Philippines, singing, speaking, or whispering of vowels is so subtle as to blur the border line between speech and song. On the Indonesian island of Flores, leader-chorus singing, with the chorus divided into two or more parts, is accompanied by a prolonged note (drone) or by a repeated melodic, rhythmic fragment (ostinato). In Borneo, or Mindanao and Luzon in the Philippines, a man or woman may sing an epic or a love song in a natural voice with little or no attempt to nasalize it. Epic singing, with long or short melodic lines, goes on for several nights, and some of the sounds are mumbled to give words and their meanings a particular shading. Further, a sensuousness in the quality of Islamic singing is achieved through the use of shades of vowel sounds, vocal openings, and a bell-like clarity of tones.
Although gong orchestras consisting of gongs, metallophones, and xylophones bind Southeast Asia into one musical cultural group, the types of ensembles and sounds they form may be classified into four areas. Java and Bali make up one unit because of their predominant use of bronze instruments in orchestras that make one homogeneous sound. Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia form another subdivision, with families of musical instruments producing heterogeneous sounds: the bronze group makes slowly decaying sounds, wooden xylophones play short sounds, and a reed blows a penetrating melody accompanied by a fourth group of cymbals, drums, and another gong. Burmese orchestras differ from the Indonesian and Thai groups by the unique use of a row of tuned drums (sometimes called a drum circle), with sounds consisting of sharp attacks and quick-vanishing waves. The fourth area, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, uses several types of suspended and horizontally laid gongs. These gongs produce various combinations of sounds. In Nias, an island west of Sumatra, one group of three heavy suspended gongs plays three rhythms of homogeneous sounds. Suspended gongs with a wide rim and a high knob (or boss) are played alone, with another gong or with a drum on the Philippine islands of Mindanao and Palawan and the Indonesian island of Kalimantan (Borneo). Gongs laid in a row, called kulintang, are melody instruments accompanied by a percussion group. The most developed melodies are found in Mindanao, and the area of distribution extends to Borneo, Sumatra, and Celebes, in Indonesia. The sets of tuned gongs found throughout Southeast Asia are also called gong chimes, gong kettles, and gongs in a row.
In contrast to the Western diatonic-scale system (based on seven-note scales comprised of whole and half steps) and its association with relatively “fixed” pitches, there prevails a gapped system in Southeast Asia (i.e., scales containing intervals larger than a whole step) with elastic intonation. Examples include the five-tone slendro and the seven-tone pelog of Java and the seven-tone scale of Thailand. In each of these systems the distances between corresponding tones in two different sets of octaves are not exactly the same. For example, one Javanese slendro octave has the following intervals expressed in cents (a unit of pitch measurement; 1,200 cents make 12 semitones or 1 octave): 246, 241, 219, 254, 246; another has 245, 237, 234, 245, 267. In contrast, two tunings of the Western chromatic scale theoretically always have 12 semitones of 100 cents apiece.
Related to tonal systems are modes, which in Southeast Asia use tones of a particular scale system to form melodies. Associated with a given mode are a hierarchy of pitches, the principal and auxiliary tones, endings of melodic phrases (cadential formulas), ornaments, and the vocal line. Modes express emotions and are applied to different times of the day and night and to particular situations in stage plays. They are clearly present, with local variations, in Java, Vietnam, and Myanmar but are less distinct in Bali, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia.
In rural areas a multitude of scales with mixed diatonic and gapped systems and no modes are used.
Musical time is generally divisible in units of two or four in urban music, but it occurs more freely and without a metric pulse in rural areas, especially in singing. Musical improvisation or the use of variations based on a melodic theme is not universal. It is essential to the playing of the rebab and singing in the Javanese gamelan, the tappings on the Burmese circle of drums, and the percussive playing on the kulintang. But, in fast playing in the Balinese gamelan, exact repetitions of patterns are necessary, for there is no time for the performer to think of alternative formulas. Similarly, the separate rhythmic patterns of five instrumental parts do not change in the gong (gangsa) music of the Ibaloi of Luzon. Repetition is the essence of the music.
Historical developments
Origins
The widespread use of bamboo musical instruments in practically all parts of Southeast Asia points to the antiquity of these instruments and, probably, that of the music they play. A historical citation of mouth organs and jew’s harps in the Chinese Shijing (“Classic of Poetry”) shows that these instruments were known in the 8th century bce. Prior to this time, other bamboo musical instruments were probably in use, just as bamboo tools were used in pre-Neolithic times.
The music of pre-Neolithic types of bamboo musical instruments, such as are played in the 21st century, may be just as old as these instruments. One general feature that points to this antiquity is the widespread and frequent use of a very simple musical element: a sustained tone (drone) or repetition of one or several tones (ostinato). Sustained tones appear in the mouth organ, where one or two continuous sounds are held by one or two pipes while a melody is formed by the other pipes. Prolonged tones may also be heard in rows of flutes played by one person in Flores. One flute acts as ostinato and the rest make a melody. In group singing, an underlying held tone is common. Repetition of tones occurs in bamboo instruments (jew’s harps, percussion tubes and half percussion tubes, zithers, clappers, slit drums) as well as in nonbamboo instruments. In the kudjapi, a two-stringed lute, one string is used for the ostinato and the other to pluck the melody. In the log drum, two players play fast rhythms of continuous sounds while another player taps improvised rhythms.
Bronze instruments in gong families of Indonesia, Thailand, and Myanmar employ repeated sounds acting as ostinati. A widespread and preponderant use of dronelike or repeated sounds in Southeast Asia shows that they are probably an ancient fundamental musical element.
Gongs that predominate in Southeast Asia are those with a boss, or central beating knob. The many varieties differ according to their shapes, chemical properties, playing position, number in a series, manner of playing, musical function, and sound. Flat gongs without a central boss are not as widely used. They are found in the hills of Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, in some parts of Indonesia, and in the northern Philippines and may have come to Southeast Asia either through China in the 6th century or from the Middle East.
Musical traditions
The influence of the great traditions of Asia—Indian, Chinese, Islamic, and Khmer (Cambodian)—on native Southeast Asian music varies in different countries. From India come principally two ancient Sanskrit epics—the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. Deep attachment to themes from the Ramayana pervades the whole Southeast Asian region, except the Philippines, where Indian influence was weakest. Musical instruments attributed to India and appearing in 9th-century reliefs at the Buddhist temple of Borobudur and Hindu temple of Prambanan, in Java, are bronze bells, bar zithers, cymbals, conical drums, flutes, shawms, and lutes. They may still be found in several islands of Indonesia. Khmer gong circles, stringed instruments, mouth organs, drums, and oboes still in use in rural Cambodia and Vietnam are depicted in the 12th-century ruins at Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Prehistoric lithophones, or stone chimes, excavated in Vietnam in 1949, may have been the ancestors of kettle gongs. Chinese-type musical instruments (two- and three-stringed fiddles, bells, and drums), the use of the Chinese pentatonic (five-tone) scale, and duple and quadruple time (typical Chinese metres) are used in Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia, Islamic musical instruments—drums, two-stringed fiddles (rebab), and three-stringed lutes—may be heard in Java, while melismatic singing (many notes to one syllable), especially in Islamic rituals, is usual among the Malay groups on Borneo.
There are also musical instruments and elements that have developed locally. The mouth organs of Borneo, Laos, and Cambodia are probable ancestors of the Chinese sheng and the Japanese shō (mouth organs). Jew’s harps, tube zithers, ring flutes, buzzers, xylophones, two-stringed lutes, and various types of gongs with boss (knobbed centre) are some of the most typical instruments of Southeast Asia. A probably ancient manner of measuring flute stops in Mindanao—dividing flute segments into proportional lengths to produce the octave, fifth, and other intervals—recalls a very old Chinese account of cutting bamboo tubes into lengths that would sound these same intervals.
In general, music in Southeast Asia is a tradition taught to each succeeding generation without the use of written notation. From exclusive families of musicians in courts, gamelan music was transmitted to the people. Epic and ritual songs are learned by rote and handed down from older to younger generations. Hence, skill in instrumental music is developed by imitation and practice.
Myanmar
Just as today all types of Burmese plays are accompanied by the traditional Burmese orchestra, the beginnings of Burmese theatre contained a music that, like the theatre, was probably based on ancient religious rituals. Before Indian and Chinese musical influences, the inspirational source of Burmese music and dance was the miracle plays (nibhatkhin), which, in turn, were based on singing, dancing, and entertainment in local folk feasts that date back to antiquity. The worship of spirits (nats) at Chinese festivals was accompanied by women who, through song and dance, communicated with and were possessed by these spirits. Following this practice, professional entertainers taking the place of women danced, sang, and played instruments during the first nibhatkhin. These practices led to the dancing and singing associated with the pwe, a popular play for public and courtly entertainment.
Foreign musical influences came from India, China, and Thailand. Indian elements appear in musical terms, theories about scales, and in some musical instruments—oboe, double-headed drums, cymbals, and the arched harp. Chinese influence appears to be older and is apparent in the use of the pentatonic scale and such musical instruments as table zithers (related to the Chinese qin), a dragon-head lute resembling a Chinese pipa, and two- and three-stringed fiddles. From Thailand and the Khmer civilization of Cambodia probably came both the use of gongs in a circular frame and the dramatization of episodes from the Ramayana. In the traditional orchestra for state ceremonies, for the theatre, and, formerly, for royalty, three simultaneous variations of the same theme are performed by two sets of melodic percussion—a circle of about 21 tuned drums (saing-waing) and a circle of about 21 tuned gongs (kyi waing)—and at least one oboe (hne) or a flute (pulwe). To this is added a playing of a percussion group comprising a double-headed drum (patma), a pair of cymbals (la gwin), and clappers playing a duple or a quadruple metre. In three rhythmic patterns applied by these percussion groups to specific song types, the strong beats are always marked by the clappers.
Melodies played on traditional instruments (saing-waing, harp, pattala or xylophone) are frequently broken by rests and consist of segments of two, three, or four notes that form phrases, usually of 8 or 16 beats. Several phrases make up a number of verses to complete a musical rendition. Melodies, based on modes, are constructed according to the previously discussed elements usually found in the modal music of Southeast Asia. Song types exist in Burmese music and are assigned to specific modes.
The Burmese arched harp (saung gauk) has features that may be traced back to pre-Hittite times and the Egyptian 4th dynasty (c. 2575–c. 2465 bce). Scarcely existent outside of Myanmar, this instrument underwent a renascence in the 20th century. A more popular solo instrument is a wooden xylophone pattala.
Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia
Although their individual political histories differ, the music of Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia is almost identical. The musical instruments and forms of this region spring from the same sources: India, the indigenous Mon-Khmer civilizations, China, and Indonesia. In Thailand, three types of orchestras, called pi phat, kruang sai, and mahori, exist. The pi phat, which plays for court ceremonies and theatrical presentations, uses melodic percussion (gongs in a circle, xylophones, metallophones) and a blown reed. The kruang sai performs in popular village affairs and combines strings (monochords, lutes, and fiddles with two and three strings) and wind instruments (oboes and flutes); while the mahori, as accompaniment of solo and choral singing, mixes strings (floor zithers, three-stringed fiddles, and lutes) and melodic percussion (gongs and xylophones) with the winds (flutes and oboes). All three ensembles are provided with a rhythmic group of drums, cymbals, and a gong to punctuate the melody parts. Some of the above musical instruments and their functions may best be illustrated in the pi phat ensemble below.
A slow-moving theme is played by gongs arranged in a circle (khong wong yai) with variations in smaller gongs (khong wong lek), two wooden xylophones (ranat ek, ranat thum), and two box-shaped metallophones (ranat thong ek, ranat thong thum). The last three pairs of instruments vary the theme by playing twice as fast or by repeating, anticipating, and revolving around it. A double-reed oboe (pi nai) hovers above the melodic percussion, providing the only blown sound in the ensemble. Together with the punctuating gongs and drums, the whole orchestra displays a polyphonic (many-voiced) stratification of instrumental parts, using unisons and octaves mainly in the strong beats.
A melody may be broken down into phrase units consisting of two or four measures that may be joined by four other phrase units to make a phrase block, and a given number of blocks constitutes one musical composition. Three speeds of rendition—slow, medium, fast—in either duple or quadruple time are marked by two alternating strokes in a pair of cymbals; a dampened clap marks a strong beat, and a ringing vibration denotes a weak beat.
The tuning system is made up of seven tempered (approximately equidistant) tones to an octave. But the melodies constructed out of this system use only five tones out of seven—which sound close to a Chinese pentatonic scale. This scale may be constructed in any of seven levels or tones of the Thai tuning system. Further, through a process called metabole, melodies may move from one level to another.
In the Cambodian shadow play (nang sbek) two narrators alternate in chanted recitative to explain the role of the leather puppets. Dancers parading these figures across the screen and simulating their actions are accompanied by an orchestra. A limited number of tunes is played to eight dance positions (walk, flight or military march, combat, meditation, sorrow or pain, promenade, reunion, and metamorphosis). In the play these poses are assumed by princes, princesses, monkeys, demons, peasants, or ascetics.
Among different ethnic groups, such as the Khmer Chung (Saoch), Pwo Karen, Bu Nuer, Kae Lisu, Kuay, and Samre, a rural music related to that of the ancient Khmer peoples is played by aerophones (buffalo horns, mouth organs, vertical flutes), idiophones (flat gongs, gongs with boss, cymbals, jew’s harps), chordophones (bamboo zithers), and membranophones (circle of drums). Other important instruments for solo performance or as accompaniment to songs are the three-stringed crocodile zither (chakhe), a four-stringed lute (grajappi), a plucked monochord with a gourd resonator (phin nam tao), and a bamboo whistle flute (khlui).
Vietnam
Although Vietnamese music belongs to the great Chinese musical tradition, which includes the music of Korea, Mongolia, and Japan, some of its musical elements are indigenous or come from other parts of Southeast Asia, and some derive from Champa, an ancient Hinduized kingdom of Vietnam. Archaeological finds in the village of Dong Son revealed that the ancient Vietnamese used kettle gongs, mouth organs, wooden clappers, and the conch trumpet. From the 10th to the 15th century a joint Indian and Chinese element left its musical imprint. The Chinese seven-stringed zither (qin) and a double-headed drum were played together, or a Champa melody was accompanied by a drum. It was at this time that two traditional Chinese ensembles—Great Music and Little Music—and an elementary Chinese theatrical art were introduced. From the 15th to the 18th century the Chinese influence reached its height. Court music (nha nhac) was played by two orchestras. One, located in the Upper Hall of the court, consisted of a chime of 12 stones, a series of 12 bells, a zither of 25 strings (Chinese se), a zither with 7 strings (Chinese qin), flutes, panpipes, a scraper in the shape of a tiger, a double-headed drum, a mouth organ, and a globular whistle. The second orchestra in the Lower Hall used 16 iron chimes, a harp with 20 strings, a lute with 4 strings (Chinese pipa), a double flute, a double-headed drum, and a mouth organ. Ceremonial music, almost nonexistent in the 20th century, was patterned after court music.
In Buddhist ceremonies, prayers were recited in three ways: as recitation in a low voice, as a cantillation (sung, inflected recitation) following the six tones of the Vietnamese language, and as chant accompanied by an orchestra of two drums, bell, gong, cymbals, and fiddles.
Music as entertainment is mostly a vocal art played without ritual outside the court and still enjoyed by many people. The hat a dao found in the north is the oldest form. It is a woman’s art song with different instrumental accompaniments, dances, a varied repertoire, and a long history of evolution.
From the 19th century to World War II, Vietnamese music reaffirmed its character. Although the playing of court music was restricted, popular music was encouraged, leading to northern and southern styles that were patronized by both the aristocracy and commoners. Western musical influence in this period was manifest in the use of the mandolin, the Spanish guitar, and the violin, as well as by the introduction of European classical music and composition following Western forms. In the later 20th century traditional Vietnamese music began to disappear, but attempts to revive it began in the early 1970s.
Vietnamese rural folk music is built on the same musical principles as court music. The main difference lies in its application to village activities—work, games, courting, marriage, cure for the sick, entertainment, feasts.
Common elements characterize and unify all Vietnamese music. It is based on an oral tradition, with written notation serving only as a reading guide. Melodies are generally built out of a pentatonic system (for example, C, D, F, G, A) to which two auxiliary tones (E, B) may be added to make other pentatonic melodies. A song, usually preceded by a prelude, may be sung in slow, moderate, or fast tempo divisible by two or four, with a simple contrapuntal (countermelody) accompaniment using unisons and octaves at beginning points of phrases. Outside of the first beats, intervals of fifths, fourths, thirds, and even seconds are allowed. An important aspect of melodies is the idea of mode (dieu), the elements of which do not essentially differ from those of Javanese and Burmese music.
Indonesia and Malaysia
Java
Side view of a bonang, one of the instruments that elaborate the main melody in Javanese gamelan music.Wesleyan University Virtual Instrument Museum (www.wesleyan.edu/music/vim)A Javanese philosophical concept based on mysticism, the state of being refined (alus, Indonesian halus), and the inner life as related to Hindu, Islamic, and Indonesian thought may best be represented in music by the Javanese gamelan, an orchestra made up mostly of bronze instruments producing homogeneous blended sounds. The instruments in the ensemble may be divided into three groups of musical function. The first group comprises thick bronze slabs (saron demung, saron barung, saron panerus) on trough resonators playing the theme usually in regular note values without ornamentation. The second group consists of elaborating or panerusan instruments, which add ornaments to the main theme. In this group gongs in double rows (bonang panembang, bonang barung, bonang panerus) play variations with the same ratio of speed as the saron group. In softer sounding music for indoor performance, other panerusan instruments with very mellow sounds come in. These are three sizes of thin bronze slabs with bamboo resonators—gender panembung or slentem, gender barung, and gender panerus. Other elaborating instruments are the wooden xylophone (gambang), the zither (celempung) with 26 strings tuned in pairs, an end-blown flute (suling), and a 2-stringed lute (called a rebab by the Javanese), which leads the orchestra. In loud-sounding music, the soft-sounding instruments are not played, and the drum (kendang) leads the orchestra. The third group provides “colotomic,” or punctuating beats in four rhythmic patterns played separately by four types of heavy, suspended, or horizontally laid gongs.
Side view of a celempung, one of the instruments that elaborate the main melody in Javanese gamelan music.Wesleyan University Virtual Instrument Museum (www.wesleyan.edu/music/vim)Two tuning systems prevail. The slendro tends to have five equidistant but flexible (or varying) pitches in an octave, while the pelog, with seven equally flexible tones, has a more varied structure. One tuning with intervals expressed in cents (140, 143, 275, 127, 116, 204, 222) may roughly be represented by the following notes in a descending scale: C↑, A ♯, G ♯, G↓, F↑, D ♯↓, C ♯↑, and C. (Arrows up are tones slightly higher than Western tempered tuning [in which a semitone is equivalent to 100 cents] and vice versa for arrows down.) Melodies from these tunings are governed by a modal structure (patet) the elements of which are similar to those of Vietnamese and Burmese music.
A suling (flute) atop a kacapi (box zither). The two are typical Sundanese instruments.DiN (Kacapi-suling.jpg: Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0)In West Java the most popular ensembles use a vocal part, a two-stringed fiddle (rebab) or a bamboo flute (suling), and a box zither (kacapi). In the gamelan, submodes (surupan) are formed by the use of vocal tones—sung or played on the suling or rebab—which amplify the number of scales in both the pelog and slendro systems.
In contrast to the introspection of Javanese music, the Balinese gamelan exudes a music of brilliant sounds with syncopations (displaced accents) and sudden changes, as well as gradual increase and decrease in volume and speed and feats of fast, precise playing. The tuning system, musical instruments, and polyphonic stratification are similar to those of the Javanese gamelan, although in Bali the seven-tone pelog is not popular. Most gamelan are tuned to a five- or four-tone system, and the concept of modes is not as clearly developed as in Java. A variety of gamelan exists, each with a special function, instrumentation, repertoire, and tuning system. The gamelan gong orchestra is among the most extensive in its number of instruments. A modern version, gong kebyar, omits the trompong (gongs in a row) and saron (bronze slabs over a trough resonator) and replaces them with gangsa gantung (metallophone with bamboo resonators) and reyong of four gongs to produce exuberant outbursts of sound. The gamelan gambuh, now rare, comprises four end-blown flutes, one rebab, and a group of percussion. The gamelan semar pegulingan, played formerly in royal courts but now almost disappeared, emphasizes the trompong as a solo instrument. The gamelan pelegongan is a virtuoso orchestra that accompanies legong dances, while the gamelan pejogedan is an orchestra of xylophones for dance (joged) and entertainment in the marketplace. The gender wayang is a quartet of slendro tuned metallophones specially employed for shadow plays. The gamelan angklung, a village orchestra assembled during ceremonies, anniversaries, and cremations, originally consisted of rattling tubes that are now replaced by metallophones. The gamelan arja is characterized by a soft timbre (tone colour) and the use of a one-stringed bamboo zither, the guntang, to accompany musical comedy and popular plays.
Other parts of Indonesia
In the islands of Flores, Nias, New Guinea, Celebes, and Borneo, idiophones make up perhaps the most varied collection of musical instruments—gongs of various profiles, slit drums, jew’s harps pulled with a string, clappers, bells, xylophones, percussion sticks, bull-roarers, and stamping tubes. Particularly interesting are idiophones made of bones, shells, skulls, fruits, seeds, planks, pellets, crab claws, clogs, coconut, and shark bones. Membranophones are represented by drums shaped like a cylinder, goblet, vase, round frame, hourglass, cone, cup, barrel, or a tube. Aerophones present an array of vertical and transverse (horizontally played) flutes, panpipes, ring flutes, shawms, clarinets, gourd trumpets, conch shells, ocarinas, and flutes with different mouthpieces. Chordophones include bamboo zithers, spike fiddles (in which the neck skewers the body), one- and two-stringed lutes, musical bows, monochords, guitars, rebabs, bar zithers, and sago zithers. In Flores, part singing with a sustained drone is frequent. Songs in Nias use diatonic (whole and half steps), chromatic (half steps), and gapped melodies largely less than an octave in range. In Borneo descending melodies often make up a tetrachord (four adjacent tones forming the interval of a fourth). In Indonesian New Guinea departures from songs with gapped scales include fanfare, stair descent, and tiled melodies (the last consisting of short phrases repeated at different pitch levels).
Malaysia
At least three principal cultural influences—Indonesian, Hindu, and Islamic—left their musical marks in Malaysia. The Indonesian influence is seen principally in musical forms, participants, and paraphernalia of the Malaysian shadow play (wayang kulit). It is said that the Indian epics and, especially, the Panji tales of Java came to Malaysia via Indonesia, but there are songs in certain plays and musical instruments (e.g., the double-headed drum and oboe) that could have reached Malaysia from India through other routes. Islamic traces are evident in melismatic songs among the Malay groups in songs connected with religious rituals and in choral singing in the mak yong plays. Chinese music, a more recent development, is largely practiced among the Chinese communities, principally in Singapore.
Before Malaysian independence, the nobat, an old royal instrumental ensemble dating back to about the 16th century, played exclusively for important court ceremonies in the palaces of the sultans of Perak, Kedah, Selangor, and Trengganu. Today, in Kedah, the ensemble consists of five instruments: one big goblet drum (negara), two double-headed drums (gendang), one long oboe (nafiri), one small oboe (nafiri), and one gong. The music, which consists of 10 surviving pieces, is broadcast today and performed live.
Three shadow plays exist, principally in the state of Kelantan. The wayang gedek is the Thai form; wayang Jawa, a Malay form, is almost extinct; and the wayang Siam, which is a combination of Thai and Malay influences, is the most popular form of puppet shadow play. The operator of the performance is the narrator (dalang), who manipulates the leather figures, introduces important characters, and describes different scenes with the accompaniment of the orchestra. The music is led by a two-stringed lute (rehab) in the Ramayana, or an oboe (serunai) in the Mahabharata and Panji cycles. The melodic instruments are supported by a percussion group consisting of pairs of goblet-shaped drums (gedombak), cylindrical drums (gendang), barrel drums (geduk), gongs lying on a support (canang), suspended gongs (gong) or, sometimes, a row of gongs played by two or three men, and one pair of cymbals (kesi). The music usually begins with a prelude followed by a list of pieces the sequences of which are dictated by the narrator.
The mak yong, a dance drama that probably dates back more than 1,000 years, was introduced in Kelantan under the patronage of the royal courts. In the 20th century it existed as a folk theatre with an all-female cast. The music that accompanies 12 surviving stories is played by an orchestra of one bowed lute (rebab), two suspended gongs, and a pair of double-headed drums (gendang). A heterophony (simultaneous variation of the same melody) between a solo voice, a chorus, and the rebab creates a music with a Middle Eastern flavour.
A rich musical heritage in the rural sections of Malaysia is shown in musical instruments used by Malay, Thai, Semang, and Senoi groups. Idiophones include shell and coconut rattles, the jew’s harp (mostly pulled by a string, rather than plucked), bull-roarers, bamboo clappers, and the bamboo slit drum. Aerophones include the buffalo horn, wooden and clay whistles, nose flutes, end-blown flutes, and the oboe. Chordophones are two- and three-stringed fiddles with coconut resonators, monochords, and tube zithers. One membranophone is a double-headed cylindrical drum.
In Borneo among the Malay, Kadazan, and Iban groups, the principal instruments are gongs in a row (gulintangan) played with suspended gongs of different types (canang, gong, tawak-tawak). Among the Murut, Kenyah, and Iban the mouth organ with a calabash resonator (sompoton) plays a melody with a drone accompaniment. The jew’s harp (ruding), bamboo zither (tongkungon), nose flute (tuali), hourglass drum (ketubong), and vertical flute (suling) may be heard among different ethnic groups. Iban ceremonial songs are sung in connection with rice festivals and rituals to prevent sickness, while mourning songs make up a rich repertoire of solo and leader–chorus singing. The Kenyah are particularly adept at blending low voices of men singing a melody supported by a drone.
The Philippines
Two musical cultures—Western and Southeast Asian—prevail in the Philippines. Western music is practiced by some 90 percent of the population, while Southeast Asian examples are heard only in mountain and inland regions, among about 10 percent of the people.
The Western tradition dates back to the 17th century, when the first Spanish friars taught plainchant and musical theory and introduced such European musical instruments as the flute, oboe, guitar, and harp. There subsequently arose a new music related to Christian practices but not connected with the liturgy. Processional songs, hymns in honour of the Blessed Virgin, Easter songs, and songs for May (Mary’s month) are still sung in different sections of the country. A secular music tradition also developed. Guitars, string ensembles (rondalla), flute, drum, harps, and brass bands flourished in the provinces among the principal linguistic groups and still appear during town fiestas and important gatherings. Competing bands played overtures of Italian operas, marches, and light music. Young men, like their counterparts throughout the Hispanic world, sang love songs (kundiman) in nightly serenades beneath the windows of their beloved. It was not uncommon in family gatherings for someone to be asked to sing an aria, play the harp, or declaim a poem. Orchestral music accompanied operas and operettas (zarzuelas), while solo recitals and concerts were organized in clubs or music associations. With the advent of formal music instruction in schools, performance and composition rose to professional levels. Beginning in the 20th century, several symphony orchestras, choral groups, ballet companies, and instrumental ensembles performed with varying regularity.
A Southeast Asian musical tradition exists completely apart from the Western tradition. In the north, flat gongs are played in different instrumental combinations (six gongs; two gongs, two drums and a pair of sticks; three gongs). In the ensemble with six gongs, four are treated as “melody” instruments, one as ostinato, and another as a freer layer of improvisation. The melody consists of scattered tones produced by strokes, slaps, and slides of the hands against the flat side of the gong. Other musical instruments in the northern Philippines are bamboo. These are the nose flute (kalleleng), lip-valley or notched flute (paldong), whistle flute (olimong), panpipes (diwdiwas), buzzer (balingbing), half-tube percussion (palangug), stamping tube (tongatong), tube zither (kolitong), and jew’s harp (giwong). Leader–chorus singing among the Ibaloi is smooth and sung freely without a metric beat, while the same form among the Bontoc is emphatic, loud, and metric. Scales in songs and musical instruments use from two to several tones within and beyond an octave and are arranged as gapped, diatonic, and pentatonic varieties.
In the southern Philippines (particularly the Sulu archipelago and the western portion of the island of Mindanao), the more-developed ensemble is the kulintang, which, in its most common form, consists of seven or eight gongs in a row as melody instruments accompanied by three other gong types (a wide-rimmed pair; two narrow-rimmed pairs; one with turned-in rim) and a cylindrical drum. The kulintangscale is made up of flexible tones with combinations of wide and narrow gaps sometimes approaching a Chinese pentatonic variety and oftentimes not. Its melody is built on nuclear tones consisting of two, three, or more tones to form a phrase. Several phrases may be built, repeated, and elongated to complete one rendition lasting two to three minutes. Pieces of music are played continuously for a long period during the night.
In the central west Philippines on the island of Mindoro, love songs are sung that are based on reciting tones with interludes played by a miniature copy of the Western guitar or a small violin with three strings played like a cello.
The performing arts
In variety of dance and theatrical forms and in the number of performing groups, no area in the world except India and Pakistan compares to Southeast Asia. Some form of the performing arts is a normal part of life throughout the several nations. Sophisticated performing groups cluster in and around the present and former court cities—Yogyakarta and Surakarta in Java, Ubud and Gianyar in Bali, Bangkok in Thailand, Mandalay in Myanmar, Siĕmréab near Angkor and Phnom Penh in Cambodia, Hue in Vietnam—where drama, puppetry, dance, and music have been cultivated for 10 centuries or more. Hundreds of commercial theatrical and dance groups perform in such newer centres as Yangon, Saigon, and Jakarta and in scores of provincial cities and towns. Wandering troupes of actors, puppeteers, singers, and dancers travel from village to village in areas adjacent to these population centres. There are few communities in which some form of folk dance is not performed by local people.
In the West, music, dance, and drama are usually separate arts, whereas in all areas of Southeast Asia, drama, dance, mime, music, song, and narrative are integrated into composite forms, often with masks or in the form of puppetry. The spectator’s senses, emotions, and intellect are bombarded simultaneously with colour, movement, and sound. The result is a richness and a vividness in the theatre that is absent in most Western drama, so much of which rests on a literary basis.
More than 100 distinct forms or genres of performing arts can be distinguished in Southeast Asia. These can be grouped, according to which of the various stage arts is emphasized, into (1) masked dance and masked dance-mime, (2) unmasked dance and dance-drama, (3) drama with music and dance, (4) opera, (5) shadow-puppet plays, and (6) doll- or stick-puppet plays.
Diverse traditions in the performing arts
The folk tradition
Dances in the folk tradition are exceptionally numerous and widespread. Some are performed as religious ritual, others, particularly on the Indonesian island of Bali, by highly trained and respected artists, and still another kind as entertainment in which the community participates. Folk theatre is more complex than folk dance and thus less widespread, but it has deep connections with religious ritual. Although the origins of most folk performing arts lie in remote times, later court forms exerted important influence on many of the folk forms. Conversely, folk forms have been a source of inspiration to court artists.
The court tradition
The shadow play and masked and unmasked dance are court arts reflecting centuries of subtle refinement under the patronage of kings and princes. In Southeast Asia the shadow theatre is a major classic art. Leather puppets of mythological figures, the bodies intricately incised to allow light to pass through, are attached to sticks for manipulation. A lacy shadow is created by a flaming lamp as the puppet is pressed against the back of a vertical screen of white cloth. The flickering and insubstantial shadow seen from the other side creates for the understanding viewer a mystic world with deep symbolic meaning. In Java, Bali, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Thailand shadow plays and their techniques have been emulated by human actors and dancers and have been the models for marionette and doll-puppet theatre.
Dance troupes have been a part of court life at least since recorded history began. In the mainland courts of Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, and Burma, concubines of the ruler’s harem who performed female dances were segregated from male performers, giving rise to separate forms of female unmasked dance and male masked dance-mime. Although certain dances traditionally are performed only by men or only by women in Indonesia and Vietnam, mixed casts have a long history, especially in dramatic pieces. Court dance on the mainland and in Indonesia has been influenced by Indian dance style, and Vietnamese dance by the dance styles of Chinese opera, but they have acquired a distinctly Southeast Asian character. Court dance reached its greatest development when applied to mythological and legendary themes, often taken from the shadow theatre. The resulting dance-dramas and masked dance-mimes of Thailand, Cambodia, and Java are world famous for their magnificent scale and elegance of execution. Some of these court arts are no longer performed, and others face increasing difficulty securing financial support, yet they remain important.
The popular and Western traditions
In the popular traditions are those 400 to 500 professional troupes who perform, except in the Philippines, in commercial theatre buildings of major cities for an urban ticket-buying audience. Some forms of popular theatre are directly modeled on court dance-drama, but most are spoken drama in which court-derived music, song, and dance movements have been inserted. Local legend and history provide the subject matter for many of these plays. As in much of Asia, the performer in the popular tradition is seldom accorded status and may be despised as a vagabond.
The spoken drama, the ballet, and the modern dances are known only superficially in Southeast Asia. The sole exception is the Philippines, where amateur performances of Western plays constitute the country’s main theatrical tradition. Southeast Asian audiences generally find Western plays based mainly on dialogue to be uninteresting and deficient in artistic qualities. European and American films and television programs, however, are widely shown and appreciated, and popular Western dances are found in major urban areas. Undoubtedly the impact of these forms on local audiences will continue to increase, possibly to the detriment of the indigenous traditions.
Characteristics of dance
Dramatic and nondramatic forms
In the parts of Southeast Asia influenced by Indian forms—everywhere except for Vietnam and the Philippines—nondramatic and dramatic dance are both known. Nondramatic, or “pure,” dances that do not express emotional states of characters are numerous in both folk and court traditions. Among court dances, the Javanese bedaja is typical. Nine dancers move in unison, without emotional expression, in precisely fixed choreographic patterns designed to demonstrate sheer grace of movement. The maebot, composed as a Thai “alphabet of dance,” is used to train pupils in the basic movements of court dance. Other dances that include character impersonation yet are not explicitly storytelling dances lie between nondramatic and dramatic dance. In the Thai praleng, two performers wearing god masks and holding peacock feathers in both hands perform an offertory dance to the god before the main dance-play begins. The Balinese legong, danced by a pair of preadolescent girls, may have only the most tenuous dramatic content. Its interest lies in the girls’ unison rapid foot movements and fluttering movements of eyes and hands. Dramatic dance is seen at its best in full dance-dramas and in the excerpts from them that are sometimes danced in concert form.
Styles and conventions of movement and costuming
General characteristics of both dramatic and nondramatic dance are (1) slowness of tempo except in battle scenes, (2) controlled and reserved movements rather than expansive ones, (3) little of the leaping typical of Western ballet but, instead, a feeling of closeness to the ground, and (4) extensive use of arm and hand gestures. From Indian dance has come an open and flexed position of the legs, a side-to-side sliding movement of the head and neck, and a rigidly codified vocabulary of hand and finger gestures known as mudras or hastas in India. In most cases the Indian elements have been altered greatly over their 1,000-year period of assimilation. In Thai, Cambodian, and Lao dance, the 24 to 32 Indian mudras have been reduced to 9; in Javanese dance 7 can be recognized, and in Bali only 1 or 2. They have also been altered in their shape, and the many specific meanings attached to each in India have become fewer, while in some cases a gesture has no specific meaning. Such hand gestures as shading the eyes and tying the sash, which appear in Javanese dances, are unknown in India. Foot movements in India typically follow the rhythm of a drum, often with vigorous stamping sounds that are emphasized by bells on the ankles, but such movements are virtually absent in Southeast Asia. The exaggerated eye, eyebrow, cheek, mouth, and chin movements through which the Indian dancer expresses a broad gamut of emotions are nowhere to be seen. Balinese dancers use darting eye movements, but the court dancer’s face is composed into an almost unchanging expression of aloof gentility. Close contact between neighbouring countries has led to the development of two regional Indian-influenced dance styles, one for Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar and one for Indonesia and Malaysia. Characteristics of the former style include the soft pi phat music of bamboo xylophones, drums, gongs, and oboe as accompaniment, bent-back finger positions not seen elsewhere in Asia, similar and often identical movements for male and female roles, courtship dances in which lovers touch each other and move in unison, and, in dance-drama, lengthy pure-dance pieces inserted solely for their beauty. In the latter style, the performance is accompanied by music of the gongs and metal bars of the gamelan orchestra. Scarves draped from the waist or neck are flicked for effect and manipulated to indicate strength or flying, and male and female dance are clearly distinguished by the powerful masculine lunges of the men and the tiny steps of the women, who also dexterously manipulate the train of the skirt with their feet. Visually, the mainland dance sparkles. Costumes of brilliant silk are covered with sequins and even jewels, and golden crowns and sparkling body ornaments glitter with reflected light. The male dancer in Indonesia wears a soft batik skirt of brown and white, the female a black velvet bodice. Arms and shoulders are bare and powdered golden brown, creating a subdued and warm effect.
The main style in Vietnam, apart from folk dance, is dramatic and highly pantomimic, like the movements of Chinese opera. In classical opera, the flowing white sleeves and the pheasant feathers bobbing from the general’s headdress are twirled and flicked by the actor in many conventionalized movements derived from Chinese forms. Battle scenes are choreographed into precise dance patterns, but the acrobatic movements common in Chinese opera are seldom seen.
Characteristics of drama
Thematic origins and materials
Most traditional plays and dramatic dances are derived from mythological and legendary sources. The tribal epics that relate the origin of the Ifugao and the Bicolano peoples in the Philippines and a number of animistic stories in Indonesian shadow theatre are indigenous myths of great age, while the widely used, romantic Pandji cycle from Java and the Thai King Abhai Mani and Khun Chang Khun Phan are more recent local legends. The most important dramatic sources, however, are borrowed from the Indian Ramayana and Mahabharata epics, from the Jataka Buddhist birth stories, from Chinese novels (such as The Romance of the Three Kingdoms) and Chinese operas, and from a host of Islamic stories, including the Thousand and One Nights and the Amīr Ḥamzah tales. These foreign stories are turned into local legends. For example, the Indian Prince Rama becomes a Thai, a Balinese, or a Javanese prince, embodying the heroic traits admired in each of these countries.
Plays are invariably extensive and have many scenes. It is not unusual for a play to present action over several generations, an indication of the value placed on cultural continuity. A recurring theme concerns restoration of harmony on earth by a ruler acting in accord with divine law. A kingdom is restored, a prince unjustly exiled returns to assume his throne, a usurper is punished, or the prosperity of the land is assured by consummating a particularly desirable marriage. As in Western drama, the hero gains his ends through struggle. Because he acts as the human representative on earth of the known cosmic will, however, his actions exhibit a natural sweetness and serenity, even in the midst of violence, that is foreign to Western drama. Meditation is often the means whereby the hero gains the power to achieve his goal. In more recent plays based on local history and on contemporary events, the assumption of cosmic harmony has been muted, and emphasis has shifted to depicting human conflicts—nationalist versus Western colonialist, modern daughter versus conservative parents, for example—that may or may not resolve happily.
Characters
Gods, demigods, kings descended from the gods, and princes and princesses are the heroes and heroines of traditional drama and dance. Powerful religious seers advise them, allies and ministers serve them, crude foreign ogres oppose them, and grotesque, slapstick clown-servants are their attendants. The clowns have been the subject of much speculation. Like the vidushaka clown of Indian Sanskrit drama, they are gluttons, practical and even cynical, and confidants to their masters’ passions and weaknesses. Scholars have theorized that the chief Javanese clown figure, Semar, is derived from an ancient Javanese god who was deposed from his supreme position by the introduction into the drama of the later Hindu gods. In the midst of mythological plays, the clowns comment irreverently on political or social issues of the day, seemingly as spokesmen for the common man in an otherwise aristocratic world. Comic and serious scenes alternate.
Dramatic materials
A written script may be used as the starting point for performance, but usually actors, dancers, musicians, and stage crew improvise from a brief scenario. Specific musical selections are matched to certain kinds of scenes, characters, or actions, and standard movements for entrances and exits are known. Standard descriptive phrases of the kind common in all oral literature are used to introduce the hero and his kingdom, and more than a dozen types of recurring scenes are identifiable. A major interest in playgoing lies in perceiving the skill with which performers rearrange and subtly vary these familiar elements from play to play. Narrative commentary accompanying the dances often interprets a specific action in its broad context, thus helping to universalize the theatrical experience.
Costumes, makeup, and settings
Costume and makeup have great importance in plays and dances. By means of elaborate systems of changing the cut, colour, and ornamentation of costume, the shape of the hairdress, the configuration of the crown, or the facial delineation and colour of masks, at least 300 different dance and dramatic characters can be identified. Doll- and shadow-puppet figures are carved according to similarly elaborate means of identification. Persons familiar with a dance or theatrical form can identify most characters by name or by type. Costumes, masks, and puppets may be works of art highly prized in themselves. Court and folk performances once used no scenery at all. Canvas scenery depicting stock scenes is now used by most popular troupes, but unfortunately it is often as inartistic as it is inexpensive. Only the Thai National Theatre, major troupes performing the popular cai luong drama in Vietnam, and troupes performing in the Western tradition throughout Southeast Asia attempt to design three-dimensional scenery for each play.
Origins and development of the performing arts
Prehistory and links to the present
Knowledge of prehistoric performing arts is necessarily slight. That the performing arts were known and apparently widely practiced by the prehistoric peoples who had settled the mainland and the island archipelagoes is suggested by large bronze drums cast before the Common Era, numerous pre-Hindu tribal myths in remote areas of the Philippines and elsewhere, masked dances of many types still performed by isolated tribes in Kalimantan (Borneo) and in New Guinea, and descriptions of music and dance by Chinese visitors beginning as early as the 1st century ad. Simple dances were almost certainly accompanied by rhythmic percussion sounds and probably by the tuned metal bars or gongs thought to be indigenous to Southeast Asia. Some scholars suggest that tribal ancestors, animistic spirits, and animals were represented, perhaps in shadow form. Whatever their nature, these were folk performances, in part religious rites connected with seasonal festivals and in part joyful entertainment.
A number of existing dances and dramatic forms show prehistoric links. In the trott, a Cambodian deer-hunting dance, masked dancers representing hunter, demon, bull, girls, and deer enact the ritual of a deer hunt to ensure its success in real life. The Dayak of Kalimantan perform a dance to exorcise sickness. The barong dance-drama of Bali is staged by a village in which malicious spiritual forces are believed to have gained dominance over protective ones. By enacting the stand-off battle between the protective Barong lion figure and the destructive Rangda witch figure, the village ritually restores an equilibrium between the contending forces. A local nat, or animistic spirit, of which there are 37 in Myanmar, can be invoked by the dance of a professional “spirit wife,” or natkadaw, through whom the nat communicates with the living. A disputed theory holds that the shadow play began as a ritual in which the spirits of magically powerful tribal ancestors were called to earth, in their natural form as shadows or shades, for advice.
Spreading of styles
Between about ad 100 and 1000, dance and drama in Southeast Asia were profoundly affected by the introduction of dance style and the vast Hindu historical epics of India. First in Cambodia, then in turn in Thailand, Laos, and Burma, the epic Ramayana became the source of dance and shadow plays. In Java the Mahabharata dominated, whereas in Bali and Malaysia both epics were popular. Indian influence, however, can be exaggerated. There is no evidence that Sanskrit play texts or written dramatic treatises such as the Natya-Shastra became known. Strong local performing traditions made it possible to assimilate elements of Indian dance and Hindu stories, and, in subsequent development, Southeast Asian dance and theatre grew ever further away from Indian styles.
Apsaras, heavenly dancing girls, bas-relief from Angkor Wat, Angkor, Cambodia, early 12th century.Josephine Powell, RomeCopper inscriptions from Java identify clowns, actors, musicians, and possibly puppeteers in the 9th century, and epic literature of succeeding centuries contains numerous descriptions of shadow plays that were popular and emotionally gripping. By at least the 4th century, epic recitations were a part of the Brahmanic worship of ancient Cambodia. Carvings of the beautiful apsaras, or heavenly dancing girls, adorning the temples of Angkor attest to the importance of court dance in Cambodia between the 10th and 13th centuries.
Accidents of history often carried the performing arts across national boundaries. It is believed King Jayavarman II took dancers and musicians from Java when he left there in 802 to establish the Khmer dynasty in Cambodia, and shadow puppeteers may have accompanied him as well. Another theory suggests that Cambodia received the shadow play from India by way of Malaysia, through conquest by a Malay prince in 1002. Accidents of war took Khmer dance (and perhaps shadow theatre) first to Laos, when in 1353 a prince who had been raised at Angkor established an independent Lao court at Luang Prabang. Next, it reached the Thai capital at Ayutthaya in 1431, when Angkor fell to invading Thai armies. These returned to their court with the Cambodian court-dance troupe, thereby beginning the traditions of Thai court dance and dance-drama. In 1767 the Thai court was captured, in turn, by the Burmese, who brought to Burma the Thai-modified Khmer dance and created Burmese court drama. By this time, also, Javanese shadow theatre had been taken by colonists to Bali and to Malaysia, from whence it later entered southern Thailand.
When Indonesia was converted to Islam and Chinese influence became strong in the northern tier of mainland states beginning in the 13th and 14th centuries, existing court dance and dramatic forms were scarcely affected. Instead, new Islamic plays were devised in Indonesia and Malaysia for shadow presentation and for the doll-puppet theatre. Islamic influence was very strong in Malaysia, however, and even such pre-Islamic forms as the shadow play absorbed Islamic prayers, characters, and themes. Bali was never converted to Islam, and its performing arts are thought to reflect, even today, an older tradition than is seen in Java.
Chinese performing arts came to dominate Vietnam during the 1,000-year rule of northern Vietnam by the Chinese. Long after the Chinese were expelled, Vietnamese kings patterned their dances and opera on Chinese models. In time, however, local Vietnamese melodies and stories took their place alongside those of Chinese origin; and play scripts, at first filled with Chinese loan words, were rewritten in more colloquial Vietnamese.
Popular theatre and Western rule
From the 19th century onward, the incursion of Western culture brought about a variety of developments. A steady decline in the power of the royal courts precipitated the death of court drama in Burma; the shifting of support for dance and drama from the court to national bureaus of education and culture in Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam; and the movement of the court dance-drama into the popular theatre tradition in Java. In every country, new popular forms of theatre were created. These were based on historical events, on Islamic and Chinese stories (but romances rather than Hindu and Buddhist myths), on national heroes fighting colonial rule, and on stories about contemporary events. It was not Western drama that sparked the burgeoning of popular theatre, though these plays were largely spoken dramas interspersed with music and dances. Rather, it was more of an indirect response to colonial rule, which caused an upsurge of nationalist feelings, and to the rapid growth of cities that created large populations without access to either folk or court theatre yet eager for some form of entertainment.
Diverse national forms and traditions
Although most of the dance and dramatic forms of Southeast Asia are related at least in the distant past, except in Vietnam and the Philippines, they acquired a very distinctive national and local character over the centuries. An examination of a few of these myriad forms will provide a more precise picture of the dense texture of the performing arts in Southeast Asia.
Cambodia
Court performing arts that had flourished during the Angkor period (802–1431) almost ceased in the centuries following the fall of the Khmer dynasty. Whether there was an organized court life or not is uncertain because of the scarcity of records, but in the 18th and 19th centuries performances in Thai form were produced by the Thai rulers of the western provinces of Cambodia. At Phnom Penh a classical ballet troupe was established by the royal family in the 19th century.
Court styles
The chief court forms are nang sbek shadow theatre, lakon female dance and dance-drama, and lakon kawl male masked pantomime. The puppets of nang sbek stand four to five feet in height, have no movable arms, and are manipulated from beneath by two fixed handles or sticks. The standing puppeteer either sways the puppet with his arms or he dances with it. In processional scenes, as many as 10 puppeteers parade completely around the screen, front and back. An entire tableau may be carved on one puppet, including several figures, forest scenery, or palace buildings, as if to bring to life the epic scenes carved in relief on the temples of Angkor Wat. Two narrators alternate a slow chant with dialogue. During dance sections, the large pi phat ensemble, augmented by a large drum, is played. Only plays based on the Ramayana are performed, and major puppet figures represent Rama, his consort Sita, the monkey Hanuman, and Ravana, a 10-headed demon king who kidnaps Sita. Khmer peasant figures have been inserted as rustic clowns in every nang sbek play. Performance has religious significance, the gods being invoked and honoured, and a performance may be arranged to assure rain or to halt an epidemic. It is not certain when and how nang sbek originated, but it seems probable that it was taken to Thailand in the 15th century and then brought back. This would explain the details of costume and headdress of today’s puppets that are in Thai style.
The lithe apsaras carved in Angkor’s stone show details of the lakon style of female dance, but neither these nor other records are evidence that their lively dance was used in relating the epic stories. The 19th-century Thai rulers of western Cambodia reintroduced lakon dance and dance-drama, which was indigenous to Thailand as well. At the same time, Thailand’s male masked pantomime was brought to Cambodia, as far as is known for the first time, and it became known as lakon kawl. Both male and female dance-plays were translated into Cambodian. In modern times, costumes and headdresses were redesigned in the style of the Angkor carvings. The stories, music, dance, and dramatic styles of lakon and lakon kawl are much like their Thai counterparts.
Popular forms
Lakon bassac, performed by some 20 professional troupes in Cambodia, is a highly eclectic form. Musical selections, dances for female characters, and costuming are borrowed from court lakon. The form was created by Khmers living in the Bassac River region of Vietnam. Villains wear Vietnamese costumes and move with Vietnamese opera movements, an evidence of the historical conflicts of the two peoples. Chinese, Jataka, or Khmer stories may be performed. Pi phat music alternates with Chinese and Vietnamese instruments and with the Western saxophone and piano. Prince Sihanouk, chief of state between 1941 and 1970, encouraged a few French dramatic productions, but such drama is scarcely known outside the Western-educated elite.
Thailand
Folk performance
Lakon jatri began in the south, when male dancer-sorcerers performed, in simple folk style, the Manora Buddhist birth story as a dance-play. A troupe of three players was usual. One played the beautiful half-bird, half-human princess, Manora; a second played the hero, Prince Suton; and the third, often masked, played clown, ogre, or animal as needed. Flute, bell cymbal, and drums provided the music. The full Manora cycle of plays, staged in a village in the open, could last for two weeks. Probably after the 14th century, some jatri troupes moved to the Thai capital, where they established commercial theatres and staged a new all-male drama, lakon noknok, “outside” [the palace], that emphasized plot and an often obscene humour. Advances in dramatic form were accomplished by court writers of lakon nok between 1800 and 1909. Likay troupes succeeded and completely supplanted lakon nok troupes in the early decades of the 20th century, but such popular lakon nok plays as Sang Thong (“The Prince of the Golden Conch”) are presented today in modified form by the Thai National Theatre.
Female court dance-dramas
The lakon nainai, “inside” [the palace], female dance-drama of the court was created in the mid-18th century from a confluence of three previously separate elements: female court dance, the lakon nok drama, and the Javanese Pandji stories as subject matter. Romantic episodes from the long Pandji tale were ideal for staging in the elegant and delicate style of female court dance, accompanied by songs and the music of a large pi phat ensemble. In the unhurried court atmosphere, dance scenes lasted an hour or more, and dance figures might be repeated many times. In time, other stories came to be staged in lakon nai and were given other names, but the Pandji plays composed by the daughters of King Boromokot (1733–58), by Rama I (1782–1809), and by Rama II (1809–24) remain favourites. In this form, lakon nai was introduced into Cambodia within the 18th and 19th centuries.
Ravana, the demon king, fighting the white monkey Hanuman, in khon masked pantomime, Thailand.Marie Mattson/Black StarUntil recent years, a Thai version of the Khmer nang sbek shadow play, nang yai, occupied an important place in court as a Brahmanic-related ritual performance of the Ramayana. Thai scholars describe it as the source of khon masked pantomime, citing celebrations for King Ramathibodi II in 1515 that included a nang yai performance without puppets. Wearing heavy makeup, the puppeteers themselves danced the usual Ramayana episode as narrators told the story and spoke dialogue. Later, masks took the place of makeup, the screen was eliminated, and khon was born. In present-day Cambodia, one troupe can perform both forms. A number of lakon nai elements entered khon in later years, so that today a khon performance mixes the vigorous, masculine khon with gentle lakon nai singing style and female dance. All of the Thai dance-drama traditions (lakon jatri, lakon nok, lakon nai, and khon) are taught at the Department of Fine Arts in Bangkok, and representative plays from them are staged, often mixing traditions, at the Thai National Theatre.
Popular plays and puppets
The major popular theatre form is likay, which evolved in part out of lakon nok. It is now performed by more than 100 troupes in most parts of Thailand. Actors are skilled in improvising not only the dialogue and lyrics but also the plot of a play as well, weaving romantic scenes and fragments of lakon nai dance, set to pi phat music, into a story from a well-known Jataka, history, or court play. Likay plays are set to music of the Lao khen, a reed organ, in northeast Thailand. A type of shadow play called nang talung, in which a single, seated puppeteer moves small puppets of individual figures with movable arms, is very popular in southern Thailand. The performance technique undoubtedly came from Malaysia, while the plays and the identifying features of the puppet figures, mostly from the Ramayana, are from Thai khon and lakon nai. A similar shadow play exists in Cambodia, suggesting that the form traveled from southern Thailand to Cambodia, perhaps in the 19th century.
Laos
From the time Laos became a kingdom in 1353, the performing arts at the relatively small Lao court at Luang Prabang followed those of the more illustrious courts to the south, Angkor in Cambodia and then Ayutthaya and Bangkok in Thailand. Today, Lao dancers study in Bangkok, and the style of dance, music, and drama of the Royal Lao Ballet, the only remaining court troupe in Southeast Asia, is almost identical with that of lakon nai in Thailand. It is usual to perform excerpts from the very long dance-plays, the staging of a full-length spectacle being beyond the means of the court at present. Male khon dance is known but seldom performed. A number of Lao folk dances are studied and performed by the royal ballet troupe.
Scores of popular troupes perform plays derived from Thai likay and set to the lively and melodic Lao folk song style known as mohlam. Mohlamballadeers, accompanied by the khen (a complex reed organ), have for centuries traveled the Lao-speaking countryside, which includes Laos and northeast Thailand, singing bawdy songs of physical love and weaving into their performance local gossip and bits from the epics and court plays. When likay troupes from Bangkok played in northeast Thailand, the pi phat music and court dancing were not popular, although the plays themselves were. Enterprising mohlam performers then set the likay plays to the familiar mohlam song style, thereby creating a new popular theatre form, mohlam luong, or “story mohlam.” Of the mohlam troupes, a few large ones are located in major cities in the two countries, but most are small and travel from village to village, performing for a few days or weeks in each.
Burma
In spite of an old Burmese tradition of spirit dances stemming from animism and early contact with Indian culture, formal theatre did not begin until 1767, with the introduction of Thai khon and lakon nai to Burma following the capture and sack of Ayutthaya. Burmese courtiers and dancing girls immediately learned the two forms, and the plays were translated into Burmese. Because Rama was viewed as a previous incarnation of Buddha, pious Burmese were reluctant to alter khon scripts. For a time Jataka plays, including Ramayana episodes, were forbidden to live actors. Instead, marionette troupes doing plays based on khon brought the Rama stories to the Burmese countryside. But the Pandji plays were not considered Jatakas, and even the first Burmese version, by U Sa under the title Inao, departed from its Thai model, thus setting the stage for the creation of court drama, or zat pwe, based on myth and legend but capable of being independently developed. The three zat written by U Kyin U portray the futility of political strife and urge a life of Buddhist renunciation. U Pon Nya created a freer form of dramatic verse, and his Water Seller is noted for its comparatively realistic treatment of court life.
Court drama ceased after 1866, when the British conquered Burma. Thereafter, drama was staged by professionals in public theatres, primarily in Rangoon (now Yangon). U Pok Ni in Konmara (c. 1875), U Ku in The Orangoutan Brother and Sister (1875), and others created a new type of drama, pya zat, that mixed royalty and commoners, emphasized humour, and added songs to appeal to a popular city audience. Hundreds of these works were published. Popular troupes in contemporary Myanmar perform a long bill of attractions that lasts most of the night. It comprises songs and dances, a new contemporary play, and, as a final number, a classic zat in which remnants of old court music and dance are preserved. British touring companies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries brought examples of contemporary European melodrama and some classics to Burma. Subsequently a number of plays were written in Burmese and in English, following Western conventions and without songs or dance. Of these, The People Win Through (1950), by former prime minister U Nu, is among the most interesting examples.
Wayang kulit (shadow-puppet theatre), Java.Courtesy of the Indonesian Tourist BoardIt is uncertain whether the shadow theatre is indigenous to Java or was brought from India, but the wayang kulit technique of having a single seated puppeteer who manipulates puppets, sings, chants narration, and speaks dialogue seems to be an Indonesian invention. Unlike most court arts, wayang kulit has had centuries of performance in the folk tradition as well, so that today, with several thousand puppeteers active, it is the strongest traditional theatre form in Southeast Asia.
Plays are set in mythological times, some relating to indigenous animistic festivals and worship of local spirits, some directly dramatizing episodes from the Ramayana and Mahabharata epics, while the majority—the Pandawa (Pāṇḍav in Sanskrit) cycle of about 100 plays—are essentially Javanese creations in which the five heroic Pandawa brothers are placed in different situations. Three and sometimes four god-clown-servants and a set of ogre-antagonists who are not in the epics at all suggest how far removed the shadow plays are from the epics.
The wayang puppeteer works within one of the world’s most carefully organized performing arts, making possible a virtually solo performance without intermission, from around nine at night until the gray before dawn. Each play is in three parts, coordinated with three keys of music played by the gamelan ensemble. Certain standard scenes appear in a standard order, though some may be dropped. “Opening Audience” introduces the play’s conflict, “Inner Palace” shows the king meeting his queen(s), and in “Outer Audience” the army is dispatched. In “Forest Clearing” the first battle scene occurs, and in “Foreign Audience” the antagonist kingdom, usually one of overseas ogres, is introduced. Concluding part one are “Foreign Outer Audience,” in which the second army marches forth, and “Opening Skirmish,” a battle scene between the two armies. The puppeteer chooses from among 150 musical selections, matched to scene type, character, mood, or action. The puppet figures are carved to indicate character type and status according to fixed patterns for nose, eyes, gaze, stance, body build, and costume. The puppeteer can choose one or another puppet of the same character, coloured gold or black or with a stern or relaxed countenance, to indicate the mood of the figure in a particular scene. In battle scenes, he develops individual encounters between opponents, drawing upon a repertory of 119 movements that are classified for use by god, female, refined hero, muscular hero, ogre, or monkey. Formula narrative phrases describe famous kingdoms and characters, and battles are preceded by challenges couched in standard phrases. Although the puppeteer works only from a brief scenario, he is able to extemporize each performance, adding contemporary jokes for the clowns and molding the performance to suit the occasion and the audience. He and his supporting musicians and female singers are improvising within completely known, although exceptionally complex and subtle, artistic conventions.
This artistic system, developed within the shadow theatre for performance of Pandawa plays, has proven to work so well that it has been widely imitated. The entire body of wayang kulit drama was adopted in Bali and in Malaysia. At least 25 other play cycles have been performed in Indonesia as shadow drama within this system, including the Pandji cycle (wayang gedog), Islamic Amīr Ḥamzah plays (wayang menak), and plays dramatizing the revolutionary struggle against the Dutch (wayang suluh). The Pandawa wayang kulit repertory was transposed to the doll-puppet theatre (wayang golek) in Sunda, the western part of Java, and to dance-drama in eastern and central Java (wayang orang) and in Bali (wayang wong).
Performances are commissioned for special occasions and usually can be interpreted in religious or mystical fashion. There may be offertory plays at harvest time or animistic, ritualistic exorcisms protecting children from being devoured by the voracious god Kala. In The Reincarnation of Rama the divine attributes of the god Wisnu (Vishnu in Sanskrit) reincarnate in Ardjuna (Arjuna), hero of the Pandawa cycle and ancestor of the Javanese race. The translucent screen can be interpreted as heaven, the banana-log stage as earth, the puppets as man, and the puppeteer as god, and the Pandawas can symbolize the manifold attributes of righteous behaviour.
Wayang orang
Java’s spectacular dance-drama, wayang orang, grew out of the strong unmasked dance tradition that is illustrated in reliefs of female dancers carved on the 9th-century Borobudur and Prambanan temples in central Java and that produced the carefully cultivated female group dances of the Surakarta and Yogyakarta courts after their establishment in the 16th century. Of the latter dances, two stand out, the almost sacred bedaja, which even today is danced only in court surroundings, and the srimpi, in which two pairs of girls execute a delicate slow-motion duel with daggers and bows. In the middle of the 18th century, wayang kulit’s Rama and Pandawa plays were set to court dance to form wayang orang, or “human” wayang. The music, narrative, and dramatic organization of the shadow play was kept largely intact, and many of the actors’ movements mimicked the stiff actions of the puppets, though new dance sections were added. Court performances stopped with World War II, but wayang orang continues to be performed by some 20 to 30 professional troupes in major cities. In popular performances, attractive actresses play the roles of such refined heroes as Ardjuna, and humour and spectacle take precedence over dance.
Ketoprak and ludruk
Two other types of popular theatre, ketoprak and ludruk, were performed in Java by 150 to 200 professional troupes. Ketoprak, created by a Surakarta court official in 1914, evolved into a spoken drama of Javanese and Islamic history in which the clown figure is a spokesman for the common man. Whereas ketoprak is performed primarily in central Java, ludruk, a spoken drama that handles mainly contemporary subject matter, is performed in eastern Java by both amateur and professional troupes. Though ludruk is relatively realistic, male actors play all roles. Songs and dances, accompanied by gamelan music, are performed between acts in both forms.
Sundanese performing arts
There are three main performing arts in the Sundanese area of western Java. Reog, a kind of urban folk performance, can be seen especially in the streets of Jakarta: two or three men improvise popular songs, dances, and dramatic sketches for a neighbourhood audience in this type of entertainment. Wayang golek is a performance based on wayang kulit but using doll puppets without a screen. Approximately 500 Sundanese puppeteers perform wayang golek. Female singers, who are almost as important as the puppeteer, respond to requests and gifts of money by singing song after song and virtually stopping the play. Sandiwara troupes in Jakarta, Bandung, and a score of other cities perform both wayang stories in the form of Sundanese dance-drama and spoken historical and contemporary dramas for popular audiences. Sundanese-style court dances and topeng masked dances are often performed solo at festivals and for circumcision or wedding celebrations in private homes. Sundanese dance is more sensuous than Javanese and broader in style.
Balinese dance-drama
Of the many factors that have contributed to the remarkable flourishing of dance and drama on the island of Bali for more than a millennium, three are of particular note. First, Bali remained isolated from both Islam and the West. Second, there was a merging of folk and court performance styles into a single communal tradition appreciated by all. Third, dances and plays are indissolubly linked to the recurring cycles of local festivals and rituals whereby the well-being of the community is maintained against constantly threatening malicious forces in the spirit world. From the verve and brilliance of Balinese performances it is clear not only that the people like to perform but also that there exists some culturally determined compulsion to do so.
Ketjak, or monkey dance, Bali.Tor Eigeland/Black StarBalinese dance and dramatic forms are so numerous that only a few can be noted. Balinese villagers playing in the barong exorcism dance-drama are not merely actors exercising theatrical skills. The actors’ bodies, going into a trance, are believed to receive the spirits of Rangda and the Barong, and it is the spirits themselves that do battle. Thus the performance is actually more a ritual than a piece of theatre. The sanghyang dance is usually performed by two young girls who gradually go into a state of trance as women sing in chorus and incense is wafted about them. Supposedly entered by the spirit of the nymph Supraba, the girls rise and dance, often acrobatically, though they have been chosen from among girls untrained in dance. The dance’s purpose is to entice Supraba to the village to gain her blessing when evil forces threaten. In the ketjak, or monkey dance, as many as 150 village men, sitting in concentric circles around a flaming lamp, chant and gesticulate in unison until, in trance, they appear to have become ecstatically possessed by the spirits of monkeys. This performance, however, has no ritual function of altering an earthly condition.
That the Balinese wayang kulit may represent the older style of wayang, known on Java before the coming of Islam, is suggested by the less stylized shape of the puppets, by the shorter performing time of four to five hours, and by the simple music of only four gender, a bronze instrument similar to a xylophone with resonance chambers underneath, from the gamelan ensemble. In one type of shadow play having a special religious significance, the puppets perform before a screen during the daytime, and the puppeteer is seen in his role as a Brahman priest, bare to the waist. In the redjang processional dance, village women symbolically offer their bodies to their temple gods.
Because Balinese performing arts are vitally alive, they change from decade to decade, even from year to year. The gambuh, respected for its age, contains elements of dramatic dance, song, narrative, and characterization found in later forms. It is thought dull, however, and is seldom performed, though it is believed to have provided the model for the singing style of popular ardja opera troupes and the dance style of the lovely girls’ legong. Wayang wong is analogous to the Javanese wayang orang, but masks are worn and the repertory is limited to Rama plays. Pandawa plays are staged in identical style but are called parwa. It has been suggested that these forms also stem, at least in part, from gambuh. Wayang topeng masked-dance plays are ancient, being mentioned in a palm-leaf document of 1058. The Javanese chronicle of the Majapahit period (c. 1293–1520), the Pararaton, in which Ken Angrok is the hero, is a favourite tapeng story. This points to the strong influence exerted by Javanese on Balinese arts after the Majapahit court was transferred to Bali in the 16th century to escape Islamic domination.
Malaysia
The Malay peninsula, in the geographical centre of Southeast Asia, has assimilated repeated intrusions of neighbouring cultures. The dances of the former princely states on the east coast show the influence of Indian nondramatic dance.
The multiform wayang
Rulers from Java in the 13th and 14th centuries and later large colonies of Javanese introduced their wayang kulit shadow theatre. The puppets of wayang Djawa, or “Javanese” wayang, are identical with the two-armed, long-nosed, highly stylized puppets of today’s Javanese wayang kulit. Those of wayang Melayu, or “Malayan” wayang, have only a single movable arm and are less sophisticated in conception, which suggests that they are either descended from old Javanese puppets, before both arms were made movable, or are a degeneration of the more complex form. Rama, Pandawa, and Pandji plays are staged. The puppets of wayang Siam, or “Siamese” wayang, though manipulated by a single seated puppeteer, represent a Thai conception of the figures from the Ramayana; and costumes, headdresses, ornamentation, and facial features follow those of khon. The plays include Islamic elements as well, while the chief clown figure, Pak Dogol, is thought to be a recent Malay creation that has supplanted Semar, the Javanese clown of wayang kulit.
In a performance, puppets of all types may appear together. Either such Thai instruments as the lakon jatri drum and small bell cymbals or gamelan instruments play the accompanying music. Song lyrics can be in ancient Javanese; animistic, Islamic, and Hindu-derived invocations to the gods are offered in the Thai and Malay languages; and the play proper is in colloquial Malay. Puppeteers once performed throughout the peninsula, including the five Malay-speaking provinces of southern Thailand, but today puppeteers are found primarily in northeast Malaysia.
Chinese and popular entertainments
Chinese immigrants introduced various forms of opera during the 19th century. Troupes perform for Chinese Buddhist temple festivals, for local fairs, or on national holidays. In Singapore troupes occasionally perform in public theatres as well. Young people of Chinese descent in both Malaysia and Singapore have little interest in the opera, however, because their Chinese is limited. Occasionally troupes import star performers from Hong Kong or tour Chinese communities in Thailand.
Bangsawan was created by professional Malay-speaking actors in the 1920s as light, popular entertainment. Songs and contemporary dances were added to a repertory of dramatic pieces drawn from Islamic romances and adventure stories. Troupes traveled to Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sunda, and Java, where their melodramatic plays found large audiences and influenced local performers of sandiwara, ketoprak, and ludruk. The cinema and television, however, have captured much of this audience.
Vietnam
An indication of the antiquity of the performing arts in Vietnam is a large bronze drum of the 3rd century bc found near Haiphong, in northern Vietnam, which is ornamented with instruments and musicians playing for dancers. Chinese performing arts presumably were a part of court life in northern Vietnam during the period of Chinese rule (111 bc–ad 939), and between the 10th and 13th centuries the dances and music of the Hinduized Cham peoples, living in what is now central Vietnam, were welcomed there. The melancholy Cham songs were particularly popular, and most authorities believe that the sad southern style of Vietnamese singing is derived from them.
Satirical drama
Hat cheo is a popular, satirical folk play of northern Vietnam that combines folk songs and dances with humorous sketches criticizing the people’s rulers. Some scholars theorize that it is an indigenous folk art, whereas others, to show that it reached the people from the court, cite the legend of a Chinese actor who in 1005 was hired by the Vietnamese king to teach “Chinese satirical theatre” to his courtiers. Hat cheo is widely encouraged by the government.
The opera
The classic opera, known as hat boi, hat bo, or hat tuong, is a Vietnamese adaptation of the Chinese opera long supported by kings and provincial mandarins as a court art and performed for popular audiences as well, especially in central Vietnam. The introduction of Chinese opera is attributed to the capture of a troupe of performers attached to the Mongol army that invaded northern Vietnam in 1285. The actors’ lives were spared in return for teaching their art to the Vietnamese. In 1350 another Chinese performer was engaged by the northern court as an instructor. Almost exclusively a court art in the north, hat boi was made a form of popular entertainment in central Vietnam by the playwright Dao Duy Tu in the 16th century. It was introduced to southern Vietnam under the Nguyen dynasty in the 18th and 19th centuries, but its future was jeopardized by the decades of war in the mid-20th century. The last large troupe of court musicians, dancers, and actors at Hue in southern Vietnam disbanded in 1945. The postwar government of the late 20th century did not provide hat boi with strong support, and the popular troupes lacked audiences.
In form and content, hat boi is a blend of China and Vietnam. Direct imitation of Chinese costume and acting techniques was encouraged under the reign (1847–83) of Emperor Tu Duc, and it is probable that the present form of hat boi dates from this period. At Tu Duc’s court in Hue, the playwright and scholar Dao Tan gathered 300 actors and with them wrote out texts of the standard repertory that previously had been preserved orally. He then had the texts published and distributed them to actors and troupe managers. In the 20th century there was a movement to loosen the rigid structure of hat boi and to reduce the high proportion of Chinese loanwords that makes the operas difficult for the ordinary Vietnamese to appreciate.
Following Chinese practice, the operas are classified as military or domestic. The former, which may be derived from Chinese and Vietnamese legend or history or may be purely fictional, concern struggles for power between kings. The Chinese novel The Romance of the Three Kingdoms furnishes material for many military plays. The latter, dealing with the lives of commoners, contain humorous scenes alternating with scenes of suffering that are played to the accompaniment of sad southern-style songs. The Confucian ethic of obligation to one’s superior—of wife to husband, of son to father, or of subject to king—underlies plays of both types.
Hat boi staging is modeled on conventions of Chinese opera. Actors perform on a stage that is bare except for a table and two chairs. These can serve as a castle, a cave, or a bed as well as for sitting and eating. A single embroidered drop at the rear has an entrance right and an exit left. Costume and makeup indicate character type: black for boldness, red for anger or rashness, white for treachery, and gold as the colour of the gods. Conventionalized mime may be used alone or in conjunction with symbolic properties. The actor mimes stepping over an imaginary threshold or sewing without needle and thread, but he indicates riding a horse by gestures with a riding crop and travels in a carriage when a stage assistant holds flags with wheels painted on them at each side of his body. Percussion instruments accompany stage action, and songs—which may be in falsetto Chinese style, in soft southern Vietnamese style, or in a form of prose recitative—are accompanied by stringed instruments.
The popular stage
Southern-style singing is the basis of another type of theatre, cai luong, begun in the 1920s by popular singers who performed plays in which they sang the love lament “Vong Co.” Today, regardless of whether a historical or contemporary play is being performed as cai luong or which of many troupes is staging it, this melody will be heard throughout the play many times, underlying different lyrics. Cai luong stars are lionized, and the best troupes maintain high artistic standards. Among popular theatre forms in Southeast Asia, only cai luong plays are fully scripted and directed as they would be in the Western theatre. In contrast to the operetta form of cai luong, modern spoken drama is known as kich. It is a young dramatic form performed mostly by amateurs who are trying to put Western dramatic conventions into practice.
The Philippines
Whatever indigenous theatrical forms may have existed in the Philippines, other than tribal epic recitations, were obliterated by the Spanish to facilitate the spread of Christianity.
The comedia
Comedia, or moro-moro, a folk drama based on the battles between Christians and the Muslim Moro, the Philippines.Courtesy of Philippine EmbassyThe earliest known form of organized theatre is the comedia, or moro-moro, created by Spanish priests. In 1637 a play was written to dramatize the recent capture by a Christian Filipino army of an Islamic stronghold. It was so popular that other plays were written and staged as folk dramas in Christianized villages throughout the Philippines. All told similar stories of Christian armies defeating the hated Moors. With the decline of Spanish influence, the comedia, too, declined in popularity. Some professional troupes performed comedia in Manila and provincial capitals prior to World War II. Today it can still be seen at a number of church festivals in villages, where it remains a major social and religious event of the year. Much in the manner of the medieval European mystery-play performances, hundreds of local people donate time and money over several months to mount an impressive performance.
Styles from Europe
Dances and dramas from Spain were brought in, some of which took root. The María Clara, a stately minuet, and the Rigodón de Honor, a quadrille, were adopted by local European society for its formal balls. Spain’s sprightly operetta, the zarzuela, became the favourite light entertainment in Manila and other cities. Professional zarzuela troupes continued to flourish in the early decades of the 20th century but had disappeared by World War II. New plays with original music were produced in profusion. A number of them based on topical themes and criticizing American colonial policies were banned.
Western drama is studied and widely performed in both English and Tagalog. There are no professional companies, but amateur university and community groups abound. Western classics and recent popular successes are staged, and in recent years many original plays have been written to celebrate the Filipino heritage.
Visual arts
General considerations
Religious-aesthetic traditions
The first is a complex inheritance of magical and animist art shared by the different tribal peoples of the mainland, where it evolved from Paleolithic origins, and of the islands. Such art gave the peoples who made it a sense of their identity in relation to the forces of their natural environment, to the structure of their society, and to time. It consists of types of potent emblem, masks, and ancestral figures broadly similar to those that hunters and early farmers the world over have used in connection with seasonal ceremonies, life and death rituals, and ecstatic shamanism (belief in an unseen world of gods, demons, and ancestral spirits responsive only to the shamans, or priests). The spiritual powers that the arts name and invoke are local and vary from group to group of the population. The rich formal artistic languages have been subject to successive episodes of influence from inland Asia, but each group has developed its own artistic language on the basis of a common fund of Southeast Asian thought forms.
Indian tradition
The second major tradition was received from India during the early centuries of the Common Era, when seagoing merchants from that subcontinent so fertile in ideas were expanding their trading activity. Into many parts of Southeast Asia—especially Burma, Thailand, and the coasts of Cambodia and Indonesia, where Indian traders settled and married into the families of local chieftains—they brought with them a script and literature in the sophisticated Sanskrit language. They also brought a highly developed conceptual system dealing with kingship, statecraft, and hydraulic engineering, integrated and authenticated by profound metaphysical ideologies of Indian pattern, both Hindu and Buddhist. These ideologies claimed to be universal, embracing all human diversity within a cosmic frame of reference. And this explains why the culture was adopted. For there was no Indian conquest of terrain; instead, the Indian conceptions, along with the art that expressed them, were used by dynasties in the colonial kingdoms as a method of overcoming divisions in their population, of centralizing effort, and of uniting their religions into viable states based upon cities. Although the new religious conceptions must have offered deep personal satisfaction to the general population, the architecture and sculpture in stone and bronze in which they were artistically expressed were expensive in materials, labour, and skill and were thus available primarily to patrons who were claiming for themselves a royal (i.e., divine) status and using the resources of art to demonstrate that status.
The Indianizing traditions were continually refreshed by direct influences from India and Sri Lanka. There can be very little doubt that, during the early centuries ad, Indian artists and craftsmen traveled to work in the distant trading colonies of Southeast Asia, for they would have been needed to set up local traditions with proper formulas and methods. And there can be no doubt either that works of art made in India were continuously exported to the colonial kingdoms, thus keeping the local art styles in touch with developments “at home.” It is also clear, however, that within a very short time the Southeast Asian kingdoms produced their own distinctive local versions of Indian styles; and some of their work shows skill, finesse, and invention on a colossal scale unrivaled even in India.
Although the art styles were to some extent sectarian, and sectarian partisanship played a part in political events, it was by no means unusual to find Hinduism and different forms of Buddhism flourishing side by side. In both Burma and Thailand, however, dynastic options were early exercised in favour of that particular form of Buddhism known as Theravada (Hinayana), which adheres to the nontheistic ideal of purification of the self to Nirvana. These countries followed the same form to the present day. It was also adopted in Cambodia and southern Vietnam after prolonged and successful periods of Hindu and Mahayana (a theistic branch teaching compassion and universal salvation) Buddhist dominance. The strongly Sinicized population of the region around the Gulf of Tonkin, which pushed gradually down the coast of Vietnam to become the modern plains Vietnamese, began to adopt Theravada Buddhism with its artistic types by around the 13th century ad, partly because this form could be best adapted to its self-contained and antidynastic cellular social structure.
Relations between the two traditions
Even in those regions where Indian influence became strongly entrenched, the layers of more ancient religion and artistic consciousness remained very much alive. Indian deities were readily identified with local spirits. The tribal populations retained, as many still do, their old animist customs, especially those connected with fertility and practical magic, often with an art (in perishable materials) in which to express them. These arts were influenced by and exercised a reciprocal influence upon the styles of officially imposed Indianized arts. In many parts of Southeast Asia, where the official Indian styles were not completely established (most of Borneo) or where they died out (colonies in Celebes), in inaccessible areas beyond the reach of dynastic influence, or on isolated islands, these earlier styles have survived unmodified. Even in Indianized regions where a strict formula, say, for a necessary building type, had not been imported, a native pattern was adopted into the official canon (e.g., Laos). In the Indonesian island of Bali, which has remained nominally Hindu, the Indian and the folk elements were thoroughly assimilated to each other, producing a quite individual style of both religion and art. In Sumatra and Java, whose populations were gradually converted to Islam from India during the 13th–16th centuries, the cult of the ancestors was revived and encouraged by Muslim rulers, with folk versions of denatured Hindu art adapted to it. Decorative styles based on this art have flourished there and were officially revivified in the late 20th century. In the Philippines, notably in and around Manila, Spanish Roman Catholic art flourished after the Spanish colonization of 1571.
Artistic styles
The royal temple is the basis for the classic Indianizing styles of Southeast Asia. Each Hindu temple is centred on a shrine, symbolizing heaven upon earth, which is crowned by a roof tower representing the cosmic Indian mountain, Meru, conceived as the hub of creation. Since all the peoples of Southeast Asia already believed the natural habitat of spirits and gods to be a mountaintop, the Indian pattern was readily accepted. The temple usually stands upon a lofty terraced plinth (a block serving as a base), which itself also symbolized a mountain. Towered shrines could be multiplied on the terraces, though one of them remained the principal focus. Within the cell of this main shrine was a sacred image carved in stone or cast in bronze. The local Hindu ruler identified the subject of this image as his transcendent patron, or celestial alter ego. This was normally one of the Indian high gods, Shiva (represented perhaps by a phallic emblem, the linga) or Vishnu. In Mahayana Buddhist kingdoms a royal bodhisattva (a being that refrains from entering Nirvana in order to save others) was sometimes adopted to fulfill the same role, a favourite form being known as Lokanatha, or Lokeshvara, Lord of the World. Subsidiary shrines, niches, or terraces sometimes contained subsidiary images, including goddesses representing at the same time wives of the god and queens of the king. These images were worked in smooth, deeply rounded, and sensuously emphatic styles derived from Indian art but with varying inflections characteristic of each region and time. The whole exterior of the shrine was usually adorned with rhythmic moldings, foliage, and scrollwork, with figures representing the inhabitants of the heavens. Ideally, the building was constructed and carved in stone; but, particularly where good stone was not readily available (for example, in Burmese Pagan), it could also be brick, coated and sculptured with stucco after northeast Indian patterns. Temple complexes tended to grow as successive kings strove to outdo their predecessors with the magnificence of their buildings. Hindu rulers, influenced perhaps by vestiges of tribal custom, would sometimes retain their own family’s temples and images while destroying those of earlier dynasties.
Buddhism, however, is a religion based on a doctrine of transcendent merit and sustained by an order of monks who have, ultimately, no vested interest in kings and gods. They may, however, take a great interest in the world of spirits and the operations of astrology, just as the local population does, even though they regard such matters as subordinate to the ultimate Buddhist aim of universal Nirvana. Buddhist monasteries, therefore, tended to expand around stupas (domed monuments emblematic of the Buddhist truth, also called pagodas or dagabas) of ever-increasing size and number; the preaching halls, libraries, and living quarters for monks were continually enlarged and repeatedly rebuilt, often as a testimony to the piety of royal patrons. Although, strictly speaking, Theravada Buddhism has no place for a “divine ruler” whose identity an actual king may adopt, provision was made in legend and in court and monastic ritual for the ruler of a Theravada Buddhist country to assume a magical role as the dominant sponsor and patron of the Buddhist truth. His legendary prototype was usually not identified, therefore, with an icon of the enlightened Buddha but with images such as the chief disciple at the knee of the enlightened Buddha, as Prince Siddhartha (the Buddha-to-be), or figuring in scenes of the Buddha’s life that lined the monastery halls and corridors.
Both Hindu and Buddhist art were produced according to prescriptive formulas. If the formulas were not followed, the art was believed not to fulfill its transcendent function. In practice, however, there has been room for styles and types of image to change and develop fairly quickly. Hindu and non-Theravada art recognized what could be called aesthetic values as a component in religious expression. Theravada Buddhism, however, which might be called fundamentalist, has always attempted to preserve the closest possible connections with the Buddha’s recorded original deeds and sayings; its art, therefore, has concentrated on repeating in its main Buddha figures the most exact possible imitations of authentic ancient images. This had led to a relative monotony of style in Theravada icons (see belowBurma; Thailand and Laos). In the subsidiary sculptured and painted figures, however, which illustrate scenes from sacred history, Theravada art has had greater freedom of invention. In the 20th century, Theravada Buddhism was the only form of Indian religion to survive in Southeast Asia, save for the modified Hinduism of Bali. Its architecture in recent centuries has been decorated with a vigorous, sometimes coarse fantasy and made gaudy with gilt paint and coloured glass.
General development of Southeast Asian art
Most of the works made under the inspiration of the ancient, magical, and animist tradition are in perishable materials such as wood. Because the climate is so hostile, the works that survive are relatively recent; and any that is even 100 years old generally owes its preservation to Western interest. There are, however, a large number of Neolithic stone implements and prehistoric stone monuments (megaliths), as well as bronzes, which provide a solid archaeological basis for interpretation of early Southeast Asian art.
For the art of the classic Indianizing civilizations, French archaeology played the major role in clearing, excavating, and reconstructing major sites in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam; Dutch archaeology in Indonesia; British in Burma. Old bronzes have been found in fair quantities; apart from those of the early Dong Son culture (see belowBronze Age: Dong Son culture), all belong to one or other of the Indianizing traditions. Many old brick and stucco buildings survive, notably the medieval work at Pagan and in central Thailand, though an enormous number are known to have perished. Little very old painting is known, save a few Indianizing medieval rock and wall paintings on plaster. In spite of the fact that Buddhist monasteries are able to act as agents for preserving their own artworks, most of the surviving Buddhist pictorial art on wooden panels or other fragile material is less than 300 years old.
The stone of dynastic buildings, of course, has survived far the best. Scholars thus know much more about Indianizing stone architecture, with its sculpture, than about any other Southeast Asian visual art. But, where good relief sculpture flourished, one can legitimately assume that vanished pictorial arts also flourished; and from details carved in stone and incised on bronze, as well as from the scattered enthusiastic references in Chinese sources, one can be sure that throughout their history the Southeast Asian peoples have been intensely creative and have lived their lives surrounded by a wealth of imaginative art in many different mediums.
There are many sites yet to be discovered and excavated. Knowledge of the history of art in many parts of Southeast Asia, especially of important episodes in Burma, Thailand, and Sumatra, was still scantily documented at the turn of the 21st century.
Neolithic Period
The earliest works in Southeast Asia that can be called art are the rectangular polished ax heads of a familiar late Neolithic type that have been found at many sites in Malaya, Indochina, and Indonesia. Some of the later Neolithic (c. 2000 bc to early centuries ad) implements are extremely beautiful and polished with the greatest care. They include practical adzes and axes; but some, made of semiprecious stone, were clearly intended for purely ritual purposes. Even in the 21st century a few such blades were preserved and revered as sacred objects in certain Indonesian farming communities and similar objects have continued to be made in some very remote regions. These tools, with their fine edges, suggest that their owners were capable of very high quality woodworking and might well have decorated their wooden houses with designs of which nothing is known.
During the Neolithic Period, metal—both bronze and iron—came into use for implements but did not greatly alter the material culture. In many regions, notably Cambodia, Borneo, and Sumatra, numerous works of megalithic, or stone, art survive, including menhirs (single upright monoliths), dolmens (two or more upright monoliths supporting a horizontal slab), cist graves (Neolithic graves lined with stone slabs), and terraced burial mounds, all dating from the late Neolithic epoch. Some remarkable large stones are worked in relief with symbols and with images of animals and men, notably in the Pasemah region of Sumatra. Shaped stone sarcophagi and skull troughs (containers to hold the skulls of ancestors and of enemies at village shrines) are also known. These megalithic art objects suggest a highly developed cult of a spirit world connected with the remains of the dead (see belowCambodia and Vietnam; Indonesia).
Bronze Age: Dong Son culture (c. 4th–1st centuries bc)
By about 300 bc a civilization with elaborate arts based on bronzeworking existed, extending probably from the Tonkin region into Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Indonesia. This is called for convenience, after a major site, the Dong Son culture, though it may not have been a true cultural unity. A variety of bronze ritual works, many decorated with human and animal figures and with masks, were cast by the lost-wax method (metal casting using a wax model). The chief objects were ceremonial drums, large and small; the largest was found in Bali and is called “the Moon of Bali” (see belowIndonesia). Extremely elaborate bronze ceremonial axes were made—probably as emblems of power. Certain relief patterns on the bronzes suggest that “ship of the dead” designs, like those still woven in textiles in both Borneo and Sumatra, may well have been woven even then. The spiral is a frequent Dong Son decorative motif; later Dong Son art was probably responsible for transmitting—especially into Vietnam, Cambodia, and Borneo—versions of the contemporary Chinese Zhou dynasty’s asymmetrical squared-hook patterns.
1st to 10th century
During the 1st century ad, Indian influence began to spread through Southeast Asia in the wake of trade, both overland, through Burma and Thailand, and by sea traders settled at especially favourable spots along the inland roads and along the sea routes around the coasts and into the islands. Buddhism, which was particularly popular among the Indian merchant classes, took root at a large number of trading cities, where monasteries were set up under the patronage of local kings. Many fragmentary Buddha images based upon Indian types of around ad 300–400 have been found in Burma, Thailand, and Cambodia, produced in the kingdoms of the Mon people, the chief of which, in Thailand, was called Dvaravati. By the 5th century the first Hindu kingdoms had been established in western Java and Borneo. These kingdoms produced dynastic cult images, fragments of which have been found.
Perhaps the most splendid of the earlier Indianizing kingdoms, lasting until the 9th century ad, was that of the Pyu people in the upper Irrawaddy River Valley. The Pyu were the people most directly in touch with eastern India by land routes. Only one of their enormous cities has been explored archaeologically (see belowBurma). The remains of Buddhist buildings, east Indian Buddhist images, and Hindu sculptures of Vishnu have been found there.
In the 1st century ad the predominantly Hindu kingdom known as Funan (the name given it by Chinese historians) was established in Cambodia. It seems to have controlled an empire that included kingdoms in Malaya and even parts of southern Burma. Its population was probably Mon and shared the culture of the Mon in the lower Irrawaddy Basin. (The Funan kingdom really represents the earliest phase of what became, in the 9th century, the great Cambodian Khmer empire.) Between about 550 and 680 the kingdom retreated from the coast up the Mekong River into Laos, where it was called by the Chinese Chenla. This joint Funan-Chenla tradition produced some of the world’s most magnificent stone cult images. Though Buddhist icons are known, these images principally represent Hindu deities including Vishnu, his incarnation Krishna, Shiva, and a combined Shiva-Vishnu figure called Harihara. The images were housed in wooden or brick shrines, now vanished.
During the Chenla retreat the Theravada Buddhist kingdom of Dvaravati flourished in southern Thailand, on the lower reaches of the Mae Nam Chao Phraya; the kingdom lasted until the 11th century, when it was captured by the Khmer. What little of its art is known is close to that of eastern India and provided the basis for later Buddhist art in the Khmer empire, as well as for some of the later forms of Thai art.
Seated Buddha, andesite, c. 8th–9th century, Javanese, Shrivijaya and Shailendra period; in the Honolulu Academy of Arts.Photograph by Christopher Hu. Honolulu Academy of Arts, purchase 1991 (6186.1)Almost contemporary with Chenla was the rise of the central Javanese kingdom. Soon after ad 600 the earliest surviving Hindu temples were built. In about 770 the Shailendra dynasty began its long series of superb stonecut monuments both Hindu and Buddhist, which culminate in two enormous symbolic architectural complexes: the Mahayana Buddhist Borobudur (c. 800) and the Hindu Lara Jonggrang, at Prambanam (c. 900–930). These monuments were decorated in an individual and exceptionally accomplished style of full-round and relief sculpture. Many small bronze religious images have survived. The art of the Shailendra dynasty testifies to the imperial and maritime power of the central Javanese kingdom, which seems to have influenced politics and art in Khmer Cambodia. It also took over the possessions of a major Theravada Buddhist kingdom called Shrivijaya, which had flourished in Malaya and Sumatra and was centred at Palembang. The Javanese Shailendra ruled most of Malaya and Sumatra and installed themselves there in the mid-9th century, when their home terrain in Java was taken over by the Mataram dynasty, heralding the eastern Javanese period, which began in 927. Shrivijaya, under Shailendra rule, declined in the mid-11th century, and most of its remains still await discovery.
In Vietnam around the 2nd century ad the predominantly Hindu kingdom of Champa was founded. Its capital was at My Son, where many temples have been found. This kingdom suffered much from attacks by the Chinese, and, after it began to lose the north to the Sinicized Vietnamese in 1069, the Cham capital moved in 1069 to Vijaya (Binh Dinh), in the south. There it was involved in continual warfare with the Khmer, who finally annexed southern Vietnam in 1203. The art of the northern Vietnamese as a whole has always been so strongly under the influence of China that it can best be characterized as a provincial Chinese style.
10th century to the present
In Cambodia the Khmer empire succeeded to the old territories of Funan-Chenla. About 790 the first major Khmer ruler, Jayavarman II, who was related to the old Funan royal family, went to Cambodia from the Shailendra court in Java. In 802 he set up a religious capital on a hill at Phnom Kulen; he seems to have called in artists from Champa and Java, thus giving to Khmer art a distinct new impetus. At another site, Sambhupura (Sambor), he built temples with sculpture based upon the old Funan-Chenla tradition. At Amarendrapura, about 800, he built a brick pyramid—an artificial mountain—to support a quincunx of temples.
Ruined temples at Angkor Thom, Angkor, Cambodia.Emil Muench/Photo ResearchersIt was Indravarman I (877–889) who laid the foundations of the fabulous temple complex known as Angkor. His plan was based on a rectangular grid of reservoirs, canals, and irrigation channels to control the waters of the river system. Later kings elaborated this original design to a colossal scale. Indravarman built the first great works of Khmer architecture: the Preah Ko, at Roluos, and at Angkor his temple mountain, the Bakong, ornamented with sculpture. Successive kings built their own temple mountains there, including the Bakheng (c. 893), Pre Rup (c. 961), the Ta Keo (c. 1000), and the Baphuon (c. 1050–66) and culminating in Angkor Wat, built in the first half of the 12th century by Suryavarman II. After a disastrous invasion by the Cham, Jayavarman VII undertook the most ambitious scheme of all, the Mahayana Buddhist Angkor Thom and Bayon (c. 1200). Thereafter, for a variety of reasons, including conquest by the Thai, no more large-scale work was done by Angkor and the country became Theravada Buddhist. The modern dynasty has adapted remnants of traditional splendour, and the craftsmen of Cambodia have remained capable of work in the same vein as but often superior to the Thai.
Hindu Javanese art continued to be made under the eastern Javanese dynasties (1222–14th century), although their structures are not nearly as ambitious as the central Javanese works. There are many temple enclosures and volcanic bathing places with modest stonecut architecture. Some of the stone sculptures from these sites, however, are now world famous. In the 21st century the east Javanese tradition still survives, modified by folk elements, in Bali, to which the east Javanese Hindu kings retreated in the 16th century to maintain their religious independence in the face of Muslim expansion. Muslim monuments in the form of mosques and tombs are found in various parts of Indonesia. They adapt older forms of Indonesian art.
In 1056 the great Burmese king Anawrahta decreed Theravada Buddhism to be the religion of his country, replacing earlier cults. He removed the Mon monks and artists from the capital of the old Mon kingdom in southern Burma, transporting them to his own northern capital, Pagan. There they built a city, with many large brick and stucco temples (pagodas) based on Indian patterns, that remains one of the most impressive sites in Asia. The Mongol invasion of 1287 put a stop to work there.
The Mon kingdom, Dvaravati, of southern Thailand, was annexed to the Khmer empire in the 11th century and Khmer imperial shrines were built there. After the decline of the Khmer and the Mongol invasion of 1287, a powerful alliance of racially Thai kings established the first major Thai empire, retaining Theravada Buddhism as the state religion. Thailand was divided into two principal regions, northern and southern, with capitals, respectively, at Chiang Mai and Ayutthaya, possession of the trade city of Sukhothai being an issue between them. In all the Thai cities, brick and stucco temples were built on variants of Indian and Burmese patterns. Many fine bronze Buddha figures, large and small, were cast in canonical Theravada Buddhist styles. Most of these figures were accommodated in monastery halls built in impermanent materials.
In both Burma and Thailand a very large number of monasteries, usually surrounding one or two principal pagodas, were constructed during the later Middle Ages and into modern times. The major cities of Rangoon (now Yangon), Mandalay, and Bangkok contain the most elaborate examples, although there are many elsewhere. Because the pagodas were repeatedly enlarged and redecorated and the wooden monastic buildings and their many smaller stupas continuously reconstructed and renovated, no absolute chronology has been established for the arts of this epoch.
In Laos and Vietnam Theravada monasteries, with brick stupas, were similarly built and rebuilt of wood. An outstanding stupa is the That Luang at Vientiane, in Laos, founded in 1566 but much restored in the 18th–19th centuries. In Vietnam local variants of Chinese styles were adapted during the Middle Ages to the planning and decoration of palaces and of Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist temples.
The ancient styles that prevailed in the Philippines were modified by the conversion of various groups—the Moro people, especially—to Islam in the 15th–16th centuries. When, in 1571, the Spanish took control, Manila became the capital of a Spanish colony, and Roman Catholic Spanish art was adopted via Mexico. A local school of church architecture and figure sculpture flourished until the 20th century, when Manila became the centre of a modern commercial society, with its attendant architecture and art.
Burma
One date is crucial in the art history of Burma: ad 1056. In that year King Anawrahta of Pagan decreed Theravada Buddhism to be the state religion of all Burma. This signalled the unity of what had been a divided country, consummating tendencies apparent in earlier Burmese history.
6th to 11th century
The only major Burmese art known to scholars is based upon Indian and Sri Lankan Buddhist art. In the period preceding Anawrahta’s decree there had been three major historical eras in what is now Myanmar, the first two of which produced Indianized art known to scholars only fragmentarily: the rule of the racially Mon kingdom of the lower Irrawaddy (9th–11th centuries), the contemporaneous dominion of the Pyu people in central and Upper Burma, and the subsequent decisive incursion of racially Burmese people from the northeast (11th century).
The earliest concrete evidence of Indian culture in Burma is a Buddhist inscription from Pyè (Prome) dated c.ad 500. This and later inscriptions from the same area were cut probably in the western Mon kingdom, which followed Theravada Buddhism and was confederated with the Theravada Buddhist eastern Mon kingdom of Dvaravati (see belowThailand and Laos) in southern Thailand and part of Cambodia (ad 6th–12th centuries).
During this same period, in Upper Burma, the people called Pyu, speaking a Tibeto-Burman language and perhaps originating in Central Asia, built cities whose magnificence was known to contemporary compilers of the Chinese Tang dynasty history. In the 8th century one city was recorded as being some 50-odd miles (80 km) in circumference, containing 100 Buddhist monasteries lavishly painted and decorated with gold and silver. The Pyu were in direct contact with northeast India, where various forms of Mahayana Buddhism, which embraced philosophies and rituals unacceptable to the Theravada, flourished; their Ari priesthood was later proscribed by Anawrahta. Their capital city, Śrī Kṣetra (modern Hmawza, near Pyè), which was once larger than even Pagan or Mandalay, has been partly excavated. Three huge Buddhist stupas—one 150 feet high—survive there. They illustrate the pattern from which all later Burmese stupas were developed. Enshrining revered relics of Buddhist saints, they consist of tall, solid brick cylinders mounted on shallow, circular, stepped plinths and crowned by what was probably a tapering bell-like pinnacle. Other excavated halls, one on a square plinth with four entrance doors, follow Indian examples. A few Hindu fragments survive as well.
The Pyu were conquered by a neighbouring kingdom, probably before ad 900. During the following century their terrain and cities were infiltrated by the racially Burmese people. These people were of common tribal stock with the Thai and northern Vietnamese and were probably on the move under pressure of the Chinese colonization of their home terrain around the Gulf of Tonkin. They were converted to Buddhism by the Pyu and later by the western Mon; but they never completely abandoned their own original cult of nature spirits, known today as the nats. The nats are a mixed collection of spirits that act supernaturally, each according to its character. The nats were worshipped with orgiastic ceremonies and trance rites of spiritual possession. Certain mountaintops were sacred to them. Even in the 21st century the nats exerted a powerful influence on the lives of the ordinary people; every village had its own nat house—a fragile pavilion built into a tree, after the pattern of the tribal house, and adorned with shreds of coloured cloth, glass, and other offerings. The Buddhist temple in Burma is conceived essentially as an enormous nat house, a section of the domain of the spiritual located upon earth. And, since the Buddha was adopted as the last and greatest of the nats, the same symbols of supernatural splendour that adorn the nats adorn the Buddha’s images, and a nat-like spirituality attaches to the ubiquitous monks in whom the presence of Buddhism is experienced as an everyday reality.
11th century to the present
When King Anawrahta came to the throne, he captured the Mon city Thaton in Lower Burma and carried off its royal family, many skilled craftsmen, and most of the Theravada monks to his own northern city of Pagan. The king recognized the superior culture of the Mon captives; he established their main form of Buddhism by decree and gave them the task of organizing and civilizing the new united Burmese kingdom and producing for it a Buddhist art. Under Anawrahta’s successor, links with the Buddhist homeland were forged. Embassies were sent to Bodh Gaya, in Indian Bihar, and the Mahabodhi temple there—marking the spot where the Buddha achieved enlightenment—was restored with Burmese money and somewhat in Burmese taste. A smaller copy, with its large rectangular block crowned by the characteristic pyramidal, storied tower, was built at Anawrahta’s Pagan. It is there that the greatest achievements of western Mon art—a splendid profusion of architecture and decorative work—are probably to be found. After 1287, when Burma was sacked and garrisoned by the Mongols, new construction at Pagan was virtually abandoned.
In Pagan (founded c. 849), architecture is the dominant art; except for the big brick icons, mostly ruined, sculpture and painting play a subordinate role. Pagan contains the largest surviving group of buildings in brick and plaster of the many thousands that once stood in various parts of South Asia. The remains at the site, all religious buildings of one kind or another that must once have been surrounded by dense building in perishable materials, are in varying states of preservation. The inscriptions they bear indicate that royal devotees often turned their palaces over to religious use; so it is likely that palace and monastic architecture were very close in style. A few structures still stand that belong to the period before Anawrahta, some of them inspired by Mahayana Buddhism and one—the Nat Hlaung Gyaung (c. 931)—by Hinduism. Flanking the Sarabha Gate is a pair of small nat shrines with pointed, open windows—the earliest in Burma, perhaps 9th century.
The library at Pagan, now in Myanmar, c. 1058.Louis Frederic—Rapho/Photo ResearchersThe library, built about 1058 to house the books of one of the Buddhist monasteries, is one of the most important buildings in Pagan. It is rectangular, with a series of five stepped-in, sloping stone roofs crowned by a rectangular tower finial. The concave contours of the roofs are characteristic of much Burmese architecture. The eaves and corners of all the tiers are adorned with the typical Pagan flame ornament, or antefix.
Shwesandaw cetiya (a building that combines the attributes of both stupa and shrine), Pagan, now in Myanmar, 11th century.Louis Frederic—Rapho/Photo ResearchersThere are other buildings of the same general type among the ruins of Pagan. Far the most numerous and important, however, are the buildings—called cetiyas—that combine the attributes of stupa and shrine. These have a history and a line of evolution of their own, which can be traced from the Pyu stupa to the huge structural temple. The typical stupa, derived from the early medieval Indian form, is a tall structure consisting of a solid dome set on a tiered square plinth (often with miniature stupas at the corners) around which the faithful may perambulate. The dome is surmounted by a harmika, which resembles the small railed enclosure found on the oldest Indian stupas. In Burmese stupas, however, the harmika becomes a decorated cubical die, above which is a circular pointed spire; in memory of its distant origin in India, the spire is horizontally flanged (rimmed) with moldings in a series of honorific umbrellas of decreasing size. In later practice harmika and umbrella spire become a single architectural unit. The Burmese stupa dome, based on the tall, cylindrical Pyu prototype, has a spreading concave foot resembling a bell rim. The Lokananda and Shwesandaw at Pagan are two well-known examples. Because in recent times they have been coated with plaster, the finely detailed brick carving characteristic of early Pagan architecture has been obscured. Such carving is beautifully exemplified in the Seinnyet temple at Myinpagan (11th century).
Ananda temple, Pagan, Myanmar, dedicated 1090.Louis Frederic—Rapho/Photo ReseachersAnawrahta’s type of cetiya followed the general form of the early Pyu stupa. The main point of evolution was in the progressive elaboration of the terraced plinths on which the dome stands. The plinths became virtually sacred mountains, with a series of staircases running from terrace to terrace up each of the four sides. Perhaps inspired by vanished work in contemporary late-11th-century India, the Burmese began to open up the interior of the terraced base of the stupas with wide corridors and porticos, converting it into a roofed temple. The cylinder of the stupa dome was carried down through this temple space to its floor. Four large Buddha icons were added to the lower part of the dome, facing the four directions. Once this conception had evolved, it was possible to create around the central stupa a broad circuit of roofed enclosures, which from the outside would still suggest the traditional pattern of the stupa standing on its raised terraces, while the interior could be used for ceremonial, as in a true temple. Sculpture and painting, decorating the internal halls, corridors, and doorways, recounted the life of the Buddha and presented the example of his previous virtuous incarnations. The most famous example of this type of cetiya is the great Ananda temple at Pagan (dedicated 1090). It is still in use, unlike most of the old temples there, and so is kept in repair; it is painted a blazing white with lime stucco—which has, of course, obscured the finer detail of its old architecture. Its plan is square, with a broad, four-pillared porch hall added to all of the four doors in the four faces of the square. Its tower is a curvilinear pyramid resembling eastern Indian Hindu temple towers, and its enormous brick mass is pierced with two circuits of vaulted corridors. The sloping, curved terrace roofs have an elegant overall concave profile and flame antefixes along all the eaves.
Ananda Temple (left) and Thatpyinnyu Temple (centre), Pagan, Myan.Tim Hall/Getty ImagesAs time went on, Burmese brick and stucco architecture developed principally through the stiffening of masses into rectangular blocks and through the elaboration and often the coarsening of its ornament. The 13th-century Gawdawpalin temple at Pagan, for example, consists of a rectangular hall with a large closed entrance porch; the hall is surmounted by a tall but narrow second story whose decoration repeats that of the lower story; the whole building is crowned by a four-faced tower with a curved profile. Multiple moldings and decorative motifs are used as outlining elements and the doors are framed in elaborate upward-flaring hooded porches.
Until the Mongol conquest in 1287 much excellent work seems to have been done at Pagan. It is, however, impossible to form an adequate idea of the older styles of temple architecture at other sites in Myanmar, such as Yangon or Mandalay. Whereas most of the temples of Pagan were abandoned early on, so that even though they may be ruined they show their original characteristics, temples in modern cities have been repeatedly and drastically restored. Old stupas may have as many as eight successive casings of brick and stucco; temple walls and doors are constantly torn down and rebuilt; and stucco surfaces may be renewed almost annually. Such attentions to a religious building are popularly regarded as acts of merit; thus, revered architectural monuments suffer continually from well-intentioned but disastrous renovation. At the big stupa sites huge numbers of pagodas are constantly falling into decay and new ones are being built at great speed. Among them are variants, whose evolution cannot at present be traced, on the basic pattern of the long tapering bell, with a variety of transverse moldings, standing perhaps on a recessed plinth. Many are covered quickly with extravagant and gross stucco ornament. Ornate flaring porches and flame finials are added to gates, wall ends, and eaves corners. A tapering slenderness is the outstanding characteristic of all the different types.
Shwe Dagon (Golden Pagoda), Yangon, Myanmar, c. 15th century.R. Manley/Shostal AssociatesThe monastic architecture—patterned on the hall, with its elaborate doors—that surrounds the great stupa sites of Yangon and Mandalay is mainly in wood, built by simple pillar and architrave construction. The roofs are steeply gabled, with multiple gables riding over each other on immense carved pillars in the larger halls. The angles between pillar and architrave and the edges of roof gables, tiers, and terraces are filled with flamboyant cartouches (scroll-shaped ornaments) of pierced work, often lacquered and gilt; thus, the whole building may be smothered in repetitive ornamental curlicues. All this ornament has an otherworldly or spiritual significance. Other stupa sites in Myanmar, where less money has been spent and less ornament added to the buildings, may be more beautiful to the modern eye, with only a few flamboyant antefixes pointing the gables and punctuating the eaves. Throughout Myanmar similar buildings can be found; but, while many have been listed, they have been scantily surveyed, and no real study of their complex history has yet been attempted. There may well be a substantial Chinese influence in the construction of some of the wooden halls and pavilions.
Terra-cotta relief at the Petleik-Matangjakata temple, Pagan, now in Myanmar, late 11th century.J.A. Lavaud, ParisPaintings and sculpture in Theravada Burma do not seem to have reached the same heights of achievement as in other countries of Southeast Asia. They do not show the same originality and sense of life. The temples of Pagan contain the best examples, although even these are highly schematic, reminiscent in design of eastern Indian Buddhist manuscript styles. A number of early buildings at Pagan contain fragmentary terra-cotta (fired clay) reliefs or scraps of wall painting whose individual figures display some of the sensuous charm of their Indian prototypes (it is quite likely that Indian artists worked there). The 12th-century terra-cotta panels from the elaborate facings of the Ananda temple, however, show the beginnings of the petrifaction that overtook later Burmese figurative art. Both in reliefs and in wall paintings, the figure compositions are reduced to schematic groups of the minimum number of standard human and celestial types needed to tell a moral story, without any infrastructure of significant form and execution. The colossal Buddha images enshrined in the temples were usually built of brick and finished in stucco, gilded and ornamented. Such work is still done at high speed today. The technique is not a flexible one, and the emphasis of Theravada Buddhism on the exact imitation of ancient Buddha images gave the Burmese no aesthetic incentive to develop the expression of their figures or compositions. The repeated heavy gilding and repainting of older icons has almost entirely destroyed any formal vitality they may once have had.
From about 1700 to 1850 Burma excelled in the decorative arts, whose forms continually recall those of Theravada Sri Lanka. Burmese woven silks and embroideries are well-known. The carved wooden screens, panels, and brackets used inside temple halls, many devoted to representing the nats and the population of the spirit world, have benefitted from being outside the strict canon of Theravada Buddhist orthodoxy. The figure types follow fluid, slightly “boneless” conventions derived from classical Indianizing dance postures. The decorative goldwares and silverwares, which use much stereotyped decorative scrollwork, are also based on standard Indianizing iconography. Perhaps the most aesthetically satisfying works of the Burmese sculptors are the reliefs ornamenting the sutra chests that were used in monasteries to store the sacred texts of Buddhism. The gilt gesso (paste used for making reliefs) facings of these chests carry the schematic style of relief sculpture beyond its normal aesthetic limits. This is accomplished by the way they are compelled to set off their figures as an intelligible scheme of thin raised lines and inlay against a plain ground. The forms of the fine lacquer bowls and boxes used in monasteries, decorated only superficially with painted ornament, show the underlying formal sense of the Burmese at its clearest.
Interesting regional types of Burmese art are those of the Shan and Karen peoples, who live in the relatively remote northern hills. These areas have often produced extremely beautiful types of domestic and religious architecture, made of wood, on stone bases. They are a simpler and more austere version of the ancient pattern that underlies the halls and pavilions of the more sophisticated recent southern temple buildings, with their steep, gabled roofs. The peoples of the north also produce a variety of decorative arts. Notable among them are the textiles, which are characterized by banding, checkering, and triangular counterchanging of brilliant colours set off against black. The woven shoulder bags, particularly, are well-known in the West.
Thailand and Laos
Archaeology has recovered in central Thailand substantial glimpses of the magnificent early layer of Indianized culture, which includes a religious art that was produced between the 6th and 11th centuries by the eastern Mon kingdom of Dvaravati. The art was created predominantly to serve Theravada Buddhism. Remains of Dvaravati architecture so far excavated include stupa bases: notable examples include the Wat Phra Meru in Nagara Pathama (Nakhon Pathom) and others at Ku Bua and U Thong, some of which have elephants supporting their bases, following a pattern that originated in Sri Lanka. The plinths of Buddhist assembly halls, which existed near the solid monumental structures, have also been discovered. Many terra-cotta and stucco fragments of decorative surface designs and celestial figures have also been found. The Wat Pra Meru, on a plan similar to that of the Ananda temple at Pagan in Burma (see aboveBurma), probably antedates the latter’s foundation (c. 1090). It is likely that many other ancient monuments are encased in later stupas that are still being used for religious purposes, for it was probably customary not to destroy an old sacred monument but to encase it in a new shell, maybe several times over, and perhaps to construct a small external replica of the encased original alongside.
At many sites, especially Lop Buri, Ayutthaya, and U Thong, fine Dvaravati sculptures have been found among the architectural remains. Particularly important are the seated and standing Buddha figures in stone and bronze. Many of the faces have characteristic Mon features, with lips turned outward (everted) and downward-curved eyelids marked by double channels. Some of these Dvaravati images may well have furnished models for later Khmer art in Cambodia.
Dvaravati sculpture shows close relations with several Indian styles, notably those of Amaravati, Gupta, post-Gupta, and Pala Bihar. It also was probably influenced strongly by the art of the enigmatic kingdom of Shrivijaya in Sumatra, as well as by central Javanese types (see belowIndonesia). One outstanding masterpiece from Chaiya, of Dvaravati date, may well be a work produced in Shrivijaya. It is a bronze torso and head of a bodhisattva, for which a mid-8th-century date is suggested. The body and face are modeled with a plastic and delicate sensuousness; and the elaborate necklaces, crowns, earrings, and armlets are beautifully chased (decoratively indented by hammering). The Shrivijaya origin is made more likely by stylistic reminiscences of the sculpture of contemporary Indonesia, which was also under Sumatran inspiration.
Khmer conquest and Tai immigration: 11th to 13th century
Angkorian-style bronze finial from Cambodia, c. 1200; in the Honolulu Academy of Arts.Photograph by honolulu0919. Honolulu Academy of Arts, gift of the Academy’s Volunteer Fund, 1989 (5804.1)In the 11th century Dvaravati was captured by the Khmer of Cambodia and became a province of their empire. A number of Khmer shrines, probably intended as focuses of the Khmer Hindu dynastic cult, were built in Siam (Thailand). At Phimai (Bimaya) was the most important full-fledged Khmer temple, where one of the personal cult statues of the Khmer king Jayavarman II (see belowCambodia and Vietnam) has been found, together with bronze images, some of Tantric Buddhist deities. At Lop Buri the Phra Prang Sam Yot is perhaps the best surviving example in brick and stucco of Khmer provincial art in Thailand, its tall towers having complex rebated (blunted) corners and its porticoes high, flamboyant pediments (the triangular space used as decoration over porticoes, doors, and windows). Wat Kukut, at Lamphun, built by a Dvaravati Mon king around 1130, represents an adaptation of the Khmer stepped-pyramid temple base as pattern for the temple itself. The niches on its terraces are filled with images in a deliberately archaistic revival of the old Mon style.
Bodhisattva from Nanchao, an ancient Tai kingdom (now in Yunnan province, China), bronze, 13th century; in the British Museum, London. Height 44 cm.Courtesy of the trustees of the British MuseumDuring the period when the Khmer were taking over the southern Mon region of Thailand, the northern region was falling under the domination of immigrant Tai peoples. The Tai were a branch of the migrating population who invaded Burma as the Burmese and of the Sinicized Vietnamese who were then pushing southward into what is now Vietnam. The Tai seem to have professed an animist nature religion, resembling the early form of the Burmese cult of the nats (see aboveBurma). This whole group of peoples originated most probably as a tribal population in the region of Tonkin and Canton. In the course of their southward migrations they probably played an important role, as yet unclear, in a kingdom called Nanchao, in what is now the Chinese province of Yunnan. The rulers of this kingdom seem to have followed a Mahayana form of Buddhism, including the cult of a bodhisattva as personal patron of the king. Several smallish bronze icons of a bodhisattva with a nude torso and a strap round the upper belly are known from Nanchao, in a style reminiscent of the later Pallava art of the east coast of peninsular India. The date of these images is still uncertain. Tai kingdoms were gradually established farther and farther south. Some of their tribes gained experience of administrative techniques by living within the boundaries of the Khmer empire, with their own chieftains under Khmer officials. When the Khmer power was broken in the 13th century, the Tai moved into central and southern Siam, intermarrying with the Mon.
The Tai people normally built in perishable materials, wood and bamboo in particular. Their animist religion, which has no canonical group resembling the Burmese nats, is still very much alive today. The spirits of trees need to be pacified, and the ancestors can be powerful helpers. Shamans, in a state of trance, make contact with the spirit world to perform good or evil magic. In the wooden high-gabled houses of the northern Tai (Chiengmai province), even today, ornate lintels are carved with floral relief designs to sanctify and potentiate the inner domestic part of the house where the domestic spirits live. The animist religion gave ground partially to Buddhism, which was gradually assimilated among the people, and at some date, as yet uncertain, was adopted by the greater Tai kings as a dynastic religion. With the spread of Buddhism a special religious architecture in brick and stucco was established.
The Thai kingdom: 13th to 17th century
Seated Buddha, gilt bronze sculpture from Sukhothai, Thailand, 14th–early 15th century; in the Honolulu Academy of Arts.Photograph by L. Mandle. Honolulu Academy of Arts, gift of John Young, 1991 (6723.1)During most of its history, Thailand has been divided into two fairly distinct regions, a northern and a southern, the capital of the north at Chiang Mai, the capital of the south at Ayutthaya. Between the two lies the great trade-route city of Sukhothai, possession of which fluctuated between the north and the south. Sukhothai seems to have been the principal focus and source of Buddhist culture in Siam, for it retained direct touch with Sri Lanka, which, after the decline of Buddhism in India in the 12th century, became the principal home of Theravada Buddhism. By the 15th century the difficult art of casting large-scale Buddha figures in bronze had been mastered in the north of Siam, as well as in the south.
Sculpture
The Thai kings made repeated attempts to “purify” their conservative Theravada strain of Buddhism, importing patterns of art along with texts and learned monks from Sri Lanka and trying to wean their people from worship of the spirits. To retain the greatest spiritual potency, Buddha icons in Thai temples had to be as close in type as possible to a great original prototype that Buddhist tradition erroneously believed had been made during the lifetime of the Buddha; in practice, this meant the types the local craftsmen knew as the oldest and most authentic. There were at least three major successive efforts by Thai kings to establish and distribute an “authentic” canon for the Buddha icons, which were their prime artistic concern. Each type that became canonical and was known to be magically effective was imitated repeatedly. For it was regarded as an act of merit simply to multiply images of the Buddha, whether they were to be installed in temples or not; hence, in addition to icons, enormous numbers of small images—made of many materials, from bronze, silver, stone, and wood to terra-cotta—were kept in temple storehouses. The images followed canonical patterns established for the major temple icons.
Since their work had to be as similar as possible to the oldest sacred images of which they knew, the Buddhist sculptors in Siam adhered to strict formulas and diagrams; artistic development was never a part of their purpose, though of course gradual change did occur. There is no tradition in Theravada Siam in any way resembling the traditions of Mahayana art in, say, Cambodia or Indonesia, which encouraged artists to explore the possibilities of their mediums to express developing religious conceptions. Thus, Thai Buddhist sculpture consisted almost entirely of careful repetitions of the standardized types, which tended naturally, despite the artist’s desire to capture an authentic sense of style, to lose their older vitality. It also happened that the three main canonical patterns often lost their individuality, blending into each other. Perhaps the best works were made in the 15th century, but work of high quality was still being done in the 16th and early 17th centuries.
The first canonical types were the Sukhothai, which seem to have been evolved in the trade-route city of Sukhothai as an attempt to capture the quality of early-medieval Sri Lankan images and elements from Dvaravati sculpture. The developed versions of these types are marked by an extremely smooth, rounded modeling of the body and face, without any clearly defined planes. The outlines of hair, eyebrows, lips, and fingers are elegantly recurved, or S-curved, and the head is crowned by a tall, pointed flame finial. The entire figure gives an impression of great elegance. Full-fledged Sukhothai images of the full-round walking Buddha—an original Sukhothai invention—emphasize a kind of swaying, sinuous, boneless grace in the execution of the legs and arms. One of the most impressive colossal images of the type is the brick and stucco icon at the Wat Mahathat, Sawankhalok, another Sukhothai technical forte, dating probably to the 14th century. This type of image remained the most popular in Siam; an enormous number of imitations, of all dates, are preserved, many in Western collections.
Perhaps the Buddha types most successful aesthetically were those called after U Thong. They were produced originally in the southern capital of Ayutthaya, which took over Sukhothai in 1349, and represent a fusion of the Sukhothai types with vestiges of Khmer and Theravada Dvaravati traditions, whose Buddha types had been marked by a strong Mon sense of squared-off design and cubic volume. The latter may have been influential because they seemed to incorporate an older and more authentic tradition, since they were based upon patterns developed in eastern India, the true homeland of Buddhism. In the U Thong style the sinuous linear curves, loops, and dry ridges of the pure Sukhothai patterns are suppressed, and genuine modeling, with clearly defined planes and volumes, appears. In the northern kingdom a crude version of the Sukhothai type gained currency in the late 14th century. When, in the middle of the 15th century, King Tiloka of the northern kingdom re-established contact with Sri Lanka, images seem to have been imported directly from that country. They must have shown clearly how far the Sukhothai types had departed from the type used in the Buddhist homeland, because the third Siamese icon pattern, known as the lion type, attempted to recapture the stern simplicity of the genuine Sinhalese images. Most of the best examples were made between 1470 and 1565. Limbs and bodies are given a massive cylindrical strength, and the Sukhothai elegance is eliminated. It seems, however, that the native Thai genius is for the sinuous and unplastic curve, which may have expressed for them the same spiritual unworldliness as it did in Burmese ornament. Thus, in later examples reminiscent of the lion type, the curvilinear patterns of the Sukhothai style reassert themselves with more or less emphasis; and by the end of the 16th century the lion type had lost its distinguishing features and merged into the run of Sukhothai patterns.
Architecture and painting
Wat Chet Yot, Chiang Mai, Thailand, late 15th century.Louis Frederic—Rapho/Photo ResearchersThere are as yet few results of authenticated research available concerning the history of architecture during the early period of Thai supremacy. Many monasteries contain stupas, or cheddis, that either originated or were renewed in this period; but most of the monasteries themselves have been repeatedly overworked. Building complexes seem to have developed by accretion, rather than by the studied working out of space articulations. The oldest building in Ayutthaya, dating from the early 13th century, is the Wat Bhuddai Svarya, a towered shrine, approached by a columned hall. From the late 14th century onward, Sukhothai influence seems to have predominated everywhere. The architectural types included a bell-shaped reliquary stupa with a circular flanged base and onion finials, reminiscent of combined Sri Lankan and Burmese patterns; a stupa raised upon a cylindrical shrine as its drum; and a shrine with a plinth faced with images (usually later additions) above which rise one or more pyramidal towers reminiscent of the tower of the Mahabodhi temple at Bodh Gaya in Bihar, India. An example of the third architectural type is King Tiloka’s late-15th-century Wat Chet Yot at Chiang Mai, which has one large and four smaller pyramids mounted on a main block. The Thai kings also adopted something of the personal funeral cult of Khmer Angkor (see belowCambodia and Vietnam), for a custom grew of building bell-shaped brick stupas—which had earlier been used only for the relics of Buddhist saints—as the kings’ tombs, each approached by a colonnaded hall and surrounded by smaller stupas or shrines. In many of the brick and plaster or wooden monastic buildings of more recent centuries, such as the Wat Po in Bangkok, one can trace the distant influence of the Khmer styles of Angkor. Tall, gabled roofs, with steps and overlaps, the gables adorned with flame finials, are typical, exemplified by the Water Pavilion at Bang Pa-in.
Water Pavilion, Bang Pa-in, Thailand, 1294.Luc Bouchage—Rapho/Photo ResearchersThai painting of the early period (13th–16th centuries) demands a great deal more research and study than it has yet received. Although it is, of course, devoted to the canonical iconography of the Theravada, its fluent and relatively unschematic outline shows that it retained much of the original inspiration visible in the earlier work at Burmese Pagan (see aboveBurma). The oldest examples of Thai painting are the much-ruined frescoes in the Silpa cave, Yala, and some engraved panels from Wat Si Chum, Sukhothai, dated to 1287. Later paintings (dating to the 1420s) in the inner chambers of the Wat Rat Burana and Wat Mahathat at Ayutthaya show strong Chinese and perhaps Khmer influence in their high perspectives and landscape backgrounds with animals, combined with the native Thai clear outlines and bright, flat colours. By the 17th century at, for example, the Wat Yai Suwannaram at Phet Buri, large mural compositions—such as an elaborate scene of demons worshipping the Buddha—were being undertaken. In this later painting, theatrical stereotypes from the Thai dance-drama exerted a strong influence in the rendering of figures.
18th century to the present
Thai painted lacquer panel of a court scene, Bangkok style, mid-19th century; in the collection of Prince Piya Rangsit, Bangkok. Height 50 cm.Holle Bildarchiv, Baden-BadenIn the 18th century the Burmese invaded and conquered Siam. The Burmese king—in expiation, it is said, of his war guilt—ordered the construction of many Buddhist buildings in the current Burmese style (see aboveBurma). These made their impact on Thai art, and the gaudy gilding and inlay characteristic of late Burmese ornament were widely adopted. When the capital was moved to the present Bangkok, in 1782, no substantial artistic development took place, though large pagodas were built and filled with rows of images, many in gilt wood. A highly ornate interpretation of older, airily flamboyant Burmese decorative styles, featuring curved “oxhorn” projections, blunted the edge of architectural and sculptural quality. Without exception, the new large-scale icons were dull and inferior works of art; and the monstrous guardian figures of spiritual beings and lions decorating the major shrines are fantastic rather than aesthetically valuable. In the painting of wooden panels, some of them votive, and of historical manuscripts, the Thai retained a good deal of their older vigour. The figures illustrating legend and history are based upon the unworldly stereotypes of the court dance.
Vessel and cover in the shape of a sacred bird, gold decorated with filigree work and inlaid with rubies and imitation emeralds, 19th century; in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Height 41.5 cm.A.C. Cooper/The Victoria and Albert Museum, LondonIn addition to the incorporation of European motives, many buildings and their ornamentation in Bangkok have a strongly Chinese flavour. This is attributable partly to the influence of the large expatriate Chinese population living there and partly to the influence of earlier expatriate Chinese craftsmen. The early 20th-century Pathamacetiya at Nagara Pathama (Nakhon Pathom), which is entirely orange, is a fine example of the many cheddis. Some tiles were certainly imported from China, but others were descendants of the fine pottery (of basically Chinese inspiration) that was produced at the kilns of Sawankhalok during the 14th and 15th centuries by expatriate Chinese craftsmen. This pottery imitated in its own materials Chinese Yuan dynasty (1279–1368) Cizhou and celadon wares (stonewares and porcelain with a glaze developed by the Chinese) with underglaze ornament and blue or brown painted decoration. Similar wares were made in the 15th century at kilns at Sukhothai and at Chiang Mai. Some of these pieces are, in their own idiom, as fine as native Chinese work. Later, during the 18th and 19th centuries, somewhat garish, flamboyant Ayutthaya figure designs in polychrome were applied to rice bowls and other vessels.
Laos
That Luang stupa, Vientiane, Laos, 1566, restored 18th and 19th centuries.Holle Bildarchiv, Baden-BadenThe kingdom of Lan Xang (Laos) was founded in the mid-14th century and ruled by Buddhist Thai. At the northern capital, Luang Prabang, the influence of the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai predominated; in the southern capital, Vientiane, a mixture of Ayutthaya and Khmer motives prevailed. In Laos there is no stone and little brick architecture. The most impressive single monument, the brick and stucco That Luang in Vientiane, founded in 1566 but much restored, is a stupa, shaped as a tall four-faced dome on a square plinth enclosed in a court; the dome is crowned with an ornate spire and encircled by a row of similarly shaped spires. The architecture of monastic halls also follows the Thai pattern; very steep multiple-gabled roofs, gently curved and overhung with long eaves, are carried on brick or wooden pillars and adorned with flame finials. Buddha figures, preserved in some of the monasteries, are based on northern Thai versions of Sukhothai types; some may be as early as the 17th century. The schematic paintings on monastery walls are in versions of the later Thai styles. In the northwest a strong influence from late Burmese art can be found in Buddhist images made to serve a religion that was far closer to the original Thai animism than to true Buddhism.
Cambodia and Vietnam
Paleolithic tools similar to types found in India have been found in Cambodia and Vietnam; and it is possible to trace the movement of population or culture groups, some of whom probably migrated onward by sea from Southeast Asia into the islands. The important group of speakers of Mon-Khmer languages may conceivably have been the people who produced the megalithic monuments in Cambodia and Laos, which include colossal stone burial urns, dolmens, and menhirs, perhaps associated with the many circular earth platforms as yet unexcavated (see aboveGeneral development of Southeast Asian art). Probably contemporaneous, at least in part, with the Neolithic Mon-Khmer culture is the culture known by the name of its richest, most northerly site, Dong Son, on the coast of the Gulf of Tonkin in northern Vietnam. It seems probable that the chief influences on this culture came from southern China. Many sites, ranging in date from about the 4th to the 1st century bce, stretch southward from the coast of Vietnam, as far as northern New Guinea. The islands of Indonesia and parts of Malaya may have been the principal location of the Dong Son culture.
The most impressive bronze objects produced by this culture are large drums, which seem sometimes to have been buried with the dead. Splendid examples have been found in Java and Bali (see belowIndonesia). These and many other bronze objects, such as superb funeral urns with relief ornament based on squared hooks, lamp holders, dagger hilts in the form of human figures, and other weapons, are of extremely high quality. Their ornament was produced by the Chinese casting technique of incising the patterns into the negative mold that was to receive the molten bronze; much of it suggests a parallel version of contemporary Chinese ornament of the Qin period (221–206 bce). From the figures and objects represented in this bronze work, it seems that the Dong Son culture had much in common with that of some of the peoples of the Melanesian islands today. The culture knew large seagoing canoes, houses similar in structure to those still common among peoples of Melanesia, and ceremonies that the Melanesians might recognize. It is probable that one group of their descendants, which retained its identity, is known to the history of this region as the Cham (see belowVietnam kingdom of Champa).
Although many peoples isolated in the densely forested uplands also retained a tribal identity, by far the most important art was produced in the two Indianizing empires: Khmer, in Cambodia, with its linear predecessors the kingdoms of Funan and of Chenla (names they were given by Chinese historians), and the Cham, in Vietnam.
Cambodian kingdoms of Funan and Chenla: 1st to 9th century
Funan, which was in existence by the 1st century ce, was the earliest of the kingdoms that arose along the lower reaches of the Mekong River in response to Indian ideas. Its influence probably extended over long stretches of the coast of the Gulf of Siam, even as far as southern Burma, and corresponded with the range of the Mon peoples. Lying on the natural focus of land and sea routes linking eastern India and southern China to the islands of the South Seas, its geographical situation was ideal for a kingdom whose wealth was based on trade. At Funan sites even Roman, Ptolemaic Egyptian, and Sassanian Persian objects have been found, giving an idea of the extent of its trading interests.
The founder was probably a Brahmin trader from western India; for a local legend describes how the first king, a Brahmin, married the daughter of a local serpent deity, so establishing the ruling family. Serpents (nagas) in Indian mythology are the spiritual patrons of water; and the basis this kingdom laid for later kingdoms in the same area was an elaborate system of waterworks, canals, and irrigation channels controlling and distributing the waters of the Mekong River. Contemporary Chinese accounts refer to cities with splendid wooden buildings, carved, painted, and gilded. But nothing remains, save a few foundation piles. Probably during the 6th century ce the kingdom called Chenla was established in the upper-middle reaches of the Mekong River, in what is now Laos. The kings who ruled in Chenla were descended from the kings of Funan and took over much of the Funan domain. It seems that disastrous floods had finally ruined Funan, which had previously suffered from Indonesian aggression, and that the shift of power to Chenla represented a recognition of temporarily insuperable geographical difficulties.
Culturally, Funan and Chenla are continuous. Their artists produced some of the world’s greatest stone sculptures, most of which are large, freestanding icons, carved in sandstone. Intended to be installed in brick-built shrines, none of which survive, they usually represent the two major deities of Hinduism, Shiva and Vishnu. Sometimes both deities are combined into a single figure called Harihara; the right half of the body is characterized as Shiva, the left as Vishnu. A few examples of other figures are known, including some magnificent images of goddesses. The style of these sculptures is marked by an extremely smooth, continuously undulating surface, given strength by a system of clear, broad frontal planes and side recessions related to the foursquare block. Such images were meant to demonstrate the power and charm of a heavenly prototype to whom an earthly king appealed for his authority. The earliest images belong to the 6th century, and the series continues into the 9th.
In later Khmer times each king and sometimes each member of a royal house had statues of himself or herself in the guise of a patron deity set up in the family temple precinct. That the same custom prevailed in 6th-century India, particularly in the southeast, suggests that some of the early Funan and Chenla sculptures may have served the same function. A number of figures are Indian in style—some more markedly than others, which is probably more than a matter of date; for it is quite likely that Indian craftsmen occasionally traveled into this region to work. The style of the greatest of these early sculptures, however, is not Indian at all.
Similarly non-Indian are the magnificent sandstone lintels made for the doorways of the vanished brick shrines. Although distantly related to Indian prototypes of the 1st and 2nd centuries ce, they appear as full-fledged Indochinese inventions and may well have been developed in combination with a native conception of the lintel as a special attribute of the spirit shrine (see aboveThailand and Laos). They are carved in relief with designs based on a pair of monsters, one at each end, which are linked by an ornate arched or lobed beam. The beam is adorned with figures inside foliate plaques, a long sequence of elaborately carved swags of jewels hanging beneath them.
Among the Funan-Chenla sculptures are a few Buddhist icons executed in sandstone, markedly less sensuous than the Hindu figures and close to the styles of Dvaravati (see aboveThailand and Laos), though a number of small Buddhist bronzes representing bodhisattvas approach the delicacy of the Hindu work.
Kingdom of Khmer: 9th to 13th century
Late in the 8th century the kingdom of Chenla declined politically, perhaps because of dynastic disputes with the rising power of Indonesian kings, who were themselves also descended from the original royal dynasty of Funan. It seems that the Indonesians gave some assistance in establishing a new kingdom in the northern part of what had been the territory of Funan. In 802 a Khmer king, who took the title of Jayavarman II, established his capital near Phnom Kulen, about 20 miles (30 km) from Angkor. It was a rather unsuitable place for an administrative capital, but it was a mountain, and the peoples of Southeast Asia have always believed that gods and spirits dwell on mountaintops. The image of the sacred mountain thereafter remained the inspiration for all the later architecture of the Khmer around Angkor. Jayavarman, who built other temples in the vicinity, seems to have revived the Chenla style. A distinctively Khmer art, however, began to emerge under Indravarman I (877–889), who expanded the boundaries of the Khmer kingdom and finally settled its administration. Most important of all, he developed the initial plan of the colossal city of Angkor, whose mysterious ruins, lost in dense jungle until very recently, have tantalized Western travelers for centuries.
In order to conform with mountain mythology, the Khmer kings built themselves a series of artificial mountains on the Cambodian plain at Angkor, each crowned by shrines containing images of gods and of themselves, their family, and their ancestors. The huge platforms of earth on which these buildings were founded probably consist of the soil excavated in forming the lakes, moats, and channels that not only divided up the city but also provided an easy means of transport. The temple mountains, like the city itself, are oriented east to west, the main gates facing east. Each king strove to outdo his predecessor in the height, size, and splendour of his temple mountain. The earlier ones, therefore, are relatively small, though beautiful, while the later ones, such as Angkor Wat and the Bayon, are of stupendous size.
In the basic pattern of the Khmer temple mountain the principal overall enclosure, which is square or rectangular, is at ground level. Within it the artificial mountain rises through a series of terraces and at least one further enclosure wall toward a flat summit. On the summit stands either a single shrine or a group of shrines, often a quincunx—five shrines, one at each corner and one in the middle of a square. Arranged along the terraces or within the enclosures there may be further shrines, whose arched doorway pediments refer to the rainbow bridge between heaven and earth. There may be other long buildings, perhaps used as libraries or administrative offices. A principal staircase runs directly up from the east gate to the summit, and sometimes subsidiary staircases run up from other gates at the cardinal directions.
The architecture of the shrines themselves is relatively simple; it is based upon patterns invented in India, though the ornament of the shrines is often highly developed and characteristically Cambodian. Fundamentally, each shrine consists of a cell whose internal space is cubic and whose external walls are marked by moldings at top and bottom. The shrine is roofed by a pyramidal tower composed of a series of similar but diminishing tiers, each of them a compressed version of the exterior pattern of the main shrine volume. Depending on which Indian pattern is followed, the cell has one main door with an elaborately carved portal or, if the plan is cruciform, four entrances. The earlier shrines were built of brick, most commonly with stucco ornament and figures on the outside. The later shrines were built of stone, with all their ornament and figurative sculpture carved in relief. The moldings on the roofs of the shrines and the decoration of the roofs of many of the subsidiary buildings are extremely elaborate. There are long panels of dense foliate ornament, and the niches in which the sculptured relief figures of celestials are set are framed in flamboyant ogival (contoured like a pointed arch) moldings crowned by no less flamboyant foliate ornament; the smaller architectural features, such as niche pilasters, are elaborately carved and molded. The figures themselves wear gorgeous jewelry and chignons. The massive stone icons that survive in some of the shrines and on the terraces do not have the subtlety or strength of the Funan-Chenla sculptures. Instead, they have an inflated massiveness, intended, no doubt, to make them awe-inspiring. Among the lesser relief figures of celestials, which decorate the walls of the shrines, one finds a more sensuous touch; for many of these celestials represent apsaras, the celestial girls of Indian mythology.
On some of the temple mountains there are also relief panels illustrating various aspects of the royal mythology. Episodic relief sculpture first appears on Banteay Srei (10th century). The relief centres on a series of Indian legends dealing with the cosmic mountain Meru as the source of all creation and with the divine origin of water. The chief artistic achievement of its architecture is the way in which it conceives and coordinates the spaces between the walls of the enclosures, the faces of the terraces, and the volumes of the shrine buildings. A most sophisticated architecture of full and empty space, it seems to have been influenced by that of the Hindu Pallava dynasty in southeastern India.
The earliest more or less complete example of a shrine complex devoted to deifying the ancestors of a king is the Preah Ko at Roluos, near Angkor, completed in 879. The earliest surviving temple mountain at Angkor itself is the Bakong, probably finished in 881. In the central shrine at the summit was a linga, the phallic emblem sacred to Shiva. Around the base of the terraced pyramid stood eight large shrines inside the main enclosure, with a series of moats, causeways, and auxiliary sculptures guarding the approaches to the exterior. The Bakheng, begun in 893, had an enormous series of 108 tower shrines arranged on the terraces around the central pyramid, which was crowned by a quincunx of principal shrines. The whole was intended to illustrate a mystical conception of the cosmos, very much on the lines of the great temple mountain at Borobudur in Java (see belowIndonesia). Pre Rup, dedicated in 961, was probably the first of the temple mountains intended as a permanent shrine for the divine spirit of a king after his death. It, too, has a quincunx of principal shrines, but it is distinguished by the large number of auxiliary pavilions arranged along both sides of the inner enclosure wall.
Shiva and Uma, sandstone, from Banteay Srei, Angkor, Cambodia, late 10th century; in the National Museum, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Height 60 cm.Holle Bildarchiv, Baden-BadenFrom roughly the same period is perhaps the most beautiful—and most beautifully preserved—of the early Khmer temples, Banteay Srei. This was actually a private foundation, built some 12 miles from Angkor by a Brahmin of royal descent. Its auxiliary buildings, all of sandstone, are adorned with a profusion of elaborate ornament and relief figure sculpture. The roof gables, in particular, are treated with antefixes of fantastic invention. Its principal icon, a huge sandstone sculpture of the god Shiva, seated with his wife Uma on his left knee, is perhaps the most impressive full-round sculpture from the whole Khmer epoch. It differs from 10th-century Khmer official sculpture, which began to take on a conventional and relatively insensitive massiveness.
The Baphuon temple mountain (1050–66) is unfortunately almost completely destroyed. It was a vast monument 480 yards (440 metres) long and 140 yards (130 metres) wide, approached by a 200-yard (180-metre) causeway raised on pillars. Its ground plan shows that it was no mere assemblage of buildings but a fully articulated structure. In this it must rank as the immediate prototype for the great Angkor Wat. Built by Suryavarman II in the early 12th century, Angkor Wat is the crowning work of Khmer architecture, the culmination of all the features of earlier styles.
Overview of Angkor Wat, a temple complex built in the 12th century, Angkor, Cambodia.Georg Gerster/Photo Researchers, Inc.The enormous structure of the Wat is some 1,700 yards (1,550 metres) long by 1,500 yards (1,400 metres) wide. Surrounded by a vast external cloister, it is approached from the west by a magnificent road, which is built on a causeway and lined with colossal balustrades carved in the likeness of the cosmic serpent, associated with the sources of life-giving water. The Wat rises in three concentric enclosures. The western gate complex itself is nearly as large as the complex of central shrines, and both are subdivided into smaller, beautifully decorated courts. Only five of the original nine towers still stand at the summit; although they follow the basic pattern of the Khmer roof tower composed of diminishing imitative stories, the contour of the towers is not rectilinear but curved, so as to suggest that the stories grow one out of another like a sprouting shoot. All the courtyards, with their molded plinths, staircases, porticoes, and eaves moldings, are perfectly articulated enclosed spaces. The symbolic meaning of the Wat is clear. Its central shrine indicates the hub of the universe, while its surroundings—the gate complex, the cloister, the city of Angkor itself, and, finally, the whole visible world—represent the successive outer envelopes of cosmic reality. That it is oriented toward the west—and not to the east, as was customary—indicates that its builder, Suryavarman II, intended it as his own mortuary shrine; for, according to Indochinese mythology, the west is the direction in which the dead depart.
The sculptors who worked at the Wat demonstrate little ability in carving in the full round. Such full-round figures as there are—the guardians on the terraces, for example—lack life. The relief sculpture, however, is magnificent and full of vitality. The open colonnaded gallery on the first story contains over a mile of relief carving six feet (two metres) high. Much of it was originally painted and gilded, which strongly suggests that there must have been a Khmer style of painting of which nothing is known. The subject matter of the carvings is taken principally from the Hindu epics, but there are also many scenes representing Suryavarman’s earthly glory. Working in relief only about an inch deep, the sculptors were able to depict an extraordinary complex of scenes of figures in vigorous action, full of complex overlaps to suggest deep space. The solid bodies are created mainly out of groups of convex curves; and everywhere there is the typical regional feeling for decorative spirals. Perhaps the most interesting group of figures are the apsaras, carved in relief, either singly or in groups, on the plain walls of the courtyards. These celestial beauties, whom Indian tradition describes as rewarding with their charms the kings, heroes, and saints who attain heaven, are carved with sinuous sensuality; but the most important part of their charm is their elaborate clothing, jewelry, and hairdressing or ornate, towering, jeweled crowns. Apparently, deep, downward-drooping curves standing far out from the body represented the height of Khmer chic. Skirts, stoles, and the long sidelocks of the hair all follow these curves, laid out flat on the ground of the relief. Symbolizing the erotic joys that are essential attributes of heaven, the apsaras were natural possessions of the king.
Prajnaparamita, sandstone sculpture from Cambodia, Bayon style, c. 1200; in the Honolulu Academy of Arts.Photograph by L. Mandle. Honolulu Academy of Arts, purchase, Seldon Washington Bequest, 2003, 12,596.1The ruler of this empire naturally believed himself to be the greatest of the Khmer, and he set about demonstrating the truth of his belief by building his own city, Angkor Thom (c. 1200), and, at the centre of it, the biggest temple complex of them all—the Bayon (c. 1200). Breaking with all previous Khmer traditions, he took as his patron deity not one of the Hindu gods but one of the Buddhist bodhisattvas. Although Buddhism had flourished for several centuries in the whole of Indochina, it had not been adopted by the Khmer as an imperial cult. Now that the Hindu gods had been discredited by defeat, Jayavarman placed himself under the patronage of Mahayana Buddhism. The mythology according to which the Bayon was designed was thus another version of the old mythology of the celestial mountain and the divine origin of water. Only the central figure of his mythology, Lokeshvara, Lord of the World, was specifically Buddhist. The colossal masks that look out over the four directions of the world from the towers of the Bayon and from the gates of Angkor Thom are there to demonstrate the compassionate, all-seeing power of Lokeshvara and the king.
When Jayavarman VII set out to create Angkor Thom, he had to raze the fine older work of his predecessors, for the site at Angkor had become choked with nearly four centuries of grandiose temple building. Within Angkor Thom’s 10 miles (16 km) of moats he constructed huge complexes of building and made his city the focus of a final system of canals and irrigation, with additional lakes.
Ruined temples at the Angkor Thom complex, Angkor, Cambodia.Emil Muench/Photo ResearchersUnfortunately, the innumerable new shrines that surround Angkor Thom, the towers that crowd the Bayon, and the vast stone terraces faced with relief that surround the royal palace are in general much inferior in execution to the work of the earlier kings. Thus, today Angkor is dominated by the overwhelming presence of Jayavarman’s immense but relatively unrefined architecture. The king’s ambition was satisfied by size and quantity rather than artistic quality. Because sculptors were obliged to produce such vast quantities of work so fast, their standards deteriorated, and the huge vistas of narrative relief show signs of haste and slipshod workmanship. The real achievement lay with Jayavarman’s scholastic architects, who conceived and laid out a complex of mythical imagery in massive architectural symbols. Their stupendous overall plan illustrates the creation of the world, a cosmos spreading outward from the central mountain tower. The two roads leading from the tower are lined with mile-long rows of gigantic deities who are pulling on the body of the serpent naga. According to Hindu legend, the gods use the magical mountain Meru, symbolized by the mountain tower, as a churning stick and the body of the cosmic serpent as a churning rope to churn the world out of the milk of nothingness. Lake-sized fountains represent the healing waters of the Buddhist paradise, and allegories of salvation are realized in carved architecture. Perhaps the most impressive works of art associated with this last period of Angkor are some stone icons, such as the famous Leper King, in the Angkor Thom complex. Many excellent smaller bronze figures of deities have also been found among the ruins.
13th century to the present
After the death of Jayavarman VII, c. 1215, possibly as late as 1219, Angkor declined. The Thai population of Siam gradually pushed the Khmer down toward the Mekong Delta. Theravada Buddhism became the religion of the people, and the grandiose vision of a cultural unity based on sacred kingship disappeared. In the 15th century, Angkor was retaken from the Thai, and a few buildings were restored by the ancestors of the modern (now abdicated) Cambodian kings. Some of the buildings were used as monasteries, but the city, with its essential irrigation system, had fallen into ruin.
The evolution of Cham art falls naturally into two epochs, the first when the capital was in the north, the second when it was removed to the south.
Art of the northern capital: 4th to 11th century
The form of the earliest temple at My Son, built by King Bhadravarman in the late 4th century, is not known. The earliest surviving fragments of art come from the second half of the 7th century, when the king was a descendant of the royal house at Chenla. The remains of the many dynastic temples built in My Son up until 980 follow a common pattern with only minor variations. It is a relatively simple one, with no attempt at the elaborate architecture of space evolved by the Khmer. Each tower shrine is based upon the central rectangular volume of the cell. The faces are marked by central porticoes that are blind on all but the western face, where the entrance door is situated. The blind porticoes seem to have contained figures of deities—perhaps armed guardians standing in a threatening posture. The porticoes are set in a tall, narrow frame of pilasters (columns projecting a third of their width or less from the wall), crowned with horizontally molded capitals that step out upward. They support a tall, double-ogival blind arch, crowned by another stepped in behind it. The arches are based on an Indian pattern and are carved with a design of slowly undulating foliage springing from the mouth of a monster whose head forms the apex of the arch. The faces of the walls are formed of pilasters framing tall recesses. The pilasters are carved with foliate relief, and elaborate recessed and stepped-out horizontal moldings mark their bases. The height of the pilasters and recesses gives a strong vertical accent to the body of the shrine. The principal architrave is carried on stepped-out false capitals to the pilasters. The roof of the tower is composed of three diminishing, compressed stories, each marked by little pavilions on the faces above the main porticoes. Inside the tower is a high space created by a simple corbel vault with its stepped courses of masonry. The chief portico was extended to include a porch, and the whole structure stood upon a plinth whose faces bore molded dwarfed columns (small columns) and recesses.
Panel of a pedestal altar showing a Cham ascetic playing a flute, sandstone, from My Son E1, Vietnam, second half of the 7th century; in the Cham Museum, Da Nang, Vietnam. Height 60 cm.Holle Bildarchiv, Baden-BadenThese temples have one distinguishing internal feature: a pedestal altar within the cell, upon which statues were set, sometimes, it seems, in groups. The pedestals themselves are often beautifully adorned with reliefs, and some of the best Cham sculpture appears upon them. The subjects are usually based on Indian imagery of the celestial court. The fact that the pedestal altars carried their sculptures in the space of the cell, away from the wall, meant that the Cham sculptors could think in terms of three-dimensional plasticity as well as relief.
The glory of Cham art is the sculpture of the whole of the first period. Much of what survives consists of lesser figures that formed part of an architectural decor: heads of monsters, for example, which decorated the corners of architraves, and figures of lions, which supported bases and plinths. These figures reflect the heavy ornateness of the Cham decorative style at its most aggressive; and many of them effloresce into the solid, wormlike ornament that is the Cham version of Indo-Khmer foliage carving and carries strong reminiscences of Dong Son work. The remaining fragments of the large icons suggest a double origin for Cham art traditions. On many of the capitals and altar pedestals are series of figures carved in relief in a sensuous style, which is nevertheless strictly conceptualized. This sophisticated work is reminiscent both of late Chenla art (see aboveCambodia and Vietnam) and of Indonesian decoration, especially during the 11th-century return. Other figures are more coarsely emphatic in style, with the crudely defined cubic volumes and the heavy faces of Melanesian sculpture. It is thus probable that artists trained in the sophisticated Cambodian tradition worked for the Cham kings at one time or another, while Champa’s own native craftsmen emulated the work of the foreigners in their own fashion.
Apart from My Son there are one or two other sites in north and central Vietnam where Cham art was made in quantity. The most important of these is Dong Duong, in Quang Nam. It is a ruined Buddhist monastery complex of the late 9th century, conceived on the most beautifully elaborated plan of structured space in Champa. The architectural detail is distinguished from the My Son work by its greater emphasis upon the plasticity of architectural elements such as angle pilasters and porticoes. The circuit wall was about half a mile (1 km) long and once contained many shrines dedicated to Buddhist deities. It is possible that, when this complex of brick courts, halls, and gate pavilions was intact, it may have resembled very closely the contemporary Buddhist monasteries of northeastern India.
Art of the southern capital: 11th to 15th century
After 980, when the northern provinces were taken over by the Vietnamese and the Cham capital established at Binh Dinh in 1069, the kings maintained a gradually diminishing splendour. After the Khmer attack of 1145 they could claim little in the way of royal glory.
Although the Cham kings made a brief return to My Son from 1074 to 1080, most of their artistic effort was spent on shrines at Vijaya (Binh Dinh) and a few other sites in the south. The early 12th-century Silver Towers at Binh Dinh are simplified versions of the older northern towers, with corner pavilions added to the roofing stories and arches of pointed horseshoe shape. Throughout the 13th and early 14th centuries the architecture of successive shrines gradually declined. The plasticity of the old pilasters and architraves was suppressed into simple moldings, and the beauty of the buildings became largely a matter of proportion. By the mid-14th century even the temples erected at Binh Dinh amounted to little more than piles of crudely cut stones articulated only by reminiscences of the classic Cham style.
Sculpture shows a parallel decline. One or two reliefs at the Silver Towers do convey a sense of tranquillity and splendour, but an indigenous style of rigid cubical emphasis came progressively to dominate the iconic Hindu figures at southern sites. The curlicued design of earlier figures was gradually converted into a style of massive, scarcely carved blocks that convey, at their best, an impression of barbarous strength but without the refinement of first-class primitive art.
As was the case in Cambodia, this decline in art by the mid-14th century may be attributed to the people’s loss of confidence in the concept—and, with it, the imagery—of divine kingship. Theravada Buddhism, as a popular religion based upon numerous small, local monasteries, adopted probably from the Tai, was spreading all over the region. The northern Vietnamese, who had originally been organized in self-contained kingdoms without any concept of royal divinity, owing an intermittent administrative allegiance only to the distant Chinese emperor, found this ultimately suitable as a state religion after the final eclipse of Confucianism in the 17th century. They did incorporate echoes of older Hindu architecture, however, in details of the flamboyant ornament used on eaves and gables of their wooden monastery buildings.
Vietnam: 2nd–19th century
The great achievement of Vietnamese art, at least during the Le period (15th–18th centuries), seems to have been in architectural planning, incorporating Confucian, Daoist, or Buddhist temples into the landscape environment. The plans themselves include halls for a multitude of images in the South Chinese vein and provision for a variety of rituals. There are no intact monuments of early Vietnamese architecture that are unrestored. Numerous fragments exist, however—either isolated stone bases, columns, stairways, and bridges or carved wooden members incorporated into later buildings—all of which are influenced to some degree by Chinese styles.
Tombs of generically Chinese type from the 2nd to 7th century contain bronze furnishings, in many of which, such as lampstands, the influence of the Dong Son style is clearly visible. There are no spirit images so typical of Six Dynasties (3rd–6th centuries) and Tang (7th–10th centuries) Chinese tombs. The Chua Mot-cot, Hanoi, has vestiges of a stone shrine probably dated 1049. The only old paintings, on rock, at Tuyen Quang (9th century), represent the Buddha, bodhisattvas, and donors. The Van-mieu at Hanoi (built 1070 but frequently restored) contains ritual bronzes in “barbaric” Chinese style.
Perhaps the most interesting early sculptures to survive are the stone fragments from the Van-phuc temple (9th–11th centuries), which are based on Chinese Buddhist imagery but in a style strongly Indianized, perhaps by Cham influence. The most important piece of old work still virtually intact is the portable octagonal wooden stupa kept in the hall of the But-thap, at Bac Ninh, east of Hanoi. It has wooden panels carved in a flamboyant 14th-century Chinese style; part of it bears a representation of the Buddhist paradise of Amitabha. Incorporated in many Buddhist temples of the Le period (15th–18th centuries), as well as in stone terraces, bridges, and gateways, is extremely elaborate carved and coloured woodwork in a style based upon the coiling dragon-and-cloud decoration of Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) China, but with a characteristically Vietnamese exaggeration of weight and curve.
At Tho Ha there was a potters’ village, where the glazed ceramic figures used on many types of Chinese temple were manufactured. The remains of many tombs, palaces, bridges, and Confucian and Daoist temples decorated in similar vein are known everywhere.
19th and 20th centuries
The beautiful imperial palace of Hue (final plan before 1810) contained vestiges of older architecture and many works of Sinicized art before its devastation in 1968. It consisted of a series of simple, rectangular, one-story pavilions, laid out among trees inside a group of courts. These buildings and their decoration were southern Chinese in basic conception.
Elsewhere in Vietnam, both religious and secular buildings were constructed in the 20th century in provincial versions of Chinese styles. There was little demand for the sculptor’s art beyond the carving of stereotyped Buddha icons, monsters, and guardians. In modern times southern Vietnam has adopted a decorative style partly derived from the active traditions of Bangkok. Religious sects abound, with hybrid native European and Chinese elements used in their iconic and decorative art. Because of political turmoil, no clear and individual modern Vietnamese artistic tradition has been able to emerge.
Indonesia
The islands that at the present day compose Indonesia probably once shared in the complex Neolithic heritage of artistic tradition, which also spread farther, into the islands of Melanesia and Micronesia. Beautifully ground Neolithic axes of semiprecious stone are treasured still in some countries. In many parts of Indonesia there are quantities of megalithic monuments—menhirs, dolmens, terraced burial mounds, stone skull troughs, and other objects. Some of these are undoubtedly of Neolithic date, but megaliths continued to be made in much more recent times. One stone sarcophagus in eastern Java, for example, is dated post-9th century. On Nias island, megaliths are still revered, and they are still being erected on Sumba and Flores islands. Thus, in Indonesia especially, different layers of Southeast Asian culture have existed side by side. The most impressive and important collection of megaliths is in the Pasemah region, in south Sumatra, where there are also many large stones roughly carved into the shape of animals, such as the buffalo and elephant, and human figures—some with swords, helmets, and ornaments and some apparently carrying drums.
These drums immediately suggest the drums characteristic of the mainland Southeast Asian Dong Son culture, which flourished c. 4th–1st centuries bce (see aboveGeneral development of Southeast Asian art). This culture may well have helped to diffuse throughout the region styles related to Chinese Zhou and pre-Han ornamental work. Certainly, the Dong Son influence is clear in many of the ceremonial axes, as well as many of the ornamented bronze drums, that have been found in the islands. The bronzes were cast by a lost-wax process resembling that used in parts of the Asian mainland. The largest and most famous drum is “the Moon of Bali,” found on that island near Pedjeng. It has molded flanges, and cast onto its faces is extremely elaborate relief ornament consisting of stylized masks with ears pierced and lengthened by large earrings. Such drums were probably originally used in ritual—by the rainmaker, perhaps—and they may have been buried with the distinguished dead. No one knows the exact age of these bronzes; “the Moon of Bali,” for example, could be anywhere between 1,000 and 2,000 years old. Similar small drums were used quite recently as bride prices; and many of the islands today produce textile designs and ceremonial bronzes that are strikingly reminiscent of Dong Son ornament.
Central Javanese period: 7th to 13th century
Buddha from Celebes, bronze, Amaravati style, 3rd–5th century; in the Jakarta Museum. Height 75 cm.Louis Frederic—Rapho/Photo ResearchersSometime between the 3rd and 6th centuries ce, Indianized principalities existed in Java. The chieftains who lived in their kratons (fortified villages) seem to have derived great inspiration, prestige, and practical assistance from the skills and ideas imported from India. In Sumatra there was the important but so far enigmatic Indianized kingdom of Shrivijaya, which, from its strategic position on the Strait of Malacca, exercised a powerful artistic influence in the whole region. Its great Buddhist centre, Palembang, might have had direct connections with the monasteries of southeastern India; for fine bronze Buddhas and bodhisattvas in a style reminiscent of Amaravati (2nd century ce) have been found in many regions where the influence of Shrivijaya might have been felt, including Mon Dvaravati (see aboveThailand and Laos) and distant Celebes. Elsewhere among the islands were Indianized kingdoms still unknown to history.
Vishnu, stone, from Bali; in the Royal Tropical Institute Museum, Amsterdam. Height 80 cm.Courtesy of the Royal Tropical Institute, AmsterdamThe local dynasties of the kratons competed among themselves for power, and eventually the principal dynasties known to history came to the fore. The earliest major cultural assimilations from India took place probably during the 7th century, when the Hindu Pallava form of southeast Indian script was adopted for inscriptions in west Java. Thereafter, a central Javanese dynasty that worshipped Shiva made the oldest surviving artworks in stone. The last king of this dynasty retreated to east Java in the face of the rising power of another central Javanese dynasty, the Shailendra (775–864 ce). The Shailendra were followers of Mahayana and Tantric forms of Buddhism, although Hinduism, as manifested in the worship of Shiva and Vishnu, was by no means eliminated. This dynasty created far the larger part of the immense wealth of first-class art known today in Java.
Hindu and Buddhist candis
In Indonesia, the word candi refers to any religious structure based on an Indianized shrine with a pyramidal tower. This was the essential form on which virtually all the stone Indianizing architecture of Southeast Asia was originally based. The Javanese, like the Khmer, evolved an elaborate architecture of their own around the basic Indian prototype.
Central Javanese stone architecture did not use structural pillars, nor did its major stone monuments conceptualize hollow space in the way Khmer architecture did. Like Indian stonework, central Javanese stonework is fundamentally conceived as a solid mass, serving as a vehicle for figurative and symbolic sculpture. Its temples are centralized, with enclosures radiating around the central shrine. In eastern Java and Bali, however, the pattern of the shrine was influenced by older traditions and was usually conceived as an enclosure, the walled area of ground being the sacred element, while the buildings in it were of secondary importance. Old wooden buildings do not survive; but representations of wooden architecture in stone reliefs and the recent architecture of Bali show that eastern Indonesia was influenced by the ancient Southeast Asian tradition of constructing wooden pillared halls with tiered, sloping, and gabled roofs.
Because there are no inscriptions to supply dating points, the exact dates of the earliest Indonesian architectural monuments are not certain. The group of shrines generally believed to be the earliest is situated on the Dijeng Plateau. This is a high volcanic region, about 6,000 feet (2,000 metres) above sea level, where there are sulfur springs and lakes. The whole mountain seems to have been sacred to the Hindu deity Shiva, for all temples on the Dijeng are dedicated to him. There can be little doubt that during the 8th and 9th centuries the Javanese, who traditionally had interpreted the volcanic turbulence of their landscape as a manifestation of divine power, identified this power with the terrifying Shiva. On other Javanese volcanic mountains, also, groups of shrines are dedicated to him.
The temples on the Dijeng are single-cell shrines, roofed with diminishing stories. The exteriors of the temples are relatively plain; only around door frames and window frames are there distinctive passages of central Javanese ornament. Around the niches of Candi Puntadewa are perhaps the earliest surviving examples of the characteristic Javanese doorframe: across its lintel is carved a mask of the Indian Kala monster, which represents time; and down the jambs, as if vomited from his open mouth, run string panels of foliage. The foot of each jamb terminates in an elaborately carved scrollwork cartouche, which is itself a makara (water monster) head seen in profile. This candi, like others on the Dijeng, has a single approach stairway rising between curved balusters. A few stone images of Shiva from these temples have been found. In broad, vigorous forms they express the dangerous power of the god.
Two of the very finest early Javanese sculptures—virtually in the full round—come from yet another Shiva temple, Chandi Banon, near Borobudur (see belowBorobudur). One, representing the god Vishnu (no stranger in syncretic Javanese temples of Shiva), has the extremely smooth, faintly amorphous suavity, the absolute convexity, and the lack of definition between planes characteristic of the classical central Javanese sculptural style; while the garment he wears, with its assortment of girdles, is closely reminiscent of late Pallava–early Chola Hindu styles of southeast India. Another icon, sometimes called Agastya but more likely the third deity of the Hindu trinity, Brahma, represents the god in the form of a bearded Brahmin sage. He has a large and, to Asian eyes, splendid potbelly. This icon was indigenous to southeast India. The great depth of the side recessions of these figures, although perhaps not so clearly defined as in the great Funan-Chenla style (see aboveCambodia and Vietnam), gives them a bland massiveness. The lack of movement in the figures and the regularity of the designs, the impassive faces, and the slowness of the lines must have been part of the central Javanese conception of transcendent glory.
The Hindu temples of central Java are conceived simply as shrines to contain icons of deities for worship. The Mahayana and especially the Tantric Buddhist candis, however, were called upon to do far more. They were designed to express complex metaphysical theories. The challenge this presented to the central Javanese architects was met in a series of splendid monuments, completely original in conception. The culminating work of the series, Borobudur, is a highly evolved architectural image, whose subtlety and refinement were never matched, even at Angkor in Cambodia.
The first work of this Buddhist series is Candi Ngawen, near Muntilan. This candi consists of five shrines facing east, 12 feet (4 metres) apart in a row from north to south. Each shrine contained one of the five Buddhas who, according to Tantric Buddhist theory, presides over one of the five major psychological categories under which ultimate reality reveals itself. The shrines themselves are based on but more developed than those used for Hindu deities elsewhere in Java. Roughly square in plan and roofed with diminishing stories, they have pilastered projections on three faces and a portico on the east. Along the architrave are small triangular antefixes, and reliefs of Kala monsters vomiting floral scrolls hood the niches and portals.
The group of five Buddhas is familiar in the art of Tibet, Japan, and northeast India. Among them they compose what is called the vajra-dhatu, which means, roughly speaking, “the realm of total reality.” According to the old Javanese theology, above this group is another, called the deities of the garbha-dhatu. Garbha means “womb” or “innermost secret,” and its three deities personify the most esoteric realms of Buddhist speculation. At the centre of the group is the image of the single, undivided Buddha nature, which symbolizes the ultimate reality of the entire universe. From his right side emanates the bodhisattva Lokeshvara (Lord of the World), who is both compassionate and possessed of all power. From the left emanates the bodhisattva Vajrapani, who is the personification of the most secret doctrines and practices of Tantric Buddhism. One of Java’s greatest monuments, Candi Mendut, is a shrine expressly created to illustrate the combined doctrine of garbha-dhatu and vajra-dhatu.
Tjandi Mendut, near Borobudur, Java, c. 800.Louis Frederic—Rapho/Photo ResearchersMendut dates from around 800 ce and is thus, generally speaking, contemporary with Borobudur. It is formed as a single large, square chamber, roofed with the usual diminishing stories, and mounted on a high, broad plinth, which is approached on its northwestern face by a staircase with recurved balustrades. The exterior is in every way more ornate than that of any shrine so far discussed. In addition to floral diaper (an allover pattern consisting of one or more small repeated units of design connecting with or growing out of one another) and scrolls, there are numerous figures in relief representing male and female deities, the subsidiary principles of the combined doctrine of garbha-dhatu and Vajrapani. Cut into the fine ashlar (squared-stone) masonry are many relief panels with scenes from Buddhist literature, each panel self-contained and placed with consummate aesthetic judgment. Some represent mythical ideas, such as the wish-granting tree, others narratives from Buddhist legend.
The principal images were placed inside the cell chamber. Apparently, there were originally seven huge stone icons, but only three remain: the central Buddha, who also represented the ultimate Buddha nature of the garbha-dhatu, and his two emanations in the garbha-dhatu, Lokeshvara, and Vajrapani. When complete, the interior of Mendut must have been an even more awe-inspiring and spiritually moving place than it is now. The three great statues are seated on elaborate thrones, backed against walls, but the figures are carved virtually in the full round. The inflated, gently inflected forms of the figures give them a majestic presence. The types and carving technique, as well as the monumental scale of the figures, are reminiscent of contemporary work in the cave temples of the western Deccan in India.
On the west-east road from Candi Mendut to Borobudur stands a small, relatively plain temple called Candi Pawon, dedicated to the god of wealth. Pawon was probably a kind of anteroom to Borobudur, catering to the more worldly interest of pilgrims. The outside has fine reliefs of female figures, and the roof bears towers of small stupas. On the reliefs are wish-granting trees surrounded by pots of money, and bearded dwarfs over the entrance pour out jewels from sacks.
The reliefs of the lowest level illustrate scenes that show the causal workings of good and bad deeds through successive reincarnations. They show, for example, how those who hunt, kill, and cook living creatures such as tortoises and fish are themselves cooked in hells or die as children in their next life. They show how foolish people waste their time at entertainments. From these scenes of everyday life, one moves to the terraces above, where the subject matter becomes more profound and metaphysical. It illustrates important Mahayana texts dealing with the self-discovery and education of the bodhisattva, conceived as being possessed by compassion for and devoted wholly to the salvation of all creatures. The reliefs on the uppermost terraces gradually become more static. The sensuous roundness of the forms of the figures is not abated; but, in the design, great emphasis is laid upon horizontals and verticals and upon static, formal enclosures of repeated figures and gestures. At the summit all movement disappears, and the design is entirely subordinated to the circle enclosing the stupa.
A Dhyani-Buddha on one of the stupa terraces at Borobudur, Java, 8th century.Courtesy of the Royal Tropical Institute, AmsterdamThe iconography of Borobudur suggests that the legend of the royal bodhisattva recounted in many of the reliefs was meant to “authenticate” some king or dynasty. Yet it hardly seems possible that Borobudur was the focus of a specific royal cult, as there is no provision at all for the performance of royal ritual. It must have been, then, in some sense a monument for the whole people, the focus for their religion and life, and a perpetual reminder of the doctrines of their religion.
A considerable number of bronzes, some small, some large, have been found in Indonesia in a style close to that of the sculptures of Borobudur and Mendut. One fine, large standing image comes from Kotabangun in Borneo; but some come from Java. Many small cult images of the Buddha and Buddhist deities exist. Some are close in type to the early Pala images of Indian Bihar, the homeland of Buddhism, with which the Javanese must have maintained close touch. A few small but extremely fine gold figurines of undoubted Javanese workmanship have also turned up. For all their small size they must rate as first-class works of art. As well as images there are many beautiful bronze ceremonial objects, such as lamps, trays, and bells. These objects are decorated with the same kinds of ornament, although on a miniature scale, as the architectural monuments: scrolled leaves, swags, and bands of jewels.
Post-Borobudur candis
Post-Borobudur candis illustrate the Buddhist doctrine in different ways. Kalasan, for example, built in the second half of the 8th century, was a large, square shrine on a plinth, with projecting porticoes at the centre of each face. The roof was surmounted by a high circular stupa mounted on an octagonal drum, the faces of which bear reliefs of divinities. Topping each portico was a group of five small stupas, and another large stupa stood at each disengaged corner of the main shrine. The moldings were restrained and elegantly profiled. Each section of the exterior wall contains a niche meant for a figure sculpture. The decorative scroll carving is especially fine.
Another shrine from this period, Candi Sewu, consisted of a large cruciform shrine surrounded by smaller temples, only one of which has been restored. All of the temples seem to have had roofs in the form of tiered stupas, compressing the overall Borobudur scheme into the scope of a storied shrine tower. From Candi Plaosan came many beautiful sculptures, donor figures, and iconic images of bodhisattvas.
Perhaps the most interesting of the post-Borobudur Buddhist shrines of the 9th century is Candi Sari. It is an outstanding architectural invention. From the outside it appears as a large, rectangular, three-storied block, with the main entrance piercing the centre of one of the longer sides. The third story stands above a substantial architrave with horizontal moldings and antefixes. Two windows on each short side, three on each long, open into each story, though at the rear they are blind. The windows are crowned by large antefix-like cartouches of ornamental carving based on curvilinear pavilions hung with strings of gems. The uppermost windows are hooded with the Kala-monster motif. The roof bears rows of small stupas, and perhaps there was once a large central stupa. Inside, Candi Sari contains a processional corridor around three interior shrines that were possibly intended for images of the garbha-dhatu deities, as at Candi Mendut.
Temple of Shiva, the central temple of the Lara Jonggrang complex, Prambanan, Java, c. 900.Holle Bildarchiv, Baden-BadenThe last great monument of the central Javanese period, Lara Jonggrang at Prambanan, is indeed a colossal work, rivaling Borobudur. It was probably built soon after 900. Not Buddhist but Hindu, the shrine represents the cosmic mountain. There were originally 232 temples incorporated into the design. The plan was centred on a square court with four gates containing the eight principal temples. Facing east, the central and largest temple, some 120 feet (40 metres) high, was devoted to the image of Shiva. To the north and south it is flanked by slightly smaller temples devoted to the two other members of the Hindu trinity, Vishnu and Brahma. The smaller shrines contained many subsidiary images. The whole complex was enclosed, far off-centre, in an extremely large walled courtyard.
Although these are Hindu buildings, their high-terraced shrine roofs bear tiers of elongated and gadrooned stupas. The reliefs on these structures are especially beautiful. One series, representing the guardians of the directions, integrates the ornamental motifs with the plastic forms of the bodies in a most original way. The balustrades and inset panels abound with lively reliefs portraying various deities or scenes taken from the great Hindu classics, especially the Ramayana.
East Javanese period: 927–16th century
During the east Javanese period a very large number of monuments were produced at the eastern end of the island (after 1222) and in Bali (after c. 1050). Few single structures, however, are as impressive and as comprehensively planned as are the monuments of Borobudur or Lara Jonggrang.
Around the strange natural mountain with tiered peaks cut and built in stone called Mount Penanggungan there are 81 structures (10th century) of different kinds (now mostly in ruins). Prominent among these structures are bathing places. This mountain was identified by the people with the sacred Mount Meru, and its natural springs were believed to have a magical healing power and a mystical purifying capacity. Another such bathing place is Belahan (11th century). Made of brick, it, too, has extensive ruined temples. Belahan is supposed to have been the burial place of King Airlangga, who probably died about 1049. One of the greatest east Javanese icons formed the central figure against the back wall of the tank. Carved of red tufa (a porous rock), it shows the god Vishnu seated at peace on the back of his violently dramatic bird-vehicle, Garuda. It is said that the image represents the king himself in divine guise. Beside this image was a sculpture of a type associated with many of these sacred bathing sites. It is a relief of a four-armed goddess of abundance, her two lower hands holding jars pierced with holes, her two upper hands squeezing her breasts, which are also pierced; through the holes the sacred water flowed into the basin. There are many variants of this idea at the springs of Mount Penanggungan. On Bali the same kind of fountain sculpture appears at the Goa Gadjah, at Bedulu, in a spring-fed tank below a cave.
In both Java and Bali there are many rock-face relief carvings from this period (there are no secure dates). Some represent legendary scenes; others represent candis; the shallow chambers of others are thought to be royal tombs.
The structure that gives the best ideas of what the typical east Javanese shrine of the mid-13th century was like is Candi Kidal. The nucleus of the building is a square cell, with slightly projecting porticoes each hooded by an enormous Kala-monster head. But the cell itself is dwarfed both by the massive molded plinth upon which it stands and by the huge tower with which it is surmounted. The tower stands above an architrave stepped far out on tiered moldings. It is no longer composed of diminishing stories, as earlier towers were, but is conceived as a massive pyramidal obelisk made up of double bands of ornament spaced by stumpy pilasters and bands of recessed panels. The architectural projections and moldings distinguish Candi Kidal from earlier Javanese architecture, with its plain wall surfaces.
Many masterpieces of sculpture belong to the east Javanese period. Among them are some superb icons of Shiva and of a goddess of Buddhist wisdom from Singhasari and a splendidly “primitivist” image of the elephant-headed god of wealth from Bara, Blitar.
From the late 13th century onward a whole series of candis was created in eastern Java. As time went on the candis lost their monumental scale and became simply shrines within a series of courtyards on a pre-Indian pattern. From Candi Djago through Candi Panataran at Blitar (14th century) and Candi Surawana it is possible to trace the line of descent of the modern Balinese temple enclosures.
By the end of the 14th century, the figures in the relief sculpture at these shrines had come more and more to resemble the shadow puppets of the popular wayang drama. They adopt the stiff profile stance that presents both shoulders, while the trees and houses resemble the stereotype silhouette leather and wood cutouts used as properties in the shadow plays. The art of carving in the near-full round, however, did not follow the same course of evolution as the reliefs. Such work did become softer and more delicate in style, with accretions of broad floral forms, but well into the 15th century the icons retain something of the strength of older sculptural conceptions. Another plastic tradition that seems to have escaped domination by the wayang formula resulted in the production of beautiful small terra-cotta figures as part of the revetment (stone facing sustaining the embankment) of the east Javanese capital city of Majapahit. Like the reliefs, the many small excavated bronzes of Hindu scenes are under the wayang influence, three-dimensional though they may be. Curlicues proliferate, and the plasticity of bodies is virtually ignored.
16th century to the present
When Islam arrived in Indonesia, it used the repertoire of traditional ornament for its mosques and tombs; but, in conformity to Muslim custom, the representation of living creatures was excluded on religious buildings. The gates of the 16th-century mosque at Sendangduwur, Badjanegara, show a splendid example of this adaptation. The wings of the old Hindu Garuda, a colossal bird-vehicle of the high god Vishnu, frame the gate; the body and head are suppressed. Above the lintel are abstract tree-clad mountain forms recalling the imagery of the cosmic Meru; and legendary snakes hood the jambs. The 16th-century mosque at Kudus even has a gate based on the split-candi pattern used in Bali (see belowBali). Tombs such as that of Ratu Ibu at Airmata, on the island of Madura, add to their simple volumes elaborate but abstract variants of the scroll-filled antefixes of older architecture and of the petal-shaped aureoles of the larger east Javanese icons. In Sumatra the Muslim rulers encouraged a revival of the pre-Indian ancestor cult, along with its ancient and characteristic arts.
Bali
Pura Besakih, the mother temple of Bali, on Mount Agung, Bali, 14th century. In the centre is the 11-story meru dedicated to Shiva.Holle Bildarchiv, Baden-BadenThe rajas of eastern Java finally retreated before the Muslim invaders during the 16th century and departed to the island of Bali, where they remained. The old Javanese Indianized culture they brought with them survived and combined with animist folk elements. In Bali today that culture has bred a widespread popular art. There are now many hundreds of temples in Bali of varying age. Each family group has its own temple, dedicated to the ancestors; each village, too, has its temple, in which special attention is paid to a rich fertility goddess identified with the ancient Indian goddess of bounty, Shri. Special temples dedicated to the goddess of death stand near the cremation ground. There are numerous major temples—many associated with volcanic peaks—dedicated to different deities and spirits; they range in size and importance from Besakih on Mount Agung (where a megalith is incorporated as a phallic Shiva-emblem) to Panataram Sasih of Pedjeng (where the bronze drum called “the Moon of Bali” is preserved).
Balinese temples are conceived as multiple courts raised on terraces. The tall stone or brick and plaster gates are shaped like a candi-tower split down the centre; they are usually encrusted with ornament based upon deep multiple curlicues interspersed with simplified, two-dimensional relief figure sculpture. Fantastic three-dimensional guardians sometimes stand at the foot of the access staircase. Beyond the gates are one or two courts within which various ceremonies (including sacrifices and cockfights) may take place. The rearmost court backs onto the mountain, whence spirits descend temporarily when invoked. The court has no icons; at most, there is a seat for invisible deities. The structures in the court, mostly of wood and thatch, may be of many stories. (Such structures are called merus.) Sometimes the treasuries are ornamented with carving; and a few older stone meru towers in local shrines are carved with mythological figures.
Temple ceremonials, especially the cremation of distinguished people, evoked elaborate ritual art objects in precious metals, as well as in wood or fabric. All were characterized by exuberant and repetitive curvilinear floral ornament and by figures based on Indian legend, especially the Ramayana and parts of the Mahabharata. In the villages today, music, dance, sculpture, and painting are focused on the shrines and are practiced with an intensity unknown elsewhere in the world. Art is woven intimately into the life of the people. The masks carved of wood for the dances are specially refined, sometimes ornate versions of the masks used in the animist rituals of other Southeast Asian peoples. In the 20th and 21st centuries there have been numerous village sculptors and painters, who sell to tourists work based upon the old ceremonial arts. During the 1930s an outside impetus to develop their traditional legendary imagery in Western formats came from a German painter, Walter Spies, who lived on Bali. A landscape tradition was evolved, and the painters have been able to communicate something of the extravagant visual charm of their island, giving glimpses of luminous village and mountain landscape. The style of both sculptors and painters, however, is based upon gently undulating curves and is often highly ornamental, with repeated patterns. A repertoire of posture and gesture has been abstracted from the wayang. The work thus tends to prettiness rather than vigour; the sculptors create no truly intelligible volumes, and the painters fill their surfaces with naively structured shapes.
Java: 20th century
A conscious revival of traditional art was attempted in the 20th century, especially in Java, the main territory of modern Indonesia. There was government support for the resuscitation of old crafts—silverwork, for example. A number of artists adapted Westernized figure drawing to their own decorative compositions. The best known painter of Indonesia is the Javanese Affandi. He used oil paint to execute pictures of Indonesian subjects in a vividly coloured Expressionist impasto (thick application of pigment to the canvas). This European brushwork technique, however, contains a strong element of the sinuosity of Javanese tradition. As yet, Affandi is the only artist from Southeast Asia to have attained a personal worldwide reputation.
The Philippines
The population of this island group contains a number of different ethnic strata, the oldest of which shares in the general folk culture and its associated folk arts of the islands of Southeast Asia (see aboveIndonesia), with an emphasis on geometric simplification. An element in the Tagalog (a people of central Luzon) is perhaps descended from the oldest level of immigrants with a Paleolithic background. The Moro are Muslims who converted to Islam during the 15th and 16th centuries. Today they produce a decorative art in which old Muslim geometric motifs are combined with strong Chinese decorative influences (from Song times, Chinese ceramics and textiles were imported). The decoration is applied primarily to textiles, weapons, and containers to hold the betel nuts that are chewed throughout Southeast Asia.
San Agustin Church, Intramuros, Manila, the Philippines, 1599–1614.Bruce ColemanThe most important departure in Philippine art was the result of the Spanish conquest of 1571. Thereafter, the bishopric of Manila and all of Luzon became the focus for an elaborate development of Spanish colonial art, primarily devoted to the construction and decoration of Roman Catholic churches in the current flamboyant, highly ornate, and colourful colonial style. There is good colonial architecture in other islands, including Bohol and Cebu. A large quantity of religious sculpture of the canonical Christian subjects was imported from Mexico and from Spain itself. Sculptors and missionary painters also immigrated, and a powerful local school developed under the direct influence of the 17th-century Spanish artists Murillo and Alonso Cano. Local arts were encouraged in 1785 by the remission of taxes for religious artists. Because of the close colonial ties, the stylistic developments corresponded substantially with those elsewhere in the Spanish empire, and European prints served as models for local artists. Of the major early churches for which this sculpture and painting was executed, only San Agustin (1599–1614), in Manila, still stands; it was designed by Fray Antonio de Herrera, son or nephew of the great Spanish architect Juan de Herrera. During the 19th century the Neo-Gothic style was imported, mainly through the Philippine architect Felipe Roxas, who had traveled in Europe and England. San Sebastian in Manila is a notable example of this style. The Spaniard Hervas, Manila’s municipal architect from 1887 to 1893, favoured neo-Byzantine forms; e.g., Manila Cathedral (1878–79).
It was only in the later 19th century that any secular art flourished at all. Schools of fine art modeled on the European schools were set up between 1815 and 1820, and a number of painters began to work in versions of European academic styles, painting landscapes, portraits, and classical subjects. The best known among them are Juan Luna, Felix Resurrección Hidalgo, Antonio Malantic, and the genre painter Fabian de la Rosa. After the transfer of rule to the United States in 1898, industrialization began in earnest; the methods of the art schools were adapted, as in Europe, to the needs of modern commercial society. In the 1930s a substantial modern experimental school of Philippine architects began the remodeling of the industrial environment in terms of 20th-century architectural and design conceptions. Prominent names are Pablo Antonio, Carlos Arguelles, and Cesar Concio. Beginning in the 1930s but especially after World War II, artists in Manila adopted the Abstract and Expressionist styles current in the United States. After the devastation wrought by that war, Manila and other cities and towns were rebuilt, virtually anew, in local variants of the international style.
Folk arts
The arts of many regions in Southeast Asia remained either untouched or only slightly influenced by the Indianized arts of other regions. Such influence is found especially in regions where the gold trade flourished. In Sarawak (Bonkisam), for example, the remains of buildings similar to late Tantric east Javanese candis have been discovered. Among a few people (e.g., the Hmong of highland Vietnam), vestiges of Indian erotic temple imagery have been adapted to local fertility ceremonies, and most of the religious ideas of the region show at least faint traces of Indian influence.
Save for the megaliths and Dong Son bronzes, most of the known folk-art objects are relatively recent, although their inspiration and types belong to traditions far older and geographically more far-reaching than the Indianized traditions.
The two main non-Indian art styles in the whole region have been provisionally named the “monumental” and the “ornamental-fanciful.” They coexist virtually everywhere, though they probably represent two evolutionary phases. The principal manifestations of the monumental style are the megalithic monuments, although there is great variety among the megalithic customs of the many different populations in Sumatra, Laos, Indonesia, Borneo, and the Philippines. The influence of the ornamental-fanciful style, which is characterized especially by the scrolled spiral, insinuates itself even into many of the decorative arts, particularly in the curvilinear and flamboyant inflection given to ornamental motives in the major Indianizing styles.
Ancestor figure from the Tanimbar Islands, Indonesia; in the Royal Tropical Institute Museum, Amsterdam. Height 38 cm.Courtesy of the Royal Tropical Institute, AmsterdamThe link between the two styles is probably the ubiquitous squatting ancestor figure, cocked knees supporting elbows, carved in soft wood or woven in cane or fibre. These figures may be either male or female. Under special social circumstances in recent times, very large wooden versions of the figure have been used as substitutes for more conventional, standing megalithic ancestral monuments (Sumatra and Sabah). The custom is probably an old one. There can be little doubt, for example, that the Theravada Buddhist images of Burma, Thailand, and Laos were accepted as special modifications of the ancestor image. The transition from revering numinous ancestor images whose identity had been forgotten to worshipping an Indianizing icon was easy for the tribal populations.
The complex significance of the original squatting ancestor figure enabled it to be used in a variety of contexts. It might have combined associations of the fetus, the fetal burial position, and female birth and intercourse positions, as well as a ceremonial posture assumed by the living. It came to be used primarily in wooden sculpture on all scales, but also in woven textiles (e.g., Iban), to represent the continuing power informing human existence, both in the purely ancestral sense of family continuity and identity and in the sense of the fertility of the land. Its earliest recorded appearance may be on Chinese Yangshao painted pottery (c. 2000 bce); but it appears in essentially the same form over a range of territory including Sumatra, Nias and Sunda islands, Java, Borneo, New Guinea, Taiwan, the Philippines, and out into northern Australia and Melanesia. It may be used purely as an ancestral image in a family shrine house or as a motif added to any one of a variety of implements to potentiate them; for example, large bowls (Sumatra), kris or sword handles (Java, Sumatra, Borneo), spoons (Timor, the Philippines), musical instruments (Borneo), and magicians’ staves (Borneo).
Gold kris, embossed scabbard and grip, from southern Celebes, Indonesia; in the Royal Tropical Institute Museum, Amsterdam. Overall length 40.5 cm.Courtesy of the Royal Tropical Institute, AmsterdamThe treatment of such figures may be invested with more or fewer of the characteristics of the ornamental-fanciful style, in those regions where this style prevails (e.g., Batak, Dayak). There are also special versions of the squatting figure that seem to belong especially to important magical crafts, such as the Javanese kris handle, on which miniature carvings can give an extraordinarily monumental effect. Sumatran Dayak hereditary magical staves may be carved with a “tower” or “tree” of such ancestor figures. On Nias, for example, along with the squatting figure, a standing figure in the bent-knee posture common in Polynesia also appears as a variant. In the Philippines similar variants are sometimes interpreted as vestiges from a remote Indian mythology, adopted probably for the sake of their cultural prestige. In southern Borneo the figure appears carved in the full round and as a pattern for woven textiles; it often has a protruding tongue and, sometimes, antlers—a combined motif known in the Changsha art of southern China (c. 300 bce). Antlers also appear on certain Sumatran knife hilt figures. A variety of designs, some of them “abstract,” are based on this figure. Among the Jarai of Vietnam, for example, a pattern of lozenges represents an abstraction from a group of these figures. Especially in the textiles of Sumba and other Indonesian islands, similar patterns, often referred to as decorated triangles, represent the same phenomenon. When, as in textiles, the anthropomorphic reference of the abstract pattern is lost, the male genitals may remain to assert the ancestor significance.
The association between the squatting figure and the widely practiced cult of the skull is manifested in the combined cult of ancestors, headhunting, and head worship. Among the Wa of Myanmar, for example, the squatting figure in a lozenge abstraction decorates the chests in which the severed heads of enemies are stored. Virtually everywhere among the early farmers of Southeast Asia, such heads were regarded as repositories of great spiritual power. The cult of the skull has produced a version of the squatting figure that is commonly known by the Indonesian word korvar; it is a figure with an ancestral skull in place of a carved head. Such figures are especially common in the more easterly island cultures. The ghostly power of the deceased ancestor can thus become present and available to his descendants—to give oracular advice, for example. A related idea is incorporated in the masks used in a wide variety of rituals and dance-dramas throughout Southeast Asia; for example, among the Batak of Sumatra and the Dayak of Borneo, where especially fine examples are made. There can be little doubt that the same idea (blended with imagery from the imported Hindu epics) underlies the range of elaborate masks that were once used in the Javanese and now can be seen in the Balinese wayang dances. It is possible that the flamboyant flame skull protuberances and winglike flanges ornamenting the head in so much of the Buddhist art produced in Myanmar and Thailand reflect a persistent but submerged interest in the cult of the skull.
Brass receptacle from Krui, Sumatra, in the shape of a naga (mythical serpent) in the Royal Tropical Institute Museum, Amsterdam. Height 5 cm.Courtesy of the Royal Tropical Institute, AmsterdamAnother major motif is the snake, which (even in areas where direct Indianizing influence was not strong) is frequently combined with imagery derived from the cult of the powerful, magical Hindunaga; often many-headed, this serpent is the patron and guardian of water and treasure, both material and spiritual. The snake motif has also been blended with images of the Chinese dragon, going back perhaps to Chinese Han ornamental designs. Outstanding examples are found on the elaborate relief-carved doors of Sumatran Batak houses; “flying” roof finials in many parts of Indonesia; and in much Borneo Dayak ornament, from tattoos to carved bamboos and bronze body ornaments. The snake is the magico-mythical creature that gives both its bodily shape (either straight or undulant) and its metaphysical power to the kris. Distributed from Malacca to Celebes, these swords (the earliest known dated 1342) reached their high point of artistic development in Java. A variety of other motifs originating on the mainland of Asia is found in many of the surviving folk arts of Indonesia. Among them are the “man in the embrace of an animal” (Dayak kris handles) and animals “stacked” one above the other (Timor, Indonesia).
The ornamental-fantastic style
Door, wood and shell from Kayan or Kenyah, Kalimantan, Borneo, 19th century; in the Honolulu Academy of Arts.Photograph by L. Mandle. Honolulu Academy of Arts, gift of The Christensen Fund, 2001 (10183.1a,b)The styles in which these variations on basic motifs are carried out vary principally according to the preponderance of the sinuous curves and spirals of the ornamental-fantastic style. This style serves as the basis for decoration and as a method of artistic phrasing. It may have made its way into Southeast Asia as late as the 1st millennium bce, being formally related to the spirals used in Chinese Neolithic, Shang, and Zhou bronze art. (It should, perhaps, be mentioned that Chinese art, certainly until well into the Common Era, was itself far more “tribal” than later Chinese tradition recognizes.) Probably connoting spirituality, the spiral imagery appears in Southeast Asian magical art at all levels, from the textiles of Java and the incised bamboo implements or carved doors of Dayak Borneo to the ornament on the costumes of sculptured dancers or deities at every major city site. Given a fiery upward inflection, it appears in the finials on major Indianized stone architecture and on the carved wooden gables of Burmese and Thai Buddhist halls. There is not always complete stylistic consistency within any one cultural group. For example, the fantastic snake-dragon creatures carved in deep relief on the housedoors of the Batak may be extravagantly sinuous, with many spirals, while their figure sculpture adheres to the sterner plastic idiom, virtually without any linear sinuosity. Among the Dayak of Borneo the fantastic style may be confined entirely to surface ornament. On Indonesian islands, ancestral figures may be relatively static and foursquare, while the decorative carving and textiles may display considerable linear fantasy. A special version of the ornamental-fantastic style characterizes the surviving Indianized arts of Bali and Java, intruding even into sculptural inventions derived from strongly three-dimensional medieval Indianizing patterns. Thus, the decoration on the wayang cutout leather puppets, with its somewhat stereotyped curlicues, has proliferated at the expense of the three-dimensional sense (see aboveIndonesia). Balinesewayang masks may be carved entirely out of curling surfaces and completed in paint with sinuous eyebrows and mustaches. In many parts of Southeast Asia, including Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Sumatra, and Indonesia, designs originally based upon Indian flowering-scroll patterns can be found in architecture, textiles, theatre costumes, musical instruments, and wooden utensils, all efflorescing with extravagant curling ornament. It is unfortunately true that only in a few of its most serious manifestations does this kind of ornament display substantial artistic invention, with carefully varied, asymmetrical, complementary, and counterchanged curves. Usually, it degenerates into repetitive space filling, without variety or formal meaning.
Textiles
Javanese batik textile accented with gilding; in the Royal Tropical Institute Museum, Amsterdam.Courtesy of the Royal Tropical Institute, AmsterdamPerhaps the types of folk art best known in the West are the textiles, especially batik and ikat. Both names refer to techniques practiced by different groups of people, who must have learned it from each other. Essentially Javanese but known in other islands, batik may have resulted from the imitation with dyes of South Indian painted cloths, probably before 1700. The essence of the technique is that melted wax is poured from a small metal kettle onto areas of a plain cotton cloth, which is then dyed, only the unwaxed parts taking the colour. The process can be repeated with several different colours. The oldest basic colours are indigo and brown; red and yellow were used later. The possible patterns range from lozenges and circlets through a large repertoire of cursive animal and plant forms. The batik technique can produce sumptuous and complex designs that not even the most elaborate weaving techniques can duplicate. It was encouraged by the Muslim rulers as a major element of social expression in garments and hangings.
Ikat cloth from Sumba Timur, Lesser Sunda Islands; in the J. and R. Langewis Collection, Castricum, The Netherlands.Holle Bildarchiv, Baden-BadenIkat is known among the Batak, in Cambodia, and especially among the dispersed Dayak people. It, too, probably originated in India. The extraordinarily difficult ikat textiles (woven cotton and occasionally silk, especially in Cambodia) are made primarily for use in important ceremonials and were regarded by their makers as major works of art. Before being woven, the thread is tightly tied at carefully calculated points in the hank (coiled or looped bundle); this is then dyed, the tied parts not taking up dye. The process may be repeated for different colours. As a consequence of the predyeing, designs appear as the thread is woven. In most ikat only the warp (the series of yarns extended lengthwise in the loom and crossed by the weft) is so treated; but in southern Sumatra a tie-dyed floating weft is added to the plain weft. Naturally, ikat designs tend to be static and more or less rectilinear. In the finest ikat, however, birds and animals, spirits and houses, and, in Cambodia, a vestigial iconography of royal Buddhism may be formalized into extremely beautiful banded compositions. | {
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notes:
Another Elsie Cardigan off the needles! I think this is no. 3. Great little pattern knit from the top down. I do think the sizing runs a bit small. I keep knitting this pattern since I love working the crochet picot edging at the end. Rowan Wool Cotton is nice to knit, but I'm not sure how well it washes and wears. Oh well, it just went to a fellow knitter's sweet new baby, so at least it won't get put through the dryer on high! | {
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Related software:03/30/2015 02:26:11comment3 uk calendar to ovulation calendar to not date vs calendar net julian calendar bordeaux etudiants club calendar calendar of a court with list of pending cases10/11/2004 · Click here to go to the main page of this web site Click here for a post on the future of Amway Global Click here to watch Chris Hansen's Dateline NBC ...booksdirect co uk activate | {
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Power of HypnosisHypnoAcoustics-The next generation of hypnosis products. We provide healing products that combine the tool of hypnosis and music healing to create positive changes in your life. Order wide variety of hypnotism items online today! For further information go to: -http://www.hypnoacoustics.com [Details] | {
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Valve Confirms They are Working on a Steam Box
Gabe Newell confirms the company is working on hardware to compete with next generation consoles.
Valve is known for keeping their cards close to the vest, but every once and awhile, founder Gabe Newell opens up a bit. The legendary CEO was on hand at Friday night’s VGA awards, and confirmed during an interview with Kotaku that a Steam Box would go head to head with the next generation of consoles.
Valve seems to have been empowered by consumer interest in “big picture mode”, and is actively researching new and interesting ways to make PCs work better in the living room. The fact that Steam now runs on Linux could also help keep costs down. The prospect of a Steam Box in the living room brings to mind endless possibilities, but Newell was careful to manage our expectations when it comes to added functionality.
"Well certainly our hardware will be a very controlled environment," he said. "If you want more flexibility, you can always buy a more general purpose PC. For people who want a more turnkey solution, that's what some people are really gonna want for their living room. The nice thing about a PC is a lot of different people can try out different solutions, and customers can find the ones that work best for them."
A locked down Steam Box running Linux probably wouldn’t be all that useful, however, Newell made it clear that third party OEM’s were welcome to join the party as well. | {
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About LG Montparnasse Apartment
Property LocationWith a stay at this aparthotel, you'll be centrally located in Paris, within a 10-minute drive of Parc Montsouris and Cite Universitaire. This aparthotel is 2.9 mi (4.6 km) from Eiffel Tower and 3.2 mi (5.1 km) from Notre Dame Cathedral.
RoomsMake yourself comfortable in this apartment, featuring a kitchen with a full-sized refrigerator/freezer and a stovetop. The apartment has a Select Comfort bed and a sofa bed. Wired and wireless Internet access is complimentary, while a 81-cm LCD television with cable programming provides entertainment. Conveniences include a microwave and a washing machine, as well as a phone with free local calls.
AmenitiesMake use of convenient amenities, which include complimentary wireless Internet access and babysitting/childcare (surcharge).
General facilities
Rooms services
WIFI/Internet
Credit cards
Pets
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Facilities offered by LG Montparnasse Apartment
Babysitting or childcare (surcharge)
Free Wi-Fi
LG Montparnasse Apartment rooms facilities and services
Blackout drapes/curtains
Cable TV service
Cookware, dishware, and utensils
Cribs/infant beds (complimentary)
Dial-up Internet access (complimentary)
Free Wi-Fi
Free local calls
Free wired high-speed Internet
Full-sized refrigerator/freezer
Hair dryer
Housekeeping - once per stay
Iron/ironing board
Kitchen
LCD TV
Microwave
Phone
Premium bedding
Private bathroom
Separate living room
Shower/tub combination
Sleep Number by Select Comfort mattress
Sofa bed
Soundproofed rooms
Stovetop
WIFI/Internet
FREE! WIFI is available in the hotel rooms and is free of charge.
Pets conditions in LG Montparnasse Apartment
Pets not allowed
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Check-in and check-out instructions
Arrival and departure times
Check-in time starts at 12:00:00
Check-out time is 10:30:00
Express check-out
Minimum check-in age is 18
Check-in time ends at 23:00:00
Required at check-in moment
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LG Montparnasse Apartment conditions
Know Before You Go
This property's policy is to refuse certain bookings for the purpose of group events or parties, including pre-wedding stag/bachelor and hen/bachelorette parties.
No pets and no service animals are allowed at this property.
FeesThe following fees and deposits are charged by the property at time of service, check-in, or check-out.
Housekeeping fee: EUR -30 per stay
The above list may not be comprehensive. Fees and deposits may not include tax and are subject to change. Mandatory Fees and TaxesYou'll be asked to pay the following charges at the property:
A tax is imposed by the city: EUR 2.30 per person, per night. This tax does not apply to children under 18 years of age.
Cleaning fee: EUR 30 per accommodation, per stay
We have included all charges provided to us by the property. However, charges can vary, for example, based on length of stay or the room you book.
We guarantee
Safety first: we provide to our customers the latest technologies in security online, your personal and banking data are protected at any time by SSL connections.
Personal data protection: ebooking.com only use your personal data to process and ensure your booking, are never shared with third parties.
Bookings free of charge: ebooking.com never will charge fees for its services in your credit card. | {
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Katy Perry: “Speaking In Tongues Is As Normal As ‘Pass The Salt’. “
Speaking in tongues is rarely discussed. It is even rarer to be discussed in Hollywood.
Pop star Katy Perry also learned to speak in tongues while growing up with her strict religious parents. The singer previously said, “Speaking in tongues is as normal to me as ‘Pass the salt’ … “My dad speaks in tongues and my mom interprets it. That’s their gift.”
She is not alone!
Transformer star Megan Fox says she has been speaking in tongues since she was a child and often has to restrain herself during trips to church. The Transformers star, who was raised as a member of the Pentecostal church, says she used to take part in glossolalia sessions–the muttering of speech-like syllables as a form of religious expression–from the age of eight.
Fox admits she is a devout Christian and often feels overcome by religious fervor when she attends church services. She tells Esquire magazine, “The energy is so intense in the room that you feel like anything can happen… I have seen magical, crazy things happen. I’ve seen people be healed. Even now, in the church I go to, during praise and worship I could feel that I was maybe getting ready to speak in tongues, and I’d have to shut it off because I don’t know what that church would do if I started screaming out in tongues in the back.” | {
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Deutsche Bank is freezing its North Carolina expansion plan in protest over an anti-gay law
REUTERS/Kham
Deutsche Bank said it will freeze plans to create 250 new jobs in North Carolina in response to the state's new law that allows some private businesses and religious groups to refuse service to gay couples.
John Cryan, co-CEO of Deutsche Bank, said: "We take our commitment to building inclusive work environments seriously."
"We're proud of our operations and employees in Cary and regret that as a result of this legislation we are unwilling to include North Carolina in our US expansion plans for now. We very much hope that we can re-visit our plans to grow this location in the near future," Cryan said in an e-mailed statement.
The bank employs around 900 people at its software application development center in Cary, North Carolina, which is where the additional jobs were planned.
Deutsche Bank isn't alone in protesting the legislation. Paypal last month cancelled a a $3.6 million investment for a new global operations centre that would have employed 400 people in North Carolina. | {
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Jew Lew is an orthodox jew which was mentioned in the jew news when the kenyan first appointed him (Joseph Lieberman is an ortho joo too). But yes, they are clean cut ortho jooz because a greasy beard and side curls wouldn’t look kosher with a high Federal govt position even in the ZOG.
They don’t want to blatantly broadcast their jewyness to the gentile. But you can be sure the perverted, psychotic ortho jew brain inside hasn’t been cleaned up in any way.
This is how it works (primarily in israel): All jews believe they are chosen by God to be superior to non-jews (aka Gentiles aka cattle). But the orthodox jew takes it even a freaky step beyond that. They believe that only they are the true jew and all others (even other jews) are false jews, i.e., cattle.
They define cattle as dumb beasts whose only purpose on the planet is to serve the jew. Hence, they refuse to serve even in the jew military because they would be serving the nation which is primarily composed of cattle (secular jews). Can’t do that!
They refuse to work too (Jew Lew must be an aberration). It would be blasphemy for them to subserviate themselves to cattle even in exchange for wages. Ergo, the only appropriate condition is for them to be supported unconditionally by the cattle (which, after all, is the reason God put the cattle on the planet). In other words,the cattle works, pays taxes, serves in the jew military, kills Palestinians, etc. and then provides free welfare sustenance to the Ortho so they may do nothing but eat, defecate, pray, and fornicate.
Such is the mindset of the ortho jew. Rabbi Yosef said it best:
“Why are gentiles needed? They will work, they will plow, they will reap; and we will sit like an effendi [Turkish bossman] and eat.” That is why gentiles were created.”
– Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, spiritual mentor of the religious fundamentalist party, Shas, and a former Chief Rabbi of Israel.
But don’t despair! Such an insane, selfish mindset cannot help but be a detriment to the long term cohesion of the zionist Occupation and for that we must be thankful.
The devastation of civilization to date by the rapacious hordes of Godless Communism, as well as their planned annihilation of all non-Jewish societies and political organizations, began to ravage the world in the nineteenth century.
It has resulted in incredible suffering and death for many millions of Christian victims in many parts of the world. Yet these Christian victims lie in their graves, unmourned and unknown, … | {
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Next story:
Lauri Sidelko is the director of alcohol and drug education programs at the University of Maine in Orono. The University is trying to prevent the syntethic drug bath salts from becoming a problem in the coming year.
ORONO, Maine — Bangor’s struggle to contain the spread of bath salts, a powerful synthetic drug that has sparked a crisis over the summer, has University of Maine officials and campus and Orono police worried about the coming semester.
In less than two weeks, about 12,000 students will arrive at the university for the first day of the fall semester. University officials and police in surrounding communities fear that bath salts, which became illegal in Maine in July, might come with some of them.
The university’s strategy is to prevent the drugs from even showing up on campus — and come down hard on anyone who might try to bring them.
“There’s no breach in our walls,” said Robert Dana, vice president of student affairs and dean of students, “and we’ll be pushing back hard.”
Campus officials have been monitoring Bangor’s battle with the substance, and the school’s Alcohol and Drug Prevention Programs will lead an education and prevention effort to be sure students know the dangers of the drug.
When ingested, injected or smoked, bath salts induce manic behavior, delusions, paranoia, hallucinations, hyperactivity, nightmares, violence and suicidal depression. The high has been compared to that of cocaine.
The university will be especially vocal about its zero-tolerance drug policy this year, Dana said.
If students are caught with bath salts or caught dealing the substance, “I would move immediately to expel them from the university and remove them from this community,” he said.
The hope is that this sort of punishment won’t be needed because the drug won’t reach campus, said Alcohol and Drug Prevention Programs director Lauri Sidelko.
“We will not tolerate this here,” she said.
Educating students about drugs and alcohol in general will be the focus of her group throughout the school year, especially in the early months of the semester, Sidelko said.
Resident assistants and directors at dorms will learn the signs of bath salts use and how to respond. University staff will visit first-year student classes, dorms, fraternities and sororities, sports teams and other groups on campus to warn about the drug’s ill effects. Posters tacked up across the university will direct students on whom to call and what to do if they encounter bath salts. University councilors will offer help to students who have used bath salts or who know a user.
“The drug in and of itself is something of huge concern,” Sidelko said. “We should be prepared for it, but it hopefully won’t be an issue because [the university] population isn’t typical of users of these types of drugs.”
The message to students if they cross paths with someone who is under the influence of bath salts: “Don’t get involved. Don’t approach. Don’t be confrontational. Call 911,” Sidelko said.
Police officers on campus and in Orono and Old Town are gauging how to handle bath salts users in case the drug does reach campus.
LaCroix said he plans to meet with Bangor Police Chief Ron Gastia to “learn more about what they’ve been dealing with,” he said.
Officers are doing research and receiving training about the drug, its effects and how to handle individuals who are under the influence.
“These people can demonstrate extreme behavior, and our officers have to be cautious,” LaCroix said.
On Sunday, a man on bath salts was arrested in Bangor and later tried to take an officer’s gun during a scuffle at Eastern Maine Medical Center. The man, who in June also was the first person in Maine to be charged with operating under the influence after using bath salts, was Tasered twice on Sunday as police struggled to subdue him on a Bangor street and later at the hospital.
That sort of combativeness and aggression from users is what most worries officers who might encounter the drug, said Orono police Sgt. Scott Scripture.
“It’s a real scary thing,” Scripture said. “This is such a different type of drug.”
Bath salts users present a difficult problem for law enforcement and hospitals alike, he said — neither one can handle them. Hospitals often don’t have the staff to subdue users if they get out of hand, and jails often can’t provide users the medical and psychological care they need.
LaCroix said he hopes UMaine students will be smart enough to stay away from the synthetic drugs.
“Some rogue scientists are creating these things,” LaCroix said.
Students, faculty and officials will have to look out for one another if the university is going to stem a potential bath salts outbreak, according to Dana.
“We’re a close, tight-knit community, and our students will know that this is a dangerous drug,” he said. “There’s no place for these substances at this university.” | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Was feeling really sick and down for the past few days (headache, earache, all) Woke up this morning and went to the chemist, now I am feeling way better.
For a laugh try , perhaps make a few prank calls or do a bit of spotting. So you live in Hawaii, what Island? I mean, if it is Oahu, HNL Airport is pretty much only 1 dollar (or 2 if you have to change) away. And on top of it, in Hawaii you have those brilliant beaches. I just dream about going to Waime Bay, Sunset Beach or Hanauma Bay right now. You have it all on your doorstep. Cheer up.
Homework? When you're sick? Ugh, I'd sure never do that! (Of course I never do my homework anyway.) Ever notice that one tends to get sick on the weekends or holidays in order to miss as little school as possible? I wonder why that is... Well, cheer up, you've got us! (Is that really a good thing? Eh, you decide...) | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Amanpour and Ambassador Cui also spoke about Russian President Putin's visit to China, the American pivot to Asia, and China's territorial disputes. You can see that portion of the interview here.
A day after the United States announced indictments against five members of the Chinese military, China’s ambassador to the U.S. accused America of hypocrisy in an exclusive interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.
“It’s really amazing to see that some people still believe they have moral high ground and credibility to accuse others, if we consider the Snowden revelations and so on and so forth,” Cui Tiankai said.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday accused five Chinese nationals of engaging in commercial espionage, hacking into American businesses including U.S. Steel Corp., Westinghouse, Alcoa, Allegheny Technologies, the United Steel Workers Union, and SolarWorld.
In some instances, Holder said, the hackers stole trade secrets that would have been "particularly beneficial to Chinese companies at the time that they were stolen.”
The United States engages in widespread espionage around the world, but draws a distinction between spying for national security and spying for the advancement of domestic business.
“The fact is China is a victim to such cyberattacks,” Ambassador Cui said.
“I don't know how they can make a distinction between such activities. How do they explain the attacks on Chinese companies, universities, and even individuals? Is that for national defense? Or is that for other purposes?”
Chinese ambassador hits back on hacking
The Ambassador urged dialogue on the issue, but said that would be not possible until the U.S. reversed its “wrong decision” on issuing the indictment.
Soon after Chinese President Xi Jinping took office last year, he and U.S. President Barack Obama held a landmark one-on-one summit in California.
But ominously, Ambassador Cui suggested this latest U.S. move could jeopardize the whole relationship.
“We have to have corresponding efforts by the United States. China itself cannot guarantee that the relations will move on the right tracks. It requires efforts by both sides.”
The United States’ reason for issuing the indictment at this time is unclear. The five people in question work for China’s military and live in that country; it is doubtful America would ever actually detain them.
“I don’t know why the United States made such a decision,” Ambassador Cui said.
Last April, the United States and China set up a cybersecurity working group to address the issue.
“The very basis for the working group is the commitment of all sides to work to address these measures, to address these issues for cooperation and dialogue,” Cui said. “And now they are taking unilateral action. They really undermine the very basis of the working group.”
China, he told Amanpour, is not only denying America’s “false charges,” but it is demanding an account of the U.S.’s own cyberespionage activities.
“We also have a long list over very good and well-known Chinese companies that have been attacked by such activities, originating from the United States.”
“So I think it would be constructive and practical for the two governments to work together on these issues, to address these issues together – not to exchange accusations like this.”
You can see the full transcript of Amanpour's conversation with Ambassador Cui here.
soundoff(185 Responses)
SomeoneThere
"The United States engages in widespread espionage around the world, but draws a distinction between spying for national security and spying for the advancement of domestic business."!!!
ok who's saying that!?
USA's hacking is proved, there are millions of evidenecs to prove that NSA has hacked the world.
But USA including FBI can never prove or give the world the clear evidence that China especially Chinese government of Chinese military has hacked USA.
Can you prove it? or can you give the world the evidences or details, or have you as US people ever seen that USA government has given you that?
Huawei and ZTE, chinese companies, are world ranking number 1 and 2 in applying patents in many years in a row.
Not MS, Google, or IBM, not Soni, Toyote or canom.
So if USA says Huawei's patents steal those of USA, then the world can not say anything.
If Obama says he does not eat bananas anymore, and his wife also.
The world can also not say anything.
The world can say, shame is the character of USA and its people.
The killed people and say other kill.
They steal others and say others steal them.
But others are patent company number one and two of the world.
Whom they steal.
USA=Shame.
May 20, 2014 at 7:02 pm |
Dave
Quote " ...But USA including FBI can never prove or give the world the clear evidence that China especially Chinese government of Chinese military has hacked USA."
Cyber Security company Mandiant Corp has been shadowing Chinese hackers operating from Unit 61398 for several years. They published extensive evidence of this back in 2013:- http://edition.cnn.com/2014/05/20/world/asia/china-unit-61398/
May 20, 2014 at 7:15 pm |
Jon
Oh wow. You just have hatred for the United States. No rationale. Just hatred.
I don't hate you back, but I wish that you would work through the reasons for your hatred.
May 20, 2014 at 9:42 pm |
macsien
Maybe have
May 20, 2014 at 10:56 pm |
zeerust
We know China and Russia are hacking, we used to know that the US was hacking but until whistle blowers came forward that is when we have a confirmation. What I'm trying to say is the commies have there own hacking systems you don't have to do rocket science to know that. I'm in Africa but i know that is show show thing.
May 21, 2014 at 5:49 am |
black hope
Go feed you beaarch an you old mama some bananas pale skins...ypu lacking vitamin D....god did not make us = o wad born with lots of it....lift a rock up..tell me what color is a roach..lol..lmaof
Snowden has revealed that NSA has hacked many Chinese national companies
NSA has hacked leaders of many countries, some hacking happened in the process of negotiations.
So you mean leaders of many countries are terrorists?
Angela Merkel is threat to USA?
USA does all these to steal commercial secrets of other countries to its benifits in the negotiation or so.
Admit it,
you are stinky US people.
Don't admit it.
You are ammanpoure.
May 21, 2014 at 2:27 am |
Nasser-Saudi
CIA spying on everything and they created the terrorists with black flags in many regions to make asians and brown and black people live in chaos
this american racist ideology based on the terrorist ideology which called evolution wests and america supported the terrorists like shia khomeini of Iran and the extremists terrorists whom raise the black flags in arab region and africa. CIA also want to destroy Islam by supporting the extremists and the terrorist act in 2001 in U.S.A it just planned by CIA. in 1995 there is a card game spread in markets it's called illuminati card this card talking about the terrorist act in newyork 2001 and the uprisings and there is a thing didn't happen yet i see it in that card i think it's mean the world will be feminine leaders and controlled by hillary clinton.
May 21, 2014 at 5:34 am |
Shadows
It is proved that NSA was bugging German Company Communications. Even they didnt leave Ms. Merkel alone. When Mr. Obama was patting Ms. Merkel shoulders, she would have expected him to be bugging her telephone conversation with her husband. What a bunch of American wnkrs??
May 22, 2014 at 9:36 am |
Europeinam
We all know US is a hacker empire
June 10, 2014 at 1:17 pm |
Snow den
USA = NSA = hypocrits
Funny that just below this box it states that everything posted here can be used according to the "so called Privacy policy!!!!
I did not know that CNN was a branch of the NSA
Israel and U.S.A and europe are the most professional people in spying
May 21, 2014 at 5:40 am |
El Lobo
It is easy to throw insults hiding in cyber space. I would say acting like a coward. First look at your own country and then saying anything so that we we can tell you the bad things about your homeland as well.
If the Chinese or other countries have legal disputes over industrial spying then take us to court. There is an international forum for these so called horrible acts. Don't speculate without any solid facts.
quote a Chinese saying"dog eat dog",it's the perfect comment for this news.
May 21, 2014 at 2:22 am |
suresh
It is an open secret that both the US and Chinese governments have thousands of hackers on their payroll. I don't think the US action will have any impact on the chinese. They will continue in their merry way.
The difference, is that the US doesn't hack into foreign companies to steal their technology, so they can use it to produce the same products but at a lower cost since they didn't have to spend any money on research and development.
The US spies on just about everybody in the world, just like most other countries have spies in the US. But the US government doesn't use it's assets to steal trade secrets from private companies and give them to US companies. Just google Chinese patent violations and see how much you find. The Chinese have no scruples when it comes to stealing intellectual property.
May 22, 2014 at 2:23 pm |
Canada
yo, America, friendly neighbour to the north... Just wondering, do you feel like reigning in your leaders a bit? not overly feeling up to war and such... I mean, I just ate a big poutine, just got a PS4.. and I work. It would be inconvenient. Thanks a bunch
Yo Canada, friendly neighbor to the north, we're doing our best to protect everybody in the region–and Europe– and spending our hard-earned money to do it. So does us a favor? If you don't like feeling REALLY secure and being able to enjoy your hard-earned money, quit bad-mouthing us, and start working to understand some of the broader, over-arching reasons for our behaviors.
Oh yes thanks your America very much! but your such" best protect" has been agreed to do from the world or not???Don't pretending that you are very great like a hero, if you feel wronged, so please tell your goverment to cancel such insultting and swindling and reproachful behavior, in fact, the whole world all beg it, I don't know why your goverment still act it like a clown, it is guilty!!!
May 20, 2014 at 10:38 pm |
Europeinam
you think involve in other countries is to protect them? Do you want other countries to station troops in your country?
June 10, 2014 at 1:21 pm |
giang
The statement of China's Ambassador about the deployment of chinese oil rig in vietnames waters is completely untrue. The fact is the location of the rig is 120 miles from costal line of vietnam and well with its EEZ (exclusive economic zone. The islands that he referred to is Paracel or known as Hoang Sa in Vietnam and is wrongly used as an basis for china to insist that the rig is within china's waters. In fact the islands was occupied by china after a short millitary engagement (the sea battle of Paracel islands) with southern Vietnam (the republic of vietnam) in 1974. This islands has been and will be part of vietnam. Furthermore it is China who has been deploying more than 100 ships including millitary and armed vessels. Vietnam only sends its coast guard vessels. China has been in many instances showing its inconsistence, lack of transparency and even contradictions between what they say and what they actually do.
You are funny. you do know that Sansha was a newly invented/imagined city by China in areas that are in the EEZ of many other countries, except China. China's claims to the islands are imaginary. There were other countries fishing in that zone long before any of the imagined Chinese explorers were even born.
You sir are so brainwashed by your countries propaganda. Try reading other real sources before spouting your state controlled thoughts.
May 20, 2014 at 8:43 pm |
UKUKUKUKUK
Truth is China has owned South China See for centuries.
Vietnam is Chinese brother, so we do not talk about VN, we will share something with VN later.
But we talk about Phihasodfihapsdf, that weak stupid thug so called "Country of servants".
Do Phispdofhasdpfo know that if they rob chinese territory, China can destroy them with missles in minutes?
Unbelievable!
May 21, 2014 at 4:42 am |
tom
are you chinese ?Chinese is number one for stole secret.Chinese is stuppid
June 28, 2014 at 5:33 pm |
suc
If the illegal exploitation was true, I'd say the project was incredibly lucky to not be noticed during the time of construction – but the truth is, both the vietnamese government and the international community kept silence for a long time, and when the issue brought to light, they all changed suddenly into a Justice Bringer, well, I think this is just politics
There is a very basic difference between hacking into peoples coms for security purposes and hacking into company databases. One, worrisome, intrusive and often wrongheaded maybe, is to attempt to identify and forestall gross acts against people. The other is a simple act of theft. I cannot help but be concerned by governmental snooping, but I can see a valid argument for it, I cannot see hacking secret proprietory data as being anything other than theft without any mitigation. The fact that the Chinese government is directly involved in stealing commercial data which is then used by state owned companies means that these indicted Chinese military persons are state sponsored thieves. No contest,
Really? I noticed you didn't include cyber-Trawling (i.e. gathering all info about everything from everyone, include
foreign heads of State), which country IS doing that... ?
If the USA does it... it grants license to everyone to do it, its how the world works, the Racist States of America has no right to criticize anyone about anything.
Call it hacking or whatever, gathering information for security vs. making a quick/easy buck are two ENTIRELY different things.
To hide behind the USA's data gathering is BS.
China's definition of R & D.....Receive & Duplicate
This'll just save them the trouble of actually buying something to reverse engineer it. Cuts out the middle man so to speak.
This "difference" is so lame to the other people of the world and it’s like to say that a peeping tom pervert is better than a petty thief. Please wake up and feel the real worlds, not just your narrow minded American exceptionism view of the world.
To the rest of the people, hacking is hacking is hacking and the America is the big violator and it needs to stop first.
INFORMATION IS POWER! SPYING GIVES THE PERPETRATOR AN ADVANTAGE-BEING ONE OR SEVERAL STEPS AHEAD. WHAT HE DOES WITH THE INFORMATION IS SECONDARY. IF THE INFORMATION SHOWS A LEAD TO A GOLD TREASURE; IT IS UP TO HIM TO IGNORE IT OR TAKE IT FOR SAFE KEEPING. FEW YEARS AGO ONLY FEW COUNTRIES HAD THE POWER TO EXCLUSIVELY SPY ON OTHERS. TODAY IT IS DIFFERENT. WILL THE FUTURE OF DRONES BE THE SAME. IT WOULD INTERESTING WHEN OTHER COUNTRIES START TO USE IT THE WAY WE ARE USING IT OR EVEN WORSE
I guess hacking no matter how, by who and for what purpose, is not acceptable and the question is what do you do about it? Protect the system if you can or go after the abusers? There is no such thing as Moral in this, it's all about self preservation.
They killed so many people in the world in the name of peace.
They hacked so many countries in the name of peace.
They brought the world the economic crisis which cause millions of unemployment in europe.
Your apparent distaste for America seems to stem from jealousy and ignorance – not much fact.
Believe me, you belong in Europe. You belong in a lesser, non – important region where it is easy to sit from a distance and criticize with confidence. At least in America when you order coffee... you get a damn coffee. Not a shot of expresso. Total amatuers.
Of course, when chinese had travelled to Africa, America was still not found
June 10, 2014 at 1:24 pm |
Steve Nicoletti
Lets not get carried away. We are the world's dominant power so we are bound to flex every now and again. Good American citizens like me at least try to keep that flexing in check. Let me ask you this, if Europe was in power, what would they have done different?
you just hit the point. every country is alike, when it takes the lead!
May 20, 2014 at 11:44 pm |
tammy
I found that America really enjoy the leadership. Why don't you just take care of your own citizens? Since American government comes into Asia, people quarrel, people fight, even kill. Why would you think that China will play the hypocrisy card? We do not care about the leadership. We live our lives in our own way. Please just get your hands off.
USA spies on everyone....and we all know this via Mr Snowden. We also know that if you were to attack a group one would make sure not to have the ip address traced back to your location – it is like holding the phone forever while the police trace you. China can block sites for the whole internet. I imagine if it wanted to it could stop ip intrusion and if not it would be traced to a small house in Tibet. So we basically know this is lies or stupidity on the US part or the US have been doing a great deal more spying on China than we are aware – kettle really black. The last time this happened Snowden came out. So maybe the government is doing something at the moment to be really guilty about. Anyone who believes this is either stupid or lives in a bird cage.
The difference is that the Chinese were trying to steal "economic and proprietary technology" which would be used by their military and their industry to gain advantage... In the NSA case they were looking for spies and illegal activities...
The Chinese Stealth fighter and it's features is a clear example of Chinese hacking of the US/International F-35 Lightning project, stolen from the British partner, this is a fact reported by British intelligence. Only the Chinese government and it's trolls here would lie and deny.
As I read the various comments, I'm guessing that about 60% originate in Shanghai, that unit 91638 or whatever it is. You know, the place with all the dead pigs floating down the river. Where the military troublemakers convene . . .
You can tell the type, because there is little discussion of issue without insult. Indeed, the main mien is insult first, and no factual discussion . . .
Huh? What's the problem? You don't grasp the idea of free spèech in Shanghai? It's an observation. Whether it is right or wrong is irrelevant. What is important is to know there are manipulators about.
May 21, 2014 at 1:35 am |
Marky
Anyone else notice that whenever CNN finally has to report on something that doesn't jive with what the military industrial complex is trying to sell it's always on a blog like this where the comments are scrutinized and many don't end up appearing while the ones that do appear just sit there with no way to vote up or down so there's no way to get a feel for the general public perception?
In the end, you'll learn that, while the United States is far from perfect, when you compare the human rights records of China and Russia, the United States starts to look really good.... But you won't realize this until one of them takes over your country and throws one of your family members in jail, with out trial, to never be seen again.
people envy wealth, fearful of power; us is blessed with both.
us flexes its blessings to the world; the world resents.
May 20, 2014 at 10:21 pm |
Coco
Yes human right is wonderful in USA?? what about the racial discrimination??? may be you think racial discrimination is relate to society, but can these happend without goverment's agreement and nonfeasance?
Ok, may be human right is the best in USA, but PLEASE NOTE, only in USA, Did USA cencern about otherone's human right when they invade Iraq, Afghan and Pakistan??? Why most of terrorist organizations point fingers at USA??? Do they got waaaay too much free time???
May 20, 2014 at 11:00 pm |
Coconut126
explain more about Guantanamo Bay please.
May 20, 2014 at 11:15 pm |
Liam
Too bad this kind of complacency and CNN kind of profit-oriented-entertainment-centered media are killing the US democracy entirely.
May 24, 2014 at 3:09 am |
Scorpionet
Coco claims the US invaded Pakistan, if you call the killing of master terrorist Osama Bin Laden an invasion, you are wrong, it's a tactical strike, they did not stay in Pakistan. Now China invaded and annexed Tibet which has no defense to speak of, that is a fact. It populates Tibet with Chinese and calls Tibetan resistance, terrorist actions against the Chinese. The Chinese military have AK-47's against Chinese monks who have stones, those are the facts the Chinese government and it's trolls cannot deny or lie.
May 28, 2014 at 7:26 pm |
Steve Nicoletti
It was only a matter of time before China played the hypocrisy card; I just always assumed it would be over human rights not cyber spying. I always thought that China, after pointing out Gitmo and Guantanamo would remind us that we have over 2,000,000 of our citizens locked up, which is both the highest number of incarcerated and the highest incarceration rate in the world.
Thanks for pointing that out! As King said: an injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Unfortunately, the people and media close eyes to mountain of injustice here (which threatens the core of this society) and always blame China for evrey of our own problem.
Between the US and China, I believe the US accusation is more credible. It has a lot of technology to steal from. How can China be the victim when it has no original technology and invention to offer to the west. Look at the West Philippine Sea, China would like to grab all land and sea even up to the Philippine seashores. That's stealing, disguised as might is right.
Do you really believe USA is for world peace??? Do you know most of the war happended currently all because of or relate to USA??? Have you been to Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran???Have your country get agreement when you country attack them??? Have ya???
A country which allow people to hold a gun can be peace???Do you dare to stroll the streets in your country at night?? I can say, ordinary people is USA is very kind,but they all believe the world is violence, so they need weapons to defended themself and hurt other ones.
You got your facts wrong, give me the dates the US attacked and invaded Pakistan and Iran and did they have bases in there after they invaded? Go and check your history books if you still read books because you won't find the facts in Chinese propaganda but then of course you are also part of that propaganda machine.
May 28, 2014 at 7:34 pm |
suasageon
Another staggering home goal from teh hypocrites in Washington- when are they going to realise no one trusts them any more- nor should they?
America is ecoming shamelessly hypocritical. It throws its weight about on the international stage and manipulates international affiars in the name of democracy and so-called international order. More and more conscientious people in the world are coming to see its true color and spitting in its dirty face.
It's courageous for the President to take on the Chinese army with FBI. It's a brand new and very creative approch. It slao helps keeping jobs at FBI at a time when there are no school shooting recently.
Many Americans on this thread (of which I am one of) are just as brainwashed by our media as China is by their government. Fact is, the US operates one of, if not the largest spy operation in the world. I know many American's think that this is in the pursuit of safety etc... however, hacking, spying and all of the other dodgy things that happen do so on both sides and most of it by definition is wrong. I'm an American, I no fan of China's treatment of a large swath of their people but the US is every bit as much at fault as China, maybe more so.
China is an enemy to the Western countries, as well as to their neighboors, see what they do with vietnam and others in their territorial disputes. They are an enemy to every other nation in the world, they only care about themselves, they make friends not because of ideology like the USA, but wheter it is at the moment convinient or not to them (hey Russia). USA may suffer from the same selfish behavior, but at least, it shares our values: liberty and justice for all, with every sort of freedom – that is the most important of human rights at my opinion (even more important than life itself, i would die trying to be free but i would not let any regime take away my freedoms), and sometimes yet USA may make one or another alliance because of those values. We should stand next to USA.
After proper corrections in english grammar: China is an enemy to the Western countries, as well as to its neighboors, see what it does with vietnam and others in its territorial disputes. China is an enemy to every other nation in the world, it only cares about itself, it makes friends not because of ideology like the USA, but wheter it is at the moment convinient or not to China (hey Russia). USA may suffer from the same selfish behavior, but at least, it shares our values: liberty and justice for all, with every sort of freedom – that is the most important of human rights at my opinion (even more important than life itself, i would die trying to be free but i would not let any regime take away my freedoms), and sometimes yet USA may make one or another alliance because of those values. We should stand next to USA.
The question is whether or not which country has better values, I mean you can't blame 1.3 billion Chinese people for their governments decisions, no more than you can blame the people in North Korea for their situation. Fact is accusing China of hacking is hypocritical when we are doing the same. I don't suggest that China doesn't have issues, but in fairness managing a disperse country of 1.3 Billion, with 1 Billion or more people living in poverty is a different animal than managing many western countries. Anyway, hacking is hacking and if the US does it to China why wouldn't the Chinese reciprocate?
May 20, 2014 at 10:05 pm |
Jon
Leo: I appreciate this, and definitely agree with your words. We are all flawed. But if there is a choice between all flawed nations, I vote that the US is the least flawed. Sure- that's controversial, but I'm sticking to these words.
Exactly, more than one million Vietnamese people killed by Americans and more than 5000 Chinese sodiers died helping to fight the Americans. I guess as a huge nation, China can forgive the helplessly narcissistic Vietnam.
May 24, 2014 at 4:00 am |
eyeonukraine
Amanpour, totally disappointed with your biased report, if you can call this reporting. "China attack....". Seems like it is the US attacking China for hacking, yet the US is the biggest hacker – NSA snooping, Pentagon's own CYBER WARFARE division, over 6000 strong, doing what? Cyber warfare guys don't just go to the office and play video games? They wage cyber wars, lady. Try to be a little even handed in your reporting? This is the administration's political show pandering to domestic scenes – upcoming mid-term election. But this is a dumb one to use against another nation for domestic political expedience – one that the US can not hold the moral high ground. Pick another area to attack the other guy?
Your comment is very good, thoughtful and relevant, if you are a American, your country will become better because of you.
USA seems had planted the seeds of hatred all around the world, may be there are some indeed for pure kind purpose i dont know, but we absolutely don't like it, I don't like USA always poke it's nose into others' business, the goverment should solve the domestic issue first, it it treat the masses very well and w/o doubt, i think the whole world would convince and welcome it, but what a pity, behaviour from USA goverment now just disappointed the world...
The US conducts surveillance, for national security purposes. It does not conduct espionage for personal gain or commercial profit. Again, there is a major difference between the two. Yes there both spying but there not the same.
I thought you guys would be mad at this action, or irritated by the ambassador's remarks.
As a Chinese, I gotta say, I don't care cyberspying or something like this. What I do care is China's Internet blocking, and when it will be cancelled.
Although most Americans like me are angry over the NSA "spying" on Americans (i.e., collecting metadata about phone calls, etc), the USA has NEVER abused its people on massive scale in the way that ALL communist countries routinely do. Not one American has even been harassed by police as a result of NSA spying. In contrast, Chinese citizens are often harassed and even imprisoned whenever their government finds something it does not like. Ultimately, there is no freedom in China to say or even read whatever a person desires. The ignorance of most of the commenters here (especially the ones who seem to be Chinese) is truly depressing. Of course the USA spies on the Chinese government - the communist regime acts as an enemy not only to the USA but also its own people (and was never even elected). Years of propaganda may make it difficult for many to ever know the truth, but as a person who has spent years in both countries, it is clear that Chinese have no reason to fear the US studying it. Chinese must instead fear what their own government does. We are now approaching the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown in which Chinese soldiers obeyed that government to shoot unarmed civilians. Yet this cannot even be mentioned in China. I am thankful the USA is keeping an aye on China. And as a US citizen I am glad that I actually live in a true democracy where the people can change the government and even surveillance laws, as in fact is happening now.
The US spies but it does not do so to steal for personal gain or commercial profit, China spies to steal prviate US companies trade secrets. The better question is where do the two countries go from here? Let's put it this way, who doesn't have a relative that doesn't do things they don't like or annoys them? Does that mean you abandon them? If the two countries truly are interested in moving forward then I think canceling the workshop is a step in the wrong direction.
It is quite understandable for powerful nations to flex their muscles from time to time. It is even expected and natural for the strong to deal heavy blows on their enemies, both real and perceived. That's part of the luxuries and tools they have at their disposal. But what sets the good guys and the bad guys apart is how one uses his overwhelming power and advantage lopsidedly and purely just for one's own gain, without any sense of community, devoid of any sense of responsibily for common good, and without any sense of fairness against the weak and oppressed.
World order comes with a heavy price, but it's a condition that we all want for our families to see and enjoy! Who bears the cost of maintaining this world order which we speak of, and which many of us simply take for granted every breathing day!
The dark days of WWII ended because a band of nations referred to as the Allied Powers came through and follwed through to restore order in a sick world back then. They thought it wise to create the U.N. and it still functions to this day allowing majoriy of us to live in peace and develop as a race. But behind all thses seeming normalcy someone or some nation, or nations, is actually footing the bill for this so called world order. Many of us should be glad it ain't you directly carrying the bill.
Current world order may not be perfect, but hey look around you how mankind has progressed since then.
With great power comes great responsibility. And governance, even just at the national level can truly be a challenge, maybe even for the divine. What more trying to balnce interests at the international level. Let anyone who wants to take on this challenge to come forward, and maybe foot the enormous bill.
Espionage is a coomon game that world powers play, and had even become a household word during the cold war. Commercial espionage had almost always been part of it. For a player in the game of espionage to complain is a signal that most likely, much indeed may have been lost, and gained by the adversary. Otherwise all these are kept away from public scrutiny.
Judging from the comments here, it seems many are wishing for a decline of the dominant power blocks, maybe out of personal or racial hate and grudge. For all our sakes we should wish the good guys should outlast the bad guys lest all of our families are done for.
If the dominant powers at the height of WWII had been different or had been the likes of emerging nations we see around us today, would they have committed their resources and their able bodied fighting citizens, their army, to liberate the world. And if these emerging powers eclipse their peers today, would their ideals and principles benefit your family and mine in ways better than what we enjoy today? Would they be willing to foot the bill to lead and keep world order, forestall any power vacuum that could easily lead to chaos.
We may have personal and racial prejudices, but imagine if suddenly we find oursleves living in a world where the dominant power block or blocks were the potential alternatives we have today, are we sure our families will be living in a much better world?
Let's ponder on the important lessons of history, appreciate things we overlook and take forgranted, support causes that would promote the benefit and welfare of our chidrens' children, and be sure were rooting for the guys for our family's sake!
I quite agree with you, but people is just animal, we all selfish and inviolable, human will never believe themsfle is wrong, we all keep thinking we are right,
As Confucius said, "Be not ashamed of mistakes and thus make them crimes", but this only happend in the pass world, not now the mordern time, we not attack doen't means other ones won't attack us,so in our unconscious mind, we should keep vigilant, this is animal feature
I don't know why China insists in maintain diplomatic relations with US government, the US government must be isolated of the rest of the world, who makes USA works are the honest citizens and businessman, nobody needs US government and all they do is steal worker's money to give for terrorists and neo-nazis around the world. China should kick off US ambassador and welcome decent and honest US citizens who really wants to works for make a better world. If there's a country in the world that don't need its government, this country is USA.
I am curious, if a Chinese state company had evidence of a US individual conducting espionage for commercial theft for profit, what would the Chinese Government demand? This is the kind of stuff that could be discussed at the workshop. In the future, how does/should the Chinese/US Government want to handle these types of situations.
By attacking the US, China has implicitly admitted that it did indeed commit such a sleazy (and criminal) act of spying. What the NSA has been doing is not the same. And China can cry all it wants, the world will look at China with contempt and disgust.
China must have thought it had the capability of MI-6 and those spies who got caught were their "James Bond"! Cheap, sleazy, dirty, and ugly seem to be what comes to mind when the word "China" or "Chinese" comes up.
I honestly think you have to be living in a luvvy happy hippy world if you think that any government on this planet isn't involved in hacking. But the old "Yell scream and point to another while you are pick-pocketing the onlookers" works well for the US.
Funny, when I was a child everyone believed the hype of the great red Evil, some people still fervently do, and America as the morality police of the world seemingly worked well. But it would seem that along with the collapse of Communism, America's credibility collapsed as fast.
Good one mate. Chinese think they will fool the world for ever. They have been looting the US tech for a long time. People should realize that China will be abusive when it finally becomes a superpower. I hope the US will keep it on check for the rest of her life. One thing i have realized is people will always complain know matter what the US does, and people should realize that the world will only become complicated as time goes on. Hacking is a necessity but others will exploit it. Imagine what the Chinese will do when given the same tech. They will invade other countries and annex them so that they can offload there population to those countries. What do you think the Chinese are fighting for in south china sea. They have got a lot of mouth to feed, a billion and half people is not a joke.
America is doing what other countries are doing. The difference here is everyone one is targeting US, because it is big giant elephant that is visible to everyone. AT LEAST Americans hear that they are being spied on, but not being jailed for having to take out there complains like in countries like China, Russia,North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Iran. In Iran a few days ago 6 women were arrested for posting a clip in which they sang Pharrell's song called HAPPY, apparently people are not suppose to show their happiness in Iran. they were made to apologies on Iran national TV. Those kinds of things never happens in the western worlds. U can tell a president that you don't like them and no one will jail you for saying that in the western world.
第一次在这样的地方看到这样的评论，其实感觉挺痛心的。中国一直在进步，不单单指中国的经济也包括在意识形态上的改变。我真想知道美国人对我们这样深的敌意是怎么形成的？中国人称来到中国的外国人为外国友人，我们尊重他们不会歧视他们，更不会敌视他们。中国一直在改变在进步，我希望美国也能这样。The color of the world are changing day by day !(Les.Miserables)固步自封、夜郎自大是不会有好结果的。
There are good Americans and mostly don't listen to CNN. Unfortunately, stupidity, ignorance, and bigotry exist among this CNN-crowd (who else will treat CNN seriously?) and that is why they are going downhill like snow balls.
Simple. Biggest bully accusing 2nd biggest bully of bullying. The 2nd biggest bully feels outraged because it has been bullied by the biggest bully for decades.
Should the charges have come from any other country, China wouldn't have been so upset.
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Forums
Removing warning labels on visors
Removing warning labels on visors
Submitted by OCMS on 05. Januar 2013
I was wondering if anyone had removed, or tried removing the warning stickers on the underside of the front visors.
olanmills |
08. Januar 2013
Don't try it!!!!
I tried it on my old car and I was encouraged when I partially peeled the corner off cleanly. I continued, and the rest did not go so well. A lot of the adhesive stayed behind, and there were also parts where the pulling stretched the liner and it parts of it were loose and seperated from the visor.
If you read about it online, you'll find out that this adhesives used for these labels are activated with heat, so they are pretty well stuck on to the visor. I have seen some advice that says you may be able to peel the label off using a heat gun, but this is risky because the heat may also cause the liner to seperate from the visor.
Also, examining the warning labels on the Model S, they look like they are adhered even more closely/tightly to the liner, almost like they're printed on. The labels show the dimpled texture of the liner fabric. On my old car, this was not the case.
Basically, I would not try it, but I feel your pain. I really hate those stupid labels. I don't need to see them every day for the rest of my life. I know what airbags are and what they do. I don't need this permanent label there uglifying my cars.
Brian H |
12. Januar 2013
Overlay with little pin-ups?
Joyrider |
13. Januar 2013
It has been decreed we ignorant consumers must see those labels so see those labels we shall.
olanmills |
15. Januar 2013
@Brian H, you actually can by decals specifically to cover up the warning labels, but they're generally just as ugly and prominent. Some have graphics like flowers or flaming skulls or whatever, and there's other plain ones, but unless you're interior is exactly black, good luck trying to match the color and texture of the liner.
RobQ |
15. Januar 2013
I haven't studied the S visor but on several of my cars I have been able to simply swap the right and left visor. This leaves the cursed attorneys sandwiched between the roof and visor unless they are down.
Brian H |
16. Januar 2013
I was thinking more semi-nakedly ...
bp |
16. Januar 2013
When lighted visors are available - won't they be a replacement for the current unlighted ones?
djp |
16. Januar 2013
On my last car (Chrysler 300C SRT) I was able to get decals with just the SRT logo. Would be nice to get a decal with the "T" on it. It can be done with a little class.
marek.koenig |
24. Juni 2013
This is extremely easy, I just got finished doing it. Take some isopropyl alcohol(91%) and damp a rag. Place that rag against the visor where the sticker is and hold it for 30 seconds. If you have a high quality rag then you can rub it a little bit as well.
Then the alcohol should start to loosen up the glue and it will start peeling away. With each application you should be able to remove about a quarter of the sticker. Took a few minutes, and now it's all gone.
GeekEV |
25. Juni 2013
@marek.koenig - They must be using an alcohol based solvent in their adhesive. Cool. I might have to try that.
Wayne3 |
25. Juni 2013
@marek.koenig - how clean is the resulting surface of the visor -- does all the glue come off with no residue? is there any discoloration between the outer border and the part that had the sticker? thanks
marek.koenig |
25. Juni 2013
It came off perfectly clean, I can provide you with a picture if you want. Just don't have one with me.
Wayne3 |
25. Juni 2013
no need for a pic -- your description is great; thanks
olanmills |
25. Juni 2013
Dang. Now you made me look like a crazy old codger yelling to passersby.
Jken3 |
25. Juni 2013
I would like to see a picture, if you please.
KirkP |
26. Juni 2013
@marek.koenig - Do you have the alcantara or standard fabric headliner material on your visors?
GeekEV |
26. Juni 2013
@KirkP - Ooh, good point. It might not come off as cleanly on the fabric...
P.S. In a lab, we had a nice collection of warning labels, like "to avoid boil over, do not boil" and for extremely pure water (for DNA work) the MSDS noted that reactivity with water had not been assessed!
But has anyone tried this on the Alcantra visors? The label on these feels almost as soft as the rest of the visor, as though it's printed on the material directly. Is there really a separate label there?
Brian H |
27. Juni 2013
There are a lot of people worried about their pillow labels. If they read them, they'd see "until delivered to the final consumer". Duh.
You can also get a 99% isopropyl alcohol, though I'm told they keep that behind the pharmacy counter so you have to ask for it.
jdb |
01. Juli 2013
Can't believe that I just spent almost an hour of my life pealing off the Warning from driver's side visor. It never really bothered me. Must have been the challenge. Two problems. Used 70% isopropyl as that was what was handy. But main problem is that I'm a guy who over years has chewed his chunky fingernails to a nub. And this is a delicate fingernail job. After getting done, and it does look good, realized there is same Warning on other front visor. Duh. Will leave that for wife, she has fingernails. Will buy the 90% stuff for her to use, though she may think the entire project a waste of energy, and fingernails.
Brian10 |
07. Juli 2013
@marek.koenig solution worked perfectly for me. I ordered 91% isopropyl and soaked a corner of a white rag. Then put the rag on the edge of the lable so the solution soaks into the visor and under the label. Once under the label, you can peal back the edge a little bit. I then soak this newly exposed area and keep slowly pealing. Got both labels off in about 25 minutes, totally worth it.
Brian H |
07. Juli 2013
Brian10;
Did any cows return to the barn when you were slowly pealing?
|;p
jjs |
09. Dezember 2013
I have alcantara headliner/visors. I have owned the car for 11 months. Decided I would try the isopropyl alcohol (91%) and damp rag method above.
So for those of you that have alcantara and have owned your cars for a while here is what I found.
Time: 15-20 per visor
Results: Very good, not great. It looks better than with the labels on, but has left a mark/indentation where the labels were. Overall I'm glad I did it.
You might have better luck if you do it when the car is new. Then again you may not.
Just thought I would share for those of you who might be thinking of doing this.
gregguy |
09. Dezember 2013
Not sure this is the right point.
I need to clean a bit of ink from my headliner, any ideas.
nickjhowe |
09. Dezember 2013
Thanks @jjs. I keep thinking about doing it, but always chicken out.
Brian10 |
09. Dezember 2013
There is another thread on this same topic. The isopropyl alcohol(91%) did the trick for me. You have to be slow and patient but the label comes off and the visor looks perfectly fine afterwards.
Rheumboy |
09. Dezember 2013
So what do you do with the left over alcohol? 8-)
Captain_Zap |
09. Dezember 2013
Wow. Looking back at this thread it seems that we were pretty intense.
Brian H |
09. Dezember 2013
Warning labels! A philosophical take: a comic, showing a formally dressed Very Concerned Progressive Genetleman from the 1890s.
"I don't say kill all the stupid people! Just remove all warning labels, and let events take their course."
Pettifogger.ca.us |
02. März 2014
The trick for me (besides using 91% isopropyl alcohol, cheap at Walgreens) was to start at the outside of the stickers and work in. The stickers are thin plastic and quite impervious to soaking themselves; you have to use the rag to soak the visor fabric at the edge of the sticker so that the alcohol gets under the sticker. It's then possible to laboriously remove the stickers, bit by bit, soak and repeat. The results on my alcantara visors look good, far better than with the stickers.
RUNS KWH |
25. August 2014
I'm thinking about removing the ugly warning stickers as well. Just wanted to check and see if folks (recently) have been successful in doing so.
Pettifogger.ca.us |
25. August 2014
You're not convinced by my March 2 success story? Gee, now me feelings is hurt.
Brian H |
25. August 2014
Not recent enough!?
mclary |
25. August 2014
Don't do it!!! You will void the warranty!
Brian H |
26. August 2014
Warranty on the visors is very limited.
RUNS KWH |
27. August 2014
Does the visor stain at all, with the alcohol mix?
Brian10 |
27. August 2014
There is an earlier, very long thread on this but I, also, followed the same method as the others, used 91% rubbing alcohol, took my time and it pealed right off, no stains, looks fantastic.
bobrobert |
29. August 2014
Thanx - sort of. I used the 91% and it did remove the labels, but left a slightly yellow shadow, only noticeable in strong light (standard interior.) Still, I prefer that to the labels. | {
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Title
VOW to Hire Heroes Extension Act of 2013
Official Title
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to extend the work opportunity credit for hiring veterans, and for other purposes.
Summary
VOW to Hire Heroes Extension Act of 2013 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to: (1) extend through 2017 the work opportunity tax credit for hiring a qualified veteran (defined as an unemployed veteran who is certified as being a member of a family receiving food stamp assistance and who is entitled to compensation for a service-connected disability), (2) revise tax credit eligibility requirements for documenting the status of veterans and their receipt of unemployment compensation, and (3) extend the payroll tax offset for such credit to certain for-profit employers.
Directs the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, in consultation with the Secretary of Labor, to make annual reports on the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of this Act in increasing the employment of veterans.
Requires the Secretary of the Treasury to pay: (1) each U.S. possession (i.e., American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands) with a mirror code tax system amounts equal to the loss to such possession due to this Act; and (2) each U.S. possession without such a tax system an amount estimated to equal the loss to such possession that would have occurred due to this Act if such a tax system had been in effect in that possession.
There are currently no opinions on this bill, be the first to add one! | {
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There are hundreds of Europeans now fighting in Syria, some of whom are with groups linked to al Qaeda, the Home Office told MPs.
The British-born jihadis are said to have joined the fight with Jabhat al-Nusra, the countrys most militant al-Qaeda gang.
The fighters have come from range of ethnic backgrounds include young Asians, converts to Islam and men from north African backgrounds.
Some are said to have fought in conflicts elsewhere while others waging war for the first time.
Officials warned of the risk to Britain and other European nations posed by foreign fighters now gaining military experience in Syria.
With Scotland Yard increasing its efforts to investigate how fighters are being recruited and how travel is organised and money raised, officials said the number of people moving in and out of the country was constantly changing.
The Home Office warning based on assessments by British intelligence agencies comes as ministers debate doing more to arm and support the rebels fighting the regime of Syrias President Bashar al-Assad.
The uprising in Syria "has involved many organisations with different political views and tactics; some are connected with and supported by al Qaeda in Iraq, the Home Office report says.
A European Union arms embargo currently prevents EU nations supplying lethal weapons to anyone in Syria.
Earlier this month, David Cameron suggested that Britain was willing to defy that ban and arm the rebels. The Home Office report may raise doubts about such a decision.
The report, presented to Parliament by Theresa May, the Home Secretary, also highlights the risks posed to Britain by terrorists using biological weapons, and those conducting attacks using firearms.
I wish all the extremists in the UK, the USA, France, Germany, and all other (formerly) decent countries would go to Syria to fight - while Assad is still strong enough to crush them. It’s sad that the alleged leader of the free world is cheering for the brutal terrorist rebels, while decent people are stuck cheering for the brutal tyrant.
There are hundreds of Europeans now fighting in Syria, some of whom are with groups linked to al Qaeda, the Home Office told MPs.
The fighters have come from range of ethnic backgrounds include young Asians, converts to Islam and men from north African backgrounds.
This entire article epitomizes the Orwellian doublespeak that vomits forth from the Corporate Media. Aside from the usual garbage about US/NATO really isn't supporting the Al Qaeda foreign mercenaries killing Christians in Syria that the US/NATO openly supports this claptrap about Asians and North Africans are Europeans is cognitive dissonance at its most disgusting.
Disclaimer:
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Beltran v. Santa Clara County, 514 F.3d 906, (9th Cir. 2008)
Beltrans sued two caseworkers under 42 U.S.C. ‘ 1983, charging constitutional violations in removing child from their custody and attempting to place him under the supervision of the state by fabricating evidence. Court overruled Doe v. Lebbos, and reversed the district court’s ruling that defendants were entitled to absolute immunity.
Brokaw v. Mercer County, 235 F.3d 1000, (7th Cir. 2000)
In 1983, three-year old A.D. Brokaw was removed from her parents’ home based on allegations of child neglect. After she turned eighteen, she sued her paternal grandfather, aunt, and uncle, alleging that they conspired to violate her constitutional rights by reporting false claims of child neglect. A.D. also sued the various state actors and agencies involved in removing her from her parents’ custody. The district court held that A.D.’s suit was barred by the Rooker-Feldman doctrine because, in effect, A.D. was challenging the validity of the state removal proceedings. The Eleventh Circuit reversed and remanded.
Calabretta v. Floyd, 189 F.3d 808 (9th Cir. 1999)
“This case involves whether a social worker and a police officer were entitled to qualified immunity, for a coerced entry into a home to investigate suspected child abuse, interrogation of a child, and strip search of a child, conducted without a search warrant and without a special exigency.” Can you guess what the answer was? “An unlawful entry or search of a home does not end when the government officials walk across the threshold. It continues as they impose their will on the residents of the home in which they have no right to be.”
Chavez v. Board of County Commissioners, 2001-NMCA-065, New Mexico Court of Appeals (2001)
Defendants are deputy sheriffs with the Curry County Sheriff’s Department, who were called to assist two social workers from the Children, Youth & Families Department on a “child welfare check” at Plaintiff’s home. Plaintiff’s son had not been attending elementary school. Thus, one reason for the visit to Plaintiff’s home was to investigate suspected truancy or educational neglect. Held: “At the time of entry into Plaintiff’s home, it was well-settled that the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibited unreasonable searches and seizures and was intended to protect the sanctity of an individual’s home and privacy.”
Croft v. Westmoreland County Children and Youth Servs., 103 F.3d 1123 (3d Cir. 1997)
Holding that “a state has no interest in protecting children from their parents unless it has some reasonable and articulable evidence giving rise to a reasonable suspicion that a child has been abused or is in imminent danger of abuse.”
Doe v. Gooden, 214 F.3d 952 (8th Cir. 2000)
School district officials can be liable under 1983 if they are deliberately indifferent to acts committed by a teacher that violate a student’s constitutional rights.
Franz v. United States, 707 F 2d 582, US Ct App (1983)
“The undesirability of cultural homogenization would lead us to oppose efforts by the state to assume a greater role in children’s development, even if we were confident that the state were capable of doing so effectively and intelligently.” A brilliant analysis of the fundamental right to be free of unwarranted state interference between the child-parent bond, in this case stemming from the Witness Protection Program.
Good v. Dauphin County Soc. Servs. for Children and Youth, 891 F.2d 1087, (3d Cir. 1989)
“[P]hysical entry into the home is the chief evil against which the … Fourth Amendment is directed,” the Court explained, while adding: “It is a ‘basic principle of Fourth Amendment law’ that searches and seizures inside a home without a warrant are presumptively unreasonable.” No qualified immunity claim to be found here.
Heartland Acad. Cmty. Church v. Waddle, 335 F.3d 684, (8th Cir.2003)
Waddle, as Chief Juvenile Officer for the Second Circuit of Missouri, effected the removal of 115 boarding students from Heartland Christian Academy . Waddle had obtained ex parte probable-cause state-court orders to remove some of the boarding students, there were no orders of any kind to remove many of the students who were taken from the school. This case is noted for its brilliant analysis of Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity, the Rooker-Feldman doctrine, and immunity as an officer of a juvenile court. The court held that: “any single violation of Heartland’s federal constitutional rights in this case would be sufficient to sustain Heartland’s claim for injunctive relief under ‘ 1983.”
Jones v. Hunt, 410 F.3d 1221 (10th Cir. 2005)
No qualified immunity in this ‘ 1983 action for alleged violations of Fourth Amendment rights arising from girl’s in-school seizure by a deputy sheriff and s Social Worker Supervisor for the New Mexico Children, Youth, and Families Department (“CYFD”). “We conclude that the Fourth Amendment violation as alleged in this case is both obvious and outrageous.”
Kelson v. Springfield, 767 F 2d 651, (9th Cir. 1985)
“Supreme Court and Ninth Circuit precedent establish that a parent has a constitutionally protected liberty interest in the companionship and society of his or her child. The state’s interference with that liberty interest without due process of law is remediable under section 1983.”
Lopkof v. Slater, 103 F.3d 144 (10th Cir. 1996) (Unpublished)
Defendants do not dispute that the law was clearly established that a warrantless search of a private residence is per se unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment unless one of “a few specifically established and well-delineated exceptions” applies. Defendants maintain that because they had “received specific information questioning the safety of children,” they acted in an objectively reasonable manner when they entered Lopkoff’s private residence. Wrong, and no qualified immunity for these officers.
Loudermilk v. Arpaio, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 76819 (D. Ariz. September 27, 2007)
With respect to Plaintiffs’ claim based on violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, parents and children have a constitutional right to live together without governmental interference and will not be separated without due process of law except in emergencies. Motion to dismiss by CPS worker and others who coerced entry into home denied.
Mabe v. San Bernardino, 237 F.3d 1101 (9th Cir. 2001)
Section 1983 creates a cause of action against any person who, acting under color of state law, violates the constitutional rights of another person. Whether reasonable cause to believe exigent circumstances existed in a given situation, “and the related questions, are all questions of fact to be determined by a jury.” Hence, no immunity for social worker under 42 U.S.C. 1983.
NEW! Michael v. Gresbach, (7th Cir. 2008)
The court held that: “a reasonable child welfare worker would have known that conducting a search of a child’s body under his clothes, on private property, without consent or the presence of any other exception to the warrant requirement of the Fourth Amendment, is in direct violation of the child’s constitutional right to be free from unreasonable searches.” No qualified immunity for this CPS caseworker! The court also held that the state statute that allowed for “investigations” on private property without a search warrant was itself unconstitutional as applied.
Malik v. Arapahoe County Dept. of Soc. Servs.191 F.3d 1306, (10th Cir. 1999)
“The defense of qualified immunity protects government officials from individual liability under 42 U.S.C. ‘ 1983 for actions taken while performing discretionary functions, unless their conduct violates “clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known.” Court also held that: “it was clearly established law that, except in extraordinary circumstances, a parent has a liberty interest in familial association and privacy that cannot be violated without adequate pre-deprivation procedures.”
Norfleet v. Arkansas Dept. of Human Servs., 989 F.2d 289 (8th Cir. 1993)
Court denies qualified immunity to the Human Services Director and caseworker involved because the state obligation to provide adequate medical care, protection, and supervision with respect to children placed in foster care was well established as of 1991.
Parkhurst v. Trapp, 77 F.3d 707 (3rd Cir. 1996)
The defendants attempt to avoid the imposition of summary judgment by arguing that, even if their conduct violated the Fourth Amendment, qualified immunity should shield them from liability. Qualified immunity is available to state actors in Section 1983 suits if those actors reasonably believed that their conduct was lawful. However, a good faith belief in the legality of conduct is not sufficient. Held: No qualified immunity.
Ram v. Rubin, 118 F.3d 1306 (9th Cir. 1997)
Holding “a parent has a constitutionally protected right to the care and custody of his children and he cannot be summarily deprived of custody without notice and a hearing except when the children are in imminent danger.” No qualified immunity for social worker who removed child not in imminent danger.
Rogers v. County of San Joaquin, 487 F.3d 1288 (9th Cir. 2007)
Court held: “the rights of families to be free from governmental interference and arbitrary state action are also important. Thus, we must balance, on the one hand, the need to protect children from abuse and neglect and, on the other, the preservation of the essential privacy and liberty interests that families are guaranteed under both the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments of our Constitution.” Section 1983 case reinforces that removal of children from home by caseworker absent either a warrant or exigent circumstances violates those rights, and therefore no qualified immunity applies to caseworker.
Roska v. Peterson, 328 F.3d 1230, (10 Cir. 2003)
Holding no immunity for caseworkers who entered a home lacking either exigency or a warrant, and finding constitutional protection in the right to maintain a family relationship, Court held: “the law is now clearly established that, absent probable cause and a warrant or exigent circumstances, social workers may not enter an individual’s home for the purpose of taking a child into protective custody.”
Tennenbaum v. Williams, 193 F.3d 581, (2d Cir. 1999)
“We affirm the judgment insofar as it holds that the medical examination violated the Tenenbaums’ and Sarah’s procedural due-process rights and Sarah’s Fourth Amendment rights and awards damages therefor. . . We conclude, however, that there is a triable issue of fact as to whether the defendants’ removal of Sarah from school was contrary to the procedural requirements of the Due Process Clause and to Sarah’s right to be free from unreasonable seizures under the Fourth Amendment.” The Missouri Bar has an informative Courts Bulletin describing the case.
Turner v. Houseman, Docket: 07-6108 (10th Cir. 2008) (Unpublished)
“It was clearly established, at least two years before the events in question, that absent probable cause and a warrant or exigent circumstances, neither police nor social workers may enter a person’s home without a valid consent, even for the purpose of taking a child into custody, much less to conduct a search. It was also established that the warrantless seizure and detention of a person without probable cause or exigent circumstances, as alleged in Turner’s petition, is unreasonable.”
Walsh v. Erie County Dep’t of Job & Family Servs., 240 F. Supp. 2d 731, (N.D. Ohio 2003)
“Despite the Defendants’ exaggerated view of their powers, the Fourth Amendment applies to them, as it does to all other officers and agents of the state whose requests to enter, however benign or well-intentioned, are met by a closed door. . . Any agency that expects to send its employees routinely into private homes has a fundamental obligation to ensure that those employees understand the constitutional limits on their authority.”
Weller v. Dept of Soc. Servs., 901 F.2d 387, (4th Cir. 1990)
“Substantive due process does not categorically bar the government from altering parental custody rights.” What I find interesting about this case is that it was brought pro se, and that he sued a lot more people than I am.
Wooley v. City of Baton Rouge, 211 F.3d 913, (5th Cir. 2000)
Holding that a “childs right to family integrity is concomitant to that of a parent. No qualified immunity for police officers who removed young child in this section 1983 action.
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Aimyon to Perform Theme Song for Japanese TV Drama Series ‘Kemono ni Narenai Watashitachi’
It’s been announced that Japanese singer-songwriter Aiymon, born and raised in Nishinomiya, Hyogo, will perform the main theme song Konya Kono Mama for the upcoming Nippon TV drama series Kemono ni Narenai Watashitachi starring Yui Aragaki and Ryuhei Matsuda.
The drama was written by Akiko Nogi (Unnatural, The Full-Time Wife Escapist). It’s a romantic comedy and drama that follows Akira Shinkai (Yui Aragaki) and Kosei Nemoto (Ryuhei Matsuda) who bump into each other through music at a bar.
The theme song was written specifically for this series and will be released on CD on November 14. The single will come in a sleeve case containing a 12-page booklet.
A short video was posted on YouTube directed by Tondabayashi Ran who was worked with Aiymon in the Past. It features new artist photos from Aimyon and offers an early listen of the new song.
Comment: Nobuo Mizuta (Character in the Drama Series)“I handed the script that Nogi wrote to Aiymon and said to her, ‘First of all, try making the song as you please.’ When the demo tape arrived, I felt admiration to this 23-year-old singer-songwriter’s reading comprehension and her power to fuse it with her own world of music. That voice and the world of those lyrics layered over the guitar in ‘Konya Kono Mama’… Before the real shoot began, all of us, who cannot become beasts*, started moving around ferociously. There are wolf fangs behind that innocent smile of the beautiful Aimyon, a woman of the modern times.”
*Translator’s Note: This refers to the title of the drama series, Kemono ni Narenai Watashitachi (“We Cannot Become Beasts”).
Comment: Aimyon“The drama is about to start soon. I felt a real sense of accomplishment when the song was completed. I’ve been able to write a new kind of song I’ve never done before. In getting to read the script too I saw the personalities and emotions of an irritable guy and girl change as well as their expressions that ooze from their lines. I think those things stimulated all my senses [for writing the song]. Although it’s faithful to the drama I was really give the chance to write and produce the song freely.”
Aimyon will head on tour in November. All shows have sold out including the additional shows in December. Her music videos on YouTube have been viewed over 60 million times. Stay tuned for more news on the singer.
■Information
“Konya Kono Mama”
On Sale: November 14, 2018
Price: ¥1,080 (Tax Included)
*Coupling track TBA
*Includes 12-page booklet and sleeve case
CD Bonus
“Konya Kono Mama Original Clear File” (A5 Size)
*Limited in stock. Will discontinue once all have been sold.
*Select music stores won’t stock the clear file. Enquire in-store for more details.
RELATED ENTRIES
Japanese Music Artists Performing Overseas in 2019: Part 4
More and more announcements have been rolling out about Japanese artists set to perform overseas in the latter half of 2019. Let’s take a look and see if one of them is coming to a city near you in Part 4.
・Aimyon
Singer-songwriter is set to take her enthralling set to Shanghai with a headline show. The music video for her hit song Marigold, taken from her album Shunkanteki Sixth Sense which released in February, was shot on the streets of Shanghai. Currently knee-deep in her Japan tour to promote her new album, this will mark Aimyon’s second time performing overseas following up from a successful show in Taiwan. Her popularity is steadily surging across the globe, be sure to check out her music available on Spotify as well as her many music videos.
Celebrating 10 years since their debut, OKAMOTO’S are currently touring Japan nationwide in promotion of their new album BOY. The four-piece rock band performed what they called their “first and last” Nippon Budokan show on June 27 but are following that straight up with two concerts in Beijing and Shanghai. OKAMOTO’S are veterans when it comes to having performed overseas. They are the younger Japanese male act to play SXSW in Texas, US when they performed back in 2010. They also embarked on a 7-city US tour and have toured Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam and other countries. Don’t miss out!
Since debuting in 2012, Japanese rock band MY FIRST STORY have performed at some of Japan’s biggest music festivals and have also collaborated with foreign musicians. Their lyrics are fluent English which have racked them up some real attention outside Japan. This will mark their first headline show in mainland China.
Yuzu’s popularity trickles down all generations having performed the song Muscat for the anime series Crayon Shin-chan. The duo have their eyes set on two days at Legacy MAX in Taipei on September 28 and 29. The musicians performed at the 30th Golden Melody Awards, which is nicknamed the “Taiwanese Grammy Awards,” on June 29 and hail as the only Japanese artists to do so.
MAN WITH A MISSION recently announced their US headline tour. They joined Jimmy Eat World and Stone Sour on tour back in fall 2017, but which is their first North American solo tour in five years. Full details can be found over on their official website.
BABYMETAL will released their new album METAL GALAXY this year on October 11 and follow it up with their GALAXY WORLD TOUR where they will hit up Europe, US and Russia. BABYMETAL’s unmatched force continues to be felt across the globe.
SKY-HI will release his second collaborative album with SALU entitled Say Hello to My Minions 2 on September 4 which will be promoted with the “Say Goodbye to the System” Asia tour. SKY-HI has performed in Los Angeles, New York, Paris, London, Shanghai, Taiwan and Hong Kong in the past. Be sure to keep up to date with his tour schedule via his official website.
Aimyon Releases Music Video Teaser & CD Cover For New Song ‘Manatsu no Yoru no Nioi ga Suru’
Singer-songwriter Aimyon has unveiled the CD cover for her upcoming 8th single Manatsu no Yoru no Nioi ga Suru which is set to drop on July 24.
The CD cover sees Aimyon in a park at nighttime just like in the teaser for the music video below. Both the cover and music videos were created by Tondabayashi Ran who has worked with Aimyon on multiple occasions.
The song was released for digital download early today on iTunes in the run up to the CD release.
Aimyon Releases New ‘Haru no Hi’ Music Video
Japanese singer-songwriter Aimyon has released the music video for her upcoming 7th single Haru no Hi which is set to drop on April 17, 2019. The video was directed by Tomokazu Yamada who also worked on the artist’s previous music videos for Marigold and Konya Kono Mama.
Aimyon – “Haru no Hi” Official Music Video
The video was shot in the Izu Peninsula of Shizuoka Prefecture. It begins with Aimyon stood outdoors with a wind turbine behind her before heading indoors which dons a stylish interior with Aimyon by the window with the warm sunlight shining through. It also features Aimyon standing against the sunset of Daikon Island.
Also revealed is the above-pictured folder that comes coupled with the CD release of the upcoming single. Haru no Hi was also digitally released as a standalone track on April 3, 2019.
Aimyon made the following comment with regards to the video: “‘There’s mountains, valleys, wind, storms. I feel happiness here because I’m human.’ This is something I unintentionally began to think while shooting the video. The definition of happiness differs from person to person, but I want to treasure those moments where I think to myself, ‘Ahh, this is real happiness.’ This is my third time working with director Yamada, and every time we are blessed by the weather. Thank you for showing me such a wonderful sunset. The number of things I treasure has increased once more. I pray that happiness―that burns like fire and blows like a tempest―continues to wait for me.”
The video’s director Tomokazu Yamada also commented: “We shot the video as if taking a trip to an imagined landscape, one where we see human romance unfold. The wind becomes strong, the rain falls, the weather clears up, and it becomes warm. Emotions that are difficult to put into words well up through Aimyon’s singing. She leads us back to the original landscape as if returning to our ancestors.”
Information
Haru no Hi
Release Date: April 17, 2019
Price: ¥1,000 (Before Tax)
*CD comes with an A5 size original Haru no Hi folder. These are limited in stock and will discontinue once all have been given out.
*Select stores are not stocking the folder. Please enquire directly with a store for more information.
Sayonara Kuchibiru (“Goodbye Lips”) is an upcoming Japanese film starring co-leads Nana Komatsu and Mugi Kadowaki along with Ryo Narita. The musical movie is set to hit Japanese theatres on May 31, 2019.
The film is directed and written by Akihiko Shiota (Harmful Insect, Dororo) whose career has made his name known at several film festivals overseas.
The film features big names in the music industry including Japanese singer-songwriter Motohiro Hata who produced the film’s main theme Sayonara Kuchibiru and Aimyon who composed and wrote the lyrics for the insert song Tachimachi Arashi.
See the new trailer below.
Reo (Nana Komatsu) and Haru (Mugi Kadowaki) form the popular guitar duo HaruReo. In the trailer, we the musicians suddenly decide they want to break up, and confide in their attendant Shima once more. During their nationwide tour, a love triangle begins to form, as Reo has feelings for Shima, but Shima has feelings for Haru.
The trailer also reveals a kiss scene between the two singers. A single cut showcasing the moment before the kiss was released officially.
The actresses themselves both sing and perform HaruReo’s songs. This is the first time that Nana Komatsu has had to sing in her career. She and Kadowaki underwent months of training to sing and play the guitar as well as film the emotional live scene we see in the trailer.
Sayonara Kuchibiru is set to tackle the bonds we have between people and the importance of looking ahead. Don’t miss the film coming this spring.
Singer-songwriter Aimyon, who just released her latest album Shukanteki Sixth Sense on February 13, held her solo concert “AIMYON BUDOKAN -1995” at the Nippon Budokan on Monday.
Her first ever show at the enormous venue, Aimyon changed up the Budokan game by performing an intimate acoustic set of 18 tracks to a packed-out room of fans surrounding her 360°. Playing an acoustic concert at the Budokan was something the Nishinomiya-bred 23-year-old had long desired.
A simple spotlight beamed down onto the centre stage onto which Aimyon stepped donning a bright yellow outfit. She opened her set with her hit single Marigold, the music video in which the colour yellow is prominent throughout.
“This 360° spectacle is something you don’t see everyday,” she said looking around at the towering crowd.
She continued with her famous hit Ai wo Tsutaetai da toka followed by Wakattenai. “I don’t really do this, but could I get a round of applause for trying something for the first time at my first Budokan concert?” Fans gave her well-deserved claps after which Aimyon went on to gracefully sing Mangetsu no Yoru Nara at the top of her voice.
Despite the venue being packed with 14,000 people, there was a real warm and at-home atmosphere just as Aimyon had comment during the show: “Don’t you feel unexpectedly close?” This vibe is very typical of Aimyon.
She too was having fun as the stage rotated, giving her viewing access to all four sections of the venue. “I’m embarrassed,” she said with a pure smile.
Rising from her chair, Aimyon continued to weave intimacy into the air with Kaze no Sasayaki and Koi o Shitara. It was almost as if the crowd were being beckoned into Aimyon’s bedroom.
After she finished singing ○○chan which she wrote for her longtime friend―the friend who gave her the nickname “Aimyon”―Aimyon announced that she has been put in charge of performing the main theme song for the new Crayon Shin-chan film.
“I have been taught many things by the Tower of the Sun, Takuro Yoshida, Betsy & Chris, and Shin-chan. It’s the first time I am singing about a family other than my own, but it’s my personal ode to the Nohara household. This is my first time performing [the theme song].”
The name of the song is Haru no Hi and Aimyon sang it magnificently. She continued with Anata Kaibō Junkoiuta ~Shi ne~. She made an error during the song and had to repeat the part again. The crowd supported her as a domino round of applause snowballed through the arena. Aimyon too strummed her guitar with energy.
A 20-minute interval ensued after which Aimyon appeared once more with a different t-shirt on. The second half of the set began with Agorete Kitan da. When she sang the words “Konya kono mama” bubble-like lights shone onto the stage creating a magical scene.
Next was the country number Futari no Sekai and subsequently Douse Shinu Nara which she began with a capella.
Moving through the set list track by track Aimyon continued with GOOD NIGHT BABY while looking out over the spacious room. For Itsumademo she made a comment than ties in with the song’s lyrics: “Gogh was valued highly after he died but I want to that for me while I’m still alive.” This evoked huge cheers from the crowd.
The lyrics appeared on the monitors for Ikiteitan da yo ne during which the performance shifted to a dramatic tone as red lights beamed, resulting in a theatrical atmosphere.
“When I told my mum the news that I would be performing live at the Budokan, she was even more overjoyed than when it was announced I would perform at Kōhaku [Uta Gassen]. So I decided to put the year she brought me into this world in the title [of the tour]. 1995 is my origin, the origin of me as a singer-songwriter.”
As Aimyon explained the origin of her tour title she performed her new song 1995. “I made this [song] specially for today.” Fans joined in with singing the “lalalas” of the chorus before Aimyon wrapped up with the final song of the night, Kimi wa Rock o Kikanai, which brought the crowd together as one.
“Thank you for giving me the best seat in the house today!” she said, bringing her first-ever Budokan concert to its conclusion.
Aimyon will head on two more tours this year. AIMYON TOUR 2019 “Love Call” will begin in May where she will be joined by a supporting artist followed by her biggest ever solo arena tour dubbed AIMYON TOUR 2019 -SIXTH SENSE STORY- starting in October.
Aimyon Releases ‘Yume Oi Bengal’ Music Video Compiled of Tour Footage
Singer-songwriter Aimyon just dropped the music video for her song Yume Oi Bengal taken from her new album Shunkanteki SixthSense which hit shelves on February 13.
The music video was created from 85-hours of footage can taken from her nationwide Japan tour “AIMYON TOUR 2018 -HONEY LADY BABY.” Shot in the style of a documentary, it features live performance shots as well as clips from backstage and times on the road during the tour. On the tour the staff kept the camera on her to obtain as much footage as possible.
The video was directed by up-and-coming director Kodai Kobayashi of film team “The 16.” who also directed Aimyon’s music video Mangetsu no Yoru Nara.
Aimyon gave the following comment in regards to the video: “It feels like I’ve locked my young self away. Inside the video. Everyone else is in there with me too. Nobody can escape, nobody can age and no one will die. Eternity of course doesn’t really exist, but I’m happy that I’ve burned that once-in-a-lifetime moment of a tour on tape.”
Director Kodai Kobayashi also commented: “Because we filmed her and went to places I didn’t know, I saw a lot of young guys and girls experiencing a ‘live’ show. It was my first time. For both me and them it’s a rite of passage that Aimyon gives an energetic performance, so I would be happy if people can feel that with this video too.”
It has been announced that singer-songwriter Aimyon will perform the main theme song for the anime film Crayon Shin-chan: Honeymoon Hurricane ~The Lost Hiroshi~ which is set to release on April 19, 2019.
Aimyon is a huge fan of Cragon Shin-chan. The song she has written for the latest film is titled Haru no Hi (“Spring Day”). It focuses on the love between Shin-chan’s parents Hiroshi and Misae Nohara from their perspective and their honeymoon trip which they have never been on and which the film is based on.
The song will also be used as the new ending theme song for the Crayon Shin-chan anime series from February 8. Aimyon’s 7th single to date, the CD will hit shelves on April 17, two days before the film’s premiere.
Aimyon gave the following comments about the collaboration: “I have been given the opportunity to perform the main theme for Crayon Shin-chan: Honeymoon Hurricane ~The Lost Hiroshi~. I have loved the series since I was a child. I am so grateful to be able to say that. But at the same time I wondered to myself how I would be able to convey those loving memories, in my own way, in a song. When I heard that it was about ‘family love’ I thought I would write a song about the birth of the Nohara household. Crayon Shin-chan always taught me about the strength of family ties and happiness. Of course, that includes his bonds with everyone in the Kasukabe Defence Force too. There are of course times he stumbles too. The message the series gets across touches my heart. I am truly happy to be involved with this movie. Thank you for this lifetime treasure. I hope that the song Haru no Hi that I wrote reaches many places.”
She continues: “This is a different film, but I watched [Crayon Shin-chan: Fierceness That Invites Storm!] The Adult Empire Strikes Back from 2001. That’s where I first saw the Tower of the Sun by Tarō Okamoto. Crayon Shin-chan also introduced me to Takuro Yoshida, Betsy & Chris and others. It might not be the same, but I would be happy if I’m able to return the favour even a little.”
Shin-chan also made a comment himself: “Cheers for making such a wonderful song for us. It makes me feel relaxed all the way to the centre of my butt. It was a really good song! Ahh, I want Aimyon to propose to me… Be sure you all listen to it!”
Aimyon Announces Arena Tour, Budokan Tickets Sell Out On Release Day
Singer-songwriter Aimyon will perform at the legendary Nippon Budokan venue on February 18 for the first time. Tickets went on sale January 19 and sold out the same day.
Aimyon has announced a tour titled AIMYON TOUR 2019 “Love Call” which is set to begin in May and where she will be joined by a supporting artist. She will perform 10 concerts in 6 locations in Japan. Ticket details and the supporting artist have yet to be announced.
The singer will follow this up with her biggest ever solo arena tour dubbed AIMYON TOUR 2019 -SIXTH SENSE STORY- which will start in October. Aimyon will embark on 22 concerts across 22 places in Japan. Pre-sale fan club tickets went at noon today in Japan (JST).
Aimyon performed at the 69th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen at the end of 2018 and will release her second album Shunkanteki Sixth Sense on February 13 this year. Copies of the new album will include a serial code that gives access to apply for early-bird tickets to her October tour.
As she continues to stir the industry and make it into Apple Music’s Top 5, this year is looking to be another successful one for Aimyon.
Tickets
All Reserved Seating – ¥5,940 (Tax Included)神戸ワールド記念ホール・横浜アリーナ公演
(*Kobe World Memorial Hall and Yokohama Arena concerts – ¥6,480)
Age Restrictions: Pre-school children not permitted entry to any of the venues.
Concert Review: Aimyon performs to a sold-out crowd at Zepp Tokyo on her biggest tour to date
Japanese singer-songwriter Aimyon wrapped up her tour AIMYON TOUR 2018 -HONEY LADY BABY- with a final performance at Zepp Tokyo on December 17. This tour marked the musician’s biggest to date which saw her perform 11 sold-out concerts across 10 cities in Japan.
This final show saw a behemoth set-list of 21 songs including an encore that captivated the packed venue.
Aimyon stepped onto stage along with her fellow band members and was welcomed by fans with riotous cheers. With an acoustic guitar in hand, the show kicked off with Mangetsu no Yoru Nara. “The finale at Tokyo! Let’s do this!” shouted Aimyon as she on to perform the popular Futari no Sekai with its light, country-like melody. Fans joined in with call-and-response during the song. This was followed by Jennifer for which Aimyon showcased her skill as a singer with her ringing vocals.
“Today is the last day. I want to end it giving my all to the very end.” Saying this, Aimyon went on to play ..chan which is a song she wrote for her dear friend who gave her the nickname “Aimyon.”
She asked the crowd, “How’s everyone doing?” as the up-tempo track RING DING began to play, and went all the way to the front of the stage in front of the crowd. This was followed by Konya no Mama, a song that gained much popularity as the theme song for a Japanese drama series. Rounds of applause rang through the venue for this one.
The band stepped off the stage, leaving Aimyon solitary on stage with just her voice and her acoustic guitar to perform Kaze no Sasayaki, showing the crowd her talent as a singer and a songwriter.
Afterwards she stopped to talk to the crowd about having visited the Tower of the Sun monument created by Tarō Okamoto. She had spoke in the past about wanting to sing underneath it and said to the crowd, “If it happens, please [all] get together there once more like this today.” Aimyon pulled out a harmonica and began to talk-sing “tower of the sun” in a blues style.
She then kicked it into one of her folky tunes―Kimi ga Inai Yoru o Koerareyashinai―a love song written from the perspective of a male. Following Seishun to Seishun to Seishun, which struck up with the sound of an organ, her band members returned to the stage with whom she looked back over the tour before holding a quiz, something she has done at each location across the tour.
Aimyon followed up with the at-home vibe number Anata no Tame ni before switching things up with the minor-tuned melody Matryoshka. Ikiteitan da yo na began with an impressive piano solo for which the mood was set by red lighting on stage coupled with Aimyon’s serious face.
Aimyon then announced she was going to show a music video for a new song. Titled Yumeoi Bengal, this fast-paced punk track cut through the noise in the crowd. Fans were heated more than ever, and Aimyon grabbed a band mic and sang with everything she had.
“We’re not taking any breaks, we’re going to keep going!” she announced and led the crowd to the dance floor with Ai o Tsutaetai dato ka. Fans made their mark with singing along for Kimi wa Rock o Kikanai and gave a huge round of applause when the intro to Anata Kaibou Jun’aika ~Shi ne~ came on. Their fire surged even higher with the band joining in for the song. This diverse range of melodies is typical Aimyon.
“If I go to see the Tower of the Sun and there are lots of familiar flowers blooming around there I think it would be fate. The marigold flower has carried a lot for me this year, so I’d like to close with that song.” Aimyon said this and sang Marigold at the top of her voice before bringing the main set to an end.
The crowd naturally began calling for an encore, and of course Aimyon came back for more. She performed a cover of Karada no Shin Kara Mada Moeteirunda which is the main theme song for the 2018 comedy movie LOUDER! Can’t Hear What You’re Singin’, Wimp! sung by the character and street musician Fuuka who is played by Riho Yoshioka.
Aimyon’s closing words, with a few tears, were, “I’ve had way too many things happen in 2018, so I want to show my gratitude to you all next year.” She continued, “I can’t sum up allthe things I want to say, but what I do want to say is that I love you all. I’ve realised that I cannot see despair in my music career. Thank you for meeting with me. This was a great night.”
Upon expressing her thanks to fans, she closed the night with GOOD NIGHT BABY.
Before leaving, Aimyon, on stage by herself, said that she had an announcement to make. It was the announcement of a brand new album set for release on February 13 as well as her first ever solo performance at the famous Nippon Budokan on February 18 where she will perform on stage on her own. Aimyon showed her true feelings as she cried loudly towards the crowd. “I wanted my first Budokan [show] to be me playing to my own accompaniment, so I’m happy.”
Aimyon Announces New Album ‘Shunkanteki Sixth Sense’ for February 13
Japanese singer Aimyon wrapped up her tour entitled AIMYON TOUR 2018 –HONEY LADY BABY- tonight at Zepp Tokyo. There she announced the release of her second studio album Shunkanteki Sixth Sense on February 13, 2019 as well as her first ever concert at the Budokan on Febuary 18
It has been over a year since her successful and first album Seishun no Excitement was released and made it into the Top 5 of Apple Music’s album charts. Her new record Shunkanteki Sixth Sense will feature a total of 12 tracks including her three singles Mangetsu no Yoru Nara, Marigold, Konya no Mama as well as the main theme song and same title as the upcoming movie Ashita Sekai ga Owaru Toshitemo which will hit theatres on January 25, 2019, and the insert tracks to the same movie Ra, no Hanashi and Present.
The newly-unveiled album cover features a glass submerged underwater while Aiymon’s new artist photo sees the singer with the name of the album written on her face backwards. An album teaser was also posted featuring three singles from her album. All of the artwork and artistry for this release was handled by Tondabayashi Ran once more.
Two additional exclusive versions of the album will be released: one on Aiymon’s official online store and one at HMV/Loppi.
The Aimyon online store version comes with a photo book containing pictures taken on the tour she just concluded while HMV/Loppi copies will come with an original t-shirt (in M/L sizes).
Additionally, fans who purchase the album from either Tower Records or TSUTAYA RECORDS will receive a B3-size art poster while buying it on Amazon gets them an A4-size folder. Buying it elsewhere will get them an original tag.
Aiymon’s performance at Nippon Budokan on February 18 will be her biggest show to date. She will perform before a crowd on its iconic centre stage with a 360° view of the audience. She will also perform on the New Year’s Eve television special Kōhaku Uta Gassen.
Aimyon Releases ‘Konya Kono Mama’ Music Video, the Main Theme Song for Japanese TV Drama
Aimyon just dropped the music video for her upcoming sixth single Konya Kono Mama which is set for release on November 14, 2018.
The song is being used as the main theme song for the ongoing Japanese TV drama series Kemono ni Narenai Watashitachi starring Yui Aragaki and Ryuhei Matsuda. It features a jaunty acoustic guitar rhythm against a folk melody and groovy beat.
The video is directed by well-recognised film maker and director Tomokazu Yamada and comes as the first music video from Aimyon since her fifth single Marigold three months ago which has been viewed over 10 million times.
Aimyon Releases New Music Video ‘Marigold’ Filmed in Shanghai
Japanese singer-songwriter Aimyon has released the music video for her 5th single Marigold which is set for release on August 8.
Aimyon is immensely popular with young people in their teens and 20s and since the beginning of 2018 has lit a fire among them after appearing on TV shows and across news media. All of her music video add up to a total of around 40 million views.
Her first album Seishun no Excitement (‘The Excitement of Youth’) was released in September last year and even now, ten months later, is still listed in the Top 10 on the Apple Music Charts.
Aimyon – ‘Marigold’ Official Music Video
The music video for Marigold was filmed in Shanghai over 2 days at the end of June. It was directed by Tomokazu Sugita who has worked with numerous big artists. The video sees Aimyon riding a penny board along the rainy streets of Shanghai and orange light shining through the window, symbolising marigolds. The scenes of reflection are a perfect balance of love and melancholy.
Aimyon Comment:
“To want to be like this forever, to be greedy and search for someone, meekly. Someone who is closest to me. You, who is far away. Feelings that can almost be touched but can’t. Lingering recollections and a nostalgic laugh of love on that day.”
Tomokazu Sugita (Music Video Director) Comment:
“Our inner feelings change by the colours and lights of the townscape. We filmed the video to showcase wanting to advance those unchanging feelings toward someone. They become the light, the shadows and the atmosphere.”
In the run up to the CD release of Marigold, the lead song from the single is now available for digital download. Aimyon will head on her biggest solo tour to date titled AIMYON TOUR 2018-HONEY LADY BABY- in November for which an additional Tokyo date has been added. The singer will also appear at numerous festivals this summer.
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ħożż il-ħsejjes – exhibition
ħożż il-ħsejjes reflects on our fragile environment, on how we relate to our surroundings, and how a community can (re)invent its environment. Taking inspiration from the intrinsic relationship between the late Gabriel Caruana artistic practice focusing on clay as his favoured medium and the use of The Mill – Art, Culture and Crafts Centre, Birkirkara, the Creative Team has worked with two materials which relationship goes a long way – clay and wheat. The Team, composed of Raffaella Zammit, Elyse Tonna, Wen Chin Fu, Marvin Zammit and Andrea Pullicino, have developed this engaging project for all ages, with a particular focus on children and youths. ħożż il-ħsejjes is a tactile, aural, and visual experience that invites visitors to become participants by creating a collective and ever-changing musical and visual composition. | {
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Starlight, star bright, this star will make everything all right! Stitch along and create a splendid Calico Star quilt that's sure to dazzle. It may look complex, but it's made entirely of simple half-square triangles. Start sewing with a package of printed 10" squares, add another package of background 10" squares, some coordinating background fabric, and you're in luck! | {
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Broker Reviews
Digit Match and Bots
So i came across this strategy that pays 801% on every stake, please do anyone trade with this? i need a coach on this even if it will cost me, please, secondly can someone tell me where to find a good bot that trade with minimum risk stake?
Comments
So i came across this strategy that pays 801% on every stake, please do anyone trade with this? i need a coach on this even if it will cost me, please, secondly can someone tell me where to find a good bot that trade with minimum risk stake?
Eh... What? Strategy on what? What exactly are you talking about?No strategy can make you easy money. Tell us more so we can find out what kind of scam that is.
So i came across this strategy that pays 801% on every stake, please do anyone trade with this? i need a coach on this even if it will cost me, please, secondly can someone tell me where to find a good bot that trade with minimum risk stake?
Eh... What? Strategy on what? What exactly are you talking about?No strategy can make you easy money. Tell us more so we can find out what kind of scam that is.
Its trading digit match on random index on binary.com, where you use algorithms to predict the last digit if your predictions are correct you get rewarded with a 809% of your stake
So i came across this strategy that pays 801% on every stake, please do anyone trade with this? i need a coach on this even if it will cost me, please, secondly can someone tell me where to find a good bot that trade with minimum risk stake?
Eh... What? Strategy on what? What exactly are you talking about?No strategy can make you easy money. Tell us more so we can find out what kind of scam that is.
Its trading digit match on random index on binary.com, where you use algorithms to predict the last digit if your predictions are correct you get rewarded with a 809% of your stake
that sounds like serious gambling to me, I've liked the "random" index and other BS indices that binary.com uses, they are like trading but not, pure gambling.
USA REGULATION NOTICE: Please note if you are from the USA: some binary options companies are not regulated within the United States. These companies are not supervised, connected or affiliated with any of the regulatory agencies such as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), National Futures Association (NFA), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). We warn US citizens of the dangers of trading with such entities and strongly advise that they take legal advice on this in the US. | {
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Stickman Bangkok packs it in after two decades
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Kindling: Seminal sexpat blogger Stickman Bangkok packs it in after two decades
By Laurel Tuohy
In his nightlife reporting, Stickman reported on bar girls but also on nightlife regulars, club owners, bartenders and other characters on the scene. Photos: Stickman Bangkok
BANGKOK: -- In a sad and surprising post, Stick, the blogger behind one of Bangkok’s oldest expat blogs, Stickman Bangkok, announced that he’s packing it in and calling it a day after writing about Bangkok’s naughty nightlife scene and publishing glamour photos of bar girls for 19 years.
Many of the city’s expats (or, c’mon, sexpats) will feel a bit lost without his weekly updates about girly bar gossip and photos to peruse over their morning Nescafe (or, let’s face it, beer).
The blogger, a man from New Zealand named Nick who keeps his identity semi-concealed and boasts legions of farang male fans, moved back to New Zealand a few years ago after selling his site to an investor. He remained the site’s main paid blogger, using his network of bar bosses, regulars, and naughty nightlife insiders to get up-to-the-minute info about the the city’s go-go bars and underbelly news.
It worked well enough. It was hard to tell he wasn’t out trolling Soi Cowboy, Nana, and Pattaya’s Walking Street himself to dig up the site’s info. But, on Sunday, he wrote that the person he sold the site to can no longer pay him so he’s quitting.
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Pretty old news, isn't it? He informed about it a few months ago already! But to all good things comes an end sooner or later and is in this stupid era replaced by something negative. Getting used to all the crap (people and things!) that's around these days worldwide requires a body of steel unless you're a heartless addicted robot of course.... Was good to read his stories and insight views.
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You could just reprint any of his old columns from the 80's. Nobody would notice.
You could even invent Trink bots to write his column automatically. Burma Shave, TIT, huMAN natURE, Lek at Cowboy 2 is worth a try out, Balloons at Rainbow 3, 1950's New Yorker style............ and repeat the formula.
You would have to prime the bots not to repeat his early stuff about underage girls though.
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We the lucky few that were here in our 20's through the 80's, 90's and early 00's.
Stick, whom I have met several times for a wee drinkie, knows like the rest of us long-term expats, that the gig is up in Thailand.
The gig is perhaps up for you and other long term expats who have giving up but Thailand has so much to offer that it's history is not going to be decided or its best times past in the 80's 90's and 00's.
Every new new visitor doesn't know what it was like back then so it's all new to them to make their own memories just like you did. Just check YouTube for the 1 million vlogs about Thailand (all with the soundtrack to the movie the beach)and you'll see plenty of happy experiences
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You could just reprint any of his old columns from the 80's. Nobody would notice.
You could even invent Trink bots to write his column automatically. Burma Shave, TIT, huMAN natURE, Lek at Cowboy 2 is worth a try out, Balloons at Rainbow 3, 1950's New Yorker style............ and repeat the formula.
You would have to prime the bots not to repeat his early stuff about underage girls though.
Trink's column defined anachronism.
(You're not Trink, are you?)
True dat
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Wow, don’t you people know a game of poker when you see it. There is way too much money invested in the Stickman website. Stick was not getting paid so…… run the math. I think he will be back fairly soon before the website devalues too much.
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Today's deal is for the Dell Inspiron 15R Special Edition 15.6" laptop with Intel Core i7 3rd gen Ivy Bridge CPU, 8GB RAM, 1080p display and comes with Windows 8. With today's deal you can save $309 plus free shipping and get the laptop for the lowest we've seen yet at $829.99. Here's more info on this new Dell Inspiron 15R notebook: | {
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Great video comparison here of the Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4 and the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport against the McLaren MP4-12C and the Lexus LFA. A must see!
Of the 271 cars on sale in America today, only the Bugatti Veyron, the Lamborghini Aventador, the Lexus LFA, and the McLaren MP4-12C boast carbon-fiber tubs. This elite group, which totals 2836 hp and $2.9 million, is at the peak of automotive technology, yet it also represents the imminent democratization of carbon fiber. Even among these cars — the most exotic, most expensive in the industry — there is a variety of construction techniques and a $1.7 million price spread. At this pivotal moment for composite vehicles, these four cars are leading the change. | {
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OnePlus 2 invite system is officially live
Hurry up and get your name down; the clock is ticking
OnePlus has finally opened the OnePlus 2 invite reservation list to the public, just 24 hours away from its July 27 launch event.
You're now free to sign up on the OnePlus website for a chance to win an invitation to buy the company's next smartphone, the highly-anticipated OnePlus 2.
Like its predecessor, the OnePlus One, you can't just pick it up in any old phone shop. It will only be available for purchase with an invite, at first anyway.
You better not waste time, though, as the invite list is already stacking up. Over 50,000 people have already reportedly signed up, so it's best to get it straight out of the way rather than run the risk of missing out.
There shouldn't be the same inventory problems as last time though. OnePlus recently confirmed that it was holding 30 to 50 times the launch inventory for the OnePlus 2 compared to the OnePlus One, so there should be enough to go around.
As well as opening the floodgates, OnePlus has also made its virtual reality launch app available on the Play Store. It will let you watch the OnePlus 2 launch in 360-degree virtual reality. Obviously, though, you must need a VR headset for your phone as well as the Android app running. | {
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December 9, 2011
A few of us just returned from this year's Author Pow Wow in Austin, TX at The Driskill. As for me, I'm exhausted, but also refreshed with a sense of perspective. In support of my previous post, I do feel empowered, and I know others that attended do as well.
How are we empowered?
We heard from Erika Andersen, author of Growing Great Employees and Being Strategic about Being CEO of your book, which included great added comments by upcoming author Dick Cross. We participated in a great discussion with Nena Madonia about agencies being a hub for an author's platform, and how they act as both communicators and creative assistants to serve and develop an author's brand.
We listened to a great panel of publishers, including Ray Bard, Clint Greenleaf, and Karen Murphy discuss their different approaches to publishing, which culminated in a discussion about how publishers and authors do, and need to, view their customers to determine how to shape and develop the pool. We joined in a discussion with Tanya Hall and Erika Heilman about digital publishing, and how ideas can be distributed in different ways, and what limitations and opportunities exist in working with such a flexible medium.
Next, Will Weisser, David Hathaway, and Bill Roth talked about selling books, selling ideas, and the critical things for authors to understand and build in order to be profitable from sales of their ideas. It was a fascinating and serendipitous occasion to have Dave Hathaway present. Prior to his time at Greenleaf, Dave served as Barnes & Noble's buyer for over 10 years, and his insight into what retail looks for, how they make predictions, and the growing challenges they face, was eye-opening for all involved.
Noah Rickun and Victoria Labalme both gave compelling presentations about speaking, showing what works, and what doesn't, in smart and interesting ways. From slides to body language to content to value, they covered a lot of ground in a short time while remaining clear and entertaining. A perfect lesson. They certainly made it all look much easier than it is. And to boot, I got an official Victoria Labalme lip balm, which has me protected all winter, and a reminder of her awesomeness each time I use it.
By now, we were all nearly at mental capacity. Then Tim Sanders hit the stage and literally worked us over. Part re-energizing, part mind-boggling, and 100% amazing, Tim's insight and research into human behavior, digital practices, the publishing industry vs. similar and disparate industries was captivating, enlightening, and at this point, nearly overwhelming. Ever hear the term "drinking from a fire hose?" This was like getting blown down the street by one. It was awesome.
We celebrated Day 1 by busing miles out of town to Salt Lick BBQ, and quickly filled our stomachs to the same level as our heads. Now, completely stuffed on all levels, we headed back to the hotel to rest and prepare for Day 2.
Day 2 was more focused on getting to work, as
Barbara Cave Henricks, Adrienne Lang, David Hahn, Rusty Shelton, and Phil Gerbyshak discussed publicity angles, social media strategies, marketing, branding, communications, media placement, and a variety of other outreach endeavors authors are doing, and need to be doing more of, in order to spread their ideas.
Erika Andersen recapped the 'ownership' segment she began with, and everyone in the room teamed up in various groupings to talk about Doing - new ideas, project help, platform partnerships, and more. It was a great way to extend all the information and knowledge into action.
Arriving back home, I quickly set up a Pow Wow! group on LinkedIn, in order for us all to continue the conversation, and add to it moving forward.
The Pow Wow family grows further!
Thanks to Noel Weyrich, Kalina Mazur, Les McKeown, Jennifer Ferrasci-O’Malley, Paul Sliker, Alexandra Kirsch, Rajesh Setty, Kevin Kruse, Denise Lee Yohn, David Osborn, Terry Doerscher, Richard Imperiale, Richard Hunter Cross, Erika Heilman, John Moore, Richard Shapiro, Judson Laipply, David Edward, Jennifer Whitt, Dain Dunston, and David Nour for being there, listening, engaging, and helping make the event so great!
And I can't resist adding this poetic recap by attendee Judson Laipply:
Twas weeks before the Holidays
When we arrived at PowWow
To learn about the book world
And answer the question “How?”
We mingled with each other
Then said our goodnight
Some awoke in the morning
With no power or light
We started by learning
To be CEO of your book
And we’d better be ready
For the Ipad, Kindle, and Nook.
We heard from some insiders
Who helped lay out a plan
You have to build a platform
To help drive demand
Is your book market
An ocean, well, or lake?
If it’s a bayou or puddle
Then publishing’s a mistake.
They helped us to see
That the book world is unusual
To be really, really successful
You have got to be delusional
Sales!Sales!Sales!
Supply no longer drives demand
You have to give content away
And create book-buying fans.
Then it was Noah
With his presentation skill
Who help us realize
What it takes to absolutely kill.
Victoria helped us to see
The 3 parts of a show
Seen through the prism
Of feel, do, and know.
A few more insights
They did say
Like never end your show
With Q and A.
Tim was up last
Before we went to dinner
And he was a force to be reckon
No wonder he’s a winner.
From Yelpification
To the digitizing age
Soon E-books will dominate
And be all the rage.
To Salt-Lick we went
On a bus that swaying
But the best thing of all
Was that we were not paying.
Then some sleep we did get
And awoke to full power
We started right back in
To maximize every hour.
Publicity was up next
And some stories were fun
But we learned that after p-date
The work has just begun.
Twitter! Link’d
Facebook and more!
Get yourself a Social Media Strategy
Or you’ll seem like a bore.
We discussed the merits
Of authentic tweeting
But had to stop short
To wrap up the meeting.
Then it was over
So much to digest
That our brains are not likely
To soon get any rest.
#PowWow11
Had come to an end
We meet lots of new people
Made some new friends.
But the information was key
And in abundance it was dished.
So that we all might fulfill
Our publishing wish.
Thanks to Rusty’s, Hendricks,
Greenleaf and 8CR
For hosting the PowWow11
That will make us a star.
Related Articles
Our third installment of articles from past issues of In the Books, our annual review of the finest business books, comes from the indomitable spirit of Erika Andersen, founder of Proteus International. Erika is a friend of the company, and I've always thought of her as our cool and world-wise aunt. She is one of those people that teaches you something about yourself every time you meet her and, lucky for us, she does so for organizations as well.
The next featured author in our Thinker in Residence series is Erika Andersen, author of Leading So People Will Follow (Jossey-Bass, 2012); Being Strategic: Plan for Success, Out-Think Your Competitors, Stay Ahead of Change (St. Martin's, 2010); Growing Great Employees: Turning Ordinary People Into Extraordinary Performers (Portfolio, 2007), and the author and host of Being Strategic with Erika Andersen on Public Television.
Erika is the founding partner of Proteus International, a consulting and training firm that focuses on leader readiness.
POST & WIN! Post a reaction or question for Erika in one of her Thinker in Residence posts, and not only will Erika pop by for the discussion, but we'll randomly pick one participant to win a copy of Leading So People Will Follow!
In our past two Thinker in Residence posts featuring the thoughtful and motivating work of Erika Andersen, we introduced you to her newest book on leadership, Leading So People Will Follow, and also shared an in-depth Q&A with Erika about strategy.
Leading So People Will Follow by Erika Andersen, Jossey-Bass, 224 Pages, $26. 95, Hardcover, October 2012, ISBN 9781118379875
Call it what you will: “Buy-in,” “Loyalty,” or “Enthusiasm. ” Use whatever metaphor for the phenomenon you like—maybe “Everyone’s onboard” and “rowing the oars together”—but the simple reality is that every organization needs leaders, and leaders need followers.
For me, the most exciting thing about being strategic is that it’s learnable. Most people talk about being strategic as though it’s something you’re born with…or not. And too bad for you if you’re not! | {
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Suggested Items
Dark Days
By Rabbi Deborah Glanzberg-Krainin, Ph.D. | November 30, 2011
At this time of year, I like to be outside while the sun sets. When the days are short, there is something especially lovely about witnessing light fade.
It is like drinking an extraordinarily fine wine; I want to savor it fully and extract all the pleasure I can from this rare and precious commodity.
When you are lucky enough to have a comfortable home full of warmth and light, this late autumn darkness is quite appealing. It invites you to stay in for the night, read a book, and go to bed early. The problem develops when staying home is not an option. At 7 p.m. on a November evening there is often much left to do: work, meetings, and errands that cannot be ignored. Wherever we live on this great big planet there are times of year when darkness comes early. How do we embrace the beauty of this seasonal darkness while still grasping onto the light required to resist the darkness and get things done?
I am attuned to the Jewish holiday cycle and the ways in which it intersects with the seasons of the year. Last Sunday was Rosh Hodesh Kislev, the first day of the month in which Hanukkah is celebrated. As darkness falls ever earlier, this new moon reminds me that soon we will summon light into our homes with prayer and song. The knowledge that the Hanukkah lights are coming helps me deal with the darkness now. I feel less smothered by it when I imagine my hanukkiah ablaze on the last of the eight nights. This image fortifies me, and helps me lean into the darkness. I open to it now, knowing that there is light ahead. | {
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With all the news surrounding the jailing, murder and disappearances of journalists lately, it’s refreshing to have some good news to report. Reporters Without Borders announced today that there’s progress in the investigation into newspaper reporter Eliseo Barrón Hernández's murder on May 25th, which occurred in the north-central state of Durango, Mexico.
Five presumed members of Zetas, a paramilitary group involved in extortion and drug-trafficking, who were arrested on June 6th, have confessed to killing him with the aim of pressuring the local press to censor itself. Barrón was a crime reporter for the Milenio Torreón daily.
The five detainees are José Pedro Jauregui Jiménez, Raúl Francisco Rodríguez Valderrama, Víctor Alfredo López Ramírez, Oscar Cárdenas Castillo and Israel Sánchez Jaimes. Sánchez has allegedly confessed to firing the shot that killed Barrón on the orders of Zetas chief Lucio "Lucifer" Fernández, who was reportedly angered by the media's coverage of his activities.
"The confessions tend to confirm that Barrón was murdered because of his work as a reporter or, worse still, was sacrificed in order to terrorize his fellow journalists," Reporters Without Borders said. "It is important that the federal-level investigation should continue and should try to shed light on the accomplices that the killers may have had, especially as Barrón had been covering police corruption."
Since 2000, the number of journalists murdered in Mexico is 49. What’s important about this case is that since almost all of these murders are still unpunished although the identity of the masterminds is known in some cases, this provides a good opportunity to show that the murder of journalists cannot continue without impunity. | {
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Communicating Children
In traditional Indian families where respect is equated with obedience, communication skills are not considered very important. Communication within the family is often one-way and restricted to the laying down of ground rules. But this position is changing rapidly, particularly in the bigger cities, and if you don’t wish to find yourself in continual confrontation with your children, here is one skill you will have to acquire.
Rules for good communication –
Start early- right from the womb.
Be clear
Your message must be clear and unambiguous. It also means that the words used must be age appropriate.
Make clear distinctions in case of orders, between those that are negotiable and those that are not. Make non-negotiable orders as few as possible thereby making them more acceptable to the child. Remember negotiating teaches a child how to deal with the world without either giving in or engaging in useless confrontation.
Be a good listener
Listen well and keep listening with full attention. Make eye-contact when communicating.
Make her feel that her views and contributions to conversation are not unimportant.
Be patient and don’t hurry up the child or interrupt her.
Be enthusiastic in listening.
Don’t jump to conclusions.
Don’t be a judgmental listener or in a hurry to provide solutions when the child is only looking for a good quiet listener.
Be age appropriate
Give age appropriate reasons to support your message. Just keep your message short, simple and clear.
Make it a two-way process
Share your own feelings with him – the most important element in good communications between parent and child is that it should be two-way. Talk to him about your day, ask for his opinion on some problem you are facing.
Give the child the freedom to voice objections. You may or may not accept those objections. But often it is enough for the child to be given the freedom to express resistance and resentment.
Keep time for communication
Keep aside some time for regular communication.
Create regular and casual channels of communications through discussions of ideas in a book, movie or TV show. Discuss every thing with the child – from politics, to environmental issue to values. If is able to discuss things with you it is less likely that he will dependent solely on peer views.
Play games like scrabble or monopoly together. Find ways to do things together and laugh together. Go for picnics. You want your child to take pleasure in your company and not dread it.
Spend time together. You cannot have a good communication with your child if you only see her at bedtime to say goodnight.
Respect confidences and promises Keep what the child tells you, in confidence. If you tell the other children or grand parent or cousins what she said, you will never be trusted again. The only exception normally is the other parent.
If you make any promises, be sure to follow through so that there is a mutual trust.
For Pre-teens and Teens Good communication skills is important with all children but it becomes especially relevant when dealing with teens. During adolescence, children are aggressively working at self-discovery and a formulation of a sense of self as distinct from you. Undoubtedly, this is essential work, but it is also a major cause for the appearance of the generation gap. This is where the value of good inter-familial communications makes itself felt. If your overall communication has been good so far, there will be fewer problems. At this time it is even more important to keep the lines of communications are open. Nevertheless communicating with adolescents require special skills –
Practice being tolerant and non-judgmental. Remember part of the teen plan is to provoke you.
Don’t put up with disrespect. While the aim is not to enter into a confrontation, state clearly and firmly that you will not put up with anything that is disrespectful of you as a person.
Make her friends welcome in your home.
As a rule, don’t lecture or preach – you will just be tuned out.
Make clear that any objections you have to your child’s behaviour is motivated primarily by concerns regarding her health or safety, rather than fear of what the neighbours will say.
Discuss potential problem areas (like going to parties) before hand. Allow the child a say in what to wear, when to come back etc, but don’t hesitate to enforce any limit which you consider non-negotiable.
When you have to scold or say something potentially unpleasant, choose a time when you (or the child) is not already angry or tired or sleepy. Specially remember never to do so in front of her friends. Teens have very fragile egos.
Don’t use emotional blackmail to get your own way. It may succeed in the short term, but you will also win the child’s resentment in the long term.
Don’t resort to physical violence or abusive language.
Don’t make winning a prestige issue – you could end up losing your child.
Give your teen a sense of self worth and teach independence and responsibility by
(a) giving small choices regularly
(b) allowing them occasionally and in safe ways to experience the consequences of their own actions
(c) encouraging the child to think for herself. | {
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About luxury yachtYachts with length greater than 24 feet are known as luxury, super, mega, or large yachts. They are segmented based on size and propulsion and are mainly used for recreational purposes. They include modern convenience features such as ACs, TV, navigation aids, radar, echo-sounding, autopilot, and reliable power generating systems.
Technavio's analysts forecast the luxury yacht market in Europe to decline at a CAGR of 3.45% over 2014-2019.
Covered in this report This report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the luxury yacht market in Europe for 2015-2019. Forecast and analysis of the market have been done in terms of volume and revenue.
The report also presents the vendor landscape and a corresponding detailed analysis of the prominent vendors in the market. In addition, it includes the major drivers that are influencing the growth of the market. It also outlines the challenges faced by the vendors and the market at large, as well as the key trends emerging in the market.
Technavio's report, Luxury Yacht Market in Europe 2015-2019, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. It covers the landscape of the market and its growth prospects in the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.
Key Questions Answered in this Report- What will the market size be in 2019 and what will the growth rate be?- What are the key market trends?- What is driving this market?- What are the challenges to market growth?- Who are the key vendors in this market space?- What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?- What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?
Luxury travel has entered a new phase, in which conspicuous consumption is giving way to more meaningful and authentic travel experiences, and to an increase in the number of luxury travel companies converting ...
Summary Tourism Spend (Expenditure under taken on Travel and Tourism related commodities by a tourist within a country. This expenditure is categorized in to accommodation, sightseeing and entertainment, ...
Summary Tourism Demand (Factors that influence time and money spent on tourism. Typical factors include the number of holiday days available to an employee in their country and mean household income) and ... | {
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Border firing shows Pakistan’s frustration, says Omar
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Monday said Pakistan’s indiscriminate cross-border firing, which left five people dead Monday, only shows the neighbouring country’s frustration over its failure to rake up the Kashmir issue.
Omar Abdullah
The chief minister rushed here from Srinagar despite the Eid-ul-Adha festival to attend the cremation of five civilians killed in mortar shelling by Pakistan Rangers in Arnia sub-sector of R.S. Pura in Jammu district.
Talking to media persons, Abdullah said Monday’s targeting of civilians by Pakistan indicated the frustration of the government there.
“Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif tried to raise the pitch over Kashmir during his UN general assembly address. But he did not find any takers for his rant over Kashmir. It (Pakistan) is now showing its frustration by targeting civilian areas on our side of the border,” he said.
The chief minister also visited the Jammu medical college hospital and made enquiries about the well being of the injured people. | {
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Syndicate
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"Greetings, my friend. We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future." | {
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We would like to say THANK YOU!!!
Last monday we had an appointment with you at the home of Petra and Andreas,
and it was so amazing, so wonderfull! You helped us so much and it was healing for our souls! Now we are without any doubt that Spirit is real and all our beloved deceased are still with us! You both are so good-hearted souls! You are so wonderfull people and we perceived your pureness and your love! It was so magnificent to geht the chance to meet you! We Hope to see you again soon!
Petra Engelbertz- Translated into English
I know that you are so interested we have talked about how many wrong there is. I met him and he is! a real medium. His wife too. I experienced the two live and that was really emotional and reassuring.
--------------
Anita Arndt
I have heard and read Paul Brereton, and with much joy! I have known him for several years through events of the. He is a wonderful teacher, you can learn a lot in his seminars and learn to look at things from a spiritual point of view. He can explain very well, and all with a lot of humor. I'm looking forward to his and Louisa's next seminars in Wuppertal, and if I can do it, I'll be happy to participate.
Out of pure curiosity and with great interest, I attended twice a congress in which various mediums came into contact with the spirit. Among all these medium , I was especially fascinated by Paul Brereton, who made contact with the spirit with great certainty, sensitivity and humor, and with great recognition for the bereaved. Also, I could experience Paul as a teacher. Whether it was meditation, doing exercises or making contacts - it just was great. Now I am looking forward to a workshop in April in Bremen with Louisa (which I will get to know there) and Paul and I`m looking forward to my individual sitting and the demonstration with spirit . I`m thrilled about Paul`s abilities.
I have to be honest and say I do have readings on a regular basis I chose
Louisa only due to the fact we went to same school, but it was a very wise
choice. Getting in spot on from the start with her knowing I just started a
new job and realising my concern, thank you once again
-----------------
Gail
Thank you so much for the prayer and to both of you for a wonderful
workshop yesterday, it was so well prepared, very informative and a sheer
pleasure to attend.
Kyme and I are already signed up for part two and we can't wait. We may also be interested in other workshops that you run and will be in touch regarding those.
--------------
Clare
At a recent reading with Louisa I was amazed with what I heard. I had been
having some personal issues that I was in difficulty verbalising. As soon as
we started Louisa told me she had a message for me - the message succinctly
told me exactly what I had been unable to verbalise. The relief and
understanding it gave me was wonderful . Louisa is a lovely person with a
real talent that has enriched my life - so thank you Louisa!
----------------
Melanie Preston
I look forward to seeing Louisa every week. I have MS and suffer with
fatigue. I always feel that Louisa 'recharges my batteries' and I have much
more energy after she works her magic.
Louisa'a tarot reading was spot on. Afterwards I felt inspired
--------------
Annoymous
I asked the team to investigate and help me when I had been experiencing
spiritual problems in my home for several months; noises, footsteps, things
going missing and the feeling of being watched. These problems were
causing feelings of tiredness, stress, fear and upsetting my family life.
The team responded very promptly, they were professional, friendly and very
approachable. They carried out an investigation on 11th January 2009 and
resolved my problems. Before the investigation, I talked to them about what
I thought might be going on. They did not just agree with me but looked
into it themselves and it turned out to be different from what I thought. This
caused me to trust that they were genuine; if they didn’t know what they
were doing they could have easily just agreed with me. They treated both my
home and me with respect throughout the whole investigation. They were
very sensitive when discussing my experiences and I felt I was being listened
to, they were easy to talk to and I was very comfortable.
After they had visited I felt so much better, there were no more occurrences
and I felt at peace. I was much calmer, the house felt better and I could get
on with my family life, the stress had been lifted. I am much more confident
now and I would certainly recommend them as a professional, helpful team.
-----------
Josie
Hi Louisa
I wanted to add a testimonial to your website just to say how I really enjoyed
the Meditating & Shifting Negativity Workshop yesterday. I found it very
informative and came away with some new techniques that I can now try at
home myself. You were all so friendly and welcoming and really helped me
understand the importance of positive thinking and how to deal with
negativity. Thank you again and hope to see you again soon on another
future workshop.
------------------
Lindsey
I attended the Meditation Workshop hoping to expand my knowledge and
learn as much as I can.
I found this workshop very helpful and interesting and have taken lots away
with me to continue to practice.
I have to say Thank You to Louisa for running the workshop an
after attending this one I look forward to attending more in the future.
Thank You
----------------------
Evette
Hi Louisa
My name is Evette and tonight you connected with my grandmother. I was
the lady near the door. You picked out my table.
I was very moved tonight and wanted to say thank you.
---------------------
Lynsey
Good evening Louisa
I just wanted to say a very big thank you. It meant so much to me and my mum that my nan came through to me/us this evening. I/we have missed her greatly since her passing. | {
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Refugee Health Crisis Hits Boiling Point at Greece-Macedonia Border
A child electrocuted by a loose cable. Exhausted men and women living in squalor, losing toes to gangrene. Children caked in mud, coughing and vomiting. Families forced to sleep outside in torrential rain. These are not scenes from a horror movie. They're just some of the desperate stories medics are witnessing at the Greece-Macedonia border right now.
568
Heenali Patel
Freelance journalist currently working for CNN International and Doctors of the World UK volunteer
Photo by Harriet Zych
A child electrocuted by a loose cable. Exhausted men and women living in squalor, losing toes to gangrene. Children caked in mud, coughing and vomiting. Families forced to sleep outside in torrential rain.
These are not scenes from a horror movie. They're just some of the desperate stories medics are witnessing at the Greece-Macedonia border right now.
After Macedonia recently this week shut its Idomeni border to all refugees, more than 13,000 refugees are now stuck there, forced to live in filthy makeshift settlements. The route may be shut off, but the arrivals, sometimes hundreds every day, have not stopped.
Greece, a country already feeling financial strain, is slowly becoming a huge refugee camp. And it's the refugees who are suffering.
"The situation is deteriorating rapidly," says Sarah Collis, a nurse volunteering at the border for the international health charity Doctors of the World. "Every night women and children are sleeping in our clinic because their tent is waterlogged or they simply don't have a tent.
"Children are hit the hardest," she adds." They are living in rain-sodden tents for long periods of time. This is leading to a big increase in severe nappy rash and croup, a viral infection that leads to swelling of the windpipe which can be fatal if not treated."
Medics from Doctors of the World and Doctors Without Borders are providing for immediate primary health needs and the number of people sent to hospital has increased fourfold in the last week. Pregnant women are particularly vulnerable, and many are at the brink of exhaustion.
"We see dozens of pregnant women every week," says Sarah. "Many of them are travelling alone and they are often cold wet and very dehydrated."
Photo by Louise Orton
Macedonia closed its borders just after the EU and Turkey set out a plan to stem the flow of people coming to Europe. If implemented, it would involve sending back migrants who have made the crossing from Greece to Turkey. In exchange, the EU would resettle Syrian refugees living in Turkish camps.
For those stuck at Idomeni, the fear of being abandoned by Europe can be too much to bear, with people's mental health a primary concern. Dozens are getting panic attacks, fainting fits and hysteria after realising their long, painful journey is at a dead end.
"We saw a lot of acute mental health needs," says nurse Harriet Zych, who recently returned from working at the Greek border. "One man hit himself with a rock on his head until he went unconscious when he found out he couldn't cross the border."
The Greek Ministry of Migration has opened several military-run camps in northern Greece over the past week, some of which are already at full capacity. Government plans to relocate refugees to these camps from Idomeni are currently under discussion but there are concerns about the lack of medical supplies and paediatric doctors, with many facilities also limited to cramped, poorly lit tents.
More funding is urgently needed to extend services at these camps, where thousands remain trapped, although the arrivals keep coming. According to the International Organisation for Migration, more than 320 people have already drowned this year during the perilous journey by boat to Europe.
"Border closures won't stop desperate refugees coming to Europe. It will just further force them into the exploitative grip of brutal people smugglers," says Leigh Daynes, executive director of Doctors of the World UK.
"It's not a crime to seek humanitarian protection and assistance yet vulnerable people are being punished in the most horrible way." | {
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A couple of days ago Dennis Howlettcommented over at his blog AccMan on a recent post I created myself over here myself where I was mentioning how it was finally about time that I joined the Mac side and he was not surprised that I have made the move a few days back already and so far I am really enjoying the Mac experience. Certainly, to the point of not going back any time soon! And how spot on he is!
Yes, that is right! So far I am really enjoying the experience quite a bit. There certainly has been a bit of a learning curve, I am not going to deny that, but once you are over it, you come to appreciate one single aspect that I didn’t think of for quite some time while I was making use of different Windows machines: simplicity! That is probably how I could describe the last few days of working with my MacBook Pro: getting the job done with a lot less hassle and without having to figure much out! Good stuff, indeed!
However, over the course of those few days that I have started to make heavy use of my MacBook Pro I have found out that there is a price associated with it. And I am not just talking about how pricey the overall machine is (A whole lot more expensive than most notebooks and laptops out there!), but talking about the software applications available for it.
One of the things that I have come to notice is the fact that most of the applications I am heavily using on a Windows environment are not available for free on the Mac. On the contrary, they cost money and they aren’t cheap! That is how I have found out that I need to upgrade to iLife08bypaying a fee, if I would want to have a similar experience to Picasa (My favourite default app. for managing large amounts of photos). Or how I would need to pay for ecto, if I would want to have an offline blogging experience similar to Qumana, if not better. Or how I would need to pay for another tool called endo, if I would want to have an aggregator I could remotely compare to Omea Pro, my default offline RSS / Atom feed reader.
And all of that without even considering iWork08, which I am not sure I will be going for in the end, since I am anxiously awaiting in anticipation for the GA release of Lotus Notes 8, which includes the super fine IBM Productivity Tools that I am currently making heavy use of in my Windows machine. But more on that later, when I get to detail how I am successfully transitioning most of my work apps. into the Mac environment and enjoying every minute of it!
However, one of the major disappointments that I have been confronted with so far is one application that I make use of rather heavily in the Windows environment and which, apparently, hasn’t got a Mac version for it: Camtasia. Yes, that is right, I make use of it to create screencasts and I have been told that not only isn’t there a Mac version for it, but the only capable option offering similar functionality is iShowU, for which I would also need to pay a license fee (Thank goodness it is not as expensive as Camtasia’s is!).
And that is just some of what I am seeing at the moment while I am starting to consolidate my list of essential tools that I keep using in Windows and which I would love to make use of in the Mac. Well, it looks like I may need to adapt myself to the new needs and continue to pay for some expensive software, and hope that tool developers would think once and for all that to create a state of the art application for everyone to use you need to figure it out and make it OS independent, pretty much like in the Web you focus on creating applications that follow Web standards, instead of being browser dependent.
Thus yes, it is a completely new experience and one I am probably not going to walk back from any time soon, as I have mentioned above already, but I am hoping that over the next few days I will be creating a number of different weblog posts on how I have made of my MBP my default work machine without having to pay much more money for it, specially for the software. Thus stay tuned for some more to come, because I feel it is going to be a fun ride and if you have got some hot tips you would want to share with me from your experience … I am all ears 🙂
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21 comments
Hmm. I feel partly responsible for recommending a bunch of these tools!
First thing to say is that I’ve never been averse to paying for software, and I have to say that most of the Mac software I’ve bought has been very cheap – $10-$20 usually. Given the quality, that’s very fair. It also results in near-impulse purchases!
I share your frustration about the iLife upgrade price – worse for me having bought iWork only a few weeks ago. That’s the one seriously negative part of my Apple experience so far.
In terms of software:
– I have not found another blogging tool as good as ecto. It was recommended to me even before I bought the MBP. I did try some others (I think there is one called MarsEdit or something like that) but ecto wins hands down.
– newsreaders… I didn’t intend to pay for endo. I was using Vienna, which is free. I just gave endo a try, and in the end was pleased by it, and it was by the same guy that does ecto, and the price seemed OK.
– iWork – the cost compares very favourably to MS Office, although clearly there are only the three tools in the package. Frankly I was happy to pay the cost just for Keynote 06! You can get NeoOffice (OpenOffice which is more Mac-like) for free, and that would give you the equivalent of the IBM Productivity Tools.
– screencasting – we talked online yesterday about Jing, which might be an alternative to iShowU. I did buy iShowU for a couple of small screencasts I had to do, and again I tried it first, it worked, and the price was OK.
In general you *can* find a lot of stuff for free, and particularly Linux ports. Gimp is free, for example. Check out the lists that people in your blogging network are posting. Ask for advice for particular software for particular tasks. Don’t always go with one person’s recommendation 🙂
Hi Andy! Thanks ever so much for dropping by and for the extensive feedback comments. It is greatly appreciated all of the thoughts you have put together to help ease the Mac experience. Thanks for that! No need at all to feel responsible for this since most of the folks I have been talking to have been making the same recommendations 🙂
I must say that I am not aversed either towards paying for software, as long as it is worth while and I am planning to continue making extensive use of it. Take, for instance, the example of Camtasia. I got my private license and unless I run Windows now I will no longer be able to use it. And that for a several hundred $$$ I paid a while ago. Not the best use of my money if I would want to fully switch over to the Mac, right. Yes, I know about VMWare, Parallels and some other options, but that means I would need to pay some more for using a Windows piece of software I bought originally a while ago. Nothing against paying for software. Just saying that I wish developers would catch up with today’s world of cross platform apps. That is all.
I haven’t paid for the iLife upgrade yet, since I have found out that I cannot order it online from where I live. Doh! I would need to go to the computer store and find out what is going on. Not the best, nor the most useful of experiences either! But I agree with you that it is a bit painful.
REgarding your comments on the software, I am sold on ecto, although I haven’t blogged much about it just yet, but Qumana does a fine job, too, and it is freeware. I guess I will need to make up my mind on that one. And endo may be helping out in here, because you can buy both of them for a very reasonable price so I may as well do that anyway. Just testing endo at the moment and see if it would meet my needs for feed reading.
As mentioned above, on iWork08, I am going to wait for IBM Productivity Tools since I am not an extensive user of the Office suite, if it meets my very basic needs I am not planning on the upgrade to iWork08. We shall see.
And with regards to screencasting, that is one of the areas where I am researching the most, for sure, and I still haven’t figured out what I would be doing. Jing is pretty cool, indeed, and I am surely looking forward to play some more with it, and I may try iShowU, since a couple of folks recommended as well that I give it a try. So we shall see.
I agree with you that there is plenty of freeware for the Mac. One just needs to dig in further and find what you are looking for, but like it happened when I first came to Windows, all of the licensed software that I would be interested popped in way before most of the free tools I use at the moment.
Oh, as I said, nothing to worry about follow just one person’s recommendation. I very much trust your judgement and all of the hard work you have put together for your own Mac experience. And I do appreciate the advice and further commentary. We both work in a similar environment so your experience would probably translate to most of mine, so I am happy to go with that, but, like I said, not to worry, I have been reading lots of stuff lately on the subject from multiple folks, getting lots of great advice and it is getting there!
Again, appreciated all of the great feedback and helpful comments ! Thanks for those!
(A whole lot more expensive than most notebooks and laptops out there!)
While on one hand, that is true, (you can easily find an off-brand laptop for $699), how about one with like specs? For comparable hardware, of late, Apple’s been pretty competitive. Screen size, weight, hard drive size/speed, ports, etc.
From my perspective, Apple’s biggest laptop weaknesses are probably in ports – typically fewer USB ports built-in, no docks, and no built-in media readers. And yes, for those who want to jump on me, I know that I can easily buy a USB hub, or a USB media reader. But why do I have to?
Have you checked out Snapz Pro? When I was doing screen shots it worked beautifully for me and I think it’s $49.
I think your problem is not so much with the software being expensive, but that you have to buy it all at once to be immediately productive. It sounds like the cost of Camtesa alone is more expensive than the bundle you’re being encouraged to purchase for your Mac, so I wouldn’t call it all that pricey.
Apple overall is somewhat more expensive than windows, but if you look at the overall construction quality of your Mac Pro, you’ll know where most of the money’s going. Everything I’ve noticed over in the PC laptop world looks cheap and cheesy by comparison.
Hello folks! Thanks much for adding further up into this particular weblog post with some really useful information details on the subject. It surely is making my own experience a lot easier and resourceful than whatever I could have imagined. Here are some additional thoughts based on some of your feedback:
Aditya, thanks for sharing that link to LifeHacker. It is just what I needed and wished I had thought about it from before, because I have been following the one for Windows for some time now. I have gone through it and have found a couple of lovely tools I will be making use of as time goes by and in an upcoming blog post I will comment on them. Thus, thanks again for sharing the link over here! RE: your experience with the Macs, you need to try it out. It is a completely different game and something you would enjoy, I am sure. At least, I have, which brings me into the next set of comments…
Dennis, I think I may be going into Parallels after all, specially given some piece of news I have been exposed to today and which have brought some disappointment, but more on that later. However, talking about disappointment, regarding Camtasia, yes, I know there are different alternatives, but a few months back I paid an expensive amount of money for a license that you would expect had a counterpart for the Mac. To be honest, I didn’t know back then I was going to make the switch, but if I would have known no way I was going to pay that amount of money for just one single piece of software that ties me into a specific OS, whichever that may well be. And the same is going to happen with the MBP.
RE: the acquisition cost, I can tell you that my Lenovo 3000 N100, which has got higher specs than the MBP (i.e. screen resolution, for instance) was nearly 1,000 Euros cheaper!!! And that is a lot of money. In fact, a whole new Windows computer! I am not sure if I am going to get any better, since I am still doing the transition of all of my work apps. into the Mac, but I tell you, if it doesn’t cut it and run into problems after making heavy use of the Mac machine, let’s say I am not going to be a happy person. I am not at the moment with the Lenovo 3000 N100 notebook, but, at least, it wasn’t too bad on my pocket. We shall see how the MBP would play in, say, about six months from now.
I do hope as well that more and more apps. are developed and created OS independent so that we are able to enjoy a seamless experience, regardless what OS we are in. Some of my favourite ones (Upcoming blog post on that, by the way) are both available for Windows and Mac so I cannot see why some others would join the bandwagon.
About your point on “Would I go back?” Probably, the answer is “No!”, but then again only time will tell. If the MBP can put up with all of the workload I am currently doing on the Windows machine without a glitch, there is no way I am going back, but if it isn’t putting up with it, I think it would be a good time for me to move back. As I said, time will tell, and my work apps. too, of course, but that is another story…
Greg, thanks a bunch for the comments! As I have just mentioned above to Dennis’ comments, the Lenovo 3000 N100 machine I have is very much on the same scale as the MBP 15”4 (Higher screen resolution, 100GB hard disk, 2GB RAM, CD and DVD burner, four USB posts vs. two from the Mac, etc. etc.), yet it cost me about 1,000 euros less, and if it weren’t for the fact that the LCD display is broken (Currently awaiting to take it into repairs) in just about one year after I bought I would have been totally delighted with it. It has been so far the best machine I have used so far in the nearly 10 years I have been using ThinkPads, notebooks and whatever else. The MBP would have to prove itself in a business environment, and not just as a regular end-user. The Lenovo did prove itself for one year, before it cracked, but I am hoping to have it fixed soon, so that I can continue making use of it for those apps. where there is no Mac counterpart or equivalent.
I actually agree with you big time on the issue of having to buy additional stuff for the Mac as opposed to make use of it out of the box for some of the stuff. This has always been one of the big selling points from Apple, yet, it just doesn’t work like that. You need to upgrade software, or purchase software to do something else, or even install some more free software. With my Lenovo 3000 N100 I only needed to install the work apps. and I was up and running on that same day. Oh and the same thing happens with the iPod or the iPhone, for instance. Why would I have to buy a case for each of them, specially for the iPod, just because the screen itself can easily scratch? I didn’t have to do that for the Nokia N95, but unless you want to give some character to your iPod, you are off to buy a case and whatever else. And for the iPhone same story with the earphone plug convertor. Why? Isn’t that enough already as is? 😉
Congrats with the new MBP. Love to have one myself, but there’s a time and place for everything. Anyway, my old trustworthy G5 PowerPC will be traded in for a new Mac Pro in the coming months.
Well here’s my recommendations. First of all: there’s a program on Apple’s site where you can upgrade your ‘old’ iLife ’06 that came with the machine for $10 to the all-new iLife ’08 (shipping included if I remember correctly).
Second: invest in either Parallels or VMWare, as Dennis said. That way you can use your Windows software for some time to come, so you can wait till a decent Mac version is shipped or a viable alternative comes along.
Third: watch the feeds of MacUpdate Promo and MacZot. Both sites offer one-day-software discounts: both sell software (new, fun, productivity software, system tools etc) for about half the prize. Thing is the software can only be obtained for that price during one day. So you gotta act fast (well, within 24 hours anyway).
David, WOW! Thanks a bunch for Snapz Pro!! It looks like that is just what I need! Really! Fantastic find! Thanks for sharing it over here as well! It does certainly do screen shots, but also video, which is what I am most interested in, and with audio. Just perfect! That is going to be one of the pieces of software I am surely going to explore further! Thanks for that!
RE: “I think your problem is not so much with the software being expensive, but that you have to buy it all at once to be immediately productive“, I couldn’t have agreed more with you on that statement! Yes, that is right, the bundle of software apps. is certainly a lot cheaper than Camtasia, what I am disappointed about though is that once I make the move to the Mac for good, which I am sure is going to happen, seeing how things are going, I would feel like I have wasted my money by having purchased a licensed I am not going to be using much more. Totally the opposite of what I am going through at the moment.
I tend to agree with your comments, and from what I can tell as an end-user you are absolutely right, however, from the perspective of a knowledge worker I have yet to push the Mac to the limit and see if it would be able to meet my needs. I am keeping my fingers that it will be, but we will just have to wait and see what happens. Thanks again, though, for the helpful comments and for the hat tip!
Hello, first welcome aboard! I’ve been using Macs and PCs side by side commercially since 1986. I strongly recommend using Parallels or Crossover (WINE based, no Windows OS needed) to ease the transition. Oddly I did a search on the WINE site to see about Camtasia compatability and nothing came up. I have seen someone in our office use this program and I would have thought it would have been submitted on the WINE site for testing. Maybe you could be the person to test it out using Crossover. You can download a 30-day trial.
Thanks for the kind comments, Ton! Really appreciate the superb tip on the upgrade for iLife06. I have now taken a look into the local Apple site over here, and it looks like things are not going to be that easy! I couldn’t find that program and what is worse when earlier on the week I tried to upgrade anyway to iLife08 I found out that they will not be able to ship it over here where I live, i.e. The Canaries, something I was surprised about, to be honest, but that is what I got from the Web site. So I would probably have to give a call to the local Apple store and see what they say. You see, I didn’t have this problem with most Windows software. Could just order online, grab the code, install it, insert license key and off I go. Not sure I am going to like hanging out at the Apple store much, to be honest, but we shall see. I will mention the tip you mentioned though.
I am inclined, indeed, to go for Parallels as I feel it is perhaps one of the most powerful options and I am not too much into VMWare, since I am not planning on reusing the images for Linux or whatever else than Windows.
Really appreciated as well the tips on MacUpdate and MacZot. I have now subscribed to them and I must say that I think I am going to enjoying them quite a bit! Although they are not as good as Giveaway of the Day, a super handy Web site I follow quite regularly as well to find some really good looking licensed Windows software for free.
But, still, thanks again for the superb feedback comments! (And good luck whenever you get your hands on your next Mac!)
Hi Lantz! Wooohooo! That sounds like something I would be very very interested in, indeed! I have now taken a look into the site and it looks very promising, indeed! I am certainly going to have a look into the trial version for a little while and see how that would go, but if it works like it is described on the Web site, then I think we have got a new winner. This would all what I would be looking for, indeed! Thanks ever so much for sharing your feedback with us and for the hat tip! Awesome stuff!
I will have a look and as time goes by I will let you know how my experiences go on this particular subject. I may be able to create a blog post or two on it as time goes by.
evening luis.. I’d also say get parallels or fusion and run camtasia in coherence mode. it *should* then capture the host OSX environment.. I use parallels alot on my macbook, and the mini mac’s although the G5 is ppc still so cant run it there..
others have already pointed you to some alternatives to some of the software, I’d also concur that the mac software tends to be alot better in quality than the pc stuff, namely free applications and open source seem to be better supported (without spyware).
Yes some applications like ecto, need to be paid for, but the mac version of ecto is far better than any blogging client I’ve found on the pc, openoffice as andy says is a possible alternative for ‘real’ office.. iLife 08 may be within your period for upgrade for $10 to the iLife 08, failing that, iLife 08 is not as expensive as you think..
even the price of the paid apps on the mac seem to be reasonable, only the ‘pro’ apps like CS3 (photoshop, illustrator etc), lightroom, final cut etc fall into the higher price range..
if you looking for IM and chat applications AdiumX rules the roost (and is free!)..
downsides yes, ilife always needs to be brought again at the new version.. but.. at a maximum of £55, it’s cheaper than many single apps on the PC..
if you need any help, please just ping me… I went mac many years ago, and haven’t looked back.. I’m even seriously considering dumping windows completely at work in favour of the IBM openclient, or a macbook with parallels for windows apps and the mac versions of notes etc.. (now I know mac’s are allowed on the internal network!!)
Appreciated all of the help and support provided thus far. I am already starting to notice some of you have just said when you mentioned that Mac software tends to be a much smoother experience than the Windows one. In fact, I am already starting the hang of it and certainly enjoy the new way of working through the different applications. And as I move more and move of my work apps. into the Mac I am starting to notice the productivity boost, which is good.
I knew about ecto for quite some time now and to be honest I wasn’t very keen on having to pay for another offline blogging client. So for a number of months I have been using Qumana and it worked like a charm in Windows. I am hoping that would be the same experience on the Mac, too. At least, I would not have to worry about it since it works pretty all right with the Mac (Massive thumbs up for those apps. that are OS independent. They rock!)
Still not sure what to do about the Office suite, so will have to postpone commenting on that one. However, what I can say is that the upgrade for the iLife08 is not going to be as easy as I thought. Apparently, the Apple Store online does not allow you to order the upgrades for The Canaries, which means that I would need to go local. I have been on the phone with the local Applie store over here and I have been told they can help me upgrade to iLife08, but it will not be happening till September because they haven’t received the disks yet. Go figure. We are, after all, in the middle of the ocean. Anyway, very shortly I am going to be travelling again, so I may actually go ahead and upgrade to it while on the road. The thing is that the upgrade is going to cost the nearly 80€ I was told at the beginning. No chance for anything else.
So far I am not complaining about the price for some of the Mac software, what I am a bit weary about though is to actually buy the license for software I will use for a week or two and then realise it has not met my needs and therefore will not use it any longer. I know that is what trials are made for, but then again, it is not the same experience, as I have found out with endo, for instance.
For IM, I think I am going to be ok with Skype and anxiously awaiting for when Sametime 7.5.1, deployed internally, can work through the Gateway and connect to other popular IM clients. No longer a need to have multiple software installed.
I am surely glad to hear you will be joining us in trying to make the move of the work apps. into the Mac environment. That is surely going to be fun and I am almost ready to get some serious testing going on. But more on that later…
Ed, my goodness! That *is*, indeed, the kind of Web site I have been looking for a while. Excellent find! Thanks for sharing it over here! I have gone through it and there are some really nice pieces of software that not only was I using already in Windows, but that I am glad they have been put together with some other ones I am planning to investigate further. But certainly that link is just what I wanted! Thanks!
Tedious, WOW! Very good links as well, for sure! Perhaps the one from PimpMySafari I think I am going to skip it for the time being as I already got my selection of my default Web browser(s), but more on that later … 😉 I knew as well about VersionTracker since I am getting the daily updates for the Windows software, but didn’t realise about there being a Mac version of it. Cool stuff! Thanks for the tips!
Ton, as you would be able to see from the comments I shared above for Andrew, naquada, I am afraid that things over here are not as simple. In fact, I will not be able to upgrade from the Web link you sent out since they will not ship it to The Canaries. Funny, eh? And the price is the full price, even though I got the MacBook Pro just a couple of weeks back. I am trying to get something sorted out with the local Apple store over here, but apparently that would have to wait till mid-September. We shall see…
Neil, you can say that twice! The experience is getting better and better by the day and I am just starting to think why it took me so long before I made the final move. I should have done it a long while ago and I am surely glad that is happening now.
And on top of this all, perhaps the thing that I am really enjoying the most is the Mac community and how helpful everyone has been all along to make that experience a lot easier and enjoyable. And it has surely helped. I was not expecting and it surely makes you feel like you are at home enjoying the Mac experience with friends, which, in the end, is what really matters, I guess. So a special thanks to everyone out there who has been able to help out a bit providing insightful comments and some really great links! It is greatly appreciated! | {
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Red Plaid Dog Collar
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The McFarland mixed doubles curling team of Becca and Matt Hamilton broke its four-game losing streak on Saturday but was officially eliminated from Olympic playoff contention.
The U.S. team stole eight points against Norway's last shot over the final three of six ends and defeated Kristin Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten 10-3 in Gangneung, South Korea.
Switzerland's victory over South Korea, however, meant that the Hamiltons (2-4) won't be able to climb back into one of the top four spots in the round-robin standings.
"It's disappointing knowing that we are not going to move forward to the final four," Becca Hamilton said. "But we can take away a lot from this experience. We know that we are capable of playing with the best in the world. We just didn't do it this week."
Losses to Canada, Switzerland, Korea and China after an opening victory over the Olympic Athletes from Russia sent the McFarland duo into the bottom half of the eight-team table. Only the top four make the semifinals.
Against Norway (4-2), one of the teams looking to secure a playoff spot, the U.S. had success without the hammer after falling behind 3-2.
Skaslien's last shot in the fourth end with four American stones in scoring position was nowhere near the house, letting the Hamiltons take a 6-3 lead.
Norway was left chasing in the fourth by Matt Hamilton's early shot. In the fifth end, he executed a triple takeout with his final shot.
"He was making his hits this game," Becca Hamilton said. "I've never seen Matt hit and roll out as much as he did earlier this week. I think he was really connecting with the ice. I was really proud of his performance."
The U.S. also stole one in the fifth and three more in the sixth before the Norwegians conceded.
Before turning to team competition, the Hamiltons closed their mixed doubles tournament on Sunday in seventh place after losing to Finland.
The duo couldn't take advantage of opportunities to close out Finland at at the Gangneung Curling Centre.
“We missed a lot of the crucial shots when we needed to [make them]. It’s more going to be about capitalizing on mistakes from the other team when we move forward and knowing that it’s all about making the right shots and not all of the shots,” said Matt Hamilton, who plays second for the men’s Olympic curling team.
“I would say I am let down a little bit. But, I am not concerned at all going forward. I learned a lot on the ice that I am ready to take forward to my women’s team as well,” said Becca Hamilton, who plays lead for the women’s Olympic curling team.
The U.S. had a shot for three points in the opening end but didn’t hit the right side of the stone and ended up giving Finland a point instead. In the following end, the U.S. had a draw for two if they could reach the side of the button but were a few inches light and settled for a single.
The Americans got a rock buried in the four-foot to fluster Finland with throughout the third end. The final result was a single steal for the U.S. as they took their first – and only – lead of the game.
A great double takeout with Becca Hamilton’s final stone of the fourth end forced Finland to convert a takeout to score just a point. Finland countered with a steal in the fifth end as the Americans had no shot available to score so Becca Hamilton threw the final stone away.
The Americans used their power play in the sixth end but the first stone was heavy and swept out of the rings and the chance to score multiple points quickly slipped away. Finland used its power play in the seventh end and capitalized on a few miscues from the U.S. team to set up a big end in which they scored four points. The U.S. team wasn’t able to produce the same as they endured their fifth loss.
“It’s a tough stage to play on, but at the same time we were ready for it,” Matt Hamilton said. “We didn’t quite maximize on our opportunities. Hopefully, we’ll be able to move forward and join with our men’s and women’s team and really put on a good show for everybody.”
The Hamiltons will now turn their attention to the women’s and men’s team competition, which begins with practice Tuesday. The first draw of the round robin is set to follow Wednesday. | {
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The attack is reportedly one of the deadliest on civilians in Egypt's modern history.
Islamist militants attacked a Sufi mosque in Egypt on Friday, killing at least 235 and wounding at least 130 people, according to the Associated Press and The New York Times.
The attack, reportedly one of the deadliest on civilians in Egypt's modern history, happened at a mosque in the North Sinai town of Bir al-Abed, 125 miles northeast of Cairo.
Though no one has taken credit for the attack yet, the militants are believed to be affiliated with ISIS, which considers the Sufi Muslims heretics. Egypt has also been fighting the ISIS' North Sinai branch since 2013.
How the attack unfolded
About 1:50 p.m. local time, dozens of militants riding in jeeps detonated at least two bombs inside the Sufi mosque in the North Sinai town of Bir al-Abd. The militants set up ambush locations and opened fire on worshippers as they fled the church and on ambulances as they arrived to treat and transport the wounded.
By 2:30 p.m., the Associated Press reported that at least 54 had been killed and 75 were wounded. Most of the wounded were taken to the general hospital in the nearby town of El Arish, where hospital workers described a chaotic scene, The Times reported.
"They pretty much have bullets in every part of their bodies," one medical official told The Times, adding that some lost limbs or were badly burned.
Images were soon posted on social media of bloodied bodies wrapped in sheets on the mosque floor and of family members outside the hospital as ambulances raced back and forth.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi convened a national-security meeting before declaring three days of mourning, The Times reported. Sisi also said in a statement that the "attack would not go unpunished" and that "justice will be served against all those who participated, contributed, supported, funded, or instigated this cowardly attack," according to Reuters.
Via Google Maps
US President Donald Trump tweeted at 10:27 a.m. ET on Friday that "Horrible and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent and defenseless worshipers in Egypt. The world cannot tolerate terrorism, we must defeat them militarily and discredit the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence!"
Egypt's military has begun conducting air strikes in the mountainous areas of North Sinai where the militants are believed to hide out, Reuters reported. | {
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Structure
The format that guides the play of a poker tournament. The primary aspects of tournament structure are: Length of the blind levels, the numerical escalation of blind levels, and the amount of starting chips.
Structural Evolution
The most noticeable development in the evolution of tournament structures is the increase in the number of chips that players begin with. Some venues, such as the Borgata, now offer starting stacks of 5x the buyin or more. Standard starting stacks are usually 2-3x the buyin.
The WSOP structures used to be strictly chip for chip (you receive 1500 chips for a $1500 buyin tournament), but in recent years the change was made to double chips, and for the 2009 WSOP, players will begin the tournament with a stack equal to three times the buyin (4500 chips for a $1500 buyin).
Structure Mavens
People who are known for having a strong opinion or understanding of tournament structures include:
- Alan Goehring
- Steve Brecher
- Todd Terry
Structural Integrity
Although the increase in starting chips has been the most noticeable change in tournament structures--and a very crowd-pleasing one at that--it is generally considered that the length of time given per level has a greater effect on the playability of a tournament (or what we say makes for a "good structure.") | {
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September 15, 2019 4:38 am
You are here:HomeEducationDurbin, Gutiérrez Speak Out Against House Republican Vote to Defund DACA Program
Durbin, Gutiérrez Speak Out Against House Republican Vote to Defund DACA Program
Posted by Editoron January 22, 2015in Education|Comments Off on Durbin, Gutiérrez Speak Out Against House Republican Vote to Defund DACA Program
U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) and U.S. Representative Luis Gutiérrez (D-IL-04) spoke out against the House Republican effort to defund President Obama’s immigration policies, including the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The House adopted an amendment earlier this week that would freeze funds for DACA, a program that temporarily halts deportations of young Americans known as “Dreamers” – immigrant students who were brought here as children by their parents and who grew up in the United States.
“The bill the House passed this week is the height of unfairness and hypocrisy. First, Congressional Republicans obstructed immigration reform legislation. And now they are obstructing President Obama’s efforts to use his legal authority to fix our broken immigration system,” Durbin said. “Thousands of DACA recipients are already giving back to our country – working as engineers, small business owners, and public school teachers. But the Republicans in the House of Representatives want to end DACA and have these young people deported from the only country they have ever called home. The government should not use its limited resources to deport immigrants who have lived and worked here for years, who have children who are American citizens or lawful permanent residents, and who don’t pose a threat to our safety.”
“In Illinois and around the country, Democrats are standing up for families and for letting American citizens grow up without fear that their parents will be deported,” Rep. Gutiérrez said. “It is not just a legislative fight against the deportation-only agenda of the right wing; it is a community education effort in cities and towns across the state and across the country. We want people to come forward, submit to a criminal background check, and get permission to work on-the-books so they can raise their families in peace.”
Rep. Gutiérrez appeared at an immigration forum Wednesday night in Rhode Island and will speak at an event in New Jersey later today as part of a national tour to raise awareness about the President’s executive actions on immigration. For more information about the tour, visit http://gutierrez.house.gov. | {
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Reading a lot of the LIS literature so you don't have to since 2005. This is my blog to reflect about librarianship, my work, literacy, stuff I read, and a few other academic things. If it is personal, not discussed in polite company (i.e. religion and politics), or more miscellaneous, I put it in my personal blog, The Itinerant Librarian.
The first volume of the Marvel Visionaries series featuring the art of George Pérez, it collects various issues of the Fantastic Four magazines from the seventies. Marvel is compiling various issues of its properties under the Visionaries label featuring popular authors and artists. Unlike other collections, such as the Essential series, it is centered on an author or artist. Due to this focus, some of the storylines are not fully continued; issues get skipped, but usually there is a recap on the issues to give readers a sense where the story stands. Roy Thomas is the editor and writer for most of the issues in this collection, and he brings in a certain humor we don't see in more recent works. Fans of the Fantastic Four will enjoy these series. The trade paperbacks are published in full color, which may be more enjoyable for some readers. In terms of plots, Mr. Fantastic loses his powers, and his son is kidnapped among other adventures. This is definitely an item for public libraries with graphic novel and comics collections. I will be seeking out the others in the series.
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About Me
I have been an academic librarian since 2004, and I started blogging in
2005. Prior to this, I have been a high school teacher and a college
adjunct instructor.
One of my passions is to teach others how to know when they need
information, how to find it, and how to make use of it in an ethical
way. I have access to a diverse range of information sources, and I know
how to use them. Plus, I arm people with facts and information. I am
firm believer in teaching these very important skills.
I call my professional blog The Gypsy Librarian (where, among other things, I read a lot of library literature so you don't have to, then write about it) because a gypsy is a wanderer, and I am a wanderer at heart. Also because much as Federico García Lorca wrote in Romancero Gitano, as Puerto Rican, I have left my homeland and have struggled along the way. As Tolkien wrote,
"not all who wander are lost." I also keep a personal blog at The Itinerant Librarian. Feel free to check my blogs out. Comments are always welcome.
Married to The Better Half, we have a
daughter who reminds me innocence and wonder are great things. We also
have two cats who keep life interesting. | {
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School in Sedona
I’ve been attending Arizona Real Estate Licensing School in Sedona. Now, if a person has to go to 90 hours of school, it might as well be in Sedona! On Sunday there was a blizzard which lead to a 139 car pile up in Flagstaff and Sedona received hail, snow, thunder and lightening from the same storm. The following afternoon as the storm was clearing out, I got these two shots.
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[…] San Diego Real Estate Blog – Discover San Diego! wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt I’ve been attending Arizona Real Estate Licensing School in Sedona. Now, if a person has to go to 90 hours of school, it might as well be in Sedona! On Sunday there was a blizzard which lead to a 139 car pile up in Flagstaff and Sedona received hail, snow, thunder and lightening from the same storm. The following afternoon as the storm was clearing out, I got these two shots. This one is by a high school, right off the highway. […] | {
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Friday, September 6, 2013
"For
thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to
be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the
earth." (Deuteronomy 14:2)
If you are a believer in Jesus, then
God has chosen you out of all people of the earth to be set apart for Himself,
special and highly favored. A royal priesthood, a peculiar people (II Peter
2:9).
The children of Israel were far from
perfect, yet in God's eyes they were the very object of His affection. He would
destroy anyone who would threaten or harm them, even if they were "in the
wrong," and bless those who would give them even so much as a cup of cold
water (Genesis 12:3, Matthew 10:42).
God's system of fairness operates
differently than ours. We judge based on circumstances and a natural
perspective on equity and justice. However, God's judgment is based on covenant. I recently watched a documentary about a notorious Mafia
family. The father was a feared and ruthless enforcer for one of the five
Italian crime families, and his daughter was picked up every morning by a
driver who took her to school (the driver was not associated with the mob at
all, and knew nothing about the family). It was discovered that the driver had
attempted to coerce the young, middle-school aged girl into performing a sexual
act with him, and the next morning, several men met him by the car, pulled him
out, took him to a secluded place and shot him dead. End of story. No trial, no
opportunity for explanation. Why? Because he had touched something precious
that belonged to them. The apple of their eye (Zechariah 2:8).
Now, I understand that these were
wicked men, and that their actions outside of the law are inexcusable, however,
they take care of their own. In a similar manner, our Heavenly Father is
jealous over those who belong to Him. Of course God's justice is according
to truth against those who would trouble us, but nevertheless, His judgments
are fearful, holy, righteous, and true. It is a fearful thing to fall into the
hands of the Living God (Matthew 18:6-7, Hebrews 10:31).
"Well that's not love,
brother... How can you compare God with the Mafia?"
But it islove, a very special, jealous kind of love. God is jealous
over His people, but we must seek the protection of our Father in order to
partake of it rather than attempting to avenge ourselves. King Saul
relentlessly sought after David's life, but David deferred judgment to the
Lord, even when he had opportunity to take matters into his own hands (I Samuel
24:3-7, 26:7-11).
David understood covenant
relationship, and He knew that God would honor His promises. He knew that he
was better off committing his cause to the Lord rather than attempting to take
care of matters himself (I Peter 2:23). God commands us to forgive, "turn
the other cheek," love our enemies, and do good to those who persecute us,
and for this reason it is commonly assumed that we are required to be
"doormats," and to be trampled upon at the whim of every wicked man
and device. But nothing could be further from the truth. When we forgive, and
return blessing for evil, we defer our cause to our Heavenly Father. We give
place unto wrath, if wrath is justified (Romans 12:19-20).
Of course, this requires faith on
our part, trust, and suffering in the flesh (denying the fleshly impulse to
handle situations ourselves), and holding grudges. We are to trust our Heavenly
Father unequivocally, seeking His glory in all things. Much of the time mercy
prevails, and God brings victory in unusual, wonderful, and glorious ways.
However, our victory is always assured when we walk in God's ways and obey His
commands.
We must understand that God is a God
of love, but He is also a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29). He is the defender of
Israel, and protector of all who put their trust in Him (Isaiah 54:17). | {
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You are here
Dust Collection & Air Pollution Control
C&W Manufacturing specializes in dust control systems ranging from 100 to 50,000+ cfm for a variety of industries. Pictured is a food-grade, stainless steel CP-305 cartridge pulse dust collector that runs 24 hours a day. These collectors are designed for high-capacity use and provide 99.99%...
Aerodyne Environmental, a leader in high-efficiency industrial dust collection and material handling valves, has released an animation demonstrating how industrial dust collectors operate in a mining or quarry application.
In the demo, the Ground-Plate (GPC) cyclonic dust collector and the...
Cartridge dust collection systems are the preferred technology for most dry processing applications today, and there are many different pleated filter cartridges available for these collectors. As you face stricter air quality and combustible dust regulations, coupled with tighter internal cost...
The FA2000 Series silo vacuum provides extreme filtration and continuous-duty operation. Featuring an oversized 520-sq-ft pleated filter cartridge and vacuum producers ranging from 7.5 to 30 hp, this stationary unit provides powerful continuous-duty operation and is ideal for use as a central...
One of the new elements of this year's International Powder & Bulk Solids Conference and Exhibition (Powder Show) was guided tours of the exhibition floor. Members of the Powder & Bulk Solids team joined the tour on the show's final day, as Gary Q. Johnson, chemical engineer and...
I have been attending the Powder Show in Rosemont, IL since 1978. This year's show was much more upbeat than years past, as the show seemed to have gotten somewhat stale. UBM and Powder & Bulk Solids have made significant improvements to the venue.
I had a busy day at...
A specialist in solving dry material handling issues, Aerodyne Environmental offers the SplitStream dust collector. The SplitStream "S" collector is a counter-cyclonic dust collector that has no major moving components and is capable of handling a wide range of materials, while requiring... | {
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PG&E Ranked Among Top 100 Military-Friendly Employers
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 11, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) announced today that it has been designated a 2013 Top 100 Military Friendly Employer® by G.I. Jobs magazine. This is the second time the utility has been included in the annual rankings, which are based on the strength of company military recruiting efforts, the percentage of new hires with prior military service, retention programs and company policies on National Guard and Reserve service.
PG&E is committed to training veterans for today's energy industry jobs through its PowerPathway™ career and technical training program. While open to all qualified candidates, the program has completed six veterans-only courses and plans to add two more in 2013. Of the 150 graduates of the veterans-only courses, 72 percent have been hired by PG&E or other energy industry companies. Overall, veterans have made up about 7 percent of PG&E hires since 2010.
PG&E also established a Veterans Employee Resource Group last year, designed to educate, support and develop PG&E employees with military experience, as well as their supporters. More than 260 employees have joined the group, which is open to all employees regardless of veteran status.
"PG&E values the qualities that military service imparts on veterans, including their innovative spirit and team-first mentality, as well as the technical skills they developed while in uniform," said John Simon, senior vice president of human resources for PG&E. "We're proud to provide veterans a path to energy careers through our PowerPathway program. Then, once on board at PG&E, we offer lasting support and encouragement through our employee resource group. Veterans are invaluable members of the PG&E family—and will continue to be for many generations."
CIO, CTO & Developer Resources
Now in its 10th year, the Top 100 Military Friendly Employers® list is the premier resource for transitioning service members and spouses seeking civilian employment. The list was compiled from a data-driven survey sample of 5,000 companies whose annual revenues exceeded $500 million. Ernst & Young LLP independently tested the survey results that determined the 2013 list based upon weightings and methodology established by G.I. Jobs magazine.
PG&E's company profile, including open positions that are a fit for military personnel, can be found on MilitaryFriendly.com.
About PG&EPacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is one of the largest combined natural gas and electric utilities in the United States. Based in San Francisco, with 20,000 employees, the company delivers some of the nation's cleanest energy to 15 million people in Northern and Central California. For more information, visit http://www.pge.com/about/newsroom/ and www.pgecurrents.com.
About Victory MediaVictory Media, publisher of G.I. Jobs, is a service-disabled, veteran-owned small business and has been serving the military community since 2001. Our Military Friendly® lists and methodology can be found at www.MilitaryFriendly.com. Our data-driven lists are published in G.I. Jobs, Military Spouse, Vetrepreneur magazines, republished in periodicals like USA Today, Wall Street Journal and are frequently cited on national TV programs such as CNN, CNBC, NBC, Fox News and others. Follow Military Friendly on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MilitaryFriendly or on Twitter @Mil_Friendly
The competition among public cloud providers is red hot, private cloud continues to grab increasing shares of IT budgets, and hybrid cloud strategies are beginning to conquer the enterprise IT world.
Big Data is driving dramatic leaps in resource requirements and capabilities, and now the Internet of Things promises an exponential leap in the size of the Internet and Worldwide Web.
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Attend Cloud Expo. Craft your own custom experience. Learn the latest from the world's best technologists. Find the vendors you want and put them to the test. | {
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Expertise has led to the development of contemporary machines corresponding to cars and motorcycles which allow us to be mobile and travel freely and airplanes which journey at a supersonic velocity. It has not escaped my notice that the nonprofit sector is predominantly female, while the tech sector is famously male-centric. Along with its development, Modern Tech Company is now composed of three dynamic divisions: printing, audio-visible and communications. High-tech for modern folks strolling …
Safety — Passwords, ID playing cards, and two-factor authentication can all be leveraged in mobile printing options to prevent information loss. D20 Trendy handled this brilliantly by taking a leap into the summary and simply measuring the relative wealth any given character has at their disposal with a quantifiable single number – the Wealth Bonus. Next, some people use modern technology to create the adverse issues of the mankind.
Be the first to invent new devices and latest electronics including those used in modern warfare, use different nations as market for completed items, and to have a strong voice and have the ability to affect different international locations.
However as a result of they don’t seem to be members of the tech neighborhood, we are able to ignore their work, expertise, and imaginative and prescient. Modern Requirements is the fusion of Microsoft Office and net applied sciences; empowering all stakeholders …
In 2010, Mark Zuckerberg donated $one hundred million to assist then-Mayor Cory Booker and Governor Chris Christie fix Newark, New Jersey’s failing public faculty system. Expertise has led to the event of recent machines equivalent to cars and bikes which permit us to be cell and journey freely and airplanes which travel at a supersonic velocity. It has not escaped my notice that the nonprofit sector is predominantly female, whereas the tech sector is famously male-centric. Along with its growth, Modern Tech Corporation is now composed of three dynamic divisions: printing, audio-visible and communications. Excessive-tech for contemporary individuals strolling pace with improvements in the field of excessive applied sciences.
As the one necessities answer within the high one hundred, we have now solidly entrenched Fashionable Necessities as THE necessities administration software program resolution of alternative. Modern Tech affords advertising and marketing digital duplicators in addition to offset printing equipment offering … | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
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Comment: How long until we're all on e-MTBs?
It might have snuck under the radar for those not keeping a trained eye on the electric bike market, but some bold claims have been tossed about lately in relation to a motor’s place on bicycles.
Electric market bods have been guilty of speaking perhaps prematurely about the impact of the UK market in days gone by, so it’s with some curiosity I read about the European head of Focus Bikes suggesting that non-electric mountain bikes will almost cease to exist inside a decade.
Take that in. Purists, laugh or be outraged, I’m still with you, I don’t think it’ll be such a short timescale – in the UK at least. (Although it has to be said, since originally writing this column for October's magazine just one month ago. My opinion is now more on the fence than it was, such is the pace of change in both the tech and bike industry. Afterall, 20 years ago who could have pictured we'd fit a computer, sound system, phone, camera and much more all inside one device in our pockets. 2016 e-bikes already look like different animals compared to those launched even two years ago.)
As pointed out by Carlton Reid last month, the average UK bike sale price alone will put a stop to commonplace luxury e-bike purchases for a while yet, despite promising signs in specialist stables.
Long-term, anything can happen and electrical tech will continue to develop and reduce in price, as has been shown elsewhere.
Price aside, legislation for motorised bikes on the trail is an obvious barrier. It is gradually becoming harder to tell which bikes carry assistance, but there are a few motorbike-esque machines around. It’s easy to foresee land owners being very hot on blocking access to these and rashly. Where will that leave the traditional MTB? Could we end up with a situation where licenses to ride off-road are being called for – just like many do for the tarmac go-er. That’s ridiculous, of course, but I can’t imagine this topic escaping mainstream media sensationalists for long. We as an industry need to carefully think about a response when the time comes.
Specialist in the territory Paul Stanforth of EBC recently told me e-MTB growth has seen greater than expected for his firm. Indeed, the electric specialist grew its turnover some 70 per cent over the prior year in 2014.
Furthermore, the ubiquity of the e-MTB at Eurobike and indeed the numbers on the dedicated test track confirm to me that there’s legs in the market, even in territories with a resistance to spending proper money. It be quite a costly error of judgement by the industry if that's proven wrong.
Will we see a day where motors outstrip willing legs? The cynic in me says it’s inevitable given our gadget addiction and fondness for effort-free fun. The mountain biker in me is wary of change and unsure about selling the soul of it all, even if it does encourage more off the sofa and onto the trails.
From a business perspective, this could be one game changing trend with its high-ticket tags that can’t come soon enough, especially for the off-road specialist. Contrarily, those who have been pushing themselves up the UK’s often sloppy, gravelly hills for decades, myself included, will hope this one takes a little longer to come to fruition. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
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Downtown Chicago Quiznos Infested With… Coyotes?
Meet Adrian, the Quiznos coyote. After wandering in through the open door of a Quiznos located in Chicago’s Loop, Adrian the coyote set up shop inside the beverage cooler. From ABC7Chicago:
Of course, it’s a bit odd that a coyote would seek refuge in a Quiznos sandwich, but that’s what Adrian did, strolling east on Adams in the post-lunch crowd. He walked in the front door that had been propped open because of the warm weather. He settled into the beverage cooler after unsuccessfully trying to vault the counter.
“It did not growl. It did not make any sounds. It just tried to get in. Apparently it was scared and tried to shelter itself,” said Ray Zavalas, Quiznos employee.
For 40 minutes, he sat there quite passive — next to the Gatorade — a sort of odd celebrity, as dozens of passersby came to see the coyote who came to dinner and take pictures with their cell phones. Imagine what Mr. Coyote thought about all this attention.
Adrian the Quiznos coyote has since been captured and is scheduled for relocation to a refuge for displaced urban coyotes. Unfortunately for Adrian, there are no toasted subs available at his new home. —MEGHANN MARCO | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
An IDC Health Industry Insights Perspective
This IDC Health Insights Perspective highlights Accelrys Biological Registration, a new product solution that promises to more effectively register, track, and manage promising biologics, resulting in more efficient biological product development and more systematic intellectual property management and protection.
To request the IDC White Paper, please fill out the form below. Upon submission of the form, a link to the white paper will be sent to the e-mail address you provide below. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Ms Palaszczuk has proudly stated her government hired more than 16,000 public servants during its term - compared to the 14,000 axed by the Newman government.
But concerns have been raised the wages bill for the public service is set to balloon out of control, with pay rises locked in for a number of years and the public service overall growing beyond the rate of population growth.
The premier was in Townsville on Tuesday visiting a TAFE to announce an extra $155 million to extend the government's back to work program.
The unemployment rate in the region is 10 per cent, and Labor is keen to shore up the three marginal Labor seats in the area - Townsville, Mundingburra and Thuringowa.
The event was free of any anti-Adani coal mine protesters, after they shadowed Ms Palaszczuk's every move for the first two days of the campaign.
However, she said she wasn't avoiding the public, after going for a walk in Townsville on Monday afternoon, and then again on Tuesday morning.
Indian mining giant Adani has its Australian headquarters in Townsville, however Ms Palaszczuk did not do any media events with them while she was in town.
The premier will continue her week-long blitz of regional Queensland in Cairns. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Members of the sharp eyed unmannedspaceflight.com forum spied
recently downloaded images that show how close she is to reaching
Glenelg. Forum
moderator mhoward wrote, "Yes, I would say we're closer on
sol 52! Like, right on the boundary."
Glenelg is an interesting area that NASA
researchers had previously imaged from above using the HiRise and
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiters. It looks like three different kinds
of rock meet there.
Here's a close up of some of the interesting looking rocks near
her, taken by her right NavCam, with the foothills of Mount
Sharpe in the distance: These
are the rocks on the edge of Glenelg, Curiosity's first big
science stop.NASA/JPL-Caltech
Here's her view from the edge of the area from her left
MastCam:On Sol
52, Mars rover Curiosity reached the interesting site
Glenelg.NASA/JPL-Caltech/Michael
Howard
Here's the shot from her other eye:Here's
the second view of Glenelg, from Curiosity's other MastCam. There
are some neat looking rocks here!NASA/JPL-Caltech/Michael Howard
Here's how far she's come since leaving the area that she touched
down when reaching the Red Planet, Bradbury Landing. You can see
she's right on the edge of Glenelg:Over
the last 52 sols, Mars rover Curiosity has traveled over . Photo
from NASA, edited by Phil Stooke to show Curiosity's
tracks.NASA / JPL / UA / Phil
Stooke
And here's how weird the area looks from above:Taken
from above, researchers can see what they call a "triple
junction" of different rock types at the Glenelg site. Bradbury
Landing can be seen in the middle of the blue patch.NASA / JPL / UA / Emily
Lakdawalla
At Glenelg, Curiosity still start her real science mission, which
could take several weeks. Curiosity will probably drive around
the area a little bit more to investigate the area and pick the
right rocks to test. She will dig and drill and scoop the Martian
dirt and test its chemistry to find out if it could have
supported life.
Just yesterday the science team announced that some of the rocks
in several places in Gale Crater indicate that there was
definitely large amounts of liquid water in the area
possibly up to hip-height deep. But water is just one part of
what's needed to make a planet habitable. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Inch Loss
Beauty starts on the inside, anti aging skincare collagen, tanning capsules that tackle cellulite and our AWARD WINNING inch loss wrap kits are all here to help you on the journey to a more beautiful you. Today there are many tan tablets on the market, so how do you choose the best?
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At Natural beauty slimming, we make weight loss products that work, with all-natural ingredients, 5 star ratings and exceptional feedback. But we don't just sell products, we offer a service that you just won't find anywhere else! | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
w3db Review for Sequoiacap - sequoiacap.com
3.77Rating by w3db
sequoiacap.com was registered 2 decades 2 years ago. It has a alexa rank of #39,103 in the world. It is a domain having .com extension. This site has a Google PageRank of 6/10. It is estimated worth of $ 212,400.00 and have a daily income of around $ 295.00. As no active threats were reported recently, sequoiacap.com is SAFE to browse. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
"The team at the University of Nottingham find the annual PLECS Workshop very worthwhile and our researchers enjoy the valuable opportunity to learn from the application and software engineers as well as providing feedback for further development of PLECS."
— Dr. Pat Wheeler, Professor of Power Electronic Systems at the University of Nottingham | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Nice (securitizing) move!
Today THE representative of american intelligenzija Sarah Palin made some remarkable comments about Wikileaks spokesperson Julian Assange and the release of classified US documents.
„Assange is not a “journalist,” any more than the “editor” of al Qaeda’s new English-language magazine Inspire is a “journalist.” He is an anti-American operative with blood on his hands. His past posting of classified documents revealed the identity of more than 100 Afghan sources to the Taliban. Why was he not pursued with the same urgency we pursue al Qaeda and Taliban leaders?“
„Did we use all the cyber tools at our disposal to permanently dismantle Wikileaks?“
How do we understand these messages? What is the purpose of this kind of communication?
Within political science, especially in international relations exists a theoretical framework to understand those kind of speech acts. During the early 1990s a concept called „Securitization“ was developed mainly in Copenhagen by Barry Buzan and Ole Wæver which describes how actors try to influence the sphere of politics and – since politics is connected with the public sphere in democracy – public opinion. What is the deal? As Wæver summarizes it:
What then is security? With the help of language theory, we can regard ‘‘security’’ as a speech act. In this usage, security is not of interest as a sign that refers to something more real; the utterance itself is the act. By saying it, something is done (as in betting, giving a promise, naming a ship). By uttering ‘‘security’’ a state- representative moves a particular development into a specific area, and thereby claims a special right to use whatever means are necessary to block it.’’ (Wæver 1995: 55)
What Palin (and other actors) do here is to reshape the nature of the Wikileaks release. By posting it as an existential threat, namely uttered by the terms „blood on his hands“ and by claiming (without any proof by the way!), that 100 sources have been revealed to the Taliban, and are therefore in danger, she tries to legitimize extraordinary means to block the constructed threat.
What are those extraordinary means? First at all, she claims that Assange is not a human person, he is an anti-american operative. By comparing him to the editor of Al-Quaeda News source she indirectly calls him a terrorist (other Republican elites have done this before). By that Assange is no longer a legal person but a person outside the law. Non-legal-persons do not enjoy civil liberties and the rule of law, since they are enemies of the state. We all know what happens to happens to persons outside the law in prisons like Guantanamo. Furthermore she demands publicly a bounty hunt to catch Julian Assange. This is a classic example of constructing an enemy which serves the purpose of an in-group/out-group dynamic which unites a community. „We“ are good and the „other“ is bad and therefore must be destroyed. Second, she invokes the idea of using US military infrastructure to pursue DOS (denial of service) attacks towards the wikileaks website, which is illegal in the most western states.
What is at stake? We have seen that by constructing an existential threat she tries to legitimate unlawful means such as bounty hunt and illegal attacking of websites which stand directly against civil liberties and the rule of law in liberal societies. She sacrifices the rule of law for the sake of security. Furthermore she forgets that Wikileaks is not Julian Assange. It is a network (such as Al-Quaeda is) and will not be destroyed by hunting down the PR spokesperson.
We have to ask ourselves if it is necessary to start panic and trash all of „our freedoms“ and civil liberties because of the uncloaking of the already known by Wikileaks. The incompetence of German foreign minister Westerwelle is not a hidden fact, if one looks at public opinion polls in Germany and that Italian prime minister Berlusconi’s is addicted to „livin la vida loca“ is nothing new at all.
The harm that is done by the release of the diplomatic letters might be very limited but serious harm might be done if we follow those politicians with limited minds which try to undermine the rule of law by constructing panic and existential threats (which does not exist). The Former UK ambassador Murray made a reasonable point we should keep in mind:
The well paid securitocracy have been out in force in the media, attacking wikileaks and repeating their well worn mantras. These leaks will claim innocent lives, and will damage national security. They will encourage Islamic terrorism. Government secrecy is essential to keep us all safe. In fact, this action by Wikileaks is so cataclysmic, I shall be astonished if we are not all killed in our beds tonight. Except that we heard exactly the same things months ago when Wikileaks released the Iraq war documents and then the Afghan war documents, and nobody has been able to point to a concrete example of any of these bloodurdling consequences. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Home
N
ear Sturgeon Bay, WI on Highway 42/57 you will find the best mulch and stone at the best prices. Our Price, Selection and Quality are unmatched. Find us here on the web, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or even Google+.
You can also sign up for specials to be sent; via text or email to you. Look for our specials just for signing up! | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
News Detail
6
Aug, 2017
2018 PONY League Rule Changes
The 2017 season just ended, and Santa Monica PONY Baseball is busy getting ready for fall 2017 and spring 2018.
As our 2017 Fall Baseball Registration continues (HERE!), we wanted to inform you of some new developments.
The national PONY organization is implementing four new rules in 2018. Three of them directly affect us. [In case you're wondering, the fourth rule change relaxes the penalty for using a tee ball bat in a coach- or machine-pitch game, because yes, there was a coach somewhere in the USA who demanded the ejection of a 6 year old and his Manager for using a tee ball bat in a pitch game!]
Please take note of the following three new PONY rules:
Age Change: PONY has changed the date for determining league age from April 30 to August 31. Your child will now be placed in the Division as determined by his/her age on August 31. Little League, Inc., is following suit. The ultimate effect of this change is to make each Division younger.
Santa Monica PONY Baseball has implemented this rule beginning with our upcoming fall baseball season.
New Bat Standard: PONY, along with some other youth baseball organizations, has adopted the new USA Baseball bat standard. Effective January 1, 2018, all bats used in PONY play must satisfy this standard. The only bats currently in use that satisfy the new standard are -3 (BBCOR certified) bats. Bats with other drop weights (e.g., -5, -7, -8, -9, -10, -12) will be illegal and not permitted. Bats complying with the new USA Baseball standard are expected to go on sale after September 1, 2017. Read what PONY has to say here. The USA Baseball standard is discussed here. A bat seller has these thoughts to offer.
Santa Monica PONY Baseball will implement this rule on January 1, 2018.
As you make your purchasing decisions, note that USA Baseball and PONY's motivation for this rule change arises from the "goal of establishing a wood-like standard," because, of course, "a wood-like performance standard will best provide for the long-term integrity of the game."
You may discover, as some of our League members already have, that it is most economical simply to purchase and use wood bats in order to reach the stated goal.
Pitch Smart: PONY is adopting a program called Pitch Smart that is jointly presented by USA Baseball and Major League Baseball. Rather than protect pitchers' arms based on the number of innings pitched, this program implements pitch count limits and rest periods based on pitch numbers.
The danger, of course, is that players, parents, and coaches will treat these pitch count numbers as minimums rather than ceilings (and the rest periods as maximums, not minimums) and have a child with a non- or under-conditioned arm "use up" all his/her pitches based on a one-size-fits-all chart. We all need to learn and apply an understanding of each player's personal limit and a recognition of other stressors on an arm besides the number of pitches thrown.
Santa Monica PONY Baseball is well aware that many of our Players are not ready to pitch the number of pitches called for in these new rules. In our view, the bullet-pointed comments for each age group are at least as important as, if not more important than, the numbers in the chart. Also, these comments lump the age group 9-12 as one. Santa Monica PONY Baseball does not recognize such a grouping. For the 9-10 age group, we encourage our League to hew more closely to the comments for 8 & Under than to the comments for 9-12, particularly in light of the new age rule making each Division younger. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Beet and Carrot Soup
I sampled this dish earlier this year, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it. Whoever thought that beet and carrots would compliment each other is a genius!
Ingredients
1 bag of carrots
4 medium beets, peeled and diced
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups low sodium vegetable broth
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper sauce
salt and pepper, to taste
cilantro (optional garnish)
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Toss the carrots and beets with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Spread out onto a baking sheet, transfer to the oven and roast for 40-50 minutes, or until the veggies are tender when pierced with a fork.
3. Place the remaining tablespoon of olive oil into a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion to the pan and sauté for about 2-3 minutes, or until the onion begins to become soft. Add the garlic and sauté for one minute more, or until the garlic becomes fragrant.
4. Add the roasted beets, carrots and vegetable stock to the saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for about 20 minutes, or until lightly thickened. Stir in the vinegar and hot sauce. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
5. Transfer the beet stock mixture to a blender or blend in the pot using an immersion blender. Blend until very smooth, adding water to taste if you prefer a thinner soup. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
VRBO is part of the HomeAway family, the world leader in vacation rentals. We offer the largest selection of properties for any travel occasion and every budget. We’re committed to helping families and friends find a perfect vacation rental to create unforgettable travel experiences together.
Rustic Elegance Condo - Perfect Location, Best 1BR in Breck!
This is the absolute best location in Breckenridge! Our updated condo is in the iconic clock tower building nestled at the base of Peak 9. Staying in the Wetterhorn building you will be only steps away from the Quicksilver chair lift, while also being just one block from Main Street and all the fantastic dining, shopping, art, and entertainment that has made Breckenridge the ultimate mountain resort town. Once you stay at the Village, absolutely nothing else will compare!
We understand the importance of convenience, and our condo makes slopeside living simple! The Village has its very own renowned Ski and Ride School, as well as day care by Maggie Pond, making it easy to coordinate your family's adventures. In fact, taking the kids to ski school or day care can all be done barely even stepping outside into the elements. You can drop the kids off by going through our heated underground access to the Antero building, and then come back up to the condo for another cup of coffee before hitting the slopes yourself!
This is a huge one bedroom property, with two new queen size beds in the bedroom. The sleeper sofa in the living room adds additional sleeping space. However, the real beauty is the fact our mountainside condo has two full bathrooms and an additional vanity. Whether a young couple, a family of six, or a small group of friends, this condo will comfortably provide for your party as you prepare for your Breck adventures.
From the granite-topped kitchen to the travertine-tiled bathrooms, from the high-tech flat screen televsions, to the warm ambiance of the fireplace - you will feel at home and welcome. The rough hewn log finish and elegant artwork complete your perfect mountain experience. Our new, in-unit ski locker provides a place to store your gear and helps to keep the foyer clutter free. Our condo is all about making your trip fun and enjoyable!
Activities abound just outside your door, with a very short walk across our plaza to the Quicksilver 6 person chairlift on Peak 9. From here you can ride Peak 9 groomers all day or wind all the way across the resort to the New Peak 6! Shopping and dining surround you in the area, and you can walk or take the Free Ride shuttle to anywhere in town from this fabulous location. At the end of the day, cozy up by the fireplace to relax, or hit the heated pool, hot tubs, steam room or sauna to unwind.
Let our years of searching for the perfect ski-in/ski-out condo take the worry out of your vacation planning. You can rest assured and have great peace of mind that the Village of Breckenridge will provide a fantastic and memorable backdrop for your vacation.
Town of Breckenridge Sales Tax License 44505002
Keywords: ski-in, ski-out, slopeside, mountainside, luxury condominium
Rustic Elegance Condo - Perfect Location, Best 1BR in Breck!
This is the absolute best location in Breckenridge! Our updated condo is in the iconic clock tower building nestled at the base of Peak 9. Staying in the Wetterhorn building you will be only steps away from the Quicksilver chair lift, while also being just one block from Main Street and all the fantastic dining, shopping, art, and entertainment that has made Breckenridge the ultimate mountain resort town. Once you stay at the Village, absolutely nothing else will compare!
We understand the importance of convenience, and our condo makes slopeside living simple! The Village has its very own renowned Ski and Ride School, as well as day care by Maggie Pond, making it easy to coordinate your family's adventures. In fact, taking the kids to ski school or day care can all be done barely even stepping outside into the elements. You can drop the kids off by going through our heated underground access to the Antero building, and then come back up to the condo for another cup of coffee before hitting the slopes yourself!
This is a huge one bedroom property, with two new queen size beds in the bedroom. The sleeper sofa in the living room adds additional sleeping space. However, the real beauty is the fact our mountainside condo has two full bathrooms and an additional vanity. Whether a young couple, a family of six, or a small group of friends, this condo will comfortably provide for your party as you prepare for your Breck adventures.
From the granite-topped kitchen to the travertine-tiled bathrooms, from the high-tech flat screen televsions, to the warm ambiance of the fireplace - you will feel at home and welcome. The rough hewn log finish and elegant artwork complete your perfect mountain experience. Our new, in-unit ski locker provides a place to store your gear and helps to keep the foyer clutter free. Our condo is all about making your trip fun and enjoyable!
Activities abound just outside your door, with a very short walk across our plaza to the Quicksilver 6 person chairlift on Peak 9. From here you can ride Peak 9 groomers all day or wind all the way across the resort to the New Peak 6! Shopping and dining surround you in the area, and you can walk or take the Free Ride shuttle to anywhere in town from this fabulous location. At the end of the day, cozy up by the fireplace to relax, or hit the heated pool, hot tubs, steam room or sauna to unwind.
Let our years of searching for the perfect ski-in/ski-out condo take the worry out of your vacation planning. You can rest assured and have great peace of mind that the Village of Breckenridge will provide a fantastic and memorable backdrop for your vacation.
Town of Breckenridge Sales Tax License 44505002
Keywords: ski-in, ski-out, slopeside, mountainside, luxury condominium
Rustic Elegance Condo - Perfect Location, Best 1BR in Breck!
Rustic Elegance Condo - Perfect Location, Best 1BR in Breck!
This is the absolute best location in Breckenridge! Our updated condo is in the iconic clock tower building nestled at the base of Peak 9. Staying in the Wetterhorn building you will be only steps away from the Quicksilver chair lift, while also being just one block from Main Street and all the fantastic dining, shopping, art, and entertainment that has made Breckenridge the ultimate mountain resort town. Once you stay at the Village, absolutely nothing else will compare!
We understand the importance of convenience, and our condo makes slopeside living simple! The Village has its very own renowned Ski and Ride School, as well as day care by Maggie Pond, making it easy to coordinate your family's adventures. In fact, taking the kids to ski school or day care can all be done barely even stepping outside into the elements. You can drop the kids off by going through our heated underground access to the Antero building, and then come back up to the condo for another cup of coffee before hitting the slopes yourself!
This is a huge one bedroom property, with two new queen size beds in the bedroom. The sleeper sofa in the living room adds additional sleeping space. However, the real beauty is the fact our mountainside condo has two full bathrooms and an additional vanity. Whether a young couple, a family of six, or a small group of friends, this condo will comfortably provide for your party as you prepare for your Breck adventures.
From the granite-topped kitchen to the travertine-tiled bathrooms, from the high-tech flat screen televsions, to the warm ambiance of the fireplace - you will feel at home and welcome. The rough hewn log finish and elegant artwork complete your perfect mountain experience. Our new, in-unit ski locker provides a place to store your gear and helps to keep the foyer clutter free. Our condo is all about making your trip fun and enjoyable!
Activities abound just outside your door, with a very short walk across our plaza to the Quicksilver 6 person chairlift on Peak 9. From here you can ride Peak 9 groomers all day or wind all the way across the resort to the New Peak 6! Shopping and dining surround you in the area, and you can walk or take the Free Ride shuttle to anywhere in town from this fabulous location. At the end of the day, cozy up by the fireplace to relax, or hit the heated pool, hot tubs, steam room or sauna to unwind.
Let our years of searching for the perfect ski-in/ski-out condo take the worry out of your vacation planning. You can rest assured and have great peace of mind that the Village of Breckenridge will provide a fantastic and memorable backdrop for your vacation.
Town of Breckenridge Sales Tax License 44505002
Keywords: ski-in, ski-out, slopeside, mountainside, luxury condominium
Overview
Details
condo
950
sq. ft.
Sleeps
6
Bedrooms
1
Bathrooms
2
Half Baths
1
Minimum Stay
2 - 4 nights
About the property
Condo, 1 Bedroom + Convertible bed(s), 2.25 Baths, (Sleeps 4-6)
This is the absolute best location in Breckenridge! Our updated condo is in the iconic clock tower building nestled at the base of Peak 9. Staying in the Wetterhorn building you will be only steps away from the Quicksilver chair lift, while also being just one block from Main Street and all the fantastic dining, shopping, art, and entertainment that has made Breckenridge the ultimate mountain resort town. Once you stay at the Village, absolutely nothing else will compare!
We understand the importance of convenience, and our condo makes slopeside living simple! The Village has its very own renowned Ski and Ride School, as well as day care by Maggie Pond, making it easy to coordinate your family's adventures. In fact, taking the kids to ski school or day care can all be done barely even stepping outside into the elements. You can drop the kids off by going through our heated underground access to the Antero building, and then come back up to the condo for another cup of coffee before hitting the slopes yourself!
This is a huge one bedroom property, with two new queen size beds in the bedroom. The sleeper sofa in the living room adds additional sleeping space. However, the real beauty is the fact our mountainside condo has two full bathrooms and an additional vanity. Whether a young couple, a family of six, or a small group of friends, this condo will comfortably provide for your party as you prepare for your Breck adventures.
From the granite-topped kitchen to the travertine-tiled bathrooms, from the high-tech flat screen televsions, to the warm ambiance of the fireplace - you will feel at home and welcome. The rough hewn log finish and elegant artwork complete your perfect mountain experience. Our new, in-unit ski locker provides a place to store your gear and helps to keep the foyer clutter free. Our condo is all about making your trip fun and enjoyable!
Activities abound just outside your door, with a very short walk across our plaza to the Quicksilver 6 person chairlift on Peak 9. From here you can ride Peak 9 groomers all day or wind all the way across the resort to the New Peak 6! Shopping and dining surround you in the area, and you can walk or take the Free Ride shuttle to anywhere in town from this fabulous location. At the end of the day, cozy up by the fireplace to relax, or hit the heated pool, hot tubs, steam room or sauna to unwind.
Let our years of searching for the perfect ski-in/ski-out condo take the worry out of your vacation planning. You can rest assured and have great peace of mind that the Village of Breckenridge will provide a fantastic and memorable backdrop for your vacation.
About The Owner
We are Brian and Lori. We have vacationed in Colorado for many years, first as children, and now as parents. We understand the importance of family time together, and how the location of a property can simplify your vacation experience. We had dreamed for many years about having a place of our own in the mountains, but had not found the right location. When we discovered the Village at Breckenridge, we knew this was exactly what we were looking for. Let our years of searching make your vacation planning a little bit easier!
The Owner purchased this condo in 2012
Why The Owner chose Breckenridge
There is no comparison to this location in all of Breckenridge. True Ski-in/Ski-out convenience combined with easy walking distance proximity to downtown Breckenridge will have you coming back year after year. This is truly the best of everything Breck has to offer!
What makes this condo unique
The Village is an amazing complex that starts with the most important element of all - Location! It is unparalleled in all of Breckenridge, and the amenities are fantastic. You will have no lack of on-site activities to keep the family entertained. The Village boasts a heated indoor/outdoor pool, four outdoor hot tubs, professional Precor fitness equipment, sauna, and central gazebo firepit. Our condo has a wonderful rustic log cabin feel while featuring an updated kitchen and bathrooms with wi-fi, cable TV, and gas burning fireplace.
Guestbook comments from the owner
We had an awesome time here! Great family time with our brothers. Your place is great! We'll definitively be back! Thanks so much!
Convenient & spacious
Prime location within walking distance from Main Street. Large with all the basic kitchen needs. Beds were comfortable. Pull-out sofa not so much, but teen daughter didn't mind. Pool warm & nice hot tubs. We enjoyed this beautiful city & our accommodations
1st time family ski trip
Our family of 4 stayed at this condo for our family's first ski trip over spring break. We will be returning. This unit was perfect for what we needed. Location was great. Very well kept & maintained. The unit had all the creature comforts we needed. Six people can easily stay in this unit, parents in the bedroom, kids on the sofa bed. Pools and hot tubs are a requirement for us because we have kids that need a physical outlet. The facility had a very nice indoor/outdoor pool & 3 hot tubs! The unit is close to ski school & also the lifts. I would classify this as a ski in/ski out. Our ski rentals were within walking distance to the unit. There is covered parking below ground if you have a vehicle that is really nice. We walked across the street & into town for shopping & dinner.
Restless
Location was great!! Unfortunately the bedding was horrible. Every spring in the sofa bed is pushing through the mattress, both beds in the bedroom we equally as uncomfortable. Skinniest cheapest pillows you can get. Spare throw blankets were the same. After full days of skiing, a good nights sleep is a must and it was just not possible. Seems like a simple fix but its BADLY needed.
Submitted: Mar 2, 2017
Stayed: February 2017
Source: VRBO, from HomeAway
Owner's Response: Dear Scott,
I'm sorry to hear of the issues during your stay. It is honestly the first time we've had such complaints and we will work with our cleaning service to hopefully improve the bedding situation. Your feedback is valuable to us and we greatly appreciate your business!
Great stay in August
A few guys from my church and I went to Colorado this summer to watch our pastor compete in the Leadville 100 race. We stayed at this nice condo in Breckenridge. It was very clean, spacious, and conveniently located. We were able to walk to restaurants. The kitchen was full of plates, glasses, silverware, and other utensils. They even had a pack n play in the bedroom for guests with younger kids. We were very comfortable staying here and recommend it highly!
Great stay!
Four of us had a great time at Breck and the condo was wonderful. It had everything we needed. The size of it pleasantly surprised us. Lots of room, a separate room for my wife and I while kids had plenty of sleeping space.
The location was ideal for us. The ski rental place was right next to the building. Kids' ski school drop off was nearby and so it the lift. Overall, the easiest ski trip we've ever had logistically.
Extra large 1 bedroom condo with location, location ,location!
My husband and I have been renting this condo from Brian for the past 3 summers. We rent for the entire summer from May until Oct. and we keep coming back to his unit! It is a VERY large 1 bedroom with 2 1/2 baths, which is very unusual. Extra large floor plan, with the Master bedroom down the hall. Beautiful view over the top of the other buildings with beautiful sunsets! Owner is always available should any problems arise and very easy to to communicate with. We have stayed at other condos in the area in the past and this building is very quiet. We don't hear any street or bar noise at all! Everything you could possible need is just a few steps out the door! Free bus service picks up out front on a regular schedule to get you to the grocery store. The indoor/outdoor heated pool and hot tubs along with the workout room are amazing! Under ground garage parking is also available and his kitchen is equipped with everything that you could possible need. We highly
recommend this unit and owner! Hoping to come back from FL for a ski trip in the winter! Thank you Brian for making our stay like our home away from home! We look forward to returning every year!
Photos
Rates & Availability
Available
Unavailable
Taxes and fees are additional
Updated:
Mar 17, 2018
Additional information about rental rates
Cleaning Fee
$110
Parking in our indoor garage is available on a first-come, first served basis and may not be available at the time of booking. The nightly rate for parking on site is $29, which will need to be collected at the time of your booking. In the rare circumstance parking is not available on site, there is parking nearby at the ice rink. This is serviced by the Breck Free Ride shuttle service to make getting your car simple and easy.
All rates subject to change. Guarantee of reservation not secure until initial payment received.
Owner's Cancellation Policy
100% refund if canceled at least 60 days before arrival date.
Service Fee fully refunded on cancellations that qualify for 100% refund.
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Use of this website constitutes acceptance of the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy. "VRBO" and "Vacation Rentals by Owner" are registered trademarks of HomeAway.com, Inc. and cannot be used without permission. | {
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timberland boots for women Student Success StoryOn a
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Sarah in the Belt Making class
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Tutor Lesley is demonstrating one of the traditional leatherwork techniques: saddle stitch
So how does Sarah produce her bags? have struggled to find manufacturers in this country and when I started to look to find someone to sample my designs I thought it would be quicker and cheaper to buy the equipment and do it myself and that is how I started. I now make all my own samples and some stock but have a small producer I found by chance who does quantity for me. It combines clever design with luxurious leathers, making rucksacks desirable not just practical. I asked Sarah why she still came to the belt making course since she has alreadygot so many skills, she said: am now just gaining further knowledge on belts for my accessories section. I love P and will continue to use them for furthering gaps in my knowledge. when I am writing this blog entry, I received an email from Sarah telling me that her Ruxx bag was on Grazia Daily today. Well done Sarah! | {
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Empire Of The Sun Extravagantly Premiers ‘Ice On The Dune’ At Vivid [PHOTOS]
News
After a five year hiatus since the two-time platinum debut album Walking On A Dream, Australian electronic duo Empire of the Sun are hitting the scene again… hard. In preparation for their highly anticipated sophomore studio album Ice on the Dune, dropping June 14th. EOS’s single ‘Alive’ has been gaining hype fast, receiving remixes from the likes of Zedd and Matt Zo. The duo kept the training rolling last weekend by premiering the album in its entirety at Vivid Sydney, the largest music festival in the Southern Hemisphere. Check out these wildly colorful live shots from show. –> | {
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BEST JOB EVER: This airline wants to pay people to travel for free and put it all on Snapchat
WOW Air's "SnapTravelers" will visit four of its 28 destinations to create Snapchat stories around the world.TravnikovStudio/Shutterstock
WOW Air is looking to hire four people who will get to travel around the world for free and Snapchat their experiences this summer.
The Icelandic budget airline will pay for its selected "SnapTravelers" to visit four of its 28 destinations— which include Barcelona, Copenhagen, Warsaw, San Francisco, and more — over three months, from June to August.
"SnapTravelers" will also get a travel allowance to spend on their trips, each of which will last between three to eight days and include at least two Snapchat-worthy activities, according to the terms and conditions on WOW Air's website. Business Insider has contacted the airline to find out how much it will allocate to travellers' allowances.
"SnapTavelers will also gain social media exposure and hopefully some priceless memories," the announcement on WOW Air's website reads.
Snapchatters are encouraged to help plan their trips and suggest activities, though ultimately the airline will decide what they do.
Eligible applicants must be aged 18 or over, able to speak English well, and in good physical and mental health.
To apply, you'll need to create a two-minute Snapchat story, save the story to your phone, and submit it to the application page on WOW Air's website by May 8, along with your personal details, including your email address, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat handles.
WOW Air will announce the winning Snapchatters over its social media accounts on May 17. | {
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A Ukrainian schoolgirl is to be confronted on a deeply disturbing live primetime TV show this week with DNA evidence on whether she was made pregnant aged 11 by her stepfather or one of two brothers.
The child, Tanya Luchishin, has already faced a painful studio ordeal after she mistakenly claimed her 5-week old daughter Diana had been fathered by an 18-year-old neighbour called Andriy, who had sex with her when he was 17.
The excruciating television programme revealed a DNA test, which showed the baby was not his although he admitted to having slept with her, a crime that could see him jailed for between five and 10 years.
Under interrogation in front of a TV audience, a tearful and distressed Tanya, now 12, later indicated she had been also forced to have sex around the time she conceived with someone else, a member of her own family.
"I won't talk because this person is in this studio," Tanya, from Borislav in the Lviv region, said as she clutched her baby and walked past the three "suspects".
To expose the identity, the show - which appears at times like an inquisition - is now DNA testing her stepfather Ivan Eremin, in his 30s, her brother Volodya, 15, and her half-brother Viktor, 17, all of whom strenuously deny paternity.
Tanya will this week be confronted with the truth, which she has tried to hide because she is "afraid", on TV show It Concerns Everybody when the result of the DNA test is revealed, the MailOnline reported.
Quizzed on whether he is the father, which could lead to a long jail sentence, Eremin said: "No, absolutely not. I would not have come here if I had anything to do with the pregnancy of my stepdaughter."
She will now find out whether she was made pregnant by her stepfather Ivan Eremin (right), brother Volodya (left) or half-brother Viktor (centre). Photo / InterTV
He told the audience: "I am ready to undertake a DNA test and to prove that I am not the father of this child.
"I am afraid of nothing. I don't want to live when people are pointing their figures at me, at my wife. I never had any relations with Tanya, I could not even think about it."
Psychologists have expressed strong concern that the public ordeal is having on a "depressed" Tanya and critics say she should be seen as a child victim of multiple rapes, one of them evidently incestuous, and not forced to become the star of a show seen as a new low in reality television.
Vlada Berezyanskaya, a psychologist who examined Tanya for the programme, said: "This girl is simply afraid. She is depressed now."
The child "loved her daughter" and wanted to care for her, but was "scared of the speculation" about the identity of the father.
"Tanya is a child, she is guilty of nothing," she said, yet the psychologist did not seek to put a stop to the controversial show.
Tanya's 31-year-old mother Anna Luchishin - who has six children - has been blamed for putting her vulnerable daughter through the trial by TV amid suspicion she is getting paid for exposing her family's problems.
Volodya had his arm bandaged after a playground fight over the matter, said he had been mocked by his classmates over the TV programme. Photo / InterTV
She is now helping Tanya raise the child, Diana, born weighing 5lbs 5oz by Caesarean on September 17, but on screen was seen encouraging her daughter to answer intimate questions when the girl plainly did not want to.
"Please, tell them everything," said her mother.
Tanya whispered back: "I can't."
In one troubling sequence, tears rolled down her face and she could not answer as she was quizzed about having sex with the neighbour: "And he began, to do what?"
She was asked if she "liked" the neighbour who came to her house when no one else was home to demand sex with the 11-year-old.
She said strongly: "No."
The presenter went on: "So nobody was at home and he knew it, right?"
"Nobody," she said.
The presenter again asked: "What did he do?"
She could not answer. She was asked: "Did he beat you?"
"No, he did not beat," she responded.
An audience member asked: "Did he push you?"
She said no and added that she did not realise she could become a mother.
She sighed with extreme discomfort when she was asked: "Did he explain his actions in any way?"
Tanya was asked: "Maybe you cried for help?"
She replied: "No, [I was] silent."
Baby Diana was recently baptised in an Orthodox church when Ivan Eremin held the baby with his wife. Photo / InterTV
Under the questioning she said he had returned for sex two more times.
Although police are now taking an interest in the revelations, which include prima facie evidence of crime, they have not sought to halt the show to protect the underage girl, and this week will see the third episode of the saga, in which the family member who fathered the child is due to be named based on the DNA tests.
Presenter Andrey Danilevich, from Inter TV, claimed he was simply seeking to uncover the truth.
"The girl, who got pregnant at the age of 11, is in any case the victim of adult irresponsibility and manipulations," he said.
"Now almost all the men in Borislav town who visited the Luchishin family are under suspicion, including the girl's stepfather and brothers.
"We all know how cruel the people's tongues can be. It is important to find out who is the father of Tanya's child in order to stop the speculation."
Anna, Tanya's mother, told viewers her daughter had initially named who she believed to be the father.
"But our neighbour Andriy is not the father of my granddaughter Diana," she said. "I received a call from the laboratory in Lviv and they said it was not him.
"Andriy's father Oleg had paid for this DNA test in Lviv. I was shocked. I told Tanya about the test and asked her - so who was it then?
"And she told me there was one more person. I asked her to tell me the truth. It happened in February when I was in hospital with my newborn daughter Viktoria. I don't want to give the name. It is a person from our family. But it may not be him."
Tanya has also given the same name to police.
Tanya's 31-year-old mother Anna Luchishin - who has six children - has been blamed for putting her vulnerable daughter through the trial by TV. Photo / InterTV
Anna said: "I should not say this but I don't know now if I can trust my daughter. She says one thing, then another thing, as if she doesn't know herself.
"She pointed at Andriy before and I attacked him. I don't know what to do now. Maybe she is wrong again? Tanya is upset now, she does not want to say more."
Tanya said she did not realise she was pregnant until a doctor noticed when she accompanied her mother to a check-up for her baby sister.
"Tanya was sent to a scan and within a minute the doctor said: 'You're pregnant?'
"I screamed - 'how?' Tanya began to say: 'No, I can't be pregnant'. And the next moment doctor asked her: 'Who did you sleep with?' 'Tanya cried and said she never did it.
"When we left the scanner room, I began to cry, I felt so unwell. Tanya told me: 'Mama, it was Andriy, our neighbour'. From the hospital I went straight to the police."
Tanya said that throughout her pregnancy, she didn't have any symptoms.
She said: "I didn't know that I was pregnant. I did not feel the baby moving. I never felt sick, I had no pains. I was going to PE lessons at school. There were no pains.
"I felt contractions on 18 September, it was 35 weeks - so then my daughter was born."
Anna admitted: 'Now my husband Ivan and my son Volodya are under suspicion. I have spoken to Volodya. He said: ''Mum, don't mock me'. I spoke to my husband.
"He was really upset, and he told me he wanted to do a DNA test, because he could not live like this. He wants to prove to the whole of Ukraine that it was not him.
"When we came back home from the police that day, he got drunk. His mother called me in tears, saying everyone at her work blames him."
A body language specialist also pointed the finger at him.
And neighbour Alexandra Virt claimed: "All of us could see that Tanya was pregnant.
"We told her mother many times about it, I told her, other women told her. She did not take any action. I even told Ivan: 'Your Tanya is pregnant'.
"He said: 'What are you talking about? She had just had her period.' I remember I said to my husband then: 'How could the man know when Tanya had her period?''
Volodya Luchishin, Tanya's brother, his arm bandaged after a playground fight over the matter, said he had been mocked by his classmates over the TV programme.
He said: "When I came to school, other students said: 'Oh, you're a TV celebrity now, so you are the father?'. Or: 'Your stepfather is the father?' So I had to fight. She is my sister, how could I sleep with her? I know who is suspected but I don't want to talk about it."
Half-brother Viktor Dimiyon said: "I am not guilty and I don't know who is the father of her child."
Baby Diana was recently baptised in an Orthodox church. Ivan Eremin held the baby with his wife.
Reports say Tanya, from Borislav in Lviv region, "was allowed to wear lipstick" for the occasion.
She has proudly posted pictures of her baby on her social media, but has received some "dirty and negative comments" in response.
Children's Ombudsman Valeria Lutkovskaya accused the show of flouting Tanya's human rights and appealed to Ukraine's TV regulator to take legal measures against the channel.
Lviv regional police say a criminal investigation has been opened relating to underage sex.
Police say they have ordered separate DNA tests over the paternity and point out that the neighbour can face prosecution over his admission of sex with the girl when she was 11. | {
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LOS ANGELES—In the wake of the hit sitcom’s sudden cancellation, Roseanne showrunner Bruce Helford expressed disappointment Wednesday that no one would ever see the episode where the title character discovers the truth behind the Seth Rich homicide, cracking the case wide open. “It’s truly a shame that the public will not get to watch as Roseanne Conner finally connects the dots and realizes the murder of Seth Rich was in fact a politically motivated hit job masterminded by the Clintons,” said Helford, adding that he felt the two-part primetime special, in which guest stars Sean Hannity and Kim Dotcom help Roseanne prove that Rich’s cruel fate was sealed by the liberal establishment the moment he downloaded those DNC emails, was poised to win an Emmy. “The scene where Dan storms into Comet Ping Pong and catches John Podesta red-handed was such a nuanced, multidimensional interpretation of the issues that matter to middle America, and it saddens me that our audience won’t get the opportunity to experience it. It’s what the entire show had been building up to since the reboot’s first episode.” Helford went on to state that while the next season would have gotten a lot of laughs from serious subjects, it also would have made people really think about the way President Obama and George Soros staged Sandy Hook to justify a large-scale government seizure of Americans’ firearms. | {
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1:40 AM,
Sep. 27, 2013
Written by
| Advocate staff report
The Newark City School District released a statement Thursday saying the Newark Police Department was called to Liberty Middle School on Sept. 6 after several anonymous notes were discovered in the building.
A Liberty Middle School student found a sheet of paper with the words "hit list" on it and partial names. No full names were listed, according to the statement.
A Newark police report said the officer was in the building for about 30 minutes on Sept. 6 and described the incident as noncriminal. But a police report on the incident was not finished as of Thursday morning. Police provided it to ... | {
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Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Tricky Sevens
Ever notice that certain numbers figure in folktales? When you're telling a story to a little kid there's usually three things that happen, this forms a pattern. There's usually three wishes for example, or three lessons. It's standard practice to give three examples before using an "etcetera" i.e.; "you're fired because you are not a good fit for this company; i.e. your tardiness, poor communication skills, you botched the report, etc.". Threes are where we see a pattern set in motion or in evidence.
Sevens are also a sort of "magic" number. They show up in stories, religion and mythology, for instance there are seven vices and seven virtues. Before Disney homogenized and re-named the seven dwarfs they were, on an archetypal level, what the resourceful daughter (Snow White) had to recognize and transform in herself before going through a re-birth.
It is noted that the seven vices / virtues probably were of relevance in the early symbolism and development of tarot as a system. There's an interesting perspective on this at:http://www.levity.com/alchemy/mantegna.html
Seven shows up on slot machines and is often associated with luck or chance. In Tarot I find that sevens are the action we take that doesn't have a guaranteed result. We have to rely on our integrity and our sense of what we need to do regardless of outcome. It usually means that whatever we do, inevitably we will be having a learning experience and it will have consequences. the trick is to stay in the game, learn from and take our lumps and keep on keeping on. Sevens aren't safe or predictable. They can be a wrench in the works or the breakthrough that gives us an edge.
I find there is a clear relationship between the numeric value of the cards AND the positions of the Celtic Cross spread (which I have my own variation on and will post about...someday). I associate position seven with our immediate actions that will bring about a result from our environment (that result is position eight). Sevens help us to see our hidden motives and they are also where we will run into our blind spots.
Superficially sevens are about chance or randomness, but at the same time, how we interact with that chance or randomness. I don't think in terms of luck, rather if I seem to be getting difficult consequences, I have to back up and see where I am blocked or blocking my intent.
There is no real learning without this randomness. We would just be following procedure and getting a flat predictable response. There is little growth in that and life would be dull indeed. I remember one of the earliest computer games I ever played was a text adventure called Zork. I played it and played it for about three months and after awhile I thought I had the system licked. I'd found a bunch of the key items and weapons and new the sequence I had to do things in. What kept it challenging, frustrating and fun was a "random thief" that they'd written into the game's code that could show up out of the blue and rob me.
Sevens are like that. There is no clear "right choice". There is the action we have to take without guaranteed result. They also have to do with things we don't deserve, like getting mugged or being ripped off, or yelling Bingo. Again, we don't deserve, but can learn from these experiences.
Seven of cups for instance can mean a time of new associations and a mix of characters. For a person looking for a relationship it is tempting to ask "which is the right one?". But that kind of exclusive choice making is dangerous. It's better to treat it like a "come as you are" party where a number of different kinds of people are present, all potentially important in their own way. Let them co-exist, keep your options open and see what emerges. T the very least by being open you'll learn about some different aspects of yourself!
Seven of swords can be sabotage but it can also be where we shoot ourselves in the foot and have to step back from a greater battle where we would have gotten creamed. It can be a sign of double dealing or deceit and people (or sometimes ourselves) having questionable motives.
All of the sevens challenge me to look a little more deeply at what I am actually expecting and the integrity of how I have to behave anyway.
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Disclaimer
Psychic readings can be many things to many people, both in what clients seek and what different types of practitioners offer. We all have our own gifts and our own unique expression. I offer what I do as perception (which is admittedly fallible), as well as an art form. It is an entertainment that should be taken respectfully with a grain of salt.
Readings are NOT meant to in any way take the place of your own judgement. I do not offer or purport to be an authority on medical, legal, psychological or financial matters and concerns on those levels should be directed to appropriate resources. You are ultimately responsible for your life and decisions. You must be 18 years of age to have a reading. I reserve the right to refuse service if I feel this to be an unsafe or unsuitable resource.
As a form of art, my kind of reading should be something that speaks to you, providing relevant information that encourages and inspires. As a teller of stories, a sharer of experience and as a perceptive intuitive psychic, I hope I can be of service. I welcome every reading as a new experience and an opportunity to mutually learn and share. | {
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Moschino Handbags Hong Kong
Some of the best Moschino Handbags are Handbags and Pouches. Look out for other reputable brands like trendsgal, Tosca BLU and Marina Galanti if you think Moschino Handbags is not your cup of tea. Moschino Handbags are usually sold for HK$ 1,448.00 - HK$ 9,348.00 on iprice. You can either choose between a Pouches and Tote Bags. Moschino Handbags today are mostly sold in Yellow, White and Red depending on your preference.
The prices stated may have increased since the last update. Unfortunately it is not possible for us to update the prices on our website in real-time. Should a shop not offer prices in your local currency, we may calculate the displayed price on daily updated exchange rates.
Hey, we’d like to know what you think of us
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PURPLE BASS II – Kermode’s “New World” Release Party
Looking to throw down this weekend? The Waldorf is hosting some of Vancouver’s best local electronic talent in a stacked lineup on Friday night! Back by popular demand, Wetcoast is bringing you the second installment of their PURPLE BASS Series, featuring psychedelic bass music, purple decor and giveaways from Wetcoast Threads – Sustainable Clothing. Kermode headlines with his new album, “New World”, a glitchy masterpiece guaranteed to make you wanna move. I can also vouch for a seriously awesome crowd at this event!
Disclaimer
All content featured is for promotional purposes only, aimed to promote artists and labels by encouraging others to buy and support their music. If any of our content is yours or the property of those you represent and needs to be removed please get in touch.
This website is not affiliated, associated, authorized, endorsed by, or in any way officially connected with Ableton AG. The official Ableton website can be found at http://www.ableton.com. | {
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Combination drug treatment can cut malaria by 30 percent
Malaria infections among infants can be cut by up to 30 per cent when antimalarial drugs are given intermittently over a 12 month period, a three-year clinical trial in Papua New Guinea has shown.
The trial showed the drug regime was effective against both Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax malaria, the first time antimalarial drugs have been shown to prevent infections by both species of malaria. The treatment regime, called intermittent preventive treatment (IPT), protected the infants against malaria for at least six weeks after the end of treatment, showing that it had an ongoing protective effect and did not hinder the development of natural immunity.
The study was led by Professor Ivo Mueller from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute and Barcelona Centre for International Health Research (CRESIB) with Dr Patricia Rarau and Dr Nicolas Senn from the Papua New Guinea Institute of Medical Research (PNGIMR). Professor Peter Siba from PNGIMR, Associate Professor Louis Schofield from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Professor John Reeder and Dr James Beeson from the Burnet Institute and Professor Stephen Rogerson from the University of Melbourne also collaborated on the project.
Professor Mueller, from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute's Infection and Immunity division, said the findings could lead to trials of IPT in other regions, including South-East Asia and South America, where malaria, particularly P. vivax, is a major health problem. IPT has been used for number of years in sub-Saharan Africa, where more than 80 per cent of all deaths from malaria are in children under the age of five.
"Plasmodium vivax is the main cause of clinical malaria in infants outside of Africa," Professor Mueller said. "What this study has shown is that IPT can be useful in regions other than sub-Saharan Africa, that it can be an effective tool against P. vivax, and reaffirms that we need to effectively tailor preventive drugs to different malaria species in different regions."
IPT uses sporadic, short courses of combined antimalarial drugs to provide protection against malaria infection. "IPT is a cheap and easy way to decrease the burden of malaria in those most susceptible to clinical illness, such as young infants and pregnant women," Professor Mueller said.
As part of the clinical trial, infants aged three to 15 months were treated with a long-lasting antimalarial drug combination at three, six, nine and 12 months. Professor Mueller said the most effective drug combination in the trial was the long-lasting antimalarials sulfadoxine/pyrimethamine and amodiaquine (SP-AQ), which act against the two most lethal species of malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax. In the trial, SP-AQ treatment decreased infant infections by 35 per cent for Plasmodium falciparum and 23 per cent for Plasmodium vivax.
"These are quite remarkable figures," Professor Mueller said. "Different treatment strategies are required for different regions, depending on the dynamics of disease. The drug combination that was most effective in PNG was very different to the drugs you would use to treat malaria in Africa and also different to the drugs currently recommended for treating malaria in PNG."
Professor Peter Siba, director of PNGIMR, said a key factor in the effectiveness of the treatment was running it in parallel with existing vaccination and healthcare programs.
"In the trials, IPT was given at the same time as regular vaccinations and check-ups, using existing health care frameworks to deliver the treatment, so we saw a much higher adherence than with continuous treatment regimes. IPT is also preferable to long-term, continued use of antimalarial drugs, as it allows some natural immunity to develop while decreasing the number and severity of malaria infections," Professor Siba said.
-end-
This study was supported by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Best Science Podcasts 2019
AnthropomorphicDo animals grieve? Do they have language or consciousness? For a long time, scientists resisted the urge to look for human qualities in animals. This hour, TED speakers explore how that is changing. Guests include biological anthropologist Barbara King, dolphin researcher Denise Herzing, primatologist Frans de Waal, and ecologist Carl Safina.
#534 Bacteria are Coming for Your OJWhat makes breakfast, breakfast? Well, according to every movie and TV show we've ever seen, a big glass of orange juice is basically required. But our morning grapefruit might be in danger. Why? Citrus greening, a bacteria carried by a bug, has infected 90% of the citrus groves in Florida. It's coming for your OJ. We'll talk with University of Maryland plant virologist Anne Simon about ways to stop the citrus killer, and with science writer and journalist Maryn McKenna about why throwing antibiotics at the problem is probably not the solution. Related links: A Review of the Citrus Greening... | {
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The Overlook Chardonnay is our
flagship wine and this year we celebrate 25
years of unforgettable quality and taste.
Scroll to Explore
The Best of California. In Every Bottle.
The best grapes make the best wines. At Landmark®, that’s our philosophy and our guiding principle. By sourcing the finest grapes from California’s best vineyards, we’ve been able to create wines that garner high ratings among critics and wine lovers alike.
Visit Us in The Sonoma Valley
Surrounded by gorgeous vineyards in the heart of the Sonoma Valley, Landmark is the perfect place for everything from a wine tasting weekend to a romantic getaway, to an elegant wedding or private party. | {
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Games: NetHack and the Joy of Text
A long-lived game series is revived, joining other titles that eschew fancy graphics
Image: Stichting Mathematisch Centrum and M. Stephenson
Images: 3 Minute Games
The Pure Quill:NetHack [above] hides complexity behind simple text. That spirit can be found in new games too, such as
Lifeline.
For the truest of nerds, last December brought a wondrous gift. No, not Star Wars: The Force Awakens. In fact, this gift is just about the furthest you can get from that movie’s hyperrealistic computer-generated imagery and still have something that’s considered screen-based entertainment. I am referring to NetHack 3.6.0, the first significant update in the NetHack game series in over a decade.
NetHack is free to download and available on many platforms. The goal is to plumb the depths of a procedurally generated dungeon and recover the Amulet of Yendor. Notably, you, the dungeon, and all the creatures and objects within it are represented by simple ASCII characters such as “%,” “>,” and “G” (denoting food, a descending stairway, and a gnome, respectively. Some people have created tile-based graphical interfaces to make things a little more intuitive).
The first version of NetHack was released in 1987 as a heavily modified descendant of a 1984 game called Hack. Hack in turn was based on Rogue, created around 1980 for Unix computers and the simple, character-based terminals of the day. Rogue and NetHack inspired the designers of many later games, in particular demonstrating how procedural generation could greatly extend the enjoyment of a game.
By accreting ingenious and mischievous contributions from programmers over the years, NetHack maintained its popularity thanks to a richness and complexity that belied its simple presentation and hack-and-slash trappings. New versions were regularly released throughout the ’80s and ’90s. But eventually time seemed to have passed it by as even our phones became crowded with games sporting high-resolution color graphics. Now the series has been revived, officially incorporating many modifications created by die-hard enthusiasts. As a tribute to novelist, satirist, and noted NetHack fan Terry Pratchett, who passed away in 2015, the game has also been extensively seeded with quotes pulled from Pratchett’s Discworld book series.
But NetHack 3.6.0 is not the only recent game release to eschew modern 3-D or even 2-D graphics. Here are three other text-centered titles that prize thoughtfulness over pretty pixels.
A Dark Room
Available in both a free online version and as a US $0.99 iOS app, this game has players alternate between reading snippets of text and navigating around a landscape depicted with text symbols, NetHack-style. You are given virtually no information at the outset, learning who your character is and what your purpose is only through exploration. The game is surprisingly good at evoking a subtly disquieting atmosphere that compels the player’s attention. (A prequel called The Ensign, also available, delves more into the player character’s back story.)
Choice of Robots
Available in desktop and mobile versions for $4.99, this is not so much a game as an interactive novel, reminiscent of the old Choose Your Own Adventure books but definitely not written for children. You enter the story as a promising graduate student working on an advanced robot; initial choices center on what you value most in its design and how you are going to deal with your annoying Ph.D. supervisor. Soon, the stakes start rising as war looms. As with the best interactive fiction, Choice of Robots is very good about putting you on the horns of dilemmas, with downsides and upsides to every choice.
Optimized for use with the Apple Watch but playable with just an iPhone or iPad, this 99-cent game makes the unusual but effective choice of putting you at a considerable remove from the action. Your role is as an advisor for Taylor, an astronaut trainee who has crash-landed on an alien planet. Taylor’s only link to the outside world is through text messages, which he uses to describe what’s going on and ask questions about what he should do as he struggles to survive. Another unusual but effective game design choice is to have users play the game in real time, so once Taylor goes off to perform some action, he won’t message you again till he’s done, whether that takes seconds or hours, effectively building tension as you go about your real-life day, waiting for his signal. A sequel is now also available. | {
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just about recovered from Norwich!!!! At work at 6.30 this morning so i can leave early for the 200 mile round trip to Nottingham, i'll get home about 1am completely bolloxed, got to be at work at 8 the next day but this is going to be worth every min, I said i was going to stop doing this when I hit 50, four years later here I am doing the same things I did in my teens ....recovery time just takes longer now
WELL WELL WELL, what an incredible night that was, got home just gone 1am and made it into work this morning, I have no voice & i'm still buzzing, my only regret is that I live to far away from Rock City to make it a regular haunt & can see why it was chosen for #FT2000, that was special & the people there were great
just a massive thank you to Frank & the Sleeping Souls for giving us a night to remember, you have made an old mans body feel even older this morning but have bought joy to his heart & mind, how apt is losing days & Photosynthesis this morning, my Mrs swears they are songs about me but I guess many can identify with them & say that | {
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Though she says winter is the best time to be there, even in the heat of an Iowa summer, Mary Hillman, her chickens and her ducks enjoy doing their job on the 100-year-old farm, listening to NPR and classical music. She calls it the “home of the cultured chicks.”
Mary’s Farm and Garden began as a way for Mary Hillman to continue farming after her daughters left home for college.
Hillman started Mary’s Farm and Garden at 1132 X Ave. in Grand Junction after her daughters went to college. She wanted to keep farming but had no mouths to feed, so her produce and poultry farm took off as a business.
“I started farming — well, my whole life,” Hillman said. “As long as I can remember, I’ve been farming poultry.”
The youngest daughter of farmers with no sons, Hillman began working the henhouse at age 5, gathering eggs and preparing them for market.
Hillman now has more than 400 birds, from ducks to hens and pullets — hens too young to lay eggs regularly — and she cares for them all daily.
“You have an obligation as a farmer to take good care of your livestock,” she said. She gives her birds fresh food — she adds flaxseed to enhance the taste of the egg — and water at least twice a day, and her hens are always sitting on fresh straw. “They have a pretty darn good life,” she added.
Her 200 laying hens give her more than 700 eggs per week, selling nearly 60 dozen to various restaurants and markets. After approximately two years, hens stop producing eggs regularly. That’s when they’re sent to the butcher. Her pullets, which usually take six months to produce laying-hen-quality eggs, will replace them.
In her variety of chickens, the most common egg is tinted a light brown. Her favorites, though, are what she calls Easter egg chickens, which lay green, sometimes blue and occasionally pink eggs.
Hillman’s produce is sold on her Grand Junction farm. She tries to teach the importance of caring for animals, living a healthy lifestyle and cooking from scratch.
“Nothing is better than a home-cooked meal that you know you helped to raise,” she said.
As for her business goals? She’s ready to teach people how to cherish the soil and respect the environment. | {
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Heated Pools in Chittenden County Vermont > USA
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Saint Michael’s College , 84 College Parkway , Winooski , VT , USA (Postal Code: 05493). Swimmers like you reported 25 yards, 6 lanes, Indoors. Unfortunately we do not have the email address of this Swimming Pool, but we can give you the phone number.
266 College St. , Burlington , VT , USA (Postal Code: 05401). This great and large sports center lets professional swimmers like you enjoy 25 yards x 36 feet, 6 lanes, Indoors. Additionally, within these facilities you can try 20 yards x 20 feet, Indoors. Unfortunately we do not have the email address of this Swimming Pool, but we can give you the phone number. | {
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Live For a Child Initiative
live for a child initiative is a community based organisation that was found by a group of christian proffessionals who discerned a need for an organisation that can help proviode a holistic solution to the problems that affect orphans , vulnerable children together with children that have disabilities
ORGANISATIONAL BACKGROUND
LIVE FOR A CHILD INITIATIVE (LIFCHILD) is a community based organization registered in Uganda, working with the most marginalized, ostracized and vulnerable groups of children i.e. [orphans, the needy, children with disabilities and those infected and affected by HIV/AIDS.LIFCHILD came into existence as a result of various concerned professionals with big hearts for children discerning a need for a discreet organization that would help provide a holistic solution to the problems faced by children in various communities of Uganda
VISION
LIVE FOR A CHILD INITIATIVE’s vision is to provide material and educational support to orphans, the needy and the abandoned children, together with enhancing awareness of needs, limitations, potentials and rights of children with disabilities so as to improve or change the society’s attitude towards them
MISSION STATEMENT
LIVE FOR A CHILD INITIATIVE’s mission statement is equipping communities with educated and morally/spiritually upright children for a bright future
The organization “staffing” including community representatives and project communities are made-up a few paid workers and volunteers. Our desire is to serve our own neighbours, community, and country. We do not want to simply create a means of employment and a source of income for community staff as “development workers” . LIVE FOR A CHILD INITIATIVE staff and EXECUTIVE Members comprises of professionals from the Information technology, medical, academic , caring of children with special needs and, business fields. They too are partners with LIVE FOR A CHILD INITIATIVE, bringing their expertise in their relevant fields to the organisation. This ensures viability, sustainability, and a code of excellence
SITUATION ANALYSIS
Children are the most vulnerable group in our society. A significant number of them are conceived and given birth to under circumstances of defilement, rape, domestic violence, abject poverty and the stigma attached to HIV/AIDS.
Such circumstances present them [children] to their bearers who in most cases happen to be young teenagers with no parenting skills as heavy weights of parental burden and psychological stress owing to a fact that these children are taken to be living testimonies of defilement, incest & rape experiences and constant reminders of the faces of the attackers who in most cases happen to be HIV positive. Parents oppressed by these kinds of circumstances resort to providing food if there is any as they sole responsibility, neglecting the children’s social ,educational ,emotional and spiritual needs.
Our society today is full of young teenagers who are circumstantially introduces to the world of parenthood. This owes to a fact that many lack foundational and biblical counseling and guidance which would have helped incorporate them [children] into a God oriented belief system at an early stage of development to avoid satanic lures that may encounter them later in life. If guidance and support is not provided, teenagers are circumstantially forced to indulge in sexual activities which result into pregnancies hence giving birth to children who are prone and vulnerable to the same circumstances as there were conceived in, thus creating a continuous cycle of vulnerable and needy children generations.
Children orphaned by HIV/AIDS and those considered to be products of socially immorality hence abandonment often lack people who care enough to provide basic needs and adult guidance, as most guardians to whom these children are left happen to be old people who are illiterate to value their grand children’s education needs and could not assist them even if they wanted to. They are also impoverished and physically weak to engage in serious agriculture activities.
This leaves these vulnerable children at a risk of poorer health and nutritional status together with low enrollment in schools than other children. Children too posses a collective conscience which drives them into welcoming and believing to be true any behavior portrayed by the people they live near and associate with. It’s heart breaking to know that if children are to imitate what they see their fathers do, they [children] too would become adulterers, alcoholics, hot-tempered and thieves as most fathers are. Imitating their mothers would lead to them becoming prostitutes or child abuser which is very rampant in child to aunt or child to step mother relationships.
All LIFCHILD programs and services are geared towards providing a holistic solution to the problems that affect children and factors that work in correlation with the social and economic status of parents to affect children.
ACTIVITIES AND SERVICES OFFERED TOGETHER WITH THE NUMBER OF BENEFICIARIES
PROGRAM
NO OF BENEFICIARIES (ages 3-17 years )
OVC sponsorship
343
Scholastic Material support
968
Clothing support
456
Care for children with disabilities
240
Counseling & guidance
600 plus
Evangelism [ outreach]
2400
Shelter project
9 house holds
SPONSORSHIP AND MATERIAL SUPPORT
This program focuses on provision of solutions to the educational needs of orphans, needy and vulnerable children. It involves availing OVC’S with scholastic materials i.e. mathematical sets, pens, pencils, bags, books and uniforms together with providing sponsorship in form of school fees to the orphans and vulnerable children. Under this program LIFCHILD carries out background research and check up on every identified orphan or vulnerable child to avoid impersonation and double sponsorship which would duplicate the program, leaving out the main targeted beneficiaries. There is also provision of house utensils for orphan headed families and clothing for orphans, needy and vulnerable children to improve on their livelihoods
SHELTER PROJECT
This program focuses on improving the living standards of orphans and vulnerable children. it involves construction of shelters for OVCs with dilapidated household structures and targets widows and the elderly that cater for orphans and vulnerable children in remote areas. Research is always first carried out in collaboration with the local council authority to prove the ownership of the piece of plot on which we intend to raise the structure. On proving the authenticity of the claimed ownership ( LIFCHILD ) signs a memorandum of understanding between it’s self and head of the benefiting household. A two roomed structure together with a latrine and a simple cooking shelter are put in place
EMPOWERMENT OF CWD’s
This component aims at enhancing awareness of the needs, limitations, potentials and rights of children with disabilities [CWD’s] so as to improve and /or change society’s attitude towards them. Interventions under this program involve economic empowerment of families with children who are disabled, sensitization of community members on issues concerning CWD’s, provision of aid equipments i.e. wheel chairs, hearing aids and other prosthetic appliances, together with deaf awareness campaigns and training of sign language interpretation to parents with deaf children and other community members. LIFCHILD involves CWD’s in it’s child sponsorship, scholastic material support and respite services offered to other children with no discrimination.
EMPOWERMENT OF CLWHA
Keeping in mind that children living with HIV/AIDS [CLWHA] often have poorer health and nutritional status than other children, and that children with HIV/AIDS are more at risk of respiratory illness and malnutrition which often persist lading to absenteeism and low enrollment in schools. This program focuses on provision of nutritional support, psycho-social support, counseling & guidance together with providing ARV’s which is done in collaboration with other partner organizations and the government
CONSTRUCTION OF SCHOOLS
This program is still in its early stages due to lack of substantial funds. The schools are meant to provide free quality education to orphans and vulnerable children in our society irrespective of their physical or religious status. Under this program it’s anticipated that LIVE FOR A CHILD INITIATIVE will lobby and solicit for funds to facilitate teachers and administrative costs of each school. This will ease on the load of individual sponsorship in that large number of orphans and vulnerable children will benefit at a low cost of only meeting meals and administrative costs. this is intended to solve the problem of low enrollment due to lack of sponsorship and low motivation among teachers due to lack of payment. We believe that in an environment where school structures are present, administration costs met, teachers motivated and paid in time, children will be able to acquire quality education for the betterment of their future
INCOME GENERATING ACTIVITIES
This program focuses on economic empowerment of community members mainly the widows and the elderly through income generation (IGA). Economic empowerment is the last element of our work because IGA projects stand such a high probability of complication, disappointment and failure. IGA programs often fail because an IGA opportunity’s profitability or demand was exaggerated, the priorities of the family or individual were not in line with efforts or commitments of the specific IGA opportunity, while it also possible the income generated from the project is consumed to quickly and not reinvested, saved, and used to maintain the business in the long-run. Despite these challenges LIVE FOR A CHILD INITIATIVE as a well integrated local NGO and as a NGO working very closely with it targets is in a prime position to identify families and individuals that show high potential for successfully implementing IGA opportunities.
EVANGELISM AND COUNSELING
This program focuses on promotion of spiritual and moral standards of children in our society. Activities involved are carried out in collaboration with Christian children counselors and Sunday school teachers who help provide selective evangelism to the various groups of children together with providing constructive counseling and guidance on how to leave a violence free Christian life. Interventions involve carrying out fellowships in churches & schools, outreaches in other child institutions and holiday evangelical seminars
PROVISION OF MEDICAL SERVICES
This program goes hand in hand with our evangelism and counseling ministry outreach. it involves providing medical services .i.e. immunizations, dentistry, de-worming, nutritional supplements, eye and skin check ups to children and the community at large. this is always done in partnership with medical volunteers
SOURCES OF FUNDING
LIVE FOR A CHILD INITIATIVE funding so far as been coming from well wishers, personal contribution from members from the board, compassionate individual partner’s contributions and profits from the various commercial ventures i.e. piggery, poultry and crop farming. We are also currently lobbying for support from various organizations to further promote our enterprising for non-profit programs
LIVE FOR A CHILD INITIATIVE STAFF
The number of individual staff who over see children’s programs (ages 3-17 years) annually full time more than 35 hours per week is (6)
The number of individual staff (excluding volunteers) who work directly with children programs (ages 3-17 years) part time are (12)
The number of volunteers that work directly with children and are involved in other programs and activities of LIVE FOR A CHILD INITIATIVE is (25)
The number of facilities/program locations where we offer our children’s programs is (7) | {
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Thank You!
Kent RO
One of India's first RO Water Purifier manufacturers, Kent RO owns a fair share of the water purifier
market in India. Being a health care company, Kent RO is quite active on social media and constantly
educates the consumers about the importance of water and its conservation. Kent wanted us to create a
campaign which resonates across the nation and increases user interaction for the brand massively.
Idea & Execution
Monsoon is a time when people extensively express their emotions on social media and the networking
platforms somehow transform into nostalgic confession junctions. To cater the requisite, Sirez initiated ‘#
MyLiquidStory’ for Kent on Twitter. The contest, as expected, created a buzz and celebrated the ‘Top
trending #tag’ in India.
Result
The story reached to more than 9000 Twitteraties. As the story went on to become the talk of the town, it
deployed more than 2200 tweets with more than 18000 impressions, subsequently increasing the twitter
followers for Kent by a decent number. | {
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