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In 1967, I was shipped from Miramar Naval Air Station, in San Diego, California, to a small utility squadron based at Naha, Okinawa, then an American-run island with a Japanese culture that had been captured in bloody fighting during World War II. Okinawa had "good liberty," I was told by the old chief who processed my orders, by which he meant that it was a fine place for drinking and whoring, and better than months at sea launching bombing raids against Hanoi. Okinawa sounded all right to a teenage Navy aviation electronics technician enduring the final throes of an adolescence increasingly distorted by the distant thunder in Vietnam.
Not distant enough, at times. Following an auto accident, I had just spent three months in a Navy hospital ward with a broken jaw, lying next to a skinny, red-headed Marine whose lower jaw had been blown clean off by a Viet Cong bullet. Where his mouth should have been a clear plastic tube disappeared into bandages. A Navy cook whose gunboat was blown up beneath him was suffering through skin grafts to replace what had been burned away from his face. Guys sat on the porches of their wards with white-taped stubs for limbs, forever mutilated, nearly all of them under 20. My broken jaw didn't seem so bad in comparison. But a few months hidden away in the Oakland hills with warehouses of blown-to-hell kids changed my ideas about the projecting of U.S. military force, 25 years before the truth of the matter would occur to then Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara.
The next 18 months on Okinawa were a dark period of drinking to forget, of not caring whether I learned anything much about Japan, ending with a taste of bitterness as Americans were shipped back from Asia, confused like I was about the meaning of the war and not exactly welcomed home. My memories, therefore, are like puzzling shards of ancient pottery.
I recall, for example, a night of drinking in the "Ville," a bar district outside the air base at Naha, stumbling down an alley around midnight with a girl whose name I have long since forgotten, when she told me in broken English that it was New Year's and we ought to go to the shrine. I followed along and we joined in with thin streams of pilgrims that gradually thickened into thousands flowing up a hill above the South China Sea to the Naminoue Shrine atop a great jutting slab of rock. We slowly made our way upward with the oozing river of nighttime humanity to the front of the shrine, where amidst scented clouds of incense we threw money into a rectangular box overseen by several robed Shinto priests. She clasped her hands in a brief prayer. I had no idea what any of it signified, but she seemed to feel better for it. I did not even know, and perhaps neither did she, that Shinto had been imported into Okinawa by the Japanese and played no role in the indigenous Okinawan religion.
I remember piling into small taxis with my buddies Hickory and Oakes, going on liberty, racing down dusty oiled roads in the descending twilight to the glittering neighborhood that was our goal. The taxi would stop, the doors would swing open, and we would enter the warm night air where girls in sexy dresses stood in the neon glow at the entrances of clubs, enticing us, "Hey, GI, buy me a drink!" It was a rare evening that we managed to walk past more than two or three doorways.
Back home we weren't old enough to drink, but on Okinawa we could do whatever we wanted when we had money. Of course, we quickly learned that when we ran out of money, we lost our charm, so we played the game of trying to give up slowly what the bargirls wanted quickly. We would try to make drinks last through the evening, but it was difficult, and generally a paycheck didn't last more than two or three nights. Then it was the barracks for the remainder of the two weeks.
We would usually begin an evening at our squadron's hangout, the King Bar, where the girls knew us well and had little interest in us: we were E4 and below, and therefore not exactly rich. We would have a couple of serious drinks there, maybe whiskey, and set off on an adventure, bar-hopping our way around the Ville. Some nights we would stop at Jack's, an approved "A-sign" restaurant, for a steak and a beer. Then it was off to more exotic attractions. There was a bar, I recall, that featured a beautiful girl who danced naked with a huge python wrapped around her.
I remember one night when some army guy belted me in the mouth after I said something, and I was so drunk I chased him out onto the street and flailed away at him as he punched me several more times. The next morning I found that my lip was split down the center and it took quite a few stitches to close it up.
Another night some black dudes came into the Ville instead of going to the Bush, "their" bar district in Koza, and beat up a white guy. There were rumors of race wars, and a guy from a P 3 squadron showed me a flare pistol concealed under his Hawaiian shirt. Fortunately, nothing ever came of it.
I met a girl from Waseda University, in Tokyo, who was walking around "observing" the
GIs. We danced a bit and talked. We wrote to each other after I was transferred, and we even met
in San Francisco after I got out of the Navy in the late 1960s. She liked to read Jean Paul Sartre
and Herman Hesse and Yukio Mishima. One afternoon she and I came upon a march, Okinawans
demanding that their island be given back to Japan, so we joined in. I was all for getting U.S.
troopsincluding myselfback home, and it was a time to demonstrate your feelings openly.
But mostly we Americans just did our jobs, kept airplanes flying with radios that worked, and when we were off work we drank and bought sex from girls in short-time hotels behind the Ville near the beach. I didn't know anything then about yakuza gangsters who recruited the girls from families that were in their debt. It was just a wild place too far from home. What seemed at first like a paradise for young men quickly became a bore and then a jail for too many of us working to support a war that few of us thought was a good idea any more.
One afternoon Hickory, Oakes and I went to the place we called the Seawall, below Naminoue Shrine. It was a natural cove with several rickety wooden bridges reaching out over clear water to small shacks on pilings where you could buy beer and snacks. We sat at tables in the sun and kept the jukebox blaring. We were rockers who preferred Jimi Hendrix or the Beatles, as opposed to rednecks who favored Merle Haggard or Buck Owens. We were friends with a lot of rednecks. It was just a distinction that was observed during those war-polarized years.
Painted rowboats plied the water, children swam and laughed as their parents watched them from the platforms above. We drank tall, icy bottles of beer and talked about getting out of the Navy. From up the coast from Kadena, two sets of huge, dark aircraft, swept-wing B-52s, climbed at a sharp angle into the sky, on their way to lay waste to Southeast Asia. People glanced at us strangely. We were resented as intruders. We could feel it.
"War birds," Hickory called the planes. He was a tough, smart kid with a fondness for
difficult novels. Later that night, we sat in the tropical evening outside our barracks on a soft
grassy knoll, below a rusting Japanese gun emplacement left from the Battle of Okinawa. Hickory,
leaning against a palm tree, broke down and began sobbing that "It wasn't supposed to be like
this." Being betrayed is something you never forget. Our officers had told us that we were
"protecting America," but it was on Okinawa that I realized weall of the young, naive guys in the
service thenhad been sold out for greed, careers, ego, stupidity, whatever. Every few months I would get a letter from home telling me that another friend had been killed. It was then, on Okinawa, that I figured out that while governments might be composed of brilliant people, they didn't always perform intelligently.
Revisiting the Past
On September 4, 1995, three American GIs, not so dissimilar from myself thirty years ago, rented a car and prowled the backroads of Okinawa. Drinking heavily, they stopped at Kadena Air Base for more beer, condoms, and duct tape. They taunted each other about "the worst thing you ever did." They were Marine privates first class Kendrick Ledet and Rodrico Harp, both of Georgia, and Navy seaman Marcus Gill of Texas. After they abducted and raped a 12-year-old schoolgirl and were apprehended by military authorities, their pictures were splashed across the pages of Japanese mass-circulation newspapers with a glaring headline that translated roughly as "Devil Soldiers!" Their deeds would trigger a crisis in U.S.-Japan relations that continues today.
Although the commander of U.S. forces in Japan and the U.S. ambassador both
apologized for the rape, by September 26 about 3,000 Okinawans took to the streets calling for the
removal of U.S. bases from the island. On September 29, Gill, Harp, and Ledet were charged and
turned over to Japanese authorities, but on October 21, about 85,000 Okinawans poured into the
streets around the bases in the largest anti-military protest in the island's history. Then, incredibly,
on November 17, the commander of U.S. military operations in the Pacific, Admiral Richard C.
Macke, publicly commented that the three GIs were just stupid because for the price of their rental
car, they "could have had a girl," outraging even mainland Japanese officials. Macke was forced
into early retirement for his undiplomaticeven if trueremark, which illustrated how the U.S. military continues to view Okinawa and the Pacific region through neocolonial glasses.
Two years later I landed at the same airport on the outskirts of Naha where I had been stationed 30 years before, where C-130 cargo aircraft had taken off every day for Vietnam and returned the next day, empty and ready for the next load, and from which P-3 antisubmarine prop jets had patrolled the waters off China and the Soviet Union. But there was no Soviet Union now. As we shuddered down toward the runway in the Japan Airlines jetliner, I could see the blue-green Okinawan sea where I used to snorkel along the shallow coral reefs just offshore. We touched down and taxied past the military hangars, where I used to fix electronics gear in aircraft. There were still P-3s there, new models, marked with the red circle of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force.
Naha Air Base was returned to the Japanese in 1972, when the Ryukyu Islands reverted to
Japanese rule. By that time, I was studying journalism on the GI Bill in Eugene, Oregon, and
Okinawa had become a modest world news story. The United States kept the enormous Kadena
Air Base and numerous other installations up north40 of them, including facilities for nuclear submarines and a live artillery firing range. They cover about 20 percent of the island, much of the best land. And the odd thing is that of all the American military facilities in Japan, about 75 percent of them are on tiny Okinawa, less than one percent of the Japanese land mass. There are more than 50,000 U.S. personnel on the island today, and the 1995 rape of the schoolgirl was not the first serious crime committed by Americans. There has been a string of incidents. In 1955, an American military officer raped and killed a six-year-old girl; in 1959, a jet fighter crashed into an elementary school killing 17 children and injuring 121 others; in 1963, a high-school girl was killed by a U.S. military truck; in 1965, a fifth-grade schoolgirl playing in her garden was killed by a U.S. military trailer dropped from a helicopter; in 1968, a B-52 heading for Vietnam crashed just after takeoff, creating an anti-U.S.-military movement on the island; in 1970, a car driven by an American civilian struck an Okinawan pedestrian and military police fired shots to intimidate the crowd that gathered, setting off riots in which 73 vehicles were set afire. In the past twenty-five years since Okinawa's reversion to Japan, there have been 127 aircraft accidents, 137 brush fires caused by military exercises, and 12 cases of Okinawans killed by American personnel.
I arrived back in Naha in October, 1997, to interview Okinawa's controversial Governor
Masahide Ota. Two well-groomed young men in dark suits from the governor's office met me. I
asked to go first to Naha Airbase, where I had been stationed all those years before. Lieutenant
Colonel Tateki Shinjo of the Japanese air force met me at the gate and we drove up a hill from
where we could see the whole baseairstrip, hangars, buildings. We stood atop the old World War II-era gun emplacement, its barrel bent and rusty. Many of the sturdy cinder-block facilities from the U.S. days were still in use. I thought I recognized my old squadron area, but I wasn't quite sure. Only the hangars and flight line looked exactly as I remembered them. It seemed to me that we were standing directly behind where the old barracks once were: the pattern of the hills seemed the same, and the distance to the flight line and the placement of the golf links, which were now an obstacle course for Japanese servicemen. It seemed strange to me somehow that this should be a Japanese facility again, as it had been before the war.
My two guides were not allowed onto the base, perhaps because the troublesome prefectural government was not popular with the national government, one of them suggested to me with a grin. He asked where else I would like to go, and I told him to Naminoue Shrine, on the hill at the edge of the sea.
As we drove down from the base toward Naha, it was quickly apparent that the changes in 30 years had been immense. I recognized only the contours of the land, the hills, the port before entering the city. The roads were now wide boulevards bordered by modern buildings. Naha no longer resembled Mexico, as I recalled it, but was indistinguishable from modern Tokyo. The squat, cinderblock typhoon-proof houses had been replaced by multi-story business structures, neon signs worthy of the Ginza, restaurants, retail stores, crosswalks, traffic signals, and well dressed pedestrians. Naha seemed like simply another part of contemporary Japan. We skirted the seashore and pulled up alongside a hilly park-like area. "Here's the shrine," Iida, one of my guides, said, gesturing out the window.
I was lost.
We walked up a wide concrete roadway toward a small vermillion shrine that seemed smaller than I remembered it, not to mention that it was now imbedded in a dense urban area instead of perched on a great rock. But there it was, smoke rising from burning incense and the coin box in front, a few tourists milling around the grounds taking snapshots of their families in front of the Meiji-era structure. I wandered back down, to the side where I could look out over the sea. The Seawall, with its little piers that used to snake out over the cove, was gone, replaced by a bypass highway that carried traffic swiftly around the city. There was a white sand beach, however. Iida said the beach was artificial, and had been built about 20 years ago when the bypass was constructed. It was enormously popular in the summer, he said.
That night I called Toshio Hayashi, whose name I had gotten from an Okinawan journalist. Hayashi owns a small bar in Naha and also teaches college-level French and Latin on the U.S. airbase at Kadena. When I arrived at the Paradis du Lucia, located in a bustling modern entertainment district, I was greeted by a man with a wide, smiling face and a ponytail that hung nearly to his waist. He was dressed in a pastel tunic with an ornate rhinestone brooch pinned to it. Toshi, as he asked me to call him, is an unusual man with a classically trained tenor voice. His singing with karaoke accompaniment attracts a great many fans to his bar, including at least one black woman from a U.S. base who says that "Toshi's got soul." As I listened to him croon a popular Mariah Carey song, I saw her point.
Toshi took me for a stroll several blocks toward the beach, where the Ville used to be
located. It had almost disappeared except for Jack's steakhouse, which still displayed its "A-sign,"
the official mark of U.S. government approval. I found only one old bar, dilapidated and
obviously not used for many years. We walked toward the beach where the short-time hotels had
been, and found instead their modern versions"soapland" houses of prostitution, each one with a yakuza lounging in a chair or walking about in front. Business didn't seem to be very good. "It's still early," Toshi explained. I was gratified that the bar district was gone, but felt strangely nostalgic for my misspent youth. As we walked back to Toshi's bar, he told me that he had had a friend, a woman of about 50, who had recently died, but who had been a bargirl in the Ville back then. She was quite a character, he said, adding that I had probably met her.
Toshi had hired a young GI from Kadena, also named Mike, as a bartender. He was a kid in his early 20s from Chicago, a Bulls fan, and into the stock market. I asked Mike about the American bases and how the Okinawans felt about them. "We're here to protect them," he said genially, looking trim in an open-collar shirt, slacks, and a neat mustache. "And to protect America."
I had heard this before. "From whom?"
Mike hesitated for a moment to think. "Well, from China," he said.
"Are 20,000 Marines really going to stop the People's Liberation Army?" I asked.
He thought some more.
"Or North Korea," I offered. "What if there's trouble up there?"
Mike broke into a grin. "Hey, I just do what they tell me, man. I don't know why we're here. I'm just repeating what the officers say, that's all." It was the same line "the officers" had given us 30 years before, but they were referring to Vietnam at that time. And of course we had believed them too, at first.
Toshi was getting interested in the conversation now, from an Okinawan perspective. "Those bases aren't protecting anyone any more," he said as he moved behind the bar. "The Cold War is over. We all know that. We want the bases off Okinawa. They're just taking up all our best land." He paused. His thick brows knitted. "On the other hand, I make several thousand dollars a month teaching on the base. I need the money."
This is the dilemma that the whole island faces.
There really is no further rationale for maintaining the bases, not for Okinawa, not for the U.S., not even for the peace of the region, which could be secured just as well by Marines stationed in California. The bases are here because they have been for 50 years and continue to provide comfortable overseas facilities and command opportunities for senior officers. Okinawa is still "good liberty." Military bureaucrats are loathe to give up what is theirs, even if the training facilities are now too small on a too-crowded island, where occasional artillery shells are lobbed into backyards and sometimes airplanes fall from the sky.
The bottom line for Okinawans is that no matter how much they wish the bases would just go away and leave them in their gorgeous semi-tropical island, their average income is the lowest of any Japanese prefecture and unemployment is nearly double the national norm.
Okinawa still needs the American and Japanese money that the bases bring in, which in 1994 amounted to around 162.8 billion yen ($1.6 billion at the then prevailing exchange rate) according to Okinawan government reckoning. More than 8,000 Okinawans work on the U.S. bases, and many thousands more are employed in the entertainment and service industries around those installations.
Money and Politics
The economic issue stood out in sharp relief last December 21 in Nago, where a non binding referendum was held to determine whether the local residents supported the building of an offshore heliport so that the Marine Corps helicopter base at Futenma, in Ginowan, could be moved from its urban setting to the less-populated, safer location. One problem with this, of course, is that the base would not be removed from Okinawa, as promised by the Japanese and U.S. governments, but merely placed in a more remote location on the island. But the pattern for the past 50 years has been for the civilian population to build up around the bases, so that with the passage of time military installations are always located in dangerous places, surrounded by schools, hospitals, and residential areas, and ripe for disaster.
Leading up to the Nago referendum, therefore, a battle raged between the citizens who
were in favor of the base and those who were not. It was opposed not only because of the usual
problems of drinking, brothels and violence associated with bar districts and military bases, but
also because the location proposeda beautiful coastal area just off a run-down section of Nago
called Henokois home to rare marine life. Henoko is adjacent to a Marine Corps ammunition depot that was scaled back after the Vietnam War, and so it leaves the impression of a ghost-town with its dismal blocks of abandoned bars, shuttered and broken windows, and the occasional mangy dog darting up an empty street. Henoko needs an economic infusion as badly as any place in Japan.
Still, a newspaper poll two weeks before the voting showed the heliport was losing. Japan's leading political party, the LDP, pulled out all the stops, canvassing the area and promising residents that their economic interests would be served by the base, that its dangers and problems would be few, and claiming that it was needed for the defense of Japan by American forces. Chikako Yoshida, an Okinawan activist who has a masters degree from Arizona State University, and who drove me around the area, said that the central government should invest in Okinawa, but in a different way. "Instead of offering nice buildings and a community center, they should build a railway in Okinawa so that people could live in Nago and commute to Naha. That would help our unemployment problems. The bases are not the answer."
Yoshida's view is shared by Robert Hamilton, a former Marine Corps captain who was an artillery battery commander on Okinawa from 1986-88. One reason Hamilton has come to oppose the U.S. basing policy is that "Currently on Okinawa, serious and committed young Americans who have volunteered to serve in their nation's armed forces are increasingly being viewed as mercenaries to be isolated and caged away from the local populace in peacetime, and only to be let loose in times of military emergency." The proposal to move Marine Corps helicopter operations to an offshore location certainly highlighted this and called into question the Japanese commitment to the "alliance." Hamilton argues that there is much more to being "a good and trusted ally" than simply writing a check and keeping the troops out of sight. However, Japan believes its partial financing of the U.S. garrison constitutes an alliance and, according to Hamilton, American "defense policy-makers are among the worst offenders in reinforcing this mistaken belief."
Hamilton's arguments are powerful because he himself has trained troops in Okinawa. His unit had about 180 artillery pieces and consisted of about 4,000 Marines. "Firing live weapons is difficult. Twenty or 30 years ago you could fire a shell into a man's backyard, give him some money and tell him to keep quiet, and that was it. But today that's just not possible." Hamilton argues that the wide-open expanses of the western United States are much better training areas and that the Marines can live with their families and not feel like outcastes. "The argument that justified the American presence in Okinawa throughout the Cold War was that it was good to have a lot of Marines fairly close to Korea, so that in case of war there would be the potential of staging another Inchon landing." That mindset still seems to exist today, although there have been revolutionary advances in logistics in the intervening years.
Hamilton believes the real reason American troops remain in Okinawa is that the Japanese government wants them there. "It's a great deal for them. They don't have to recruit their own young kids and send them to boot camp and incur all the social disruption that goes with that. Especially in Japan, where they initially went off the deep end into imperialism, they've now gone clear in the other direction and try to stay away from establishing a military. They just send several billion dollars down to Okinawa, and it's a great deal for Japan, however you look at it."
Hamilton says that as much as he dislikes conspiracy theories, he does believe that there is a very effective lobby on the Japanese side to maintain the American troops in Okinawa, both because they are convenient and because the are useful in bargaining to keep the U.S. markets open to Japanese export companies.
Nonetheless, the Nago referendum went against the heliport, creating a crisis for Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto's government, which found itself in a bind between the wishes of its citizens and those of the U.S. government, its own powerful ministries, and business interests. Pressure was brought to bear, and within a week the mayor of Nago, Tetsuya Higa, announced that he would approve the heliport despite the wishes of the voters. He then resigned, as if to atone for what he had done.
Geopolitical Winds of Change
Okinawa has not only had the geopolitical bad luck to become a military outpost for America and Japan off the shore of the emerging Chinese superpower. It is also simultaneously a cork in the bottle of a remilitarized Japan, as one U.S. general in a moment of rare candor publicly admitted, as well as a pawn in Japanese-American economic relations.
The American government would do well to reexamine the blurred policy concepts that led to its painful defeat in Vietnam. America's approach to Asia still seems based on the naive assumption that nations with heritages vastly different from the Western democracies will nonetheless evolve into "little Americas" if only they can participate in the joys of capitalism. But it doesn't take long on the ground in East Asia to realize that even with Kentucky Fried Chicken next door, Asians will remain culturally distinct, and that a one-size-fits-all foreign policy, oblivious of specific cultural and political realities, is critically deficient. In that sense, the error that was made regarding Vietnamese is being perpetuated with Okinawans and Japanese. We have failed to realize who they are, their motivations, and what is at stake for them.
Despite this, the U.S. Defense Department continues to insist that the Okinawan bases are crucial. The Japanese government is happy because foreign troops are kept far away from mainland Japan and, importantly, the U.S. garrison provides leverage to be utilized in trade negotiations. Whenever Japan's trade surplus with America soars and trade friction heats up, the inevitable chorus of Japanese officials can be heard to wonder publicly whether U.S. bases are really in Japan's interest. Editorials suddenly appear in leading Japanese newspapers that question the security relationship, and U.S. officials hurry to calm the roiled waters. A trade agreement is produced that papers over yet another American sacrifice for "the greater relationship." Both sides declare victory to the press. It is a familiar scenario.
When I came to Japan in 1988 as a journalist, it was immediately apparent that the massive trade imbalance in Japan's favor was not a sign of a healthy mutual relationship. Yet Japan was doing everything it could, making every possible argument, and greasing every political wheel in Washington to maintain the enormous trade asymmetry. Japan today enjoys an institutionalized trade surplus with the United States, and the security relationship is the glue that helps to keep it in place.
The Nye Initiative, named after former Assistant Secretary of Defense Joseph S. Nye, Jr., more officially known as the United States Security Strategy for the East Asia Pacific Region, published in 1995, declared that for the foreseeable future, U.S. troop levels in East Asia would remain at around 100,000, that the security alliance with Japan was the "linchpin of United States security policy in Asia," and that America must never allow trade friction to undermine that alliance. It even touted the U.S. defense capability as a wedge "to open foreign markets." Nonetheless, it doesn't require a great deal of common sense to understand that relying on an economic adversary to finance our nation's ability to maintain our military strength is not "a firm foundation." There is a measure of American self-reliance being lost, of self-determination disappearing, even of self-delusion.
The Nye Initiative, however, may not mean what it says, according to Ed Lincoln, former economic attache to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. When I interviewed him only days before his return in 1996 to the Brookings Institution in Washington, Lincoln asked me when his interview would be published. I assured him that it would be a couple of years, rather than a quick newspaper story, and on that basis he offered his opinion that Nye's document was not meant to last 20 years, but only until such time as the possibility of a North Korean nuclear threat could be discounted. If North Korea's leadership collapsed or if it ceased to threaten the stability of East Asia, that could provide an opportunity to reevaluate America's expensive forward-deployed defense posture.
Ota's Grassroots Federalism
Okinawa's Governor Masahide Ota foresaw that possibility as well, when I spoke with him at his offices in Naha on October 31, 1997. Ota utilized a young woman translator for the first question, as if sizing up her abilities; then the former Fulbright scholar, Syracuse University graduate, professor and author, took over in fluent English.
In the Governor's calculation, the bases problem will solve itself over time. American
forces will be pulled out as East Asia stabilizes. Over the next two decades, American taxpayers
will lose interest in spending more than $30 billion a year to maintain an unnecessary and
unwanted East Asian garrison. When that happens, Okinawa, like the Philippines, will lose an
important source of income. Meanwhile, any political leverage that Okinawa enjoys today with
Japan's central government because the bases are not wanted on the "Yamato" mainland will
dissipate along with their gradual removal. Ota must therefore obtain economic concessions from
Tokyo now or Okinawa will remain as it issmall, beautiful and poor.
Rather than watch Okinawa's fortunes dwindle, Ota has decided to move now and build up the economy while he has some clout in the form of public opposition to the bases. This, obviously, is a tricky maneuver. "There is a good chance that by 2015 the Korean problem will be solved and the relationship between China and America will be much better," Ota said. "In that case, there is no need for the U.S. military forces here. Even Joseph Nye has said as much."
Ota's government hopes to wring economic concessions from Tokyo in exchange for a gradual reduction or relocation of the bases through the year 2015, by which time they would all be returned to Okinawan jurisdiction. By receiving preferential treatment from the central government in terms of a large free-trade zone and tariff and tax concessions that would lure investment, Ota hopes to achieve economic parity with the rest of Japan.
"The Okinawan people would like to be more independent in a way. They would like to enjoy more autonomy," Ota said. "Okinawa used to be a kingdom that managed its own destiny. But since Okinawa became a part of Meiji Japan in 1879, the Japanese centralization system is so strong that you have to depend on them for everything. You cannot say anything, but simply follow whatever the central government asks."
Ota, struggling to secure from the central government the political power that Okinawans need to enhance their lives, sees not only historical precedent but also geographical reason to believe that Okinawa is a special case. "Although Kyoto, Hokkaido, and Nagano prefectures all have their own histories, Okinawa is different. Historically, they have evolved together since the Tokugawa consolidation in about 1600. But we were separate then, and after World War II as well."
The geographically remote Okinawans have long felt "outside" the inner circle of elites who govern from Tokyo. So perhaps the Ryukyu Islands have never fully embraced the emperor based, centralized system of Japanese political and social rule that Ota says wields a tyranny of the majority over Okinawa today. "They ask us to serve the greater good, but could they say that they would do the same if the bases were in their hometowns?" Ota laughed, but without bitterness.
It is a measure of local control, a sort of federalism, that Ota and the Okinawans seek with their non-binding referendums and bargaining positions, much like that enjoyed today by the lander of Federal Germany. It is ironic that a system of Bismarckian authoritarianism continues today not in the land of its origin, but in Japan, where it was admired and emulated by Meiji samurai reformers such as Hirobumi Ito and Aritomo Yamagata.
The grassroots federalism espoused by Otasigns of which have also emerged elsewhere
in Japan in recent years in the form of civic referendums rejecting not only military bases but also
nuclear power plants and garbage-incinerating facilities near population centersseems to offer the prospect of a partial dispersion of political power from an authoritarian elite to the citizenry. Activist Chikako Yoshida said that since the 1995 rape incident in Okinawa, "More people have begun talking about Okinawan independence, about taking more autonomy from the central government. They are saying it's possible. We didn't think that way before."
Okinawans are beginning to believe that they can be heard. Weary of their island's history
of being used first as a battlefield and then as a military garrison while remaining the poorest of
Japan's prefectures, this is perhaps their last, best hopeone for which they may be prepared to put up a political fight. And if this comes to pass, the American government may wake up surprised to find itself once again in a shameful position in Asia, from which it will be forced to make another embarrassing retreat.
MIKE MILLARD has lived for 10 years in Tokyo, where he is an editor in the international section of a Japanese daily newspaper. He is writing a book about the trade and defense complexities of the Japanese-American relationship.


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More on the Seattle game later in the day, but let me start the morning by making up for a mistake late last week: I talked a lot on Thursday about voting for Fred Smoot's Super Bowl ad. That's still a good idea, and not the mistake I'm talking about.
The mistake, as pointed out by a number of commenters, is that I failed to also note that the Redskins have five entries in the initial round of voting for the fan commercials as well.
The folks over at Chris Cooley's blog have endorsed Kevin Bittenbender as their choice, and his story is certainly the most compelling of the available choices. But for now, I say we just try to move as many Redskins fans as possible through to the next round, and worry about the details later.
There are two more Redskins fan videos up that did not get nominated, and seven more Redskins player videos as well, including Colt Brennan.
(And Matt Hasselbeck's story of beating Shawn Springs to the endzone in a playoff game has some mildly amusing resonance after yesterday's finish.
Filed under: Week 13 | Tagged: fan voting | 1 Comment »

subset: commoncrawl


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Hello there!
I am here with another outfit post. If you follow me on Lookbook you already saw it but I almost forget to post it here with some other photos.
One day I listened to one of my youtube playlists and then this mmv showed up.
As soon as I see this video I just have to dress in lolita. It's so ultimate lolita video for me. The music is so nice and Momoko is awesome indeed. It always make me want to feel all the frills and lace and huge petti on my body. Only because of that I pull out my corset and Meta skirt out of my wardrobe and dress up after a long time. Once again I feel proud and super modest. I almost forgot how beautiful this feeling is and I am glad that this video remind me how I can feel pretty in lolita again.
I used some layering in this outfit. I have a beautiful transparent dress from Rabbit Heart and because I didn't want to shine too much in white skirt I put it over it and full it a little so it got more gothic lolita feel. I have to think about more outfits with this dress.


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Otomi Papermaker
Image shows Otomi woman using strips of jonote (Trema micrantha (L.) Blume) bark to make a sheet of paper (see Papel Amate) in San Pablito, Puebla. Note softened bark fibers hanging in the background, and the rectangular, flattened stone, or muito, used for pounding the bark fibers together. This picture was taken in 1984, was scanned from a slide and grayscaled, and it will be used as a verso page header for Chapter 2 of Managing the Wild (see Sigh of Relief).


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But because she speaks out against hypocrisy. She made videos exposing former Italian Prime Minister... (I won't mention his name, he does not deserve the recognition.)
Greta is my 'go to girl' when it comes to politics....and when we go out to eat, I always let her select the Vino!!
|Greta Panettieri
So naturally I asked Greta to comment on women's rights for this series...When I asked her she was on 'tilt' and angry about a recent decision made by well, here, I'll let her tell you......
"Hi Pete here is what I think about the subject , women's rights, as of today"
Do you know why I was mad yesterday? I was mad because the day before yesterday the German Cardinals admitted the use of 'the day after' pill but of course only if you have been raped. Isn't that nice of them?
Now I could sit here writing a million things, I could give you any possible scenario to explain how incredibly disgusting this is but it wont change the facts....unfortunately!
Like your friend Katya(whom BTW I'll be vary happy to meet) was saying is all about the babies!
Women carry babies and so they are the most desirable power tool for a man.
Back in the Ancient Greek days soldiers were supposed to rape all women of the occupied city so they would carry their babies and so on, two thousands years later this interesting war technique is still in great use, and Cardinals give us the 'OK' to 'the day after pill' (only if you've been raped), well thank you very much guys! I mean do I need to comment???
Greta: We had reached a moment in history were it seemed like things were improving, people were fighting for civil rights, women, colored, gay, handicapped, but the last 15/ 20 years have been dark, ignorance and fear all over the world are the main enemies.You can't talk only about women's rights without examining the political and cultural environment, cause when a woman gets abused, stalked, disrespected, not payed a fair salary only because she is a she or can't be elected in a powerful position only because she is a she or can't be a priest or a POPE only because she is a she, well those are signs that we are still in a 'middle age' state of living, and I don't see any easy or near solution to this.
|Greta Panettieri
I could go into all the sex scandals that we had here in Italy with our old 'friend' Berlusconi; the last one is from two weeks ago~ he basically verbally abused a secretary while visiting an office and guess what? He got by with it because it's funny, he didn't mean no harm he was just kidding, Oh yeah people enjoy those spicy jokes...now that woman can't go back to work because she asked Berlusconi for a public apology to her for having publicly embarrassed her... but the company she works for and even the President of the region are forcing her to silence, she has no rights to defend herself not even from a joke, imagine if she was abused, she would be dead by now and no one would know!
There is not one street on the planet where if you walk by yourself at least one man won't say at least a 'hey baby' (best scenario) to you, you can be dressed up or in sleepers skinny/fat/ pretty/ugly young (better) /old , doesn't matter a woman alone is not allowed and a man knows he can say whatever to her and she will have to take it, she can ignore it but still take it, because she knows that if he really wanted her he COULD take her and there is Nothing she can do about it...(unless she's trained or armed ...) Now, how do we change that Pete?
Me; now you know why I insisted on walking you to the front door every night in NYC!
That's Greta...
On a lighter side, she has a new album coming soon, I have heard cuts~~it's awesome!!
Gretatze...as always, you let it fly ~ xoxoxoxoxo, Ciao for now....CU soon!!
follow her: Greta follow me: Pete Carma


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Whether or not you're using the ILP or some of its individual strategies, approaching learning through inquiry can be time consuming. This is especially true in the beginning stages as students learn how to go through the process and overcome challenges and frustrations. But in order for students to progress in their inquiry, we need to provide timely feedback on activities and reflections which can be overwhelming, particularly when a teacher has 100 students all turning in about an activity a day. That's not to say that the responsibility should rest solely on the teacher's shoulders; there are strategies for peer assessment and even group or self-assessment that should be used to prevent the teacher from being overloaded and unable to provide timely feedback. However, when kids need their teacher's expertise, there are several technology tools that can make this part of the process much more manageable and efficient while also providing easy ways to document student progress.
How Technology Supports Inquiry8 Jul
Former Hunterdon Central Information Systems Supervisor, and current BrightBytes CEO and Co-Founder, Rob Mancabelli once said that the only piece of technology that is 100% reliable is a chalkboard. It doesn't have a blue screen of death, connectivity issues, or other glitches. But, Rob reminded us, it also doesn't permit students to share their learning with an audience, connect with resources, and communicate with each other outside of their classroom. Using technology requires a lot of flexibility and daring on the parts of both teachers and students. Although the first class to ever use the ILP did so via handwritten plans, a few other early iterations of our ILP work occurred in classes that were a part of a 1:1 computing pilot, and initiative that really opened the doors for us as educators. Teachers involved in the initial pilot received training in the summer prior to students receiving netbooks. During the training sessions, the small cohort of teachers met to discuss ways to rethink our teaching practices to make the most of the technology that was now available. As Heather pointed out in a blog post written after these sessions, simply providing a means for students to collaborate or share their learning doesn't mean that it's easily done:
During our 1:1 sessions, [the facilitators] focused on two significant things: changing the way we teach and, more importantly, giving us the freedom from fear to make these changes. They realized that the 1:1 program wasn't about the netbooks and that it couldn't start with lesson reform. It had to start with psychology. It took quite a long time, a visit from our superintendent, and a lot of support, but they did indeed allow our small group to break through the walls that so many of us construct around ourselves.
Students and teachers alike need coaching, reassurance, freedom, and confidence in order to get past the vulnerability that a connected classroom experiences. It requires willingness to share work beyond the immediate learning community, and that can open the possibility or the perceived possibility for judgment–a scary notion for many students and teachers. At the same time, we know that standing in front of the classroom and dispensing information was not going to work anymore either. With information at their fingertips, it seemed a waste of our precious time with students to spend it giving them content that they could easily look up. And so, we focused a lot of our instruction reform on inquiry as a means to take advantage of the tremendous opportunities the technology offered. Web 2.0 tools and the netbooks were supplementary to turning over responsibility to students; we saw technology as means through which our students could achieve their best, often times with more efficiency and collaboration.
Although for financial reasons we have since abandoned the 1:1 model at Hunterdon Central, we have moved to a Bring-Your-Own-Device policy in which students can use their personal computing devices in classes. We are fortunate to have about 50% of our students participating, and we have several laptop carts and computer labs to support those who are not participating. However, we want to be clear that this is not required for the ILP. Remember, Meg's first use of the ILP was done without computers. And since then, Meg and I have taught classes with only an occasional trip to the library for students to use the desktops to find resources. Despite technology's growing pervasiveness, it remains a luxury for many schools and unreliable equipment in others. All of the strategies and pedagogy associated with the ILP can be done without technology, but, if available, web-based tools, computers, and reliable internet connections can enhance the experience by allowing for collaboration, communication, accountability, creativity, and accessibility beyond the classroom setting. In upcoming posts, we will highlight a few tools that we have used to heighten students' learning experiences with the ILP.
Reflecting to Discover5 Jul
What we love about this type of student-driven learning is that often, students are making connections to their personal lives and creating meaning in a way that we would not be able to engineer. When we first created and began implementing the ILP, I'm not sure we foresaw how students would be moving beyond content to uncover bigger truths about life and themselves, but since then we've realized that creating an open atmosphere for learning allows students the space for these sort of discoveries.
For many students, it isn't until they to think about the ideas revealed in their activities that they discovered a greater takeaway. By having multiple points of reflection, one student, Miles was able to synthesize multiple sources, develop respect for the sometimes arduous task of narrative writing, and eventually see how his learning during that particular unit taught him so much more than World War I or about Paul Baumer and his buddies in All Quiet on the Western Front. In his final reflection for the unit, Miles wrote that his work helped him to see the need for education reform.
His final reflection, while not especially specific to his progress in answering his essential question or his progress with specific skills, does reveal his understanding of the creative process as well as the dispositions that helped him get to an obviously optimistic and satisfied place by the end of his inquiry. His takeaway of self-guided, "vertical growth" led him to a "So What?" proposal to change the way students are educated at his school, advocating for more of what he calls "free creation." This call to action about education is not something we would have predicted from a unit about WWI and narrative writing; however, because the content combined with Miles' unique view of the world, he was able to create something truly individual.
Misconceptions About the ILP25 May
Not long ago, my good friend, Sarah, came to visit me at school. She's an English teacher, too, and she was curious about this crazy Inquiry Learning Plan thing she's been hearing about for 5 years. She sat in on my conferences with students, she observed their work habits, and she asked them lots of questions about their processes. The classes were finishing up a unit, and so much of their work was independently driven. According to every teacher evaluation model out there, this setup looks phenomenal – student led learning, self-assessment, choice, and ample peer and teacher feedback. But, it does take a lot of prep work to get to that independent stage, which is something Sarah recognized when she observed. This also debunks a common misconception about the ILP–that students are completely on their own or that there's no structure to the approach.
Yes, students do take on the responsibility of learning, but that doesn't mean that teachers are hands-off. Rather, at the beginning of every unit, we are leading students through mini-lessons for question development, close-reads of standards, rubric creation, synthesis, writing techniques, and reading strategies. Students are also engaging with reading at the beginning of every single class period. The ILP becomes a routine–build skills, reflect, repeat. Toward the end of the unit though, at the time when Sarah visited, the class looked very different from the time when students were going through their first few rounds of activities. Here's what Sarah saw:
- students finishing reading activities–one was coloring, many were typing, some were reading, others were graphing.
- students starting or revising essays.
- students conferencing with each other using their own peer review questions that focus on standard-based rubric criteria.
- students conferencing with me–they signed up for a time slot and led the conference by presenting what they had already accomplished and what they were stuck on and by asking specific questions about their work and its connection to the standards-based criteria for evaluation.
That sounds great, right? But, students were also:
- playing around on their computers or chatting with their neighbors while I was busy with a conference.
- feverishly trying to catch up after falling behind.
- staring off into space.
This is where the second misconception–that the ILP solves all classroom problems–is clearly shattered. I'd love to say that the ILP magically allows every student to be engaged 100% of the time, but that's just not accurate. Like with any class, there are still students whose lives outside of school limit their ability to complete work. There are still those who are unmotivated. And, there are those who are easily distracted in class workshop time.
But, the difference between this classroom approach and others is that the students share equal responsibility when motivation drags or when it comes to using time wisely. As part of our regular conferences with kids, we hold them accountable for their daily habits, and those habits are cumulatively assessed at the end of the every unit for a summative grade. With regular check-ins, students are very aware of their work ethic and the value of the workshop time that they are given in class. That doesn't mean that goofing off is eliminated; students are just more aware of the repercussions of those unproductive days, and, for the most part, they cut back on them.
About midway through each unit, I ask students to reflect on their work using the criteria established in the ILP Rubric and to set personal goals for improvement in the second half of the unit. This gives them a chance to see what their grades might be if they were to continue in the same fashion and to recalibrate their behavior and work if they don't feel that they are meeting their potential. For example, a student might be aligning activities to standards, but isn't pushing himself to improve with each attempt at a skill. Or, a student might need reminders to stay focused on coursework. Those can both be marked as areas for improvement, becoming discussion points during teacher conferences. Then it is the student's responsibility to demonstrate growth in those areas or admit that he is content with his current performance.
Articulating Growth and Setting Realistic Goals18 Feb
Meg and I recently went back to our teaching jobs after a semester writing sabbatical. I took over two sections of a junior-level inclusion course and three sections of an honors sophomore course. After spending months pouring over former students' work, I am seeing a key difference between those who worked with the ILP and my current students.The abilities to articulate learning, accurately assess work, and set realistic and challenging goals for improvement are hallmarks of student experiences when they use the ILP as a tool to guide their learning. Unfortunately, I am not yet seeing these qualities in my current students.
Because the ILP system is grounded by the close-reading of standards and unit/course objectives, students gain intimate familiarity with the requirements of the unit/course, and they have a hand in developing ways to express mastery of those requirements. They consistently compare their work to the requirements and articulate how and why their work matches, falls short of, or exceeds the standards. This often happens in teacher conferences, but the ILP also builds in points to reflect on progress after each round of practice with a skill. That means students are not only comparing their work to professional models or exemplary work but they're also comparing their second attempts to their own first attempts and pinpointing elements that have improved and why. They are also recognizing aspects that remain stagnant and setting new goals for further growth.
Here are a couple of examples from my current students when they were asked to consider how they made progress toward goals they set at the beginning of the school year.
While there are elements of specificity, most vaguely reference some improvement without articulating what aspects of the broader skills needed improvement and, more importantly, what they see that's different from their initial attempts.
In prior years, students were asked to reflect on their progress after each attempt at a skill. The example below from one of last year's sophomores not only shows a deeper understanding of the skills' elements, but it also shows how his second attempts were better than previous tries. And, this student clearly articulates where he can still improve.
Continual self-assessment leads to a strong self-awareness that other students might not have. As a result, providing students with tools to help them assess and opportunities for deliberate practice has gained increasing importance in my classroom. I'm getting more and more excited to jump into that aspect of teaching. I took the first step in the process last week with my new groups of sophomores. They used their initial reflections to set goals for themselves going forward. Then, we put those goals to use immediately.
In small groups, students examined the standards for our next unit, and they selected those that echoed the goals they established. They will be their focus standards for the unit–the ones that they target with specific activities, receive the most feedback on, and reflect on throughout the course of the unit. Next, they performed close reads of the standards, using the model that Meg designed last year*. Already, they began to see intricacies of the skills that they identified as areas for growth, and they are fine-tuning the goals that they established.
I'm excited to see what practice with reflection and self-assessment will yield, and I'm even more excited to help the students through the process. If these classes are anything like those that previously used the ILP and its accompanying tools, these students will walk away with the ability to thoughtfully and accurately assess their work and to hold themselves accountable for the goals they set.
"AASL 4.1.3 Standard Close-Read Activity Model" created by Meg Donhauser and previously published in School Library Monthly (Volume 31, No. 4, pages 8-11).
"Why can't you just tell us what to do?!"23 Mar
My 11th-12th grade American Lit class just finished up their first full unit with the Inquiry Learning Plan (ILP). As I assess their work, I have been thinking a lot about the ups and downs of their learning experience. As I expected, there were several points where students met challenges and where they felt uncomfortable. Looking ahead to the next unit, I thought it might be helpful for me to write a few posts about dealing with challenges of the inquiry process and share some of the strategies I've used to help students work through those moments of frustration and doubt.
The first of those moments came when they were developing activities on their own for the first time. They were really struggling with the idea that they have little direction about the final product–what they will ultimately work toward. So, in order to help ease their minds and give them a little insight into the philosophy behind what we were doing in this class, I decided to start one class period with a little troubleshooting session. It went something like this… Continue reading
LibGuides and Student Choice24 Feb
One of the important aspects of using inquiry, and especially in using the ILP, is the opportunity for student choice. In Meg and Cathy's classes, students explore themes in literature and develop skills around standards, and all of this begins with the texts students choose. In Heather's latest post, she discusses the ways in which librarians can help students and co-teach in inquiry classrooms. For Cathy's and Meg's classes, librarians assist students at the beginning of the ILP process by helping them select texts. One of the ways we do this is through booktalks. A booktalk is a short introduction of a book that we can provide to students as a way to get them interested in a particular text, era, or genre of literature. In giving a booktalk, Heather and I, as well as other librarians, provide students with a glimpse into a text, by either reading a small section or sharing the conflict, theme, characters, or our favorite part. For American Literature classes, Heather and I would organize and provide booktalks around eras: Realism and Romanticism, Modernism & Postmodernism, Contemporary American Literature, among others. While we would share titles belonging to these eras, we would also connect the texts to major concepts and themes from the time period. Cathy and I would "tag team" our booktalks, alternating between the two of us, often like a ping-pong game along a literary timeline. While we were satisfied with the introduction of the texts we provided to students, we always felt that we could never cover enough books to give students a wide exposure to all of the possible literature they could choose from.
In an effort to make this part of the inquiry process more student centered, in addition to booktalks, we guided students through a browsing activity using a curation tool called a LibGuide. This web-based program allowed us to collect various websites and databases, as well as print books available in our collection or electronic texts found online. Our LibGuide for American Literature optimized a student's ability to browse for texts. Instead of simply listening to a booktalk with books the teacher and librarians have chosen to highlight, now students could explore the multitude of resources on this guide to not only learn about eras and authors more thoroughly, but also to explore as much as possible of the literature America had to offer. This LibGuide has certainly grown over the past few years. We've added websites that students have discovered in their learning, ebooks that the library has purchased, and our own documents that serve to guide students through the ILP.
And when Cathy began talking about altering the structure of her class this time around, we saw the need to add even more material to this guide. While we still offer the opportunity for students to browse by era, this guide leads students to explore major playwrights, novelists, and poets across eras. It links to lists of American literary awards by year, as well as resources on American art and music, allowing students to see the connections between literature and other arts. We've offered sites on American culture and American history, and knowing that students don't need to find just long texts and can explore supporting documents and materials, we've aggregated resources that contain primary documents from our nation's history.
In some of the specific eras, we have linked to certain Google documents that highlight either the texts that our school library has, titles that Cathy's classroom library contains, or books that students can find in the public domain on the web. Cathy and I have used these documents for specific browsing activities where students list their top three choices and explain why they are interested in reading the text and how it may connect to the themes they want to explore or the essential question they want to answer.
By combining all of these different types of approaches and exposing students to as many resources on American literature, writers, culture, and history as possible, we truly desire to create an open opportunity for them to explore–to wander around the resources, making connections and creating pathways for their own learning. We've even created a space for students to upload resources they find in their own browsing and searching online, giving them ownership of this class resource as well. And as we monitor this LibGuide, we can examine the usage statistics in the site's "back office" to evaluate which sites are frequently referenced or which ones may be underused. Such data can give us insight into how students are using the guide and may help us determine what, if any, changes need to be made in the future.
And we haven't just used LibGuides to help students connect with texts for literature classes. Teachers in other disciplines have teamed with the librarians to create guides in their disciplines, including Global Studies and Environmental Science, among others. By using resources like LibGuides and providing the time needed to deeply engage with the material in the beginning stages of inquiry or research, we are honoring the act of discovery and immersion as well as the importance of student choice, which all contribute to successful ILP and learning processes.
Please let us know if you recommend any resources for the American Literature LibGuide, or any of our other LibGuides, that we can share with our students. We welcome any feedback you may have and certainly would love to hear how you honor student choice in your classroom or library.


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Here´s my card for the sketch on CAS(E) this Sketch blog this week!
Used som dies from Penny Black
Lovely card.
Oh, this is beautiful! Wonderful take on the sketch!
Très jolie carte !
Birgit I aDORE Tulips, and these are among the prettiest paper ones I've seen! Gorgeous card, fabulous take on the sketch!!!
Nice take on the sketch. I love the card!
So pretty and soft! I love tulips.
This is really gorgeous!
This is a beautiful romantic card!
Love your take on the sketch.
I love the pretty soft colours you have used Birgit and the ornate tile with the stitched square behind it is just perfect and works really well for the challenge. x


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guess it should really be called Black Friday and other purchases because that's what i'm finna show y'all! lol, and i wanna thank Jeyy for wishing me well w/ that tricked out Alicia Keys picture. i really am feeling a lot better! i had temperatures up to 105.5! i just was not in a good state of health. but i bounced back to my old self in no time!
finally got my all black Doc's! they are so sexy, and i can Stomp The Yard in case of emergency.
i'm loving this all fur hat! it was 5 bucks at H&M and really, how could i ever say no to that?
my military-ish jacket also from H&M for only 20 dollars!
my ignorantly long scarf from Urban Outfitters! love that freaking scarf!
last but not least my Evo 4G w/ Sprint. yes, i did have an iPhone and i did love it. AT&T i didn't love. so i decided to be done w/ them and get the Evo. i pretty much love this freaking phone. so #teamAndroid what's cracking?
this is a pretty general overview of stuff that i got over the past couple weeks. minus a couple things that either i couldn't find, didn't wanna find, or was hard to take a picture w/.


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Alright so here's to motivate me, I'm at 57, 647 words, one and a half spaced it equals 159 pages… its saturday the 29th of May 2010 (that bit may be very important if i get distracted)
The goal at the moment isn't to stress about words but content… ok i shouldn't be stressing at all. What i want is a finished manuscript that i can set aside, let cure nicely, then put about editing.
Of course in the curing stage there's another idea begging for my attention that i just HAVE TO turn my attention to soon or i may well go mad.
So lets see how hard i can work this current project.
Double the pages by this time next month?
If i make a month 30 days then it's a total of 1921.5 words a day…
That sounds like a challenge!
Update 3.6.10
So it's been 5 days and right in the middle of those 5 days i received my R for Kemla so now i'm editing Kemla and typing out this new one… so here's where i'm at:
168 pages and 61 043 words.
3396 words in 5 days…
I'm disappointed but i know i'm putting a lot of time into the other story so i'm not giving up.
4 more days, lets checkin…
186 pages and 67 834 words
thats an increase of…
18 pages and 6791 words (divide that by 4 and we have 1697 words a day – closer than my last checkin and just under my goal.)
Which is 6 more days and before i even look at my computer i know i've frozen up. Another R for Kemla has me in another tail spin of editing and whats more … i've picked up the modern witch books again and begun editing them too. A final re-read before trying to find an agent for them. So i've Kemla who i'm picking to pieces trying to find someways, everyways, to make them better better best and i'm re-reading another series so even though this project is begging me to work on it i know i haven't achieved a lot of work.
189 pages and 68 663 words…
Which is an increase of 829 words in 6 days.
Now i knew that was coming. A dismal effort.


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Most people want a powerful smartphone that has a user removable battery. This is actually advantageous since the battery can be easily replaced without going to a service center should anything go wrong with it. This is also one of the main features of the #Samsung #Galaxy #S5. This former flagship model which was released in 2014 is still being widely used today owing to the fact that it is still getting constant software updates and it has decent hardware specs. Although this is being used as a dependable daily driver there are instances when certain issues can occur on the device. This is what we will tackle today as we address the Galaxy S5 refuses to start up issue & other related problems.
If you own a Samsung Galaxy S5 or any other Android device for that matter then feel free to contact us using this form. We will be more than happy to assist you with any concern that you may have with your device. This is a free service we are offering with no strings attached. We however ask that when you do contact us try to be as detailed as possible so that an accurate assessment can be made and the correct solution can be given.
If you would like to browse the previous parts in this series then check out this link.
You may also reach us at our Facebook and Google+ social media accounts.
S5 Refuses To Start Up
Problem: Good day I have tried all of your techniques but my Samsung Galaxy S5 refuses to start up. The 'Samsung Galaxy S5 powered by android' logo appears, the screen flashes grey then it goes black, it then vibrates as if it's starting up then the whole process begins again. I left it while it was doing this for 10 minutes and it turned off completely and won't show any signs of life until you plug in a charger, it is also extremely warm. I have had this phone for approximately 4 years now. It had a cracked screen a year ago that has been repaired. Do you have any suggestions that I could try?
Solution: Try checking first if the phone will compete the startup process while it is connected to its charger. If the phone starts this way then you might want to try replacing the battery first. If the problem persists then remove the battery and microSD card (if one is installed). Press and hold the power button for at least a minute. This will discharge the phone circuit and clear its RAM. Reinsert just the battery then go ahead and see if the phone will turn on.
If the problem still occurs then follow the steps listed below. Move to the next step should the problem still occur after performing a step.
- Start the phone in Safe Mode. If you are able to access this mode then the issue could be caused by an app you recently downloaded. Find out what app this is and uninstall it.
- Start the phone in recovery mode. Wipe the cache partition of your device.
- Start the phone in recovery mode. Do a factory reset. Take note this will erase your phone data.
If the above steps fail to fix the problem then this might already be a hardware related issue. I recommend that you bring your phone to a service center and have it checked if this is the case.
S5 Working But Screen Not Turning On
Problem: I have dropped my phone a bit in the past and it was working until now. I've had it for a year and ab it. When i turn my brightness down the screen flickers multi colors and when i leave it to turn off it flickers as well and when i turn it off and on it does it. When i turn my phone on i can hear it vibrate and the lights come on but just not the screen. The screen is blank. I hear notifications come as well. All the lights work but the screen. I've done a factory restart in hope that it will work but it is still occurring. Please can you tell me how to solve this and what the problem is. Thank you
Solution: This problem could be caused by a defective phone display or a loose connection between the display and the motherboard of your phone. For this issue I recommend that you bring your phone to a service center and have it checked. There's a possibility that the display assembly will have to be replaced if it is found out to be defective already.
S5 Will Not Charge
Problem: Hi, my Samsung Galaxy S5 will not charge. I have tried a different charger, tried aligning the charging port on the phone, I have tried to see if it was an app with Safe Mode, I have also tried manually clearing my cache by pressing the power, volume, and home button all at the same time. I am at a loss and now my phone is completely dead. Please help!
Solution: Try cleaning the charging port of your phone using a can of compressed air. Make sure to remove any dirt or debris that's stuck in this port as this can usually cause issues with charging. Once you have made sure that the charging port is clean you should also try charging the phone using a different charging port.
Should the issue remain unresolved I suspect that the charging IC of your phone might be damaged. I recommend that you have your phone checked at a service center that does board level repairs.
S5 Randomly Restarting
Problem: Hi, I am having issue with my Samsung Galaxy S5 randomly restarting. I have done troubleshooting by starting up in Safe Mode, and the problem still persist. I restore by doing factory reset and the problem still occurring. I am confuse as far as what causes this restarting dilemma. Please help I really need his phone to be working as this is my only way of communication and a gift from my brother. Thank you!
Solution: Since you already checked the software side it's time to troubleshoot the hardware side. What you can do next is to try to replace the battery with a new one. This allows you to check if your old battery is already faulty and causing the problem. If the issue still occurs even after using a new battery then we might be looking at a hardware component inside the phone that is failing to work. If this is the case then I suggest that you bring your phone to a service center and have it checked.
S5 Not Booting Up Solution
Problem: Hello Guys, Kudos for the great work so far. i am not here to ask a question but to add how i solved mine after the help here did not apply to my issue. Samsung Galaxy s5 had boot up issues. No response at all. however, when a charger was connected, the battery icon would flash briefly then be gone for a while, pop up again like that on and on. I could boot to recovery and download mode initially. later, only download mode. This led me to believe it was a firmware problem as discharging, wiping cache and switching between 2 batteries being used were to no avail. Almost flashed a stock ROM unto it but the loss of user data was a problem. I finally noticed that one of the batteries had a black scorch mark on the terminal. scrubbed it clean with a metal and did same for the the phone terminals too. That solved the problem!!!…. The same worked for the other battery. though it had no scorch mark, scrubbing the terminals made it power up the phone. So that's a solution i didnt see here. Hope it helps someone. All the best and thanks for your help.
Solution: Thanks for sharing this tip which can serve as a useful guide to our readers.
S5 Keeps Switching Off And On Repeatedly
Problem: HI My s5 keeps switching off and on repeated. I have left the battery out the phone overnight tried to wipe cache. It switches on shows me the Samsung screen shows me the service provider screen and again the Samsung screen black with little blue dots or strings. After this screen it switches off. Tried rebooting without my sd card and SIM card but still nothing.
Solution: Try starting the phone in Safe Mode. If you are able to access this mode then the problem could be caused by an app you installed. Find out what app this is and uninstall it.
If the phone still switches off and on even in Safe Mode then follow the steps listed below. Check if the issue occurs after performing each step then move to the next if it does.
- Wipe the cache partition of your phone from the recovery mode.
- Start the phone in recovery mode then do a factory reset. Take note that this will erase your phone data so make sure to have a backup copy before proceeding.
S5 Randomly Turns Off
Problem: Good morning, My Android will randomly turn off on me, by having the screen go black. It will sometimes turn back on when I press the power button, if that doesn't work, I have to pull that battery out and put it back in to get it to power up. When it does finally power up, the battery will say it's critically low even though the battery life was much higher before the phone went dead. And when I plug it in to charge, the battery life will go up fairly quickly at first, then slow down to usual charging speed. This issue never happens when I am plugged into a charger the whole time. Just when I use it without being plugged in, and with multiple apps being used.
Solution: Try starting your phone in Safe Mode first then check if the issue still occurs. If it doesn't then it could be caused by an app you downloaded. Find out what app this is and uninstall it. If the problem occurs even in Safe Mode then proceed with doing a factory reset. Make sure to backup your phone data before doing the reset. Once the reset is complete don't install anything in your phone yet. Try to check first if the problem still occurs.
If the above steps fail to fix the issue then you can do the following steps listed below.
- If your phone has a microSD card try removing this as this could be causing the problem.
- Try using a new battery.
S5 Copy Data From Water Damaged Phone
Problem: Hello. I stupidly took my Galaxy S5 into the pool with me and so caused some water damage (okay, destroyed the phone). I'm getting the phone replaced and all, but I'm sad to say that I had weeks of game progress saved on the phone with no cloud backup! Is there a way I or a proper technician would be able to remove the flash drive and copy the data?
Solution: The contents stored in the internal storage of your phone are protected which means that the phone has to be turned on first before you can retrieve the data. Removing the on board storage of the phone is a risky process and you won't be able to copy the data stored in it. You might have luck having your phone checked at a service center capable of doing board level repairs.
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Feel free to send us your questions, suggestions and problems you've encountered while using your Android phone. We support every Android device that is available in the market today. And don't worry, we won't charge you a single penny for your questions. Contact us using this form. We read every message we receive can't guarantee a quick response. If we were able to help you, please help us spread the word by sharing our posts with your friends.


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The official release date of the 18th installment of NBA 2K, has finally come. NBA 2K17 is out and gamer lovers worldwide can now get the game from the game stores. NBA 2K17 dropped on 20th of September 2016 and is currently available for download on various gaming consoles (PS3, PS4, Xbox one, Xbox 360) and PC.
Watch NBA 2K17 Game Play Trailer
Checkout the 26 highest rated player in NBA 2K17 HERE
Features of NBA 2K17
The best features of NBA 2K17 is undoubtedly the improved gameplay graphic. NBA 2K17 gives users a very clear realistic gaming experience on all consoles. Everything depicts the experience of the NBA, from crowd animation, commentary, pre-game, halftime and post-game shows.
Improved Games Modes (MyTeam and MyCareer )
New Arenas and Improved Commentary
Awesome Game Soundtracks.
Fluid Passing
Fluid Passing
Ability to customize settings
Improved game controls
Minimum System Requirements :
Processor: Intel Core i3-530 / AMD Phenom II X4 805 or better
Memory: 4 GB RAM
OS: Windows 7 (64-bit), 8 (64-bit), 8.1 (64-bit), 10 (64-bit)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GT 430 / ATI Radeon HD 6450 or better
Storage: 70 GB free disk space
Download NBA 2K17 REPACK ISO for PC
This is a direct working download link to NBA 2K17 with NO Survey. Download[BAGAS31] or Download HERE [Ocean of Games]


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The Soldier's Tale
October 2018
Echoes release coming up
Posted by madhack on Oct 18, 2001
The new Floyd "best-of" album, "Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd", will hit stores November 6 (in the US at least). CDNow is already taking preorders, so you've got no excuse not to get yours!
New ownership for pinkfloyd.com
Posted by madhack on Oct 14, 2001
It appears that the pinkfloyd.com domain is now under new ownership - specifically, Pink Floyd (1987) Limited. In other words, it's a new and active official site! Currently showing is a "poster" for the previously mentioned Gilmour shows...
David in concert again!
Posted by pulse on Oct 10, 2001
Following critical acclaim for his sold out performace in June as part of Robert Wyatt's Meltdown Festival, David Gilmour has decided to dust off the Royal Hall once again for two dates scheduled in January of 2002. The shows will be held back to back, Wednesday the 16th and Thursday the 17th. Quite a treat they should be indeed if they are anything relatively close to the Meltdown Festival performance. Seats will likely sell out quick! Tickets may be ordered for either show here while still available!
Tentative dates for In the Flesh 2002
Posted by madhack on Sep 7, 2001
The Roger Waters International Fan Club (REG) site put up some tentative tour dates for the 2002 leg of Roger Waters' In the Flesh 2002 tour. Sort of old news, but I guess I'd thought someone else had posted it here already... :). Anyway, as the site says, these dates are unconfirmed, but REG is a reliable source for information - very promising for Roger's fans abroad...
Classic rock station online
Posted by madhack on Jul 31, 2001
There's a new classic rock station, Vinyl FM online, playing stuff from the 50's, 60's, and 70's, including tons of floyd. You can check them out at http://www.vinylfm.com. Should be great for those of you who've been jonesin' since FloydRadio's demise...
Setlist for Gilmour solo gig
Posted by madhack on Jun 23, 2001
Setlists for Dave Gilmour's solo gig at the Meltdown Festival in London appeared shortly after the show, and for interested parties it's now available in the Tour section.
David Gilmour live
Posted by pulse on May 9, 2001
Pink Floyd's David Gilmour is performing live at the Royal Festival Hall (London) on Friday, June 22nd at 8:00pm. The concert event being held for charity is part of the annual "Meltdown Festival." This marks David's first live solo gig since his contribution to Paul McCartney's "Live at the Cavern" back in 1999. Anyone interested can purchase tickets for the event online here. (Update: The show is now sold out!)
Speaking of "Live at the Cavern," it is being released June 19th on DVD. You can pre-order a copy here at CDNOW.
EMI to release new Pink Floyd compilation album
Posted by pulse on Apr 12, 2001
EMI has announced plans to release a new compilation album from Pink Floyd. The album will include "a selection of hits, not B-sides" that have yet to be finalized. This marks the first best-of set since "A Collection Of Great Dance Songs," released in 1981, and compilation album since "Works," released in 1983. It will be assembled with input by the band, and should be out the first week of November. Here is the official press release at Billboard music. (Link no longer valid - madhack)
Gilmour takes up a new instrument
Posted by pulse on Mar 20, 2001
David has found a new hobby to accompany his incredible guitar playing. His wife bought him a shiney new tenor saxophone for his recent 55th birthday. He has already passed his grade one exam. Does this mean we'll be hearing Dave play sax instead of Dick Parry on any future Pink Floyd album? Ha Ha... I don't know about that! But here is the article at Q4Music.
Unearthed Syd Barrett Song
Posted by pulse on Feb 26, 2001
A new compilation album for co-founder and former member, Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd is due out on May 29th entitled "Wouldn't You Miss Me" by EMI Records. A newly unearthed track is on this album called "Bob Dylan's Blues." Rolling Stone recently reported that Barrett likely was inspired to write the song after he and Floyd bandmate David Gilmour watched Dylan perform in London circa 1963, and the song was written some time shortly thereafter. Gilmour later recorded Barrett performing the song in 1969 during his brief solo career. Gilmour has generously provided the rare piece from his private collection to project co-ordinator, Tim Chacksfield for this album. It appears that Gilmour has always rated the song highly, so Barrett enthusiasts might want to check it out. For more information, read further on RollingStone.com. Enjoy!
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Pennsylvania Driver Ed Course Sample
Introduction to Pennsylvania Driver Education
Few things are as important to us as our driver's license. Driving may be a great privilege, but did you know it is also an important responsibility? We have designed this program to help you get your Pennsylvania driver's license while you learn how to be a safe driver. But consider this only as a first step of many that you will take, since you will not be doing any actual driving here. Learning traffic laws and proper driving techniques may not seem like the most exciting thing in the world at times; however, it's necessary to become a responsible driver. Driving is a complicated skill that requires you to perform a variety of tasks at the same time. While some people can learn to control their vehicles quickly, there are no "natural" drivers. Add distractions to the mix, and driving is even more complicated!
As with most things in life, getting good at something takes practice, so don't get discouraged. The more you learn and the more driving experience you accumulate, the better prepared you will be for the road. Keep in mind that the most important part of driver's education is learning how to be a safe driver, not finishing this course as fast as possible. Because we do not provide behind-the-wheel training as this is a theory class, we recommend that you obtain driver training with an instructor. You are also required to practice with an experienced, licensed driver such as a parent so you can fully benefit from our course. After all, how fun is it if you have to worry about keeping your car steered straight? How fun is it if you crash, if it means you won't be driving for a while, and perhaps get hurt in the process? Learn how to handle your car properly and safely so you can drive for a long time!


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When we moved in, our house had been empty for about six months. We were lucky to buy it in turn-key condition-- ready to move in, with new floors and a new roof. There were a few things that drew us in the first time we saw the house-- the beautiful brick, red doors with black shutters (Go Dawgs!), the vaulted ceiling in the main room, the nice wall and trim colors throughout the house, and, most importantly, the amount of shade provided by the front yard trees. Our informal house searching list included an established neighborhood with plenty of tree cover. There were a few benefits to that-- first, power savings, and second, the quality of construction. We looked at so many newer homes with no foliage to speak of and cookie-cutter construction that looked like the house might just blow over in the first strong wind. Give me a house with some personality already!
Floor plan created on floorplanner.com
The house is 1,250 square feet, and it is laid out really well, especially in comparison to our previous apartment. Somehow, the architects who built our apartment managed to create a 1,200 square foot, two bed, two bath apartment with only ONE KITCHEN DRAWER. What a breath of fresh air to move into our house with five drawers, six closets, and an attic!
Although we did buy our home ready to move in, the previous work wasn't done to the best standards. We've got a few things we'd like to do throughout the entire house.
Re-paint every room.
- We loved the beige when we moved in (much better than the drab white in so many homes), but the seller didn't leave us any information about the paint colors. So any time we have damage to the wall, we don't have much flexibility in fixing it. Like the 3M stocking hook that made off with a chunk of our living room wall after our first Christmas in the house. Oops.
- We also have plenty of painted-over wallpaper to deal with. I can't wait to rip it off! We're crossing our fingers that whoever installed the wallpaper thought to prep the walls first instead of just slapping it on bare drywall. [We are sort of grateful, at least in the short term, that they did paint over the wallpaper-- we discovered some remnants of the kitchen wallpaper when we were painting the cabinets last year, and let me tell you: it was horrendous. Remember this house was built in the early 80s? It showed.]
Spray paint or replace the door hardware (it's all 80s-tastic bright gold), just like we did in the kitchen reno. [More about that later!]
New windows! Or heck, even just screens would be nice. Our bathroom window is the only glass in the house that has a screen. Unfortunate when we actually have nice Georgia weather.
Replace carpet in the bedrooms. Thankfully, the seller replaced the carpet in the front of the house with hardwood-style laminate (easy to take care of). However, we're not quite sure why she didn't just go ahead and replace the carpet in the two bedrooms. It's pretty gross back there, and I can't wait until we can remedy it!
Next stop, the dining room!


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The costume-jewelry dealers were a little blue at the Stella Antique Pier Show on November 11. It was a gray, drizzly day, and this year, their most colorful, high-rolling client wouldn't be coming, draped in jewelry ("six, seven, ten pieces!" remembers one dealer) and wielding a Judith Leiber minaudière full of blank checks.
"Dennis was everybody's ideal customer," sighs Barbara Strand, a dealer specializing in the Bakelite that the collector so loved. "When he came in, everyone lit up like Christmas trees. He didn't hassle people about money when he bought stuff. Now we all realize why."
Dennis Masellis is now a prisoner on Rikers Island, sentenced to three to nine years after pleading guilty to first-degree grand larceny in June. Masellis, a payroll clerk at the law firm Baker & McKenzie, embezzled, over the past decade, more than
$7 million through ghost employees and negative deductions on his own paychecks. He spent every last cent of it on costume jewelry, antiques, couture, and 400 Barbie dolls (each of whom had something of a wardrobe herself). And all of it is now in the possession of Doyle Auctioneers on East 87th Street.
Doyle held its first sale of the Masellis collection earlier this month (it brought in just under $2 million), and expects his pieces to affect, in varying degrees, every single auction the house will hold in the next twelve months. The staff is giddily sorting through the boxes of surrealist Bes-Ben hats, modeling the tiaras, marveling at vase after vase of intricately beaded flowers.
"It is, quite simply, the most important collection of accessories ever assembled in terms of quantity, of quality, scope, and depth," says Jan Reeder, who organizes couture and textile auctions at Doyle and has been assigned the task of sorting through at least 10,000 pieces of jewelry.
Masellis is, by all accounts, an odd man. Hugely overweight and flamboyantly dressed ("a regular Elton John," snorts one dealer), he cut a controversial figure on the costume-jewelry circuit. "He really changed the whole face of this thing globally," says Chicago dealer Brett Benson, who for the past four years sent items to Masellis at least once a month, and who took the convict out for a presentencing dinner at Bill Hong, where the dealers all wore free dennis! T-shirts. "He escalated it to the price structure of an art form. Unfortunately, it was a case of obsessive-compulsive disorder, but he did amazing things to the market. I thought it was family money. I always thought, I'm not going to bite the goose that's laying the golden egg!"
"There was no joy of purchase, which I found curious," says Mario Rivoli, a New York dealer. "People usually say, 'Oh, this is perfect!' or 'I love it!' He went, 'I'll take it.' Blank face. No reaction whatsoever."
"The dealers would give him cookies; they'd say, 'I'll call you, I'll take you shopping,' " says a dealer who asked not to be named. "If anybody in their normal mind would pay $100 for something, he'd pay not $200, not $300, but $5,000 for it. Of course he felt like he had friends!"
"I was so sorry to see it all go at auction," says Strand. "If he were living in Italy, his picture would be on a postage stamp. He would be a national hero!" She sighs. "He stole lawyer money to buy beautiful art."


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Downward movement in the rental market in the Northern Emirates, especially in Sharjah, has seen apartment rates fall by an average of 6% over the last three months, reversing the static trend of the previous two quarters, according to the Northern Emirates Q2 2012 report from leading UAE property management company, Asteco.
A combination of increasing vacancy rates in certain areas and the introduction of stricter tenancy rules in the emirate were cited as the main reasons for the decline, after a positive start to the year.
"New regulations regarding shared accommodation have been introduced with tenants in Sharjah required to disclose their salaries and confirm that people living together are family members only. Subsequently, we have seen tenants who previously shared accommodation, move independently to more affordable smaller units, prompting a decline in rental rates," said Elaine Jones, CEO, Asteco Property Management.
Buildings along Mina Road and in Al Yarmouk, which were previously at the top end of the rental market, have seen the largest drops at 21% and 12% respectively for all unit types. The large amount of vacant units in the area, coupled with a lack of parking and facilities has seen residents seek better value for money elsewhere in the emirate.
The commuter belt of Al Khan (Mamzar) and Al Nahdah faired better, with only a 1% drop, while the more desirable Corniche area, which has the highest rents in Sharjah ranging from AED22,000 – AED54,000 for studios to three-bedroom units, saw a marginal gain of 2%. Elsewhere in the emirate, rents for a three-bedroom apartment ranged between AED28,000 and AED63,000.
The Sharjah villa market reported little change quarter-on-quarter, with rental rates for three-bedroom properties in Al Khan (Mamzar), Shargan and Al Quz remaining in the AED 70,000-77,500 bracket.
Neighbouring Ajman also saw a slight downturn in Q2 2012 with decreases in apartment rental rates for studio and one-bedroom units, particularly in the Al Naimia area and new buildings on the Corniche. While there was no change in rental rates along major – thoroughfares such as Sheikh Khalifa Road, Al Quds and Al Nakheel in Q2, both Sheikh Hamid Road and Corniche Road rents fell by an average of 6%.
"Ongoing issues with utility connections, especially those in new buildings, is still a major issue for prospective tenants who are placing generator-powered buildings firmly at the bottom of their housing wish lists," said Jones.
The apartment market in the other Northern Emirates, namely Umm Al Quwain and Fujairah, have seen little or no movement in rental levels in the last quarter, while Ras Al Khaimah saw a slight dip in Q1 but began to stabilise by the end of Q2.
Transaction volume in the Sharjah office market followed Q1 trends with limited movement and rents remained static across the major commercial hubs, with the exception of Al Wahdah, which dropped by 5% to AED 484 per square metre. The Corniche area is still commercial market leader at AED 592 per square metre, mirroring the popularity of the residential rental market.
For more details, please visit www.asteco.com


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Over and Over (Lady Madonna)
Fine Arts, Graphic Design
Allan Espiritu's Over and Over (Lady Madonna) installation is a commentary about the ubiquitous nature of the celebrity machine in America, and about the seemingly religious influence and adherence that this machine exerts.
Using Madonna as a metaphor for the concept of the celebrity machine, the installation uses objects, methods, and motifs common in the commercial world to explore the nature of the "religion" that this powerful machine produces. A theme that emerges in this exploration is that of the mass production of personality. Additional themes that arise in the installation include: psychological control and the aesthetic of desire; consumption and saturation; materialism and aura.
The installation avoids traditional, pictorial representation, instead employing language and typography as its mode of expression. By taking Madonna's lyrics out of the context of her songs and placing them within an arena of pure, decontextualized propaganda, the lyrics no longer represent messages about first love; rather, they suggest expressions of love toward media and consumerism. It is this sentiment of the love for consumer culture that implies a sense of religious devotion.
Throughout Over and Over (Lady Madonna), Espiritu references the typographical landscape of American pop culture—the over saturated, hyper-repetitive visual landscape that daily bombards the public with Hollywoodian, commercialistic messages. The circus-like environment of the installation imitates the everyday media frenzy to which Americans have become accustomed. The work compels the viewer to accept the parallels between religion and media, provoking the inevitable question: Has media become a religion?


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Model: 37-9256/57_37-9527
The K&L Supply Lift Arm Base is the ultimate motorcycle stand. It inserts pins into the frame holes of modern sport bikes and lifts either the front or rear of the motorcycle for painless suspension work. No other stand on the market offers an easier means to work on a sport bike. The unit is sold as a kit including the base, arms, and adapter pin kit all included. Your choice between the narrow or standard base model. Order this great K&L accessory for your lift today!
• Zinc plated finish
• Thick steel construction
• Removes / installs in seconds
• Lifting arms & pin kit ARE included
• Your choice between the narrow MC500/615 or standard MC625/655 base model
• MC500/615 (narrow base): 24" W
• MC625/655 (standard base): 29-1/2" W
• ITEM CAN SHIP VIA LTL FREIGHT OR FEDEX GROUND (damage is more likely with FedEx Ground)
• Free shipping to 48 states*
• Shipping weight: 110 lbs. + pallet
• Can pick up at nearest truck depot
• Residential deliveries with lift gate cost extra
• Free shipping applies to $200 maximum. If shipping exceeds this amount a surcharge may be needed
• Call for pickup availability at the following locations:
-San Jose, CA
-Norcross, GA
-Harrisburg, PA
Free shipping only applies to products that are marked "free shipping" or "ships free" in the title. Freight ship items have a predetermined max amount that can be spent under our free shipping policy. In the event you reside in an unusually high cost shipping zip code we may alert you that a shipping surcharge may be necessary.
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