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ITF 2nd Theatre Seminar: Concluding session - Rustom Bharucha and Shanta Gokhale
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The 2nd national seminar held by the
India Theatre Forum
intended to address the overall theme of "Spaces of Theatre, Spaces for Theatre" in a wider and holistic manner. It was held between 14 to 18 March 2012 in Ninasam, an extremely special theatre space in Heggodu village of Karnataka which has served as a community centre for over 50 years. The seminar intended to cover a gamut of related topics ranging from the relationship of performing "bodies" to space, to the actual physical spaces of performance, to the politics of the spaces in society , to the new virtual spaces opening up and to the future of Spaces. In other words, the seminar built on the understanding that the act of theatre is always more than simply an act of theatre. To think of theatre and its processes is, ipso facto, to think of its temporal and spatial specificities. However, the main approach of the seminar was not to develop an academic theory of the spaces of/for theatre but to sketch the contours of a "spaciology" of theatre as perceived by its practitioners.
In the concluding session of the Spaces Seminar, Rustom Bharucha offers a critique of the space of theatre while Shanta Gokhale epitomises space by talking of those who have made space their own in uncanny ways.
Transcribed by Anasuya Agarwala.
Ninasam, Heggodu, Karnataka
I remember the famous Tagore song. Tumar holo shuru amar holo shara. Somebody's end is someone else's beginning. Something ends and something else begins. A seminar ends and theatre work begins. Theory ends and practice begins. Probably when history ends, civilization begins.
We have two speakers who are doing the concluding remarks in this session. Rustom Bharucha and Shanta Gokhale. I'll very briefly introduce them.
Rustom Bharucha is a scholar, writer and a practitioner. Initially he was known worldwide as a major scholar in the field of interculturalism who then performed research. But personally for me, Rustom Bharucha is one of the only few people who have kept an organic connection with what's happening in theatre practice and also kept on writing about it. What he has written about Krishnattam, about his work with Chandralekha, even his essay on Ninasam are all, in the real sense of the word, a product of real free world.
He has worked with Ninasam, he has worked with Chandralekha. He has also, in a way, worked with Adishakti. And Kanhailal's group in Manipur. So he is one of us. We got to know, as a Ninasam member I got to know Rustom Bharucha...he came here for the first time as an evaluator on behalf of Ford Foundation. Our relationship with Ford Foundation did not last very long. But our relationship with Bharucha lasted. So he came back again, directed plays for our Tirugata and then for...first for the school, then for the Tirugata.
In 1988 he asked the question, what the hell are you doing on the first day. In 1998 he asked the same question about Tirugata and we had a meeting with him, Raghunandana and a few other friends. And we rethought Tirugata and we added what is known as the (?) Tirugata model and I welcome Rustom Bharucha to make his concluding remarks.
Rustom: Thanks very much. You know, Sadanand was joking with me, we just had a big lunch and he said, Kumbhakarna, this is a time for Kumbhakarna. Nimmi is over there and I don't know whether I'll be nodding off and snoring. But really it's been a terrific time but it's been a bit exhausting. It's that feeling of fatigue that you get at the end of a very arduous process. But out of the fatigue sometimes you can get a second wind. So hopefully there will be this second wind of energy.
I just jotted down a few notes and I'll try to be as short as possible. But it's difficult because it was a rich and, in the best sense of the word, a conflictual seminar. And I love conflict. I don't like things that are very smooth and easy and everybody is easy consensus, that's UN, you know. Nothing works there. It's better to be honest and share your views in a very forthright way.
Okay I'm going to jump a little bit. It's not going to be a very smooth presentation, just notes.
So I'm feeling the need for some kind of breathing space. I don't think we talked very much about breathing space. And breathing space is very important. Like you know you need breath to live, you need breath to act, and you need breath to think. And if there's no breathing space then your thoughts get kind of a little bit jammed.
Now many of you guys in the last session, Jehan in particular, which was...he mentioned this in the beginning - what am I going to take with me, you know. And Akshara also talked about beginnings, you know in every end there is a beginning. When the play ends, what begins? I think that's a fantastic, you know, very positive robust way of thinking about theatre. We shouldn't get into this Chekhovian mode of, you know, we've come to the end of the fourth act and it's so melancholic...No! Maybe there's a huge adventure that lies ahead of us in Sagar, who knows.
You know there's a very crucial question that is being forgotten here. The question is not simply what do you take with you at the end of the seminar, what have you left behind? What remains? So I think that's a very very crucial question. You know if you're talking about any kind of exchange, transportation of bodies from one location to another, it's not just a question of what you take and what begins but what remains. So Akshara tomorrow when Heggodu wakes up in the morning, and this room will be empty, and maybe it will be breathing a little more easily and you will have an extra hours sleep and maybe an extra paan, and, you know, everything will be a little more relaxed, what will remain of this particular seminar? What have we given to Heggodu? What have we given to Ninasam. I think this is something we have to always, you know, kind of keep in mind.
A lot of space in theatre is considered sacred. And I bring that up because I feel that wherever you are, you have to acknowledge where you are. So I'm here on this space. And once again why should this space be sacred? There's nothing religious about this space surely. Is there faith? Is there belief? Hardly. But it is sacred in a very very creative theatrical sense because it's charged with energy. It's charged with all the energy that you have brought on to this space and I'm imbibing that energy and in that sense it is sacred. So I choose to define the sacred in a sense for myself as charged.
But do we tend to over-valorise the sacredness or the specialness of theatre? Do we tend to over-privilege space in theatre? And I've been asking myself this question very very very strongly as I write my book on terror. I'm writing a book on terror at the moment, I hope you all get to read it when it's written. It's terrifyingly long. And why, I ask myself, am I so disturbed when I hear that theatres in Ramallah, Palestine are bombed? Why am I so upset when I hear that?
And you know, Sudhanva where are you...there, Sudhanva's done some amazing work through E-rang talking to us about the Freedom Theatre which was destroyed as you know. And we know many other theatres have been attacked by Israeli armed forces. And in our part of the world we also know well - maybe I don't know if theatres have been bombed and theatres have certainly been attacked but we certainly know that art galleries have been invaded by hoodlums and have been, you know, torn away. Why then when I hear about these things, there's a very particular kind of pain? And as a critic I have to see things in many different frames. And there are I saw very objectively in Ramallah, hospitals are attacked, schools are attacked, children are killed, homes are destroyed, then why should theatre be spared? Why? All of society is being attacked then why should theatre be given this sort of special privilege, you know?
And I would say, I am disturbed. And where does that disturbance come from? I think that disturbance comes from very very deeply internalised notion of theatre space which I don't believe we've really addressed in this seminar. The cardinal principle of theatre space, I think, for us in India and everywhere in the world. Theatre is fundamentally a protected space. Theatre is a space where you can do anything you want but you're not expected to be killed. You're not expected to die. In theatre we die on stage but then the actors get up and take a bow. That's the nature of theatre, okay. So you don't expect to be kind of killed.
Now where does this come from? Well, the Natyashastra. The opening chapter of the Natyashastra, many of you know - fabulous opening, really amazing opening. And it's taking place in the celestial realm, what Sundar probably would call, infinite space. So the first performance in our world, our cosmology, was the victory of gods over demons demons basically. And what was so audacious about this performance, to use your word, is that it was performed in the presence of Gods and Asuras, who are not exactly demons. Can you imagine that? Doing a play about your enemy and then inviting them over there. That's a stupid thing to do because the Asuras of course get pissed off, they invade the space, they beat the actors up, they hammer the shit out of them, they freeze them. And the worst thing possible for any actor, they forget their lines. So that is terror. You know, when you forget your lines on stage, that's the moment of death.
Well what happens...these wimps, Bharata's hundred sons go to the celestial censor Brahma and say, what do we do? And what does Brahma say? He says build a playhouse. So from infinite space we go into prescribed space basically. And he follows that up instantly by saying that each and every corner and inch of this, every corner, every single beam will be blessed by some god or the other so that Natya will never ever be interrupted in its history. Incredible story. I go back to that story all the time and I keep reading new things in it. But they were very clever. It's not that violence will disappear. Violence will be represented, of course with beauty, with artistry. But there won't be any real violence and Natya will continue and we'll be perfectly safe.
All over the world I think this principle works. And through the processes of secularisation, oddly enough, theatre is more of a protected space than ever before. The irony is that the more developed the theatres economy, in the United States, in Europe wherever, the more regimented that space is. Rules, regulations, fire laws, insurance policy, you can't do a damn thing in those spaces. You have to fight for your freedom in those spaces. We're damned lucky in this country, we don't have such a sophisticated theatre culture. We can get away with a lot.
But those rules and regulations basically create some kind of a civility in theatre. And I think for me civility can be another form of violence.
Now, there's another reason why we need a protected space, and this came up in the discussion. We need a protected space in order to preserve, enhance a particular aesthetic by resolutely preventing the interruptions of the real. And this came up a great deal. And I want to problematize this, first a bit conceptually, then a bit more examples drawn from Sudhanva.
I'll begin with Veenapani's very very precise conceptualisation where she called our attention to the category of hereness, you know. And that was debated at many levels. And my question will be is it possible to sustain hereness, is it possible to sustain this only in a sealed space? Or can this hereness coexist with interruption? in other words, can hereness be situated in a permeable space? A space where the world can come in and out. Or will hereness only be possible within, in a sense, a very closed sanctified space?
So hereness was problematized by Himanshu. Where is Himanshu? Ah, there you are Himanshu. And Himanshu tried to make us, just jogging your memory a little bit, what did he say...he said that hereness cannot just be limited to the energy of the actor, it has to extend to the audience. And the audience is also a part of this hereness and I think we all agreed to that thing. Now let me just throw out one sort of theoretical, critical concern I have as a writer. What's the least theorized category in theatre discourse? It's the spectator. The holy trinity of the playwright, the director and the actor have been flogged to death in my view. And we know very very little about the spectator.
But in Indian aesthetics, this is absolutely the reverse. Probably alone above all aesthetics, I'm not trying to be chauvinist about this, it's a fact that in our aesthetics the spectator, is as important as the actor. There is no hierarchy here. It's a level playing field here. And our spectators have to be as trained as actors. But we never go into that, you know. The training of the spectator, what could it be? You have this beautiful word for it in the Natya Shastra - Sahrdaya, Hridaya, heart. Sahrdaya, of the same heart. Sharing something, you know. But lets complicate this a little bit because is everybody entitled to become a Sahrdaya? Probably not, because there's a training involved. And that's where the very important questions raised by Pralayan and Mangaye, where are you?... there.
They raised issues of exclusion. Because it's all very well to say that something can happen in a space, you can get transformed and people can become one. But can they, would they be allowed to enter that space? I mean that's the really crucial question. And that's where exclusion. rights of entry become a very very crucial issue to deal with. And that's what takes us to I think Sadanand's very important construction of the hegemonic space.
I don't think any space can free itself entirely from a hegemony. And this hegemony comes with power. It comes with hierarchy. It comes with all kinds of assumptions of purity and caste taboos and so on. So for me space is never empty. It is always already filled with meaning and power.
So keeping these motifs in mind of hereness, spectatorship, exclusion and hegemony let us return to the proposition that aesthetic priorities and prejudices, which are more often than not modernist, at least in this seminar, underlie almost any consideration of space. That when we are saying certain things about space, there's an aesthetic prioritisation going on in your mind, even when you're not actually spelling it out. And I want to turn to Sudhanva here in his brilliant opening remarks. And I'll be more practical and more focused here.
I'll go straight to Chhabildas. That wonderful theatre in Dadar, Bombay. And we talked about the noise factor which Prakash had brought up. Where's Prakash?...Yeah, Prakash. And I think Sudhanva, if I jog your memory correctly, he was talking about a production of Medea where at a critical point, whatever that point is, he heard a bhajan coming in from outside. And for him there was something a bit kind of jarring about that moment, okay. And Prakash made a very passionate plea about noise pollution. And he says, how can we go on doing theatre like this. So obviously you need some kind of protection from all these extraneous elements. But obviously both Sudhanva and Prakash are thinking about a particular kind of aesthetic experience. Where you're not expected to have any sound interruption.
But supposing you're doing a different kind of play. As I was in 1987-1986 in Chhabildas, so I have a very direct personal investment.
I was directing Sulabha Deshpande in one of many adaptations of Franz Kroetz's Request Sponsored. And it's a very intimate play so I told the Chhabildas people that I don't want to do this division, I want to do the whole play on the stage. It was very difficult to persuade them to do that. And I just said, do you have any windows, in your theatre, on stage. They said there are no windows. They didn't know they had windows in their architecture because they blocked out the entire wall with flats and you know all that kind of stuff you have in the theatre. And I needed the ambience sound. So I'm just giving you a small little example that sometimes you need the interruption, you want the bhajan, you want the procession, because it's something you can't control. And it makes life and theatre at its interstices more exciting.
I'll give you another example. This was in Germany. I was watching some Prison theatre. I'm really interested in that as a form. It was a terrible production. Very squeaky clean, very top down, very perfect, you know. Perfectly costumed and very dead. And I felt insulted seeing that production. Because these were men, criminals some of them, who were being made to act like good boys, you know. Perfect costumes, perfect German, total elocution. I said what is this, I mean this is a real infantalisation of men. But while the play was going on, there was an actual brawl going on in the prison. People were going to kill each other in the next room. And that brawl was very exciting for me. And there were prisoners in the prison yard who were looking at the theatre and looking at the audience and yelling abuses at us. Now for me that was very much part of the theatre experience. And I would say that a prison theatre that actually negates that prison is not doing its job correctly.
Now, in your piece Sudhanva, you talk very powerfully about GPD's (GP Deshpande) wonderful experience of doing this play on Jyotiba Phule with the Safai Karmacharis. It's a completely different kind of organisation, different kind of experience and it was a very powerful, emotional experience. I wish G.P.D. were here. I would want to ask him why has it taken it so long, do you think, for your kind of play to actually, not just reach the working class, but to be enacted by the working class? Why has it taken so long? And you proceeded to say that the organisation is now thinking of doing this play in an Akhara, you know, which makes it even more moving given Jyotiba Phule's connection with the akhara.
Now, to just complicate the picture a little bit, Sunil Shanbag had said that his working class audience in Mumbai doesn't want to go to those plays. They want to go to an air-conditioned hall, right. So the working class indeed has different aspirations, different kinds of needs. From my point of view, the work that the air-conditioned hall, I don't want to judge why they should go or not, it's going to be a very expensive proposition. We know that. And I would urge all of us here, instead of thinking, well that's how Sudhanva ended his piece after giving us these examples, he threw out a hypothesis and he said, what if we have fifty different theatres all over Mumbai or wherever, fifty different black boxes, we have fifty different audiences and he built this hypothetical, rather utopian kind of picture. Look, that's one possibility.
But maybe, and this came from Jean Guy and other people, maybe there's another possibility for us in India. And that is to actively search, in an entrepreneurial way, for found spaces. Spaces that already exist in our culture and which are perhaps doing the job already. And I think we need to put more investment in to this. It could be community centres, you'd be surprised how many community centres actually exist all over Mumbai. But maybe they need to be refurbished etc. So I would suggest working from within. Working with what already exists. Which is what Iain Mackintosh had once said. Work with what is already, in a sense, there and do something from there. But that can only happen if there's a real relationship that you are able to build up with the audience. It's not a question of you coming in and saying that, you know, this is a space, you have to have a need for that particular space. Don't underestimate India's very vital public culture and public sphere. I mean that's one of our richest assets so why close those possibilities.
I want to turn to this space. This very space. And I want to focus on two things. One's a workshop I did in this space, I have a real memory of it. I was working with the Siddi community, these persons of African origin scattered in different parts of the country. Agricultural laboureres in this particular part of the country. As always Ninasam hosted it and has facilitated my research in a very very amazing way.
I want to focus on two motifs. Land and memory. Those were the two themes of the workshop but they're also two themes I think we need to think about a little bit. Now the problem is with theatre space, theatre space gets built on land. Once it's built on land we forget the land. And we only are concerned with the building. And indeed there's a huge problem, there's a huge urban ignorance and preoccupation with land which is more often than not equated with real estate. So land is an economic value. We don't have any other understanding of land. But if you go to any rural area and if you're father were alive, Akshara, I'm sure we'd get into a conversation right now and its also there in my book on Rajasthan and Oral History with Komal Kothari, there are a hundred of categories for land. Land is very diversified, it's very variegated, of all kinds of lands. There's agricultural land, there's stoney land, there's sandy land, there's land on which you can build, there's land that is common land, there's land for shrines etc., etc. And I think we need to, sort of, enhance our understanding of land and not just think of it in terms of property.
We build here in Heggodu and Akshara had thrown out a little, a very real fact that we have not dealt with and that's the agricultural economy that has sustained Ninasam essentially. This agricultural economy like other economies is going through major major shifts. There are some major problems. I've talked about three locals here because I've been here many times. They're all facing a major problem. What's the problem? No one wants to work on the land. Everybody is in the cities. So people who have inherited land, there's nobody to actually work on them. And labour is getting very expensive. Agricultural labourers in 1985, if I'm not mistaken, were paid 11 rupees a day - men, 9 rupees - women. Today it's a 150 rupees and above. You know that the kind of scale we're dealing with.
The Siddi I was working with live on forest land. And of course forest land is very ambiguous because the state owns that land but they live there. I wanted to work with the issue of memory. Now we know that actors need memory, you don't have a memory then you're gone on stage, you forget your lines. But memory is also a source of suffering and pain as Krishnamurthy has reminded us. Memory is a burden. And I think what Romi was trying to talk about is actually quite extraordinary and utopian in some way, the Tabula Rasa. That is arriving at a project in a sense without the burden of memory.
I wanted to question if the Siddi had a memory of Africa. Because they come from Africa and they came as slaves, and they came as pirates, and as guards and so as sailors and so on. This is not the place to tell you why, I don't think they had a memory of Africa except in their bodies. Let's just say that we enter this space, like all theatre people, we occupied it, we made it our own. It began to feel like home and at some point it became a second home. It began to smell, this rather formal space here was very lively.
Now, Akshara and Sudhanva had told me when I started the workshop, do you mind but the minister of Social Welfare from the state of Karnataka will be here attending your workshop. I said fine. Not very happy about it but okay. And I forgot about this minister. But like the inspector general in Gogol's play, who appears right at the end of the play, this minister also showed up at the end of the workshop. When I was taking a nap and beginning to relax and then there was this knock on the door and saying Minister! Minister! as if some terrible calamity had happened. And I entered from that space over there and where is Preethi? I want to see where Preethi is. Preethi had told us how she had made her entrance in the sabha. Ah there you are Preethi. And stopped dead in her tracks because there was work going on, there was disturbance going on. I stopped dead in my tracks right there because this chaos and mess of a space that was my home had been completely transformed. I couldn't recognise it. All the chairs had been settled. There was a table placed over here. There were two chairs, one for the minister, one for me. There were two glasses of water, there was a paper-weight and there was a bell which the minister would ring and his secretary behind would take notes. I realised we had entered the theatre of the state. And this very free space had suddenly become something else and I had no control over it.
And I want to tell you that while we go on valorising the notion of the in-between, and we think of the in-between as something very fluid, and something very creative, no! The in-between can be very torturous, the in-between can be very painful. If you are a refugee and you are in between two countries and states in a refugee camp, that's one condition. If you are a person, a woman trapped in a man's body, or a man trapped in a woman's body, that's another in-between and that's hell. So the in-between should not be overly valorised. And I found myself in between the minister, who was treating the Siddi as if they were ignorant nothings, the Siddi who from being actors became sullen labourers and Ninasam. This is Sudhanva sitting right there doing nothing. I had to go through that quandary. That was a very very difficult situation for me.
I found that Ninasam had facilitated the workshop but in a sense it had also facilitated the theatre of the state. So in a sense the hegemony of the space which I was not, you know, conscious of, suddenly reasserted itself. The power relations became really clear to me.
Anyway, the next day it was pretty depressing, humiliating. And then what can you do as a theatre person? You can do very little. Somebody today was talking about, I think, Sundar was talking about resistance. What can you do? What are your weapons? Imagination and cunning. So I told the Siddi, what happened was terrible, we all agreed. I said we're going to play back that scene. And I looked at the Siddi and pointed to one of the best actors and said that you will be the minister. You play the minister now. And let's see what happens.
And there was this explosive improvisation. I said the rest of you give him hell, you know. Just talk back to him. So there was one point where the minister, this Siddi minister was saying you're liars, you say this land belongs to you, where are your papers? And one of the women, wonderful actress, just said look, look at those trees, we planted those trees with our own hands twenty-thirty years ago. Those trees are our papers. Those trees are our documents. And I thought that was amazing. That kind of an insight coming, that they were countering the certification of the state with their own ecological kind of evidence.
But what I'm bringing, what I want to call attention to is that when that Siddi woman was here, look at those trees, the trees are there, you know. So this whole issue of what is real in theatre,you know. The trees are not there but you can create them. it's as simple as that. And that is indeed one of the amazing powers of theatre. It becomes very physical. It becomes very real.
After this workshop I felt that I had to take the process of networking Siddis forward. And I realised at that point that Ninasam could not help me because that is not part of Ninasam's agenda. And what I want to point out here is that any space comes with its limitations. Any institution comes with its limitations. You should inhabit that space so long as you feel your journey, your struggle can be sustained. But if you feel your journey cannot be sustained in that space, whether its Prithvi or whatever, get out. Don't stay behind. It doesn't mean that you sever your ties with the institution. It hasn't, I keep coming back. But you have to find another space. And this is where I want to introduce a rather difficult concept which you might not agree with.
I want to, everybody here is, I think there is a certain loyalism in the theatre. This loyalty to family, community, group. And I'm actually saying, a very essential part of creativity is betrayal. You have to betray the text if you want to create something. It's not betrayal in a mean sense. It's a betrayal that comes out of love. It's not mean. It's not Julius' (?) certainly. And there is a certain ethics of betrayal. This is a concept that has become very important to me, and I owe a lot here to Jean Genet. Because Genet also had this real horror of a certain kind of communitarianism. A certain kind of identity that comes and he always tried to fight it. I'm not saying I'm following that literally, I would like to betray Genet as well. But the point is that, yes, there's something to be said about betrayal and not loyalism.
Okay, the rural-urban link. Huge words. I think that this particular conference has perhaps over-prioritised the urban, okay, at the expense of the rural. We have not had any real representatives of rural performers or actors etc. and there may have been many reasons for that.
I will also acknowledge as Romi and others have given us rich evidence, and others too. These categories are no longer what they were in the '70's or the '60's. The rural and the urban have become complex categories. They have interpenetrated. They have hybridised, they have mutated, they have become blurred. And we have also had terrific evidence here that rural theatre is not necessarily deprived or theatre in rural areas is not necessarily economically deprived. Quite the opposite.
Kataikuttusangam and Hanna and Rajgopal are not here, they get more money from their rural audiences than they get from urban audience. My friend Ajay here has been telling me, and enthralling me, with these extraordinary descriptions of Chharipatti, and I didn't even know about this, this is some kind of subaltern entertainment, you know, very rough, robust, and I'm longing to see it in a jungle area which is also infested with naxalites, tough space. Their turnover is 25 crores for a season. Now, my dears, if we could even get 1 crore, we'd be absolutely in business, wouldn't we? 25 crores. So something is happening here that needs to be very very seriously investigated. You talk to Ajay. Ajay is the great...I'm longing to know more Vinay, it's...extremely.
However, even though I'm painting a kind of a, I'm reversing this notion of victimisation of the rural, I think it's very very wrong to simply go into this postmodern way of saying the rural no longer exists and that kind. Or the rural, there's no poverty in rural India. Come on. this is nonsense. And I think that we have to be careful, for example, when people say there's a first world in the third world and there's a third world in the first world. True. There are new pockets of poverty, there are new pockets of affluence. It doesn't mean that the first world and the third world don't exist. There are still those discriminations and disparities.
Now in the rural-urban, very quickly, just throwing it out, one of the early pioneers, Habib Tanvir. Of course Habib Tanvir did pioneering work, back from rather, creates this group, Chhatisgarh, it gets internationalised. Goes to Edinburgh. Peter Brooks sees Charandas Chor, there's tremendous...But I'd like to ask, what is the agency of the actors in creating their own companies and in sustaining their livelihoods? Habib Tanvir is no more with us. What about those actors, what's happening to them? Are they still going to be working under the specter in the mantle of Habib Tanvir? or have they, do they have the agency to create their own theatres?
Badal Sircar. Hugely important and not sufficiently emphasised in this symposium. Whatever you may say about the Sircar, you may like his work, not like his work, you cannot dispute the fact that this was the man who actually challenged the structured of the proscenium theatre. he broke the structure of the proscenium theatre by offering a very cogent model in the Aanganmanch. I happen to have seen Spartacus when it came out long time ago.
Now what was the problem here? 1977 with Oma (?) which was about rural deprivation and middle class urban indifference, Sircar was beginning to talk about the rural urban link. And he was thinking of moving his theatre from that space and going into the rural areas. This did not materialize. Why? And here we come to the issue that was raised, I think, once again by Sundar, and that's money. We don't really know how to engage with money. We crib about the fact that we don't have money. What was the problem? I think there was the middle-class moralistic attitude to money that Sircar found. Once again, individual choice to be respected. He really believed money was evil. He actually did. And he felt the only way theatre can survive, in a bid to get one rupee a ticket that it can be almost free. But if you follow that ethos, and you stay away from funding, you stay away from all those nasty capitalist forces corporate world, you know, what are you going to do? That basic money needed for transportation into the rural areas, to pay your actors will never materialize. So that never really happened.
And he retreated into the Aanganmanch and I feel that was a regression, after a point it made no sense.
1987 I was here in Ninasam. I was knocked out for all the reasons I think that Akshara has mentioned. Briefly, why was I knocked out? Why was I so excited? Here was I, a city person, nurtured from modernist theatre and coming to a village. Rural area, 1986 or whenever and they're doing Brecht, Shakespeare. I directed The Bundle. They were showing Marguerite Duras' Hiroshima mon amour, they were showing Alain Resnais' Night and Fog. And I said wow! They're working against the stereotype of the rural being associated with so-called traditional theatre which at that point in my time had a certain meaning. So I felt that I was, I felt that they were, Ninasam was breaking the conflation of the rural with traditional. And I thought that was very progressive. I'm not so sure about that today. I have a different perspective.
Today, very briefly, I would say I question very strongly the conflation of the modern, which is what is real in most of us, with the contemporary. For a long time, I assumed that if you're doing modern theatre, that's when you can deal with real, social and political issues. The traditional theatre I felt couldn't handle those issues. I think this is utter arrogance and insularity and stupidity in my part. I would like to believe that the contemporary exists in many different registers. And the traditional is very contemporary in its own right. And I am very grateful here to Adishakti for opening me to this through my work with Adishakti on the Ramayana project, where indeed we have been exposed to the, well there are a hundred and thirty versions of the Ramayana in India. And they're subversive, subaltern, irreverent and the works.
I'll give you a small example. What excited me about the Ramayana and the way we did it at Adishakti, it was the critical thinking of Rama in the Ramayana that didn't come from the likes of me, or Sadanand but from the gurus themselves. the traditional gurus are capable of contemporary critique. And this is something that you really have to take very seriously. Because we don't hear their critique. We don't hear their voices. How did that happen? I'll give you a small example.
There was a production of, a Telugu production of Sita's Svayamvaram where Sita was played by a male actor, impersonator, in a shimmering, sequined cabaret dress. And there were very awkward movements where this actor kept wiggling his shoulder and doing all kinds of strange movements which had all the women, contemporary dancers in squeals of laughter because it was very camp. It looked really really funny and sexy but also very ridiculous.
In the discussion, I asked the guru, what do you think about Rama, the god Rama? He said, he's not a god, Rama is not a god. Rama is not even a king. Rama doesn't know how to rule. And it was a total dismissal of Rama. Absolutely clear. And I must say, my god! That's kind of radical or irreverent or what but then some feminists in the audience somewhere said, you know, you have this attitude towards Rama which seems very progressive, why do you represent Sita in that way? Why is she represented in that sexist manner?... yet to find words for it. Why is she represented like that?
And the guru stayed quiet and said, you know we haven't really worked that out. And they took it a step further, they said not only do we not know how to represent her on stage but we even extend this problem off stage. So the actor playing Sita is also subjected to ridicule and derision in everyday life. Now if this is not politics of gender, I don't know what is. And its coming from a traditional guru. So lets be open to this thing.
My recommendations, three. I think ITF's diversity is not diverse enough. Very simply. There is diversity in the room. I think you have to actively work beyond your comfort zones and in this take active support of traditional performers, folk performers, people from the tribal sector, street performers, and transgendered community who are doing some amazing work in this country. You have to open your diversity, you have to make diversity a little more uncomfortable.
I don't believe this has to be tokenistic, to use your word Akshara. It can be tokenistic if you do not invest in the relationship. But if you invest in the relationship, which means a lot of prior work, it indeed doesn't have to be tokenistic.
I would say make space for critical thinking and dialogue across languages. The one thing, definitely Mangaye what was missing here, we spoke in English and the one instance say, in the conference where language had to be used, translation could have been handled more sensitively. Translation is a deeply complex process. We live in a massively multi-lingual country. There is no justification here for us speaking only in one language. There is no justification for this. And it should not happen again, if i may be a little peremptory. Some real attempt has to be made to hear different languages, for which I do believe translation and modalities of translation have to be figured out.
And I do believe that our concepts can no longer come from the English language and from your American theatrical traditions. We can draw when its necessary. Our concepts have got to come from our own languages. And we haven't even begun to tap them. And we got some sense of that I think in Sundar's presentation, which might have been a better in the beginning.
I do not agree with Samik Banerjee when in his comments he said that pluralism, I don't believe that pluralism has to be neutral. I think that that kind of neutral pluralism is what the state would like to promote. We are not the emissaries of the state. And our pluralism I feel has to be conflictual, and it has to involve a negotiation of differences. And these differences are embedded in diversities themselves at multiple levels. So I think that pluralism is not something neutral.
Two. I would simply say that in terms of practices, definitely look forward, and I liked what Satish had to say about how applied theatre can be used in many ingenious ways, I learnt a lot from him. Very fine example of very pragmatic but subversive in very interesting ways of working within the institution and applying applied thatre. This is a massive field. Take it seriously. It is massive today. The most important theorization and the most exciting practices in the world today are taking place in this domain of applied theatre which is taking place in prisons, which is taking place in hospitals, which is taking place in remand homes.
Now all of us here have a certain aversion to instrumentalism, didactism, preaching, etc. Applied theatre doesn't have to work in this way at all. Some of the most exciting work I see, aesthetically has taken place in prisons. And I tell you prisoners are the best actors I've seen. They are amazing.
So I feel that we have to engage with this for a pragmatic reason, there was a question that came there. (Interruption in video)
This is important. Applied theatre also offers employment possibilities. Because there are multiple fumblers for these applied theatre pratices. They can be linked to different ministries and they can be linked to different kinds of funding agencies and programmes.
So lets think about the employment also. There are ways in which you can earn a living as an actor. But perhaps this is not going to come within the framework of what we used to call group theatre.
My final point concerns failure. I want to think of failure positively. And the worst kind of failure I would say is the failure of success, you know. When you've reached the top and you feel, boy, I've got it all. You know that. That's a killer, you know. When you've succeeded. there's nothing, no...that for me is failure. The failure of success. I would like to invoke here that great great playwright, Samuel Beckett, who advocated failure. And he always said, you know, I can't go on...I'll go on. And what does he advice? He says fail, fail and fail again. But he added, fail better. Can you fail better?
So I think Sadanand might have mentioned that ideas are sparked by crisis. And I had mentioned earlier that I don't think the problem is crisis, the problem could be crisis management. The problem is not chaos, chaos can be very creative. Keep in mind there's an order within chaos. I think it's chaos management. The problem for me is not terror per se. The problem is the war on terror. It's when people try to discipline. It's counter-terror that would be more dangerous.
So while I don't close the search for solutions, I think we need to keep the solutions. I think we also have to keep the struggle alive. So if you fail, fail and you fail better, go for it. Thank you.
Akshara: Thank you Rustom. For the delegates who are leaving today, I am chairing this session to ensure that you can board the train (laughter). We will now have Shanta ji for her concluding remarks. She has worked for a long time as an art critic for a major newspaper. Art critic is something...for the younger generation, it is an endangered profession. Many people really don't know what an art critic is, going by what comes as reviews. Most of the time, what we write in our brochures comes back as reviews. She has been involved with Marathi theatre for a long time. Her major book is on Marathi theatre published by Seagull. Her other book is on Dubey, and another important book that is coming out is on Adishakti. I look forward to that very much because I know Adishakti as a group and I really want to see that book. Again, like Rustom Bharucha, Shanta Gokhale is also a practitioner - she was the playwright of what we saw three days ago (Sex, Morality and Censorship); so she is very much into the world of theatre and like Rustom Bharucha, she is a bridge between the world of theory and the world of practice. Shantaji...
Shanta: I am not given to speech and when the time is up, I like to go. I don't like to stretch things. I was lucky to have a father who gave me a book to read. He was a busy journalist and when I finished reading, he would say to me - okay, in two lines, what did you think? (laughter)
As it happens, we've had three concluding sessions. So a whole lot of things that I very studiously put down this morning sitting out on the terrace of the restaurant have been said and if there's one thing I don't like to do, it is to repeat, to waste time. So I shan't talk about all those things which I had put down, but like everyone else loves to tell stories, I also love to tell stories. And I am going to indulge myself. I have two wonderful stories to tell you about the disempowered empowering themselves and capturing spaces that don't belong to them - supposed not to belong to them.
We have an extremely sweet-sweet, pretty-pretty marriage hall next door. Over the years, it has grown from being practically a thatched space to becoming not quite state-of-the-art, but an extremely well-equipped space. But more than that, over the years, it has become the most prestigious space for the middle-class to get married in. A dear Dalit friend decided - this is where I am going to get married; come what may, I shall get married in this space. So he goes; there's a registrar who has lists - booked for three years and no date! So my friend says to him, "Let me look at your register." So he points to a blank and he says, "What about that?" So the registrar says, "But that is not booked because it is inauspicious. You can't get married on that date!" So, after much silent (?), finally, my friend said, "I am inauspicious. And I will get married here on that date. And I'll return in twenty years with my happy wife and my happy children to show you how auspicious it has been for us." That's one story.
The other comes from Dalit writer Daya Pawar who writes in his book
, which is about jobs that are parcelled out in the (?) system to various communities. So the Mahar community, amongst other things, is invited to play at weddings. All upper-caste weddings are accompanied by shehnai and pasha (?) played by Mahars. They sit outside the space that is not to be desecrated - the sacred space. They sit outside and they play. And when the host comes out, there is a certain manner of speaking that the Brahmin has towards the person who is playing shehnai. So he speaks of how one such uppity Brahmin host said something extremely rude and went his way. Then they played a tune on the shehnai and the whole group of musicians burst out laughing. It was music but it was a code and that code was three of the worst cuss words anybody could give anybody. And those words floated over the sacred space and destroyed the sanctity.
So there are a whole lot of ways in which I have particularly been engaged in this seminar with this question of the powered and the disempowered. Finally, I'd like to say - I think a whole lot of people were at the performance of
and Vali representing the tribals engaged in argument with Rama. And of the hour-and-a-half that the dialogue continued - it wasn't a dialogue at all - it was an hour-long monologue by Vali, who, throughout, one after the other, questions Rama why he was shot. Not just that, why he (Rama) hid behind a tree and shot him, being such a brave man. And, of course, why he kept using a phrase from Julius Caesar - but Rama is an honourable man! One sensed Rama's discomfiture. It was very difficult to answer these charges because they were so patently true. His contention was - you are the king of Ayodhya. You don't have any right over our space. This is our space. I am not your enemy. I have done nothing to you which should provoke you into shooting me. So, why? Just a simple question - why?
Rama was unable to answer, because the only way in which he could deal with it was by pulling rank, by saying - the shastras say this.
Vali is perfectly nonchalant. He says, "Your system is your system; it's not ours. So you still have to answer my question! You're not answering it!" Ultimately, of course, the hypocrisy that comes from all po (?) people, where he says, "See,
tarkik satya
is not the real
. You are asking me questions you expect logical answers to.
Shastra is the logic for all action and taking recourse to the shastras, I have done what is right. A whole lot of this kind of very convoluted argument followed. And I was thinking - this argument is not convincing anybody. Everybody is saying -
Vali ne usko shendi lagali
(Valu outsmarted him). But at the end of this performance, Vali folds his hands and says to Rama - you are great! You can see that as a sarcastic remark, but it wasn't. It is a way of - having had your say, having got an entire audience on your side, you then submit to the larger narrative. Thank you.
Sanjna - Vote of thanks.


text:
Tuesday, 30 April 2013
Moorhouses "Blond Witch"
Moorhouses "Blond Witch"
Spotted by @yvanseth
10 comments:
I'm not sure that is eligible for pumpclip parade!ReplyDelete
A lot of Moorhouse's branding is based around Witches. i.e. Witches Brew and Black Cat. The area has a rich history of Witch folklore.
What exactly is wrong with this pump clip?Replies
Look closely at the background image?Delete
Seemed pretty obvious to me...
Witches... fine, no worries, even blonde ones. But why topless?
I actually assumed that was a pint glass or just shading, but I suppose it does look a bit like a boob. A trick of the light or intentional? Probably the latter but hard to be sure!Delete
When I saw the clip it was immediately obvious. Perhaps my brain has oddly enhanced boob-recognition :(Delete
My grainy camera phone photo isn't the best, this is better:
Presumably someone's idea of being cheeky.
The boob? With a hint of nipple?ReplyDelete
I've heard beer described as being "as flat as a witch's tit" ;-)ReplyDelete
I thought it was a sunset.ReplyDelete
It's mostly offensive because of the missing 'e' on blonde, although maybe it's not a female witch...which doesn't help the case for the breast.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousTuesday, April 30, 2013 5:03:00 pm
Sold as Blond Bitch in the US, which is a much better reason to get all aerated.ReplyDelete

subset: commoncrawl


text:
"It's always something. If it's not one thing it's another."
Roseanne Rosannadanna
Mushroom & Tarragon Cream Sauce
I had two rather amusing conversations about these crepes while they were in the planning process… the first was when I was thinking aloud, my son who was home from uni for a bit said, "Mushroom stuffed grapes?" I said "Yeah, wanna help? It's a bit laborious but they'll be delicious." The second one came from my daughter when I was sharing some of my ideas for what fillings I would make. "I think you're really overthinking this, people want dessert crepes." To which I replied, "… meaning YOU want dessert crepes." So in the spirit of cooperation I agreed to do both!
Honey Ricotta with Pomegranate
It brings to mind something that happened recently and how it really doesn't matter how hard you might try you simply can't please all of the people all of the time. Of the many features I write for Village Living Magazine, many of them are restaurant profiles. (note the use of the word PROFILE and not in fact REVIEW!) A recent one was posted on facebook by the publishers after the magazine hit the stands. Someone snidely wondered in the comments section if the piece was written by the restaurant owner. I had about 400 witty and not terribly kind responses that I crafted in my mind but ultimately decided that I would post none… the fact of the matter is that IRONICALLY one of the four owners of the restaurant was displeased with the piece… maybe I should put those two in touch and they can snipe at each other!
Classic Cherry Crepes with Whipped Cream.
A couple of notes about the making of crepes;
– The step of straining is really important. It sort of seems like one of those things you might decide to skip, but don't… seriously!
– You do not need a special pan. Any 8 – 10″ non-stick will do.
– Some chefs will INSIST that crepes should have no colour. I happen to disagree but ultimately it should be determined how much colour they have based on the presentation and what will look best.
– Crepes store stacked between layers of parchment really well for a day or two.
The honey ricotta is so easy you just won't believe it! Add honey to some extra smooth ricotta and stir well, adding more as needed to attain exactly the level of sweetness you're looking for. That's it! I garnished with pomegranate seeds 'cuz I thought it looked really pretty.
The cherry is a bit more involved and if it's not your thing then pop open a tin of cherry pie filling but homemade is still pretty easy. Toss 2 cups of frozen cherries with 3 TBSP lemon juice and 2 tsp sugar. Combine 3 TBSP cornstarch with 2 TBSP water whisking until smooth. Heat cherries in a saucepan slowly adding the cornstarch mixture and more water stirring constantly to avoid lumps.Slowly is the key here!
I hope with these tips you will find the making of crepes so easy that you'll add them to your repertoire. They are truly elegant and oh so delicious!
Enjoy & Namaste!
- 2 large eggs
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 cup unbleached AP flour
- 1¼ cups milk (any fat content works just fine in my experience)
- 2 TBSP butter (approx)
- 2TBSP butter
- 15-20 mushrooms, sliced
- 1 TBSP flour
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 TBSP chopped fresh tarragon
- S&P to taste
- Whisk together the eggs and salt,
- Gradually add flour and milk, whisking until smooth
- Strain through a fine sieve and set aside for about an hour.
- Melt about ½ tsp of butter in a nonstick pan
- Pour about 3 or 4 TBSP of batter into the hot pan, swirling to create a thin even and round crepe
- Flip when the top is dry looking.
- Transfer to a plate if using immediately or parchment paper if storing for later use.
- Makes 8-10" crepes
- Sauce makes enough for 4-6 crepes
- Melt butter in a fry pan
- Add mushrooms, sauteeing until golden brown
- Add flour stirring until smooth
- Add cream and tarragon, stirring until smooth and slightly thickened.
- S&P to taste
- Garnish with more fresh tarragon is desired.


text:
Mills Ordered GH¢51m For Woyome
- Details
- Category: Uncategorised
- Created on Thursday, 19 June 2014 00:00
Mills Ordered GH¢51m For Woyome
19 June 2014
Alfred Agbesi Kofi Woyome, a key member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and businessman, yesterday stated that former President John Evans Atta Mills ordered that there should be negotiations on the judgment debt paid to him (Woyome).
He told an Accra Financial Court presided over by John Ajet-Nassam – where he is standing trial for allegedly defrauding the State to the tune of GH¢51.28 million – that a committee was formed by the then Chief of Staff, Henry Newman Martey, to look into the case.
The businessman, who made this disclosure in his evidence-in-chief led by Osafo Boabeng, also told the court that he had met the former President on the issue but fell short of disclosing what transpired between them.
The accused person stated that the committee was formed after he had presented a letter to the government to justify why he deserved the amount, at the instance of Betty Mould-Iddrisu, former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice.
He said he was not given the full amount he was entitled to regarding the role he played for the proposed building of accident and emergency centres in the 10 regional hospitals.
Woyome also explained that the initial percentage agreement for the role he played was 2% but after he had put up offices in North America, Europe and Africa and hired consultants, he realised that he had incurred losses and so 2% would not be enough. He therefore made it 4%.
The accused person indicated that after he had met Mr. Martey and his deputy, Alex Segbefia, he was asked to see Betty.
According to Woyome, Betty informed him during their meeting that the government had decided to give him the 2% he was entitled to, with interest.
Judgement Debt
Woyome told the court that there were initial attempts to pay him but the Ministry of Finance (MOF) dragged its feet, wondering whether to pay him all the 2% or pay him half and give the other half to Austro-Invest, adding that Betty Mould-Iddrisu said that he should be paid.
He said he tried to get the money from MOF which was then headed by Kwabena Duffuor, and was asked to give his account number, which he did through his lawyer.
He asserted that the Finance Ministry wrote to the A-G to ask for explanation and confirmation of the amount to be paid, stressing that Betty even wrote a letter that he should be paid.
The NDC bankroller noted that the A-G and the Finance Ministry did not file any defence against the so-called judgement debt and so judgement was granted in his favour.
Government's U-Turn
Woyome told the court that at that time payment of an amount of GH¢17 million was overdue and so it was agreed that he should be paid. However, if he did not win the case at the end of the day, the money would be refunded. He disclosed that it was put into his ADB account.
When asked what he did with the money, he said he used it to defray debts he owed various local banks.
He said that he was paid the remaining amount with interest which he maintained, amounted to the GH¢51.28 million.
The case has been adjourned to June 26, 2014.
By Fidelia Achama
Source: Daily Guide


text:
Tuesday 15th April 2014
|Text too small?
The head of the global body responsible for setting accounting standards says he scratches his head over companies using an Ebitda measure of earnings but he understands why some prefer not to focus on net profit as a performance measure.
Hans Hoogervorst, chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board, is visiting New Zealand seven years after companies here were required to adopt the New Zealand equivalent to international reporting standards, known as NZ IFRS. The rule change filled gaps in the nation's existing standards including recognition of financial instruments, share-based payments to executives and directors, and the treatment of mezzanine financing.
Forcing companies to recognise changes in the value of financial instruments in their profit and loss statement brought transparency to the use of products such as derivatives, which Warren Buffet once called 'financial weapons of mass destruction', and which triggered the 1994 bankruptcy of California's Orange County.
But pushing more items into the P&L has also encouraged companies to present extra, non-standard measures of profit, including 'underlying earnings' and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.
"Ebitda I don't understand at all," Hoogervorst told BusinessDesk. "Why don't you want to know about depreciation and interest, which tells you a lot about the leverage of a company."
"If I was an analyst and I saw underlying earnings, I would always want to know what is on top," he said. "What are underlying earnings? They usually look better than total earnings. So those are reasons for scepticism."
The Financial Markets Authority set out its expectations on the use of alternative earnings measures under 10 principles that became effective on Jan. 1, 2013. They include a requirement to show how the measure is calculated and to provide reconciliation to GAAP profit. They also require companies to use such measures consistently from period to period, consider their prominence and avoid bias.
Hoogervorst, a former Dutch finance minister and financial markets authority chief, says he understands that annual statements have become "very long and tough to read" but to some extent that was inevitable as companies become more complex, including the use of derivatives, complicated pension arrangements and merger and acquisition activity.
But he also said there is "too much of a tick the box mentality by both companies and their auditors and regulators", leaving the investors "swamped by disclosures."
A Deloitte survey of 100 New Zealand companies released last year on the use of underlying profit in 2012 found that 90 of them had provided a total of 253 alternative profit measures. That was the year before the new FMA guidelines kicked in. Of the 253, 81 percent were reconciled with GAAP profit and 63 percent provided a clear explanation of how the measure had been calculated.
"I think that the logic of the markets is that one number is always dominant and it should be the P&L," Hoogervorst said. "In the long run that number gives the least surprises because it includes everything.
I recognise that P&L is a rough number."
The IASB recently completed a new revenue recognition standard that will take effect in the next couple of years, installing a standard top-line definition around the globe. More than 100 countries now use IFRS. The body is now working on a standard for the insurance industry, which "has a huge lobby" and as major buyers of government bonds is a voice governments tend to listen to, Hoogervorst said.
In a speech in Sydney this month, Hoogervorst said he is "still shocked as we continue to stagger from scandal to scandal in the financial markets."
He said at the root of these problems was "the enormous extent of moral hazard in the financial markets", including agent-principal conflicts and "the asymmetry of information."
The IASB's role was to "keep capitalism honest," he said, quoting his predecessor David Tweedie. The body had battled vested interests in its efforts to combat moral hazard. Successes included having stock options treated as an expense and bringing pension liabilities on balance sheet. It is currently battling to get lease contracts included.
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text:
October 19, 2017—On Wednesday, November 1, Shaker Heights Schools will host its first-ever In-Flight Education Downlink with NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station. This event presents Shaker students with a rare opportunity to engage directly with and to learn from astronauts who are actively working in outer space. Shaker Heights Schools is the only district/school in Ohio to receive a downlink in 2017. The most recent NASA downlink in Ohio was held in 2015 at the Great Lakes Science Center.
The In-Flight Education Downlink—a 20-minute question-and-answer session—will be held from approximately 10:10-10:30 a.m. in the large auditorium of Shaker Heights High School, 15911 Aldersyde Drive in Shaker Heights. (Please refer to the NASA TV schedule to confirm the start time on November 1, as NASA may shift the start time slightly.)
Members of the student body, staff and other distinguished community members will attend the downlink. During the session, selected students will ask questions directly to NASA astronauts Joe Acaba and Mark Vande Hei, both of whom are former teachers. All community members and Northeast Ohio schools may stream the event live on NASA TV.
"For years, the High School planetarium has been a valuable learning resource for our students' knowledge and understanding of outer space," says Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum Dr. Terri Breeden. "This downlink enables students to see the real-world applications of what they've studied."
Shaker Heights Schools was selected for this opportunity during NASA's "A Year of Education on Station," which began in September 2017. During this year, NASA will promote STEM activities related to the station for students in grades kindergarten through college.
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for our young people and an incredible honor for the District," says Superintendent of Schools Dr. Gregory C. Hutchings, Jr. "These 20 minutes could inspire the next generation of astronauts, scientists or mathematicians just as much as it could spark creativity in arts and music. We are so grateful that NASA has given our District this special opportunity."
Learn more about the current astronauts aboard the International Space Station and their work online at www.nasa.gov.


text:
Welcome to the original Koh Samui info and weather blog with lots of information on things to do and see around tropical island destination Koh Samui in Thailand including weekly weather updates, brought to you by long term resident Camille Lemmens since February 2007.
Tour bookings on Koh Samui with Camille
Sunday, 26 February 2017
Koh Samui, Thailand weekly weather update; 21st - 26th February, 2017
4 comments:
- Unknown said...
Hi ! What do you think about the storm just now on koh phangan/samui/tao and south of thailand ?
It says on internet that it will be all day rainy until the 4rt
- Monday, February 27, 2017 9:47:00 am
- Camille said...
I'm not sure what storm you're referring to, there was rain for about half an hour this morning and it's cloudy right now.
Next couple of days are predicted to be mostly cloudy with a fair chance of rain each day.
Come the weekend, it should get better.
- Monday, February 27, 2017 11:27:00 am
- Diana Wennerstrøm said...
Hi Camille
We are at Chaweng beach right now. It is raining and the storm sets red flags all along the beach.. It has been like this from about 8 o'clock this morning... Believe me.. There is a storm right now...
- Monday, February 27, 2017 12:05:00 pm
- Camille said...
Hi Diana,
Don't forget that we live on an island. Where I live, in the north east of the island, we had rain for about half an hour this morning and besides a stiff wind, it has been dry ever since.
It's cloudy and mostly likely will stay cloudy for most of this week although the worst day should be today.
- Monday, February 27, 2017 12:19:00 pm


text:
**The blog posts I write often contain affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy for more information.**
Katy and Ryan met while they were in college.
Katy was a runner for St. Ben's and Ryan, a runner for St. John's.
It was no surprise that years later, the majority of their wedding party and wedding guests were either family, or fellow runner friends from their high school or college days.
On the last Saturday of August, Katy and Ryan gathered together with their family and friends in Brainerd, MN for their wedding day. Both families are devout Catholics so the wedding ceremony took place in the beautiful St. Francis Catholic Church in Brainerd, with a wedding reception following at Madden's Resort.
The weather sprinkled on and off all day, but cleared up when it counted. Plus, as countless people reminded Katy and Ryan on their wedding day – rain is good luck. Not like they'll need much of that – their devotion and genuine enjoyment of each other is clearly evident to anyone who watches them for three minutes.
Katy + Ryan: Thank you guys so much for giving me the honor of being your wedding photographer. Getting to know you in the months leading up to your wedding day and then walking alongside you on one of the greatest days of your lives is something I'll never forget. I wish you a lifetime of love and laughter and know that the future holds great things for you too!
xoxo!!! Laura
Wedding Venue: St. Francis Catholic Church and Madden's Resort
Wedding Photography: Laura Radniecki Images
Flowers: Kate Kuepers with Bloom Designs
Cake: Friend of couple – Nicole Franta
DJ: Friend of couple – Josh McClure
If you are looking for a Brainerd, MN wedding photographer, I'd love to hear from you!
Want to take EPIC photos of ... well, everything?
Now, you CAN!
Download a FREE copy of my 70 pg ebook:
Photography SECRETS: How to Take Better Photos in 5 Easy Steps.
I'll teach how to take better photos in 5 easy steps, no matter what camera you have.
Life is happening all around you. Don't waste a minute HATING your photos!


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Thursday, 1 December 2016
Finished National Novel Writing Month!
Hello from Morocco! I'm down here for one of my regular writing retreats and making a rare appearance online. I mostly ignore the existence of the Internet when I'm here. Anyway, I just wanted to announce that I made it through another National Novel Writing Month, a movement of mass craziness every November when people around the world write 50,000 words in 30 days.
Actually it's not as hard as it sounds. Like any other skill, writing becomes easier with practice. The more you write, the more you can write. It helps that in Morocco I don't have any distractions to lower my word count!
Mostly I've been working on the fourth of my Toxic World series of post-apocalyptic novels, Emergency Transmission, which sees the reappearance of the mysterious freighter`and the reappearance of a certain crazed cult that wasn't fully done away with in the first book. I also did some ghostwriting. I've been getting a lot of that sort of work lately.
I'll be in Morocco for another couple of weeks. I'll post some pictures when I can!
4 comments:
- Alex J. Cavanaugh said...
Congratulations! It certainly isn't impossible when you put your mind to it.
- 1 December 2016 at 04:59
- Sioux said...
Sean--Congratulations. I got 22,000 words by yesterday, but it's a kids' book, so it doesn't need to get to be 50,000.
You're a winner in so many ways...
- 1 December 2016 at 05:32
- Donna Volkenannt said...
Congratulations on completing your NaNo challenge. Stay safe in your travels.
- 1 December 2016 at 14:39
- Mandy 'n' Justin said...
Yay for finishing NaNoWriMo and being in Morrocco! How fun!
- 7 December 2016 at 10:17
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Looking for more from Sean McLachlan? He also hangs out on the Civil War Horror blog, where he focuses on Civil War and Wild West history.
You can also find him on his Twitter feed and Facebook page.
You can also find him on his Twitter feed and Facebook page.


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home » builders » builder's lessons » sample objects - fountains
Sample objects - fountains
In order to make sure a fountain has sufficent drinks and skin refills over the reboot time of the game, give value0 and value1 large numbers. Most fountains should not be able to be picked up, so make sure not to put any wear flags on them.
#8003 water fountain~ {C0}a water fountain~ {C0}A fountain spills crystal clear water from a dolphin's mouth here. ~ ~ ITEM_TYPE_FOUNTAIN 0 0 QUALITY_AVERAGE MATERIAL_MARBLE COND_PERFECT SIZE_MEDIUM 100000 100000 0 0 0 0 E water fountain~ {C0}The fountain is a marvellous sculpture with a sea theme. Dolphins cavort happily, and one has water flowing from its mouth. ~


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After last time I vowed we'd be dressed up, as we were definitely in the minority without costumes. This time we were indeed dressed up (I in new duds, and Dan in some of his wedding clothes), but there were also more people this time without costumes. Oh well, I definitely enjoyed being dressed, though by the end of the day I was ready to be back in my usual clothes.
The location was amazing! It was at the Kasteel Arcen, which wasn't really a castle, more like a manor house, but the gardens were absolutely fit for a castle. The whole place was huge, which helped disperse the massive amount of people, and there were probably a dozen different types of gardens to explore. There was even a mini-golf (excellently called midgetgolf in Dutch) course tucked way back on the property.
This time, we took more photos of ourselves (mostly of me) than other people, and here are my favorites.
Oh, but first I should explain the sweater. I originally intended to make a jacket for the event, but didn't have time. I was going to just wear a chemise under my corset, but decided it was probably going to be too cold. Thankfully I had a sweater that worked well enough--so you'll have to forgive my modern addition. I did end up needing the sweater, and was really grateful to have it on. September isn't the warmest month here--though we didn't get rained on until the walk home.
|We started in the rose garden.
|My gloriously large backside.
|Admiring the view
|There were monkeys!
|Wandering around the mini-golf course.
|I had a go at throwing axes at a bear.
|I actually stuck an ax in his arm!
|We ate a lot of meat on a stick.
|Watched some Japanese archers
|Saw this amazing family (check out her hat!)
|Took a rest in the Italian garden.
|Found a giant hut in the Asian section
|Admired the vistas
|and the people
|and the lakes
|Ope, and finally one of Dan!


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Hunter Renfroe, OF, Mississippi State
Bats/Throws: R/R
Height/Weight: 6-1/216
Birthdate: Jan. 28, 1992
Over his first two seasons at Mississippi State, Hunter Renfroe managed a .242/.318/.355 batting line notable mainly for being unremarkable.
His junior campaign has been the opposite.
The late-blooming Renfroe has joined the ranks of the elite, an impact college bat in a draft short in that department. In 188 at-bats this year, the tools have come together in the form of a .362/.459/.691 batting line. The right-handed batter has 15 home runs and 51 RBIs.
The aforementioned tools -- thunderous power, above-average speed and a power arm -- made Renfroe, who was selected by the Boston Red Sox in the 31st round of the 2010 draft, a much anticipated arrival in Starkville. But it was only until this year that the former catcher and pitcher melded it all into one of the best all-around packages in the country.
Enjoying one of the greatest seasons in MSU history, Renfroe has climbed as high as No. 14 in some mock drafts.
Drafting at No. 13, the Padres might take a long look at Renfroe, assuming he's available, of course -- with two plus tools, his stock may still be on the rise.


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Valdosta Commercial Doors has been in existence since 1990, operating as a family-owned business for almost 25 years. Founded by Tom Stump, the company is now owned by brothers Adam and Justin Cowart.
We serve all of south Georgia and north Florida and have built longstanding relationships with our local contractors and architects. Our full-time staff will be committed to meeting or exceeding your expectations by providing quality products, professional installations and excellent customer service.
Valdosta Commercial Doors is a proud member of the Associated General Contractors of Georgia and the Door and Hardware Institute. We are a Warnock Hersey Label Shop.


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My first front page on Etsy, originally uploaded by Pulguinha´s beads.
At Pt Team there´s a game "Item a day Game", that give us an item from a PT Team shop so we can make a treasury.
On Eropean Street Team there´s the ESTSpirit, wher all the treasuries on that discussion should include five members off ESTSpirit and three from European street team.
I try to join the two challenges with TT Team and also 247 so I can get the most exposure to my treasuries.
This time, I got to te front page.
I´m so happy.


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Summer Courses
VVC has taken an initiative to transform the hobby courses into full time degree courses. Primarily, we offer plethora of such courses under one roof.
For the right career guidance of the young minds, VVC has introduced summer courses which shall be commenced on short/long weekend/weekdays basis, based on Batch size/ physical and human resources availability.


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Here's a card I created for a recent swap event that I was involved with several demos!
I used 'Wisteria Wonder' card to create a base. I then ran it through the 'Big Shot' using the 'Stripes Embossing Folder'
I then ran some 'Baja Breeze' card through the 'Big Shot' using the 'Perfect Pennants Die'.
The icecream cone was created using the 'Petite Pennants Punch' textured using the 'Lattice Embossing Folder'.
The scoops of icecream have been made using the 'Cupcake Punch' and 'Pretty In Pink', 'Very Vanilla' and 'Chocolate Chip' card.
Finally the sentiment was printed using 'Chocolate Chip' ink and the 'Itty Bitty Banners' stampset.
I just love punch art and using my punches in different ways!!
If you'd like to order any of these products drop me an email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Amy Tidd - Independent Stampin' Up! demonstrator. Operating in the Surrey/ Hampshire area.
Tuesday, 6 November 2012
My icecream swap!
2 comments:
Ow, now, see, now I want ice cream - and not in a bowl, I want a cornet and it all your fault Amy. Love this design.ReplyDelete
Dionne x
Thanks for sharing what you love. I too enjoy stampin up products. You are very creative. I'm inspired.ReplyDelete
pleae go see our blog hop with prizes
May God bless you and your family,
Sherrill Graff firstname.lastname@example.com
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Classic Collection
The Orient Star "Classic" has a domed dial, a type of dial which has a raised center that gently dips to its edge. The timeless and elegant curves of the domed shape accent the antique aesthetic. Box glass yields a watch with beautiful form marked by soft roundness. Visibility enhanced with a simple bar index and clear hands. Key Features: 1. Domed Crystal 2. Gorgeous color contrast 3. The case is 38.5mm which makes it truly a classic watch. 4. The movement is self-winding, hand-winding and hacking (second hand halt mechanism).
Technical Details
Men / Women:Men
The amount of time a watch will remain running without being wound further. A Power Reserve indicator provides a visual gauge representation of the amount of power left.Power Reserve:Approximately 40 hours
Domed Mineral Crystal
The watch instrument that measures the passing of time and which displays the current time. A watch movement may also display other things such as the date, day, or month.Movement:ORIENT Cal. 40N52 Automatic Hand-Winding Hacking Mov'tThe maximum amount of water that can be repelled by the structure of the watch case. Usually referred to in meters, ATM (where 1 ATM = 10m) and Bar (where 1 bar = 10m). Water Resistance:50mCase Material:Stainless SteelCase Diameter:38.5mm without crownCase Thickness:13.1mmDial Color:WhiteBezel Material:Stainless SteelCalendar:DateBand Material:Leather (Black)Lug Width:20mmWatch Video
More Watches in this Collection


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"Workplace Safety" are procedures and policies that ensure the safety and health of employees within a workplace. It involves hazard identification, stress and fatigue management, and control according to government standards with ongoing safety and education for employees.
What is the leading cause of hazards in the workplace?
Employees' activity dictates production. If a worker is under pressure, he/she will then start taking shortcuts to increase productivity. It is then when workers feel compelled to work quickly (and sometimes recklessly). And not just with the employees, mind you. Lack of maintenance and daily checks of trucks, and failing to segregate vehicles creates not just a problem to the productivity of the business but to the public as well. Trucks and other equipment should be regularly inspected to ensure that they are in proper working order.
Let's take a Forklift Operator, for example; If placed under a lot of pressure, the driver may start hauling loads that are too large which could result in the driver being distracted. The result may be hitting something and/or damaging the product or worse, even injuring a co-worker.
Another common hazard is the over-stacking of loads in warehouses which can limit a sprinkler system's efficiency and effectiveness in an emergency.
There are also sanitation issues. Workers shouldn't wait for housekeeping crews to take care of these. Instead, they should be trained to clean as they go to avoid any accidents in the future as filth, clutter, leaks, or just wet space can contribute to slips, trips, and falls. A single mishap often creates a domino effect. Remembering Murphy's Law is a key factor in being proactive — If the clutter or spill requires specialised training to clean up, then employees need to alert their supervisor, who can send in the appropriate staff to do the job. Employers should set aside a few minutes at the end of each shift to clean up or to remind staff of their responsibilities with regards to safety before leaving for the day.
Employers, most of the time, fail to identify the root cause of these occurrences — a common action is to blame the individual and undertake some of disciplinary action — which then results in not having enough staff to manage the current workload and hinders productivity. But worry not as our Workplace Training is guaranteed to give you the necessary skills and knowledge to handle and overcome most hazardous situations. Keeping you safe, giving you peace of mind and helping you focus on your business.


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My blog's sponsor and English language GMAT content provider has provided me with the following post on the Quantitative Section. If you have not done so, consider taking a free trial of Knewton GMAT.
Knewton Tips: Probability vs. Combinatorics on the GMAT
Knewton Tips: Probability vs. Combinatorics on the GMAT
Rich Zwelling is one of Knewton's expert GMAT prep instructors. He enjoys using the word "combinatorics" in everyday conversation.
A friend and I were recently analyzing a particular GMAT problem. Since we're both standardized-test geeks, the discussion naturally turned into an extended investigation into GMAT strategies. Some topics are just too fascinating to avoid!
The problem in question went like this:
Melinda and Mindy both work in a department consisting of six total employees. Their boss specifies that two workers in the department will be chosen at random to take part in a company survey. What's the probability that both Melinda and Mindy will be chosen for the survey?
As with many GMAT problems, this problem can be solved in a variety of ways. Turns out that my friend and I chose entirely different methods—but we both ultimately arrived at the same (correct!) answer. As it turns out, our divergent strategies highlighted some key distinctions between probability and combinatorics as used on the GMAT.
1. My friend decided to go with probability to solve the problem. Here's his thought process:
The chance that Melinda will be selected first is 1/6. If that happens, there will be 5 workers left. The probability that Mindy is the next person chosen is 1/5. Thus, the probability of Melinda being the first person chosen, and Mindy being the second person chosen, can be found by multiply 1/6 * 1/5 = 1/30.
In addition, however, we must factor in the possibility that Mindy is the first person chosen and Melinda the second. This will lead to the same probability: 1/6 * 1/5 = 1/30.
Since we're only interested in these two possibilities (and nothing else), we add the two probabilities in order to arrive at our final answer.
1/30 + 1/30 = 1/15. This is the probability that both Melinda and Mindy will be chosen for the company-wide survey.
2. Unlike my friend, I decided to use combinatorics to solve the problem. Here's my train of thought:
With a group of 6 people, there are 15 possible combinations of 2 people that you can choose. This can be calculated using the combination formula, namely:
n! / [k! * (n-k)!]
In this problem, n = 6, because there are six people in all, and k = 2, since we're looking for a subgroup of two people. Therefore, we can figure out that:
6! / (2! * 4!) = 6 * 5 / 2 = 15 total combinations of 2 people.
So, out of these 15 possible combinations, we're only interested in one: Melinda and Mindy. Remember, since this is a combination, order does not matter (as opposed to a permutation, where order must be taken into account). Melinda and Mindy is the exact same combination as Mindy and Melinda, since the same two people are involved.
(To explain this further: an example of a permutation would be if Melinda and Mindy were in a cycling race, and there were different prizes awarded for 1st and 2nd places. In that case, Melinda finishing first is a different scenario from Mindy finishing first. But in our problem, we don't care who's picked first, but only about who is in the group of 2; therefore, we don't need to worry about order.)
So, back to the question. We're interested in only one combination, Melinda and Mindy, out of a total of 15 combinations. Therefore, the final answer is 1/15—the same answer that my friend came up with using probability.
When we talked about this, though, my friend interrupted me. "But wait," he said, "since it's a combination, order shouldn't matter, right? Melinda and Mindy is the same exact combination as Mindy and Melinda. So—how come in my solution, we added different probabilities for Melinda-Mindy and Mindy-Melinda? Order shouldn't matter here—but it did!"
After a little bit of discussion, we realized that the order had mattered in my friend's solution because he had looked at the situation as two different events, not two different combinations. Melinda and Mindy is the same combination as Mindy and Melinda—so if we were restricting ourselves to finding information that was solely about combinations, then order wouldn't matter.
However, in this case, we were also interested in probability. The situation of Mindy and Melissa being chosen first and second, respectively, for the survey, is a distinct event from if Melissa and Mindy were chosen first and second. So, even though we know that both events concern the same combination of people, the events are different.
Problems like this can be a little bit hard to follow, as they can involve both probability and combinatorics, making it easy to confuse the two. It's important to remember that, on their own, combinatorics deal only with finding the number of combinations or permutations in a given set of data, while probability deals with discerning the likelihood that an event or events will happen.


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During a weak economic environment, purchasing a piece of fine art is perhaps not high on most folks' priority list. While that is understandable, it should also be acknowledged that this is, in fact, a great time to purchase, own and enjoy a beautiful artistic creation at a fraction of the cost one would usually have to pay. That is especially the case this month as the Burbank Creative Arts Center Gallery presents a silent-auction fundraiser to benefit the Burbank Fine Arts Federation.
"This is an opportunity for people to own a piece of original art at a very reasonable price," said one of the center's founders, Claude Hulce. 'There are things here that sell for well over $1,000 that people will be able to get for a couple hundred dollars."
Offering an eclectic mix of more than 100 oil, watercolor and acrylic paintings, ceramics, photos and various two and three-dimensional creations donated by artists whose work has been showcased at the gallery, the fundraiser kicked off this past Friday evening with an opening-night reception.


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Could have been so much better
7 Night Hawaii (Honolulu Roundtrip)
Sail Date: October 10, 2015
Ship: Pride of America
Cabin Type: Balcony
Cabin Number: 8012
Traveled As: Couple
Reviewed: 3 years ago
Review Summary
The biggest complaint was the food. General dining area was the worst food ever and would be the primary reason for not booking with Norwegian Cruise Lines again.
This is my 2nd cruise on Norwegian and although it was a different ship, the food then was not that good and this time even worse.
I do have to give high ratings on the food a Cagney's, one of the specialty restaurant. Best lobster ever.
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