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In part 3 of this series, we will celebrate female artists and bands from multiple decades who were, and still are, influential in shaping music as we know it.
Voice, piano, flute
Blue-eye Soul, Pop-Rock, Rock, Pop, New Wave, Synth-pop, Electronica, Soul, R&B, Jazz, Adult Contemporary
Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This), Here Comes The Rain Again, Who's That Girl?, Would I Lie To You?, Missionary Man
Singer/songwriter Annie Lennox has sold over 80 million records, been awarded eight Brit Awards (more than any other female artist), four Grammys, a Golden Globe, and an Oscar. A compelling performer with a powerful stage presence, Annie has always seamlessly juxtaposed her articulate, soft-spoken, personable interview style with the ultra-flamboyance required to captivate large stadium audiences. It's no wonder she has earned the distinction of Most Successful Female British Artist in UK history.
Ann Griselda Lennox was presented as an only child to her working-class family on Christmas Day, 1954 in Aberdeen, Scotland. From a young age she learned to play the flute and piano, then as a teen although she won a scholarship to the London Royal Academy of Music, she struggled with self-doubt and melancholia. This self-doubt eventually caused her to leave school to perpend which musical direction to take. Throughout the next few years, like so many musicians, she worked a variety of diverse day jobs including shop assistant and waitress, while singing and playing at night. She became well-known for her androgynous look and soulful voice. In the late 1970s, she joined a British Pop band called The Tourists, her first musical collaboration with guitarist and songwriter, Dave Stewart.
The Tourists had a modicum of success and even landed on the UK charts, but in 1980 when Annie and Dave decided to leave and form The Eurythmics, the duo's careers began to ignite, crafting synth-pop hits with intelligent lyrics. In America, the band's rise came during the age of MTV, and Annie visually stole the spotlight with her compelling on-screen presence that explored androgyny and femininity alike. By 1990, they had created a massive catalog of songs and were constantly touring, and Annie felt she lacked roots. That year, she decided to leave The Eurythmics to work with the homeless.
By 1992 Lennox returned to music with the release of her first solo album, Diva, which topped the UK charts at Number 1. She has released a total of 6 solo albums with vocals and one EP containing four improvised piano tracks to accompany her art installation at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, titled: Now I Let You Go.
Throughout the years Annie has repeatedly referred to her desire to create great music that she enjoys and responds to, rather than be driven by chart success. As an artist who is deeply influenced by Bob Marley's music and activism, she recognizes the power her position as a singer affords her, using it as a platform to advocate for social and political justice. An outspoken activist and thoughtful orator, Lennox has earned the Order of the British Empire [OBE] by the Queen, an award that recognizes extraordinary contributions to England.
Annie Lennox does not appear to be slowing down anytime soon. She currently lives in Los Angeles and during the COVID lockdown, she has been busy producing a record for her daughter, Lola Lennox. Annie's last release was A Christmas Cornucopia, which included a recording of "Dido's Lament", an operatic aria written by Henry Purcell around 1688, which is remarkably poignant still. A quote from Annie appears at the beginning of the accompanying video:
"When it comes to climate catastrophe, we are on the edge of the abyss. I really don't believe we have much time left to make an effective change. We are looking at a civilization on the downwards side. This is the truth of the matter. It's staring us in the face and we are not paying any significant attention - continuing on as if it doesn't exist. I see Dido's Lament as a lament for our dying planet." - Annie Lennox, December 2020
Adele, Taylor Swift, Amy Winehouse, Garbage
Vocals, guitar & piano
Blues, Blues Rock, Roots Rock, Americana, Folk
Something to Talk About, I Can't Make You Love Me, Angel From Montgomery
Bonnie Raitt has had a career that has spanned almost five decades. She has received 10 Grammys and has been nominated for many more. As a young girl in California, Raitt was born into a musical family. Her mother was an accomplished pianist and her father was an acclaimed Broadway actor. They encouraged her and her two brothers to pursue music as well. She began performing in California and continued when she moved to Boston to attend college.
After gaining the attention of a writer at Newsweek, she signed her first major record deal in 1971. Her early records featured the songs of slide guitar masters such as Mississippi Fred McDowell and Robert Johnson. In 1974, she released Streetlights which included the John Prine penned classic "Angel From Montgomery", her first hit song. The album also marked a departure from the Blues to other genres of Rock and Pop music.
Over the next decade, she had moderate success, but couldn't quite break into the mainstream. She was immensely respected by her peers, but none of her albums had commercial success. Along with her passion for music, Raitt also has felt strongly about environmental change and clean energy. In 1979 she helped to organize a star-studded event at Madison Square Gardens for Musicians United for Safe Energy. Raitt's big breakthrough came in 1989 when she released the album "Nick of Time". It went to number 1 on the charts in 1990 and was ranked at #230 on Rolling Stones "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". In 1990, she garnered 4 Grammy awards including Female Rock Vocal, Female Pop Vocal, and Album of the year. She also won Traditional Blues Album for her work with John Lee Hooker on the "In the Mood" record.
Raitt is perhaps the world's most recognized female electric slide guitarist and was the first female guitarist to have her own signature model Fender guitar. Early in her career, she favored playing acoustic slide but adapted her style to playing a vintage Stratocaster with a glass slide. Raitt favors open A tuning and has a very lyrical style of playing which provides her a distinctive second voice as powerful and expressive as her vocals.
Bonnie Raitt has continued to write and record albums and remains active in the causes she feels so passionately about. She has been called one of the 100 greatest singers and guitarists of all time and she has earned that title over the span of her career. Raitt was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000 and continues to record and tour.
Lucinda Williams, Joan Osborne, Sheryl Crow, Melissa Etheridge
Jazz, R&B, Gospel, Pop, Disco, Rock
Tell Me Something Good, I'm Every Woman, Sweet Thing, I Feel For You, Through The Fire
10 time GRAMMY® Award Winner and 2021 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nominee Chaka Khan was born March 23rd, 1953 as Yvette Marie Stevens, to a diversely artistic family of painters, musicians and singers in Naval Station Great Lakes, Illinois (Hyde Park). As a small child, she watched her parents craft fine murals of grand architecture on the interior walls of any apartment they lived in, and listened to jazz, gospel and R&B greats. Raised in the Catholic church, Chaka also sang opera and Gregorian chants in her early years, and by the tender age of 11 she had formed her first singing group with two friends and her sister Yvonne, called the Crystalettes. Supported by their mother with costumes and transportation, the Crystalettes consistently ranked 1st or 2nd in the local singing competitions. Although that group didn't last, there is a musical working bond between Chaka and her talented siblings that continues to this day.
In high school, Chaka joined the Affro-Arts Theater and was briefly involved in the Black Panther movement, running a free Breakfast for Children program and adopting her new name of Chaka Adunne Aduffe Hodarhi Karifi. [Note: Although Chaka means fire in many African languages, in an VLadTV October 2020 interview, she explains that Chaka is the female form of the male name Tchaka, which means warrior. The female form of the name, Chaka, means warrioress.] Later, Chaka quit high school and moved in with her photographer father, Charles Stevens, where she began to meet, work with and befriend the musicians she grew up listening to and admired deeply, like Sarah Vaughn, Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie. Chaka felt as if she had arrived, and that at the time it was the biggest accomplishment of her life. She joined two different dance bands, Lyfe and The Babysitters, before meeting Rufus - the band which would launch her musical career. Chaka tells the story of hanging out at the communes on Rush Street and jamming at the clubs. She stumbled upon Rufus playing at a club and fell in love with the wall of sound they created live. Rufus was composed of ex-The American Breed members Andre Fischer and Kevin Murphy, who had a hit single in 1968 with "Bend Me Shape Me". When Chaka met them, they played mostly original country music and she was excited to know musicians of their caliber. She became good friends with their lead singer, Pauline, and learned much about the business. After Rufus' lead singer left, Chaka jumped in without missing a beat. What many people may not remember is that Chaka's first album with Rufus was in the Country genre and although they were one of the most popular bands in Chicago, poor record sales inspired the band to push their musical boundaries. After they started touring with the Rolling Stones, their sound started expanding as Chaka's multi-faceted voice easily sang from Opera to Rock, Country, Jazz, and Blues and her onstage presence grew as an activist, dawning Native American attire because she wanted to represent "a part of our collective history that we didn't celebrate" as she is part Blackfoot Indian.
Rufus & Chaka Khan earned their first GRAMMY® Award with Rufus on "Tell Me Something Good", a song credited to Stevie Wonder. Interestingly, in an interview Chaka states she co-wrote the song, but didn't take any writing credits because she wasn't aware of how writing credits worked and she was overwhelmed meeting Stevie Wonder. Rufus & Chaka Khan became a hit making machine and played to sold-out auditoriums and arenas across the country while the African-American members of the band endured racism at hotels, truck stops and restaurants. The band earned a number of gold and platinum albums before Chaka decided to go solo, in 1978.
Chaka's solo career has produced a massive amount of hits and showcased her powerful, unique voice that has been more often compared to an instrument. As the late Jazz great Miles Davis used to say, "She sings like my horn". Her voice is nearly uncategorizable, as she easily bends and sways into any genre as she does effortlessly on Rick Wakeman's concept album, 1984. Ms. Khan has also expanded her creative endeavors into numerous acting roles, including starring in the Broadway production of The Color Purple.
In the Oct 2020 VLadTV interview, Chaka reminisced about meeting Robert Palmer in the mid 1980's, and stated they fell in love listening to "The Night I Fell In Love, by Luther (Vandross)". Palmer was about to record his soon-to-be hit song Addicted To Love and invited Chaka to the studio where she wrote vocal arrangements. Originally, they recorded the song as a duet, believing their record company couldn't possibly object as Chaka worked for Warner Brothers, and Palmer for Island Records. But Warner wouldn't grant a release for the duet version of the song. Ms. Khan stated in the interview that she believes that incident was the first time she experienced racism within the music industry. Although the world never was blessed to hear that duet, Palmer credits Chaka with the vocal arrangements in the album's liner notes.
Chaka Khan is celebrating 40 years in the music industry, with a total of 22 albums to her name, 10 of which went gold or platinum and a song catalog over 2,000. Ten of her songs have gone to #1 on the Billboard Magazine chart. Chaka Khan is a powerhouse of a performer who has carved her name into music history.
I Feel For You - her smash hit cover of Prince's song, was one of the first songs to combine Rap and R&B.
Whitney Houston. Whitney did her first recording at the age of 14, with her mother, Cissy Houston, on one of Chaka's songs. Cissy was already one of Chaka's main backup vocalists.
Vocals, guitar, piano, dulcimer
Folk, Rock, Jazz, Pop
Big Yellow Taxi, Both Sides Now, California, Carey
Joni Mitchell is a Canadian singer-songwriter whose influence resonates throughout many of the most successful musicians of the 20th and 21st centuries. Though she is celebrated as a 60s Folk darling, her music career was endlessly inventive and she experimented with Pop, Rock, Classical, Jazz, World Music, and Electronic Music at different periods in her life. Her lyrics examine social and philosophical constructs while also exploring joy, heartbreak, and experiences as a woman; Rolling Stone summarized her as simply "one of the greatest songwriters ever".
She was born Roberta Joan Anderson in Fort McLeod, Alberta, Canada, on November 7 of 1943. Her family relocated several times but she considers Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, her hometown. She suffered from polio at the age of nine and has stated that the grim experience and recovery influenced her sense of inner self and ignited her interest in art and expression. She took up visual art when she was young and has remained a painter her whole life, and designed and painted most of her own album covers.
Mitchell taught herself the ukulele and then guitar from a Pete Seeger songbook. She devised alternative tunings to her guitar to compensate for her polio-weakened left hand. In time, she would become known for her "weird Joni chords" and this became part of her distinctive sound and songwriting structure. Her first paid gig was at the Louis Riel coffeehouse in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
Mitchell moved to Alberta to attend art school and played gigs on the weekend, taking a job at a place called The Depression Coffee House. At 20, she quit school and moved to Toronto to be a Folk singer. After struggling to make ends meet with small gigs and retail jobs, American Folk singer Chuck Mitchell was impressed by her original material and invited her to move to the United States. The two moved to Detroit and began playing music together, marrying in 1965. She began playing and composing her own songs using unique and alternative guitar tunings, garnering her signature sound. She moved to New York City in 1967 to play as a solo artist. Her songwriting and innovative guitar style became well-known.
She caught the attention of ex-Byrds member David Crosby, who helped her network in Los Angeles where she was signed to the Reprise label. She released her debut album, Song to a Seagull, in 1968 and toured extensively to promote it. Meanwhile, her songs were being covered by other performers, giving her more clout as a major songwriter. Judy Collins' cover of Joni's song, "Both Sides Now", cracked the top 10 Billboard charts, creating buildup for Joni's Grammy-winning second album entitled Clouds with her own versions of already popular songs including "Both Sides Now", "Chelsea Morning", and "Tin Angel". Soon after she released Ladies of the Canyon which was an instant hit and became her first gold album.
Feeling drained from touring and performing, she took a year off and traveled through Europe, inspiring songs like "Carey" and "California" for her next album. Blue was released in 1971 to instant success, peaking in the top 20 charts in September. For these songs, Mitchell intentionally moved away from the style of her earlier records and wanted Blue to represent herself as an emotionally vulnerable artist, and not just an image. Audiences were struck by this, and the album was rated the 30th best album ever made in Rolling Stone's 2003 list.
Mitchell is unique in the way she explored different musical influences and collaborations over the years, forever pursuing her art. Jazz and Pop sounds came through in albums such as Court and Spark (1974) and evolved into less structured Jazz and World pieces such as Hejira (1976), the latter of which incorporated Jazz fusion giants like Jaco Pastorious and Herbie Hancock. After this release, Mitchell was contacted by the famous Charles Mingus to collaborate. Sadly, he died before the project was completed; she finished the tracks and released it under the name "Mingus" in 1979.
In the 80s Mitchell made a return to Pop songwriting, complete with Synthpop production, with albums Wild Things Run Fast and Night Ride Home. Mitchell's next Grammy-winning record came with the 1994 release of Turbulent Indigo, an album that many fans felt was a return to her original style. Her 2002 album Travelogue was stated to be her final album at the time, but she released an album called Shine in 2007. She stated that the album was inspired by her grandson's musings on the war in Iraq, and focuses on political and environmental issues.
Joni Mitchell's intimate and multidimensional approach to music had a profound influence over female listeners and artists—an influence that spans decades. Mitchell asserted her artistic control through her entire career, producing her albums and pushing herself creatively rather than for commercial benefits. Artists such as Pink Floyd's David Gilmour, Madonna, Lorde, Harry Styles, and Taylor Swift all cite her as an inspiration.
Mitchell was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1981, received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement in 1996, and received a star on Canada's Walk of Fame in 2000. She's only the third popular Canadian singer-songwriter (alongside Gordon Lightfoot and Leonard Cohen) to be a Companion of the Order of Canada. In 2007, she was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Saskatchewan Recording Industry Association presented her with their Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993. In 2018, the city of Saskatoon honored Joni Mitchell by constructing two plaques to recognize her musical roots in the first places she ever performed.
She's received 9 Grammy Awards throughout her career, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement in 2002, which described her as "one of the most important female recording artists of the rock era". She received Billboard's Century Award in 1995, the Polar Music Prize in 1996, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. In 2015 she was awarded the SFJAZZ Lifetime Achievement Award in San Francisco. In 2020, Mitchell was the first woman to receive the Les Paul award.
She played a custom guitar on her 1998 album "Taming the Tiger": the instrument was equipped with a Roland hexaphonic pickup, which connected to a modeling processor. This let her play her alternate tunings without re-tuning the guitar from scratch each time because her guitar was transposed into the correct key in real-time.
Guitar, vocals, autoharp, mandolin
Hard Rock, Folk Rock
Crazy On You, Magic Man, Barracuda, These Dreams
In the early 1970s, it was highly unusual to see a woman fronting a hard rock band. It was even more unheard of for a woman to play guitar, but Nancy Wilson was the exception. Gibson ranked her as the eighth greatest female guitarist of all time and she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013 with her band Heart. Nancy and her sister Ann are credited as being the first women to front a Hard Rock band and inspired women everywhere to claim their place, pick up a guitar, and start rocking.
Nancy Wilson was raised in Bellevue, Washington, a suburb of Seattle, by a very musical family. Nancy recalls her parents, aunts, and uncles, and grandparents singing and playing old Irish pub songs and even Vaudeville songs from the 20s on ukulele or piano at family get-togethers from a young age. However, it wasn't until February 9, 1964, when the Ed Sullivan show hosted The Beatles as their musical guest that Nancy and Ann felt the spark. From that moment on, the sisters made it their mission to be rockstars.
Nancy was a gifted guitarist from the young age of 10 and throughout the years developed a style of playing that blends Flamenco and Classical guitar playing with Hard Rock. In college, Nancy played small acoustic shows performing covers of songs by Joni Mitchell and Paul Simon until her sister Ann joined a band called White Heart. Ann pressed Nancy to relocate to Vancouver where the band was based and join White Heart, but the other members were hesitant to allow it. After all, having a female lead vocalist in a Hard Rock band was already uncommon, but the members worried that having a female guitarist would cause the public to disregard them. By age 20, after sitting in on rehearsals and having an audition, Nancy claimed her spot in the group. The band recorded their first album Dreamboat Annie under the name Heart with Mushroom Records and released the single (Magic Man). The song was played throughout Vancouver and the surrounding areas until the album was released in the US in 1976. (Crazy on You), another song from the album which features Nancy's acoustic guitar playing was written by the Wilson sisters and remains one of the band's signature songs.
In the first 4 years, Heart released 3 more studio albums; Little Queen, Magazine, and Dog and Butterfly. Nancy was primarily tasked with the role of acoustic guitarist on these albums while also playing some electric guitar along with other instruments such as the autoharp, mandolin, and lead vocals on a few tracks. In October 1979, tension between Nancy and the lead guitarist of the band, Roger Fisher, led to Fisher's departure from the band and Nancy gained the opportunity to play more electric guitar. Her electric playing can be heard on the songs (Even it Up), (What About Love), and (These Dreams). The latter of which she also took the role of lead vocalist. Heart has sold over 35 million records worldwide, has released 16 albums (seven top-10 albums), and had 20 top-forty singles.
Outside of Heart, Nancy Wilson is also an accomplished film composer. Her credits include scores for the films Almost Famous, Say Anything…, Vanilla Sky, Jerry Maguire (for which she was awarded the ASCAP award), and Elizabethtown. Nancy has stated that she used her experience as a performing musician to help create emotional connections with her audiences through her music in film.
Nancy Wilson's four-decade-spanning career helped to define what it is to be a Rock musician, and specifically what it is to be a woman in the industry. She has been nominated for 4 Grammys, multiple awards from various film societies, and has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At a time where female musicians were underestimated and scarce, Nancy fought stereotypes to demand space and continues to do so today.
Lzzy Hale (Halestorm), Guns N' Roses, The Go Go's, Sheryl Crow, Girlschool
Piano and vocals
Jazz, Blues, Folk, Classical, Gospel, Pop, R&B, Soul
Mississippi Goddam, Feeling Good, I Loves You Porgy, Backlash Blues
Eunice Kathleen Waymon was born in the small mountain town of Tyron, North Carolina February 21st, 1933 becoming the sixth of what would be an eight-child family to Reverend John Devan Waymon and minister Mary Kate Waymon. Around the age of three or four, Eunice began playing piano, eventually leading her to play at the local church. Her first public performance was a Classical recital at the age of 12; even this very first performance was a sign of the artist to be as at the top of the show her parents were escorted from the front row to the back of the theatre to allow white people access to the front row. Eunice refused to play until her parents were allowed to reclaim their seats in the front row.
Seeing as her family was quite poor, Waymon's music teacher set up a fund to assist paying for her education. With this generous scholarship funding, she attended Allen High School for Girls in Asheville, North Carolina. In the summer of 1950, Eunice studied with Carl Friedberg at the Juilliard School to prepare for her audition at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. In anticipation of her acceptance, Eunice's entire family relocated to Philadelphia, but her application was then denied with only 3 of the 72 applicants being accepted that year. Eunice then began taking private piano lessons with a professor at Curtis, Vladimir Sokoloff, and took jobs as a photographer's assistant, as an accompanist for a local vocal studio, as well as taught private piano lessons at her home in Philadelphia.
To continue paying for her personal private lessons, Eunice began performing regularly at a venue on Pacific Avenue in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The owner of this club encouraged Eunice to sing in addition to playing piano and increased her income to $90 a week. In 1954 Eunice finally adopted her famed stage name "Nina Simone", taking Nina from a pet name from her boyfriend at the time and Simone from a french actress she admired. Nina's combination of Jazz, Blues, and Classical music in her performances garnered her a loyal yet small fan base.
As a favor to a friend, Nina recorded George Gershwin's (I Loves You Porgy) which subsequently became her only Billboard top 20 success in the US. The following year in 1959 she released her debut album Little Girl Blue on Bethlehem Records, but selling her rights outright for $3,000 was quite the mistake for this initial record as she lost out on more than $1 million in royalties over time. Little Girl Blue was a success, and Simone was thrilled to sign a contract with Colpix records with the agreement that all creative control would be relinquished to her, including the type of material that would be recorded. With this record contract, Nina recorded a variety of both studio and live albums while she subsequently became a favorite performer in the New York City neighborhood Greenwich Village.
In 1964 Nina decided to make the move from distribution of her records through Colpix to the Dutch-based Philips Records, which allowed even more creative allowance in the content of her songs. Her debut album on Philips Records Nina Simone In Concert was released in 1964 and included her masterpiece (Mississippi Goddam) - her first civil rights song of many and compositions she wrote in less than an hour after hearing the news of the bombing at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama which resulted in the death of four young black girls. From that moment on Nina fully embraced the civil rights movement and used her platform as a popular recording artist to speak at civil rights marches and meetings, such as the Selma to Montgomery march. In 1967 she made another move from Philips Records to RCA Victor where she would release another nine records through the seventies and eighties, including Nina Simone Sings The Blues. Through the course of the next two decades, Nina lived in a variety of places throughout the world - first moving to Barbados and then to Liberia, London, the Netherlands, and finally in Southern France all while she continued to write, record, and perform. During her final years, she quietly suffered from breast cancer, passing away in her sleep at her home in France on April 21st, 2003.
With her impressive career including 33 albums released in her lifetime, 21 of them being studio records, Nina inspired and continues to inspire generations of musicians, songwriters, singers, and performers alike, earning the title "The High Priestess of Soul". Considered one of the most influential recording artists of the 20th century, Nina was a pioneer who broke the mold of not only what was expected of female musicians, but of black musicians as well, producing music and lyrical content that delivered direct social commentary. Nina received the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 2000, two honorary degrees in music and humanities from Amherst College and Malcolm X College, four career Grammy Award Nominations, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018, and her song "Mississippi Goddam "was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry in 2019.
Three-part counterpoint (two hands on the piano and her voice) each playing a separate but complementary melody line.
Elton John, Aretha Franklin, David Bowie, Adele, Janis Joplin, Peter Gabriel, Jeff Buckley, Madonna, Nick Cave, Hozier, & many more
Vocals, guitar, saxophone, piano, autoharp
Indie, Rock, Blues, Goth, Folk
Down By the Water, This Is Love, Sheela Na Gig
Polly Jean Harvey, better known as PJ Harvey, is one of the most distinctive artists in Rock music. Born in 1969 in Bridport, Dorsett England, Harvey grew up in a musical household exposed to her parent's eclectic record collection. She took folk guitar lessons as a teen and picked up saxophone as well, joining a local instrumental ensemble. In 1988, Harvey began playing in a group called Automatic Dlamini which toured Europe. She contributed saxophone, guitar, and some vocals and started writing material for the band.
Two years later she decided to break off and pursue her own material. With two members of Automatic Dlamini, Rob Ellis (drums) and Ian Oliver (bass), she formed a trio under the name PJ Harvey. However, Oliver returned to Automatic Dlamini and was replaced by Steve Vaughan. With a band in place, Harvey was now the vocalist and guitarist. After an inauspicious start, the band relocated from Bristol to London where she hoped to also study Art. There they soon drew the attention of Too Pure Records who released the band's debut 7" single "Dress". "Dress" soon got the attention of influential BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel who quickly invited the band to record a live BBC session (the first of many). A second single "Shela Na Gig" was released just weeks after the initial single and a full-length record Dry was released in 1991.
Dry received a fantastic critical reception both in England and the US with Rolling Stone magazine naming Harvey the Songwriter of the Year and Best New Female Singer. Kurt Cobain cited the record as one of his favorites and a special edition was released that also contained the demo versions of the songs. As Grunge was exploding, PJ Harvey was suddenly a buzz band and as such, the major label feeding frenzy resulted in a deal with Island Records. Rid of Me, recorded by Steve Albini (Nirvana's In Utero) marked an evolution of PJ Harvey's sound with elements of Grunge, Blues, and Goth. As the band received more attention, it became clear that while PJ may have started as a band, it was the vision and art of Polly Jean Harvey.
At this point, PJ Harvey was now billed as a solo act, even when backed by other musicians. The backing band consisted of John Parish (former bandmate in Automatic Dlamini), multi-instrumentalist Mick Harvey (of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds), and drummer Jean-Marc Butty. Her next album Bring You My Love garnered a minor radio hit with "Down By the Water" and the album was commercially successful. It was named 1995's album of the year by the New York Times as well as USA Today, and Rolling Stone who also named PJ Harvey Artist of the Year. While Down By the Water continued to showcase Harvey's potent mix of alternative Rock, Goth, and Blues, her next album "Is This Desire?" marked a new direction with its use of Electronica elements.
2000 saw the release of Stories From the City, Stories from the Sea which featured a hit single "This Is Love". The album was nominated for a Grammy for Album of the Year and "This Is Love" was nominated for Best Female Rock Performance. The album also featured Radiohead's Thom Yorke on three tracks. Not content to play it safe, 2004's Uh Huh Her featured Harvey on all instruments except drums, and the follow-up album White Chalk was piano-based. Let England Shake and The Hope Six Demolition Project featured songs that dealt with political themes, both domestic and internationally.
Not content to stick to one style of music, PJ Harvey is also active as an actress and visual artist. Outside of her own albums, she has famously collaborated with Nick Cave and she composed music for the Broadway production of Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Garber. Harvey has also had great success releasing her own demos of her compositions that later appeared on the group's albums. Not one to shy away from dark subject matter and taboo themes, PJ Harvey has always presented bold artistic statements in her own distinctive style.
Kurt Cobain, Nick Cave, Amanda Palmer, KT Tunstall
Voice, fashion, art
Punk, New Age
Oh Bondage Up Yours, Day the World Turned Day-Glo, Identity
If there is a woman who encapsulated the gaudy, nonconformity that is known as the Rock genre called Punk, it was Marianne Joan Elliott-Said. Bursting with artistic vision, sci-fi smart lyrics, brilliant handmade fashion, and an attitude culled from the countervailing creativity of the time, we know her as Poly Styrene, the founder and frontwoman for the band X-Ray Spex. A seemingly stark, small figure in a shiny boxy dress with a colorful plume from a hat barely hanging onto short black ringlets, walked to the microphone in 1977 England and opened a mouth full of thick braces: "Some people think little girls should be seen and not heard. But I think, OH BONDAGE UP YOURS!". A full catapulting roar erupted from her vocal depths inciting social critiques on dystopian futures, capitalism, and the roles of women. Born in suburban Kent on July 3, 1957, but raised in 'mixed' Brixton, England, Poly's astute observation was cultivated by a part Scottish-Irish, half-Somali heritage in working-class London.
Beginning with a love of Reggae, Styrene recorded her first demo, a Ska-ish single, "Silly Billy", in 1975. In 1976 it was released under Mari Elliott, and on her 19th birthday that year, she saw the Sex Pistols and promptly took out an inspired ad in the newspaper seeking to form the punk band that would become the X-Ray Spex. The original lineup was Poly Styrene on vocals, Jak Airport (Jack Stafford) on guitar, Paul Dean on bass, Paul "B. P." Hurding on drums, and Lora Logic (Susan Whitby) on saxophone. After a brief stint Logic left and was replaced by Steve "Rudi" Thompson, and though using a saxophone deviated from the other punk line-ups of the day it paired well with the unexpected power of Poly's discordant voice and became their trademark sound. She steered this ship, branding herself and her band in refreshing Day-Glo in response to the brooding, dark-clad Punks. Always the dreamer, she wrestled with Punk's cynicism and being a black, female artist and self-proclaimed anti-sex-symbol. The X-Ray Spex's meteor flashed hot and bright for 3 years and left us wanting more by only releasing five singles-- "Oh Bondage Up Yours!", "Identity", "The Day the World Turned Day-Glo", "Germfree Adolescents", and "Highly Inflammable"—and one studio album, Germfree Adolescents.
They played the iconic Roxy theater twice in its early days, and it was there in 1977 during only their second live performance that "Oh Bondage Up Yours!" was captured on video, and then later put out on a 45. This was all the public momentum they needed to infect their growing Punk Rock community (Johnny Rotten, Siouxsie Sioux, Billy Idol, Chrissie Hynde, and more). Driving ahead, X-Ray Spex were invited to perform a number of high profile festivals (Front Row Festival 1977, Rock Against Racism 1978) that were later produced on vinyl, recorded with greats in the studio (John Peel at BBC Radio 1), and were featured in several rockumentaries (Who is Poly Styrene? 1979, DOA 1980). They released their debut, Germfree Adolescents, in November 1978 in the UK (not til 1992 in the US), with a brazen anti-consumerist theme that carried through on their spotty reunions in the following decades (Obsessed With You 1991, Live At The Roxy Club 1991, Live @ The Roundhouse London 2008). They released only one more full-length album, Conscious Consumer, in 1995 with the line-up of Styrene, Dean, and Logic.
Though 'Marion' dropped out of school at age 15 to run toward her future, she brought inner turmoil with her. "Identity is the crisis, can't you see," she screamed and agonized through waves of mental health problems throughout her life. After a particularly illuminating gig in 1978, Poly was hospitalized and misdiagnosed with schizophrenia, an impediment that wasn't corrected until 1991 as bipolar disorder. Exhausted, she churned through the Spex's only full UK tour and left the band by mid-1979. She could never be sure if she was swimming in madness or spiritual awakening so she became an ardent Hare Krishna devotee in the early 1980s, and during the decade gave birth to her first solo album Translucence 1980, a Synth-Pop 7 inch record "Talk In Toytown", an EP Gods and Goddesses 1986, and to a daughter, Celeste Bell. She remained inspired by music, supported by feminist movements, artistically innovative, and awed by other musicians (collaborated on Goldblade's "City of Christmas Ghosts" 2008, Rock Against Racism 2008, and "Black Christmas" with her daughter 2010), releasing her second 'New Age album in 2004, Flower Aeroplane. Over the years, Styrene was determined to continuously re-package herself with a sense of purpose and meaning but she remains an undisputed voice of a generation.
At 53 years old, Poly Styrene launched a new website and video of the first single, "Virtual Boyfriend", from her record Generation Indigo in March 2011. This final album was released in the US on April 24th, 2011, the day before she died in her sleep from breast cancer. Posthumously her daughter Celeste Bell has continued to produce shows featuring Poly's archived multi-media art and co-wrote (Zoe Howe) a biography, Dayglo!: The Poly Styrene Story.
Sex Pistols, The Slits, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Generation X, Bikini Kill, Everything But The Girl, U2, Boy George, The Pretenders
Sandy West, Joan Jett, Micki Steele, Lita Ford, Peggy Foster, Cherie Currie, Jackie Fox, Vicki Blue, Laurie McAllister
Hard Rock, Glam Rock, Punk Rock
Cherry Bomb, Hollywood, Queens of Noise
The Runaways were an all-female rock group formed in 1975 by Sandy West and Joan Jett. Along with producer Kim Fowley, the girls sought out to create the band as we know them. The band was a launching pad for the continuing careers of members Joan Jett and Lita Ford and are a significant influence on other female rockers today. The Runaways were the first all-female, guitar-driven Hard Rock band to have a substantial influence on the genre which was even more impressive by the fact that all of the members were teenagers at the band's conception. Because of their age and the fact that some of the members were actively learning their instruments as they passed their auditions, their music was unbridled and raw. This sound fit perfectly into the newly emerging American Punk Rock scene, but the band had a hard time proving themselves to the press and the public.
In 1975, Kim Fowley met lyricist Kari Krome and was inspired to put together an all-female band. Originally, the band consisted of guitarist Joan Jett, drummer Sandy West, and vocalist Krome. However, it soon became evident that Krome didn't have the voice to produce the right sound for the band and she was soon replaced by Micki Steele who also began learning the bass to complete the group. Shortly after recording their first demo (Born to be Bad) in late 1975, guitarist Lita Ford was added to the lineup. Cherie Currie was also added to the group as a replacement for lead vocalist Steele. Guitarist Jackie Fox agreed to switch to playing bass in order to join the band, and The Runaways quickly changed from a power trio to a quintet.
With the lineup of Joan Jett, Sandy West, Lita Ford, Jackie Fox, and Cherie Currie, the band was signed to Mercury and began recording their self-titled album in February 1976 which was released to public scrutiny. With Fowley's history of promoting mostly gimmicky acts, his involvement appearing manipulative and overbearing, and the band's music having highly mature and adult themes, it was easy for the public to dismiss The Runaways as a cheap exploitation act. Furthermore, the content of the music itself, teenage girls singing about life on the streets, sex, and partying, was uncomfortable for much of America to hear. However, in June of 1977, just two years after the band was created, The Runaways embarked on a tour of Japan where they were certainly not seen as a cheap joke. "Cherry Bomb", one of their most well-known songs today, had topped the Japanese charts and the girls were playing to sold-out arenas until July of that year.
Unfortunately, once the band returned to Los Angeles, Jackie Fox decided to leave the group, and Currie also left the band shortly after. Joan Jett then assumed the role of lead vocalist, and Vicki Blue was hired as the new bassist for the album Waitin' for the Night. The album did not fare well possibly due to Fowley's growing disinterest in the band and musical differences between the members. These differences proved too much for Jett who's Glam Rock influences clashed with the Heavy Metal stylings of Ford and West, and she left the band in April 1979. The Runaways did not survive and disbanded in the same year.
It can be argued that the reason The Runaways were not a huge success in the late 70s is that they were ahead of their time. While Lita Ford and Joan Jett continued solo careers in the 80s, it wasn't until the early 1990s that the influence of The Runaways started to be recognized. The Riot Grrrl movement originating in Washington state credited Joan Jett as a major influence which in turn, prompted a slight resurgence of America's interest in The Runaways. Their musical influence can be seen in bands such as Bikini Kill, L7, and The Donnas.
The Runaways was a short-lived group full of power, feminism, and heavy-hitting music that was far ahead of its time. They paved the way for many other all-female bands to play hard-edged music and make a name for themselves.
The Germs, The Donnas, LZ, Courtney Love, Taylor Momsen, Riot Grrrls
This article was last updated in March, 2021.


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This Cauliflower Leek Soup recipe has the distinct honor of being the first post of the new cooking series on my blog!
My husband Mike & I have long talked about doing a "Cooking With Mike" series. He cooks, I take photos, and we share it all with you. I turned it in to a resolution for the new year – every weekend (well, every weekend that we are both in Houston), we spend time together in the kitchen cooking and photographing recipes. We're still working the kinks out of the system, so while we cooked this the first weekend of the year, I am just now posting it here on the blog. Don't worry though, I will be catching up soon!
On to cooking – the Cauliflower Leek Soup recipe – just click here! When I started doing 4 Hour Body 13 months ago, I gave up potatoes. The down side to that was no more potato leek soup. Mike decided to try to make it with cauliflower instead, and I discovered it tastes just as delicious, all while being Paleo / 4 Hour Body friendly!
I should probably admit that until I met Mike, I didn't even know what a leek was, other than being some weird thing I saw on the menu from time to time. Ah, the life of being a picky eater. He has definitely made me more adventuresome when it comes to food!
And who doesn't love Bacon? Oh, wait, I didn't until a year ago. Well, I used to, but then I stopped. I still can only eat it if it is really crispy!
When preparing your leeks, you want to cut them in half in one direction, but not all the way through at the base. Then turn and repeat for the other half (essentially cutting them in to quarters), again, not cutting all the way through the base – as Mike shows in the bottom photo. This will keep them together while you soak them to get them clean, making it easier to cut them for the soup.
While he was breaking down the cauliflower and cutting it, the leeks were sweating in the pot behind him, getting nice and soft and all of the water out of them so that we could add the cauliflower and the (still frozen) chicken stock, in case you are a vegan you can find an alternative for the chicken stock at https://thevegancompany.co.uk/.
The leeks are done when they have sweated out, are very soft, are not browned, and are about half their original volume.
We used our new Vitamix Professional Series 200 Blender [affiliate link] to blend our soup, but we discussed afterwards that it makes it so smooth and creamy, it is too smooth for me. (I have texture issues.) Mike's tips to work around that if you like your soup a little more "hearty" like I do is to either hold back 25% of the soup and blend that in separately at the end, not quite so smooth, or to use a stick blender. He was THRILLED with how smooth the soup came out putting it all in at once, and said that that was the classic texture. Just so you know you have options!
Update January, 2014: We are so excited to be included in the Meal Planning Magic 25 Simple Soup Recipes for National Soup Month list! Many great ones there to check out as well!
- 4 strips of bacon, cut into ½" pieces
- 3 leeks, trimmed and washed
- 1 head of cauliflower
- 4 C chicken stock
- ½ C heavy cream
- salt and pepper
- In a pot over medium-low heat, cook the bacon pieces until golden brown and fat has rendered. Remove bacon pieces with slotted spoon and reserve.
- Halve the leeks and chop roughly into pieces about ½" wide.
- Turn heat to medium-high. Add leeks to pot, scatter over 1 tsp. kosher salt, stir, and cover pot. Let leeks sweat for about 5 minutes, until soft. Stir to scrape up brown bacon bits from bottom of pot.
- Core the cauliflower and separate the florets.
- Once leeks are done, add cauliflower and stock to pot and bring it to a boil.
- Turn heat to medium-low. Cover pot and cook until cauliflower is tender, about 15 minutes.
- Transfer soup to blender (work in batches if necessary) and blend until smooth. (May use a stick blender if you prefer.) For additional notes on this step, see the Cook's Notes.
- Stir or blend in cream, then taste and adjust seasonings as needed.

subset: commoncrawl


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Drainage Services in Newbury Park
Call us on 02033895006
Newbury Park Blocked Drains
When you own a home, there may be any number of different issues that need to be cared for at any given time. Some of them are easy to correct but others may prove to be more difficult. Perhaps one of the more inconvenient problems that we may experience is when we have a blocked drain and require blocked drain services in Newbury Park. This could be an issue that occurs within the home, such as when the shower drain or the drain in the sink clogs but it can also be even more difficult, such as when the main drain line clogs.
Professional Drain Unblocking
The problem that many homeowners experience in this regard is, even if they are able to unclog the drain, it is typically nothing more than a temporary fix. More than likely, they have only cleared the line enough to let water get by but eventually, it is going to clog again. Blocked drains need to be corrected by a professional because they can take care of what is hidden underneath the surface and clear the line so that it can operate as good as new.
One factor that you would want to consider when hiring a professional to care for any blocked drains in Newbury Park is reliability. When we need a blocked drain service, we typically need them immediately because it stops us from using some of the more important parts of our home. Typically, we would want to ensure that they were efficient because we want them to come to our home quickly and to care for the matter quickly as well.
When you hire us as your blocked drains service in Newbury Park, you can expect both reliable and efficient work. In addition, we have something else that truly makes us an option that you would consider for any of your plumbing needs, and that is experience. Due to the experience and the upgraded tools and methods that we use, you can expect the drain to be unclogged and ready for use very quickly. We also ensure that we have a professional demeanor about us when we are on your property because we understand that caring for your home in this way is vitally important.
It often seems that many plumbing issues tend to come up at the most inconvenient times. We do our best to be at your home quickly so that we can care for this need and get you back up and running in no time at all. It is yet another reason why people trust us to care for this vital part of their home maintenance.
Plumbing problems can be among some of the most inconvenient issues that we experience. We rely on our plumbing on a day-to-day basis and when it is not working properly, it is important to get things fixed quickly. If you have a need for a blocked drains service in Newbury Park, contact us today. Let us show you how we can make you yet another one of our happy customers.


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Published: Tuesday, Dec 15, 2011,
By Staff Reporter | Place: Guwahati | Agency: Times Of Assam
Jim Ankan Deka with students |
The students of Eastern Fare Music Foundation have demonstrated brilliant performance consecutively for the third time in the annual graded examinations for Western Classical music conducted by Trinity Colllege, London.
All the students at the institution that appeared for the examination conducted in Good Sheppard Institute in October, 2011, maintained an average of above 80 per cent. Among all, Anubhab Sett (99%), Vibhav S. Kalaparthy (94%) and Rishee Ramesh (94%) are the toppers. The students will receive certification from Trinity Guild Hall, London.
Eastern Fare Music Foundation is an establishment in Bangalore, India, founded by an Assamese musician Jim Ankan Deka. He is the first Assamese to open a music institution and a production house in Bangalore for music lovers and aspiring musicians to hone their talent. The ages of students in the institute vary from 5 to 70, seamed together with a common zeal and love for music.
Apart from focused training on Guitar, Keyboard and Piano, the institute also provides theoretical knowhow as per the curriculum set by Trinity Guild Hall, London.
As an extension, Eastern Fare will soon be launching a new branch in Guwahati for the benefit of the music lovers in the North Eastern region of India. The facility would encompass a state of the art recording studio, a jam room and an editing suite for students and young musicians to produce demos.
Jim Ankan Deka, Director of Eastern Fare, is currently collaborating with prolific Carnatic musician Suchethan Rangaswamy for an upcoming fusion project Timeless. The album is essentially a collection of instrumental tracks composed mostly with guitar and veena and will be available by January next year.


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The Albanian Riviera is simply spectacular, and it's only about 80 mi/130 km south of Tirana. A two-lane road winds along the coast, past ancient villages, mountainous coastline and perfect blue water. A plus is that the road from Dhermi to Llogara Pass is now paved. If you are going to Albania, you shouldn't miss this drive.
Traveling from the north, the road follows the coastline just south of Vlore and then turns inland to make its way up to Llogara Pass—one of the best stretches of road in the country. The valley leading to the pass is beautiful, filled with small fields and farmhouses and low, terraced hills. Behind the hills are sheer mountain faces, which give the scattered farmhouses a heroic quality. At the foot of the mountain, a dry channel of a river runs like a gray scar through the pale green fields. As you drive along, you'll pass women walking down the road, spinning yarn from the bales of wool on their backs, or men with stacks of goatskins strapped to their bicycles. Higher up, the road winds through the pine forests of a national park that are filled with ferns and moss (and a light mist). Near the top is Llogara Village, which has a restaurant and rents comfortable wooden bungalows that were shipped in from Denmark. At the top of the pass, the light turns pale yellow. The scenery breaks from the clouded, damp alpine forest into dry, sparse and yellow-stone cliffs, which drop 3,700 ft/1,100 m into the pure blue water below. From the pass you can see the narrow road winding its way slowly down to the sea—a trip that takes about 20 minutes.
From there, the road threads past olive and orange orchards, goatherds, hilltop villages and breathtaking coastline. The fields and slopes near the coast are fragrant with salt water, wild thyme and rosemary. Dhermi has a pretty, pebbled beach and a small hotel, as well as the 12th-century Church of Santo Stefano and the 14th-century Church of Santo Mitri. Himara is a town on the coast that has a 19th-century Church of All Saints, a wide beach, a number of small hotels and good seafood restaurants. Borsh has olive groves, citrus orchards and a wide beachfront. The road also winds past the country's former top-secret submarine base (now used by fisherfolk). It is guarded by a 19th-century fortress built by Ali Pasha. From there, it's a short drive to Saranda.
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February 26, 1860
In this letter from February 26, 1860, Marion K. McMurphy writes to her brother, Erastus H. Reed, from Pontoosuc, Iowa discussing family news and the prospect of a railroad being built "from Appanoose to the junction or Burlington the coming summer." She states that she hopes the railroad will "make business a little more lively here as it is very dull on account of hard times in getting money."
October 3, 1860
In this letter from October 3, 1860, Samuel Reed writes to his wife informing her that he has returned from his trip into the South. He tells her the engineer who promised him and John R. Boyle work was mistaken about the time it would be available and they do not know yet whether they will get it. He describes the wealth present in Vicksburg, Mississippi and states that he found it "very comfortable to have all the help wanted about a place and to feel that they are stationary and will not leave if any fault is found with them." He describes the slaves as "contented and happy," noting that they are better dressed than the laboring classes of the North. He also notes that Stephen A. Douglas is to speak in Chicago "and there will be a gathering of the people that will make the black Republicans quil in their shoes."
March 6, 1862
In this letter from March 6, 1862, Sally A. Kendrick writes to Jennie Reed, wife of Samuel Reed, describing her work as a nurse for wounded soldiers at a hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio. She expresses political beliefs similar to Samuel Reed as she discusses her hopes regarding the outcome of the war and as she laments the impending loss of her church's pastor due to offense he has given to a few "secessionists in the church."
January 4, 1863
In this letter from January 4, 1863, Samuel Reed writes to his wife apologizing for not writing to her sooner, explaining that the end of the month is always a busy time for business. He describes his life as monotonous, and details his daily routine for her. Reed also expresses worry that Erastus H. Reed, his enlisted brother, may have been involved in recent battles near Murfreesboro, Tennessee and requests news regarding his status.
January 11, 1863
In this letter from January 11, 1863, Samuel Reed writes to his wife and family describing his work contracting "for wood timber and telegraph poles" along the railroad. He again requests information about Erastus H. Reed, his enlisted brother, fearing he may be among the list of those dead or wounded. He also asks for news regarding a family member named Marshall's "prison life in the south." Reed notes that his eyes have been troubling him, and that he may ask for a few days off if they do not get better soon.
January 18, 1863
In this letter from January 18, 1863, Jennie Reed writes to her husband, Samuel Reed, discussing various events at home. She tells him that her sister, who is visiting, cannot go home "with that land of savages at present." She also informs him that his enlisted brother, Erastus H. Reed, is still well after participating in the Battle of Stones River.
January 25, 1863
In this letter from January 25, 1863, Erastus H. Reed, one of the enlisted brothers of Samuel Reed, writes home chastising his family for not answering his letters. He offers some details regarding the first fight his regiment engaged in and the damage it caused to the land, comparing the destruction it wrought to that of the tornado which hit Camanche, Iowa in 1860. He states that the things he saw made his "blood run cold" and believes that "if the feelings of officers & men wer consulted" the war would quickly be brought to an end, but ultimately the fate of the soldiers rests in the hands of "a few politicians at Washington."
March 2, 1863
In this letter from March 2, 1863, Samuel Reed writes to his wife expressing concern over the appearance of cannon in Joliet, Illinois and the potential violation of "the liberties of the people." He describes the political climate in Burlington, Iowa as "not as pleasant as I could wish," and is particularly disturbed by the wholesale treatment of Democrats as traitors. Reed also details his tiresome trip back to Burlington, and notes a reminiscence of "old times and troubles on the M. & M. R.R." resulting from an impromptu visit from a Mr. Rheinhart.
March 22, 1863
In this letter from March 22, 1863, Samuel Reed writes to his wife noting that the government has procured control of all steamboats on the Mississippi River. He believes many will be lost once they are sent up small rivers and the water levels fall, and laments that railroads cannot "be conveniently taken south to help whip the rebels." Reed also complains about the rise in prices and the fact that work on the western road cannot be commenced until the next season as two of the railroad's largest investors have gone to Europe before examining the work estimates. He closes with remarks about how difficult it is to be parted from loved ones for so long and "with such small pay."
April 13, 1863
In this letter from April 13, 1863, Cordelia L. Bailey writes to Jennie Reed, wife of Samuel Reed, discussing her anxieties about her enlisted son Walter. She states that he was in such poor condition upon returning from the South that she encouraged him to remain at home, even at the risk of being charged with desertion. Worry over his arrest prompted her to attempt to obtain his discharge. She also writes that because the government is employing all the domestics in sewing, soon "housekeepers will all be compelled to employ the Contrabands."
May 11, 1863
In this letter from May 11, 1863, Samuel Reed writes to his wife describing the difficult work of the past week. He details his trips up the Mississippi, Skunk, and Iowa Rivers in search of timber for railroad ties, stating that his party is heading out again that day and will make use of a steamboat to make the trip up the Mississippi easier. He also notes that Mr. Thielsen has requested a railroad pass for her to come to Burlington, Iowa with and that it should be arriving soon. Commenting on the "battle and defeat" on the Potomac, Reed asks "will the administration ever be satisfied with shedin [the] blood of our countrymen?"
July 29, 1863
In this letter from July 29, 1863, Samuel Reed writes to his wife some time after a visit home to Joliet, Illinois. He tells her that his enlisted brother, Burritt, has died at a hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, and states, "I have not once thought since Burritt & Erastus enlist[ed] that either of them would fall." He also notes "I did not see the men in Chicago that I wanted to and have written to them but have recvd no answer yet," referring to his attempt to secure a position on the railroad closer to home.
August 2, 1863
In this letter from August 2, 1863, Jennie Reed writes to her husband, Samuel Reed, chiding him for not writing her more often. She tells him she has not received any further information regarding the "particulars" of his enlisted brother Burritt's death. She also expresses regret that he was unable to see the men in Chicago he needed in order to inquire about a position on the railroad closer to home.
August 3, 1863
In this letter from August 3, 1863, Samuel Reed writes to his wife apologizing for the fact that he has been unable to get a position on the railroad closer to home. He expects to learn more regarding the extension of the road very soon, as one of the railroad's primary investors, a Mr. Forks, has returned from Europe. Reed notes the consequences of the drought in Iowa, detailing the resultant success of the stage coach business along the Mississippi. He assures his wife that she "need not fear on account of my politics [as] I have not spoken to a single person about government policy since my return to Iowa."
September 12, 1863
In this letter from September 12, 1863, Sally A. Kendrick writes to her friend Jennie Reed, wife of Samuel Reed, discussing the recent death of her brother and the war. She speculates that the war will not end until slavery is abolished, but notes that she did not think so until after the fall of Fort Sumter. She states that she is no abolitionist, does not believe in "the equality of the races," and does not "want them here among us," but does "want to see them free and colonized some where." She shares several ideas regarding what should be done with the slaves after they are freed.
September 27, 1863
In this letter from September 27, 1863, Jennie Reed writes to her husband, Samuel Reed, some days after he departed from a visit home. Once more, she expresses her desire for him to secure employment closer to home, at least during the coming winter, and asks him to mention the possibility to Mr. Thielsen. She also requests information regarding the railroad passes which he was to secure for her and a cousin.
October 3, 1863
In this letter from October 3, 1863, Jennie Reed writes to her husband, Samuel Reed, expressing hope that he succeeds in his latest attempt to secure employment closer to home. She also relays information concerning some acquaintances of theirs who have been wounded in the war, noting that Erastus H. Reed, Samuel Reed's enlisted brother, is still alive and well.
October 11, 1863
In this letter from October 11, 1863, Jennie Reed writes to her husband, Samuel Reed, describing the progress of the harvest on their farm. She states that his enlisted brother, Erastus H. Reed, is still well, but that many believe Colonel Frederick A. Bartleson was killed at the Battle of Chickamauga.
December 1, 1863
In this letter from December 1, 1863, Samuel Reed writes to his wife discussing the next day's city election in Burlington, Iowa. He worries that there will be trouble and expresses anger at the Republican Party for having "thrown away the old constitution which has been our safeguard thus far in our national existence and set up the administration in its place whose greatest asperations seems to be the nigger." Reed states that he is glad he has business on the road the next day, as he has no desire to be near any "row" which may occur. He also notes that there is still no certainty regarding the extension of the road that season, and is undecided "about staying here for 1000 a year and gold rapidly advancing."
December 6, 1863
In this letter from December 6, 1863, Samuel Reed writes to his wife describing how busy he has been kept with the problems his crew has been having with wells along the line of railroad construction. He states that he has found his name on the draft enrollment list in Burlington, Iowa "among the unmarried and less than 45." He believes he will be able to prove both facts untrue, and asks her to check the enrollment list in Joliet, Illinois so that he may work to have his name removed from that list as well if it appears there. Reed also expresses displeasure at the efforts of some to force the pastor at the church he attends to "preach abolitionism instead of the gospel as handed down from the Fathers."


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A memorial to William Hackett VC and the Tunnelling Companies of
the First World War.
Welcome to our new-look site. We have updated this with a comprehensive history of the memorial from photographs of its construction and a full write up of the unveiling ceremony and day's events on 19 June 2010.
Donate - Click here to donate
News - Click here to read the latest news
The site is intended to be as interactive as possible and we would welcome comment from those who attended the unveiling, those who have visited the memorial and those with a connection to the Tunnelling Companies of the First World War.


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Purple Bubbles Happy 30th Birthday Confetti-exploding Greetings Card
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A large portion of PTO revenue comes through applicant's payment of maintenance fees. Under the current fee structure, three post-grant maintenance fees must be paid in order to keep a patent from prematurely expiring. A large entity pays $980 3.5 years after issuance; $2,480 7.5 years after issuance; and $4,110 11.5 after issuance. If the fee is not paid then the patent will expire at the next 4, 8, or 12 year mark. In FY08, the PTO reported over $500 million in revenue from maintenance fees.
I wanted to look at how maintenance fees are being paid, so I downloaded the past decade of OG Notices and parsed-out notices of patent expiration. The chart below shows some results.
The chart shows survival rates for the four (red), eight (blue), and twelve (green) year marks. Each datapoint represents the average survival rate for patents that would have expired on that date. For instance, of the 2229 utility patents that issued on December 31, 1996, the first fee was paid for 84% of the patents, the first two fees were paid for 63% of the patents, and all three fees were paied for 49% of the patents. (Note – I did not yet add-back cases that were revived due to unintentional abandonment.)
The median patent has an ordinary enforceable term of about 17 years. This is based on the twenty year term which begins at filing of the non-provisional application minus three years of prosecution. If prosecution takes longer than three years, then the term will likely be extended under the PTA provisions.
However, this data shows that the median patent term is actually cut short by about five years because applicants decide not to pay the large final fee.
A third feature to recognize from this chart is that the percentage of patents whose fees are being paid is increasing over time. However, the PTO has indicated that it expects a drop in maintenance fee payments due to the economic slump.
Judge Moore looked at expiration data for patents issued in 1991 in her paper on "Worthless Patents." Her result is that patents were more likely to "survive" (i.e., have their maintenance fees paid) when they have more claims, more art cited, more related applications, and longer prosecution times. US corporate owners were more likely to pay the fees than individual or foreign owners. She also found that Semiconductor and Optics patents were the most likely to survive. Amusement patents were unlikely to survive.


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Wedding Shoes
Wedding Shoes with Wedge Heel can be the very key in each woman's wedding. Brides absolutely spend much time to find the dream wedding dresses and shoes to choose on the wedding day. There are many models of wedding shoes from wedding shoes heels to wedding sandals to wedding flats and wedding wedges shoes.
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Wedding Trends
Maybe what occur in mind for wedding is first to choose a chic wedding dress, but wedding shoes somehow as equal as the ladies must-have and most-worn. There is bridal heel sandal to style with long dress for lawn wedding or wedge wedding shoes for winter wedding. Wedding shoes trends pop up on the fashionable magazine which you can get some inspiration for your unique wedding.
Now comfort reigns over everything especially bridals will spend much time on walking in the wedding day. There is a pair of comfortable wedding shoes that definitely is very functional whether you are standing to read your vows or dancing on the wedding.
Complete Your Wedding Look
As most of bridal shoes are wedding sandals or bridal pumps, but if your wedding is on winter, we don't need to worry to be discouraged that we couldn't pick our-favorite wedding shoes. From lace-up bridal boots to wedge pumps, there's closed-toe wedding shoe that will complete your dress perfectly.
The Importance of Wedding Shoes
As we all know a perfect pair of wedding shoes should be combined with comfort and elegance s that help your bridal outfit look more charming in the wedding day.


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Airbag Man
Do I need airbags?
Airbags are not just for 4wd's towing a caravan, boat or trailer. If your vehicle tows or carries uneven loads causing the rear or front end to sag then you need to drive safe and level up with Airbag Man. Airbag Man engineer, design and manufacture over 1000 airbag kits to suit a wide range of vehicles such as Passenger Cars, Family Sedans, Station Wagons, 4wd's and Suv's, Tradies Utes, Commercial Vans, Light Trucks, Trailers, Caravans, Camper Trailers, Heavy Trucks, Industrial and Agricultural, Motorhomes, Hot Rods and Show Cars, Military and Emergency Vehicles.
By installing Airbag Man to your vehicle you can take advantage of many features and benefits which include adjustable levelling control, eliminating spring sag, safer load carrying, better braking, improved steering and handling, stabilise body roll, prevents bottoming out, excellent ride quality, reduced tyre wear and lower maintenance costs.
How do airbags work?
Install airbags on your vehicle and you'll be able to lift and level up a sagging rear end when towing caravans, boats, campervans and trailers or when carrying extra uneven loads. Airbags will give your vehicle the extra support needed in the suspension for more comfortable, economical and safer driving. Airbags can be adjusted for varying loads and road conditions by inflating or deflating, just like inflating or deflating a car tyre, to give you rear to front and side to side levelling control of your vehicle.
Where do the airbags go?
Airbags suit a wide range of vehicles with all sorts of suspension whether it be in between the leaf/axle and chassis, inside a coil spring and even a full coil replacement.
How do I inflate or deflate my airbags?
Very simple! You can add air via a service stations tyre inflation facilities or if you have a portable compressor that will work perfectly as well. If you wanted to inflate or deflate your airbags from the comfort of your vehicle, we have a massive range of on board air accessories that will give you the ability of individual press of a button technology and pressure readings via an analogue or digital gauge.
What brand of airbags are in our kits?
We utilise only the best airbags on the market in our kits which include Firestone and Dunlop. Our double convoluted leaf helper airbags and blue coil helper airbags from firestone include a lifetime warranty, other styles with a 2 year warranty.
Airbag Man airbags come in kit form and you'll find everything you need in the box, including fitting instructions. If you are mechanically minded you will be able to fit yourself, or you can have them fitted by your local Airbag Man Specialist.


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WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States' top infectious disease expert said Sunday that the economy in parts of the country could have a "rolling reentry" as early as next month, provided health authorities can quickly identify and isolate people who will inevitably be infected with the coronavirus.
Dr. Anthony Fauci also said he "can't guarantee" that it will be safe for Americans to vote in person on Election Day, Nov. 3.
Rather than flipping a switch to reopen the entire country, Fauci said a gradual process will be required based on the status of the pandemic in various parts of the U.S. and the availability of rapid, widespread testing. Once the number of people who are seriously ill sharply declines, officials can begin to "think about a gradual reentry of some sort of normality, some rolling reentry," Fauci said.
In some places, he said, that might occur as soon as May. "We are hoping that, at the end of the month, we could look around and say, OK, is there any element here that we can safely and cautiously start pulling back on? If so, do it. If not, then just continue to hunker down," Fauci said.
Whenever restrictions ease, Fauci said, "we know that there will be people who will be getting infected. I mean, that is just reality. "
Social distancing guidelines imposed by President Donald Trump are set to expire April 30.
Trump is eager to restart the economy, which has stalled because most Americans are under orders to "stay at home" to help slow the virus' spread.
But governors will have a lot to say about when to ease restrictions in their states, and the leaders of Maryland and New Jersey indicated Sunday that they are not likely to do so until widespread testing is available.
"The question is how fast we can get enough tests up to speed in order to help us get to the point where we are able to do all of those things," Gov. Larry Hogan, R-Md., said. He said he has set no "artificial deadline."
Gov. Phil Murphy, D-N.J., said the risks of reopening too soon are dangerously high. "And I fear, if we open up too early, and we have not sufficiently made that health recovery and cracked the back of this virus, that we could be pouring gasoline on the fire, even inadvertently," Murphy said.
Increased testing would allow authorities to identify, isolate and trace the contacts of people who are newly infected, Fauci said.
Other scientists have echoed Fauci's call for a gradual reopening, where restrictions can be ramped up or down.
Dr. Christopher Murray, director of the University of Washington institute that created widely cited projections of virus-related deaths, said studies show that lifting restrictions at the end of this month would lead to a rebound in the number of infections. Because states don't really have the capability to deal with a big volume of new cases, he said, "by July or August we could be back in the same situation we are now."
Officials need to examine whether a state has reached its peak and then allow several weeks of continued closures until fuller testing and contact tracing can be put in place before making a decision, Murray said. But even then, he said, states would have to mindful of putting in place controls to stem "importation" of the virus from other states.
"Maybe some states can open up mid May but we have to be very careful and make sure we don't lose all the effort the American people have put into closures by premature opening," he said.
Fauci said that, had mitigation efforts been put in place earlier than they were in the U.S., "
Speaking about the prospects of Americans physically going to polling places in November, Fauci said he hopes voting in person can take place.
"I believe that if we have a good, measured way of rolling into this, steps towards normality, that we hope, by the time we get to November, that we will be able to do it in a way which is the standard way," he said..
"However — and I don't want to be the pessimistic person — there is always the possibility, as we get into next fall, and the beginning of early winter, that we could see a rebound," he said.
The U.S. has the most confirmed cases and deaths of any nation, more than 530,000 and 20,600, respectively, according to Johns Hopkins University. In hard-hit New York, the number of deaths has topped 700 for six straight days, but the increase in people who are hospitalized is slowing, in a hopeful sign.
For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death.
Fauci was on CNN's "State of the Union.″ Hogan appeared on ABC's "This Week.″ Murray was on CBS' "Face the Nation." Murphy was on CNN and CBS.


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Twitter- a great way to connect and follow as many personalities as one may want to. Apart from the youth Twitter interests all age groups. Teachers can be an interesting tool to deal with. Apart from why Twitter interests them there are various reasons
so as to why they might be using it. Top reasons why Twitter is so popular or sought after among the teachers and educators can be witnessed below.
Firstly focusing on personal interest gives us the following reasons why Twitter is such a hit among them
- Teachers can follow leading educationalists and professors to gather information about teaching techniques.
- It will enable them to stay updated about on goings of the world and developments in their field and elsewhere.
- Study material can be availed by following eminent personalities.
- Self-learning and education can be done for improving the quality of teaching.
Secondly it is a great help for planning and propagating
- Collaborating with other teachers , parents, students. If one finds similar interests with other academic, Twitter can be used to work together on research ideas, classroom solutions, and other topics.
- Twitter can be used to review lessons and remind students what is going to be covered in class that day or the next. Teachers say tweeting a few quick review questions and some good Web sites add depth to their lessons. In turn, students can tweet their own questions and observations.
- Collaborating with other classrooms in the same school, district, or another country. Why work alone when you can connect with other college classrooms? That's just what many college classes are doing these days.
- Sharing some of your lesson plans. Educators and academics can come together to share and collaborate on lesson plans quite easily using Twitter
- One can create their own classroom hash tag. One way to keep classroom tweets organized is by having a shared hash tag that all students use. (Visit this List of Twitter Hashtags in Education)
Lastly teachers can help their students benefit a lot by using Twitter
- Twitter is a great way to keep your students thinking after class. A quick provocative question about a social studies lesson, for example, that will keep their brains active
- Twitter helps students crystallize thoughts, focus attention, and make connections that weren't possible a few years ago.
- Teachers can help their students to connect to a wider audience by linking students of other countries. Employing Twitter to facilitate discussion and collaboration between students in their classrooms and their counterparts in different countries can be beneficial in several ways. (You may want to refer our article on Twitter Uses in Elementary classroom. )
- Teachers can share their experiences with students in a more friendly way of teaching and learning.
- Host reading discussions. Holding a reading discussion over Twitter gives everyone a chance to chime in, even shy students who might not otherwise speak up.
- Without sharing phone numbers teachers can Tweet links to additional reading material, announcements and reminders.
- Twitter allows for personalization of learning according to the student's ability and interest.
- Teachers can quickly provide students with multimedia source links (YouTube, Pinterest) through tweets.
- Teachers can help students in exploring their knowledge. Twitter helps students improve their research skills.
Therefore Twitter can be a teacher's new best friend which would help at all times during one's career be it personal enhancement or professional.
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Granger Smith's Wife Says She's Seeing Signs of Son River All Around After His Death
Granger Smith's wife, Amber, is opening up about how the dynamics of motherhood have changed since the couple's youngest son, River, died on June 6.
River Kelly Smith turned 3 a few weeks before he drowned in the family's backyard pool, and Amber admits it's been a struggle to find a new normal in the weeks since. She says she has "this pit in my stomach constantly," but that she's noticing signs of little River everywhere she looks.
The family — Amber, Granger, 7-year-old daughter London and 5-year-old son Lincoln were in Chicago over the weekend while Dad played Windy City LakeShake Festival, and they made a visit to the city's Field Museum to see dinosaur bones while there.
Granger Smith's Tribute to His Late Son Is So Touching and Emotional
"We just happened to be in the same city as the 'biiiigggggggest T-Rex' ever found. We had to make a trip to see it in honor of River," Amber writes on Instagram with a photo of the kids, also noting that the dino, Sue, was discovered in the city of Faith and died by a river.
"Open your eyes and you will see signs all around you. We think just maybe, Riv is having the best time of his life in Heaven with this," she adds.
She acknowledges that getting back into everyday life and back on the road while Granger is touring has not been easy without River, and that everything is a reminder of him. "All I can think about is how he would love exploring and seeing all that we are seeing. I see his name everywhere, I see little red-headed toddlers everywhere. I miss his silly personality and his bright light," she says.
"I have this pit in my stomach constantly, because I'm trying to make life as normal as possible for our other 2 incredible kiddos, London and Lincoln, while hurting so bad inside," Amber continues. "I look around at everyone else and wonder if anyone is going through something like we are. Dumb little things don't matter anymore. My family does. My faith does. We've got this, because God's got us."
After River's death, the family and Smith's Yee Yee Clothing brand launched a T-shirt benefitting Dell Children's Medical Center in Austin, Texas, where River was treated after the accident. The shirts — which are red, his favorite color, and feature an excavator — have raised $218,791 for the hospital.
Unimaginable Pain: These Singers Have Lost Children:


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Phil Robertson is not backing down. Despite the Duck Dynasty patriarch's controversial interview with GQ and subsequent suspension from the A&E smash series, the reality TV star shared during a Bible study group in West Monroe, Louisiana on Sunday, Dec. 22, "I will not give or back off from my path."
"We are a bunch of rednecks from Louisiana, but I am not uneducated, I have a degree from Louisiana Tech. But this week I have been called an ignoramus," the Duck Dynasty star, 67, shared with the group, as reported by The Daily Mail.
"This week I have been asked, 'Is this the first time you have brought up sin?'" he recalled during the religious meeting. "I said, 'Are you kidding? I have been traveling to and fro spreading this message.' Then he said, 'Well do you invite yourself to go and get your Bible and tell people what you are now sharing with us?' I said, 'No they are inviting me.'"
Robertson added, "I love all men and women. I am a lover of humanity, not a hater." He then lead the group in prayer and shared, "I will not give or back off from my path because you conquered death, Father, so we are not worried about all the repercussions." The bearded television figure made no direct mention of A&E, which placed Robertson on hiatus from filming "indefinitely," the network told Us Weekly.
As previously reported, the duck hunter sparked controversy last week after he made several homophobic and racially-charged remarks in an interview published in the Janurary 2014 issue of GQ.
After the network placed the father of four on suspension, his family released a statement on their website in support of him. "We have had a successful working relationship with A&E but, as a family, we cannot imagine the show going forward without our patriarch at the helm," the Robertson family wrote. "We are in discussions with A&E to see what that means for the future of Duck Dynasty."


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Apple's iPad 3 video starts off with what I think should be the guiding principle behind all user experience:
We believe technology is at its very best when it's invisible. When you're conscious only of what you're doing, not the device you're doing it with…
Apple is still a hardware company and selling iPads, so they used the word "device", but it's safe to change this to "technology" and not loose anything. Go ahead, read that sentence again before continuing.
That principle is the reason the iPad is dominating the tablet market. That principle is the reason the iPhone sells so well despite its high price tag (in a bad economy no less) and being so locked down. If it wasn't for that philosophy Apple would be in trouble. That principle is the explanation for everything that technology implementors just don't get about Apple. Same goes for Facebook and even Google (to a degree). That principle is everything in consumer technology.
This is why I disagree with the "learn to code" mantra of 2012. It's well-intentioned, but it shouldn't be necessary. It violates this golden principle. It completely flips this principle upside down. It makes only the technology visible and abstracts what you're actually trying to accomplish. It's the complete opposite of what users want and expect from technology. That is why programming never became mainstream. That's why repairing your own car or home appliances isn't mainstream. When you make the technology the focus, you loose.
We won't have flying cars until the necessary technology is simplified to the point where it's as simple as steering in the direction you want to go and some basic driving flying rules (which are etiquette more than technology limitations). You don't expect people to understand lift coefficient (CL) or Angle Of Attack (AOA) to go grocery shipping. That's why we have pilots and people drive cars. I expect a pilot to understand these concepts and avoid a stall. When it's Jetsons simple, we'll have flying cars.
Want to enable creation? Abstract the technology to the point where the user only focuses on content creation. There's a reason why email didn't take off until AOL made a pretty easy to use client (by 90's standards). There's a reason photo sharing didn't takeoff when you could just email them to someone. There's a reason why people aren't creating content outside walled gardens. People only care about the activity and the goals they have in mind, not the technology that makes it possible.
The last major innovation in web content creation outside a walled garden was the WYSIWYG editor. Look around, few still exist. The ones that do are focused on FTP of static pages to a web server. Not one that I'm aware of would let a user generate for example a WordPress or Drupal theme without touching code. Purely WYSIWYG. It's 2012 and it's not possible to create a blog theme without merging markup and some server side code (PHP in this example). As a reference point support for a handful of CMS's would cover a huge chunk of the web not owned by large companies. You shouldn't need to understand CSS selectors to set a background color and you shouldn't need to know #000
(or #000000
) is "black" (which can also be used).
The suggestion that users are in the wrong for not being willing or able to learn is invalid. They shouldn't need to.
Enabling content creation needs to be done the same way enabling content consumption is done: by making it so the technology is invisible and task at hand is the sole focus. Why should creating a spreadsheet with my finances be less technically complicated than publishing a paragraph of text on the web?
We've failed if the only way to participate on the web is to fully understand the technology. Walled gardens have manage to abstract it fairly well. Surely there's a better way1.
1. I've got more thoughts on that, but I'll save it for another day/blog post.