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Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Written by Edward Albee
Directed by Jason Rosencranz
At the Lowell House JCR
THE cast and crew of the Lowell House Drama Society production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? have nothing to be afraid of because they have produced a terrific show.
The play tells the story of two couples, George and Martha, and Nick and Honey. Nick is a new professor at the university where George teaches and where Martha's father is president. Martha invites Nick and Honey to her home for dinner. In the course of the evening, slightly-left-of-center Martha and George pull unsuspecting Nick and Honey into the tangled web of their confused love-hate relationship.
Most of the acting in this show proves to be consistently superb. Both Heather Gunn (Martha) and Michael Starr (Nick) give tremendous performances.
Martha is a loud-mouthed, overbearing alcoholic, and Gunn plays her well. Martha loves George, but she is disappointed with his lack of ambition, and as result she relentlessly degrades him publicly and privately. Gunn plays her nag role to the hilt. Her screams of "George" are perfectly annoying, her menacing looks towards him pack a lethal force, and when she criticizes George, her tone leaves a fire in its wake.
In the few moments where Martha shows her more sensitive, feminine side, Gunn performs with finese. Her seduction sequences with Nick are provocative. Her voice almost purrs and she does not merely walk, she saunters. At the end of the play, when she is left all alone, Martha reveals the tenderness that has remained hidden behind her tough exterior for most of the rest of the play. Gunn capably exposes Martha's major weakness, her deep love for George.
STARR does a fantastic job in the role of Nick. His stage presence is good; whether he is sitting or standing his movements simply flow. And this aspect of Starr's performance makes Nick believable because Nick is a consummate athlete who is completely comfortable with his body. In the opening scenes, Starr acts as a great straight man for the sarcastic, verbal abuse that Anthony Korotko Hatch (George) dishes out.
Starr is versatile in the role, playing a wide range of emotions well. He begins the play as a bright-eyed, optimistic and ambitious biologist. But by the end of the play, the weight of the evening's events take their toll on him and Starr's Nick becomes a confused, worn and downtrodden man.
Hatch and Jennifer Gibbs (Honey) make reasonable attempts in their roles, but they encounter a few problems. Hatch reaches a highpoint in the scene where George tells the Miss Muff story. The intensity that he displays when he smashes a bottle is powerful. But Hatch's diction is often unnatural because he overenunciates every word. Gibbs performs well when she experiences an emotional breakdown caused by her fear of becoming pregnant. Otherwise Gibbs often seems unconcious.
Jason Rosencranz's direction is good overall. He directs the actors well in highly emotional moments, including those mentioned above. The staging, however, is sometimes awkward. In Act Two, Starr's back is to the audience for a long time, and we miss the benefit of his facial expressions. But the feeling in Martha's seduction sequences is heightened because of the continuous circles she makes around Nick while he sits on the couch.
Watching Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is an emotionally wrenching experience not meant for the faint of heart--or faint of seat, as the play clocks in at three and a half hours. But the members of Who's Afraid need not worry about that big bad wolf because their show is standing on very solid ground.
Read more in NewsDiv. of Continuing Ed. Will Move This Summer


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'I can't understand why anyone wouldn't want to avail of the HPV vaccine for their child' - Cervical cancer survivor
Around 300 women in Ireland are diagnosed with cervical cancer every year. A grateful Ann Hogan was treated after a routine smear tests revealed abnormal cells
Ann Hogan is 69 years old, has five grown up children with her husband Jim, and two grandchildren, of whom she is hugely proud.
But while all grandmothers delight in spending time with the next generation, family time is extra special for Ann; because if an aggressive form of cervical cancer hadn't been treated while she was in her thirties, she may not be here today.
Around 300 women in Ireland are diagnosed with cervical cancer every year, and almost one third do not survive. Initial symptoms can be vague, so it was thanks to a routine smear test after the birth of her last child that the Waterford woman received the diagnosis and subsequent surgery that saved her life.
"By the time I was 35, I had five children under the age of seven," she says. "I had been working as a nurse and midwife and was very aware of gynaecological issues, so when I went for a smear test a few weeks after giving birth to my fifth baby, I wasn't surprised to be told that some abnormal cells had been detected.
"Not long after the birth of my fourth child, I had noticed a foul-smelling discharge that no amount of showering would fix. I had also been passing some dark brown blood, so as a midwife I knew that this wasn't normal.
"I didn't mention it to my doctor but the day after the smear test he rang me at home and suggested that I come back in for a follow-up visit - it was at this point that I knew something was wrong."
With her medical background, the former nurse was prepared for the worst, so when results revealed that she had cervical cancer, her first thought was not for her own life, but for the well-being of her infant, who was still being breastfed.
"It was decided that I should have a hysterectomy as with five children, I was not planning on having any more," she says. "But I was adamant that I had to continue feeding for another couple of weeks as I wanted my baby to have the same start in life as I had given the others. So it was agreed, and two weeks after being diagnosed, I was brought in for surgery.
"Luckily, my ovaries weren't affected by cancer, so they remained in place, which saved me the added stress of going through menopause in my mid-thirties. But because of where the cancer was in the cervix, I also had to have a radical vaginectomy - removing the top third of my vagina.
"This was the early 70s and there was very little by way of diagnostic tools, so it wasn't possible to tell exactly how extensive the cancer was without removing the area around it."
Ann, who is also a speech and voice coach, was concerned about how such extensive surgery would impact her life both as a woman and the mother of such a young family.
"When I discovered how much had to be removed during surgery, it was a bit of a shock to say the least," she admits. "I worried about how it would affect my sex life and even other bodily functions, but the vagina is very flexible and everything settled down after a while. I was also concerned about how I would be able to cope post-surgery, but it's funny that when you have five small children, you just really have to get on with things, no matter how tired or sore you are.
"I had help for two weeks after being discharged, but then I was back into the thick of things - which in some ways was great, as it didn't give me too much time to dwell on anything negative.
"But if ever I had a quiet moment, I would worry about the children and what on earth would happen if I didn't recover as all I wanted to do was to be around to rear them until adulthood - I didn't really worry about myself at all."
Donal Buggy, head of services and advocacy with the Irish Cancer Society, says the HPV virus is the most common cause of cervical cancer - but there are also other risk factors.
"Most cervical cancers are caused by the HPV virus," he says. "This is a very common virus which is passed on during sex and while most people will get this infection in their lifetime, it usually clears up by itself. But one of the biggest risks (of the virus becoming cancerous) is not having regular smear tests as these ensure that abnormal cells can be found and treated early.
"But smoking also increases the risk of abnormal changes as the chemicals in cigarettes can affect how the cervix fights HPV infection. For this reason, if someone smokes, they can have trouble getting rid of the virus."
Luckily for Ann Hogan, her surgery was a success, and she didn't need further treatment. But she is concerned that some parents are 'shunning' the free HPV vaccine available to their daughters - she also believes that steps need to be made to offer this vaccine to boys as prevention is always better than cure.
"Going through cervical cancer is not a nice experience, I can tell you," she says.
"It is something which can affect women of any age and symptoms are often difficult to spot. So I was delighted when I heard that the Government was offering a HPV vaccine to teenage girls free of charge - and as I parent I can't understand why anyone wouldn't want to avail of it for their child. But they really should offer it to boys too as they do in many other countries around the world because they can also get cancers which arise from HPV.
"I have been very lucky as, believe me, no one would like to go through what I did. And if a vaccination can prevent this, then I am a big advocate for having it done, for both boys and girls. So I would encourage parents to research the benefits of getting the HPV vaccine and ensure their children get it done - because the alternative is far from pleasant."
Buggy agrees and says vaccination can help prevent the disease, while screening can detect it early which, in turn, increases the risk of survival.
"Testing for abnormal changes in the cervix when you have no symptoms is called screening and a National Cervical Screening Programme CervicalCheck is available," he says.
"The Government funds this service and provides free smear tests to women aged 25 to 60 years.
"The HPV vaccine will make antibodies that will protect you against many HPV types. This vaccine is licensed for girls and women aged nine to 26. But it is proven to work best for those who have not been exposed to the virus.
"But if anyone has any symptoms they are worried about, they should get them checked out by their doctor, as early detection is vital."
* For more information on:
- Cervical cancer, see cancer.ie or Freephone the Cancer Nurseline on 1800 200 700
- The HPV Vaccine, see hpv.ie
- CervicalCheck, see cervicalcheck.ie or Freephone 1800 45 45 55
About cervical cancer
Symptoms of cervical cancer include:
* Abnormal vaginal bleeding; in between periods, after sex or after the menopause
* Blood-stained vaginal discharge that may have a foul smell
* Discomfort or pain in pelvis
Surgery is the most common treatment for cervical cancer. It aims to remove the part of the cervix containing the tumour.
There are different types of surgery, which include:
* Cone biopsy: a cone-shaped piece of tissue is removed from the cervix
* Trachelectomy: cervix and nearby tissues are removed but womb is left in place
* Partial hysterectomy: cervix and womb are removed
* Radical hysterectomy: cervix, womb and top of vagina are removed
* Bilateral salpingo - oophorectomy: ovaries and fallopian tubes are removed during a hysterectomy
* Lymphadenectomy: the lymph nodes in pelvis are removed
* Radiotherapy can also be used to treat cervical cancer. It uses high-energy X-rays to kill cancer cells in the cervix and can be given before surgery and after surgery
* Chemotherapy uses drugs to cure or control cancer. It can be given before surgery and after surgery and can be used alone or in combination with radiotherapy
Health & Living
Related Content
- 'I was diagnosed with throat cancer caused by HPV'
- Amy Mulvaney: If you're young and you smoke, you're absolutely insane
- Little girl (8) battling cancer gets makeover to look like Cara Delevingne at Met Gala
- Dear Dr Grant: Will the HPV vaccine harm my daughters?
- Irish blogger Sinead Kavanagh on being diagnosed with cancer at 31: 'I just stood and cried in the aisle of Boots'
- Dr Ciara Kelly: Shame on you Finian McGrath for putting your votes before lives
- 'I knew I was in trouble' - what if feels like to be minutes from death

subset: commoncrawl


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Stormy Daniels isn't very high on Donald Trump's, well, abilities.
In an interview published Tuesday in Vogue, the adult film star shared some details of her alleged 2006 tryst with Donald Trump, which came just months after his wife, Melania, gave birth to their son. Daniels was asked what she could share about the encounter, and Daniels (whose real name is Stephanie Clifford) didn't have much good to say about Trump.
"How many details can you really give about two minutes?" she says.
When the interviewer asked if it was really two minutes, Daniels wasn't sure if it even lasted that long.
"Maybe. I'm being generous."
This is not the first time that Stormy Daniels has shared some embarrassing details about the alleged encounter between the two, which reportedly took place after a celebrity golf tournament. She previously made unflattering allegations about their encounter, saying it left her underwhelmed.
"It was textbook generic," she told InTouch, via Politico. "It wasn't like, 'Oh my God, I love you.' He wasn't like Fabio or anything."
Daniels has spoken about Trump's relationship with Melania, saying that Trump told Daniels not to worry about his life.
There were other revelations about Trump's family. Daniels also said that Trump made an odd comparison between her and his eldest daughter, Ivanka. Trump had made some other curious statements about Ivanka in the past, including saying that if he were not his father he might be dating her.
"He bragged about his daughter [Ivanka] quite a bit though. He was very proud of her, which is nice. He told me once that I was someone to be reckoned with, beautiful and smart just like his daughter," Daniels said, via Politico. "She is smart and beautiful, so I guess that's a compliment."
Stormy noted that Trump was somewhat star-struck in meeting her, and even asked for an autograph after their encounter. He also made promises that he could get her to appear on The Apprentice, but Daniels said that she never believed it to be true and it ultimately never came to be.
Stormy Daniels: 'Generous' to say Trump lasted two minutes https://t.co/V2Dp8HIwQg— Raw Story (@RawStory) August 28, 2018
Trump's alleged affair with Stormy Daniels has been thrust back into the news in the last week after the guilty plea from his former lawyer, Michael Cohen. In his plea, Cohen admitted to paying off Daniels in the weeks before the 2016 election to keep quiet about her affair allegations, saying that he did so at the direction of Trump.


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Need to get in touch with our chiropractic health specialist team? Please find below a list of ways you can contact Corstorphine Chiropractic to book an appointment or consultation, or to enquire about chiropractic treatment fees. The team at our Edinburgh based clinic would be happy to help!
Give Corstorphine Chiropractic a Call
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Email Us
Opening Hours
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Tuesday – 9:00 am – 7:30 pm
Wednesday – CLOSED
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Friday – 9:00 am – 4:00 pm
Saturday – 9am – 12.30pm (Alternate Saturdays)
Sunday – CLOSED
The clinic is closed for lunch 1pm – 2pm
Where to find Corstorphine Chiropractic, Edinburgh:


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About Almaar
(1) Prestidigitator
Most of all, I don't know if Microsoft will be interested in producing such a niche type of game. Isometric crpgs are not very popular and don't fit the console market. I didn't like Deadfire that much (as it gave me "Skyrim feelings" in the sense that the side/faction quest are completely detach from the main quest and the Watcher has no reason for doing them) but i'm invested in this series. I love the gameplay, the setting, the characters from the first game and i want to know how it ends the Watcher story.
I'm glad there's an alternative to Steam that's growing. Monopoly is bad.
Of course i wanted to save Imoen and face Irenicus. She's been with me from the beginning of the first game and Irenicus also killed Khalid.
I'm very peculiar i think, growing up i became way more interested in what videogames can do in terms of storytelling and writing in general. In the last decade one of my best experience was with the Telltale game The Walking Dead, even though the gameplay was very simple i really enjoyed it. I like to play other games like the occasional racing game, F1 in particular or strategy games like xCOM, but clearly my favourite games are rpgs. So i liked PoE 1 a lot more, in fact i consider that game to be one of the best i've played in my life. I think the companions, the dialogue, the lore, the scenario and the themes of the game are a lot better than Deadfire. I feel like PoE 1 it's truly a spiritual successor of games like Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale and Planescape: Torment while Deadfire winks more at modern rpgs. I didn't expect a swashbuckling adventure (for the most past) after themes like religion and faith, science and atheism, bitter truth or sweet lies featured in the first game. The reason why i didn't like Deadfire as much it's the same as a lot of other open world rpgs, there is a sense of false urgency given by the complete disconnection between the main and the side quests. After so many years probably Baldur's Gate 2 is the game that did the best job in making the player experience the side content in a mostly coherent way. Long story short, your character have very few good reasons to do the (really good btw) side content, exploring Deadfire while Eothas is on the run and his soul is on the line. That was a huge disappointment for me. Especially coming from Obsidian. PoE 1 for sure could be less polished in some aspects but overall it featured a more cohesive and coherent narrative, that's why i enjoyed it more.
Well, i didn't expect all this replies. Thank you everyone! I read all your posts and i'm happy to see that other people feel the same way as me and i also understood other points of view. After 20 hours i tought i had an idea of how the game was but now i have to correct myself. This post is like an update after i kept playing. Before i said the graphics overhaul and the design of some locations (compared with PoE1) didn't impressed me, maybe i was a bit harsh on the design part, however my other problem persists and is probably due to the bad textures resolution. I wonder if i am the only one who found himself constantly trying to zoom out further and further, i really wish i could also to be able to see more of the map. Done with the graphics, in the last few days i've found out there are some bugged relationships and this for sure is one the reasons why i had so many odd conversations so far in the game. But what really is breaking my immersion it's the random dialogue between the characters that seems to trigger without a logic or specific event (see the Eder/Xoti example) and the npcs greetings. How do everyone know who i am? And everywhere i go? It seems like i have a sign on my forehead or something. Of course the dreadful italian translation doesn't help and i'm probably going to switch to full english. The thing is i can forgive some typos, but here most often than not they've done a literal translation which means that some way of saying, as well as the meaning and emphasis of what the characters is trying to say are completely ruined. When i compared this game to Pirates i made a hyperbole, still i don't like the ship management part of the game. In PoE1 i didn't care too much about Caed Nua but i was able to improve it to the maximum easily, here i feel that improving the ship costs too much and i rather spend my money on something else. I really hope it isn't too pivotal to progress in the game as i feel there is already enough micromanagement to do in this game. Combat and class system. Honestly, thus far I think the combat is worse than PoE1. First of all I choose to play on hard difficulty but the game is too easy, i've yet to experience a really high stakes, difficult fight. I don't think level scaling will work since i'm destroyng high level enemies quite easily, maybe i'm going to switch to PoTD but in any case, i think there are some balance issues. I felt op right from the start. Let me say that I like the power sources for each class, as well as the noise and sneak system. The party ai is better and the multiclass option, even though i don't reccomend it, it's another potentially nice addition. On the other hand i didn't understand some changes, like the party limit of 5 characters instead of 6 and the changes made to the abilities, now you can spam the same ability a lot more. This two things plus the power level mechanic made the combat so easy for me. It was so cool when, for example in a dungeon like the Old Paths, you had to manage your abilities, stamina, injuries, ecc...to keep and don't waste your camp supplies. I know a lot of people don't but i miss that stuff. Oh and i almost forgot, I think the weapon proficiency changes and bonuses are redundant and could make characters op. My fighter Eder is nearly invulnerable with the shield proficiency and skills like rapid recovery, vigorous defense, defender, ecc... It's also way too easy to make money, just go to a dungeon, kill everything, take all the items, armor, weapons you can find and sell them to the first merchant you encounter. To end, i'm enjoying the history and lore of Deadfire, as well as all the factions in the game. But sadly while i'm enjoying it i have the same feeling i had at the beginning. It feels rushed, less polished and it didn't need to be open world in my opinion, i miss the aesthetically beautiful and detailed regions of the first one. Tell me what you think.
Hi all i just subscribed, first of all i wanna say sorry if my english is not always 100% correct, i'm italian. I'm in my 20s, i grew up loving rpgs and until The Witcher 3 came out Baldur's Gate 2 used to be my favourite game of all time. Pillars of Eternity 1 is not far from this two, i loved it, it was one hell of an experience and i was so hyped and really looking forward for the sequel. So as you may have understood my expectations for Pillars of Eternity 2 were very high aand...unfortunately the beginning of the game (i'm 20 hours in and i've just reached the first major city, hey don't judge me i take my time playing this kind of games ...it took me 241 hours to finish PoE1) left me a bit worried. Let me say that i'm not here to criticize the hard work of other people, this is just my impression after some hours of gameplay. Compared to the first one, PoE2 feels more rushed. From the presentation, to the graphics, the performance, the loading times, the italian traslation and also some design choices/unrefined dialogue/character interactions, it feels not of the same (amazing) quality as the prequel. I'm worried there is a problem of quantity vs quality in this game. Talking about the graphics. My character and the companions looks very good and i was impressed at first, but on the other hand i found some of the locations to be, i don't wanna say bad but...in PoE1 every location looked good and some of them were just epic, it was a pleasure to watch while in this game i was surprised of how uninspired the locations looked. I've yet to find a really stunning well design location. Talking of performance my pc is way over the recommended requirements, i'm playing with max settings at 1920x1080 res and i had a huge fps drop when i reached the first big city, not to mention some absurdly long loading times. I'm not playing on a SSD but i have the game on the same HD where i have installed PoE1 and a lot of other less demanding/old games. Never had a problem. Another thing that i didn't like are the locations where you collect items as the time passes. I was like "yeah i can explore the map and go to this optional location/dungeon and uncover it's secrets, obtain some cool loot, ecc..." But then i only had to keep pressing the "1" key to collect some junk items. I also witnessed some questionable character interactions/dialogue that triggers at the wrong moment and breaks the immersion. Right after i met and recruit Xoti for example, i could ask if she had again those dreams...wait what? What dreams i just met her, at least wait till i got to a inn, or sleep somewhere. Then after a while Eder starts talking to me about her while she is right next to him...? This is just 2 examples but there are way more case like this. The italian traslation i have to say is not that good as it was in the prequel, there are quite some words and typo that needs to be fixed. To end i wanna say that up until this point the plot didn't hooked me like it did in PoE1. I wasn't expecting a game inspired by Sid Meier's Pirates in the first place. Don't get me wrong, a pirate rgp it's always been a dream game to me but maybe not in this universe. Even in Deadfire i was expecting something more in line with the first game, something less open world and more polished for sure. It comes down to the fact that in PoE i don't wanna be a pirate, i wanna know more about the lore, the gods, discover secrets, exploring dungeons, i could not care less about looting ships, collect bounties and keep my crew happy. I'm not sure if this 2 genres fit together very well, sometimes it really feels like i'm playing 2 different games at once. Probably if i keep playing i will forget about those things, there are also some good things that i noticed and didn't talk about here. So please don't think this is me saying the game is bad because it isn't and i'm only at the beginning. If you agree or disagree feel free to express yourselves, i really wanna know what you think. I assure you i'm not trolling or anything, if i didn't care so much about this franchise i wouldn't have posted this. Have fun in Deadfire!


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JEREMY STRACHAN (solo/FEUERMUSIK) - July 30/07
In a relatively short period of time, the 28-year-old Jeremy Strachan has amassed a C.V. of impressive proportions. Initially the bassist for three releases with influential local art-punk trio Rockets Red Glare, Strachan went on to play in Sea Snakes, a gorgeous tapestry of indie-balladry. Along the way, he lent his saxophone talents to recordings and live shows by (deep breath) The Constantines, Fembots, Deadly Snakes, Nathan Lawr, Jon-Rae and the River, I Am Robot and Proud, and (exhale) we're just getting started.
Not impressed yet? Well, his membership in the 13-member chamber pop instrumentalist group the Hylozoists might sway your opinion a bit more. He even recently tackled John Coltrane's infamously impenetrable 40-minute piece Ascension with a live band at Toronto's Tranzac in July (listen to it and tell me you would try it...). However, what's truly gonna stop you dead in your tracks are his two most recent projects.
In 2004, he and former RRG drummer Gus Weinkauf formed the duo Feuermusik and, in 2006, released Goodbye, Lucille. One of last year's best Canuck albums, it is an album of songs played on woodwinds and buckets and it is no novelty. Check it out.
Finally, this year saw the release of The Heart Of The Matter, a collection of solo saxophone and bass clarinet pieces inspired by Toronto artist Katie Bond Pretti. It is this record's ability to adapt Pretti's Twombly-esque works into aural sketches that solidifies Strachan's position as one of our city's unsung MVPs. Oh, did we mention that he has a U of T degree in classical guitar and is working on his MA in ethnomusicology at Memorial University in St. John's? It's OK to feel small now.
Soundscapes' John Crossingham gets the word on Heart's genesis, the no man's land of improvisation, his renewed appreciation for Toronto talent, and just what the heck an ethnomusicologist is, anyway.
Soundscapes: How did you first come across Pretti's work?
Jeremy Strachan: Actually, the first time I saw Katie's work was a long time ago--a few years ago, at least. She's Alex Durlak's partner; Alex is the guy who runs Standard Form who put out the record. I went to Alex's apartment to lay out the Feuermusik record--he did that too--and he had just these massive, massive pieces of hers on his wall. Massive. They looked really great and I had sort of seen a few more of her pieces and the things that she was doing that way. And I also knew that she liked Rockets Red Glare, the band that I used to play in with Gus (Weinkauf, his partner in Feuermusik) and she told me that she does some of her pieces while she listens to music, and that she also worked a lot listening to Rockets. So there was that kind of (relationship). Again, her pieces seem responsive and I'm gathering that her way of working, at least in that series, was quite possibly informed by music as well. So, some time passed and I was on her website late one night, 'cause she has this whole series...
SS: Yeah, I've been to it, it's quite a nice site.
JS: For sure. And yeah, the idea came to me that it might be interesting to try and do some kind of response piece, or set of response pieces. And I chose The Heart Of The Matter (a four painting series) for some reason, whatever reason; it just resonated with me, I just sort of immediately connected with that series. So, that's how that kind of germinated.
But in tandem with that, Alex had been bugging to record me for over a year at that point. He wanted to record me playing guitar in weird spaces. He was just like, "I want us to go into an alley or some bizarre environment and try and see what happens." No budget, just for the sake of seeing what happens. He'd liked my guitar playing and some of the rough guitar music I'd recorded on my own. But I was not really, I was sort of getting further and further away from playing guitar, so I approached him about that and he was working at the Power Plant (Gallery, where Heart was recorded) at that time. He managed to be free two nights last August in this massive, massive gallery. So one night I did The Heart of the Matter and a whole bunch of other stuff, just solo. The night before that I recorded a series of duets with Nilan Perera, who's a fantastic guitarist and artist who's been making music in this city for decades. And we just kinda bashed out a few things, and tried a few ideas in this ridiculously reverberant gallery space.
SS: It turned out really well. The choice of the space was appropriate for a bunch of reasons, but it definitely seemed to suit the way you were playing as well. I was wondering how much the space became an extra character? It feels like you were very consciously playing in that manner because of the reverb in the room.
JS: Yeah, for sure. There's no doubt that the entire shape of the music (pauses) I mean, I'm thinking in terms of thematic choices for lack of a better term. Those were spontaneous, but the way that they developed and the way that the pieces kind of evolved in the room were totally, I mean, it was the room for sure. It was crazy. All of the almost inaudible components of playing the horn suddenly became these massive entities. Anything like a faint key click would just go "TJUUHHhhhhhh..." (slowly fades the sound). Even just a squeak on the clarinet would be this note that just hung in the air for a few seconds. So it reduced the actual amount of notes that I was playing in a lot of cases. The actual phrasing, sort of the gestural qualities of what I was doing.
It's funny because I did that in one night and I didn't listen to it for a very long time, and then I heard it, and it was like, "Wow!" You don't really remember what you're doing and these improvisations start to take on a life of their own. You start to listen to them like pieces, y'know? Which is what I think a lot of people have problems with when they listen to purely improvised music, if that even exists, on record is that it sounds like it's a document of some event that happened with a bunch of musicians or whatever. But with this, you could tell that there was this ridiculously large, almost ominous presence of the room that kept saying, you gotta play less, 'cause everything that you play is just going to be magnified to the point that it's just hanging in the air. The room had everything to do with those pieces and how I was playing them.
SS: And how conscious were you of the artwork, the pieces themselves?
JS: Uh, they were there. I was more interested in the idea of the record, as opposed to me staring at these pieces and going, "Oh, I think now I'm going to do this line." That was there for sure. I tried to engage with each of the pieces' inherent shape and form and however that translated into my head when I was playing. But it's like anything. There's a certain amount of literal reading of the pieces, but it was more the whole idea that I was intrigued by and that Katie seemed to be intrigued by too. So the whole thing was kinda to see how it would work out. I think the idea of the pieces being responsive, that was the conceptual lynchpin that gave the record some kind of idealistic shape. As opposed to, I think that the record could have just be made and released without any of that stuff, but it might not have been as interesting a record.
SS: Do you think that providing the shape helps people get past issues? I was reading an interview with you where the whole notion of experimental music came up, like when is it too far gone, does it matter? When do you have to try and sort of justify as an experimental musician that there is some sort of purpose and focus behind it?
JS: Sure.
SS: How different is it for you when you're making it? Is the focus (to the improvisation) welcome for yourself as well?
JS: Yeah, for sure it's welcome, because it provides a starting point. There's a certain amount of merit in being able to just say "I'm going to play with musicians--we're going to improve and make music." I don't think that necessarily means it's experimental in any way. The reason people say that something is experimental or abstract is because that an easy way of codifying that kind of music. And that's what it is, it serves a purpose. But no one wants to go, "Hi I'm Jeremy Strachan, experimental musician. Nice to meet you!" I mean, I remember, I think it was a few years ago, there was the Wavelength 300 anniversary and they had the panel discussions and the question was like, "What is indie?" It's the same kind of thing. Who knows? Who cares? It's one of these, it's a way of putting things into some kind of perspective. But, I think that people develop personal vocabularies and there's certain amount of licence that you take into consideration when you're playing with different people. That why I like playing, and I think most musicians who improvise like playing with as many musicians as they possibly can, because of hearing what other players have developed over time, what they've incorporated into their own syntax as players. You're constantly absorbing all these kinds of things and adding to your own repertoire, etc. But from the point of view of somebody making solo improvised pieces, I think that it's a little bit tricky. I think a lot of people are put off by that. A lot of people think that it's, I always hate saying 'a lot of people', but, at least in my own awareness, I'm aware of it being thought of as indulgent, a little bit self-aggrandizing. Like, "I am going to release a solo record of my pure expression on this instrument." Which doesn't really appeal to me. So, this is a very long-winded way of answering your question, I hope, but it makes the record more interesting for everybody, and if it piques someone's curiosity who wouldn't otherwise be interested in something like this, then that's great.
SS: You are classically trained as a guitar player, but it seems that you play woodwinds almost exclusively now. What happened, or even what didn't happen, for you with the guitar?
JS: I've never had any kind of instruction as a woodwind player so to me it's very much still terra incognita and it's like every time I put the horn in my mouth--new shit happens, all the time. I spent a lot of time studying guitar, classical guitar, and the way that I've steadily made most of my income over the last four or five years has been as a guitar teacher. It's a very boring instrument to me. It's just that when I play the guitar, 75% of the time, all of these red flags come up: "Don't do that," "Don't play that," "This is how you play this." So, it's kinda like this inverse relationship I have between the horns and the guitar, where I'm very conscious of the fact that I don't have any kind of training as a reed player, and so when I'm forced to read charts that are a bit tricky, I don't have that sort of fall-back mechanism of just being able to sight-read or sight-transpose. I'm getting better at it, because I've been having to do more and more of it over the last little while.
I had to play an hour-long suite of music by this jazz trumpeter in St. John's where the first time I saw the music was when I stepped up on the bandstand to play it. It was bass clarinet and I had to sight-transpose and read. It was slightly mortifying. Whereas on the guitar, it's the same kinda thing. I can just translate. I can sight-read a part or a score or I can... I'm just a really clean guitar player. I'm not trying to say like, "I'm a great guitar player." I mean, it's a very clean instrument to me, whereas the saxophone, bass clarinet and flute are really dirty instruments that I like to get really mucky with. Does that kinda make sense?
SS: That's great. I mean, it makes sense, but it's also kind of an interesting relationship because I think for a lot of people the reverse is true.
JS: Hmm.
SS: As much as I really like the saxophone, I know a lot of friends who shy away from it because for them saxophone means late period like, Dire Straits, G.E. Smith and the Saturday Night Live band...
JS: Oh yeah.
SS: ...the smooth, schmaltzy tones of it. And even though they're aware of any number of really reckless, abrasive saxophone players, it's still an instrument they shy away from, whereas obviously guitar is one of the angriest instruments that you can come across.
JS: Sure.
SS: You brought up reading, which kinda brings me to something I wanted to ask. In Feuermusik's Goodbye, Lucille you transcribed the lead pieces (as sheet music), and it occurred to me just how many professional musicians out there can't read music. How do you feel about written music? Is it in a decline, or does that not really matter? Has it always been a skill that is specialized?
JS: Well, yeah. This is the question that plagues musicologists and trained musicians all the time. Written, notated music is a set of instructions with varying degrees of specificity. It also has varying degrees of non-specificity. When you're reading a sheet of music how you do, like where does it say on the sheet of music, "put your heart into these four bars, more than the previous four bars"? Stuff like that. I mean it's like, it's just one way of reading music. It's one way of mediating one's intentions to somebody else. The lead sheets that are in Goodbye, Lucille are kind of--it's not an inside joke or anything, I don't mean it to be--but the impetus behind that was that we kinda wanted to have something that resembled not jazz sheets, but the sing-a-long sheets that you'd find for old showtunes. "Put on our record and you can sing along with the melody!" And it was mostly Gus who pushed for that more than me, 'cause I was the one who had to transcribe all the stuff that I was playing. And a lot of it's very ineffective. We had a lot of arguments about that. I would say, "Look man, I'm not going to sit here and transcribe a fucking improvisation that I did!"
SS: Mm-hmm.
JS: Because I think it's ridiculous and the concept behind putting those sheets in now is at odds with what you're getting. But we also wanted to have something inside the record that, y'know, as somebody who's been around and made a few records on a pretty shoestring budget, half the time you open up the CD and it's just a flap like this (opens an imaginary single-fold cover). So we wanted to have something that was a little more substantial and tactile inside of it, that people would open up and go, "Wow, that's kinda weird." But there's no lyrics, so why not have some other kind of visual representation of what's going on?
SS: Well, that happens a lot, especially with instrumental music, that you tend not to have much art.
JS: Yeah, but to get back to your question about reading music, most of the musicians that I have the most respect for can't read music at all or read very poorly. And these are most of the musicians that I've played with over the last, y'know, definitely over the formative years of my music-making, ages 18 to 20-whatever. And it's only over the last little while that I've actually started to play with musicians who come from a trained background, who've gone to music school in one way, one shape or another, or musicians who have spent a lot of time devoting themselves to their instruments. But it's interesting because it's not in a, I mean I couldn't, I wouldn't get up in front of people in just a straight jazz combo and just play over changes. I mean it's not where I'm coming from. But there's a lot of musicians that I've been playing with where that's exactly where they've been coming from, but we meet in this kind of no man's land of improvisation. Like that becomes a part of the music-making, but it also doesn't become a part of the music-making, because it's being kind of recontextualized and taken apart bit by bit.
So, I used to think I had some kind of an advantage because I could read music and be able to tell you all the notes inside of a G-flat 13th chord, but I definitely don't think that's very important anymore in the music that I'm making, or with the people that I'm playing with. It's always been more of a roadblock.
SS: How do you go about translating something like Ascension? You mention saying to Gus, "No way in hell you're getting me to transcribe any of these improvisations," so how do you translate something that is by its nature really just a couple of changes and everything else is up to individual wills?
JS: Well, that was interesting because I, y'know, Ascension is one of those records that I think a lot of people have a weird relationship with because it's not something you just put on and have playing at a party.
SS: That's fair to say! (laughs)
JS: Or even compared to others of Coltrane's records like A Love Supreme, they've all got these kinds of feels to them, but Ascension is just this one massive thing. And so I thought, well, I've owned the record a really long time, and I've never really listened to it. Like, I never really was entirely aware of how it was put together. And so I spent a lot of time listening to it over and over again. Weeks at a time I just had it on my MP3 player walking around St. John's. And it occurred to me that it's actually not that, um, it's structured like a pretty straightforward piece. It has a head that starts and ends the piece; there's a chord sequence; and then there are solo sections. And that's it. However, it's stretched out over such a long period of time that each chord is one massive block of sound where players refer to fairly simple motivic material in each of the sections and then sort of take off from there.
So how did I put that together? Well, I made a road map of the areas and the themes, and just transcribed the head for everyone, which is very simple, it's just (sings) "da-nah-nah da-naaah". So it's dead easy, it's just a little blues thing. And we just, actually at the rehearsal we spent most of the time just talking about it. Spent most of the time talking about how to put it together. How we should go into different sections? What does the record sound like? Should we play it like the record? Should we not play it like the record? I mean, the thing I felt bad about most was cutting people off when they were soloing, but I just was aware of the time and I knew it had to be over by a certain time. And there were a few times I could tell that people were really getting into it, but I just had to (taps wrist), y'know. But it worked well.
SS: So did you have a cane on stage? (both laugh)
JS: No, that wasn't necessary.
SS: You mention walking around St. John's. Moving there to work on your MA, has the change in environment -- going from a community that is pretty fertile in a lot of different genres to one that is much smaller and isolated -- helped you get more cerebral about music? Does it help it become more of an internal thought process as opposed to seeing other people, playing in clubs, practicing with friends? Not to say it's Alert, way up in Baffin Island or something, but it's a different environment.
JS: Yeah, and actually I didn't think that it would be. I was so unbelievably surprised by how different it was. I thought that it wouldn't be much different. Total naivete on my part! I assumed that I would go to this other city in Canada and find like-minded musicians and there would be things going on. And it's really not like that--I mean, there are a handful of players out there, but when it became clear to me that I wasn't going to be playing as much as I thought I was, it took me a little while. Like, when it sunk in I was like, "Holy shit! I got a lot of free time on my hands!" I never had free time, and I don't have free time when I'm back here. But I spent a lot of time practicing in my room. My girlfriend and I rented a house in downtown St. John's, and I got to do something which I never, ever get a chance to do, which is sit in a room with a saxophone or a flute or whatever for hours and hours at a time. Play, and go over things, sight read, work on exercises and scales. Y'know, work on those aspects of playing that I don't really possess to the same extent that other trained players have.
It occurred to me that the thing that I missed most was just playing with other people. More than anything, just having this availability of players. I mean audiences, audiences are always small for improvised music, unless it's big name, unless it's like a William Parker coming to do a series and they pack the Arraymusic space three nights in a row. I mean, the reality is that, at least my experience is that, most of the time you're going to be playing for smaller groups of people. And that's totally fine with me. I remember with Sea Snakes and Rockets Red Glare that as we played more and more you could see audience levels go like this (gestures upward), especially sort of incrementally increasing in places like Toronto and Montreal. Touring, not so much, but that's how it is. But it's just players, it's musicians, like in Toronto, it's just overflowing with musicians of unbelievable calibre. And it seems like every show I go to, everytime I talk to somebody, there's three or four new players or names where it's like, "Oh, do you know blah-blah-blah?" "No, I've never heard of this person." "Oh, you gotta meet this person!" The energy that's here, I took it for granted I think before I left.
SS: When you talk about being in an indie band, I feel that in terms of what influences musicians, I think the crossover between those two kinda camps -- experimental and indie -- it's always getting kinda closer.
JS: Sure.
SS: There's a lot of blurring of lines and there has been for some time.
JS: Sure.
SS: Jazz and rock have always traded ideas, but I feel like they are getting more and more integrated. Having spent time in both camps, what the major differences are between the two?
JS: Gear. (laughs) I don't have to lug around a bass and a bass amp anymore. It's great!
SS: Yeah! Well, gear is something, for guitar players, that is used to create mayhem, whereas with a saxophone player or drummer or stand-up bass player, you have to rely on your own skills to create that mayhem.
JS: Sure. Differences, um, there's not... It's kind of like there's a set of references that are like... I'm thinking in terms of being in collaborative environments where there are people who rehearse regularly in a band together and you go into this room and you're trying, you're constantly working towards creating these things that become songs, right? So, the life of a band is determined, to a certain extent, by this output of music that they generate progressively. And it's played live, and at some point hopefully is documented, in some way or another in a recording studio, and then you have a record. So there will be signposts, like The Musical Life of a Band. To me that seems very much different than my experience, and this is only my experience playing improvised music, where it seems to be much more like work. Y'know? It's much more like you do this thing; you show up at a place; you play music; sometimes it gets recorded, sometimes it doesn't; sometimes it's bad, sometimes it's fantastic, sometimes you're absolutely horrified to be on stage and you wanna run and hide because it's going awfully.
SS: (laughs) Right.
JS: And so for me, it's being there. It's producing, activity. It's less of a...
SS: Documentation.
JS: Yeah. I'm not concerned with making record after record after record. Whereas, my experience playing with other bands is you're constantly referring back to this record that you made. This album. So to me, that's the biggest difference. It's less focused on producing compositions and churning out records. Because the music, in a sense, is a bit more disposable. Now, a lot of the (improv) guys that I've met are making a ton of records. AIM Toronto (the Association for Improvised Musicians), they have a thing every Friday called Leftover Daylight, and every set is documented and recorded and put into this constantly growing archive. And it's a documentation of the activity of musicians coming together once a week and improvising music together. And to me it's just like, it's fantastic that this archive is being totally documented, for better or for worse. The music might not be happening, or there might be great music happening, but it's less a documentation of these reproducible, y'know, things that musicians and bands constantly judge themselves by, as opposed to it's this continuous archive of the comings and goings of a fluid scene that is constantly in states of regeneration and flux.
SS: Right, right.
JS: So yeah, to me, that's a huge fundamental difference between the two. But at the same time, um, you're totally right, I mean, things are getting closer and closer for sure.
SS: You brought up the idea of musician as occupation, that it was like work. In your studies for ethnomusicology, I would imagine that you spend a lot of time studying music from cultures like Africa and Eastern Europe, where a musician is a part of a community on par with baker, doctor, barber. A servant, a component of the town. There's humility in the way you provide for the community and there's a level of respect there.
JS: Sure.
SS: Something that in North America that we don't really have an understanding of. Musicians tend to serve themselves primarily rather than others.
JS: Well, it's really interesting because a lot of the stuff that I look at in school and that we talk about in seminars, we actually spend very little time looking at music. We look at how music functions in a social context. We look at why this music exists. We look at who's making the music, who's experiencing the music. Who this music is affecting and how it's affecting them. And ethnomusicologists have different ways of analyzing music and they have different theoretical frameworks that they apply. But the one main difference is that the notion of the musician as artist, the musician being somehow removed from that milieu, I think comes from idealized, Euro-centric, Germanic importation that has dominated the canonical ways of thinking about music. Like the composer writes the music, and then the trained performer plays it. They're up here (gestures with hand). And then an offshoot of that is the creative, experimental music maker, who is trained and is the avant-garde. Y'know, big "Avant-Garde" in quotations, an expired term. And somehow that's different from the guy who's been listening to both Coltrane and Sonic Youth in his teens and doesn't know how to read a note of music. Like somehow (the trained musicians) are better than that. Umm, to me, it's a totally useless distinction because you're coming at it from, you're approaching the same... it's the same kind of goal, I guess. From just different points of departure.
The difference between all that kinda stuff and people in non-Western communities making music, it's basically the difference between music as art and music as function. Music as functional component, music as a daily thing, as something that's lived and experienced by everybody. It's like, when we go to Sneaky Dee's or the Tiger Bar or whatever, we're still going into this closed environment where we're going to see music being made on stage by people who are craftsmen of some sort. I think that the big difference. You as the musician, as a craftsman, as opposed to the musician fulfilling some sort of occupational role. So I don't know, it's tricky. I like being a craftsman (laughs), to think of myself as an artist. It gives me a little bounce in my step. But people will probably disagree with that. "You're not an artist--you're just a dude who tries to make rent every month!" So, it's better to think of it as an activity, I guess.
SS: Well, where I got the idea for this question was a Wavelength interview you did a while back where you mentioned Toronto having a "silly cult of celebrity" about it. That was what I was really getting at: the notion that, even on small scales, we attach celebrity to a musician. How much does that get in the way of music being appreciated, that you have to attain a certain kind of celebrity before your music is viewed a certain way? How does the knowledge of that as an artist pollute your ability to do what you do?
JS: For sure. I mean it's a drag. It's a really good question, but I don't know. I don't really know how to answer that, other than that from my own experience, it's a nice thing when you are receiving attention and people seem to take some kind of interest in what it is that you're doing as a musician. But that doesn't necessarily...You can find yourself getting caught in these cycles where you're not doing anything new. You're just playing the same stuff over and over again and you're talking about the same things over and over again. But this is on the level of a local scene--I mean, I don't know how much of a national scene there is in Canada. It seems problematic to me that there is, because Canada is populated by a lot of distinct regional scenes. But the scale of things seems to be so small that like, that's why I think I said it was "silly", because in the grand scheme of things, you're only talking about a very small minority of people who know or care about this indie celebrity or whatever. And I'm not sure I care about it the way that I did. Even just hearing you bringing that up, I'm kinda cringing that I might've said something like that and people were reading it! (both laugh)
But, going away from Toronto and coming back, there are a lot of great bands here, and I really took them for granted. I thought, "This is boring, it's the same kind of shit." Then you go somewhere else and you see that (Toronto's) vitality and that diversity is just like, it's astonishing how much and how many different kinds of things are being not only produced--again to use that commodification angle--but also just people actually taking an interest in it. And even that kind of celebrity is inflated by message boards and things like Eye and NOW and things like that, where you have people talking and writing about people. It's great for them, I think, it's absolutely fantastic to be noticed. Because it's probably going to be, unless you're one of a very small percentage of Canadian musicians who are truly gifted--I'm thinking of Owen Pallett or someone similar--it's gonna go like this (gestures downward). I mean, in six months people aren't going to be asking me for interviews, so you've gotta roll with the punches a bit.


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A culinary fundraiser for the birds, a taste of Napoli, and a primer on fortified wines.
The first of three Winter Culinary Experiences to benefit the Norman Bird Sanctuary will be held Thursday, Jan. 28, at Brix Restaurant, 909 East Main Rd., Middletown. Call (401) 848-5161 or go to newportvineyards.com/brix-restaurant to make a reservation between 4 and 9 p.m. The cost of the three-course meal is $50 plus beverages, tax and gratuity. Brix will donate half of the evening's receipts to the sanctuary.
Trattoria Zooma, 245 Atwells Ave., Providence, will hold "An Evening with General Manager Armando: His Favorite Dishes and Wines," a three-course taste of Napoli, Friday, Jan. 29, at 7 p.m. The cost is $59 plus tax and gratuity; to reserve, call (401) 383-2003 or go to TrattoriaZoomaRI.com.
Eric Taylor from Bottles Fine Wine will discuss and offer tastings of a selection of fortified wines, along with appetizers prepared by Judith Bishop, Thursday, Jan. 28, at 5 p.m. at Hamilton House, 276 Angell St., Providence. The appetizers will include grapes wrapped with blue cheese and toasted walnuts; mushrooms stuffed with Madeira-flavored duxelle, and garlic shrimp on toasted French bread. The cost is $20. To register, call (401) 831-1800 or email email@example.com.


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Are you a fan of asymmetric RPGs? Do you like role-playing in a fantasy adventure-scape? Curtel Games will release their upcoming "Graphic Adventure" The Ballad Singer for PC via Steam Early Access on September 27th, 2018.
The Ballad Singer is a twining maze of different outcomes, putting your choices front and center during any journey. The role-playing adventure game is set in a fantasy world brought to life through visual story-telling.
On the topic of story-telling, the devs have taken elements from game-books and visual novels to develop The Ballad Singer with an unprecedented format.
The asymmetric RPG offers a fantasy story yet to be written, where the world changes and reacts to your actions. The devs claim that you will be able to live up to 1,700 stories and witness over 40 different endings.
Moreover, every single development and subplot in the story is completely narrated and illustrated, even down to the smallest ones.
Sounds interesting? You be the judge and look over what The Ballad Singer has to offer right here:
"The Ballad Singer is an asymmetric adventure, inspired by RPGs and game books, where you can experience many dynamic stories. Forge the fate of Hesperia through the stories of four different adventurers in a fantasy world completely illustrated and narrated."
Things worth noting is, the game is fully narrated with over 400,000 words and 40 hours of narration. More than 700 HD illustrations are in the game, and happen to be accompanied by more than 40 musical tracks.
The game also sports 400 different "detailed deaths," where death plays a part in the overall story, meaning there's no "Game Over" screen. When a character you're assuming dies, you will play as a new hero within the same story just in a different narrative path.
The Ballad Singer will release late September for PC via Steam Early Access. You can learn more about this game by paying theballadsinger.com a visit.


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On March 29, 2012, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a Class 1 recall of GranuFlo & NaturaLyte, dialysis products manufactured by Fresenius Medical Care. Class 1 recalls are the most serious type of recall and involve situations in which there is a reasonable probability that use of these products will cause adverse health consequences-or death.
Naturalyte Liquid Acid Concentrate & GranuFlo Acid Concentrate
Serious Risks Associated With Dialysis Drugs
Fresenius Medical Care, the largest dialysis company in the nation and manufacturer of Naturalyte and GranuFlo Acid Concentrate products, did not warn doctors of the risk factors associated with dosage of the drugs, including:
- High bicarbonate levels
- Heart attack
- Metabolic alkalosis
- Low blood pressure
- Hypokalemia
- Stroke
- Hypoxemia
- Hypercapnia
- Cardiac arrhythmia
- Death
Contact The Law Firm Of Perdue & Kidd
When you or a loved one has suffered injuries caused by Liquid Acid Concentrates, you need to take action to secure the compensation you need. The lawyers of Perdue & Kidd are skilled and capable of ensuring that these companies respect your rights. Finally, to schedule a free initial consultation, call 713-520-2500 or toll free at 800-520-1749, or contact us online.
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Quick answer
"Duraba" is a form of "durar", an intransitive verb which is often translated as "to last". "Duro" is an adjective which is often translated as "hard". Learn more about the difference between "duro" and "duraba" below.
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An adjective is a word that describes a noun (e.g. the big dog).
1. (not soft)
2. (rigid)
a. stiff
La caja de velocidades se pone dura cuando hace frío.The gearbox gets stiff when it's cold.
3. (strong)
4. (stern)
5. (difficult)
A word or phrase that is commonly used in conversational speech (e.g. skinny, grandma).
An adverb is a word that describes a verb, an adjective, or other adverbs (e.g. to run quickly, very tired).
7. (with vigor)
a. hard
Manny Pacquiao y Juan Manual Márquez se pegaron duro durante la pelea.Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez hit each other hard during the match.
A masculine noun is used with masculine articles and adjectives (e.g. el hombre guapo, el sol amarillo).
8. (tough character)
a. tough guy
El duro de esta película es Sylvester Stallone.The tough guy in this movie is Sylvester Stallone.
9. (old Spanish coin)
Copyright © Curiosity Media Inc.
An intransitive verb is one that does not require a direct object (e.g. The man sneezed.).
1. (to go on)
a. to last
La crisis económica no puede durar para siempre.The economic crisis cannot last forever.
b. to be long
La película dura dos horas aproximadamente.The film is approximately two hours long.
2. (to continue being usable)


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Hi Steve, tell us a little bit about yourself and your family.
I grew up on a ranch in southwest Colorado. That meant a lot of work starting early in the mornings before school. My brother grew up and became a professional bareback rider and now owns his own construction company. My dad still works at his grain elevator every day. In college I decided to pursue a career in medicine, which worked out great and I'm in my 23rd year as an anesthesiologist.
Where do you work, how'd you get into that field, and what's your favorite and least favorite thing about it?
I work as an anesthesiologist, I just kind of fell into the field after first going into primary care. My favorite thing about the field is helping people, my least favorite thing about it is the hours.
Are you a Missoula native? If not what brought you here, and if you are, what keeps you here?
I was born in Texas, moved to Durango, Co at age 13. I had never even heard of Montana until I got a job in Missoula in '93. I stay here because I love the mountains, recreational activities and the town.
How did you first get involved in CrossFit and how long have you been CrossFitting?
My nurse first got me started in CrossFit 7 yrs ago.
What Crossfit class do you normally attend?
Do you have any fitness goals or targets you would like to hit?
Just to try to be more consistent with my workouts, get stronger and maintain good cardio conditioning.
What is your favorite way to spend your time outside the gym and work?
Mt. biking, skiing, kayaking, backpacking
What's your biggest CrossFit weakness that you're working on right now?
Overhead flexibility
What pushes you in CrossFit? When you're about to drop down for that 50th burpee, or do that 30th pull-up, what keeps you going? Where do you go in your head?
Well I admit that I do talk to myself, usually it is to say something like "two more reps, just two more reps, you can do it".
If you were put in charge for a day at 5 Valleys, what WOD (workout of the day) would you design, assuming you yourself had to participate as well?
It would be an AMRAP, that would have some running, weights, and something like rope climb or wall balls.


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Martyn Ashton
Martyn Ashton is a Mountain Biker who is paralysed from the waist down. He is a former British and World Champion mountain bike trials rider, stunt rider and team manager. He had been riding professional trials since 1993 and is often described as a mountain biking legend. He has been credited with turning trials from a niche form of riding into the sport it is today. Ashton was paralysed in an accident in 2013, during a bike trials demo at the British Moto GP. Ashton is also vegan.


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SKEI office chair is addressed to even the most demanding users. SKEI is made of high quality materials − the backrest and seat are made of soft polyester fabric. Wide and thick backrest for comfortable work, with care for the backbone of the user. The base and wheels are made of nylon to avoid scratches on the floor. SKEI also offers the possibility of adjusting the height to seat.
Model > SKEI
Materials > seat and backrest: polyester fabric, base: powder-coated steel, gas spring: metal powder-coated metal, wheels: nylon
Maximum user weight > 150 kg
Chair weight > 10 kg
Box dimensions > 73 x 59 x 38 (cm)
Manufacturer's warranty > 24 months
seat width > 32 - 40 cm
seat depth > 57 cm
chair height > 84 - 96 cm
height to seat > 46 - 58 cm
- Elegant and stylish design
- Seat and backrest made of polyester fabric
- Seat height adjustable up to 12 cm
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- Maximum load 150 kg
The right office chair is the foundation for your ergonomic workplace. SKEI, thanks to the original shape, guarantees not only exceptional comfort, but also ensures the correct position of the spine. High quality workmanship guarantees long-lasting comfort.


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I'm very excited to announce my collaboration with Boston-based, musician-led ensemble, Palaver Strings on their sixth season. A little about them from their site:
Palaver Strings is a musician-led string ensemble and nonprofit organization founded in Boston in 2014. Now in its fifth season, Palaver has established itself as a forward-thinking ensemble whose mission is rooted in community and creative programming. Palaver has performed at the Kennedy Center, the Shalin Liu Center, and a celebration of the Lullaby Project at Carnegie Hall, and has toured the East and West Coasts of the United States. Palaver has been Ensemble in Residence at the Boston Center for the Arts since 2017, and continues a longstanding residency at Bay Chamber Concerts in Rockport, ME. Equally passionate about education, Palaver plans to open the Palaver Community Music School in Portland, ME in 2019, with the goal of fostering creativity and dialogue and making high-quality music education accessible to students of all backgrounds.
For the collaboration, I created six unique pieces to illustrate each curated program theme. The original works are drawn with graphite on 8 x 10" archival paper.


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Signifying the next biggest business and tourism hot spot outside of downtown Vancouver
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Sept. 25, 2014) -
Editor's Note: There is one photo attached to this press release.
To pay tribute to Surrey's ongoing economic strength, on Thursday, September 25th Century Group, and Marriott International will welcome media to a celebratory unveiling of the luxury hotel suites for the Civic Hotel at 3 Civic Plaza, Autograph Collection®. With an address from Joann Pfeifer, General Manager, Vancouver Marriott Pinnacle Downtown, Sean Hodgins, President, Century Group and Anita Huberman, CEO Surrey Board of Trade, this event will signify the city's move into new luxury markets and into becoming the next major business hub in the Metro Vancouver region.
With over $3 billion in current and future investments in development, Surrey has grown beyond its neighbouring cities, to attract major players within the business community and residents looking for new luxury housing options. Recent and projected additions to the education, business and hospitality sectors have further propelled Surrey's economic strength, with 1,370 full-time jobs created just within the 3 Civic Plaza. Surrey continues to attract new residents who share the vision for the future of Downtown Surrey and want to be a part of its growth as it develops into the next major business hub and city centre.
More than 70% sold, the demand for a luxury product like 3 Civic Plaza is evident. And now with the insertion of the Marriott Autograph Collection, Surrey is expected to see continued growth in this market.
When: Thursday, September 25, 2014; 10:45m - 12:30pm (speeches to begin at 11:15am)
Where: Presentation Centre, 3 Civic Plaza, 10277 King George Boulevard between 104 and 102 Avenue in Surrey City Centre
Interviews available:
Century Group
Century Group is the developer of 3 Civic Plaza.
Century Group is a real estate development and property management company committed to building community. In business for more than 50 years, Century Group's vision is to create beautiful, sustainable buildings, public spaces and neighbourhoods where people can access jobs, transportation options and local amenities.
The company's expertise extends to three business divisions that are key to building community. Their condominiums, townhomes and mixed-use buildings are energy-smart and resource-efficient, and are built to advance conservation and environmental sustainability. The property management team operates a diverse portfolio of residential buildings and multi-use commercial spaces, including offices, retail units and shopping centres. The hospitality division expands Century Group's business to include hotel as well as seniors' residences under its Bria Communities brand.
Century Group is committed to the City of Surrey's vision for Surrey City Centre through this and other exciting projects in the area.
To view the photo associated with this press release, please visit the following link: http://www.marketwire.com/library/20140924-8003cp.jpg
Contact Information:


text: Home > Weight Loss Survey Weight Loss Survey How much extra weight do you have to lose? A. 30-50 lbsB. 50-100 lbsC. 100-150 lbsD. 150-200 lbsE. More than 200 lbs What keeps you from pursuing Weight Loss Surgery? A. I'm afraid of all surgeryB. surgery is the easy way outC. I can do it with diet/exerciseD. I heard it isn't safe (friends)E. My doctor won't refer meF. My doctor thinks/says it isn't safeG. I am comfortable with my weight If there was a Weight Loss Surgery informational seminar near you, would you attend to learn more? A. Yes, I'd love to know more about it!B. Yes, if it is within 10 milesC. No, I'd rather read about it on the internetD. No, I don't believe in weight loss surgery Would you travel for weight loss surgery? A. No. I'd prefer to be within 30 minutes of my homeB. Yes. Up to 1 hourC. Yes. Up to 2-3 hrs awayD. Yes. Anywhere in the USE. Yes. I'd prefer to have surgery away from home Would you consider an incisionless weight loss procedure? A. Yes. Surgery scares meB. Yes. I don't want to live with this extra weight anymoreC. No. I don't want to take an easy way outD. No. I'll lose wt with diet and exercise, no matter how long it takes If you could cure your diabetes with surgery, would you have surgery? Yes. Diabetes is a killer!Yes. I hate taking diabetes medsYes. I hear diabetes is progressiveYes. I didn't know it was possible to cure diabetes!No. I don't mind living with diabetesNo. My doctor says there is no cure for diabetesNo. I don't believe in surgery Send Now Protected by Recaptcha. Privacy & Terms


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Richard Silvers, Paranormal Investigator
Reported by Aurora Biggers
It was spring break and the previous week's sunny weather had faded away into overcast skies and drizzly rains — a fact Richard Silvers seemed blissfully unaware of as he walked in smiling, gave me a high five and slid into the booth across from me.
We chatted about the weather and obvious lack of students on campus. Silvers is pleasant and easy to talk to. I learned he fluently plays seven instruments, including the acoustic guitar, drums, piano and violin. He is also a web designer and an architect — he recently designed a school and an orphanage for a group in India.
"My friends call me the Renaissance man," Silvers said. Silvers, director of Mail Services for George Fox University (GFU), is certainly a multifaceted guy; but only one of his many interests brought me to meet with him — paranormal investigation.
Silvers says his paranormal career began in 2002 when he was on a beach vacation with family. His family was gathered around a campfire telling spooky stories when he had the "hair brained idea" to start a family paranormal society. It gained traction with his cousins, and in 2003 the family went on their first investigation to White Eagle Tavern in Portland, Ore. The hotel was once a brothel and is known for paranormal occurrences.
Silvers and his family used an electromagnetic field device (EMF) and a voice recorder. "A normal EMF reading is 0.5-1; we were peaking into the 4.5-6 range." Silvers explained that this is a strong sign of a spirit presence. When Silvers later listened to the voice recording, he detected a voice saying "Kill em'; she hates him."
He believes this was a spirit referencing the spiteful relationship between Rose, a woman who serviced many men at White Eagle Tavern in the 1900s, and a man who was known for mistreating her and the other women at the Tavern. This experience solidified Silvers' interest in the paranormal.
"The cousins eventually disbanded, but I kept the group going and since then have brought new people onto the team," he said. For Silvers, it wasn't just a fun idea thrown out around a campfire and incited by scary stories, it was a calling. "I'd just love to go into some pretty intense places and just feel my heart pound," he said.
The team Silvers refers to is his own company, The Extreme Paranormal Society. His team includes himself, his wife, and a couple from his church. Every few months Silvers and his team will investigate a new case, but in the meantime, he is fielding multiple potential clients and determining if their story is reliable enough to investigate.
This works well with his demanding job at GFU, but sometimes his second job causes eyebrows to raise on campus. Silvers conducted a few investigations on campus, namely an investigation of Pennington House — home of the William Penn Honors Program. It is a hot spot for activity, according to Silvers. It was once home to Levi and Rebecca Pennington — Silvers believes the spirit of either Levi or Rebecca may still reside in the house.
He investigated the house alone in 2014, except for the company of another faculty member who is now retired. He recalls they heard crashes in the kitchen while they were upstairs. When they investigated the kitchen, they found magnets were displaced from the fridge and were on the ground. The rug at the bottom of the stairs had also shifted, although there was no wind or any other people in the house.
Silvers said the faculty member who accompanied him often was alone in the house early in the morning. She once, according to Silvers, heard movement upstairs and believed it was the cleaning crew. However, when she went upstairs to check, there was no one up there. Silvers deemed his findings inconclusive but finds it hard to deny the possibility of spiritual activity.
Despite Silvers' evidence of the paranormal realm, some on campus find his work dubious.
GFU is a Christian campus and many professors and students view Silvers' work as incompatible with traditional Christian theology. "Telling people you're a paranormal investigator, it's like coming out of the closet, saying you're gay," said Silvers.
Silvers has his own paranormal theology. "Theologically I have to be very careful, but I'm a Christian trying to understand this part of the world," he said. Christians shocked by Silvers' work often cite Deuteronomy 18:10-12, a warning against communicating with the dead.
Silvers says the way he interacts with spirits is different, though. He investigates to have a better understanding of the paranormal world and help people who encounter unwanted spirits. Silvers' clients are usually seeking help removing spirits from their home.
Silvers explained there are different categories and signs of spiritual activity. There are four levels of classification. Level one is "I'm here," according to Silvers. This is the prankster. The spirit wants you to know it's there and might make itself known by moving your stuff around, for instance stealing your car keys and then returning them a little later. This is low level, non-violent activity, says Silvers. Level two is a "Mover." The spirit is more active and moves your stuff around in front of you and makes audible sounds. It is more active, but still benevolent. Level three is a full-blown poltergeist, characterized by cold spots and possible physical touch. The fourth classification is a violent spirit, escalating on the poltergeist actions.
Silvers says most spirits are people who died and have "unfinished business," but the remaining entries — the more malevolent ones — are the minions of the devil. His method may be unorthodox, even for the paranormal community.
"If it's a soft approach, I pray them out," Silvers said. He believes in the power of God in these instances and says there is biblical precedent for such interactions with spirits. With expressive motions, Silvers recounted Jesus casting demons into pigs, as told in Matthew 18. "Jesus also gave the disciples authority to cast out demons," Silvers said.
If the spirit is benevolent, not a demon but instead an un-living person struggling to move on, Silvers says you need to acknowledge their existence and ask them to leave.
Silvers' paranormal theology doesn't convince everyone, but Silvers is okay with that. He says he's still a bit of a skeptic. Ultimately, "nothing about the paranormal is conclusive," Silvers said, it's just "fun, dangerous, intriguing, and fascinating."


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During my last post, "Hail Venezuela's Libertador," we reviewed the political and social climate in Venezuela, but what are the economic prospects for the next 10 years?
It is very easy to hear left-of-center (to put it mildly) politicians cry out that the whole idea of the US supporting Guaidó is because of Venezuela's oil reserves. Well, what about China and Russia? Are they doing it for the arepas?
Let's explore the possible scenarios of a Venezuela recovery based on current events. Many countries in Latin America have returned from the brink: Argentina, Peru, and Brazil, all recovered from hyperinflation and mega-devaluations in the 80s and 90s. So, could Venezuela do it?
Venezuela's case is slightly different to many other Latin American countries which have faced their share of crises. For starters, this crisis has brewed over two decades, and has been a slow but steady descend down the tubes. The fact that it has reached alarming proportions in the past few years doesn't deter from the long path it took to get there. Long-brewing crises take longer to recover.
Secondly, the country's resources have been depleted; here, I'm not talking only about means of production and natural resources, I'm also talking about manpower. The brain drain I discussed last week is a key factor when thinking about a recovery and how long it will take. Once your garden variety crisis is contained with macro-economic measures put in place to support the currency and keep inflation in check, the productive system kicks into gear and the economy starts recovering. The integrity of the productive system generally determines the speed of the recovery. Venezuela's is long gone.
Finally, there are the natural resources. Unlike many of its peers, Venezuela has vast oil reserves, which could help them gather the necessary funds to a speedy recovery.
Possible outcomes
Before considering the prospect of a recovery, one must ponder the likelihood of a peaceful transition of power. Although Guaidó has been backed by several governments around the world, there are some major military powers still backing Maduro, chiefly Russia and China.
Domestically speaking, as long as Maduro has the backing of the armed forces, it is very unlikely that he will go quietly. This would trigger riots in the streets and more violence. Should the army act against the protesters, it is very likely to end up in a civil war. Since the opposition is no match for the armed forces, they would require to be armed by foreign powers, namely the US and its allies, which would result in an immediate response from Russia supporting the armed forces... and before you realize it, you have a Syria in South America.
So, what would it take for the armed forces to withdraw their support for Maduro? Normally, it is lack of payment. If the government runs out of money and can't afford the military's salaries, they are very likely to withdraw their support, which would imply an immediate fall of the Maduro regime. But what if Maduro, in a desperate attempt to remain in power, opts for selling Venezuela's future oil production at a deep discount to, say, China? Two outcomes will surely follow: 1) Maduro, with the armed forces' backing, will remain in power for a few more years, and 2) when he is removed, Venezuela will be completely destroyed, since it will not even have oil to sell.
So, it all comes down to the way in which the transition of power will take place. A peaceful transition will mean the country can get back into business as soon as possible and a recovery, albeit slow, will get under way; whereas a violent transition in the form of a civil war, or a prolonged military state with an eventual transition five or ten years into the future, with no natural resources to rely on, would prove certain doom for the country.
Editor's Note: The summary bullets for this article were chosen by Seeking Alpha editors.


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Airport Tips & Tricks
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Great tips!
I travel often and the tip about using the bathrooms at baggage claim is a good one! I have always noticed that yes, those bathrooms are usually empty as everyone that has to go usually uses the ones next to the gate they deplane from. I'll be doing that from now on. Thanks!
Always dancing,
Elizabeth (team member)


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To give you an idea of the kind of relationship I have with my mother, I have spent approximately 25 total days with her since my fifteenth birthday. I am 36.
She wasn't there when I went to prom or graduated high school. She didn't drop me off at college. She attended family week at my rehab center (high on marijuana), leaving before it was over but after telling the entire group that it was my fault that she relapsed on alcohol a few years earlier and that I was a bad seed. She wasn't there when either of my children were born or when I married my husband. In fact, she has only met her grandson once, and hasn't spoken to me since my daughter was born.
I do believe my own mother loved me to the best of her ability, but from the time I was a little girl, that love had conditions and I knew it. If I said the wrong thing, acted in a way that offended or upset her, or did something she didn't like, she would pull her affection out from under me so quickly without a qualm. She made it clear that she could live without me, perfecting the art of emotional and physical abandonment while I was still too young to understand that there was something wrong with her, not me. I thought love was something that had to be earned, that not everyone was deserving of it and it could be started and stopped like an LP.
Over the years, I desperately sought mother-type figures in my life, to no avail. From my mother's sisters and my stepmother (who was probably 10 times crazier and more evil than my own mom) to sponsors in AA and the mothers of friends and lovers, these women came and went, but nobody ever filled the void left behind by the human who birthed me.
When I was pregnant with my son, one of my biggest concerns (there were many, as I spent most of my pregnancy alone, as the boy's father had been MIA since conception) was that I knew everything a mother shouldn't be, but wasn't exactly clear what one should be. Luckily, a lot of it is intuitive, and the moment my baby was birthed, I was blessed with more unconditional love than I ever could imagine. But there is more to being a mom than just loving and caring for a child.
I reconnected with Nick, the man who is now my husband, six weeks before my son was born. He was my first love, and we spent most of our college years together, so I had already met his mother Stephanie 16 years earlier, however, I didn't really get to know her until we drove up to visit them for Thanksgiving. Though Nick had relayed to me that his mother was supportive of our relationship and proud of me because I had decided to keep my baby and go at it alone, I had my reservations, because what mother would really want to see her son parent another man's child, especially that of his brat-of-a-college girlfriend? But as soon as I stepped in the door of her beautiful and impeccably kept home, flooding with the aroma of made-from-scratch chicken wild rice soup, it was as if I had arrived home for the first time.
Like most things given freely in life, people with wonderful mothers take them and their love for granted to an extent, because they aren't familiar with the alternative. "I have a great mother, but…" is often followed by things like "she cares too much," "gets too involved in my life," "calls me all the time," or"is overbearing," by people who "suffer" from an abundance of mom love, my husband included. I, like someone licking an ice cream cone for the first time, savored every sweet shred of attention I received from my future mother-in-law. I was more than happy to help her out in the kitchen, accompany her on a shopping trip, or join her for lunch with a group of friends.
From witnessing her relationship with Nick, who is one of the more complex human beings I have encountered in life, I learned that being a mother isn't easy. Many say it is the most difficult, monetarily unpaid, and undervalued jobs in the world. She told me stories about him, like the time he swore at an old lady in church as a toddler and the other when he vomited all over her pristine house as an adult after a booze-filled evening. Over the years, he has said an awful lot of mean things to her (as all children do), refused to return phone calls after bitter arguments, gotten into trouble with schools and the law, and overcharged credit cards. But none of those things make her love him any less.
She has always been the first to call him after a fight because she doesn't like to go to sleep with unresolved issues with people she loves, and is willing to hop in the car at a moment's notice and drive eight hours, like the night his first wife left him, just so that he wouldn't have to be alone. She always has a hot meal waiting for him after a long drive up for a visit, even when he claims he's not going to be hungry. She loves him, no matter what.
All of a sudden, the mother I always dreamed of was in my life, and for whatever reason, she has always loved my son and I like we were her blood.
She went with me to try on wedding gowns and was there as I walked down the aisle and married the love of my life. She has been there for every one of Jackson's birthdays, for the birth of our daughter, and even flew out to Los Angeles to help me while I was there for work. In her home, there is always a Christmas stocking with my name on it, an Easter basket filled with my favorite candy and treats, and my favorite, homemade granola waiting for me when we visit.
She is the first person (after my husband, of course) that I call whenever anything good or bad happens, and when I was baptized earlier this year, she became my godmother. Sure, we have gotten into arguments, and because of history my first instinct is to think, That's it, it's over, I blew it with her, but she doesn't let more than a day go by before trying to work things out.
You can read every parenting book ever published, listen to podcasts, join a million mom groups, and go to multiple therapists, but what you can't learn from any of those things is what it feels like to be truly loved by a mother. Maybe I would have figured this out without Stephanie, but I truly believe that with the abundance of love and support she has given me, I am able to give that much more to my children.
No mother is perfect. Inevitably, we will all look back one day and wonder what we could've or should've done differently in this "choose your own adventure" of parenting, but at the end of day, the most important thing is that we love our little humans with all of our might, and never, ever, give up on them.More On