text:
|20 Mar 2013
Solution to: "Gave up waiting for Win7RTM physical prefetcher" problem
I am not sure if I'm posting in the right section or not but felt a strong urge to give a solution to an unresolved problem (as far as it seems while Googling).
Many of you must be aware of the process of optimization Windows' boot process using Windows Performance Toolkit (described here). That command makes Windows first do a reboot to trace the boot, then reboots again and after the second reboot, the boot files are moved around the HD and placed in an optimized layout so as to reduce to seek time as much as possible and make Windows boot faster. The subsequent reboots (4 remaining) trains the prefetcher to load the files in the fastest way possible.
The re-positioning of files on the HD after the second reboot depends much on the layout.ini that you may find in the "Prefetch" folder inside the "Windows" folder. This layout.ini file contains the list of all files accessed during Windows boot up process and after the user has logged in (upto 1 or 2 minutes). This file is generated ONLY when Windows has been idle for a certain amount of time. It may take upto 3 days before this file is generated after a fresh Windows installation. If Windows has never been idle, this file will probably never be generated unless you keep it idle. Also, the automatic de-fragmentation process occurs only when Windows is idle. If you're a kind of a person who never keeps Windows idle, then probably you are not gonna get much of the benefits of Windows Superfetch.
If this layout.ini file is absent and you try to optimize Windows using WPT, you may encounter the "Gave up waiting for Win7RTM physical prefetcher after 300 seconds. Could not wait for prefetcher" error in between the reboots. Although this guy seems to have a solution that works, but that solution is kind of "fake", his solution only makes all 6 reboots successful but DOES NOT optimize/train Windows Prefetcher at all. Also, it kind of breaks the Superfetch service totally.
The creation of layout.ini takes around 10-15 minutes. To solve this problem, start from the scratch:
1. Navigate to %systemdrive%/Windows/Prefetcher and delete everything in there (trust me!).
2. Reboot Windows, run all your most frequently used programs and do all your most frequently performed tasks.
3. Repeat Step 2 4-5 times.
4. Now check the prefetch folder. Everything's is back, isn't?
5. Now you need to manually invoke Windows to create layout.ini file.
Run command prompt as admin and run the following command:6. This process will take about 10-15 minutes with no sign of visual activity except you may see HDD indicator glowing.
7. You will find a process called "rundll32.exe" running in task manager. When this process vanishes, that would indicate that the process has completed.
8. Now you'll find layout.ini in the Prefetch folder. Please DO NOT edit its contents.
9. Once this is done, you may also run this command: defrag c: -boot
This would invoke a boot optimization. It *might* take a lot of time in some cases.Now you may follow the WPT optimization tutorial and run the "xbootmgr -trace boot -prepSystem -verboseReadyBoot" command to successfully optimize and train Windows and hopefully you'll be treated with a fast Windows startup further!
Hope this helps all guys searching for the solution.
Nilanko Halder
|My System Specs
|Thread Tools
|Similar help and support threads for2: Solution to: "Gave up waiting for Win7RTM physical prefetcher" problem
|Diff.between "available" and "free" physical memory?
|Performance & Maintenance
|Postal Service "Package Waiting" Scam.... Trojan Dropper Virus.
|System Security
|My netbook an't connect to the internet. Stuck in "Waiting for..."
|Network & Sharing
|Build 7000 "files waiting to be burned to disc" problem...
|General Discussion
|An "icon missing problem" solution I just want to share
|"Waiting for Background Programs to Close" Symante
|BSOD Help and Support
|"Waiting for Background Programs to Close" Symantec
|Our Sites
|Site Links
|About Us
|Find Us
Windows 7 Forums is an independent web site and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Microsoft Corporation. "Windows 7" and related materials are trademarks of Microsoft Corp.
© Designer Media Ltd
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 12:34 AM.


text:
Poll: Help the Vegetarians!
- p
- pollystyrene Jul 9, 2007 02:57 PM
What, and from where, are your top three dishes (excluding desserts) that do not contain animal flesh?
I've got a lot of favorites....
Oleana in Cambridge - http://www.oleanarestaurant.com/ They have a vegetarian tasting menu that is what ever the chef feels like but you can't go wrong with anything they serve it is a must. The Spinach Falafel, Tahini, Yogurt with Beets & Mâche are the out of this world.
re: chiclets_mb
Ditto. Gotta be the best veg offering in the region.
re: chiclets_mb
Based on this post I went to Oleana on Friday night for a special occasion dinner with the boyfriend. WOW! It was AMAZING from beginning to end. Not only was the food spectacular, but the space and service were also fabulous. Before dinner I got the white port cocktail with mint and grapes. The BF got sangria. Both excellent. We did the vegetarian tasting menu with wine pairings. All courses were timed just right and the wine pairings were perfect. Started with 4 items from the pret a manger area of the menu. My favorite was the Spicy Carrot Puree & Egyptian Spice Mix with Nuts & Olive Oil, the BF loved the Whipped Feta with Sweet & Hot Peppers - but all were certainly worth ordering again. Other standouts from the next 4 courses were the spinach falafel, manchego cheese cakes with green chard, Ricotta & Bread Dumplings with Red Wine, Porcini and Kale, beet salad. There was more - all great - dessert was also a winner. A small chocolate cake, and ice cream with candied fruit. Considering we did a 6 course tasting menu with wine pairings with each course (and also got 2 additional cocktails to start), I think the $200 price tag was very reasonable. I can't wait to go back!
The Vegetable Tagine Couscous with sultanas and dates from Sabur in Somerville is wonderful... my carnivorous dining mates eyed my dish with extreme longing :)
re: mipiace
Roasted Garlic Polenta, Wood Grilled Artichokes, Tomato & Olives
Vegetable Tagine Cous Cous, Sultanas and Dates
From the menu it looks like the above two dishes may be vegan and gluten-free (no wheat, oats, barley, rye, spelt)?
re: powella
I missed the cous cous listed. Thanks for pointing this out.
You should also try Pho Republic - the chow fun noodles with tofu and peanut sauce is one of my all time favorites. I go to Pho Republic weekly.
re: chiclets_mb
At Addis, you don't even need to worry about narrowing down your choices. The "Winnie Mandela Special" is a sample of all of their vegetarian dishes.
Probably one of the first places I think of when someone asks for good vegetarian.
My personal favorite is either the Nemeser Wot or Mittin Shuro Wot. I keep forgeting which wot is wot.
The spinach and marscapone ravioli at Teatro is my #1.
Tied for 2nd are falafel sandwiches from my back-and-forth spots, Rami's and Schwarama King. I thought I had committed to Rami's as the favorite (due to the hot sauce), but I'm wavering again.
My favorite is the herb broth with a variety of tofu and vegetables (I get cravings for the watercress) at Little Q Mongolian Hot Pot on Hancock Street in Quincy.
Most of the outstanding broths are vegetarian. and the scallion pancakes are some of the best in the region. It is definitely worth a detour for some of the most delicious broth and food without any worry about chicken stock. Just ask to be sure - five out of the six broths are vegetarian, if I remember correctly.
My carnivorous family choose beef, and love the vegetarian broths.
I eat great vegetarian dishes all the time so to me that seems like an very broad question.
I second Rami's falafel sandwich with hot sauce (which I think is much better than Shwarama King).
How about a veggie kibbee platter from either Boston Shwarma or Reef Cafe? Delicious.
I would say a curry tofu plate from Rod Dee, but that surely has shrimp paste. I don't know if shrimp paste in a curry sauce qualifies as animal flesh. Brown Sugar/The Similans has a good curry that definitely is vegan.
There are so many Indian dishes that fit the bill that it's impossible to pick one. I would just say do a search for good Indian restaurants and try the buffet or dinner. Namaskar's buffet is particularly good for vegetarians. Kebab Factory is great too.
Malaysian Buddhist delight at Aneka Rasa, with coconut rice, is excellent.
I can think of so many Asian dishes that it's basically impossible to narrow them down. All I can say is...I used to be a vegetarian, for like 15 years. I didn't want to trouble anyone and would eat wherever. But don't take me to some completely Western meat-centric place with one boring token vegetarian dish on the menu (or even worse, they are able to throw together some vegetables in the kitchen) and expect me to be pleased.
My favorite food is probably ma pa dofu and I often get it without pork or other meat. Shanghai Gate, Sichuan Garden, other places mentioned here make good versions. If you eat fish, Shanghai Gate has it with minced fish.
Hard to put a top 3, as it's like comparing apples and oranges, but here are some that I like.
Gluten puffs with edamame/mao2 dou3 and tofu skin/bai2 ye4 at New Shanghai in Chinatown. Also the appetizers like kao3 fu1 (gluten with pieces, lily stems in a dark sweet anise flavoured sauce), ma3 lan2 tou2 (chopped wild Shanghainese vegetables and tofu).
Similar dishes at Shanghai Gate in Allston.
Seaweed with garlic at Chung Shin Yuan in Newton.
Mezze plate at Sultan's Kitchen.
The mucver (zuchinni pancakes/fritters) at Brookline Family Turkish Restaurant (the yogurt's excellent).
Ultimate veggie platter at Cafe Baraka.
Gujarati Thali at Namaskar.
Daikon dumplings at O Ya.
O Ya
9 East Street, Boston, MA 02111
Baraka Cafe
80 Pearl St, Cambridge, MA 02139
New Shanghai Restaurant
21 Hudson St, Boston, MA 02111
Shanghai Gate
204 Harvard Ave, Allston, MA 02134
Chung Shin Yuan
183 California St, Newtonville, MA 02458
Brookline Family Restaurant
305 Washington St, Brookline, MA 02445
Namaskar Fine Indian Cuisine
236 Elm St, Somerville, MA 02144
Sultan's Kitchen
116 State St, Boston, MA 02109
I can't wait to try some of these. I could go for a big dose of those noodles with tofu and peanut sauce right now. Yes, The Helmand is great, esp. the Kaddo. I didn't know Sabur had a whole vegetarian menu. (A respite from the usual menu jerk, "Ooh, that sounds--nope, shrimp; oh, this sounds pretty--nope, pancetta.") It looks great, and I drive by there all the time, for some reason without stopping, but now I know better. And I'll dream of spinach and mascarpone ravioli tonight.... And maybe eat some tomorrow. Thanks for all the great ideas.
The mujeddara and the ful mudammus at Cafe Barada on Mass. Ave. near Porter are terrific, and they always have one vegetarian special from a list of rotating specials. We usually start off with hummus and olives, then either the mujeddara or the special with a side of buttery rice, and sometimes try to manage a piece of very good baklava. Yum!
We also love the masala dosa at Bombay in Arlington Center, especially when you eat in so it's nice and crispy and light.
re: shivohum
Where is Croma, and how do you pronounce "Sabur"? And thanks for reminding me of the veggie cuban at Chez Henri; I'd been wanting to get one.
re: pollystyrene
I think it's "sah-boor" but I could be wrong :). Croma is on 271 Newbury...
Tons of favorites as well, but here's my top 3 (at least today):
Veggie platter at East Coast Grill. Sounds boring, but damn I crave that all the time. Vegan or vegetarian option - either rocks.
Veggie chef's whim at Craigie Street Bistrot (I know, it's not a dish, but I've never had anything less than an amazing meal there).
Homemade veggie burger at Christophers. (The ones at Publick House and Atwood's are quite tasty too).
re: weathermasta
Weathermasta, you're reading my mind. Ditto on the Christopher's burger. It's important to get the housemade one, not to other one -- it can get confusing if you don't know better, and I equally love the Publick House's version, also made on premises.
And to ChrisVR upthread, god that kaddo is to die for, isn't it?
re: litchick
Yeah, I was so skeptical because, really, how could pumpkin be THAT good? And yet it was soooo good.
re: weathermasta
Weathermasta, can you remember some of the items on the Veggie Platter at ECG? I have a friend who loves that place, but I never go with him because the menu doesn't look too good to a vegetarian. If there were something I craved there, it would make his day!
And I've heard talk of this legendary veggie burger at Christophers, but, like the veggie cubano at Chez Henri, I keep forgetting it's there. Now I'll have this great thread as a constant reference/reminder.
re: pollystyrene
Veggie Cubano. What's in that?
re: weathermasta
I've been working my way through this entire post, and finally had a chance to do the Chef's Whim at Craigie Street (I did a 6 course tasting menu). It is now firmly in my top three vegetarian dishes. If I have to pick just ONE thing from that menu that was truly a standout, that would be the polenta dish included in last night's whim. I've always liked polenta, but after trying this I thought I'd gone to heaven! Other standouts from the tasting menu were the celery root soup and Olive Oil-Taza Chcolate Mousse - however, it was all fantastic and I can't wait to go back. The service was impeccable and chef Tony Maws came out to speak with us which I thought was a really nice touch.
re: weathermasta
The Druid does a very good veggie burger as well.
All casual places - I have not done high-end veggie in Boston.
-Bean veggie burger at Audubon Circle
-Veggie burger at Atwood's
-Veggie tasting platter at Enormous Room (although I haven't done that in like 3-4 years).
-(I cheat with one more) Luke Park's Veggie handrolls at Rivergods - mmm mmm good.
- The rasta pasta at Something Savory
- the roasted garlic polenta at Sabur
- the veg options from the antipasto table at Vinny's at Night
Wonderful unusual salads and chard/caramelized onion/goat cheese pizza from Veggie Planet!
Amazing spicy satisfying soups from Sultan's Kitchen
Sultan's Kitchen
116 State St, Boston, MA 02109
• Masala Dosas from Namaskar.
• Florentine benedict from Sound Bites.
• Royal Tofu from East Asia.
• the daily veggie special at EVOO. Last night I had parsnip cannoli, and they were amazing.
• Veggie ramen from Sapporo.
• the Dolmen Veggie Burger from The Burren.. it's a sort of curry patty.
re: Boston_Otter
There's a daily veggie special at EVOO? Do you mean in addition to the one veg entree they've always got on the menu?
re: pollystyrene
Sorry for the confusing wording. I meant that they always have at least one veggie entree on the prix fixe menu, which changes depending on what's fresh and in season.
re: Boston_Otter
Thanks for clarifying. I'm actually a bit relieved; I thought I'd been missing out on a secret special!
This is an old thread, but one that I fully support resurrecting. I know a lot of fantastic veggie food has popped up in Boston over the last couple of years.
My additions (we're a bit Camberville-centric):
-Clover Food Lab: BLT
-Pizzeria Regina: magherita pizza
-Lemon Thai: cashew stir fry or anything with peanut sauce + brown rice and tofu (these prolly have fish sauce)
-Taipei Tokyo: peanut avocado rolls with brown rice
-Cafe Barada: hummus and mujaddara
-Ten Tables: veggie tasting menu--spectacular and reasonably priced
-Veggie Planet: Henry's Dinner (butternut squash, goat cheese pizza)
-Solea: Buٌnuelos de Alcachofas y Espinacas (Artichoke & Spinach Fritters)
-Za: lots of the seasonal pizzas + their Black bean avocado & roasted beet salads
-Yak & Yeti: palak kofta
Just 3 is tough. We like various different dishes at Life Alive. We've eaten at the Lowell location and see that the Central Square, Cambridge location is opening soon! Various dishes at Martsa on Elm (Tibetan, Davis Square, Camb), the veg plate at Asmara (Eritrean, Central Sq, Camb), Pulse near Davis Sq has great food. We're vegan and I'm gluten-free and we find food we like, even more choices for others.
Life Alive
194 Middle St Apt 3R, Lowell, MA 01852
Lalla Mussa Dal - Black lentil simmered overnight in spices offered at Tamarind Bay, Harvard Sq.
Tofu pad thai at Thai Moon, Arlington.
Pie Tee (A.K.A. Top Hats) shredded jicama, cucumber, carrot, and tofu cake in a crispy hat shape shell, topped with fragrant fried shallots at Island Hopper, Back Bay.
Tamarind Bay
75 Winthrop St, Cambridge, MA 02138
Thai Moon
663 Massachusetts Ave, Arlington, MA 02476
Island Hopper
91 Massachusetts Ave, Boston, MA 02115
just want to caution some people that this thread goes back many years and some of the restos mentioned no longer exist.
for me:
ginger deep fried bean curd at Mary Chung's, Central Sq, Cambridge.served in a unique slightly sweeet sauce w/ julienned ginger. also GREAT and refreshing if eaten as a take-out or leftover lunch.
rice stuffed baby eggplant at Eastern Lamejun Bakery, Watertown (take out only)
eggplant salad - Toro, South End ; could eat this for my entire meal.
Mary Chung Restaurant
460 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139
1704 Washington St, Boston, MA 02118
love this thread.
I'd have to my number one favorite veggie dish is the pho chay at pho pasteur...mmm
followed closely by a regina Margherita
Top three tofu dishes:
homestyle tofu from Qingdao
yu hsiang tofu from Mary Chung
pad kee mao with tofu from Rod Dee
Top three non-tofu vegetarian dishes:
fried eggplant from Red Lentil
falafel from Rami's
dry fried green beans from Qingdao or Mary Chung
Mary Chung Restaurant
460 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139
Red Lentil
600 Mt Auburn St, Watertown, MA 02472
re: maillard
good post bringback! Are there ANY faves from North of Boston??
My minds a blank right now..all i can think of are a couple favorite ordinary comfort dishes.. Spinach pie (does have feta though) with greek green beans and roasted potato and the greek salad at Brothers Kouzina Peabody, avocado rolls and veggie tempura at Sushi Island, and the homemade angel hair with vegetables at Calitris Danvers. Just make sure to ask for no chicken broth, as it is questionable as to whether its used in their seasoning.. might depend on the chef that day, but they make sure its not if you ask.
Brothers Kouzina
25 Newbury St, Peabody, MA 01960
Pan Seared Breaded Portabella Strips from Red Lentil in Watertown
Trio of Pies at Vlora in Boston
Burrata at Il Casale in Belmont
545 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02116
Red Lentil
600 Mt Auburn St, Watertown, MA 02472

subset: commoncrawl


text:
I'm not stupid. I've never trusted you.
You are desperate, sad, and transparent. I have never met someone who has to try as hard as you do.
You are awkward, at best. Your personality and demeanor are off-putting. You act as if you've never learned how to hold a conversation. Your personality is a conglomerate of what you think men find attractive, not of your own interests and hobbies.
Why do you have some small, sad spec of hope alive when it should be clear to you by now that you don't have a chance? You never did.
"I find you disgusting,
I find you inconsolable,
I find you invasive."
You are a snake, and the worst kind at that.
People with this disorder are usually able to function at a high level and can be successful socially and at work.
Symptoms include:


text:
"This whole world is wild at heart, and weird on top."
The things you pick up as you go.
Subscribe to RSS Talk To Me, Bitches AboutHipstergramTwitterArchiveBuilding & DecoratingFoodD.I.Y
The other evening, I did a barefoot hike up Deer's Leap to watch the sun set. I didn't see a single other soul until my way back down, when a porcupine (the first I've seen in my life,) and I stumbled upon each other 12 feet away as he was crossing the trail, and then I overtook a guy hiking the AT and was able to tell him he wasn't that far from his night's shelter.
It's the little things.
8 notes
Leave Note / Reblog
La Mia Faccia Pretty Colors Sunset ILoVermont Hiking Legs Ass Long Hair Mountains Sky Photography Profile Summer


text:
New Crime lineup again. Mmyep.
Tags: Bronwyn Adams Crime and the City Solution Danielle de Picciotto alexander hacke david eugene edwards jim white matt smith simon bonney troy gregory colleen o'connor
Fancy music, dorky interests. I like lots of TV shows but don't consider myself a "member of the fandom" for any of them (though I do currently RP a character in the True Blood universe).
Powered by Tumblr. Minimal Theme designed by Artur Kim.


text:
loveless and mbv are good albums.
it's not, mate. don't judge them by their names.
huh, MBV is "edgy" ?
took me a while to notice what she's doing with that wand. that hand gesture at the end just seems like she's flourishing something...but then i noticed that it's probably just a pocket.
Why did I think you were referring to a different username
I fed him a lot of candy as a kid, hes sweet as a button
I'm sorry Danny boy, you got the wrong person :/
10/10 new mascot for the pub
I'm slightly worried now
Sucy Manbavaran best Manbavaran


text:
Dr. John M. Mashny, MD
Cardiovascular Disease, Tri Health Heart Institute
- 10525 Montgomery Rd
Cincinnati, OH 45242
- 2 Office Locations
- Email a Friend
- (513) 745-9800
Dr. John M. Mashny has been practicing medicine for 23 years. Dr. Mashny graduated from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine in 1991. He practices medicine in Cincinnati, OH and 1 other location and specializes in Cardiovascular Disease. Dr. Mashny is affiliated with Bethesda North Hospital and Good Samaritan Hospital.
Gender: Male
Years in Practice: 23 Years
Languages Spoken: English
Medical School: University of Cincinnati College of Medicine
Graduation Date: 1991
Hospital Affiliations: Bethesda North Hospital, Good Samaritan Hospital
Specialties: Cardiovascular Disease
*This physician has multiple office locations. See Appointments for details.
©2005-2014 WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved.
WebMD does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. See additional information.


text:
|11 Jan 2011
Cannot use email links to get to Outlook
I have used Outlook 2003 (& its predecessors) for years without this problem (with Win98 & XP). Now I've done a clean upgrade to Windows 7 (Hm Prem, Public Release), re-installed Outlook03 and here's my problem: Email address links ("mailto:") on web pages, in emails, in Office documents, on PDF docs, etc. -- none of them work.
They either do nothing or I get the error "Could not perform this operation because the default mail client is not properly installed" in a dialogue box entitled "Mail client not found." Sometimes the attempt actually puts the focus on Outlook but still displays the error message and fails to launch a new message template.
The lame "Set your Default Programs" doesn't even show Outlook. The "Set Program Access and Computer Defaults" just shows "E-mail program: Use my current e-mail program" and allows no change to this inane statement. In the Control Panel, if I click on "Mail," it gives me the options within Outlook to adjust, so it must "think" this is my default mail client.
Any ideas on how to fix this annoyance other than copy-pasting email addresses like I've been doing for months now?
|My System Specs
|17 Jan 2011
Windows 8 Pro w/MC 32-bit
Try, in Default Programs, "Associate a File Type...", near the bottom there is a list of protocols, including "MAILTO". If you click "Change Program" at the top right, perhaps Outlook will appear there. If not, I'd try a reinstall of Outlook since the error message mentions "not properly installed".
|My System Specs
|21 Jan 2011
I thought I had tried that (going to the Associate a file type or protocol ...) but I tried again and there is no MAILTO protocol. Among the extensions is .mapimail and it does point to Outlook but that is used by the SendTo context menu item as far as I can tell.
As for re-installing Outlook, I have no desire to have to rebuild years of email and contact files just to remove a slight annoyance.
But thanks, roncerr, for trying to help me.
Think how much deeper the oceans would be without all those sponges
|My System Specs
|21 Jan 2011
Windows 7 Ultimate x64 SP1
A reinstall will not get rid of your emails and contacts. I've uninstalled 2003 (and re-installed a number of times), installed 2007, uninstalled 2007, installed 2010 and never lost an email, contact or calendar. As a safeguard, be sure to back up your *.pst files.
|My System Specs
|21 Jan 2011
Are you CERTAIN that there is no MAILTO protocol listed?
Scroll to the very bottom (a section headed Protocols).
If it is not there, your problem is not limited to Outlook. Please check even if you have already checked. We will fix this within the hour.
|My System Specs
|25 Jan 2011
|My System Specs
|25 Jan 2011
See Registering an Application to a URL Protocol
You need to add the missing protocol. Then, Default Programs - Associate a File Type or Protocol
|My System Specs
|25 Jan 2011
Looking again at our 2 screencaps, I noticed that Outlook hasn't registered several other protocols that you show. I think that tends to mean that Outlook itself is the problem here.
Reinstallation seems like something I should try. I know how to backup my PST file. I do it at least weekly both to an external drive and to an offsite service (Mozy). But how do I re-associate the baced-up PST file with a new install of Outlook?
Added: Now that our msgs passed in the ether, I'll look at your instructions first. Thx, DeVandal.
|My System Specs
|25 Jan 2011
You can use the Mail applet in control panel, among other ways. See Data Files.
Because the PST files are so important to me, I re-map them from here anyway on install.
|My System Specs
|25 Jan 2011
Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit
I have that issue in Firefox 3.6.6. mailto links give a file not found error.
works fine in IE, just not in Firefox.
|My System Specs
|Thread Tools
|Similar help and support threads for2: Cannot use email links to get to Outlook
|Can't click email links
|Browsers & Mail
|Email links to Web
|Browsers & Mail
|Outlook won't let me follow web links in email/msg says restricted
|Microsoft Office
|Email Notification Links
|Browsers & Mail
|outlook 2007 changed email address so email was returned
|Microsoft Office
|Can't access links in email
|Browsers & Mail
|Need help with email address links
|Browsers & Mail
|Our Sites
|Site Links
|About Us
|Find Us
Windows 7 Forums is an independent web site and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Microsoft Corporation. "Windows 7" and related materials are trademarks of Microsoft Corp.
© Designer Media Ltd
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 09:25 AM.


text:
Jason Perlow
Denise Amrich
Best Argument: No
Audience Favored: Yes (58%)
Closing Statements
Less time to shop
Jason Perlow
It is also breaking up families that now have to face single parenting scenarios which make a planned mall excursion during normal business hours as well as on the nights and weekends that much more difficult. Fuel prices are also making people think twice about getting in the car and going to the Mall. All of these will increase retail vacancies and make e-commerce that much more attractive an alternative to traditional brick and mortar shopping.
Despite my largely telecommuter lifestyle, I still love to get out of the house. But my time has value, as it does to many people. Shopping is a necessity, but it is not necessarily an enjoyable activity at all times. That we all have less time to spend on tasks outside our revenue generation responsibilities and spend whatever we have left with our families (and our diversions) has no doubt impacted the bottom line of the shopping mall.
Let the marketplace decide...literally!
Denise Amrich
But that doesn't mean all stores will win. The malls will morph. Store owners and operators need to adjust to a world where online commerce is a reality, and they'll need to be creative and modify their business models to coexist in a world filled with digital natives.
One thing to consider when thinking about this issue is that half the stuff we now shop for online didn't even exist back in the day when we did pretty much all our shopping in person. So maybe people will shop for their digital stuff in the e-commerce world, and their real stuff in the real world. The Internet will just keep making it easier and easier to spend more money, whether enticing folks to a physical store or an online marketplace.
Some retailers, like Apple, will win big. Others won't. Such has always been the way of retail. In the meantime, enjoy shopping for what you need, in the way that works best for you. Be sure to support the stores you love, and then relax and let the marketplace decide.
Evolution, not extinction
Rachel King
This is a difficult one for me to call considering I'm a big fan of online shopping, and I detest having to shop in person most of the time -- even for groceries.
Nevertheless, I'm giving the win to Denise on this one.
Jason certainly had plenty of excellent points (not to mention numbers) defending why shopping malls just aren't what they used to be in the face of e-commerce trends over the last few years.
But to argue that shopping malls are going totally extinct across the entire country is too extreme. In this sense, I agree with Denise that shopping malls will need to change their business models (not to mention size down) in response to current commerce trends.
Denise also had a few great suggestions of how malls could go about this, pointing out the small businesses that could thrive in shopping centers as well as linking malls to hotels for business travelers looking for last-minute items and services all in one spot.
Overall, shopping malls still serve a purpose for those consumers looking to get their shopping and errands done all in one place immediately. There are plenty of retailers that also require a brick-and-mortar presence that fit in well with the American shopping mall culture, such as big box hardware stores like Lowe's and Home Depot.
However, as many other products (i.e. clothing, toys, anything entertainment related) can be bought online easily (and usually for a lower price), definitely expect to see a lot of stores and brands disappear from malls -- in effect causing them to get smaller than we might be used to seeing.


text: This is my tribute to the brave astronauts and heroes who risk or lost their life for the exploration of space. The first session shows a selection of portraits of astronauts serving the Apollo program (among them are Mercury and Gemini veterans also). I hope this tribute will serve to increase the awareness of today's population of the efforts and accomplishments of NASA's space program. Feel free to use my designed wallpapers on your computer by simply download your favorite image. For full resolution download of the 1st session, address your browser to: http://web.me.com/alonsobrandi/nasa_heroes.html


text:
Master this cyberpunk based game of strategy and money making.Windows Version 1.0 ... Added: 09/19/02Total Downloads52,060Last Week1
Join an illegal street racing syndicate and vie for the championship.Windows Version ... Added: 07/23/03Total Downloads952,289Last Week217
1.1.0()(iPhone3G.iPod touch)TOKYO GPS" " TOKYO GPSlocationTokyo spot camera --------------------iPhone 3GiPhone 3GS----------OS----------iPhone OS...iOS Version 1.1.0 ... Added: 02/04/11Total Downloads0Last Week0
MEDIA4iOS Version 1.0 ... Added: 03/04/11Total Downloads0Last Week0
Change your IM look with icons from this summer blockbuster.Windows Version ... Added: 06/22/06Total Downloads33,615Last Week4
update for the popular game, demo also availableMac Version 1.0.1 ... Added: 07/31/00Total Downloads80,001Last Week1
Take to the streets of Tokyo for some gang-style street fighting.Windows Version ... Added: 03/10/98Total Downloads61,574Last Week34
Organize your schedule with the help of a customizable window gadget.Windows Version 1.40 ... Added: 02/05/08Total Downloads46,601Last Week62
Tokyo Metro is the original and No. 1 selling application for getting around Tokyo, Japan. ********************************************************...iOS Version 3.2 ... Added: 09/18/10Total Downloads85Last Week1
Get maximum of enjoyment from your Tokyo trip.iOS Version 1.0 ... Added: 02/17/14Total Downloads0Last Week0
The New Tokyo App provides quick and easy access to the menu, special offers, events, and location information for New Tokyo in Chicago,...iOS Version 3.20.11 ... Added: 03/15/12Total Downloads1Last Week1
-----------------------------No matter where you are, whether your web presence iPad, you can browse at any time the map of Tokyo, we provide you...iOS Version 2.0 ... Added: 02/05/11Total Downloads13Last Week1
A major update to Go!TOKYO. Besides all the subways in Tokyo, we now have 13 JR lines and 4 private railways, totaling over 500 stations! We have...iOS Version 2.0 ... Added: 07/09/10Total Downloads9Last Week1
Lost in Tokyo? Use Find!Tokyo - the most convenient way to navigate Tokyo!Tokyo is one of the worlds largest cities and it is easy to get lost as a...iOS Version 1.1 ... Added: 01/03/10Total Downloads8Last Week1
THE 2010 TOKYO SUPERGUIDE INCLUDES FREE ACCESS TO CONTENT UPDATES UNTIL THE END OF 2010. an upgrade option to access future content updates will be...iOS Version 1.0.0 ... Added: 08/25/10Total Downloads7Last Week1
! -- I TOKYO! -- ! -- I TOKYO! -- !Experience the unpredictable uniqueness of Tokyo right on your iPad.Feel the magic! Soon you will discover Tokyo...iOS Version 1.0 ... Added: 07/20/11Total Downloads3Last Week1
Made for the people living in Tokyo.Search OptionTokyo,chiba,Saitama,KanagawaAndroid Version 4.1 ... Added: 11/27/11Total Downloads1Last Week1
**********************************************************Launch SALE - 50% OFF!!! Hurry and buy now and get FREE UPGRADES for...iOS Version 2.0 ... Added: 07/09/10Total Downloads5Last Week1
This program is the map of Tokyo Subway in Japan. - I just needed this program when i was traveling in Japan. - 8 languages are supported. - Zoom...iOS Version 1.0 ... Added: 08/25/10Total Downloads2Last Week1
Traveling to Tokyo? Scared of getting ripped off by shady cab companies? Want to steer clear of cabbies and cab companies who have a lot of...iOS Version 1.0 ... Added: 10/08/11Total Downloads1Last Week1
Experience the bright lights,tall skyscrapers and all the breath-taking sights Tokyo has to offer. Everything from always busy and brightly colored...iOS Version 1.0 ... Added: 01/21/12Total Downloads1Last Week1
Tokyo Map enable you to use maps offline without internet connection. This includes maps street names detail. This will give peace of mind when...iOS Version 3.0 ... Added: 03/05/11Total Downloads2Last Week1
Tokyo Joe's fans, now you too can skip the line. Our mobile ordering app lets you order and pay quickly from your phone. Just place your custom...iOS Version 2.0950 ... Added: 10/01/11Total Downloads2Last Week1
The official Birds of Tokyo iPhone app features the latest news, tour info, exclusive videos, photos, updates and more. Follow the band and don't...iOS Version 1.0 ... Added: 08/25/10Total Downloads1Last Week1
Tokyo is home to some of the most exciting boutiques, cutting-edge labels and eclectic vintage finds, with an innovative energy quite unlike any...iOS Version 1.0.1 ... Added: 10/31/11Total Downloads1Last Week1
For about the price of a sandwich, find hundreds of free and cool art shows in Tokyo!Japan Times Review:The new Tokyo Art iPhone application, which...iOS Version 2.0 ... Added: 02/04/10Total Downloads1Last Week1
The subway of Tokyo at your fingertips! Immediate, simple and intuitive use! The map can be moved, zoomed and turned with just the fingers touch!...iOS Version 1.6.0 ... Added: 02/27/12Total Downloads1Last Week1
Applications are collected in great illumination around Tokyo, Japan.Anyhow, please see and cure beautiful illuminations like Shangri-La....iOS Version 1.0 ... Added: 09/30/11Total Downloads1Last Week1
Metro Tokyo is the ultimate metro/subway guide that will put you right at home, where ever you are around the globe. No internet connection is...iOS Version 1.1 ... Added: 02/20/10Total Downloads1Last Week1
The work of photographers Rie Amemiya can be seen. The work based on the estheticism and the Gothic is the different world clipped from the...iOS Version 1.0 ... Added: 05/21/10Total Downloads1Last Week1


text:
Atlanta Dream forward Angel McCoughtry was named the 2009 adidas Rookie of the Year, the WNBA announced today. McCoughtry received 30 votes from a national panel of sportswriters and broadcasters to earn the award.
McCoughtry, the No.1 overall pick in the 2009 WNBA Draft presented by adidas, topped the charts among all WNBA rookies in points (12.8) and steals (2.2) and ranked fifth in assists (2.1). She finished the season with two consecutive adidas Rookie of the Month honors. McCoughtry's 2.2 steals per game led the Dream and placed her in the top five among league leaders.
The 6'1" forward started her professional career by posting 15 points and seven rebounds in an 87-86 win over the Indiana Fever. One of her best games came in a 93-87 win over the San Antonio Silver Stars; McCoughtry posted a career-high 34 points, collected seven rebounds and dished out four assists. Another performance where McCoughtry's versatility stood out was a win late in the season against the Monarchs. She had a career-high 10 assists and added 26 points and five rebounds. McCoughtry scored double-digits in all but 10 games during her first professional season.
McCoughtry helped propel a team that finished with only four wins in 2008 to second place in the Eastern Conference this season. The Dream advanced to the 2009 WNBA Playoffs presented by adidas, the first postseason appearance in franchise history. The 14-game improvement is the second-best single-season turnaround in WNBA history.
McCoughtry was honored with the adidas Rookie of the Month award in July and August. In July, she averaged 10.2 points, 2.0 steals per game and was nearly perfect from the free throw line during that span (17-for-18). In her 10 games played in August, she averaged 17.3 points, 3.4 rebounds, 3.4 steals and 2.4 assists.
McCoughtry, the all-time leading scorer and rebounder at the University of Louisville, excelled on the court throughout her college career. She was the Big East Defensive Player of the Year as a senior and was Louisville's first three-time All-America selection.
In honor of being named the 2009 adidas Rookie of the Year, McCoughtry will receive $5,000 and a specially-designed trophy by Tiffany & Co.


text:
|Total (w/tax)
|Total (w/tax)
Book Description:
Understanding tax deductions is an essential part of any small businesswithout the money saved by taking deductions, many businesses couldn't even get started or operate profitably once they are up and running. With this book, professionals who own their own practice can rest assured that they will learn all they need to know about the many deductions that they are legally entitled to take. Organized into practical, easytouse categories of the most commonlyused business deductions, also provides basic general information on how businesses are taxed and how tax deductions work, many people (including professionals) quit a job to start their own business, which means that they have no previous experience with business deductions and they need to get up to speed quickly.
Tags: Law, Administrative-Law, Urban-State-Local-Government,


text:
Full Disclosure
mailing list archives
On Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:44:37 EDT, Brad Spengler said:
Please let them know what you think of their policy of non-disclosure
and coverups. I hope someone also educates them on their ridiculous
notion of "untrusted local users" like Greg uses in his announcement of
the 126.96.36.199 kernel:
What's ridiculous about the concept? There *do* exist machines that don't
have any untrusted local users - for instance, my laptop. The only users
on it are me, myself, and I. My threat model explicitly does *not* include
"One of the other users on the box downloads a vuln and attacks you with it".
Yes, there's *still* an attack surface for me to get whacked by that bug.
However, it's a *much* longer chain for "find a way to get code running on
the box, and then make it do the exploit" than the alternative "the Other User
downloads it and whacks the box".
Yes, there *is* still an exposure to "I get bit in the ass by something that
abuses my web browser or my MUA". However, that's a *different* issue, as
at that point, they have code running as me - and protecting *my* stuff
from code running *as me* is a different kettle of fish entirely.
At that point, I have other and probably bigger things to worry about than if
my box gets whacked with the bug in 184.108.40.206. For instance, I worry more
about having a keystroke logger running as me than I do about malicious code
managing to abuse the ldt bug to implement setuid(), simply because the
keystroke logger would be a bigger pain in the ass to clean up after....
Similar reasoning applies to almost all uses of Linux in the embedded
world - if you already have code running on the cell phone, there really
isn't *anything* you can do by abusing something like the setldt() bug
that you couldn't *already* do to the box.
Full-Disclosure - We believe in it.
Charter: http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html
Hosted and sponsored by Secunia - http://secunia.com/
By Date
By Thread


text:
Federal Reserve Building in Washington D.C. - Illustration by DonkeyHotey on Flickr.
Via Flickr:
Federal Reserve Building, Washington D.C.
Federal Reserve Building photo with enhanced color, shaded areas darkened, lines deapened, sharpened, piral weave blurred and Eye of Providence sweeping in over the building.
The source image for this illustration of the Federal Reserve Building is a Creative Commons licensed photo from wwarby's Flickr photostream.


text:
Handguns by CZ
About firearm sales: How to buy this firearm online.
Catalog Number
and accessories...
Show all products
Last price was:
Price subject to change when restocked.
About CZ7501120 CZ 75B Pistol 40S&W 4.7" Black W/2-10RD Mags
Manufacturer CZ Model 75B Action Semi-automatic Type Double Action Size Full Caliber 40 S&W Barrel Length 4.7" Frame/Material Steel Finish/Color Black Grips/Stock Plastic Capacity 10Rd Accessories Included: 2 Mags Hand Right Hand Manufacturer Wt 35.27oz Sights Fixed SightsCalifornia Compliant... This firearm package is on the California compliant / Calif. Dept. of Justice approved firearms list as of 07/14/08. Please note that the Calif. DOJ list changes, and particular firearms may or may not be renewed by the manufacturer. Therefore, to see if this firearm is still California legal, you must check the California DOJ Roster of Certified Handguns.
UPC Code: 806703011202
About CZ
CZ firearms imported exclusively by CZ-USA with offices in Kansas City, KS. Handguns. Bigbore centerfire rifles. Smallbore centerfire rifles. Rimfire rifles. Shotguns. Dan Wesson firearmas. Safari Classics.
|Home | Search | Help Done Shopping! Checkout


text:
--Hong Kong, Australia gain on PBOC comments.
--Chinese banks recover strongly in Hong Kong.
--Nikkei pares gains as yen strengthens.
(Adds information, updates/adds market levels)
By Daniel Inman
Stocks in Hong Kong and Australia rallied Wednesday on signs that China's central bank is working to halt the country's cash squeeze, while Shanghai remained slightly lower.
Markets were reacting to a statement from the People's Bank of China's on Tuesday where the central bank said that it had introduced funds to some financial institutions in recent days, a sign that authorities are acting to halt the liquidity crunch that has overshadowed the country's financial system over the last few weeks.
The statement came after a central bank official said earlier Tuesday that the PBOC would "guide market interest rates into a reasonable range," allaying concerns over interbank lending rates, which have spiked in recent sessions.
Interest swaps in China fell sharply on Wednesday, a sign that the credit crunch is easing.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 0.6%.
Mainland banks listed in Hong Kong recovered, with the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index jumping 1.9%, after recent sharp falls. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China gained 3.4% and China Construction Bank advanced 3.5%.
In mainland China however, the Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.5%. The index lost 5.3% on Monday and suffered another steep fall during Tuesday's trade, only to make a dramatic recovery near the end of the day to post only a small decline.
China Minsheng Banking Corp., one of the banks that was sold off particularly hard, rallied 4.4% in Hong Kong, but its Shanghai-listing was down 2.3%.
Australia, a country with major trade ties to China also made a substantial gain, with the S&P/ASX 200 up 1.5% - breaking a four-session losing streak.
Fears over the health of China's banks led to volatile trading in Shanghai over the last few sessions, which in turn weighed on regional sentiment. The Chinese central bank's acknowledgement that it had responded to the cash shortage reassured markets.
In Japan, the Nikkei Stock Average was down 0.6% after local stocks were initially supported by a weaker yen. The dollar rose as high Y98.24, compared with Y97.82 late Tuesday in New York, but was last at Y97.72.
Exporters benefited from the weaker yen and real estate companies also outperformed the broader market in Tokyo: Toyota Motor Corp. rose 0.2% and Mitsui Fudosan Co. gained 1.7%.
Also in Tokyo, Softbank Corp. rose 0.2% after Sprint Nextel Corp. shareholders on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved selling a controlling stake in the company to the Japanese telecom firm.
South Korea's Kospi Composite was flat.
Write to Daniel Inman at firstname.lastname@example.com
TALK BACK: We invite readers to send us comments on this or other financial news topics. Please email us at email@example.com. Readers should include their full names, work or home addresses and telephone numbers for verification purposes. We reserve the right to edit and publish your comments along with your name; we reserve the right not to publish reader comments.


text:
Archive for category Film
2013 – the best bits. And some of the other bits.
Posted by cathannabel in Events, Film, Literature, Music, Personal, Television, Theatre on December 31, 2013
It has been a funny old year. Funny peculiar, though not without the odd moment of mirth and merriment along the way.
I came back from one secondment to my regular job in January, and went off on the next secondment in December. This new one is a major change – working for HEFCE, based at home when not attending meetings in various exotic parts of the UK (oh, OK then, Croydon, Birmingham, Manchester, Dorking…). It's a fantastic opportunity, and challenges the way I organise my life as well as requiring me to acquire new knowledge and new skills.
I graduated, again. Did the whole gown and mortar board thing which I hadn't been fussed about when I was 21 and graduating for the first time. And then, with barely a pause, on to the doctorate. Studying part-time, it's going to be a long haul, with who knows what possibilities at the end of it, but I'm loving it.
In February, a beloved friend and colleague died, and we – his family, friends, colleagues, students – grieved but also worked together to put on an amazing event in his honour, the 24 Hour Inspire. We raised money for local cancer charities, and have raised more since, through an art exhibition, plant and cake sales and various 10k runs/marathon bike rides, etc. And we're now planning the 24 Hour Inspire 2014, and the publication of Tim's diary. He will continue to inspire.
Culturally, my high points in 2013 have been:
- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie at the Showroom, talking about Americanah, and Half of a Yellow Sun
- Peter Hill premiering newly discovered/completed Messiaen at the Upper Chapel (and playing Bach, Berg and Schoenberg too)
- Arnie Somogyi's Scenes in the City, playing Mingus at Sheffield Jazz
- Tramlines – the Enid in the City Hall, Soukous Revelation in the Peace Gardens, Jim Jones Revue and Selecter at Devonshire Green. (And more, but those were the absolute top bits).
- The 24 Hour Inspire – 24 hours of lectures on life, the universe and everything, including Ed Daw's blues piano, Rachel Falconer on poetry and birds, Jenny Saul on implicit bias, Claire McGourlay on the Innocence Project, and personal narratives from Brendan Stone and Elena Rodriguez-Falcon. Plus John Cockburn's rendition of (What's so Funny 'bout) Peace Love and Understanding, and my favourite Beatles B-side, Things we Said Today, and more busking from Mike Weir, Graham McElearney and Eugenia Chung. And more, lots more.
- Fabulous Beethoven quartets/quintet from the Elias at the Upper Chapel
- A magical Winter's Tale at the Crucible
- Two awesome Britten operas (Peter Grimes and Death in Venice) from Opera North at Leeds Grand
- New (to me) authors enjoyed this year: Maggie O'Farrell, Louise Doughty, Lucy Caldwell, C J Sansom, Alison Moore, Edward St Aubyn, Rebecca Solnit, Wilkie Collins, Jonathan Franzen
- Wonderful new books from authors I've enjoyed before: Stephen King's Dr Sleep and Joyland, Lynn Shepherd's A Treacherous Likeness, Jon McGregor's This isn't the Sort of Thing…., Robert Harris's An Officer and a Spy
- Finally finished Proust's Sodome et Gomorrhe. Allons-y, to La Prisonniere!
- I've learned to love Marvel superheroes (Avengers Assemble! Thor! Iron Man! Agents of Shield!), and have thrilled to The Walking Dead, Orphan Black (virtuoso performance(s) from Tatiana Maslany), Utopia and, of course, Dr Who.
- Speaking of which, not only an absolutely stonking 50th anniversary episode, but also a fascinating and very touching drama about the show's early days, with David Bradley as William Hartnell, the sweet and funny The Five-ish Doctors, with Peter Davison, Sylvester McCoy and Colin Baker sending themselves and everyone else up with great affection, and Matthew Sweet's Culture Show special. And the Christmas episode…
- Other cracking telly – Broadchurch, Homeland, Misfits, The Fall, Southcliffe, The Guilty, The Americans… And from across the Channel, not only another masterclass in French profanity from Spiral, but the wonderful The Returned
- And other top films – Joss Whedon's Much Ado, Lore, The Hobbit Pts 1 & 2, Lincoln, and Patience (after Sebald).
About the blog itself. It's been less focused on my areas of research recently, and that will continue to be the case, as I'm working on the PhD. The odd digression will find its place here – as Tim used to say, tangents are there to be gone off on, and the blog is a good way of nailing those (to mix my metaphors somewhat) and stopping them from distracting me for too long. I shall be continuing to go on about all sorts of other things that pique my interest. In particular the blog will continue to be a place where refugee stories are foregrounded, as a riposte to the mean and dishonest coverage which those stories tend to receive.
Over the last year, my posting has been somewhat erratic. I note that I didn't write anything between March and June (I made up for it in June, however, with a Refugee Week blog-blitz, as well as a piece about Last Year at Marienbad which I still intend to follow up. That hiatus may have had something to do with being in the final stages of my degree – finishing off my dissertation, and a last batch of essays and presentations.
There are so many fantastic bloggers out there, too many to do justice to. We lost one this year, as the great Norman Geras passed away. But I'll continue to enjoy, and to share/reblog That's How the Light Gets In, Nowt Much to Say, and Futile Democracy, amongst others. For my research interests, I will no doubt continue to find lots to think about and follow up in blogs from Decayetude and Vertigo.
So, thanks to the aforementioned bloggers, to the various people with whom I've shared the cultural delights enumerated above, to friends and family who've supported me in my ventures and refrained (mostly) from telling me I'm mad to try to do so many things.
Thing is, I have a history of depression. I know that the best way for me to fight that, to avoid sliding back into that dark pit, is to do lots of stuff I care about. So, not just the job – which I care about, passionately – and my wonderful family, but research, writing, ensuring that we do Tim proud via the charity, and so on. I am very aware that there's a tipping point, that if I do too much stuff I care about, given that I also have to do stuff that I have to do, just because I have to do it, the anxiety of having so much going on can itself lead to sleepless nights, which make me less able to cope, thus leading to more worrying and so on and on… It's all about balance, and about having support when I need it. So, to all of you who, whether you know it or not, provide that support, and help me to keep that balance, a heartfelt thanks.
In particular, over this last year, I'd like to thank:
For unstinting support and encouragement through the part-time degree and especially as I reached the final stages – tutors Sophie Belot and Annie Rouxeville, and classmate Liz Perry. And a special thanks to Chris Turgoose for ensuring that my graduation gown stayed put via an ingenious arrangement of string and safety pins.
For support and encouragement to go on to the PhD – the aforementioned Sophie, Annie, and Liz, plus Rachel Falconer, Helen Finch, and my supervisors Amanda Crawley Jackson and Richard Steadman-Jones
For their contributions to the work of Inspiration for Life, and the 24 Hour Inspire, and their support in commemorating and celebrating Tim – Tracy Hilton, Ruth Arnold, Vanessa Toulmin, Chris Sexton, John Cockburn, Lee Thompson, Matt Mears and David Mowbray
My family, of course, without whom…
And, finally, Tim. I'd have loved to share this year's triumphs and tribulations with him.
Have a wonderful 2014 all of you.
Letting it get to you: Doctor Who and George Bailey
Posted by cathannabel in Film, Television on December 29, 2013
Once there was a planet much like any other. And unimportant. This planet sent the universe a message. A bell, tolling among the stars, ringing out to all the dark corners of creation. And everybody came to see. Although no one understood the message, everyone who heard it found themselves afraid. Except one man. The man who stayed for Christmas. (Doctor Who Christmas Special 2013, The Time of the Doctor)
So, this is the story of a man who got stuck somewhere. 'Everyone gets stuck somewhere eventually, Clara. Everything ends.' He could have left, but no one else could have protected that small town as he did, from the forces that were besieging it, and from the war that could have burned it and all around it.
A town called Christmas, blanketed in snow. A town where truth prevails, and people greet each other warmly, and take care of each other, but constantly under threat, with enemies ready to take advantage of any weakness, and the citizens are all potential collateral damage.
If Stephen Moffat wasn't consciously evoking Bedford Falls in those snowy scenes, I'll eat my fez. Bedford Falls – the town where another good man got stuck, protecting his family and his community. Where he grew older, his own life on hold whilst he saved other people. Where he kept his promises, and watched his chances slipping away. The enemy from whom he protected people was rampant capitalistic greed, rather than alien races bent on world domination, of course, but it nearly drove him to his death, nonetheless.
George Bailey was a man who dreamed of lassoing the moon, of travelling the world, and who ended up stuck in a small town. The Doctor of course had done more than dream. He had travelled the universe, and time itself, but to quote a contributor to the Doctor Who Forum, Matt Smith's valedictory episode saw him 'trying to do something small … spend the remainder of his life protecting the people of one town.'
With every victory, the town celebrated. In time, the Doctor seemed to forget he lived any other life. And the people of the town came to love the man who stayed for Christmas.
But the man who stayed did not do so without argument, without at least an internal struggle. We see George Bailey's anger and frustration at so many moments in the narrative, even as he does what he knows is right, he rages against what it's costing him. The Doctor too has that fight between the promise he must keep and the life he wants to live.
Clara: What about your life? Just for once, after all of this time, have you not earned the right to think about that? Sorry. Wrong thing to say. We shouldn't be having an argument.
The Doctor: Clara, I've been having that argument for the last three hundred years. All by myself.
Clara: But you didn't have your TARDIS.
The Doctor: Ah, yes, well that made it easier to stay. True.
The absence of the Tardis may have made it easier, but we can be pretty sure that he would have found a way to leave, if he'd made the decision to do so. I was reminded here not only of IAWL, but of Albert Camus' doctor, Rieux, in plague-ridden Oran (referencing Nazi-occupied Paris), knowing he must stay even when he is offered a chance to leave, because he has to save lives:
"I have no idea what's awaiting me, or what will happen when this all ends. For the moment I know this: there are sick people and they need curing." (The Plague)
Or as the Doctor said, 'Every life I save is a victory. Every single one'.
Doctor Who is not 'a kid's show' in any sense that reduces its value, its quality or its depth. But it is a fantasy, and one that is aimed at family audiences, in this case, gathered around a Christmas tree, replete with turkey and pud, and possibly still wearing, slightly askew, their paper hats. So we don't expect the kind of ending that Camus was prepared to give us. We know that the Doctor will not be destroyed. The end that he speaks of is the end of THIS Doctor, not of THE Doctor – though he may not know this as he says it.
Emma: What's wrong?
Clara: I just saw something I wish I hadn't.
Emma: What did you see?
Clara: That everything ends.
Emma: No, not everything. Not love. Not always. (from 'Hide')
We've often been invited to contemplate what the world would be like without the Doctor. But that's too terrible to do more than glance at and then look away. A world without the sound of the Tardis bringing hope, without the Doctor to bring protection and healing? No thanks. None of us would sleep at night if that was what we were confronted with, on a Saturday afternoon, let alone on Christmas Day.
But we are increasingly, in the more recent series of Dr Who, asked to deal with some much more grown-up themes. Maybe this reflects the changing audience. When Who launched, it was clearly aimed at children, and adults watched with their offspring, to remind them afterwards that it was only a story (only a story? As if there could be anything more important than stories) and that they could sleep safe in their beds. As those children grew up they stayed with the Doctor, and watched with their own children. Some of those parents too, I suspect, stayed with it long after their children needed them there for reassurance, and so we now have several generations for whom it is precious and important.
Someone said to me the other day, who hadn't seen Who since they were a kid (we reminisced about the terrifying Autons and the Cybermen and the Yeti…) that whilst they could remember being scared, they couldn't imagine being moved to tears by it. And yet these days more often than not, I am moved to tears. This is not just because my tear ducts are on a hair-trigger now – it's because in Who since the reboot we've faced grief and loss, loneliness, ageing, choices made and chances missed, the possibility and threat of change. The recurring theme of memory has a poignancy now that it would not have had years ago, now that there's so much more to remember, and the fear that those memories will start to be engulfed in fog. It gets harder to 'remember all the people that you used to be', whether you're a Time Lord or not. The young me would not have been as devastated by 'The Girl Who Waited' as the middle-aged me was, nor as haunted by the question 'Are you my mummy?'. And the young me would not have felt George Bailey's despair, or the Doctor's, as keenly. If you're old enough to have lost people, to have had to make hard choices, to have got some of them wrong, and to have missed chances that will not come round again – then you can feel for George Bailey, and you can feel for the Doctor too.
Who and IAWL also share a humanistic perspective. IAWL of course starts with prayers, 'ringing out to all the dark corners of creation', and an angel. George prays too, though he's not a praying man, and Clarence (AS2) is the answer. But all that Clarence does is to give George a glimpse of how, and how much, he matters. The miracle is wrought by human action, by people moved to generosity to help the man who's been so generous to them. Remember 'The Wedding of River Song'?
The sky is full of a million million voices saying, "Yes, of course we'll help." You've touched so many lives, saved so many people, did you think when your time came you'd really have to do more than just ask? You've decided that the universe is better off without you. But the universe doesn't agree.
It's people, for good and bad, who make Bedford Falls, or Pottersville. In Who too, whilst our hero is more than human he is no superhero, nor yet a god. His judgement is often flawed, his personality too. He's prone to grumpiness, to vanity, to arrogance. He does the right thing but often is prompted or inspired by his own guardian angel, the companion/associate who shows him a truth he's not able to see, or who intervenes for him when he cannot or will not plead for himself.
As Liam Whitton recently wrote in Humanist Life:
It's one of the most humanist television shows of all time. In fact, at practically every turn up to now it has presented the philosophy of its title character, the Doctor, as an emphatically humanist one. If there's one thing the Doctor values, it's human life, and if there's one thing he consistently stands in awe of, it's human potential. He abhors superstition; he scorns pointless prejudices; he believes fervently in reason; he is sympathetic to the beliefs of others, but will not kowtow to them when a fundamental liberty is under threat.
Steven Spielberg once said that ' It's a Wonderful Life shows that every human being on this Earth matters – and that's a very powerful message." It's also a message reiterated over and over again by Who. Capra offers us hope based in human nature. 'Goodness, simplicity, dis-interestedness: these in his hands become fighting qualities' (Graham Greene, reviewing Mr Deeds Goes to Town, The Spectator, August 28 1936).
If you believe that humanity is all there is, that makes it so much more vital that we care for each other, because we're all we've got, and these years we have on the planet is all we've got. I believe in Doctor Who. I believe in George Bailey. Call me idealistic, naive, if you like, but bear in mind that my academic research interests find me often mired in the history of the most appalling acts that humanity is capable of. So I do know that we don't all live in a town called Christmas, or Bedford Falls, and that very often no one comes to save and to heal. But that humanistic vision is vitally important to me. Joss Whedon said it well, as he so often does, in Angel:
If there's no great glorious end to all this, if … nothing we do matters … then all that matters is what we do. 'Cause that's all there is. What we do. Now. Today. … All I want to do is help. I want to help because I don't think people should suffer as they do, because if there's no bigger meaning, then the smallest act of kindness is the greatest thing in the world.
But it's only right and proper that I leave the last words to the Doctor:
Letting it get to you. You know what that's called? Being alive. Best thing there is. (The Doctor's Wife)
You are now in Bedford Falls
Posted by cathannabel in Film on December 23, 2013
It's a Wonderful Life. Often described as 'heartwarming', which I usually interpret as a warning, a euphemism for cloying and sentimental. It's a family Christmas film, yes, but so much more. It breaks my heart each time I watch it, and at the same time it heals me. It speaks to the disappointments, the failures, the wrong choices, that are part of everyone who's been around for a while. It speaks to the idealism, the sense of values that aren't monetary, that are part of everyone who gives a damn, whether it's their turn or not.
It earns that ending, that wonderful, ridiculous ending. Because we feel George's despair, and we feel his frustration and anger at the irreconcilable conflict between what he wants his life to be and what it has to be. He does the right thing, because he can't not do the right thing, but we see what it costs him. On an individual human level, we identify with George because he really isn't OK with the failure of his plans and dreams, he's not at peace. And we admire him because nonetheless he will always do what is right. (Indeed, if it seems frivolous to link him to Mandela and Picquart, the heroes of my last two blogs, so be it.)
But the film is not just about an individual, it's also about a community. George's choices made Bedford Falls what it is. But this wasn't because he did it all himself. He inspired other people, gave them the courage to do the right thing, to be as generous as he was. The direct impact – the lives he saved through direct intervention – are only part of it. People who in Pottersville were mean and fearful weren't born that way, they learned to be mean and fearful because their lives had taught them that other people couldn't be trusted, that everyone was out for themselves, that mistakes and misfortunes would be punished. In Bedford Falls, they saw generosity and kindness, and mistakes and misfortunes met with sympathy and support, and they learned to be generous and kind themselves.
It's so easy to despair, when we see so many examples of meanness, prejudice, callousness to others' misery. We're encouraged to be xenophobic and suspicious. Watch out! In January we will literally be unable to move for Romanians and Bulgarians every single one of whom will be coming here to take our livelihoods. Watch out! That neighbour who you haven't seen leaving for work recently is probably spending all day on the sofa in a onesie watching Jeremy Kyle and scrounging huge amounts in benefits.
We can choose instead to live in Bedford Falls. Why would we do otherwise? The Potters of our world will continue to spin their scurvy little webs, but we don't have to acquiesce. So, for 2014, my mantra will be 'You are now in Bedford Falls', and whenever I encounter stories that show how communities can work together, support each other, reach out to those who need help, across the boundaries that might be expected to divide us, I'll share them, with that hashtag. There are a couple below, for starters.
I don't believe that humanity is a lost cause. I do believe that humanity is all there is, and that makes it so much more vital that we care for each other, because we're all we've got, and these years we have on the planet is all we've got. Joss Whedon said it well, in Angel:
If there's no great glorious end to all this, if … nothing we do matters … then all that matters is what we do. 'Cause that's all there is. What we do. Now. Today. … All I want to do is help. I want to help because I don't think people should suffer as they do, because if there's no bigger meaning, then the smallest act of kindness is the greatest thing in the world.
This year, in particular, these words from It's a Wonderful Life have greater poignancy and resonance than ever:
Strange, isn't it? Each man's life touches so many other lives. When he isn't around he leaves an awful hole, doesn't he?
Because we got to find out what an awful hole was left when Tim Richardson died, in February. The memorial blog we set up for him tells so many stories of how his life touched those of others, and how much he is missed. And in his honour, we held the 24 Hour Inspire event, a community coming together to celebrate his life, his influence and his inspiration. It was a joyous occasion. And it was a glimpse of life in Bedford Falls.
# CINEMA /// The Borgesian Labyrinth of Alain Resnais and Henri Labrouste
Posted by cathannabel in Film on June 8, 2013
A great follow-up to my Marienbad post – Resnais and labyrinths.
Originally posted on The Funambulist:
In 1956, Alain Resnais created a 20-minute long film entitled Toute la Mémoire du Monde (All the World's Memory) that beautifully mixes documentary information with a fictitious style of filming and editing. What I just wrote is however symptomatic of a prejudice according to which documentary should tend towards objectivity in an attempt to capture the "truth" of what they are filming. We know that choosing such an ambition for a film is doomed to failure. On the contrary, when one voluntarily embraces the subjectivity of the documentarian, the chances are that the resulting movie would be much more powerful in communicating the piece of reality it is describing (we will see that soon in Peter Watkins' movies). Toute la Mémoire du Monde is part of these movies. Through the dramatic journey of a book traveling through the registration and archival process of the Bibliothèque nationale de France
View original 543 more words
Last night I dreamed I went to Marienbad again…
Posted by cathannabel in Film, W G Sebald on June 6, 2013
Intensely fascinating or tedious twaddle. Given my propensity for enigmatic French nouveaux romans and their cinematic equivalents you can guess which side I come down on.
Visually it is stunning, in a chilly way. The ornate mirrors and labyrinthine corridors, that extraordinary garden, the statues, Delphine Seyrig herself. The music is intense and overpowering, the acting stylised and static. The setting is a hotel, or a spa, possibly, but not certainly, in Marienbad. They – X and A – met here last year, or have never met before.
Alain Robbe Grillet, who wrote the screen play, describes the film thus:
The whole film … is the story of a persuading: it deals with a reality which the hero creates out of his own vision, out of his own words. And if his persistence, his secret conviction, finally prevail, they do so among a perfect labyrinth of false trains, variants, failures and repetitions. … In this sealed, stifling world, men and things alike seem victims of some spell, as in the kind of dreams where one feels guided by some fatal inevitability, where it would be as futile to try to change the slightest detail as to run away. (Introduction to the screenplay, p. 9)
This is very much in keeping with the Robbe-Grillet manifesto. For him the text is the world, not a description of the world. The notion of a novel or a film having 'something to say' is profoundly boring:
When a novelist has 'something to say' they mean a message. It has political connotations, or a religious message, or a moral prescription. … They are saying that the writer has a world view, a sort of truth that he wishes to communicate, and that his writing has an ulterior significance. I am against this'. (Paris Review, spring 86, no. 99, interview with Shusha Guppy)
However, the director of the film is Alain Resnais, whose films have plenty to say. In Night and Fog he worked with the poet Jean Cayrol, whose powerful closing words, a call to awareness, would seem to be the antithesis of Robbe-Grillet's approach. He fuses memory and imagination, and in the labyrinth of barbed wire, searches for and confronts the Minotaur, the monster, hiding in its heart. Hiroshima mon amour deals with the viewer's reaction – 'some of us see nothing in Hiroshima. Nothing. Others see everything. Everything. That is the point'. A whole sequence of films deal with trauma and memory and whilst others may seem more directly to address political or ethical concerns, Last Year at Marienbad does see 'some of the concerns and tropes of Resnais' earlier engagements with trauma, pain and death return … in various transposed forms.' (Emma Wilson, Alain Resnais, p. 85).
Perhaps the tension between the two Alains is at the heart of Marienbad's enigmatic power. The viewer is invited by Robbe-Grillet to let themselves be carried along by the extraordinary images, the voices of the actors, the soundtrack, the music, the rhythm of the cutting, the passion of the characters, and describes it as a film 'addressed exclusively to his sensibility' rather than turning to 'clumsy systems of interpretation which machine-made fiction or films grind out for him ad nauseam' (Robbe-Grillet, p. 13). However, whilst it is certainly possible to be swept along by the the film in the way he recommends, it is almost impossible not to start trying to solve the puzzle. After all, a repeated motif in the film is that of games, and the winning of games, and the game of interpretation is too tempting to resist. And Resnais himself summarises the film with a question – 'qui a raison?'. For Resnais, the protagonists in his films are real beings. They have their own lives, 'latent, mysterious' (Kline, p. 86). But realism doesn't exclude ambiguity – what Deleuze calls a cinema of undecidability.
It's difficult, knowing how far apart the writer and director were in their conception of the film (despite some of Robbe-Grillet's statements on the subject), not to read the film in the light of this. When the images on screen often contradict the usually authoritative sounding voice-over, perhaps what we are seeing is Resnais asserting his vision of the film against the screenplay, which was so minutely detailed as to seemingly leave Resnais little room to manoeuvre, intruding on his territory with instructions on camera movement, lighting, etc. Robbe-Grillet describes the film as 'in fact the story of a communication between two people … one making a suggestion, the other resisting, and the two finally united , as if that was how it had always been.' However, Resnais has introduced into that narrative ambiguity that would seem to undermine that clear resolution. We do not see X and A leave the hotel at all, let alone together. They seem to meet, at the appointed hour, without speaking to each other, barely looking at each other, and walk very slowly and stiffly away from the lobby and out of view. Neither has any luggage though the voice-over has told us previously that she 'packed a few things'. And if they do leave the hotel, it is only to get lost, forever, in the garden, alone or together.
The two Alains did not work, strictly speaking, together (ARG wrote the screenplay with minimal intervention from AR, and AR did the filming without intervention from ARG), and do not see the film in the same way. One intriguing sidelight on this is that AR used a recording of ARG reading his screenplay to guide the male actors. But not Delphine Seyrig. ARG himself has said that Resnais is A (Seyrig's character). Certainly, there would seem to be a link between A and Elle (the woman in Hiroshima mon amour), both appearing to be traumatised, repressing memories.
X speaks in imperatives – Come here. Come closer. Follow me. Listen to me. Remember. I've come to take you away. You know …. that we are going to leave. A pleads, denies – No, it's impossible. No, I don't want to. No, I don't know what happened then. No! You're making it up. I don't know you. No, it's too far… Please. Let me alone… please… For pity's sake! He is insistent – possibly to the point of rape. She seems traumatised, fearful. Her pose is characteristically with one arm across her body, her hand on her shoulder – a defensive posture, which at moments is almost cowering.
He asserts his memories, but increasingly doubts them, questions his own recollection – 'no, that can't be right'.
Robbe-Grillet's screenplay calls for a scene where A is raped by X. Resnais refused to film this. The rape is suggested in X's voice over – 'I took you, half by force', and then denied – 'Probably it wasn't by force', but without complete conviction. He is trying to persuade himself as much as her here, that he did not use force. The question hangs in the air. Certainly he is forceful and she is afraid. She keeps her distance, 'as if on the threshold, as if at the entrance to a place that was too dark, or too strange …' She seems to show the classic symptoms of trauma, the continual reliving of the wounding experience.
So, how do we interpret this strange film? Are they all in fact dead, and the hotel is a sort of ante-room to the afterlife? Is the hotel peopled by automata, and X alone has autonomy, memory, and perspective? Does he have to seize the moment when the automata are able to move, to betwitch A into life, identifying/creating a past for her? Or is X aware of his status as a character in a film, imprisoned in the screenplay? Thus he starts to direct A, rather than merely describing things to her. He rejects one scenario (where she is shot) as 'not the right ending'. Paradoxically, as Luc Lagier says in his documentary, we have a film that is closed in upon itself, but open to a seemingly infinite number of interpretations.
My own particular interests focus on trauma and memory, on the labyrinth which is such a powerful motif in the films and novels of the postwar period (Resnais's labyrinths of barbed wire in Night & Fog, or the corridors of the Bibliotheque Nationale in Toute la memoire du monde; Robbe-Grillet's In the Labyrinth amongst other works, and of course Michel Butor's L'Emploi du temps…), and on W G Sebald's engagement with the film, and the place, in Austerlitz, and in his poetry. In 'The Year Before Last' he writes:
The match game
was meant to decide everything.
The gleaming parquet floor
stretched before us. All round us
were mirrors, guests, motionless -
and in the middle you
in your feather boa. Hadn't
we met once before?
In a taxus maze?
On a stage? The perspectival
prospect, pruned hedges,
little round trees and balustrades,
the palace in the background?
So, having been tinkering with this blog post for months already, I am pretty certain I'm not yet in a position to leave Marienbad. Bleston, all over again.
Tess Jaray, A 'Mystery and a Confession', Irish Pages, 1, 2 (Autumn/Winter, 2002/3), 137-9
T Jefferson Kline, Screening the Text (Johns Hopkins UP, 1992)
Luc Lagier, 'Dans le labyrinthe de Marienbad' (documentary featured on Marienbad DVD)
Alain Robbe-Grillet, interviewed by Shusha Guppy, Paris Review, 99 (spring 1986)
Alain Robbe-Grillet, trans. Richard Howard, Last Year at Marienbad: a cine novel (London: John Calder, 1962)
W. G. Sebald and Michael Hamburger, 'A Final Poem: Marienbad Elegy', Irish Pages, 1, 2 (Autumn-Winter, 2002/3), 125-32
Freddy Sweet, The Film Narratives of Alain Resnais (UMI Research Press, 1981)
Emma Williams, Alain Resnais (Manchester UP, 2006)
2012 – the best bits
Posted by cathannabel in Events, Film, Literature, Michel Butor, Music, Personal, Refugees, Television, Theatre, Visual Art, W G Sebald on December 30, 2012
2012, for me, has been the year of the blog. The year that through this medium I found a creative outlet, met some fascinating people and discovered some wonderful writers, engaged in some stimulating and unexpected discussions, and generally had my optimism about the internet reinforced. I've been uplifted, fascinated and inspired on a regular basis by bloggers such as Diana J Hale, Vertigo, The Fife Psychogeographic Collective, That's how the light gets in, Weaver's Journal, Steve Sarson and Decayetude. And my blog on the US election led to a mutually respectful encounter with Rick from Billerica, with whom I would disagree about pretty much everything, except the principle of mutually respectful encounters with those who hold different views. On the Our Island Stories blog, set up in the aftermath of the Olympics to talk about questions of national identity, we've had contributions from some of the above, and also from Kate Elmer, Mike Press, Emily Wilkinson and Diane Magras. To all of those people, and so many others, thanks!
The internet comes in for some harsh criticism – and I read 'below the line' often enough to be brought almost to despair at the bigotry, the hatred, the cruelty that's out there, only needing the anonymity of an internet forum to come spewing out. But my own experience has been entirely positive. Through blogging, through Facebook and Twitter, I've made friends, had fascinating conversations, shared enthusiasms, learned stuff. I've connected with people I would never have encountered at all otherwise, and connected in unexpected ways with people I already knew. This obviously doesn't invalidate the experiences of those who've been subjected to the viciousness of trolls and the deceit of sock-puppets – but it needs saying, that it can be, and often is, an enormous force for good , and that connections made via the net are not intrinsically less 'real', less worthwhile than those made by other means.
So, looking back at 2012, these have been some of the best bits, culturally speaking:
- John Akomfrah's extraordinary The Nine Muses
- Watching the ever elusive and enigmatic Last Year at Marienbad twice – to be the subject of a later blog.
- TV : Homeland – plot holes wide enough to swallow up the odd aircraft carrier, but the degree of ambiguity in all of the main characters has been wonderfully sustained, and the denoument was unforeseen. Line of Duty and Good Cop shared the best of those characteristics. Misfits and Being Human somehow survived a brutal cull of main characters to emerge still witty and surprising. The Walking Dead kept us on the edge of our seats, where we must remain until February, and anxiously awaiting news of Daryl's fate (and the others, obv, but hey, Daryl!). Oh, and Dr Who continued to be marvellous, moving and magical.
- I've been reading Proust. A statement which will probably feature in my summaries for 2013, 2014 and possibly beyond. I've been fascinated by two particular elements recently – the constant referencing of the Dreyfus Affair, and the theme of sexual 'inversion' – and rather less fascinated by some of the aristocratic dinner parties that one has to endure almost in real time, such is the detail with which they are described. There have been moments when I've wished Robespierre had been a little more thorough. I'm about at the halfway point in the whole A la Recherche project.
- New great stuff from Stephen King (11.22.63), Hilary Mantel (Bring up the Bodies) and Jon McGregor (Even the Dogs)
- First encounters with writers I should have read before and will read more of – Hans Fallada, Alexander Baron, Haruki Murakami and Wilkie Collins.
- Lynn Shepherd's Tom-All-Alone's – I approached with caution knowing that she was riffing on my favourite novel of all time, Bleak House, but I need not have worried. Indeed, I went straight from Tom to her earlier novel (Murder at Mansfield Park), and have her next on pre-order – and she led me to The Woman in White as well.
- Theatre – Geoffrey Streatfeild in both Macbeth at the Crucible and Copenhagen at the Lyceum, Betrayal (lovely John Simm) at the Crucible
- Tramlines festival – Screaming Maldini and Early Cartographers in Weston Park, The Third Half at the City Hall, Soukous Revelation in the Peace Gardens, Jim Ghedi & Neal Hepplestone at the Cathedral, and Frankie & the Heartstrings, Field Music and We are Scientists on Devonshire Green. Three days of music spilling out of every bar and coffee shop, of sunshine and people dancing in the streets – literally – and generally being nice to each other.
- Music in the Round – a fabulous Quartet for the End of Time, an introduction to Louise Farrenc, and the early polyphony of Pérotin and the Notre Dame composers in Sheffield Cathedral.
2012 has been the year that the Hillsborough families were vindicated, utterly and unconditionally. The year that the truth was not so much revealed – it had been in plain view all the time – as spotlit, so that there were no shadows in which the lies could continue to lurk. And that justice seems finally to be within reach now. Massive respect to all of those who fought this battle when it must have seemed hopeless, when everything and everyone seemed to be against them.
And it's been the year of Inspiration for Life. The year a dear friend and colleague, Tim Richardson, was diagnosed with a terminal cancer, and a whole community came together to support him, and to help him set up a charity to do the things he believes in – supporting living, giving and learning. We've been both devastated and uplifted.
So – onward to 2013.
No resolutions as such. But anticipations and aspirations -
- Graduating (again), and planning the next stage of my lifelong learning, and publishing (if I can, in real, proper, academic journals) some of my work on Michel Butor
- Fundraising for Refugee Action – having hung up my trainers, I'm not sure yet how I can best do this, but their work is vitally important and I want to do what I can
- Reading Proust, and lots of other stuff. Lots and lots.
- Enjoying to the full Sheffield's rich cultural life – theatre, arthouse cinema, Music in the Round, Tramlines, Festival of the Mind, Arts-Science Encounters, Site and S1 and Bloc, and more
- Blogging, about Butor, Sebald, French cinema, refugees, Dr Who, national identity, and whatever else is buzzing around in my mind at any given moment
- Enjoying working with physicists, astronomers and other scientists, and facilitating what they do, through what I do
- Continuing to be an utter geek
- Listening to as much music as possible, with as eclectic a range as possible
- Getting Inspiration for Life going – with the 24-hour Inspire at the end of Feb (24 hours of lectures, activities and entertainments), the publication of Tim's diary, and the art exhibition in May, funds from which will go to local cancer charities (Weston Park Cancer Hospital Charity, St Luke's Hospice and Bluebell Wood Children's Hospice).
- Going on about stuff that matters – refugees, environmental issues, injustice, inequality, that sort of thing. Going on and on.
- Doing all the above whilst being a good-enough parent, partner and friend
Phew! No pressure then.
Thanks to all who've enriched my life in 2012, and with whom I've shared the best bits. Here's wishing you all good things in 2013.
Free Men: The Resistance on Film
Posted by cathannabel in Film, Second World War on June 10, 2012
There's a perception that we've been flooded with cinematic treatments of the Nazi Occupation of France in the decades since it ended. There have been a fair few, it's true, but what's interesting is the way in which those treatments have changed over the years.
At the Liberation, the notion of France as a nation of resisters was a vital part of de Gaulle's strategy to unify a country perilously close to civil war. Of course, there was a purge – women who'd collaborated horizontally were publicly shamed, and there were trials, and some executions. But a surprisingly large number of those who were complicit in the implementation of Nazi race laws and in the deportations ended up in positions of responsibility in post-war France.
All of this has been talked about a great deal, it's true, and one might think that it's all been said, that everyone knows now who was complicit, and how and why, as well as who did resist. But fictional and cinematic treatments of the era have gone through different phases, each adding a layer of complexity and richness to our understanding.
The most recent films to contribute to this process have been two about the Vel d'Hiv round up (The Round up, and Sarah's Key), and two focusing on particular clusters of resistance activity. I'll come back to the Vel d'Hiv in a future blog.
What's particularly striking about the two recent films about the French Resistance is that in these cases, the resistance was not, strictly speaking, French. Robert Guediguian's Army of Crime starts with a roll call of names, each one followed by the words 'mort pour la France'. The names are Armenian, Polish, Italian, Spanish, Hungarian, Russian, some are difficult to pronounce, and the speaker stumbles for a moment, and goes on. We see them on their way to imprisonment, 'trial' and execution and then we go back to see how they became martyrs for a country to which they did not belong.
But the Army of Crime – so called after the Nazi poster which aimed to alienate the populace from the resisters by emphasising their criminal acts and their foreign origins – was made up of people who had very little to lose. From the start of the Occupation, as Jews, and/or Communists, many of them refugees from parts of Europe which had fallen earlier to the Nazis, or from other persecutions, they knew they were targets. Some of them joined the armed struggle due to some personal confrontation, others after their families were swept up in the round ups and deported. They fought and died for an idea of France, the France that they had seen as a refuge, even whilst that idea was being betrayed, as they were.
For the resisters in the new film, Free Men, it really wasn't their war. As Moslems they risked being rounded up only if they were mistaken for Jews and could not prove otherwise, or if they were involved in communist workers groups. But the Paris Mosque was a place of refuge both for Moslems who were involved in the resistance, and for Jews. The scale of this activity is not known – estimates vary wildly – but it seems clear that the head of the mosque, Si Kaddour Ben Ghabrit, instigated and supported the production of false papers for Jews, and the use of the building itself as a hiding place, whilst maintaining outwardly amicable relations with the authorities.
It's a story that's even less known than that of Missak Manouchian's Army of Crime. After all, the Nazis publicised the latter rather effectively with the poster – which far from having the effect they intended, became a focus for solidarity and protest. The clandestine publication Lettres Francaises reported in March 1944 how the ten images on the blood-red background attracted a silent crowd:
'At length, and solemnly they saluted dead friends. In their eyes there was no morbid curiosity, just admiration, sympathy, as if they were our own. And in fact they were our own, because they were fighting alongside thousands of us for our country, because it is also the home of liberty. On one of the posters, over night, someone had written in capital letters a single word: Martyrs. That is the homage of Paris to those who've fought for freedom'
Louis Aragon and Paul Eluard wrote poems about L'Affiche Rouge, and there were earlier films, though one screenplay was rejected on the grounds that these foreigners gave the wrong image of the Resistance.
Free Men isn't the only film to tell the story of the Moslem resistance – Mohamed Fekrane's Ensemble came out this year too, though it hasn't reached the UK yet.
Army of Crime had a very powerful resonance in the context of the anti-immigrant/anti-refugee rhetoric that is spewed out by sections of the press here and across Europe, as does the story of Moslems risking their lives to save Jewish lives. These young men from North Africa are the brothers of the Allied soldiers in Days of Glory, which told of their part in the liberation of France, and their betrayal after the war by the French government.
If Free Men had less emotional heft than Army of Crime, it's not down to the story. It's to do with the leading character. Manouchian and his group were from the start politically engaged, passionately committed to the struggle, with a sense of the wider European context – the Armenian genocide, the Spanish civil war. They're articulate and charismatic. Younes at the start is a black marketeer, willing to spy (rather ineptly) on the activities at the Mosque in exchange for an official blind eye being turned to his business dealings. He's nudged unwillingly into the resistance by his cousin, who's already actively involved, and by his realisation of the danger faced by his friend Salim, a Jew passing as a Moslem. Little by little, he's drawn in until he is risking his life for the cause. The problem is that as a focal point for the narrative he is somehow a bit blank, passive, lacking in real depth.
He reminded me, in fact, of Lucien – Lacombe, Lucien. Louis Malle's 'hero' is an accidental collaborator – a combination of pure chance and his own naivety and vanity put him in a position where he can bring down local members of the Resistance which had rejected his bid for membership. He's an ambivalent and ambiguous character, and his portrayal has been controversial, because Malle refused to resolve the ambiguities. When Lucien shoots a German soldier and escapes with his Jewish girlfriend, did he do so to save her from deportation, or because the German had taken something he regarded as his? If Younes had not been so powerfully drawn to Salim, would he have allowed himself to be drawn into the Resistance?
Lacombe Lucien is a powerful film because of this opacity, which prevents us from taking refuge in simplistic polarities. Malle's film, which appeared in 1974, not long after Ophuls' The Sorrow and the Pity, opened up the possibility of more complex narratives of the Occupation. In Free Men the really interesting characters – Salim, Leila and the Imam himself – are sketched in as we focus on Younes, who we barely know better at the end of the film than we did at the beginning.
Nonetheless, it's a gripping film, a story that needs to be told. We've moved since the Liberation from the Gaullist myth of the inextinguishable flame, through the exposure of collaboration and complicity, towards a celebration of the real rich diversity of that struggle against barbarism.
G. Austin, Contemporary French Cinema: An Introduction (Manchester U.P., 1996)
H. Frey, Louis Malle (Manchester U.P., 2004)
R. J. Golsan, Vichy's Afterlife (Nebraska U.P., 2000)
N. Greene, Landscapes of Loss (Princeton U.P., 1999)
L. D. Hewitt, Remembering the Occupation in French Film (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008)
A. Insdorf, Indelible Shadows: Film and the Holocaust (Cambridge U.P., 1989)
P. Jankowski, 'In Defense of Fiction: Resistance, Collaboration and Lacombe, Lucien', Jnl of Modern History, 63, 3 (1991), 457-82
P. Kael, 'Lacombe Lucien', http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/416-lacombe-lucien
S. Lindeperg, Les écrans de l'ombre (CNRS, 1997)
C. Nettelbeck, 'Getting the Story Right: Narratives of World War II in Post-1968 France' , Jnal of European Studies, 15 (1985), 77-116
C. Nettelbeck (ed), War and Identity: The French and the Second World War (Routledge, 1987)
A. Rayski, L'Affiche Rouge (Mairie de Paris, 2004)
H. Rousso, The Vichy Syndrome: History and Memory in France since 1944 (Harvard U.P., 1991)
Related articles
- Free Men – review (guardian.co.uk)
- New film highlights remarkable story of Paris mosque director who saved hundreds of Jews from Nazis (timesofisrael.com)


text:
Before-and-After Makeovers From Income Property
Check out the transformations the Income Property team made happen.(14 photos)
Designer Emily Henderson of Secrets From a Stylist transforms bland rooms into the perfect space for each homeowner's design style.
A link to %this page% was e-mailed
Designer Emily Henderson combined a teal and raspberry color combination to emit light into the space. The traditional yet urban, large-scale furniture includes comfortable pieces, soft-wash fabrics and warm leathers mixed with found objects and global pieces. The leather ottoman, topped with a kilim and serving tray for a layering effect, doubles as a coffee table. She updated the fireplace with a charcoal-colored cement finish to coordinate with the rest of the space.
We sent a note to our support staff about the glitch you just experienced. Please click the button below to reload your content.
Check out the transformations the Income Property team made happen.(14 photos)
Some house hunters look for move-in ready properties, but buyers on HGTV's House Hunters Renovation look for spaces they can...(50 photos)
A big change doesn't have to mean a big investment. HGTV Magazine shares some budget-friendly finds for the most common...(25 photos)
Browse new rooms from top designers.


text:
Lufthansa Europa Jet
(via iainclaridge)
Small steps
(via iain claridge)
Pulp, The Film
Graphic for Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin, 2014, by L2M3. (via iainclaridge)
Want less
Poster by Print for Love of Wood (via iainclaridge)
Q&A – Milton Glaser, Designer of Mad Men's Season 7 Key Art
"Sometimes the problem you have is that you can't do what you once did, especially at my age. But the real issue is the definition of the problem itself: This was supposed to evoke a feeling of what that moment in time felt like for people who actually experienced it, right? But most of the people who watch the show didn't live through that era, so it's a funny idea of simulating for people of what they don't have any memory of and convincing them in a way that this is what it was like… It's a complex philosophical issue."
- Milton Glaser
As a bonus, all the posters from the 7 seasons of Mad Men:
(via El Pais)
Your Favorite Movies Laid Out as Vintage Treasure Maps
Illustrator Andrew DeGraff created these maps using a palette of two to 15 premixed colors of gouache with color blocking and line on top to make each map look almost like a vintage treasure map, embellished with colored accents and lines to bring specific locations to life, and to map out the paths of famous characters. (Wired)
Mapping 100 Years Of The Tour De France
100 Tours: Cent Ans de la Grand Boucle, a graphic from designer Sam Potts, charts the various routes the bikers have trekked over the years. And, if you want to, you can buy a copy of the poster here.
007 Kit by French graphic illustrator Alizée Lafon
Listen to James Victore