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Priya Srinivasan, Decentering Conference Co-Coordinator, and yours trulyPosted in Uncategorized on November 26, 2013 by bdixongottschild
Decentering Dance StudiesPosted in Uncategorized on November 26, 2013 by bdixongottschild
This is a paper I delivered Nov. 8, 2013 at the joint CORD/SDHS Conference in Riverside CA, sponsored by the Dance Program in Critical Studies, UC Riverside. The format is prepared for oral presentation:
Thoughts on Decentering Dance Studies –©Brenda Dixon Gottschild. All Rights Reserved
I feel decentered. NOT in a good way. I'm in a corner. I'm still cornered by SYSTEMIC racism. I want out. I want to move from the margins to the center. I want the center widened, biggered, more inclusive. Don't DECENTER ME: CENTER ME! I want so-called white folks to be as angry about racism as I am. And I want you to realized that, behind the anger, is hurt and fear. Hurt, that my sisters and brothers of color are not admitted to the white comfort zone. Fear that things will never change. I can't get out of the corner without you. And you can't be humanized without me.
Priya Srinivasan wrote us speakers asking us to "meditate on the theme of the conference and the notion of 'decentering' as it relates to your own work." So, here goes.
Why DO we do what we do?
What is dance studies? Dance research? Performance Studies? Any studies? Why do we study? What are our aims? What is theory? Theorizing? What's the point and why? What are our deepest desires in doing what we do? Do our intentions reflect our desires, do our deeds reflect our intentions?
I know someone who applied to this program a few years back and was told her work wasn't CRITICAL ENOUGH. An older student returning to academia after a professional dance career and now a campus administrator and student counselor, she was interested in certain topics around women and black dance. WHY was she rejected? Isn't graduate school where we learn how to hook up theory and practice? She may have been in the practice corner, while the program's in the theory corner. Both are corners, in opposing sides of the box—or the ring! Isn't there another way?
In 2010 I was told by the director of the Dance History Scholars Editorial Board that my proposal for my most recent book was not THEORETICAL enough to be published in their series. I believe the Board was unable to understand DuBoisian ideas and the subject of identity as theory, especially when it was put to the test of practice, as I always do in my work.
Theory loosed from practice is like food without nutrients: WHITE BREAD, if you will—and the double entendre's intended!
Scientific theory, mathematic theory, theological theory—at their best, all are studied in the service of advancing the cause of humanity, to extend and embrace the human good. And performance theory? Can we reach for humanistic excellence? If our aim is NOT to find ways to truly DECENTER by EXPANDING THE CENTER and removing ourselves from our boxes—to make the way easier for the next generation of "theorists," to also shed light on the whys and wherefores of people dancing—that is, if our principal interest is not humanism, but theory derailed from its link to practice, then we might as well repose ourselves in that final box, the coffin!
I fear for performance theory because of its potential to make either/or DISTINCTIONS that ultimately amount to mean-spirited DECISIONS that continue the pattern of exclusion for scholars of color—blacks, in particular. I see this elitism rearing its ghastly countenance in a newly minted, millennial fashion. Young Diasporan scholars, largely women, are hired so that the Human Resources and/or Equal Opportunity Office can be satisfied that equity is alive and well at their institution. "We know how to recruit scholars of color: hoorary for us! We won't lose our funding; we're lookin' good!" But what about RETENTION? Do these scholars gain tenure? Are they promoted? Do you want them in your family? It's a sad story, and here's an example.
Early in 2012 things reached untenable proportions for two emerging African American female dancer-scholars. For one it was around her MFA concert and degree; the other was at the end of her first year in a tenure-track position and was coming up for review. Long story short: both were being tossed dangerous curve balls. Each independently contacted me online to ask for any advice I could give. Now, I'd had this same scenario, different players, several times the previous year, and that's a lot, given the small percentage of black dance faculty and grad students in academia. This time, I decided to take action, and that's how the Coalition for Diasporan Scholars Moving(CDSM) came about. You can read our Mission Statement and Manifesto in your registration packets. [HOLD IT UP] And if you're interested in the case of these two women in particular, read their abbreviated stories on the Movement Research website, under Conversations -Critical Correspondence, Sept. 5, 2013.
Another emerging scholar related to me this incident. She was at the CORD Special Topics Conference in Leicester, England soon after the death of Michael Jackson, one of the most astoundingly creative dancers whose feet ever graced the earth. (Okay, I admit: I'm biased!) Anyway, since no mention was made of his passing and his immense contribution to our profession, she did so at one session, and was met with little or no interest. I'd like to upend—if not decenter—old presumptions about who or what kinds of dance matter—presumptions that allowed for this kind of "invisibilization."
MOSTLY I'm interested in DECENTERING the race trope: the assumptions, biases, and knee-jerk, goose-step patterns we fall into when white comfort levels and centrality are threatened by the presence of THE OTHER. So, back to square one: yes—I want white people to be as angry about racism, bias, exclusionism, and elitism as I am! I want it to be the task of white people—not only black and colored people—to speak out. Here are some questions to ask yourself: [READ ALOUD CIRCLED ITEMS IN TEACHING TOLERANCE MAGAZINE, FALL 2013, P. 44]
So let's end with a decentering meditation—the task the conference organizers set before us. Close eyes, sit comfortably, and for this Guided Meditation, ask yourself: who am I and how does my dance trajectory relate to anything Dr. Brenda said? [60 seconds]
Posted in Uncategorized on October 4, 2013 by bdixongottschild
Here's the brief essay I wrote for the Boyzie Cekwana (South Africa)/Panaibra Canda (Mozambique) performance at New York Live Arts. Their concert opened the fall, 2013 season. The ensemble is incredible, laudable, sterling.
The Discomfiting Discord of "The Incomati [dis]cord"
"I turn my back on a future I don't remember . . . ." "I do have to get back, for the past is under siege, and I have a truth to tell.. . ." "But then again it could be a lie." "I don't remember I ever had a name and who it was that gave it. . . .I've walked so far into the future that I've lost the present."
These musings, extracted from the litany uttered by Boyzie Cekwana, invoked in me my own memories: the news of the day in all its horror; the voices of reporters putting spin on fact; the impotence of people in the face of power—all adding up to the surreal reality of life "as is," on this planet, at this time. How do we remember/recall/retrieve who we are and on whose ancestral shoulders we stand, when the ground we inhabit and the air we breathe is polluted with lies?
There are three movements or moods to The Inkomati [dis]cord, and there's a kind of music to the madness: the calm before the storm (lento); the storm (presto); and finally the aftermath/commentary section (tenuto). The parts hang loosely in a structure that keeps improvisation precariously riffing and balancing on its frame. The calm opening moves slowly, deliberately, building up a backstory with intimations of repression. Cekwana's voice, throaty, husky, draws you in. (He sounds like Harry Belafonte in another incarnation, without the songs or the panache.) He tells of lies and wasted lives. His articulations are Kafkaesque, and he may be addressing them to an interrogator. In the sustained conclusion the cast calmly sit together and act as subject (Maria Tembe), translator (Amelia Socovinho), interpreter (Cekwana), and reporter (Canda) in a scene that is both hilarious and bitingly ironic. We leave with the message that speech is compromise, truth is lies, and words can be re- and mis-interpreted until their meaning is transformed to meaninglessness.
But I want to focus on the duet—the storm—that is central to the middle section. When Maria Tembe is catapulted from her wheelchair to the floor, all hell breaks loose—presto/change-o! To the strains of Astor Piazzolla, she and Panaibra Canda tear across the stage and collapse, run-fall-collapse, again and again, laid flat by beautiful music when it would've been bullets in the life described by Cekwana's utterances. But, we remind ourselves, this is theater. Tembe's and Canda's duet is shocking. Not leaning on emotional expression but tapping deeply into kinetic reality, they roll/tumble/scuttle across the stage, on top of, under, beside each other, giving, taking, throwing, catching weight and hiding none of the effort. It shocks, at the beginning, because this duet's moves are predicated—that is, extended and limited—by the fact that Tembe is legless. Exploitation? No! As the duet continues—and by the expression of agency and power in her half-body, by her beauty as a dancing half-body, by her facial expressions—we come to understand that she is nobody's victim. Occasionally she stares at the audience, her visage calm, sometimes almost haughty, as though she's saying, "and you thought I was handicapped!" Sometimes it looks as though she's trapped underneath Canda and trying to escape as they race across the stage, crawling, crouching, running. They're panting—but it's physical effort, not emotional. At one point he makes a yoga bridge, supporting himself on hands and feet with hips and chest lifted, and in this pose carries Tembe atop his torso across the stage. Then they switch so that she's underneath, facing him, her arms holding onto his back as he walks dog-like, on all fours, while she suspends herself from his chest, her short torso swinging back and forth like breasts on his body.
This duet makes a layered statement. It bespeaks torture. How can we not assume, given the words spoken in the first section, that Tembe's condition is anything other than the result of malfeasance? But, then, it also speaks transcendence. They're dancing a kick-ass contact duet, unlike any that's ever been danced on any concert dance stage anywhere else, as far as I know. Just as the first time two males danced a love duet on some stage decades ago and forced spectators to rethink and revise, so also here. (Or think of Arthur Mitchell for the first time partnering a white ballerina in "Afternoon of a Faun" on the staid New York City Ballet stage in the 1950s.) This one makes us look, see, and maybe accept a wider lens on beauty, moving us farther away from our preconceived notions of who should dance, on a public stage, and why. And that's what I want from my dance world: stretch me, reshape me, open me to embrace what I'd never imagined.
Brenda Dixon Gottschild is the author of Digging the Africanist Presence in American Performance_Dance and Other Contexts; Waltzing in the Dark: African American Vaudeville and Race Politics in the Swing Era (winner of the 2001 Congress on Research in Dance Award for Outstanding Scholarly Dance Publication); and The Black Dancing Body – A Geography from Coon to Cool (winner of the 2004 de la Torre Bueno prize for scholarly excellence in dance publication). Her most recent book, Joan Myers Brown and The Audacious Hope of the Black Ballerina-A Biohistory of American Performance, was published in 2012. A freelance writer, consultant, and presenter, and former consultant and writer for Dance Magazine, she is Professor Emerita of dance studies at Temple University.
Interview with BDG on Dance Theater of Harlem, by Ellen GerdesPosted in Uncategorized on June 23, 2013 by bdixongottschild
Dance USA SessionPosted in Uncategorized on May 29, 2013 by bdixongottschild
At the request of the Program Director of Dance USA I've organized a session that I've titled "'Can We All Get Along?' – Addressing Racial Bias in Divisive Times," for the upcoming Dance USA conference in Philly June 12-15. My wonderful panelists are Joan Myers Brown, Founder/Exec Artistic Director of The Philadelphia Dance Company; and Lela Aisha Jones and Deneane Richburg, Co-Founders of The Requisite Movers. It will be a community conversation. Quoting myself from the online proposal: "This is an attempt to create a 'safe haven' wherein an honest discussion based on real-life examples might lead participants to ACT in more informed ways. ACTION BEYOND DIALOGUE is the aim." If you are planning to attend the conference, please come to this session. And please spread the word.
The Coalition for Diasporan Scholars Moving, part 1 – Brenda Dixon Gottschild in conversation with Jaamil Olawale KosokoPosted in Uncategorized on May 12, 2013 by bdixongottschild
Curator/choreographer/performer Jaamil Olawale Kosoko talks with Brenda Dixon Gottschild, whose scholarship on the presence and influence of Africanist aesthetics in American dance forms has made an indelible intervention in the genealogy of dance history and contemporary dance. Here they discuss what led her to a career of writing about dance through the embodied perspective of a black female dancer. Their conversation also touches upon Gottschild's most recent endeavor, the Coalition for Diasporan Scholars Moving; a nation-wide network of support organized to assist black scholars who have encountered racism in their attempts to attain degrees, tenure, diversity, etc. within U.S. university dance programs. This interview is part one of a two part series dedicated to this issue. Check back for a conversation between two dance scholars who found support through this resource.
Download a PDF of this conversation
Date of Conversation: Tuesday, March 12, 2013, Philadelphia, PA
Jaamil Olawale Kosoko: I have the honor and pleasure of sitting with one of the premier scholars of dance. Brenda Dixon Gottschild is a cultural critic, a scholar, and author of four esteemed books: Digging the Africanist Presence in American Performance: Dance and Other Contexts; Waltzing in the Dark: African American Vaudeville and Race Politics in the Swing Era; The Black Dancing Body – A Geography From Coon to Cool; and her most recent book Joan Myers Brown & The Audacious Hope of the Black Ballerina: A Biohistory of American Performance. Brenda, it is such an honor, such a pleasure to be sitting with you. Thank you so much for allowing me and us into your home.
Brenda Dixon Gottschild: It's my pleasure, Jaamil. I honor and respect the work that you are doing.
Jaamil: I know you foremost as a writer and cultural critic, and what I enjoy most about your work is how you use dance as a vehicle to measure society, and the pulse of society, what is happening in contemporary times. This is very much the course of thought in Digging the Africanist Presence. What led you specifically into this direction with your scholarship?
Brenda: I somehow feel like I've been on this road all my life. Early readings before I was even in graduate school — my first husband passed me books when we used to scour the bookstores in New York; things like Lawrence Levine's Black Culture and Black Consciousness: Afro-American Folk Thought from Slavery to Freedom, and of course Janheinz Jahn's Muntu: African Culture and the Western World and his marvelousThrough African Doors were out then. Those books introduced me to a world of diasporan expression and accomplishment that I had never dreamed of, that I had never been introduced to in all of my schooling, which at that point was undergraduate. I think that kind of stirred up an interest. At that point I was a performer in New York. I danced with various and sundry dance groups — usually the only person of color — like Mary Anthony, or Edith Stephen, or these "under the radar" companies.
Jaamil: Really, Mary Anthony was under the radar? I guess at that time…
Brenda: Under the radar in the sense that she wasn't the Martha Graham Company or Paul Taylor. I wasn't in that stellar league of modern dance. I gravitated to avant garde theatre, the experimental theater of the sixties. I studied at the Herbert Berghof (HB) Studio from '69 – '72, first with the incredible William Hickey, and later when I was pregnant, with the great and wonderful Uta Hagen. Students in Hickey's class were "shocked" to see a black woman taking on white southern gentility when I spent a whole summer working in class as Blanche duBois on scenes from A Streetcar Named Desire. Only Bill and I weren't phased. I was also a member of the pioneering group of the Open Theatre that created, for instance, The Serpent and Terminal. With them I had the opportunity to take some workshops with Grotowski himself.
Certain racial things happened, however, which made me understand that even though I hadn't really deeply experienced racism in New York , I was somehow still separate from this basically white, modern dance and experimental theatre world in which I had lived so comfortably. In 1969/1970 I was on a long tour in Western Europe with the Open Theatre. We had started dedicating each show to the Black Panthers by saying, "Fred Hampton was killed in his bed in Chicago, Bobby Seale is on the move across the country, Heuy Neuton is this… da da da da da. We dedicate this performance to the Black Panthers." Well, I am the only black person in the group. Muriel Miguel is Native American, she's in the group, and everyone else is white. At some point, maybe half the group rebelled and said, "Why are we dedicating this to them?" Also, we were scheduled to perform in Algeria. A third of the group, if not more, were Jewish and they didn't want to go to Algeria, so all of these tensions began to erupt in the group. Upshot was, I was not asked to come back.
I left the group and my first husband and I began teaching at Bennington College. While I was there I directed a very singular production of Sonia Sanchez's SISTER SON/JI; a one act play of a black woman talking about her revolutionary life. The Attica Prison riot happened while we were at Bennington, so this was like 1971, 1972. Esty (my first husband) and I felt like this could not happen without some kind of response, so we did one of those moratorium days at Bennington. Bennington never had any kind of political thing like this before. [Laughs] We worked on white guilt, inviting up artists from New York like Willie Kgositsile, a poet, and other black artists, musicians, dancers, and what have you. We had money from all of the departments at Bennington to bring them in . . . and then I did not get rehired.
Jaamil: How long were you at Bennington?
Brenda: Just one year, '71 until '72, and by the end of that year I was pregnant. So then, how did I get into all of this? This is why I say that I feel like I've been in it all my life. To make a long story a little bit short, after leaving Bennington in '72 I become a parent to my wonderful daughter in 1973, I separate from that husband, I go back to graduate school at NYU just to keep my head together and to keep some sanity after a very difficult separation. I am introduced to Performance Studies, which was still the drama department at NYU. Richard Schechner was there and people like Brooks McNamara who studied vaudeville and minstrelsy, white minstrelsy, largely.
It made me understand that the things in my background that I had inklings of with Muntu and Lawrence Levine years before could actually become a course of study for me, and that I could contribute something to that course of study that any — excuse me — but any person who was not a diasporan person could not contribute. I had something different than them; not more than, but different than Lawrence (who became a dear friend of mine during a Rockefeller Bellagio Residency grant I received to complete the minstrelsy chapter of my first book in 1995), different than Janheinz Jahn, or Schechner or McNamara, or anybody else to contribute. I could contribute to it also from an embodied presence. There was nobody dancing doing that. There was nobody African American doing all of the things that I was as a black female dancer/scholar.
Jaamil: And this department was largely white and largely male, I imagine.
Brenda: Definitely. You mean Performance Studies at NYU? At that point it was. This was before people like Marcia Siegel joined the faculty. I got my doctorate before they were there.
Jaamil: Had you experienced cultural bias being in this course of study that may have not easily been understood by your peers as it was by you?
Brenda: Richard Schechner was my mentor and guide. He was just open for it all. He was the one who was looking at Mecca and Maya (the Hindu concept) and trips to India and Arab lands as anthropological theatre. He was the person who influenced me, and was my dissertation advisor. People had thought Brooks should be because he does popular entertainment, but I knew that Brooks would never get behind me doing the kind of political dissertation that I did. Of course, Richard was fine with that.
Jaamil: So was this early dissertation the beginnings of Digging?
Brenda: No, actually it was what became the second book, Waltzing in the Dark. My dissertation was on this wonderful ballroom dance team, Norton and Margot. They are on the cover of Waltzing in the Dark. That's really why I went back to graduate school.
I was doing one of those SEEK programs at Hunter College where I was a tutor when I was still doing my masters program and had very little money. A theater friend said they were looking for tutors at Hunter College, one of whom was John Felder, who always had an interest in African American endeavor and history.
John introduced me to Harriet Johnson, an independent cultural historian who had a black theater collection in the Chelsea Hotel where she lived. She curated an exhibition that was going on in the basement of the Metropolitan Museum on Green Pastures and the touring company of Green Pastures during the depression, with costumes and ephemera — this was like 1975, '76. Margot Webb was on one of the panels they had with some of the performers discussed in Marshall Stern's Jazz Dance like Ulysses S. Thompson (a legendary early vaudeville dancer) who was still alive. When Margot began to speak I felt this incredible déjà vu – she too had wanted to be a ballet dancer, at some point she lived around the corner from where I grew up in Harlem — so, we immediately bonded. I spoke to her after and asked her, "Can I write an article on you?" At that point I was writing for a now defunct black magazine called Encore American and World Wide News. That's how I used to get all my tickets to performances. I wrote an article on Margot for that, and that was why I wanted to go back to graduate school, because I wanted to write a book about her.
I was in a master's program at NYU; my master's thesis was on Bertolt Brecht and my interests were there as well. Then I knew I wanted to get a doctorate, because I wanted to write a book about Margot Webb and that became my dissertation. The world was not ready for a dissertation like that to be published in 1981, even though Richard Schechner praised it to the heights. He felt like it was really a wonderful dissertation. What happened was that unlike many of the graduates from there, my dissertation didn't get immediately published.
I got onto a totally different track with Digging, and that happened largely because of the culture wars. I was writing criticism by then for Dance Magazine and I was seeing ballet as well as modern dance and sensing that everyone adored Balanchine. But sensing also, again, with my always looking for the black in the white, that there was something else going on there.
Jaamil: Certainly.
Brenda: And what is it that makes him? He is the Americanizer of ballet. What's so American about this? That line of questioning…
Of course, there was all of this other stuff going on during the culture wars from say the late 80s through the mid 90s, and I'm starting to get involved in American studies. I start going to American studies conferences, not dance conferences, where people knew nothing about this kind of stuff. But when you went to American studies, every panel of the hundreds of panels would somehow be talking about African influences in da da da. It was through American studies that I encountered the use of this term "Africanist" — I think it was used by [Joseph E.] Holloway. He had done an anthology about Africanist presences in American life. And then, of course, Toni Morrison's incredible work on literature: Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination.
I had role models, if you will, in American studies to support what I wanted to do in an embodied way in the dance world. I really feel like I kind of siphoned that information into my work, which then was disseminated in the dance world, despite of a lot of resistance I had from the white establishment in the dance world. It's out there now.
Jaamil: And thank god it is out there.
Brenda: Who would have known?
Jaamil: So we fast forward to the 90s and the aftermath of the culture wars, and you have been teaching at Temple University, and you meet your love. You begin a process of creating work that leads you into some really tough questions. Themes of identity and gender and so I guess we can say his name?
Brenda: Yes, Hellmut Fricke-Gottschild. Brenda and Hellmut. [Shows picture]
Jaamil: Wow, that's a wonderful poster.
Brenda: It's from Middlebury, probably in '03 or '04. This was on the cover of the Arts & Entertainment section of The Inquirer, July of '03, "Couples Working Together." We toured with this piece, Tongue Smell Color and again –American studies — I was on the International Committee of the National American Studies Association in '98 or something. In all of the exchanges we were having, one committee member said, "I like your interventions, I'd like for you to do something at the upcoming American Studies Association conference." I told Hellmut and we decided that we would work on something together, instead of me being a talking head. So, for the ASA of 1999, in Montreal, we did the first version of Tongue Smell Color. (Just to backtrack a little bit, we had been working together before that. We did a big piece in Philly in 1996 calledFrogs, which had nothing to do with the kind of issues we were dealing with in Tongue Smell Color, but Hellmut and I had indeed been working together for quite a while. The immediate predecessor to Tongue Smell Color was a piece we did in Germany called Stick it Out. We were being provocateur at that point, so you can imagine Stick it Out had many different layers and meanings.)
So, as I said, we performed Tongue Smell Color in 1999 at the ASA conference. Various people came including Holly Hughes, who was performing there; Shelley Fisher Fishkin, another very wonderful American studies friend of mine who wrote an incredible book called Was Huck Black? exploring Africanist influences in Mark Twain's writing; Susan Foster was there; Tommy DeFrantz . . .. Hellmut, with his wonderful nose for creating the right atmosphere to move forward (he was the artistic director of his own dance company, Zero Moving Dance Company), put together a beautiful PR packet with blurbs from people who had seen it like Tommy, Holly and others. His friend, Beatrice Schiller, did this photograph. [Shows image] We toured that piece from 2000 to 2008, when Hellmut said he didn't want to do it anymore.
Audiences were hungry to have someplace to vent, embrace, enter and air out feeling around race, nationality, gender, memory, guilt — those are the types of issues that came up. Frequently, following the piece (which is about an hour) we would open it up by asking people: "Can you please extend the performance beyond what you saw into your own life?" in other words, "Enter it where we left off." Then people would begin to say, "Well when you did that, it took me back to this," or, "I grew up in Virginia, and until I was five this little black girl was my best friend, and then my grandma said you can't be friends with her anymore because you can't wash it off." Crazy comments came from the audience in various and sundry places where we performed. The conversations after the performance often would go on as long as the performance itself.
We performed Tongue Smell Color for the last time at the end of a really nice residency Tommy deFrantz got me a couple days every week at MIT for the whole month of February in '08. For the final performance, Hellmut and I decided that we were going to do it in a different form; we would do a retrospective of it. We showed videos of various performances of it while he and I then talked about it and did some of it live. He's so creative, always coming up with incredible new ways to present the material. After that he was really…
Jaamil: I'm done! [Laughter]
Brenda: I'm telling you, the appetite. There seems to be, again, a new interest, in the age of Obama, in talking about race. I can see, again, that it's not about how little or how much progress we've made. The real deal is, it's never over. We need to continue to talk about this all the time. That's what I feel like people don't realize.
Jaamil: I agree whole-heartedly.
Brenda: People think it's over. I spoke to somebody at DanceUSA who said that many of their members say: "We've been doing this for twenty-five years, why do we need to have a race sensitivity session at the conference on this now?" Because this is America. Condoleezza Rice said years ago that racism is America's birth defect. Coming from Condy Rice, you know, I think she's right. There is always the need for this.
Jaamil: It is my personal belief, and please feel free to interject, that it is a conversation — the act of the discussion is what influences and evokes the healing process.
Brenda: Right, and over and over. We can't say, for instance, "Why do we have these same questions about sexuality now?" Every generation has to go through it again.
Jaamil: You've been doing this work for half a century.
Brenda: Yes, I'm seventy years old.
Jaamil: These are issues that are cyclical; each generation has to combat them essentially.
Brenda: Combat and come back. I don't feel it's bad that we have to come back. You pointed out to me this very recent article in The Inquirer about being white in Philly, which allowed me to show you that in 1995, Philadelphia Magazine had a whole spread on the issue of race. [Shows magazine] And, incredible, The New York Times (this is in 2000) had done a series for a whole summer, pre Obama. [Gestures at a copy] And, I love this cover of a Hassidic man and a woman wearing dreadlocks in The New Yorker; 1993, culture wars time. [Picks up the issue] We are always at war, culturally.
Jaamil: Being in an inter-racial partnership, and a creative partnership as well, what have you and Hellmut learned from each other as a result of that companionship?
Brenda: One of the things is what we've learned from the world, and particularly with these performances, what we've learned from audiences — again, in terms of the need to have a safe comfort zone for discussing things. Also, what we have learned from each other is in many ways, I think I said it in The Black Dancing Body or in the new book, that most of the time I forget that Hellmut is white. One of the things that we've learned, of course, is that love conquers all.
It's not that we are the same, we certainly disagree. One of the things, and I don't think people understand this so I will be careful how I say it: anyone who is white still carries racism that needs to be dealt with. It is foolhardy to assume it's over even when you are in an interethnic relationship. Hellmut is smart enough to not assume that. He knows what he is working out. I know probably some people who hear this will be upset. Well, then are only white people racist? It has to do with power. Even though every white person doesn't have power in the sense of systemic and structural racism, these things of course can only be carried out by individuals; in that sense it is that white people have to deal with racism. It's not that black people have racism, though we may have lots of other things. An excellent book that deals with that subject is a book called Seeing White by Jean Halley, Amy Eshleman and Ramya Mahadevan Vijaya. They so clearly show why this is true.
Jaamil: This brings to mind the movie Django Unchained that recently surfaced over the holidays, which is a really interesting depiction of stylized slavery and racism. What I did see in there though was how the black body was engineered to hate itself, as was portrayed through the two lead characters, the slave and the freed man, Sam Jackson and Jamie Foxx. So with the power that Steven [Head House Slave played by Samuel L. Jackson] had, he was able to provoke this fear in the plantation. The only reason I bring that up is to bring up a racism that is embedded in black people that is a learned, systemic racism of self-hatred, essentially meant to break that community.
Brenda: Absolutely, which I think though, is very different from systemic racism and white racism. For instance, I get so annoyed when people say, "Well, you know, slavery wasn't invented by white Americans, there were blacks who put each other in slavery in Africa." Yes, so!? We know that, Orlando Patterson already talked about all of that. We know that slavery has existed as long as prostitution and rape. All of those things have existed throughout all cultures, but there's a very different heritage of it in America.
Jaamil: To change gears a little bit. I want to think about your current life as a Buddhist; how that has affected your writing and your overall take and how you approach mankind.
Brenda: Humankind.
Jaamil: Thank you for that correction.
Brenda: I would be lying if I were to say that I am a Buddhist. I can't truly follow any particular calling. And of all my many old friends who are Buddhist — Lanny Harrision, Meredith Monk, etc. — will not admit that Buddhism is a religion. But, it does have its rituals, its altars. You put up Rinpoche or whoever on your altar. To me, that is a religion.
The improviser that I am — just as I improvised a new stratagem for embodied dance research — I think I have improvised, from Christianity, Buddhism, and Hinduism, my own particular way of acknowledging my guardian angels. I've certainly taken from Buddhism, and I love Pema Chodron. I'm not in that sense a practicing Buddhist. I've taken some things, like when I do the Lojong teachings or Tonglen, I devise my own way of doing it, which isn't even how Pema would say you are supposed to do them. I find, though, that I am certainly grounded by sitting, but even when I do a sitting (now they call it mindfulness meditation) I have my own fashion in which I've figured out how to do that.
I still am very influenced by Christianity. I am involved now in the Episcopal Diocese Antiracist Committee here in Philly. I'm involved in the Episcopal Church as I was in New York because the Episcopalians that I know on the east coast are very involved in issues of social justice. I used to go the Episcopal Church in the West Village when I lived in Westbeth, St. Luke's. Again, that was a church that was really committed to change and this one here, not far from where I live, St. Martin's, we just had a reading group on Michelle Alexander's book, The New Jim Crow. I am working with them on various and sundry things. And of course there was liberation theology as well, that also attracted me to a certain level of Christianity. So, yes, I would say, certainly the idea of the 17th Karmapa, and who could not be enthralled by and revere the Dalai Lama. So their presence certainly affects me. I have my prayer flags all over the house.
Jaamil: Does your affiliation with this anti-racism committee play a role at all in spawning the idea for the Coalition of Diasporan Scholars Moving?
Brenda: No, actually, if I may, I'd like to address this Coalition of Diasporan Scholars Moving. Maybe early 2011 a friend at a university that I will leave unnamed, let me know about some obviously ethnocentric or biased incidents that were being thrown at her by her chairperson, which were obfuscating her movement forward, just on merit review, even before tenure. I went back and forth trying to give her ideas, then in the fall of 2011 Liana Conyers, out of the blue, emails me. I can't remember how she got my email address, but somebody suggested that she contact me with some blatantly biased, discriminatory practices that were happening almost to prevent her from getting her MFA completed.
I at that point sent out an SOS to senior scholars that I knew who might be able to help her. Halifu Osumare at UC Davis, Tommy deFrantz who was just moving to Duke, Yvonne Daniel who had been a professor at Smith and is a dear friend of mine; we all began to give Liana ideas. It turned out we were able to give her not only practical support, but spiritual support. And then, this past fall, 2012, I get this SOS from A'Keitha Carey who had left her job at SUNY Potsdam for obviously (I'm sorry) racist reasons. At that point I felt I couldn't keep doing this by myself, or just sending out these SOSs. This should not be happening in the new millennium, post-Obama, post-whatever, although we see what crap is happening in Washington now, and do not doubt that is because we have a black president.
In any case, that is why I started the Coalition for Diasporan Scholars Moving. An immediate onslaught of feedback came in. I sent every dance scholar in academia whom I could think of a notice saying these are the things that have happened. Also, around the same time I realized that the International Association of Blacks in Dance was going to be giving it's 25th anniversary conference, so I sent a note to Denise Saunders the chair of IABD, asking if I could do a panel there with some of these people speaking to see what we can garner. Out of that came the Coalition for Diasporan Scholars Moving. We have two lawyers on board. It's not like we are going to go out and prosecute anyone, because of course we are really working against the system.
Jaamil: The institution…
Brenda: The institutional racism — and there you can use the word systemic racism, institutional racism. But, of course, that plays out in individuals. It plays out in some individual chairperson who is giving you grief because you, as this new scholar, are so attractive to the young students who are looking for that kind of wonderful expressive energy and talent and research that you are bringing to the table. Just as I brought a kind of research to the table, these young dance scholars are bringing a new kind of understanding of what it means to dance and to have a company and to write as well. It's very scary for those people in power.
Jaamil: I know you have the mission, and I was wondering if you would mind just reading it aloud for us.
Brenda: I would love to. So, we had a wonderful panel at the IABD conference and the bullets in the mission statement were prepared by Lela Aisha Jones and Deneane Richburg. I put together the entire thing with the manifesto, so here it goes.
Manifesto and mission statement of the Coalition for Diasporan Scholars Moving:
As movement researchers and performing scholars of the African Diaspora, we have all experienced some form of either outright discrimination or subversive, exclusionary tactics by the academic community. CDSM is our response to millennial-style racism in our supposed post-racist era. Like those involved in the Civil Rights Movement of the mid-20th century, we are resolved to be proactive. Our fledgling organization is creating a database, disseminating our Mission Statement, and gathering resources (including legal counsel). We welcome new members from across the Diaspora as we extend our base. A voluntary, non-profit coalition of concerned dancer/scholars, we do not collect dues or elect officers. We are a service organization, ready to "trouble the waters" in order to embrace our future fully and fairly.
To offer strategic advice for Diasporan scholars and movement artists in academic settings
To maintain a database for networking and announcements
To configure an organized process of pairing mentors and mentees in times of growth and crisis
To serve as an accessible hub for national/international collaboration and partnering for efficient processes of sharing resources and social capital
To serve as a medium through which members can share experiences and advice, discuss best practices, and offer support.
We can be reached at email@example.com.
Thank you.
Jaamil: That is a very clear vision. I personally applaud you inaugurating this coalition, for taking the initiative, for seeing a need, and attempting to really fill that gap, that void, and create a space for young scholars to essentially have an outlet and to create community; to bridge those who are in these esteemed positions of power and those of us who are not, but struggling to get there. Thank you. It's so needed.
Brenda: There is a little bit of mentoring going on right now. It's a service organization that kind of exists under the radar. But a couple of people have been set up, and again, I don't want to name names, but a couple of people who are having real issues with their chairs or universities have been set up with senior scholars who are at least giving them moral support. The lawyers on board really told us that the most we could do is mentoring, networking, and moral support , but lawsuits against the university, that's unlikely.
Jaamil: In closing I want to ask you, in the grandeur of your seventieth year, what may you say is your truth at this moment, and how do you share that truth and offer it to a younger generation of future scholars, and cultural critics and crusaders?
Brenda: That's a heavy one, and a mouthful. Interesting how you said it: what is your truth? I mean I wouldn't have put it that way. What I have had to do, whatever it's worth to other people, is to function as though I had nothing to lose. There are so many people that I see that need help. I mean indeed, the many people who never get an education and are out in the street and all of that, so why should I mince my steps?
My message would largely be, please move as though you have nothing to lose. Move from your gut and from your heart (and your head is someplace in there). You need to choose what you feel is your integrity, somehow things will fall into place. Putting one foot in front of the other, that's another thing. I never had a master plan. I didn't ever think that I was going to be what I call myself now: an anti-racist cultural worker using dance as a lens. I guess also being open to improvisation. And then, of course, my Buddhist sense of being mindful of the present and being present to the present. The present is a present, it's a gift, and we don't know how much longer we have.
Jaamil: Move from your center, move from your gut. It's sort one of the elemental instructions that we are given in Dance 101, Modern 101.
Brenda: And in Yoga, always working on your core.
Jaamil: Exactly, strengthening your core. What a wonderful final idea. Thank you for this moment, it has been such a pleasure, such a gift Brenda.
Brenda: Thank you.
Brenda Dixon Gottschild is the author of Digging the Africanist Presence in American Performance: Dance and Other Contexts; Waltzing in the Dark: African American Vaudeville and Race Politics in the Swing Era—winner of the 2001 Congress on Research in Dance Award for Outstanding Scholarly Dance Publication); and The Black Dancing Body – A Geography from Coon to Cool—winner of the 2004 de la Torre Bueno prize for scholarly excellence in dance publication). Her most recent book, titled Joan Myers Brown and The Audacious Hope of the Black Ballerina-A Biohistory of Performance and Race, was published in January, 2012. She is Professor Emerita of dance studies at Temple University and a former consultant and writer for Dance Magazine, and she performs movement theater works with her husband, choreographer Hellmut Gottschild.
Jaamil Olawale Kosoko is a performance curator, producer, poet, choreographer, and performance artist. He is a 2012 Live Arts Brewery Fellow as a part of the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, a 2011 Fellow at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and an inaugural graduate member of the Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance (ICPP) at Wesleyan University. Kosoko has created original roles in the performance works of visual artist Nick Cave, Pig Iron Theatre Company, Keely Garfield Dance, Miguel Gutierrez and The Powerful People, Headlong Dance Theater, as well as anonymous bodies (a performance company he co-directs with Kate Watson-Wallace). He has sat on numerous funding and curatorial panels including the National Endowment for the Arts, New Dance Alliance, MAP Fund, Movement Research at Judson Church, and the Philadelphia Cultural Fund among others. For more information, visit: www.philadiction.org
Brenda's Acceptance Speech for the IABD SCHOLAR AWARD, 1/26/2013Posted in Uncategorized on February 14, 2013 by bdixongottschild
What can I say in the time given me to thank you– my sisters, my brothers—-my children—for bestowing this honor upon me? In this month, the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, what can I say to make this moment linger in your minds—no, IN YOUR HEARTS!!—as something to take with you that you'll remember years from now, as part of our dance emancipation? Well, first of all, please read my books (!!), and use them in your schools and studios so they stay in print and the history and culture I've recorded is not lost!
There are other things I can say that many of you of a certain age already know: that the going's been tough, the road's been rocky, and the journey has often been lonely. Because when I completed my first big research on African American dance and culture with my doctoral dissertation–in 1981!– the idea of a black woman researching African American dance history and theory was easily pooh-pooed not only by white scholars, but even by black scholars in the social and political sciences. For them, the thought was, "dang, how serious can anyone take a woman whose "research" is on tap dance and nightclubs??" One professor at Temple University told me, "When you were hired, I couldn't figure out what you were doing: I imagined you were Debbie Allen correcting your students with a cane in hand!"
Well, I walked a bed of hot coals in the 1980s and 1990s to prove that DANCE, OUR DANCE, BLACK DANCE, is CENTRAL to life on this planet—to prove and DOCUMENT the fact that black dance has shaped and COLORED, if you will, every walk of life, every nook and cranny of the world—HIGH AND LOW!!! And you and I are all here, tonight, to TESTIFY TO THIS TRUTH!


text:
Jasfer Anan is the husband of Setalle Anan. He owns a number of boats as well as the one he captains. His wife, Setalle, tells Mat that he owns ten.[1]
Appearance Edit
He has a square-face and gray hair. He has a double earring of the Ancient and Honorable League of the Nets hanging from his left ear with two white stones in it. This signifies that he owns three boats, one that he captains and two that sail for him. His arms are criss-crossed with scars from duels he has won.
Activities Edit
He arrives on scene with his wife after Matrim Cauthon is attacked and kills two thugs in the Wandering Woman. In the course of their ensuing conversation Mat asks if men can ever understand women, to which Jasfer starts bellowing with hysterical laughter, laughing so hard that he sheds tears. This earns him a sharp, hard punch in the stomach from his wife.[2]
Two days after the Seanchan invade Ebou Dar, Setalle decides to sell the Wandering Woman because she "sees what they are," and by the time Mat is ready to leave, the inn is sold; all that remains to be done is for Setalle to turn over the keys to the new owner. Approximately three days prior to Mat leaving Ebou Dar, an event in which Setalle intends to participate, Jasfer sails off with all his kin and his ten boats to Illian where he will wait for his wife.[1]

subset: commoncrawl


text:
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text:
Lester Holt
131st Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show
More than 2,500 dogs descend on New York's Madison Square Garden for the ultimate test of breeding, training and showmanship. After hours of deliberation, the judges narrow the broad field down to seven finalists, one of which will win the most prestigious canine award: Best in Show. Host Lester Holt and dog expert David Frei provide analysis and commentary, while Debbye Turner conducts interviews with many of the top dogs and their humans.


text:
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[Cocoagraph via Gizmodo]
UK 4G release date could land in mid-2013
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Solar Impulse to complete 6000km flight today


text:
Hermione was bored, very bored. She'd already done all her homework that morning and had nothing else to do for the rest of her Sunday; so she decided to have some fun and let her hair down a little.
She walked down the spiral staircase leading up to her dormitory in the joint head common room and made her way to the Head Boy's private chamber which was up a flight of spiral stairs on the opposite side of the joint common room.
She didn't even bother knocking and just let herself in the room like Malfoy had done to her on countless occasions; however, she stopped dead in her tracks as she took in the site before her:
Draco had a magical measuring tape out whilst he used whatever lotion on his manhood and then, she watched as he held it straight and clearly instructed the measuring tape to measure it in length and thickness with him still unaware of her being in his room.
She smirked making her presence known to him by using her wand and summoning the tube of cream to her hands that Malfoy was about to pick up off of his bed.
'Dick growth?' She said, fighting the urge to laugh.
Draco Malfoy jumped at the sound of her voice as he spun around naked and glared at the unwelcome intruder who had the missing tube of cream in her hands.
'Ohhh this is just priceless,' Hermione said smugly as she read what it said on the label, she was completely oblivious to Draco advancing towards her.
'Dick growth instructions: apply cream to balls and massage gently before moving along your shaft and gently stroking it up and down so the cream covers all areas. ' Hermione looked up to see Draco now towering over her short frame.
'I'll ask nicely Granger... give it back.' His voice was calm but held every ounce of warning.
'Why Malfoy?' She glanced down his naked body, her eyes resting on his manhood; she widened them slightly at the size of it, glad he couldn't see her reaction since her head was tilted south wards.
'Like what you see Granger?' Draco taunted.
'Actually I can see why you need growth cream... It's rather small don't you think? Even Harry's is bigger than yours and that's saying something as his is large without using cream.' She looked up to see Draco's priceless face and couldn't help but burst out laughing.
'Do not, and I mean Granger do not compare me to Potter in any shape or form,' he growled as he went to reach for her without really thinking about his actions.
Hermione squeaked and made a run for it, tube still in hand as she rushed through the portrait hole without really thinking where she was going.
Draco was just as clueless as he went after her, she'd wounded his pride when she compared him to Potter's size (and the fact she'd even compared him to Potter in the first place), plus she still had his growth cream in her hands.
All his attention was focused on the brunette in question, and when he caught the little minx, he'd make sure to show her just how "little" he was.
Unaware that he was running around Hogwarts butt naked and with no apparent destination, he finally caught up with her on the third floor corridor in front of a lone cupboard. He grabbed her around the waist and tightened his hold around the squealing witch who was doing everything she could think of to break free from his grasp, but he wasn't giving up that easily; he pulled the doors open and shoved her inside the cupboard.
It contained ancient looking school robes but he didn't care as he walked in after the witch and slammed the door shut behind him. It was his turn to look triumphant as he cornered her.
He rested his hands on either side of her head so she was stuck with no room to escape and locked his gaze with hers.
'Never... never compare me to Potter or call me little, Granger!'
The witch seemed to collect herself as she glared at him with a raised eyebrow.
'Really, Malfoy,you don't look anything amazing: It's little and that's my final opinion. I've no idea where these silly little rumours about how hot the 'Slytherin Sex God' is.'
He leaned in too close for Hermione's comfort. She was the first to register his nakedness but chose to wait before she pointed that out.
'Hermione...' he decided to test the way her name sounded coming from his mouth and felt her shiver as he whispered her name into her ear. He smirked.
'I can prove to you that I am far from little and more manly than Potter will ever be.'
Hermione gulped.
Ron Weasley and Harry Potter stood frozen under the invisibility clock. Surely they were seeing things when they saw a very naked Draco Malfoy and their best friend - still thankfully in clothing – running down the corridor.
'Harry?' Ron Weasley said horrified.
'Yes, Ron?' Harry whispered equally horrified.
'Did my eyes just see what I thought they saw?'
'I hope it's just a very bad dream, but if you saw what I saw, then yes, we just did see it.'
'Soggiest pants?' Harry finished it for him.
'That's my line.'
But Harry wasn't listening to Ron, he'd gotten the famous Marauders' map out and scanned it until he found the two names in question.
'They are half way along the third floor corridor,' Harry announced.
Ron leaned in to see were Harry was pointing and true enough two name tags were seen tangled together with the names 'Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger'
Ron's eyes widened and his ears reddened.
'They better bloody not be...'
That was all the two boys needed to run off in the direction of the third floor corridor hoping that their lines of thought were mistaken.
When they reached the third floor, they warily walked to the lonely cupboard were they could hear thump, thump and strange noises coming from inside.
'Harry!' Ron whimpered, 'the Death Eater's hurting her.'
Harry flinched as their best friend screamed, and so both boys rushed to the cupboard and magically opened the door with force; they both froze in fright at what they saw:
Amongst what looked like old robes were two naked bodies molded together with their best friend's bare legs wrapped around the Slytherin's equally bare body unaware of any interruption.
They watched horrified as Malfoy's hips jerked upwards, and he roared.
Both boys were frozen and unable to move, their eyes transfixed on the unlikely pair in the cupboard who had collapsed on each other and were now breathing unevenly.
'So love...' they heard Malfoy ask Hermione after what seemed like an eternal silence.
'Does this prove,' his hips jerked up making Hermione gasp, "that I'm bigger and manlier than Potter?'
Before Hermione could answer they were interrupted by two horrified, shocked voices.
'WHAT?' Both Harry and Ron yelled in union causing Draco and Hermione to freeze and Draco to press his body against Hermione's so the other two couldn't see anything.
'Love?' Ron whispered before he fainted.
'Bigger than...' and Harry soon joined Ron.
When they heard the two intruders' thud as they hit the ground, Draco slipped out of Hermione and grabbed one of the ancient robes, as he finally realized he'd come without any of his own.
Draco, still not trusting his two rivals were completely passed out, made sure the witch was covered before allowing her to be seen. He took her by the hand surprising them both and went out of the cupboard, not taking much care in avoiding stepping on Weasley and Potter.
Draco stopped, let go of Hermione's hand and walked back over to the two bodies on the floor. He picked up Potter's wand and cast a spell that caused both bodies to float midair and threw them in the cupboard locking them in. He picked up the Weasle's and Potty's wand d and through it ontop of the cupboard.
He turned on his heal and walked over to Hermione who's lips were in a thin line, her arms folded but her eyes where what gave her away. Draco smirked and flung his arm around her shoulders. He stiffened a bit when she melted into his side but he didn't move away.
Maybe this was the start of something new for them both? Screw house unity. Plus he had a feeling their was more to the girl in his arms which didn't meet the human eye and he was going to figure it out. He'd watched the Golden Trio for years.. No one as powerfull and knowledge-filled as her mind was could be muggleborn, their had to be more to her than that.
He new she was different and it still tickled his mind that she chose Potter and the Weasle as friends, when she could do so much more than be their dictionary and protector.
He would figure the Mystery of Hermione Granger untill his last breath and she will be his.
After to day something changed that he couldn't quiet put his finger on.
Hermione Granger has just become his new challenge to crack.
Or something more?
A/N: Just a little something that came to me randomly Sunday afternoon. It wouldn't but out of my mind so I decided to do something about it, lol. So hear it is... written in words; my random burst of inspiration to write something. But at least it gave me something to do :)
Also whilst I'm doing this I'd like to say thank you to those eight people that's taken the time out to review my ONE-SHOT!
Would love to hear from more of you :)


text:
|Port Oakes
Dominated by Fort Hades and the Arachnos Watchtower, Port Oakes lies at the heart of Lord Recluse's ocean dominion. A mixture of modern high-rises, sprawling slums, and dubious commerce, Port Oakes is a den of thieves with a history steeped in mass murder.
The pirate known as Blackbeard had just captured the Concorde and rechristened her the Queen Ann's Revenge. He sought a place to test her in battle, and narrowed his choice to one isle in particular with a newly completed French fort. Lacking a full complement of guns, the fort and its French defenders were no match for the bloodthirsty assault made by Blackbeard and his crew.
The overwhelmed soldiers surrendered and asked for quarter, but none was given. The fort became a ghastly scene of mass carnage. Only the sight of a frigate on the horizon ended the massacre. Though the ship never approached the isle, Blackbeard and his crew slipped away, beginning their now infamous course of fire and blood.
When the French finally arrived with the rest of the fort's cannons, they found only death and destruction. Despite the ominous pall that hovered over the isle, the new cannons were installed and the ship's marine complement was left to garrison the fort.
The hauntings began on the very first night. The spirits of the slaughtered French soldiers materialized from the darkness and attacked the marines. The terrified marines left the fort to the ghosts, never to return. Abandoned and haunted, the nameless fort remained relatively unused for over a hundred years. Many bands of pirates sought to use the fort as a refuge, but each time the angry spirits rose with a bloody vengeance. Most of those slain by the phantoms joined their ranks the very next night as lesser spirits. Over time, the original spirits have come to be called 'Red Hands' for the blood that stains their ethereal forms. Their servants are called the 'Night Haunts'.
During the early 19th century, the long-ignored harbor below the fort provided an attractive hiding place for mutinous crews and any other scum looking for a remote place to hide. This community of dregs eventually came to form a village simply called 'Dockside'. The locals tried to occupy the fort on several occasions, but the Red Hands were as relentless as ever.
Finally, an aging Jesuit priest named Padre Gerard Henri took it upon himself to cleanse the fort and lay the spirits to rest. Henri performed a sort of exorcism on the place. When he finally finished the ordeal, the spirits were laid to rest.
Or so it was thought. In truth, the spirits were driven from the fortress only by day. They returned each night with a vengeance.
The settlers on the island used the fort as a residence but had no modern armaments to properly outfit it. Thus the town of Dockside was easy pickings for Sergeant Westin Oakes when he 'lberated' the town in 1901. He rechristened the isle Port Oakes but Dockside itself retained its name. Oakes' followers reoccupied the fort and used it to watch over the murderous scum below. Order was imposed and despite the draconian nature of the new rulers (or more likely because of it), Dockside prospered. The wanton criminals of the town were rounded up and put to use creating a new market for smuggled goods.
The coming of Arachnos was not unwelcome by the people of Dockside. Arachnos provided security against several mercenary, hero, and government agencies who had threatened to clean up Dockside on several occasions. Several new buildings were erected downtown in Arachnos' wake, though construction slowed soon after. Heroes who could no longer directly threaten Dockside instead put pressure on those they did business with overseas; generally derailing anyone who traded with Port Oakes.
Some of that eventually spilled back into Dockside in the late 1980s, so Arachnos occupied and refurbished the old fort to give the crime bosses more tangible protection. They also finally gave it its name: Fort Hades, for it was truly a place of the dead.
Lord Recluse's agents took quick notice of the Red Hands of Fort Hades. They've been studying the ghosts to see if they might be used as a sort of ethereal army. The problem is that the Red Hands are bound to the site of their horrible death. If the spirit-bond could be removed, however, they would make deadly assassins.
At this time, there is no Governor of Port Oakes. The former governor was arrested by Interpol, leaving a power vacuum that has sparked a gang war between his son, Emil Marcone, and his former consigliore, Guido 'the Mooch' Verandi. Emil claims the governorship is his by right of blood. Guido has a more 'enlightened' view and says there's no such thing as bloodlines in Arachnos' republic.
Lord Recluse could easily end this pointless fight if he were simply to appoint a governor. He finds the fight amusing, however, and firmly believes in 'survival of the fittest'. He'll wait and see who earns the governorship. It won't hurt to erode the Family's power a bit in the meantime; they were becoming a bit too strong for Recluse's tastes.


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MIA President Andrew Chapman said the MIA is very pleased that Jumeirah Beach Hotel Marina with its high global high profile is participating in these important accreditation programs. 'Jumeirah Beach Hotel Marina is setting high benchmarks with its customer service, facilities and in environmental management.
'By achieving these accreditations it is re-affirming with its clients that it is committed to continual improvement. The achievements also signal to the wider marina industry that these accreditation programs are valuable and important in assisting our industry to grow and develop on the back of improving service and environmental standards.'
Stating on these recent awards, the General Manager of Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Mahmoud Sakr said, 'It is such an honour and we are very proud that we are the only UAE-based marina to have received such accreditation! Congratulations to the Marina team for providing great service to our customers and great care for the environment.'
More at www.marinas.net.au


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This was aired on Danish TV3 fifteen years ago.
Eva Green – who starred with Mads in 'The Salvation' – has just released this short film
Turn The Power:On – Narrated by EVA GREEN
New Carlsberg ad
New Carlberg ads with Mads launched in the UK.
Full ad:
MARC O'POLO SS 2017- 50 years of O'
Let's celebrate 5o years of O' together with Mads Mikkelsen and Lara Stone.
Mads Mikkelsen at Saudi Comic Con
Part 1-4 recorded by fan Khalid Farouk:
Hideo Tube Ep. 6 Denmark's National Treasure Mads Mikkelsen
Hideo Tube Ep. 6 Denmark's National Treasure Mads Mikkelsen
Hideo Kojima
Kenji Yano
Filmed at: KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS
MARC O'POLO SS 17 Campaign – Mads Mikkelsen & Lara Stone
The official MARC O'POLO Spring/Summer 2017 campaign movie starring photographer Peter Lindbergh, actor Mads Mikkelsen and model Lara Stone.
Mads in Star Wars Inside
Mads in Star Wars Inside magazine.
Hideo Kojima x Mads Mikkelsen
Kojima tweets:
Exclusive: Death Stranding poster and trailer
Here is the first official poster for the upcoming Hideo Kojima game.
Watch the trailer:
Watch a live presentation on YouTube here:


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General Motors Corp. plans to phase out its Pontiac division by the end of 2010, but doubt exists whether the 83-year-old brand will last that long, especially if the auto maker fails to restructure outside of bankruptcy.
"If they end up in bankruptcy, I don't know why in the world they would keep (Pontiac) to the end of 2010," says Erich Merkle, an independent auto analyst in Grand Rapids, MI. "That's the whole point of bankruptcy – take action more quickly on the things you could not outside of bankruptcy, such as shedding brands, lowering your labor costs and getting rid of dealers."
GM appeared to be moving closer to a Chapter 11 filing Tuesday, with several top executive dumping their GM shares. The move prompted a market selloff, pushing the stock value to lows not seen since the Great Depression. Shares touched $1.00 earlier today.
Renewed talks with the United Auto Workers union are under way, GM President and CEO Fritz Henderson tells journalists at a media briefing earlier this week, and dealers GM must eliminate to right-size its distribution network will learn their fate in the coming days.
The auto maker also continues to negotiate with bidders on its Hummer, Saturn and Saab brands. Unless satisfactory deals can be reached, the company will wind down the divisions by year's end.
However, Henderson says "no dialogue" exists for selling Pontiac. Yet, GM plans to keep it on life support for another 18 months, despite clear indications in recent weeks buyers are staying away from the auto maker's lame-duck brands.
One dilemma GM faces with Pontiac is its sheer size. With 267,348 sales last year, Pontiac ranks as the auto maker's No.3 division, behind the 1.8 million cars and trucks sold by Chevrolet and 376,996 deliveries at GMC, according to Ward's data. For comparison, Saturn sold 188,004 vehicles last year, while Hummer accounted for 27,485 units and Saab 25,028.
Pontiac's dealer network also dwarfs these brands. Ward's data shows a Pontiac-brand logo at 2,580 locations nationwide as of mid-April. Nearly all of the franchises are part of a Buick-Pontiac-GMC channel.
In comparison, Saturn's network includes some 400 stand-alone retailers, Hummer carries 150 franchises and Saab 220 locations. Only Chevrolet, with its 3,790 dealerships, has more locations than Pontiac.
John Wolkonowicz, a senior analyst with IHS Global Insight in Lexington, MA, says another reason Pontiac is the last to go is because GM's decision to axe the division came several months after determining what other brands would be dumped. Therefore, phasing out the division will run into next year.
GM announced last June plans to sell the Hummer luxury SUV division after gasoline prices spiked to $4 a gallon, while decisions on Saturn and Saab were made public in its first viability plan submission to the government Dec. 2.
GM said in its initial submission it would scale Pontiac back to a niche division, but changed course to a full winding down of the brand in late April after both President Obama's auto industry task force and the U.S. Treasury Dept. rejected the auto maker's second viability plan.
"The other brands were in the plan, and Pontiac was not," Wolkonowicz says. "The decision on Pontiac came after the government took control. These companies are no longer in control of their own destiny. With Chrysler (LLC), it's a bankruptcy judge, and with GM it's the auto task force and in all likelihood soon to be a bankruptcy judge, as well."
Wolkonowicz offers one more reason to keep Pontiac into 2010 – the G6 midsize sedan, coupe and convertible. According to Ward's data, GM sold 140,240 G6 models in last year's weak market. "It still sells," he says.
For comparison, the Saturn Aura midsize sedan, a onetime North American Car of the Year winner, accounted for 59,380 deliveries in 2008.
Local UAW contracts could also commit GM to continue building certain Pontiac products, such as the G6 in Orion Twp., MI. "The UAW may have something to say," Merkle says.
But if a silver lining to Pontiac's shutdown exists, it's that it will happen relatively quickly. It took GM more than four years to wind down Oldsmobile earlier this decade, and important residual values plunged.
"(Oldsmobile) was a long, drawn out death by a thousand paper cuts," says James Clark, editorial director at Automotive Lease Guide Inc., publisher of a twice-monthly analysis of residual values. "It was a tough situation, whereas with Pontiac, it will close more quickly."
According to ALG, residual values, mostly leased, on '04 Oldsmobile models were 75% less than the original base price when they were returned in 2007. "The analysis we are looking at right now on Pontiac suggests something more positive," he says.
Clark says products such as the G8 sports sedan, Solstice roadster and coupe and Vibe compact hatchback likely will carry higher residuals than the G3 subcompact, G5 compact, G6 and Torrent small cross/utility vehicle.
"The second group is a little longer in the tooth, while the first group better reflects the Pontiac DNA as it was meant to be," he says.
Residual values are important to both the auto maker and car buyer. Consumers want the most for their trade-in, and poor residual values could lead them to choose another brand with their next purchase or lease. Auto makers need residual values of leased vehicles to remain high so they don't lose money when the car or truck is returned.
Poor residual values on returning truck leases last summer during the gasoline price run-up cost GM $2 billion in the year's second quarter.
Mark LaNeve, vice-president, GM North America sales, service and marketing, says the auto maker does not plan to slash prices just so dealers can clear their lots of products from lame-duck brands. "I thought we already had some pretty good deals out there," he tells Ward's during a recent sales call. "We're going to keep our dealers competitive."


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Hookers for Jesus
January 27th, 2008
Dr Petra
In The Telegraph there's a report on Annie and Heather – aka Hookers for Jesus.
Both 'holy hotties' are born again Christians who visit porn conventions and other sex industry events to spread the word of God.
While Christians have long been involved in 'saving' fallen women, Annie and Heather are slightly different in they claim not to be judgemental and look more like porn stars than the frumpy do-gooders you might expect.
JC's girls (as they call themselves) also blog about their work and have a series of podcasts – 'Saving Sex City' (you can see episode one below).
Annie and Heather claim their work is accepted and welcomed by other sex workers – although what other sex workers really feel is less clear.
I'm all in favour of people offering support to sex workers, although I do have concerns where religion is used to blame, attack or bully prostitutes. Those who have a shared background with sex workers can offer a unique insight into prostitution and often can enable sex workers to access help services because of this. However, having turned their back on prostitution – whether it's for religious or political reasons – can also mean folk lack the sensitivity to appreciate others are not ready to exit sex work, or may not ever wish to do so.
It is interesting how the media still like to run with the 'saving fallen women' angle, as there are plenty of sex workers who are religious (but continue to work as prostitutes). These voices are not heard. Nor are the voices of prostitutes who do not wish to leave sex work. What we are consistently given is a limited view of prostitution – where sex workers are all presented through the language of disease, drugs, danger and trafficking – people in need of rescue or salvation.
I'm sure Heather and Annie are working from the best of motives, but just occasionally it would be also good to hear some different stories of prostitution. Blogs, podcasts and turning up at sex conventions are certainly news to straight society. But if you're really after something radical how about talking to the people at the conventions who celebrate what they are doing?
After all, the whole time we have a media that focuses just on the saviours it means they're subtly (and not so subtly) reinforcing the idea that those who remain in sex work are the sinners.Tweet
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Bizius Antietam – Hands Down (1994) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBHRuLbw3Lg
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Bizius Inspi@by_starla........Saludos!!!!!!
PennyDreadfulsNightmareJuice Better than my Spanish!!! LOL ;) rb@Katapultado: "PennyDreadfulsNightmareJuice....This will keep you awake ... my fucking English!!!!!!!" (reblip)
Bizius @PennyDreadfulsNightmareJuice....This will keep you awake ... my fucking English!!!!!!!
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zimmyfromhibbing New album due in May
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vandaleyes @Slipdisc agreed. could definitely see nando's frustration along w/ rest of team. just should not be like that.
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If there are no other vehicles in sight, is a driver obliged to signal that he's changing lanes or turning? I ask because of the number of times I've narrowly escaped injury when I'm on foot. Motorists don't seem to perceive pedestrians as fellow road-users.
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|By Jall
|More from Jall
|Fantasy, Horror, Mystery
|Hunting Long Feng
|Chapter information
|Written by
|Release date
November 4, 2009
|Last chapter
|Next chapter
Katara visited Jet at his hospital. He was reading Katara and Aang's diaries.
She offered to help out with the notes Jet had been keeping. These notes would help them all to understand the terrible events more clearly.
Aang and Katara were to stay with Jet at the hospital. They made a list of everything they knew so far about Long Feng. "We have put all the papers on order," said Aang.
Sokka arrived. He was overcome with grief for his pretty, lively Yue. Katara did her best to comfort him. "Let me be a sister to you in your trouble," said Katara.
Yue's death had also made Zuko very unhappy. He said they must work together to track down her killer.
Jet took Katara to visit his strange patient, Ozai. With Katara, Ozai was quiet and polite, and described his odd thoughts and feelings calmly.
For the first time, all the friends met together. Haru explained what vampires were. They had no shadow or reflection, and they slept in graveyard earth. They could change shape, into wolves or winged-lemurs, for example, and they grew young again after drinking fresh blood!
"This vampire which is amongst us is as strong as twenty men," explained Haru.
Garlic and crosses would stop a vampire. They couldn't kill in daylight, cross running water, or enter a house uninvited. A stake through the heart would kill then, cutting off the head brought them peace. "It is a terrible task that we undertake, for if we fail he must surely win," said Haru.
Haru had bought the house at Sozin, close to the hospital. "We are determined to destroy this monster," stated Haru.
He had fifty boxes of graveyard earth brought there from his castle chapel, by the haunted ship. As soon as Long Feng's full of blood, he would sleep in one of those boxes until he was ready to attack again.
Zuko had seen a giant winged-lemur outside, and tried to blast it. "Sorry!" apologized Zuko.
At the same time, Ozai was begging the nurses to set him free. Jet was called to see him. Ozai talked sensibly at first, then became frantic. "Let me out of this! Woe is me!" begged Ozai.
He said he had an important reason for wanting to be let out, but he would not say what it was. Was it something to do with "the master," perhaps. "Hear me! Hear me! Let me go!" said Ozai.
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For the collective works of the author, go here.