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The leading
Consular Corner - November 2007
by Liam Schwartz, Esq.
Top Ten Visa Wait Times at U.S. Consular Posts
10 Fingerscans
The increase in visa wait times at some consular posts may be partially attributable to the process of going "on-line" with 10 fingerscan collection capability. All U.S. visa-issuing posts must have this capability by the end of 2007; many posts, including the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan, have already deployed this new system. A pictorial description of the new fingerprinting process (in this case, at Embassy Islamabad) can be found here: http://islamabad.usembassy.gov/pakistan/img/assets/5816/what_to_expect_on_interview_day.pdf.
Update: Visa Applicants with Drunk Driving Hits
Earlier this year, 9 FAM 40.11 N8.3 was updated to reflect new guidance to consular officers on the need to refer to panel physicians those visa applicants who have a single drunk driving arrest or conviction within the last three calendar years or two or more drunk driving arrests or convictions in any time period. http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/86936.pdf.
The following is an example of how one family perceives this new guidance is being applied in their case:
We have lived in the US for 7.5 years on an E2 visa. 3 years ago my husband was stopped for a DUI (first and only one) actually received Reckless Driving not Proven - no accident, etc.
We have recently gone back to London for our renewal and (after 2 months of waiting) were denied as he is considered a danger to American citizens/himself.
It was stupid to D&D, however, this seems very harsh as it is his only offence - not even a speeding ticket before or after. Our lawyer assured us this arrest wouldn't be a problem - but now says that London are enforcing the rules more than any other Embassy.
He is not even allowed back to the US to sell the business (valued at about $750k), homes (not easy where we live at the moment). I have just returned to the US on the VWP to try and set up someone to run the business and to try and sell everything (am I stressed - god I wish we had never moved here - however much I love it!!)
Consular Officer on Visa Interviews: Humanity at its Best and its Worst
Virtually all of our visa applicant clients need to undertake a personal interview with a U.S. consular officer. Ever wonder about the consular officer's take on the visa interview? The answer: "visa work is down and dirty":
Visa work is down and dirty, roll up your sleeves stuff. Bag 'em and tag 'em. I did 10,000 visa interviews in just over a year, and that is nothing compared to my colleagues who work in the salt mines of our visa operations - the so-called "visa mills" in Manila, Seoul, Mexico City and the like.
The truth of the matter is that consular work gives an FSO (LS: "Foreign Service Officer") so many of the skills that they will need later in life. Most important among these skills is management. FSOs are expected to manage local staff from their first moments in a consular section, no matter how junior they are..
Furthermore, I believe that there is something to be said for paying your dues when entering any organization . FSOs sit at a small window for long hours and have to make, at 2-5 minute intervals, decisions that could have a huge influence on the lives of the people to whom they are talking, sometimes including life or death. They do this knowing that often that person on the other side of the bulletproof glass knows, and will use, every trick in the book to get to the land of opportunity.
In very few other places will you see humanity at its best and its worst. I have seen drug dealers and terrorists, beggars and rock stars, athletes and artists. I met a woman who walked with her family out of the axis of evil and waited for thirteen years to get an immigrant visa to live in the US. Putting that visa in her hand was one of the top moments I've experienced as a human being, let alone in my Foreign Service career.
The second person I ever refused a visa was a kindly woman who closely resembled my grandmother; when I refused her visa, she broke down in tears and begged me to give her a chance. Refusing her was one of the worst moments I've experienced in my Foreign Service career, and possibly in my life. Similarly, I had a woman faint right in front of me when I told her that I would not give her a visa. She just lay there on the floor, in front of God and the whole waiting room, while I stood over her and looked at her through the glass. The whole waiting room, filled with nervous applicants, stared at me. We called an ambulance, and my boss told me to keep interviewing - such is the numbers crush in our visa issuing posts.
If there is one thing I learned from all of this it is the following: I (along with all of my fellow Americans) am unbelievably lucky to have been born where I was, to have had the opportunities I've had. And there is no way that I will ever take that for granted again. As a visa officer these things are thrown into such stark relief that you can't help but notice them - they simply strike you in the face again and again. That in and of itself is worth the time spent on "the line."
Former Ambassador on Visa Interviews: "Dog's Work"
According to Former Ambassador J. Anthony Holmes:
Probably 80 percent of (Foreign Service Officers) go for their first assignment to a visa mill, where they interview 50 to 75 to 100 visa applicants every day. And that isn't transformational. I mean, that is -- you're in the trenches doing dog's work.
Diplomacy vs. War: A Quiz
Simply put, diplomats (including the folks who interview our visa clients) are sent abroad to implement U.S. policy through peaceful means. On the other hand, members of the military are sent abroad to implement U.S. policy through the barrel of a gun. The following quiz reveals a bit about our priorities:
True or false:
DOS Zombies and the Security Clearance Process
The State Department's process for handling security clearances has come under severe criticism. Critics describe the security clearance system as "broken," with cases dragging on endlessly. The Department is urged to complete security clearances within a reasonable time, so as to not leave jobs and entire families in limbo.
Sound familiar? No, this time the criticism is not levied against the consular security check delays which may have kept your client away from her job, and her kids away from their school, for many months. Rather, the "beneficiaries" of this broken system are themselves Foreign Service Officers.
Take the case of Steve:
I am a career Foreign Service Officer who dedicated more than two decades to the service of this country. I was a well-respected expert in my field, promoted to the highest ranks of the service and received some of the highest awards offered by the State Department. My loyalty was impugned and my career destroyed by a newly-hired, low-ranking special agent of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, who has managed to keep my security clearance suspended for years while he conducts a so-called investigation that any ten-year-old child with a computer and access to Google could complete in minutes. I am not alone. In the past five years, dozens of FSOs have similarly fallen victim to overzealous and, in some cases, illegal acts, by newly-hired, badly-trained and poorly supervised agents of the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service.
None of us has ever been accused of any documented professional malfeasance or a criminal act. All of us continue to work in make-work jobs at the State Department while our cases continue in limbo. Prohibited from bidding on any normal job in the State Department, often prohibited from working in the field of our specialization and expertise, unable to leave until our cases are resolved, we are the zombies of the State Department, the dead men (and women) working.
Consular Officer on 214(b): A "Bad Vibes" Refusal Tool
INA 214(b) serves as the basis for most nonimmigrant visa denials. A visa is denied under this section when, for example, the consular officer believes that the applicant falls on the wrong side of the immigrant intent requirements of a specific non-immigrant visa classification. http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/87168.pdf
To at least one consular officer, 214(b) should also be utilized when the visa applicant simply gives off "bad vibes":
Consular officers use 214(b) as an important anti-terrorism tool, as it is the only generic refusal that lets them say no to someone who gives off bad vibes .
Those of us who have served on the visa line would love to have stronger tools to refuse suspect cases. 214(b) is a great tool for most non-immigrant visas, but the concept (a catch-all, non-appealable refusal) needs to be extended to other categories to allow us to refuse those who give us "bad vibes," even if they haven't yet broken any laws. Remember, the "20th hijacker" was refused entry by an immigration inspector who couldn't identify anything wrong with him, but just had a funny feeling. Like it or not, that's our best defense at catching someone who intends us harm but hasn't yet committed any crimes, and our consular officers need to have more flexibility to turn those people down.
Consular Officer Salaries
The consular officers who interview our clients obviously get into this work for non-financial reasons (stuff like patriotism and a desire to serve one's country):
The average base salary of a Foreign Service Officer with 15 years experience is 88k. The FSO pension comes to about 40k a year for someone who retires with 25 years in service.
Consular Officer Assignments: Anything But Cushy
The consular officers who interview our clients have been assigned to the particular consulate by the State Department. Most of these assignments are anything but cushy:
Most assignments are two or three years in duration. Over 60 percent of them are at posts rated as being hardship assignments due to difficult living conditions (for example, violent crime, harsh climate, social isolation, unhealthy air, and/or terrorist threats). Half of those are rated as extreme hardship. There are about 700 jobs that are single-year assignments, due to the dangerous nature or very extreme hardship involved at two dozen danger pay posts including Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia.
Thus, unlike the old stereotype seeing most Foreign Service members serving in comfortable Western European capitals, only one third of overseas posts are non-hardship -- and the majority of people at such posts are decompressing after serving at a hardship post.
http://www.afsa.org/101707presupdate.cfm and http://consul-at-arms.blogspot.com/2007/11/
Answers to Diplomacy vs. War Quiz:
Everyone wants to come to the U.S., not just to travel, but for business, study, family visits, and of course immigration. . At the same time, visa issuance must become more careful than ever -- or State will share the blame for the next successful terrorist bombing. Preventing such acts is now a real national security concern.
David T. Jones, a retired senior Foreign Service officer, March 2001.
All rights reserved to the author.
About The Author


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How Much Do I Pay in a Bankruptcy?
If you go bankrupt, you are required submit proof of your family income each month to your Hoyes Michalos trustee, so we can determine if you have surplus income. These bankruptcy Canada surplus income rules apply in all bankruptcies, regardless of where you live. How much you will have to pay in a bankruptcy, and how long you have to pay, is determined by these surplus income rules.
What is Surplus Income?
Surplus income is one component in the cost of bankruptcy in Canada. The Canadian government has set net monthly income thresholds for a person or a family to maintain a reasonable standard of living in Canada. This is used to determine how much you pay if you go bankrupt. Every dollar that a bankrupt family makes above the level set by the government is subject to a surplus income payment of 50% while a person remains bankrupt.
Table: Income threshold by family size*:
|Family Size
*2018 surplus income limits set by the OSB
Calculating Surplus Income Payments
Under the surplus income rules, the monthly surplus income payment is calculated using the following formula:
Net Income – Threshold = Surplus x 50 % = Payment
Here's a simple example: John lives alone and his take home pay is $2,752 per month. Using the above formula, the monthly surplus income payment that he is required to make would be:
$2,752 – $2,152 = $600 x .5 = $300
In this example John is required to pay $300 in surplus income payments each month that he is bankrupt. Each month John will submit his paystubs, and each month this number is re-calculated. If John's pay increases, he will pay more. If his pay decreases, he will pay less.
The amount of surplus income you are required to pay is based on the following:
- Net Income includes the take home pay of everyone living in the household of the bankrupt. If in our example John had a wife, her income would have been added to John's to determine the total household income.
- Deductions include: support payments, child care payments, medical bills, fines and penalties, any other employment expense that you normally deduct when preparing your income taxes.
- Threshold: set by the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy. It is based on the number of persons living with the bankrupt. Please use our free surplus income calculator for more details.
- Payment: if more than one person's income is included in the Net Income figure, the required payment is pro-rated to each person based on their income's percentage of the total.
Surplus income can have a significant effect on the total cost of bankruptcy. Our free surplus income calculator can help you determine what your required surplus income payments may be.
If you have any questions on how the calculation works, or whether or not something is deductible, please contact one of our Ontario bankruptcy offices.
Payments Part of Bankruptcy Legislation
Surplus income payments are required by law. The Bankruptcy & Insolvency Act clearly sets out how to calculate the required payment and your bankruptcy trustee is required to report to the Court whether or not those payments have been made. If the required payments are not made, you will NOT be discharged from bankruptcy.
Length of Bankruptcy Payments
Surplus income also affects how long you will be bankrupt. Based on rules implemented by the federal government, if your surplus income each month is greater than $200 (meaning you are paying the bankruptcy trustee more than $100 per month in surplus income payments), your bankruptcy is automatically extended.
A first bankruptcy is automatically extended for 12 months, and you are required to continue paying your surplus income payment for an additional 12 months. A second bankruptcy with surplus income is extended to a total of 36 months.
There are alternatives to bankruptcy that can help you avoid high surplus income payments. Talk to one of our bankruptcy trustees about how a consumer proposal can lower your monthly payments.

subset: commoncrawl


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IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — Voters in Iraq's Kurdish north cast ballots Saturday in local parliamentary elections, with smaller parties hoping to challenge the self-rule region's longtime political establishment.
The election for the Kurdistan Regional Government's 111-seat legislature comes as Iraq's Kurds look to bolster their autonomy while insulating their increasingly prosperous enclave from the growing violence roiling the rest of Iraq and neighboring Syria.
Security was tight for the vote. Approaches to the regional capital Irbil and other major cities were closed, and voters were searched before being allowed into polling centers.
The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and the Kurdistan Democratic Party of regional President Massoud Barzani are looking to maintain their dominance in the face of challenges by smaller parties, including opposition group known as Gorran, or Change, that had a surprisingly strong showing in the last vote in 2009.
The KDP and PUK defend their record in keeping the region safer and more economically successful than much of the rest of Iraq, but the opposition's charges that they tolerate graft and nepotism strike a chord with some voters.
"We are fed up with the same old politicians who have done little to serve the people. We hope that this election will bring new faces capable of combating corruption," said Lana Ali, a teacher in the region's capital Irbil who said she voted for Gorran. "The new lawmakers should bring change. Otherwise we promise to change them four years from now."
After polls closed, electoral official Muqdad al-Shuraifi told reporters that nearly 74 percent of eligible voters cast ballots, a figure he said was above expectations. Preliminary results are expected in the coming days.
The two dominant parties previously competed on a joint list but are running independently this time around.
The PUK faces a particularly tough challenge in its stronghold of Sulaimaniyah. Party leader Talabani suffered a stroke in December and is recovering in a German hospital. Few details have been released about the severity of his illness.
A senior PUK official, Saadi Peira, expressed optimism about his party's prospects despite lingering questions over Talabani's health, saying "we have a good level of popularity among the Kurdish people."
Whatever the results, the Kurds are likely to continue to push for greater autonomy. The KRG has sparred with Baghdad for years over rights to disputed territories and the management of lucrative oil and gas reserves.
Their region has become a haven for tens of thousands of Kurdish refugees fleeing Syria's civil war, strengthening the regional government's role as a champion for Kurds beyond its borders.
"The (regional government) is increasingly becoming a player in regional politics ... So the matter here is not only local elections, but also oil and politics," said Iraqi political analyst Khadum al-Muqdadi.
A no-fly zone established by the U.S. and Britain in 1991 helped the Kurds carve out an enclave that today is more secure than the rest of Iraq and has been a magnet for foreign investors. The three-province territory was formally recognized as an autonomous region within Iraq following the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
Unlike in the last election in 2009, voters will not have a chance to cast ballots for the regional president. Lawmakers in June voted to delay presidential elections for two years, allowing Barzani to remain in office over the objections of some in the opposition.
Schreck reported from Baghdad. Associated Press writer Sameer N. Yacoub in Baghdad contributed reporting.
Follow Adam Schreck on Twitter at www.twitter.com/adamschreck


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Cleanse your hair whilst sealing in colour and shine with the label.m Colour Stay Shampoo. Formulated with heliogenol, a colour stabiliser that expertly combats fading, this shampoo shields visionary colour with an expert blend of wheat, soy proteins, hydrolysed silk and sunflower extracts as well as containing label.m's innovative Environshield Complex, meaning it also protects against heat protection. - E.D
- label.m Colour Stay Shampoo
- Combats fading
- Formulated with Environshield Complex to protect against heat damage
- Shields colour and restores shine
Directions of use:
- Wet hair
- Apply a blob of the shampoo onto hands and lather into hair
- Rinse thoroughly


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Overall Rank:
Avg. Rating:
# of Ratings:
Theater Date:
Ethan HawkeJulie DelpyVernon DobtcheffLouise Lemoine TorresRodolphe PaulyMariane Plasteig
Plot Outline:
9 years have passed since Jesse and Celine first met ("Before Sunrise") as they meet each other again in France to discuss their past and what could have been.
Characters left. Want more? See how.
Snoogans 07/15/2013 (0 of 0 found this helpful)
Rating of 3.5/4
An organic continuation of 'Before Sunrise'. We meet up with these characters years later, as they pick up right where they previously left off. It's everything that the first film was in terms of the writing, directing, and acting. I'd give 'Before Sunset' all of the same praises. I didn't quite enjoy the ending as much this time. Yet, it does carry more curiosity with it and makes me want to see the next in the series, 'Before Midnight', all the more.
worleyjamers 06/29/2013 (0 of 0 found this helpful)
Even better than the amazing first film! Jesse and Celine reunite after 9 years and their relationship is just as affecting as ever. Before Sunset benefits (again) from a brilliant screenplay and a special/indescribable chemistry between Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. This film cannot be missed.
frenchfreyteetor 05/30/2011 (0 of 0 found this helpful)
Rating of 2/4
As disappointing as the first one. Maybe a bit more boring.
mitchellyoung 10/05/2010 (0 of 0 found this helpful)
Rating of 4/4
Works as well, if not better, as the original. The characters are older, a bit more world-wise, and this shows in the dialogue and the way they behave towards each other. A ponderous, realistic film.
10/02/2013 (0 of 0 found this helpful)
What was and could have been.
This film tops the two others in the remarkable 'Before' trilogy.
That may seem as a blunt statement to make right away, but Before Sunset had what Sunrise and Midnight didn't have: Remorse.
This is an almost heart-breaking film in my eyes.
Although it has no consistent tone, motif, definite example or evidence to support the claim, I perceived it as very dark from the start.
The dialogue was fresh and interesting in Sunrise as well, but this one offers so much more that doesn't meet the eye.
Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy are excellent once again in the roles they were, I'm positive, born to play.
I would take their charisma and lengthy smalltalk over explosions and CGI every day of the week. I don't think there is a single line of dialogue out of place in the entire movie, and th...
Rating of4/4
10/20/2011 (0 of 0 found this helpful)
Before Sunset review
A rare sequel that surpasses the brilliance of its predecessor. This was just perfection, authentic and well-paced. Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) meets again after their encounter 9 years ago in Vienna. Jesse promotes his bestselling novel This Time in a books store in Paris where Celine was waiting for him to finish promoting. They stroll and converse to catch up with lost time and revealing how their lives have evolved. Authentic and proficiently executed camera work makes you feel a part of their conversations. The soundtrack was pertinent depending on the mood of the scene and Delpy and Hawke manages to convince that the flame was never lost. I thoroughly enjoyed this better than Before Sunrise not only because of the characters maturity, added humor, and scenic ...
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Website design
Of course you can make your own website, but how good will it be?
Good design is obvious
Take a look at any of the sites in the GiteWise portfolio and you'll notice several things right away.
- Clean, stylish, modern design
- Balanced page layouts
- Clear, easy navigation
- Easy access to key info
This doesn't happen by chance. These are core GiteWise principles, born of careful deliberation, experience and knowhow. Combined of course with creative flair and an eye for design.
High quality images
You'll also see images that make an instant impression. Images that are bright, colourful, well-composed and straight. Few of them look that good when I receive them. I routinely crop, straighten and resize photographs. Then I digitally enhance them, tweaking contrast, brightness and colour saturation. Want to see the difference it makes?
Fast-loading pages
Another thing you'll notice is how fast each site loads. Not just the home page. Click through the menu and you won't be kept waiting. That's essential nowadays. For several reasons. How's it done? Well, if you'll excuse the tech speak:
- Super fast cloud hosting
- A leading-edge caching plugin
- Optimised cross-platform delivery through Cloudflare
- Accelerated web server performance via a content distribution network (CDN).
Lost you at super fast? Don't worry, that's all you really need to know.
Designed for all screen sizes
What are you reading this page on right now? Tablet? Smartphone? Laptop? Desktop? Whichever it is, try switching to a different device. And see if I hold true to my promise to design websites that look great and work well on all screen sizes. (If I don't, do let me know!) Mobile internet viewing overtook desktop for the first time in mid-2015. So it's even more important your website is designed and built with this in mind. On what web designers call a responsive design platform.
Just as important are all the things you can't see
Of course looking good is only half the story. A well-designed website calls for equal attention to detail in the back end too. Which is why GiteWise builds your website on a rock-solid foundation of reliability, security, functionality and ease of use. More about this on the Build page.


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Type: Farmhouse accommodation
Geographical Location: Mountain
Accommodations: n°2 Apartment . Total Guests 12
Apartment "The Rose" (4+2)
Located on the first floor the apartment consists of:
2 bedrooms for a total of four people plus two extra beds for kids
1 kitchen with four burners, fridge, oven, fireplace and TV
1 bathroom with shower and washing machine
1 barbecue
1 iron with ironing board
Common swimming pool for both apartments
Independent stone-paved entrance
The apartment is not suitable for disabled guests
Appartamento "The Mimosa" (4+2)
Located on the ground floor the apartment consists of:
2 bedrooms for a total of four people plus two extra beds for kids
1 kitchen with four burners, fridge, oven and TV
1 bathroom with shower and washing machine
1 barbecue
1 iron with ironing board
Common swimming pool for both apartments
Independent stone-paved entrance
The apartment is not suitable for disabled guests
Cortona, the main town of the municipality is perched up on a hill at a towering height of 600 metres a.s.l. and offers a stunning view of the Valdichiana valley stretching at its feet, the mountains surrounding it and lake Trasimeno. The eye of the tourist coming to Cortona will be immediately caught by the commending
Etruscan City walls dating back to the late 5th century b.C. and surrounding the town in a rectangular shape for almost 2 miles.
Cortona attracts each year with its peculiar charm thousands of tourists wishing to visit the legacy of the ancient inhabitants of the town. Several tourists just fall in love with the town and choose it as their second home as have done a number of international V.I.Ps that especially in the summertime you won't have a hard time running into in the town's alleys and streets.
Cortona offers plenty of attractions: Etruscans, in particular, who made the town rich and important for centuries, have left behind significant historical evidence preserved in the local Museo dell'Accademia Etrusca (opening September 5 2005). There you'll have a chance to see the famous "Etruscan Lamp" dating back to the 5th century b.C. or more recent findings such as the so called "Tabula Cortonensis" dating back to the 3rd century b.C. and identified as one of the most significant Etruscan written documents ever found in the ancient world.
You will be able to visit endless churches and palaces decorated with impressive frescoes and, of course, the wealth of antique shops, souvenir shops and small art galleries that dot the streets of this charming town. Worth visiting also all Etruscan tombs such as the Melone of Camucia, the Melone I and II of Sodo, the Tanella Angori the Grotta di Pitagora besids, of course the Museo Diocesano housing masterpieces by Luca Signorelli, Beato Angelico and Pietro Berrettini of Cortona.
In the summer several events take place in town amongst which the historical re-enactment of the Archidado (a crossbow shooting contest between the different quarters of the town taking place yearly in the first week of May) and the popular Steak Festival, unfolding in the local park on the evenings of August 14 and 15.
Do not forget that Cortona is located on right on the border between Tuscany and Umbria and that the farmhouse La Coccinella, thanks to its ideal location at the centre of the road network connecting the two regions will allow guests to reach all major art cities in less than one hour.
For further information and suggestions about what to visit do not hesitate to contact us.
AREZZO (50 Kilometers far from our farmhouse)
PERUGIA (58 Km.)
SIENA (60 Km.)
FLORENCE (130 Km.)
ASSISI (55 Km.)
GUBBIO (52 Km.)
San Pietro a Dame n. 78
52044 Arezzo


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JustGiving calls in Third City to help expand business
Online donation giant JustGiving has appointed Third City as its retained UK agency following a three-way competitive pitch.
Reporting to head of PR Ros Holley, Third City's campaign will centre on thought leadership, with the agency co-developing a data 'hub' and co-ordinating social media platform strategy as well as conventional media relations.
The account team will be headed up by co-founder Mark Lowe, with data and analytics led by senior consultant Chris Blackwood.
Lowe said: 'They're the market leader and they're looking to take things to the next level. They've been developing and investing in new technology and they're working a lot more with corporate partners too. It's moving on, expanding beyond being sponsorship pages and aiming to be the Amazon or Facebook of giving.'
JustGiving was founded in 2000 and has grown into the UK's most popular online fundraising business, raising more than £1bn for more than 12,000 charities.
Commenting on the appointment, JustGiving head of marketing Romain Bertand said: 'JustGiving is now more than ten years old and we now have a huge range of tools and services to offer charities, businesses and consumers. As we look to grow the size and scope of the business, we've chosen to work with an agency with a strong data proposition.'
Bertand added: 'We're looking to share our insights with a much wider audience and grow the world of giving even further.'


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Master Shots #1
In traditional film terms, "master shot" refers to the widest angle of a scene, typically cut and left behind in once it's provided a perfunctory overview of the scene's geography. An "opening shot" is of course the first image of a film, and when used by filmmakers so inclined, can serve as a spiritual or symbolic (and for some daring folks, even literal) master shot for the entire film it is introducing. It could be ingenious, inept, or just functional; in every case, the construction of the shot tells you something about the experience of the rest of the film. Should you trust this film? The opening shot, like any first impression, hints at the answer.
It's truly exhilarating to experience an opening shot that seems to resonate deep down, generating excitement simply because it exists, and because it exists exactly the way it is, and then have that tingle of intuition confirmed by the rest of the film matching that one frame in skill, precision, and intention. It's all of a whole, of course, and the opening shot is really but one element working in concert with many others, but we don't think like that when we're in the middle of seeing it. The gift of time allows us to discover the film, peel the layers, and tremble, wondering if our trust in such a strong first impression will be validated. The films that launch on such a single, compelling image, and sustain the trust earned by it are the films I consider masterful. The experience of learning that they are "true" in a sense, true to that tingle, makes me think of them like friends.
And so, as the title suggests, here are three master shots in spirit and in truth:
In order: Three Colours: Blue (Kieslowski, 1993); Birth (Glazer, 2004); Certified Copy (Kiarostami, 2011)
Related: Jim Emerson's Opening Shots Project


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Meet the Beano's oldest fan - aged 91 and a half
The Beano celebrates its 75th anniversary this month - and Jim Andison has been a fan since day one.
The 91-and-a-half year old is the oldest member of the Beano Fan Club, and certainly considers himself to be one of the comic's most dedicated supporters. He regularly calls the offices of DC Thomson in Dundee to suggest ideas - and was rewarded with a personalised card from the team on his 91st birthday.
But superfan Jim had never made the pilgrimage to the Beano's offices - until now.
The BBC invited him to Dundee to take a look around and meet his heroes, accompanied by his long-suffering wife, May. The Beano team were so pleased to meet him that they decided to include him in a future issue of the comic as a new character.
Video journalist: Dan Curtis
Real Time is a series for the BBC News website in which ordinary people tell their own extraordinary stories.
24 Jul 2013


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Quote calliope: Read somewhere that Tom Pelphrey is to be on The Good Wife. Does anyone know when?
Quote PelphreyPosse: Well, a week and a half and I get to go to NYC and see Tom and find out what else he's been up to. I will also see him in May at Marco and again in July in NYC at his play before I go on the final GL cruise. I know he is busy with his upcoming play, he is doing a play reading in Marco as a fund raiser. Will post when I get back on what I find out. Hoping to see Murray Bartlett and Jennifer Roszell while I am up there, as well. (Cyrus and Eleni)
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September 8, 2011 Fun with the Church Pictorial Directory
– Photos taken, by me, during Rebekah's official "staff-photo" shoot yesterday.
Ah, it's "Picture Directory" time again. People have been in and out of the church all day every day this week, sticking their heads in the preacher's office, chatting up and down the halls, pretty-much grinding day-to-day operations to a halt. But it's all good, because when else can Rebekah fit in dozens of quality pastoral visits per day for an entire week?
So 3:00 was our turn in front of the camera. A few people asked us why Andrew and Naomi weren't going to be in the picture with us! Seriously? They haven't lived here in years! Then a few others said they don't like doing these directories because their mug-shots always look so different from the time before….
Personally, I think we all look just fine. This will be the third go-round at this church and the first since the kids left home. But I'm OK with the passage of time. We are who we are, and there are plenty of younger families in the church now who have joined since the last directory was produced.
So I stole a few "behind the scenes" photographs while Rebekah was having her staff head-shot taken. Then I pulled out some pics from when we first moved here (see left). In my humble opinion, The Preacher continues to look better every year.
And, if aging a decade and a half at First Presbyterian of Brandon adds up to:
- Increasing in beauty…
- 15 years of additional wisdom…
- Finely tuned preaching skills…
- Developing a cutting-edge staff…
- Plus all this experience as senior pastor at a vibrant faith community…
…Then I'd have to say, "Bring on the next decade, because the best is yet to come!"
I'm looking forward to it – and to the next church picture directory – DEREK
Tags: age, beauty, pastor, photo, pictorial directory, Preacher, time, wisdom
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NXT Championship
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|NXT Championship
|Date established
|July 1, 2012
|Current champion(s)
|Tommaso Ciampa
|Date won
|August 19, 2017
The NXT Championship is a professional wrestling championship in the WWE. The title is a NXT-only championship.
History[change | change source]
The title was introduced by NXT Commissioner Dusty Rhodes. Rhodes said that there would be a "Gold Rush" tournament that would feature 4 developmental roster NXT Superstars and 4 main roster WWE Superstars and that they would compete to be crowned as the inaugural NXT Champion. Seth Rollins became the first champion after he defeated Jinder Mahal in the final round.[1]
Title history[change | change source]
Bo Dallas was the youngest champion, winning the title 2 days before his 23rd birthday. Samoa Joe was the oldest champion at 37 years old.
|The reign number for the wrestler listed
|The city in which the title was won
|The event in which the title was won
|Indicates the current reign is changing daily
References[change | change source]
- ↑ "NXT spoiler - first champion crowned". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 2013-11-18.
- ↑ "Seth Rollins' first reign". NXT Wrestling. Retrieved 2012-07-26.
- ↑ "NXT spoilers: New champion, The Shield involved, Nash's role, Hall of Famer at next TV taping". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 7 June 2013.
- ↑ Santiago, Andres. "5/23 NXT spoilers from Full Sail University". PWInsider. Retrieved 24 May 2013.
- ↑ "JAMES' WWE NXT "ARRIVAL" REPORT 2/27 - Week 87: Live Network show coverage, plus Overall Reax". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved February 27, 2014.
- ↑ Caldwell, James (December 11, 2014). "Caldwell's WWE NXT Takeover Results 12/11". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved December 11, 2014.
- ↑ James, Justin (February 11, 2015). "James' WWE NXT TakeOver Report 2/11". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved February 13, 2015.
- ↑ Caldwell, James (July 4, 2015). "Caldwell's WWE Network special report 7/4: Complete "virtual-time" coverage of "Beast in the East" - Lesnar's in-ring return, Owens vs. Balor for NXT Title, more". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved July 4, 2015.
- ↑ Caldwell, James (April 21, 2016). "Breaking News – Samoa Joe wins NXT Title Thursday night (w/Pics)". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved April 21, 2016.
- ↑ "Samoa Joe captures NXT Championship at Live Event in Lowell, Mass". WWE. Retrieved April 22, 2016.


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In His Grip
AlwaysRosie "We can't control the waves, but we can learn how to surf!!"
Psalms 139
Co-Moderator - Lupus Forum
UCTD, Hashimotos, Inflammatory Bowel, Inflammatory Arthritis
Clickable Links: Lupus Resources Lupous.Org Lupus Criteria (4 of 11) Lupus Chapter Locator
Hi Koukla.
Your signature doesnt list any of the medications you are taking. I know when I was having such awful pain after the pnacreatitis, they gave me sleeping meds to try like Ambien and Lunesta. Talk about an AWFUL taste in the mornings! When I stopped taking those, the taste went away. It could be a new med. Read your pharmacy inserts to see if that is listed as a side effect.


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Compatible with the newer iOS, offering so much on the platter – Museum Tours – it's officially out!
With this version, Museum Tours officially targets homeschooling audiences and teachers alike. With as many as six most important Museum collections, including Science & Anthropology ones, it is set to become the first app you want to browse each morning to get your daily dose of World Museums. Simply because these collections don't come as subscriptions, they come as just one time purchases!
For those curious arts scouts, this is the only app that offers most number of Museums across the world. Yes, Museum Tours has an unlimited collection that offers 2000+ Museums – as many as Wikipedia can offer.
And, let's not forget, it is available in French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish language too!
Along with Flickr, I am planning to bring more relevant set of artifacts during forthcoming updates. There is just so much possible with newer set of iOS 8 APIs, one needs to prioritize what to offer and what to wait for!


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Outside Lands 2013: Paul McCartney, Nine Inch Nails, D'Angelo, Willie Nelson, Hall & Oates, More
The lineup for Outside Lands 2013 has been announced, and it includes Paul McCartney, Nine Inch Nails, D'Angelo, Willie Nelson, Phoenix, Vampire Weekend, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the National, Kaskade, Grizzly Bear, Jessie Ware and many, many more. (Like the Red Hot Chili Peppers.)
Did I mention, also: Daryl Hall and John Oates?
Full lineup is below.
Three-day passes are currently $235, and will go on sale this Thursday, April 18, at noon. Grab them here before they go up to $250.
What's On Your Mind?
I am imagining most people enjoying the new Vampire Weekend with a copy of the dictionary nearby. I am imagining teenagers Googling "Richard Serra Skatepark" to find out where it is, only to discover an incredible artist they'd never heard of. I am remembering myself making horchata from a packaged mix bought from Grocery Outlet earlier tonight, and deciding to stick with the real. I am imagining offering the rest of my horchata bag to Leilani, who makes me laugh.
I am imagining kids watching Jay-Z's new video and thinking that he invented goth. I am imagining kids watching Lil' Wayne's new video, or Lady Gaga videos, and thinking the same thing. I am upset at Ke$ha for jacking L'Trimm's tip. I am scrolling down the list of songs that Nicki Minaj has guested on, and thinking "nasty," and then seeing a picture and thinking it tenfold. I am wondering if the sample to "Bed Rock" is from anywhere or if it merely sounds familiar and perfect.
I am looking forward to new electronic releases by old dogs like Blockhead and Four Tet, new dog like Flying Lotus who I wrote off until hearing the "GNG BNG" remix with Blu, which is how I want hip-hop to sound in 2010. I am noticing a rampant use of the dancehall triplets since Arular. I am wondering if RJD2 can come back correct like he deserves. I am reminding myself of seeing him live, numerous years ago, and him not exactly blending records on beat.
I am pondering the fate of Amoeba's Berkeley store since hearing rumors of its possible closure. I am saddened upon visiting, last Friday, and being one of about four customers in the entire place. I am speculating that it makes the least amount of money despite being the O.G., and further that they own SF and LA but still rent Telegraph. I am confident that owning a record store next to a college is not what it used to be.
I am conflicted about the reappearance of AFI at the Phoenix this weekend, despite having long ago championed their cause. I am seeing in my mind the setlist from their show on Dec. 29, 1993, at the Phoenix, their "last show," and remembering how we unabashedly elevated them such that they could not break up like they wanted to. I am thinking of comments in Gimme Something Better that seemed to disparage the scene from which they sprung, and thinking about stepping stones. I am missing Dave and Adam, and still awaiting the new issue of Society Suckers.
I am spinning over the elegance of Nonesuch's deluxe vinyl pressing of Joshua Redman's Moodswings, and over the fascinatingly remedial packaging of William S. Fischer's Akelarre Sorta. I am excited at finding an LP by the German saxophonist Günther Klatt, and tickled that its notes read "Location: Tonstudio Bauer, Ludwigsburg. Date: July '84. Producer: Günther Klatt. Reason: Don't know." I am listening to Shafiq Husayn's En'a-Free-Ka for the fifth time in three days.
I am hoping that raising a child gets easier like they say, and wishing that Liz and I had time to be together. I am closing my eyes and concentrating on the rain falling on the stovepipe. I am thinking of my walk downtown with Lena in the buggy tonight, at 10pm, and the sound of the wheels crackling the fallen twigs echoing off the Federal Building, and I am glad because my special order for Bjork's Volta comes in tomorrow.
Live Review: Treasure Island Music Festival 2008 – Day Two
Backstage on Sunday, in the late afternoon, Jack White shows up and waltzes through the cluster of bands, fans, and hangers-on. It feels a little bit like the royal family making a grand entrance, and for all the "it" bands chilling back here—Vampire Weekend, Fleet Foxes, Okkervil River—White goes straight to Jason Pierce, from Spiritualized. They spend a good 10 minutes or so together, and everyone watching is wondering what in the world they're talking about before White disappears with the rest of his band mates to the backstage tent.
Okkervil River saunters out with confidence and poise, and then immediately realizes that they're not in tune. Whoops. A few seconds go by, the bass player lifts a total Merle Haggard & the Strangers intro, and with "Singer Songwriter," we're off and running. You heard that song, man? I tell you, it's the most scathing thing since "Idiot Wind."
The Stage Names—not into it at first. Four listens went by. Then it grew on me. I read the lyrics, and it grew on me even more. After seeing them live, I'm a dyed in the wool fan. Singer Will Sheff is a natural with the crowd, mentioning after a break on "Pop Lie" to change his guitar strap: "A lot of the sets here at this festival are very professional. We hope you appreciate the difference."
"Lost Coastlines" is the big hit from Okkervil River's new record The Stand Ins, and when bassist Patrick Pestorius comes in with his baritone lines, there's an audible "Whoo!" from the crowd. Sheff ambles over and tickles Pestorius' beard while he's singing, then pulls the microphone from its stand and serenades the crowd up close.
"Our Life is not a Movie or Maybe" gives way to "Unless it's Kicks"—just like on the album, bro!—and shit gets heavy. Sheff is really working the crowd: "It's a beautiful day, we're on an island, there's water on all sides, there's birds flying through the trees, and I want you to put your hands together! All the way back to the Ferris Wheel!" He ends the set by knocking the mic stand into the photo pit and leading the band in a pummeling outro. I'd say they left their mark.
There used to be this band called Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Then there was this other band called My Morning Jacket. Now there is a band called Fleet Foxes.
Warming up with Dylan's "Sara," Robin Pecknold jokingly chides mother nature for its interference. "I'm hearing a low rumble," he says. "Is that the wind? Can you turn the wind down?"
"Sun Giant" starts the set, a long acapella about living life in the summer and spring and the sun and the seeds and the clouds. The four-part harmonies are perfect, just absolutely dead-on. "White Winter Hymnal" conjures snow, strawberries, the summertime. The wind keeps blowing from the bay and rumbling into the microphones. It can't be turned down.
"The Dodos are playing today!" says Pecknold, enthusiastically. "I think they're… uh, I could really blackmail them. But I won't."
Okonokos is the third greatest live album ever recorded.
The last time I saw Spiritualized, in 1997, right after Ladies and Gentlemen We are Floating in Space came out, the band was buried in fog and lights. I didn't understand the concept of noise as bliss, nor did I see any reason to intentionally obscure what would otherwise be a great song in mountains of effects, layers of wrong notes and a shit-ton of feedback. I distinctly remember thinking that they weren't very good.
I usually vehemently argue that musical impressions are a matter of opinion, and I always give other people a lot of leeway for personal taste. But I think in this case, it comes down to actual facts. In 1997, I was dead wrong.
There haven't been too many chances to see Spiritualized since, and after Jason Pierce's near-death experience from bilateral pneumonia three years ago, I'm surprised that I get to see them at all. But lo, here they are, on stage and starting their set with "Amazing Grace," which evolves, naturally, into a shower of feedback and noise.
You know how sometimes songs can give you a brief endorphin rush of absolute happiness? There's moments in certain songs—bridges of Operation Ivy songs, choruses of People Under The Stairs songs, solos from Charles Mingus songs—that I can always count on to do that to me for a few seconds. But when Spiritualized plays "Ladies and Gentlemen We are Floating in Space," that feeling lasts constantly, throughout the entire song, for a whole four minutes.
Afterwards, backstage, I actually run into Pierce. There's a million things I'd love to ask him, but I keep it short. "It's a nice little festival here," he tells me. "I could watch San Francisco across the water from the stage. I only wish we could have played longer." I second that emotion, but while it lasted, it was heaven. Here's the set list:
Amazing Grace
You Lie You Cheat
Shine a Light
Soul on Fire
Walking With Jesus
Ladies and Gentlemen We are Floating in Space
Death Take Your Fiddle
Lay Back in the Sun
Come Together
The Dodos are great and I missed them. Luckily, for your viewing pleasure, Liz didn't. Here's what they look like. Go, Dodos!
Sarah Palin, compulsive liar, on ABC with Charlie Gibson: "Let me speak specifically about a credential that I do bring to this table, Charlie, and that's with the energy independence that I've been working on for these years as the governor of this state that produces nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy."
Vampire Weekend, "Oxford Comma": "Why would you lie about how much coal you have / Why would you lie about something dumb like that?"
The last time I saw Vampire Weekend—the very same week their record came out, to overwhelming praise—they were utterly fantastic. They were also sort of timid, and bewildered at the sudden attention thrust in their direction, and yet it didn't seem at all like more attention would be a problem for them. I knew even then that I was watching a great young band on the cusp of stardom.
More attention arrived. And arrived. And arrived. Hype usually puts me off, but in the case of Vampire Weekend it's well-deserved. Their album is going down in history as one of the best debuts ever, and though I don't listen to it three times a day like I did in that first week, it keeps delivering with each intermittent listen.
On stage, Vampire Weekend are naturals, veritable veterans. The songs aren't as stiff as they were back in January, and amazingly the band doesn't seem bored of playing them. Poor guys have been on tour so constantly that they only play one new song, but it's a good new song, at least.
How crazy are people about Vampire Weekend? This crazy. Crazy enough, too, to shout the loudest and most high-pitched screams at them of the whole weekend. Ezra Koenig thanks the crowd profusely, and mentions that the festival has "a very 1963 Dharma Bums kind of feel." Boy, I hope their next album is good.
The former bass player for Tegan and Sara tells me that while he was in the band, he was instructed by their manager to play the exact same simple bass lines from the album every night. "We don't want the girls to get confused," he was told. "Also, don't move around on stage. At all. Stay in one place. You can't upstage Tegan or Sara."
So he soldiered on for a while, staying in exactly the same place, playing the exact same precise simple boring bass lines until one day he realized, holy hell, what in the world am I doing with my life?
He quit a few months into a two-year tour. They dropped him off on the freeway. In solidarity, I want to hate Tegan and Sara, but their first few songs on Sunday night actually sound pretty great.
It doesn't last. They start talking about The Lost Boys, and how I've probably never seen it, and about premature ejaculation, and The Lost Boys, and that part at the carnival with the saxophone player, and about playing in San Diego, and The Lost Boys, and how I probably don't know what they're talking about, and oh sweet Christ it just goes on and on. Blah, blah, blah.
Coincidentally, the songs go downhill. They play "Walking With a Ghost," but Jack White doesn't come out and sing like everyone hopes he will. They end their set with their current, uh, "hit," "Back in Your Head."
At one point, I notice the replacement bass player break the rules by sneaking a few steps forward during a song, then taking a few steps back. Busted!
I met Alison and Jamie in 2001, when they were first playing together, in a small flat in Brixton. We hung out every night downstairs with Sean and Ben, probably the funniest two guys in all of London. One day Alison and I spent hours together around London, going to museums, dinner and a movie. She was rad, but after staying in London for a week, I still didn't know anything about the music she and Jamie were working on. Nobody did.
Seven years and three albums later, The Kills are a household name in England and a force to be reckoned with live. They take the festival hostage to a thundering, thick-as-hell version of "U.R.A Fever," and damn, it's like a guitar-driven cobra slithering through the tall grass of your mind, of your legs, of your guts. I can't explain what they're like on stage. Explosive? Unpredictable? Maybe they don't even give a shit? Maybe who cares?
I'd heard the Kills records, but records don't do the Kills justice at all. Go see them live. If possible, go see them after a few too many drinks. Hey Jamie, you get your passport back you lost the night before?
Until Robert Plant relents and Led Zeppelin finally embarks on a full-fledged reunion tour, The Raconteurs are the closest anyone's going to come to seeing dirty, gnarly, lemon-down-your-leg rock 'n roll in the world today.
In 2005, I covered a White Stripes show, stating that Jack White needed to find a band. "He's an enigmatic character, a possessed performer and a great songwriter with an emotive voice, but even he himself has admitted that the White Stripes could run out of steam someday," I said. "That day may be soon."
I've always thought that the White Stripes peddled too much in the hipster ideal of potential greatness. By limiting himself to playing only with a drummer, and one of below-average ability, Jack White constantly held himself hostage to possibility and possibility alone. And yes, there's a beauty in what could've been, but there's a greater triumph in what actually is.
In the Raconteurs' set on Sunday night, during "Blue Veins," that triumph arrives. White hovers over the organ delivering a tortured, wailing plea, and the band is right on. It's a haunting, captivating, and truly special moment, and instead of being White Strip-ily quaint, it's almost scary in its depth.
We take the shuttle back to the city. It's been a good weekend.
(Photos by Elizabeth Seward)
Dear Mark
Stop worrying about the Vampire Weekend record and just give in. That's the great thing about records—you can love them hella hard for a week or two and then abandon them entirely with no guilt. I was lucky enough to hear it before the hype kicked in, so my view was pure and untainted, which is an enormous asset. I loved it immediately and unabashedly; it's so catchy and precocious and instantly attractive. And yet, I'll freely admit that after just a month I hardly listen to the thing anymore. It lasted for a couple weeks at best, a red hot love affair that died in the best possible way—with no strings attached. Come to think of it, if you've been hearing about them in as many places as they've been talked about, it might be too late for you at this point. Now it's like Vampire Weekend is the town floozy that's seduced and slept with everyone else already. There's no mystery involved, they've got some conspicuous stains on their clothes, and their perky cuteness comes off as a pitiful faux-twee attempt to convert yet another into their bedpost victories.
Sometimes I really hate the new media and its hyper-advanced condition of propping up and knocking down, don't you?
That said, "A-Punk" and "M79″ were the wrong songs to play on Saturday Night Live. For all of their varied influences, "A-Punk" always sounds like Operation Ivy's "Artificial Life" to me, and as for "M79″—it's pretty impressive that they found players to manage the hyperfast bridge, but the whole thing just screams out "Look, we've got a string quartet playing with us!"
It's cool on the record, but it's convoluted and awkward in person:
Vampire Weekend Live at Amoeba
I walked into Amoeba a full hour before Vampire Weekend's scheduled set on Friday night, only to see the first two aisles in front of the stage already filled with diehards waiting for their chance to watch, up close and personal, one of the suavest new bands of 2008.
The indie rock cognoscenti have been burbling about Vampire Weekend for months now, with descriptors like "Ivy-League Death Pop Woven With African Filament"—I mean, how can you resist?—and yet for Friday night's hugely high-school-aged audience (ponytails, braces, and zits in abundance), it was all about the here and now. The band's debut album, Vampire Weekend, just released, the 18+ show the night before at Popscene an unattainable dream, and twittering throng waiting anxiously between Amoeba's Gospel and Rockabilly sections.
The rest of the store filled fast, with unknowing customers humorously caught off-guard by the commotion, and then, the big moment: in casual Harvard fashion, the band ambled out onto the stage and started their set with the first song from their album, a catchy two-minute blast called "Mansard Roof," nailing all the high vocals, syncopated rhythms, and jaunty melodies.
After the second song, "Campus," singer / guitarist Ezra Koenig acknowledged San Francisco—"It's one of our very favorite cities, and we don't just say that everywhere," he commented, adding wryly, "Sometimes it's very obvious that it's not our favorite city."
Vampire Weekend's songs are what people call deceptively simple—both "Mansard Roof" and "Campus," for example, rely on just a basic major scale for a riff—but the band kneads enough bizarre influences into the dough that listening to them is like deciphering a Rosetta Stone of music, from Sting to Sister Carol to Schubert to a healthy dose of Paul Simon's Graceland. Live, the band rocks harder sans the string quartet on record, and, dispensing with collegiate reticence, Koenig passionately emphasized lines like "do you want to fuck?" from the South African-flavored "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa." In the aisles, the kids ate it up.
After "I Stand Corrected," "A-Punk," and "Oxford Comma," it was all over, truncating their already-short album (it's a refreshing 34 minutes long) into just a six-song set. For a tiny short while, the innocence of pop music and the excitement of a great new band with oodles of potential lay bare in front of a crowd of fervent admirers, and on a cold, drizzling night in San Francisco, well, it's hard to ask for more.


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Volume 3
Number 2
Jan 11, 1998
Editor: Joseph Trainor
On Thursday, January 8, 1998, at about 1:30 a.m., Spanish police raided an apartment house in Barrio de la Salud, in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and arrested 32 members of a local UFO group.
Tenerife is the largest of the seven Islas Canarias (Canary Islands), owned by Spain and located in the Atlantic Ocean just west of Africa.
A few hours earlier, Spanish police arrested the group's founder, Dr. Heide Fittkau-Garthe, 57, a psychologist from Germany who settled on Tenerife back in 1985.
According to Antonio Lopez Ojeda of Spain's Ministry of the Interior, Dr. Fittkau-Garthe was arrested "on charges of attempting to induce suicide and was being held at a Tenerife police station."
"Mr. Lopez Ojeda said the police believed the sect was an offshoot of the Order of the Solar Temple, whose followers have carried out mass suicides in Canada, France and Switzerland. He said the police were still investigating." (See the New York Times for January 9, 1998, "Suicide Sect Leader Held On Canary Islands," page A-8)
The group had two names for themselves, Centro Sagrado de Isis (Sacred Center of Isis) and Orden del Santuario Solar (Order of the Solar Shrine), plus a headquarters in Santa Cruz, the largest city on Tenerife.
Members arrested included 14 men, 13 women and five children between the ages of 12 and 6. The prisoners are being held incommunicado.
"Police spokesman Juan Antonio Perez said" Dr. Fittkau-Garthe "had 'brainwashed' her disciples, and they would need to be 'deprogrammed.'"
"'A chemical substance was found at the house and it seems the group members were going to use it to poison themselves,' Perez said."
"'The minds of the 32 victims have been programmed; they've been brainwashed,' Perez said, 'They have to be deprogrammed before they can cooperate with police.'"
(Editor's Comment: Yes, readers, that's what the man said. Don't take my word for it. Look it up. See the Boston, Mass. Globe for January 10, 1998, "Police Find Poison at Home of Suspected Cult Leader," page A-9.)
At a news conference in Santa Cruz de Tenerife on January 9, police spokesmen said the group was planning a trip to Pico de Teide, an extinct volcano 80 kilometers (50 miles) southeast of Santa Cruz. At the summit, they reportedly planned to "rendezous with the space brothers."
"The group, which may be linked to the infamous Solar Temple cult or a Hindu apocalyptic sect, had planned to kill themselves at the top of Tenerife's Teide volcano, from where they believed their souls would be picked up by a spaceship, officials said." (Boston, Mass. Globe, January 10, 1998)
According to Heliodoro Rodriguez, subdelegate for Santa Cruz de Tenerife, police noticed an influx of German and Belgian citizens in recent weeks, all members of Centro Sagrado de Isis. Dr. Heide Fittkau-Garthe "was considered a kind of prophet."
Rodriguez praised "the collaborative effort by Interpol and the German police" who reportedly spied on "the cult and its activities in Spain."
Rodriguez also declined to discuss whether or not the Ministry of the Interior had planted informers in the group during the past few months.
The official shocked Spanish TV viewers when he mentioned that the Ministry had compiled a list of "200,000 members of dangerous sects" in Spain. (Muchas gracias a Pedro P. Canto para esos informes espanol.)
(Editor's Comment: It looks like Heide Fittkau-Garthe and her followers are getting the John Ford treatment. Has NATO declared war on UFO enthusiasts?)
On Wednesday, December 31, 1997, at 8:52 a.m., Lynn S. was driving in rush-hour traffic in Rockland, Massachusetts (population 15,695), a suburb on Route 139 approximately 25 miles (40 kilometers) southeast of Boston.
As she neared Reed's Pond, on Market Street in Rockland, she spotted "a cigar-shaped craft that hovered for a minute and 45 seconds above the waters of Reed's Pond before it plunged in and exploded. I saw the object come across the sky, pulsating a blue light from the top with two strong flashing lights on each side."
"Traffic slowed, but no one seemed to care enough to get out and see what the object was," she reported. "As I approached the traffic lights, people were pointing back at the pond. But without the (traffic) light working, drivers were beginning to swear, cut people off and no one was paying any attention to the object."
"Upon driving home and finding I had no electricity, I called the electric company but only got a recording. I began calling other residents of the town. They all said they had no electricity after they 'heard the planes go over.'"
At 9:15 a.m., Lynn drove back to Reed's Pond. "To my amazement, a black ball hovered in the sky above it, as big as a silver dollar, but nothing was astir in the pond. I noticed dead ducks and seagulls floating on the surface."
The UFO zipped away seconds later. "For the record, I never heard any planes." (Email Interview)
On Friday, January 2, 1998, at 6 p.m., Jason B. and Brandon C. were walking along the railroad tracks in their hometown of Missouri Valley, Iowa (population 2,888) when they spotted a strange light in the sky.
"While walking down the tracks, we observed an extremely bright light off towards Council Bluffs (i.e. to the south--J.T.). At first we thought it was a falling star," Jason and Brandon reported. "We stopped to watch it for about 20 seconds."
"It was directly above us and circled the grain elevator," Jason said. "Then it sped off very fast, following the railroad tracks towards the east."
Missouri Valley is on Iowa Highway 30 approximately 130 miles (208 kilometers) west of Des Moines. (Many thanks to Tim Hagemeister of NACOMM for this report.)
A UFO was sighted in San Benito, Texas (population 20,125) during the evening of Tuesday, December 23, 1997.
A married couple and their two sons, ages 16 and 12, were traveling southeast on Highway 77. The father, R.C., and his family were enjoying the radio and had just passed the small local airport.
Suddenly, at precisely 6:59 p.m., they saw a light speeding across the sky. The UFO was a small, soundless ball of white light. It was 35 degrees above the horizon and was traveling south in a straight line at jet speed.
The family had it in view for 15 seconds during which time the car radio went dead. The UFO dropped behind a group of trees. When their car cleared the trees, the UFO was gone. (Direct submission from a Texas resident.)
On Saturday, January 3, 1998, at 3 a.m., airline pilot Gary Sanders was standing on the beach in Puerto Vallarta, a seaside resort on the Bahia de Banderas 580 kilometers (348 miles) west of Mexico City.
"I am an airline pilot with over 30 years' flying experience, including 24 years with the USAF and Air National Guard," he reported. "While standing on the beach and looking at the stars with another airline pilot, I observed a reddish-colored light, which I initially thought was a meteorite, move rapidly from east to west."
"As I pointed out the light to my companion, the object suddenly changed direction by about 135 degrees of turn and very sharply. The movement defied any laws of flight and physics that I am aware of. The light made another rapid change of course to a westerly heading, then disappeared out of sight."
"I was so startled that I immediately confirmed with my companion what I had just seen. I have never seen any flying object perform this type of maneuver before." (Many thanks to Henny van der Pluijm and Errol Bruce-Knapp for this report.)
UFO sightings in Australia's Victoria state rang in the southern hemisphere's New Year.
On December 31, 1997, a "bright orange illumination" was seen "traveling from the southeast to the northwest" over Pakenham, Narre Warren and the Dandenong mountain range in Victoria.
Ten minutes past midnight, on January 1, 1998, "a high-altitude illumination," possibly an object in orbit reflecting sunlight, was observed for three minutes over Victoria, heading north.
At 12:17 a.m., witnesses reported seeing "a blue- white illumination 30 degrees to the northeast" over Victoria's state forest, moving across the northern sky.
From 12:20 to 12:25 a.m., witnesses reported seeing "ten meteorites crossing the sky, traveling from the east over central Victoria."
Two days later, on January 3, 1998, residents of Bendigo, Vic., 125 miles (200 kilometers) northwest of Melbourne, at approximately 2:45 p.m., "reported spotting a hamburger-shaped UFO. The object appeared to be silver in colour." After hovering for a few seconds, the UFO "shot straight up into the upper atmosphere until out of sight."
That evening, at 10:30 p.m., people in Newcastle, New South Wales (N.S.W.), a port city 110 miles (176 kilometers) north of Sydney, "reported sighting a huge blue-green illumination passing overhead."
On Sunday, January 4, 1998, at midnight, ten residents of Keybrough, Vic., a suburb of Melbourne, "reported sighting two bright orange fireball illuminations" flying from south to north over Melbourne's eastern suburbs. "The illuminations appeared to travel faster than a small aeroplane and following each other for some time before coming into a vertical arrangement (i.e. one on top of the other), then reduced speed and came to a dead stop. The higher illumination appeared to drop a bright light to the other. Then they both moved off to the north until out of sight." (Many thanks to Ross Dowe of Australia's National 24-Hour UFO Hotline for these reports.)
On Saturday, January 3, 1998, Emil D. was driving on an autobahn (highway) in Germany's Bayerische Alpen (Bavarian Alps) near Traunstein, a small city 110 kilometers (66 miles) east of Munchen (Munich).
Suddenly, he looked in his rear-view mirror and saw "a gigantic flying disc" coming up behind him. The UFO was described as "bright silver with rotating lights along the rim."
The UFO pursued Emil's car for 8 kilometers (5 miles) before rising quickly in altitude and zipping away over the southern horizon.
The huge daylight disc was also seen in Muhldorf, 60 kilometers (36 miles) north of Traunstein, and across the border near Sankt Johan am Tirol, Austria. (See the Sueddeutsche Zeitung for January 7, 1998. Danke schoen a Josef Schedel.)
Strange earth tremors have rocked Scotland's Strathclyde region twice in the past couple of weeks.
In mid-December, a strong tremor shook the multi-million-pound Centre One building in Stewartfield. "More than 30 Inland Revenue (the UK's tax agency--J.T.) workers were evacuated... Desks rocked, computer screens flickered and windows rattled as employees were whisked to a safety zone. The tremor triggered emergency readings at several seismological stations in Scotland."
During the early hours of Monday, December 22, 1997, a second round of tremors struck the East Kilbride area, 30 miles (48 kilometers) southeast of Glasgow.
"Frightened residents in Greenhills, Westwood and Calderglen have reported another round of tremors...A number of people called the (East Kilbride) News to say they had been all shook up by a quake in the early morning hours..."
"'It was like a low overhead thunder directly above the house,' said Aileen Wilson, 39, from Gasgoyne, Westwood. She said that she "feared for her seven- month-old baby daughter when the tremor started just before 7 a.m."
The tremor "'was followed by a series of noises like fireworks going off,' she explained, 'It sounded like a gas explosion coming from the Westwood playing fields. I jumped out of bed and lifted my baby Lynsay. Everything in the room was shaking. It lasted quite a long time.'"
"Thomas Stewart, 39, from Carnoustie Drive, Greenhills, heard deafening whirring noises when his windows shivered violently around 7 s.m."
"'It sounded like a rocket,' said the Ministry of Defence worker. 'I'm puzzled as to what exactly is going on and would like an answer.'"
"Glenn Ford of the British Geological Survey in Edinburgh said, 'This was NOT an earthquake and went on for too long for a sonic boom. It is very strange, but we are getting readings on our instruments, but the actual cause remains a mystery so far." (See the East Kilbride News for December 30, 1997, "Mystery Tremors," page 3. Many thanks to Dean Ladds of Flying Saucer Review for forwarding this news article.)
On Tuesday, December 23, 1997, hundreds of Chinese workers in an industrial area on the outskirts of Canton spotted a UFO in the sky.
The UFO was described as "an oblong oval with an array of windows. The windows had a bright corona of light around them. A periodic ray of light burst from the craft's underside at several intervals."
The UFO alternately hovered and flew slowly over the factories and houses for several minutes, then flew away at an extremely high speed.
Canton, the largest city in Guangdong province, is 1,296 kilometers (810 miles) south of Beijing.
(See the Italian newspaper Il Stampa for December 27, 1997. Grazie a Edoardo Russo di CISU per questo rapporto.)
One of the strangest UFO phenomena on record occurred at the farm of Sara Elizabeth Lampe and her husband near Gardnerville, Nevada, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) south of Carson City, the state capital.
On a cold January morning in 1949, Mrs. Lampe wrote, following a heavy snowfall, she glanced out her parlor window and saw something strange.
"Gradually my eyes focused upon a pale gray stain, irregulaly shaped and no bigger than my two hands. It rested on the smooth crest (of snow)... about three rods from the house and in line with the window. Almost at once this fuzzy gray shadow that was not a shadow bloomed into a disc of clear white light approximately three feet in diameter. It lay there for fully two minutes. Then suddenly contracting into a brilliant, orange-tinted stream five or six inches wide, flowed swiftly over the snow toward my window and, to all appearances, exploded soundlessly against the stone foundation of the intervening front porch."
"Several tongues of scintillating red-and-blue flame spurted a few inches above the two-and-a-half foot high wainscotting of the porch. That was all. When daylight came, we searched conscientiously but found no signs, marks or tracks of any kind that might help to explain this phenomenon."
(See THE CASE FOR THE UFO by Morris K. Jessup, Citadel Press, New York, N.Y., 1955, page 168)
For a detailed roster of recent UFO sightings in France and elsewhere in western Europe, be sure to check out the Banque OVNI website. Franck Marie and his team do an excellent job of listing every UFO sighted over there. Drop in at this URL: http://www.chez.com/banqueovni/index.htm
Celebrate the new year by visiting our parent site, UFOINFO, which is chock-full of photos, art and feature stories. You'll find us at this address: http://www.ufoinfo.com/
To access back issues of UFO ROUNDUP, visit our webpage at http://www.ufoinfo.com/roundup/
Let's all welcome our new readers from Germany, Italy and Peru. Between the Tenerife case and last week's rash of UFO sightings, the year 1998 is off to a wild start. Join us next Sunday for more saucer news from "the paper that goes home--UFO ROUNDUP."
UFO ROUNDUP: Copyright 1998 by Masinaigan Productions, all rights reserved. Readers may post news items from UFO ROUNDUP on their websites or in newsgroups provided that they credit the newsletter and its editor by name and list the date of issue in which the item first appeared.


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As I write this, I'm preparing for MIX'11, a Microsoft web developer show that's recently turned into a web and phone developer show because of Windows Phone. I'm curious to see what the company says about the future of its currently struggling new mobile platform, though there are signs of hope from IDC and Gartner, both of which have predicted huge success for Windows Phone thanks entirely to Nokia's decision to focus on it.
I'm not so sure.
Of the viable smartphone platforms of today, Windows Phone has the longest shot at success, and while some current Nokia customers are sure to make the leap, I suspect many will use this event as an excuse to see what's happening in the iPhone or Android markets. And that will be a good choice: Either of these solutions is, I think, a better bet, at least for the foreseeable future.
At least Windows Phone has truly innovative and differentiating features. Previously, Microsoft wasted years jamming the desktop Windows user interface into small devices, first phones and then Tablet PCs, and more years working on shells that would sit on top of Windows, trying to mask the complexity beneath. None of these efforts ever panned out. So it was with a sense of relief and excitement that when the company finally figured out it needed to start over with its mobile efforts, it somehow managed to birth Windows Phone OS, a platform that isn't just different to be different but was instead designed from the get-go to be truly efficient in a mobile environment. That this kind of pragmatism is now considered innovative is, perhaps, the best condemnation I can make of the mobile industry, which, in the wake of the iPhone, has consisted largely of me-too-ism and small evolutionary leaps, often delivered piecemeal on a device-by-device basis.
(Speaking of innovation, it's interesting to me that this trend is repeating with the iPad as well. I see nothing on the horizon that can rival the depth and quality of the iPad ecosystem let alone most individual features of the hardware itself. Apparently, history serves as no guide to Apple's would-be competitors. More on this below.)
But Windows Phone still trails its rivals by a long shot, not just Android and iPhone, but RIM's Blackberry too. And that's especially true if you're considering a smartphone for work.
As I noted last week, each of these platforms supports most of what I consider to be the most basic Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) policies: EAS-based email, calendar, and contacts support, remote wipe, auto-lock, password policies, and so on. But Windows Phone, alone in this group, does not support encryption, either on the device itself or on storage cards. (Only a few Windows Phone models even support storage card expansion, but let's not go there right now.) If security is a primary concern, then, the choice comes down to just Android, Blackberry, and iPhone.
Blackberry does have, and will continue to have, its fans, and even more so in the most security-minded firms, including governments, which often exclusively offer Blackberries to users. RIM is an interesting story right now: The company is experiencing record growth from a unit sales perspective but many analysts are writing it off (as with Nokia's outgoing Symbian) because of even faster growth with Android and iPhone. This is short-sighted: While I think RIM's market share will shrink over time, it's going to be a player in corporate markets especially for some time to come. The only question is how many mobile platforms the market can sustain? Three? Four?
Android and iPhone are roughly on-par, though the platforms each offer some interesting differentiators. Apple offers the higher quality platform overall and the best and most complete ecosystem, and if you have any love of digital media (music, pictures, TV shows and movies, podcasts, audiobooks, and even a surprisingly rich selection of educational content), the iPhone is a no brainer. It is, for typical consumers, the clear choice. It's the one phone that can do virtually everything, and do it well.
On the other hand, Android is improving from an ecosystem standpoint, offers more choice (in device types, manufacturers, and wireless carriers), and is more likely to offer leading edge features, at least on a device by device basis. It seems like a new Android phone ships each week, always with one key feature (4G, whatever) that the competition (and the iPhone) lacks ... for now. But Android is fragmenting because of this choice, too, and the number of devices with mismatched Android versions and capabilities is multiplying. Developers are starting to revolt.
So I get why people choose Android, but until Google reins in the fragmentation, really fixes its marketplace, and offers some kind of cohesive digital media strategy that even remotely competes with iTunes, I can't really recommend it as strongly as the iPhone, not yet. And it wouldn't be my own choice.
And that sets us up nicely for the next big mobile battle: tablets. Today, the iPad accounts for virtually all tablet sales and many believe that Android-based tablets will take a sizable chunk later this year as well. (And let's not forget RIM's PlayBook, HP's webOS tablets, and, next year, Windows 8 tablets.) I don't see this happening, and for the same reasons that iPhone is such a great choice today, so is iPad, if you simply must get a tablet: The ecosystem is in place and best of breed, and there is simply no way Android or any other platform is going to close that gap anytime soon. And iPad, like iPhone, is based on iOS and thus also shares all of that system's enterprise-class capabilities around EAS support. When it comes to tablets, there's iPad and then there's everything else.
So there you have it: I just recommended iPad. Watch out for the flying pigs.
Related Reading:


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PHOTOS: West Point home mixes scenic views with eco-friendly technology
With distinctive modern architecture and a bright orange front door, the two-story house – perched on the corner of 1st and Lee streets and at the head of the York River – is unlike any other home in West Point.
A geotechnical engineer with Schnabel Engineering, Paul Diggs has been conceptualizing his dream home since he was young. He started by building Lego homes as a child, he said.
Now, Paul Diggs, his wife Mary Diggs and their four children have made the dream a reality.
Sarah Fearing
Copyright © 2018, Tidewater Review


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In all fairness i'm not the biggest drinker. I don't like the feeling of being drunk and for the most part not a big fan of the taste. Saying that when i do choose to have a small drink, i opt for something yummy and that doesn't have an overly 'alcoholy' taste. You must agree Baileys or Irish cream drinks are rather tasty and poured over plenty of ice, is quite the treat. Along with some Baileys i am a fan of Jack Daniels whisky, most people look at me funny when i ask for a JD and coke; but i'm a lover of that indescribable taste. So with a spare bottle of Jack Daniels i decided to put it to good use. If your not the biggest fan of Jack Daniels simply change the spirit, I'm sure there are many different concoctions that taste great.
This is a simple recipe and only requires a few ingredients. Although lovely it is sweet, so if you aren't a fan of overly sweet things alter some of the ingredients. You can always add more if needed. I found i preferred drinking this over a stack of ice, which i suppose diluted it slightly but i drink baileys the same way.
To make you will need the following ingredients:
- 250ml single cream
- 400ml sweetened condencsed milk
- 300ml Jack Daniels
- 1tbsp espresso/coffee
- 2tbsp chocolate syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond extract
First of all made your espresso and leave to cool sort a short while. If you don't have espresso thats not an issue. Simply take a tea spoon or so of your favourite coffee and make enough for a strong table spoon solution. Leave to cool. Once cooled simply pop all the ingredients into a blender, and mix for around 30 seconds. And hey presto, a yummy drinkable treat; just in time for New Years Eve!


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Genetics Australia Co-Operative Ltd
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About Us
Genetics Australia Co-Operative Ltd are specialists in Artificial Livestock Breeding, located in Bacchus Marsh, VIC. With an extensive array of Artificial Livestock Breeding supplies, from artificial to livestock, to laboratory and may also offer laboratories, you can call Genetics Australia Co-Operative Ltd any time during business hours on (03) 5367 #### with all your enquiries on Artificial Livestock Breeding.
View similar businesses near: Bacchus Marsh VIC
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As of 9:42 EST, the Dow Jones is down 9 points and change.
Still heading downward.
I'm bettin' that today we see it dip into the 15,000 range.
Will update
at 10:37 the DJ shot up to 16,369…that's up 279 points. I am glad I was wrong about this one…so far.
Closed at 16,379. Up 227 from open.


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John Catsimatidis, GOP mayoral candidate, proposes NYC-Connecticut bridge
Republican mayoral candidate John Catsimatidis proposed building a bridge from the city to Connecticut for truck traffic if elected.
Republican mayoral candidate John Catsimatidis proposed building a bridge from the city to Connecticut for truck traffic if elected.
The billionaire and head of Gristedes Foods told the New York Daily News Editorial Board Wednesday that he would borrow up to $25 billion to fund big infrastructure projects in the city if elected.
"We have all those trucks going across the George Washington Bridge, trying to get to the Cross-Bronx Expressway, trying to get to Connecticut eventually," Catsimatidis told the Daily News. "[We] could possibly build a separate bridge and a separate roadway straight to Connecticut ."
While he has his sights on the bridge to Connecticut, Catsimatidis wouldn't say exactly how he'd allocate the borrowed cash.
Catsimatidis, who is funding his own campaign, is a close second in a three-way Republican primary against former MTA chairman Joe Lhota and Doe Fund Founder George McDonald.
In the latest poll released Tuesday, Catsimatidis was six points behind Lhota with 37 percent of the vote, within the margin of error.
Of 101 likely Republican primary voters surveyed by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, 11 percent were still undecided.
The poll had a margin of error plus or minus 9.8 percent.
Follow Anna Sanders on Twitter: @AnnaESanders


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Everyone wants to make a good first impression. However, with social media, sometimes making a poor first impression with a hiring manager before even going in for an interview is easier now in Texas. A debate has arisen as to whether hiring managers should be allowed to use information about job candidates that they find on Facebook or Twitter, particularly if this information refers to religion, sex and age. These are the exact types of information that are not allowed to be used in hiring according to federal law in order to prevent workplace discrimination.
National origin workplace discrimination affects Texas workers
It is human nature to simply want to be accepted. No matter what one's background is, he or she would like to fit in, and this includes being accepted by one's boss or co-workers. Sometimes, a person's national origin, however, captures more attention of a boss than does the individual's work ethic. In some circumstances, a Texas boss may create a hostile environment fueled by racial discrimination. Lately, more attention is being placed on safeguarding American employees from workplace discrimination on the basis of national origin.
Pregnancy-based workplace discrimination illegal in Texas
When a woman is pregnant, she may be excited about having her child and even enjoying the special treatment that sometimes comes along with pregnancy. However, some employers don't see the situation in the same way. To them, a pregnant woman is an unreliable worker, which can lead to workplace discrimination in Texas. A recent article provides tips on how a person can handle pregnancy-based workplace discrimination.
Employees typically like to be valued and taken care of by their companies; they seek security in the workplace. However, when a Texas employee or employer crosses the line and begins to engage in sexual harassment, this can create an insecure environment for the employee one in which the employee may fear being taken advantage of or eventually losing his or her job. A person who is being manipulated on the basis of sex certainly can fight this illegal behavior.


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Combining the world of celebrity and conspiracy theory, Glamorama, Bret Easton Ellis' first full novel since 1991's American Psycho (1994's The Informers was a series of vignettes), takes on the classic Ellis topic: the amoral world. This time, that world is not just New York (as in American Psycho) or Los Angeles (The Informers, Less Than Zero) but that of international celebrity, taking in the glitterati axis of New York-London-Paris which Woody Allen has visited recently, but more lightheartedly--in contrast, Ellis is cold, cold, cold.
No vampires populate this particular Ellis work, but it's hard to believe that any warm blood flows in Glamorama's characters. Victor Ward, fashion's latest "It Boy of the moment," is the novel's memorable protagonist, an uberstereotype of the male model. "The better you look, the more you see," goes Victor's pithy saying, and he believes it. His lifestyle is the extreme of everything the current culture worships: he can't avoid thinking in brand names and image and speaks with lines from pop songs ("do you have the time to listen to me whine?"). Even honesty to him is merely another image--"The 90s are honest, straightforward. Let's reflect that". Obviously not too bright (the opening page has a hilarious scene of his asking "Who the fuck is Moi?)," Victor is obsessed with attaining celebrity, debating for hours "the best angle a designer beret should be tilted." This is his world, where "beauty (is) considered an accomplishment," where double-crossing is limited to the opening of rival dance clubs, where no one has any emotions beyond the visceral response, where all the sex scenes are described in purely pornographic terms.
This is funny enough but gets tired easily. Celebrity by itself teeters so often into self-parody that it seems too easy to bash it. Fortunately, Ellis does more than that, injecting Glamorama with a sharper plot than those of earlier novels, a plot which kicks in about a quarter of the way into the novel. Victor, for a $300,000 fee, is sent by the mysterious F. Fred Palakon (whose name echoes G. Gordon Liddy's neatly enough to hint at the web of deceit to follow) to London to look for a former Camden College friend, Jamie Fields, now a model. Slowly, he gets entangled in a much larger plot, where models are really the terrorists, responsible for bombings of the Institute of Political Studies and other major buildings. Uncharacteristically for an Ellis protagonist, Victor is terrified by all this coldbloodedness. It's the perfect nexus of all that is newsworthy, where celebrity and politics are inextricable. Given how little the models seem to care about people, it makes perfect sense. As Jamie Fields says, "basically, everyone was a sociopath...and all the girls' hair was chignoned."
This is the conspiracy theorist's tempting conceit, the assumption that someone is behind all the awful events in the world. The true terror is, of course, that no one is, and we live in a world of random horror. Still, the premise is intriguing. Unfortunately, it gets spoilt by Ellis' penchant for proper nouns. For a
At heart, Ellis is a moral satirist torn by his attraction to what he criticizes. There are scenes which are nothing more than masturbatory lists of famous names--"Brooke Shields; John Stamos, Stephanie Seymour, Jenny Shimuzu [sic]". And so many brand names make an appearance, from Alaia to Prada to Yohji Yamamoto, you'd think he had a product placement contract. It seems to be Ellis' convenient shorthand for character sketches. When Victor undergoes a transformation to a law student, we know he is different because he now wears a Brooks Brothers suit and drinks Diet Coke. London and Paris become nothing more than a different collection of recognizable proper nouns (Notting Hill and Irvine Welsh in the first case; Chez Georges and Yves Saint-Laurent in the second).
And Ellis' annoying habit of naming the songs that are playing in the background, or even quoting them, as he does with Oasis' "Champagne Supernova", comes across like an effort to give a soundtrack to the entire book. Perhaps this is all a parody of how celebrities or people in general think in the modern world, but surely the point could be made with less. As it stands, all the names merely detract from Victor's troubles.
Still, Victor's sense of terror in being unable to distinguish the true from the false is unmistakable. The world of celebrity in Glamorama really is inescapable, not just because Victor is too shallow to comprehend anything beyond it, but because everything--from the public spheres of politics and religion to the private sphere of sex--is part of this world. The plot twists more often than Chubby Checker on speed. Reality alternates with the constructed so often that the constructed becomes real: "everything is altered... everyone will believe this". Even the novel itself borrows Jay McInerney's Alison Poole character (from McInerney's Story of My Life).
Altered photos of Victor supposedly at various parties and photo shoots appear, and he is threatened with edited photos of him ostensibly in the act of murder. It's the ultimate payback for someone obsessed with looks. This 'real truth' is less shallow than the original world of glitz we are used to--and at the same time purely superficial.
All the action, all the blood and gore of bombings is really just more material for the cameras to take in. It's the book as snuff film, real pain made distant by the act of filming. At one point, the apparent master terrorist-supermodel Bobby Hughes commands the killing, and then turns to his associate with the camcorder and says "Keep rolling".
Glamorama is a book that reads like a movie, and its constant references to Victor's life being filmed ("I think the look they exchange is over-done; the director, surprisingly, does not") without any specific motive is a tidy commentary on the creeping increase of observation. After all, when we put down the book, we can return to the 'real' world and watch When Animals Attack and Cops on prime time television.
Has the world become just like Ellis describes--one of sheen and brands? The temptation is to respond to Glamorama in a superficial way, merely enjoying the great lines and the action, not seeing it as real. And Ellis, for all his critique of style, is a master of it, using especially cutting lines to describe Victor's shallowness. As one character says, Victor thinks the "Gaza Strip is a particularly lascivious move an erotic dancer makes", while Alison tells him "the only pet you ever owned was the Armani Eagle".
"We'll slide down the surface of things" runs the constant refrain of the novel, and while Glamorama's 482 pages of vacuous characters provoke a desire to surface, to break out of the trap of celebrity, it also points out the pervasive nature of glamor. Ellis is often more interested in being cool than actual meaning (the novel opens with a Hitler quote); with Glamorama, he seems to be saying that this is the only truth we all share
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