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Sawan Ashram, Delhi, India
The Khalsa is my true form; the Khalsa is my abode;
The Khalsa is my full intoxication; the Khalsa is my complete Satguru.
Some sing of His greatness, but only according to the power bestowed upon them;
Some sing of His bounties, taking them as His signs;
Some sing of Him as incomprehensible;
Some sing of Him as transmitting dust into life, and life into dust again:
Creator and Destroyer, the Giver of Life and its Withdrawer.
Some sing of Him as at once the nearest, and the most remote.
There is no end to His description.
Nothing has been mentioned of God Himself – only the things He created. You cannot know Him by talking, though you may talk for millions of years. Even the Masters have failed in the attempt. Finally, they resort to observing Neti, neti – He is not this, He is not that. A Muslim prophet says, Through philosophy, generations have passed in descriptive attempts, but God's character remains unsaid.
Today is Basakhi and our new life should start. All differences in our hearts should be removed. A man once asked me why it was that no Master has said, "Put your attention on me," but rather they say, "Put your attention on Him." I told him that the instructions must be properly understood. Lord Krishna said, Put your attention on that true form of mine. The method remains the same regardless of where the Power is manifesting. Electricity will sometimes heat and sometimes chill. Avatars and Saints are manifestations or phases of the same Lord. Misunderstanding and narrow-mindedness create separation of brother from brother, but God's intoxication is one and the same. We are all worshippers of the Living Light, regardless of which religion we belong to.
Some Christians came to the Prophet Mohammed and requested him to give them a place where they could build a church, and what did he do? He gave them half the mosque for their church! Would anyone do such a wonderful thing today? Think carefully over his action and what it means. Are we prepared to follow in the footsteps of our elders?
Guru Har Gobind, the sixth Sikh Guru, built mosques and temples as well as gurudwaras side by side whenever necessary. In Amritsar, the foundation stone of the famous Sikh Golden Temple was laid by Hazrat Mian Mir, a Muslim Saint, at the special request of Guru Arjan. To rise above body consciousness means to rise above illusion; then one realizes in truth that there exist no differences – religious, sectarian or other. This is truly the ultimate goal; outer things are merely helping factors leading toward it, and man as a social being must live in some social group, otherwise corruption starts its corroding process.
Once in Lahore, an atheist called people from various religions together to discuss the question, "Is religion necessary?" Each religious leader spoke at length, proving the necessity of the different forms and rituals, etc. I was present, sitting in the front row. Then the atheist stood up to give his proof as to why religion is not necessary, giving various examples. Among these, he stated that when a marriage is to take place it is merely a matter of the priest, pundit or mulla placing his hands on the couple in blessing before a group of witnesses, to join them together, so as to prevent corruption. It does not make any difference if it is performed in one religious way or another. I stood up and said, "Brother, is it not true that if ten or twenty thousand people were of your thought, then a new society or sect would have to be formed? In that society, some rules and regulations would have to be made. You desire to save yourself from organizations, but you are inadvertently creating another. If each man stayed in his own sect and learned how to know his true self or soul and that Power which controls all things, would that not be better?" He was an atheist, but he replied, "What you have said is correct." For as long as I lived in Lahore we used to meet on very loving terms.
There is a great deal of misunderstanding existing regarding this subject. In holy places only Truth should be discussed – and realized – for Truth is Truth. Keep the company of someone who has realized the Truth and get right understanding. We say "God is One" and even this is not true, but we are finite beings and must therefore use finite terms. Let us now take a hymn of Guru Gobind Singh on this celebrated day:
Oh mind, take such a sanyas.
This is a lesson for the mind, that it should adopt such renunciation that will still all desires. To leave one's hearth and home is not the true sanyas; one must become desire-less, and then the very silence sprouts forth into Light and that same silence becomes vocal.
Regard every place as a lonely forest;
In the mind alone will complete silence come.
You can make your home a lonely forest. Is not the night a lonely forest? Just consider for a moment. Those who have made the best use of their nights, by knowing oneself and the Overself, have themselves been made. Those who have wasted their nights in frivolous pursuits have wasted themselves. Even a student of worldly knowledge becomes intellectually strong if he makes full use of the night as well as the day. Those men who exercise the physical body through the cold nights become giants in muscle and strength; it is obvious how strong they are. And the disciples who spend their nights in sweet remembrance of the Lord become God themselves. If man can control the dim hours from sunset to sunrise he becomes a true human being. But instead we eat, drink, enjoy the worldly pleasures until midnight, and then snore the rest of the night away.
One Master has said that in the night, the Lord's fragrance is given out – he who remains awake receives this precious gift. Do the worldly duties in the daytime, and at night consider that you are all alone, deep in the country. One's duties and social obligations with family and friends should be performed with pleasure, because God has joined you together, for the sake of give and take. But in the night you can feel free from all this and repose in His lap. It is not at all necessary to leave your home and family for meditation when you have the long lonely nights. When you are wholly absorbed in some object, it is a true sanyas, cutting off from all other things, and if we start from today, most definitely our lives will change.This invaluable guidance is written in the sacred books, but sadly it remains there, or it penetrates only to the intellectual level. We have to take the knowledge and live up to it, only then does it become a part of life. The night is a jungle – do your work in the daytime and then benefit from the night. The true purpose of having a human form is to make daily progress toward the great goal, so sit down each day and see where you are. The meaning of keeping a diary is of utmost importance, but very few fully understand it. Remove those things which are obstructing your progress – weed out the imperfections, one by one. A strong man revels in his strength and the weaker man wonders how he got it. When a wrestler walks abroad, people turn to stare and remark on his strength. He has not achieved that overnight, but through many nights of hard exercising. As the renunciate leaves everything and goes to the woods, you can sit down nightly in your own home, forgetting the world and freeing yourself from all entanglements.
Make the jatta of chastity and purity, and take a bath of Yog;
Grow the nails of regularity.
One should make one's jatta out of the purity of life – guard carefully one's brahmcharya (chastity). Chastity is life and sexuality is death. Our whole house has to stand on this foundation; do not make it out of sand. You will then be able to live properly; your mind and intellect will be wholesome. This in itself is a most valuable thing, for even if you have only dry bread to eat, yet you will have full strength. You won't need any tonics.
In regard to the householder's life: marriage is not a bar to Spirituality, if one lives according to the scriptures. There may be one duty of be-getting children, but that is not the be-all and end-all of married life; there is grossly wrong understanding on this subject. Do not make the human form a mere machine for vice. Instead, make your life pure and controlled. If you wish to have one or two children, well and good, but look after them properly and help them to become something good. Set a worthy· example for them, and remain aware of the responsibilities of parenthood. Furthermore, the whole family should sit together and sing the praises of the Lord.
The Guru Sahib tells us to take a bath in the Yog. If you want to become one with God you must throw away all worldly thoughts. To take a bath in Yog means a daily bath in His contact – become one with Him. If you cannot wash your hands of worldly affairs, you should not sit in God's remembrance. The Muslims do vazu (washing of the hands, face and feet) before they sit for the namaz, for they believe that unless this is done, the prayer will not be accepted. So we should wash the worldly environments out of our thoughts before we sit in meditation. The Hindus say that puja should not be done unless one first takes a bath. The most effective bath is to withdraw your attention from outer things.
Grow the nails of regularity. An army without a commander will end up in chaos, so we must command our lives with regularity. If you are employed somewhere, you go there daily at the proper time, without any trouble, and for meditation we should adopt the same attitude and sit daily at the regular time. Sadly, we are adrift; sometimes we sit, sometimes we don't. If we were truly regular, we would find that if we should happen to have a day without meditation, we would feel ill at ease, as though we had missed something. If possible, there should be a room in the home set aside for God's remembrance alone – you would find that the very atmosphere of that room would remind you of Him.
In the last stanza of the Jap Ji, you will find, Make chastity your furnace and patience your smithy. To fashion gold into something beautiful, a goldsmith must first melt the metal by the aid of a furnace. Take these two things, patience and chastity, and go on working toward your goal. With patience one will continue to persevere, even when the progress seems slow. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. It is a promise Christ gave. So take these things into our lives: patience, perseverance, chaste and pure living, and regularity. Then? Make the nights your jungle, and see what a beautiful program will result.
In the past, a true brahmcharya would spend his first twenty-five years in a jungle ashram, learning the Vedic and Shastric scriptures. Then he would enter the grehastha ashram (take up the duties of a householder). After conscientiously bringing up his one or two children to the stage of adulthood, he would then return to the forests in the vanprasth ashram wherein he would study for self-realization. Having realized the Truth, he would leave that stage and journey around in the world, helping the people to awaken. Today's preaching is done for the stomach only. Some people earn their livelihood by their own hard labour in one way or another, and some take their living from religion or religious books.
So make your home a jungle. He who lives in his own home, remaining aloof from worldly taints, yearning within for the Lord, will receive far more benefit than from taking a bath in the limpid waters of the holy River Ganges. Become so closely connected with the Lord that either He or you remains – not two.
Get connected to the pure Naam, through the Guru's knowledge of the soul. This Guru's knowledge is a practical experience; there is nothing academic about it. This knowledge is of Attention (Surat) and Sound (Shabd); It cannot be brought into words. The word "knowledge" here refers to the Music of the Spheres which is vibrating within our very being. It can only be experienced. The one who makes audible the Sound coming from the gaggan (astral heaven) is my Gurudev. Who gives that experience? Through the Guru's knowledge I got the true eye, through which the veil of ignorance was pierced and the Light revealed within. So what is the value of Gurubhakti (devotion to the Guru)? All living souls should do Gurubhakti, and become one with the Light within. Become connected to that Light and develop your devotion – which should increase so much so that each pore vibrates with the Guru's Naam. When a little love awakens in a person, does it not bubble up and overflow? It should be developed steadily up to full realization, through which all peace and serenity will reign in your being.
Eat less, sleep less; have mercy, forgiveness and love.
Mercy is the interest gained from righteous living, pride's interest is sin;
O Tulsi, leave not mercy while this body breathes.
A person has more pity for his family and friends than for strangers. Is this compassion? If one's neighbours are dying of starvation while one is eating one's fill, what kind of mercy is this? Should your own child be sick, yet you hear of another's that needs help, if you have true mercy you will give more attention to the strange child. When Guru Gobind Singh's children were killed in battle, his wife came crying to him – "Where are my four sons?" His words are noteworthy: "For the heads of all these sons (the followers) have I sacrificed the four." This is what you can call compassion. He sacrificed all that was his for the sons of others. Did he win any empire or property for himself? True Masters have real compassion for people. When Jesus Christ was sitting with some people, he was told that his mother and relatives were outside, desiring to speak to him. What was his reply? He said, Who is my mother? Who are my brothers? and indicating his disciples and followers, he said, Behold, my mother and my brothers!
If someone makes a mistake, forgive him. But people prefer justice to forgiveness. Remember this, that with justice, the heart is never cleansed. I will give an example from my own experience. My wife was once travelling home by train, and I went to meet her at the railway station. As soon as she stepped on the train, and before I had even approached her, a pickpocket stole her purse and ran off. As it happened, a wide-awake police constable had witnessed the incident, quickly caught the man and returned the purse to my wife. With a firm grip on the thief, the policeman turned to me and said, "You must also come along to the police station." I pointed out to him that as we had recovered the purse, we were quite satisfied, but he protested and said, "This sort of thing is happening frequently, you must come and make a charge." I went along to the police station and sat there for more than an hour without anything being done. I told the inspector, "I am not concerned with this, you can also keep the purse – I am going." He took my statement at once, and eventually I had to go to court. It was the first time I had ever stepped into a courtroom. While waiting for the proceedings to start, the inspector remarked to me, "Justice must be done." I told him, "Brother, along with justice, there should also be compassion; both should go side by side. With justice the heart remains affected, but compassion washes away all impurities." When the judge had heard the case, I said, "Your honor, if you can find a way of releasing this man, I have no objection." The judge was surprised, but he asked the police about the man's previous record, and was told that no charges were recorded against him. The judge agreed to let him go with a good warning and he was released. That man returned to his family with a happy heart; he went around telling people, "If he had not saved me, I would now be in prison."Outwardly a person may be emphatic that he forgives; but in his heart he wants to strike out at the offender and cut the very roots of him. If you have no compassion in the mind, how can you honestly say you forgive? God is love, and as a part of Him, the soul's innate nature is also love. Guru Gobind Singh Ji has said, Hear ye all, I tell you in Truth; God is realized by one who loves. Kabir says, Love the Lord, oh mind, love the Lord. And in the Bible, He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love. We pray and perform rites that the love of God may be born in us – what other purpose is there? But what results will come from the prayers that are mingled with gossip? What will it avail us to leave the place of worship without a trace of love in our hearts for our fellow beings?
Chastity, contentment, and remain stabilized;
Then you will go beyond the three gunas*
*Attributes: satva (pure), rajas (active), and tamas (inert).
Adopt a righteous way of life and be content. You may have certain desires, but stop there; don't increase them. Then reconsider the desires and where they will take you. What lies ahead, and what will you take with you? We are hurrying, scurrying through life; we are not even conscious of what we are doing most of the time. So the Guru advises us to handle all our affairs with tranquil serenity; then you have a chance of reaching Trigun-atit (beyond the three attributes), and then going beyond. Lord Krishna, in the famous Bhagavad Gita, told Arjuna,
Oh Arjuna, go beyond the three gunas.
Unless you go beyond, you will continue coming and going
round and round in Pind, and and Brahmand.
Desire, lust, anger, pride, greed, perversity, attachment;
Do not allow these in your mind.
To go more deeply into the matter, what constitutes desire: All conceptions in the mind are desires. So, be desireless. You will have noticed that when an obstacle blocks the achievement of one's desire, anger arises. Then there is pride – "I must have this (or do this), otherwise I will be belittled in the eyes of others." One can accept pride as being the basis of all sins, for it turns into I-hood. He recommends us to leave off perversity, or stop being obstinate. Always be sure and listen to the other person's point of view – you may find that what he is saying is correct. Perversity just binds a person more; there is no room for expansion. Dogmatic knowledge of books, for instance, which might be right or wrong, should be discarded. It goes without saying that all attachments should be broken away – you must finish up the give and take – you must leave the body and all its environments. If an obstacle comes between you and your desire, it grows even stronger. Just put a large rock in the middle of a fast-flowing stream and you will create two things, froth and noise. When a man is angry he cannot speak softly, and finally he froths at the mouth. If you do get the thing you desire, it turns into attachment. There is only one cure for all this: Only after seeing your true self can you realize the Lord.
And now, we will take something for Basakh (one by Guru Arjan):
How can Basakh bring contentment for him who is parted from his love?
The soul's natural inclination is to return to God. If it could only withdraw from outer attractions, its automatic course would be straight toward God. Is it possible to withdraw? The Guru has put your house under control and made you the mistress. Furthermore, Ten servants did my Lord give me. Five gross and five subtle senses to come under control, through the grace of the Guru. Until now the soul has been under the control of mind and senses, and has never seen its Beloved – how can it rejoice and be content? A loved one's greatest desire is to be with his Beloved, how can one go through life separate from Him? How did we forget Him?
When the separation from God came, the illusion engulfed everything.It seems as if the illusion left all other work to cling to us. Illusion's other name is forgetfulness. The whole world is sleeping in attachment and forgetfulness; tell me, when will this illusion go? If the One whom we have forgotten comes before us, would not the innate love within us awaken? It is a heart-rending story, for all the harvest is ready; you have got the physical form, after great struggle – but you are cut away from the Beloved and cannot enjoy the fruits of the harvest.
Sons, family, wealth, none are with you; Only the Immortal God.
All this illusory meaningless work takes my whole time.
Without the Naam of the Lord, the future is lost.
By forgetting God, you have wasted your life; Without Him, you have no one.
Protect this wealth you have been given with your very life. By meeting the Saint, take and preserve the true Naam. It is a gift that will remain in both worlds – here and hereafter.
Those who sit at the Beloved's feet, even their company is pure.
Nanak entreats Thee,O Lord, may we also meet Thee.
In Gurbani it says, The Father Kirpal (Merciful) has given this order: Whatever the child asks for wil be given.
In the Koran it says, Whatever man wants, I will give him.
Basakh will be wondrous, if only we can meet the Saint.
Those who meditate on the Naam, their work will be successful,Those who have the Perfect Master will be glorified in God's house; Those at His feet will find permanent happiness, and will cross the ocean of life. No poisons can affect those who develop love and devotion; All perishables vanished, all duality disappeared, when the Truth was received. Those who worship Him beyond Brahm become one in His bliss. That month is blessed in which the Lord showers his mercy, Nanak desires only one boon: that through Thy mercy I will get Thy darshan.


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It has been announced, the 2014 Thirdgen Roundup will be held here in Austin. Lets see if we can get a huge turnout from us here in Austin.
Going LIST:
1. flu_by_u (RJ)
2. Albani
3. David E. (FB Group Member) - Formula
4. jiliroc (DAN)- 1990 IROC-Z
5. WidRidez (Jason)
6. Matthew B. (FB Group Member)- IROC
7. Camilo V. (FB Group Member)- Camaro
8. Mike Sm. (FB Group Member) -
9. Mike W. (FB Group Member) -
10.Thomas R. (FB Group Member) -
11. Xavier P. (FB Group Member) - Firebird
12. Cipi D. (FB Group Member) - Camaro
13. Alex M. (FB Group Member) -
RJ, put me on this list. In our own backyard, how could I possibly not go?
I will be there.
WARNING. It is graduation weekend at UT. I was there earlier and it was already a mess with traffic in north downtown and UT.
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subset: commoncrawl


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This thread was inspired by Arc.
A person who eats junk food often does so in order to comfort or pacify himself, and disregards the consequences or the quality of food. He wants to be comforted and does not care about the quality of his comfort. And we often judge such a person. But, a person who obsesses about healthy eating is often no different than the one who eats junk food, except that he puts an extra layer of veneer or hypocrisy behind his motivations. His sources are natural and 'good', thus absolving him of guilt or consequences (natural, therefore must be good.. after all, nature is blameless), but the psychological need is still the same and that is the need for comfort. This kind of person will seek out natural things and use them as a cover. He is also the person who asks 'What good is life if I cannot find comfort in it?' And so, to feed that need, and with a perfect cover up, he will see 'beauty' in nature and all things natural. He will look at the dew drops, the sunsets, the cute squirrels running about their business and will find all these things...comforting. And blame-free. Who will dare to judge one for admiring a mountain or colorful flowers? It's nature herself! And why would you judge a person for eating healthy and natural? (even if the underlying goal is to perpetuate the sense of comfort through longetivity)
What does one really gain from the appreciation of a form, or what was the first benefit of the self-conscious mind in perceiving it? I say that the first aesthetic benefit happened when the form was perceived as being disconnected from the process behind it, like being able to enjoy a stage play without being aware of what is going on behind the stage. The form by itself. Detached. The finished product. This first appreciation of form detached from the processes behind it was based on ignorance of these processes, so the form detached appeared 'magical' to the mind. And when the mind attaches itself to the detached form, it associates itself with ignorance, and calls it mystery; but the real benefit or underlying motivation is comfort (through ignorance). Because if a mind were to perceive all the processes that lead to the form I doubt it would find any aesthetic pleasure or sense of comfort in it.


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Don Webb built his '32 coupe to honor his father
Most people looking at Don Webb's '32 three-window coupe would probably not call it a restoration. Most people would reserve that term for a Ford built the way Henry did it. The difference with Don's Deuce is that it's built the way Bill Webb did it.
Bill was Don's father, as well as his mentor and a genuine hot rodder. This was Bill's car. "In the early '50s, Bill was partners with Dennis Hildebrandt," Don told us. "Hildebrandt Manufacturing operated a machine shop in Santa Fe Springs, California, where they produced speed equipment, such as engine adaptors, fuel blocks, scattershields, shift kits, gauge panels, beehive oil filters, and valve covers."
Hildebrandt and Bill were drag racers. "Bill was the original builder of Hildebrandt's 'Dennis the Menace' '34 roadster," Don says. "His own '32 coupe was a record holder at Pomona Valley Drag Strip, San Fernando Drag Strip, San Gabriel Drag Strip, and Lions Drag Strip. Then in 1958, after a night of reckless street racing, my dad handed the keys from his '32 to my mother. He told her that he wasn't going to drive it anymore and that he was giving the car to me. I was 3 years old.
"The car stayed parked alongside the house. As a kid, I would crawl under the tarp and pretend that I was driving the hot rod. In 1971, when I turned 16, I started restoring the car by getting the bumpers and window frames re-chromed. I wrapped them in newspaper and stored them underneath my bed.
"As I got older my goal became to rebuild the car just like my dad originally had it, but better. I installed the same upholstery, headliner, and white roof insert, and the same '40 dash my dad put in. I used the same 283 Chevy, McCulloch supercharger, transmission, and rearend. I built the car in a one-car garage with all period parts from bumper to bumper; the 'real deal,' just like my dad."
If you remember the coupe—or have seen photos of it—from its racing days, you know that Don's restoration deviates a bit from what the car looked like in the '50s. Back then, the car wore full fenders and running boards, and had a full louvered hood. The all-steel unchopped body has been redone as a highboy. The cowl vent has been filled and cowllights shaved, and the grille has been filled and peaked. A 4-inch peep mirror and a windshield wiper was added on the driver side, and the glass has been replaced by Solex glass. Don got the window frames plated when he was 16 years old. The early headlights were once mounted high on a headlight bar attached to the fenders; they are now attached at the shock mounts. The stock taillights were furnished with blue dot lenses. Another prominent change Don made to the body was the color. "From salmon pink to black—a bit more traditional for my taste," he says. Don sprayed the paint himself, using DAR-900 acrylic enamel from PPG, supplied by El Monte Auto Paint.
The blown small-block is true to the powerplant configuration that pulled the '32 into the record books at all those Southern California dragstrips. The engine is a '59 Chevy 283 bored 0.060-over, with an Erson cam. Machining and assembly was done at Iggy's in Arcadia, California. Chevy small-port heads are topped with a pair of very rare Hildebrandt valves covers, which Don polished and painted. The '56 McCulloch VS57A supercharger gets air through a K&N cone air cleaner and delivers it to a '56 Carter 650-cfm four-jet carburetor on a powdercoated '56 Corvette cast-iron intake manifold. Don smoothed the early ram's horn exhaust manifolds and 2-inch exhaust pipes connected to a pair of Smitty's glasspack mufflers.
The '39 Ford Top Loader three-speed was built at Antique Auto Parts in Rosemead, California, and features Zephyr 25-tooth gears. Don rebuilt the '40 Ford banjo rear, spinning 4.11:1 gears. The chrome axle housings cover stock '40 truck axles. It's pretty bright back there since the rear wishbones, buggy springs and shackles, and Pete & Jakes shocks were also chrome-plated. It's bright at the other end too, with lots of chrome-plated front suspension components too, including the '39 Ford 4-inch dropped I-beam axle and spindles, '39 buggy springs, Pete & Jakes shocks, unsplit wishbones, and drag link and steering arms. Don strengthened the original Deuce frame with a Deuce Factory front crossmember supplementing the factory K-member.
Don picked the tires and wheels in keeping with the way the '32 looked almost 60 years ago. At the time of these photos, the coupe was riding on 15-inch early Ford vented steelies, painted with polished '40 caps and rings. The rear rims run a pair of 8.20 Mickey Thompson piecrust whitewall slicks. Front tires are 5.60 Firestone Champion bias-plies.
The early Ford hydraulic rear brakes with chrome backing plates were rebuilt and reassembled by Don. The front brakes are early Super Bells with aluminum hubs, 11-inch solid rotors, and JFZ calipers. A TCI Engineering proportioning valve was added for efficient, safe stops.
Don made an effort to make sure the interior was authentic to the way it looked "back then," particularly in the upholstery. The door panels and original Deuce bench were covered in black and white tuck 'n' roll Naugahyde with white piping at Tito Auto Trim in San Gabriel, California. Black piping sets off the white headliner. Don wrapped the '39 banjo wheel in black leather, and cut down and re-welded the '48 Ford pickup shifter.
The '40 DeLuxe dash had been installed by Bill Webb in the late '40s. Don refinished the gauge insert and mounted additional Stewart-Warner gauges in an original Hildebrandt four-hole panel below the dash, with a blower vacuum gauge mounted to the right. Some upper dash pinstriping and a below-the-dash bud vase add a touch of color.
Don had the '32 on the road before it was done, driving it from Arcadia to the Deuce Day event in Temecula. "It had no windows, no top insert, no paint, and most of all, no problems." Today, the '32 is a rolling testimony to the inspiration of Don's parents, Bill and Callistra—and to the support of his wife, Liz, and daughter, Shawna. Bill Webb died in March 2010, but not before he had the chance to see Don's restoration—and not before he had the chance to ride in his record-setting hot rod again after more than a half a century.


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Went to the Brian Ferneyhough Total Immersion day at the Barbican yesterday, though it was more of a toe dipping than the full baptismal effect as I only went to the string quartet concert and the talk in the afternoon. This is part of my (cunning) plan to try and listen more to things I think I don't like – last year I was really taken with a Morton Feldman piece at the Proms, an epiphanic moment, largely courtesy of Howard Skempton who had put me in an empathetic frame of mind beforehand.
It is so often the case that going to an arts event of any kind with a friend who likes something that you don't can be a very enlightening experience – I always remember going to an exhibition of Léger (under duress) with a friend who filled me full of excitement for a painter I thought I didn't like. It is particularly true for performers who get to love something they started off hating through having to perform it. When I was in the BBC Singers, it happened over and over again – start of the week 'what is this bollocks?' – end of the week 'y'know, this piece has got something about it…' But it was also true that music which was wonderful to perform sometimes was mystifyingly unsatisfying to listen to, and that was experience I'm afraid I always had of Birtwistle. And that was definitely my experience of the Ferneyhough Missa Brevis, thrilling and ultra challenging to perform and then sadly dry and uncommunicating to listen to.
So I thought I'd try again yesterday, with the benefit of two talks with Ferneyhough, one with Julian Anderson before the string quartets, and the other with Tom Service (sporting one white glove, slightly sinister!). I went to the event with Elizabeth Winters, who some of you will know is a gifted composer, and writes music very unlike my own. We were both struck forcibly by the Barbican audience, which I would say was 90% men – in the second talk, the packed audience had 8 women in it, I counted them. I found this very distracting. After all, if you went to a Sofia Gubaidulina or Unsuk Chin Total Immersion Day, you would be staggered and unsettled to see an audience that was 90% women. It was hard not to feel that we were intruding, that we had stumbled into the Barbican Chapter meeting of train spotters, or a reunion of 1970's bikers. I am joking, it was a bit smarter than, but you get the point.
It was also really striking how dense and impenetrable the language of the talks was: if some curious music loving couple had wandered in, attracted by the trail on the Today programme (not!!), thinking they'd give it a go, I don't believe that they would have understood a word of the first talk, and very little of the second. There was an air of uncompromising intellectualism that was giving no quarter. A question like 'what was your childhood in Coventry like?' was definitely off limits!! The only hint of anything personal came when Ferneyhough talked briefly about being in a brass band, an intriguing piece of info, but Tom Service's lip visibly curled, and we soon got back to super-heated fragments again.
Maybe Ferneyhough's long hair had something to do with it, but I felt very much that the whole thing was like being at a Victorian meeting of a scientific society, where nothing emotional (God forbid!) was going to be mentioned, nothing personal. It was all strangely antiquated, dusty and arid. The thing you needed to know about Ferneyhough before listening to his music was that he had read Adorno in the original German. And, you know, it was a shame, because Ferneyhough himself was not pretentious in the least. I had an unpleasant memory of what it was like to be a woman composer in the 70s, like you were the indulged eccentric in the family being allowed to sit and listen with the grown-ups, as long as you didn't try and say anything. Obviously and thankfully, things have changed, but not on Planet Ferneyhough it would seem, where a world of music that is written by men and a culture that only expresses the male libido, is taking its last stand.
Have been listening to a lot of Prokofiev lately, especially the piano sonatas and realised that I knew very little about his life. So I'm enjoying the Life and Times book on him by Thomas Schipperges. He gives you a paragraph's description of Social Realism, which at its initial launch in 1934 at the Soviet Writer's Conference, laid down its crass ideas that pessimism was anti-social (goodbye Eastenders!) and that music should be hummable and in major keys.
The book adds that a similar dictum was laid down by Irving Thalberg (1899-1936), the Hollywood producer, who in the 1930s sent the following memo to resident composers: 'from the above date forward, no music in an MGM film is to contain a minor chord.' This memo was still bolted to the wall 25 years later, when composers such as André Previn were there.
Thalberg died very young, having suffered from heart disease all his life, and that sharp sense of his own mortality may have affected his ability to cope with sad music! (I'm being kind, because personally I always think that people who don't write music should leave the decisions up to those who do). Now I want to see Thalberg's movies to see how many minor chords the composers managed to get past him! I am reminded of writing a piece for a male voice choir: I knew they were very limited in their abilities, so I decided to write a piece with no discords in it. I tried to make it sound strange and keep some tension going without introducing any dissonances. I found this so challenging and engrossing that I put No Discord Series No. 1 on the front page, thinking I would do more. The score was sent off and after a long pause came back: the choir was unable to perform the piece as there were 'too many discords!' Obviously, no-one had looked too closely at the title page, but it was more that (I felt) the newness of the music had brought its own discord into their lives. I wonder how many minor chords MGM's composers could get into their scores just by presenting them in a certain way. I've always found it moving that Mozart often writes his most painful music in major keys, as if the reminiscence of sweetness is unbearable. I wonder whether Irving would have heard that music as if in a minor key? Film music of that time sometimes does something similar – a particularly poignant scene is often accompanied by a saccharine tune like 'Home Sweet Home' which is somehow more tear-jerking than a sad melody.
Composers are often forced to reinvent their music to suit dictators and governments: they could leave as Stravinsky or Rachmaninoff did, and Prokofiev did leave for a while. But he came back to Russia, for subtle and complex reasons no-one has ever quite been able to fathom. Other composers manage to stay afloat and stay unique despite the politics – Thomas Tallis springs to mind. I wonder what I would do in such threatening circumstances?
Back in the 70's, I was told that my music needed to be 'forced into a modern idiom,' even though I was writing far more difficult and dissonant music than I write now. I felt very threatened by the atmosphere of that music world, and totally outside it, but my life was not threatened and so I had an easy choice to keep doing my own thing, rather than toeing the party line. Now it is as if the coin as been flipped right over, for now we often read in what music commentary there is these days, that new music should try harder to be accessible, that composers have a duty to write music that people like. In other words, that is hummable and without any anti-social pessimism! This has been going on for some time, and back in the previous century I went to a debate – I remember Roger Scruton was speaking – about how new music should be nicer. He didn't say that of course, but he wanted keys and melodies, and I presume that he is a much happier man now. It has been a peculiarly English revolution, bloodless in more ways than one. We love foreigners, so we have swopped Boulez for Eric Whitacre. Conformity is the name of the game, whether it is the enforced atonality of my student days, or the holy wallpaper or quasi pop of today, it is in its own way a kind of oppression – oppression that has to be resisted. My personal motto has always been that all anyone can ask of me is that I tell the truth as I see it.
As is well known, Stalin died one hour after Prokofiev, they even died of the same thing. Prokofiev's death was barely mentioned in the newspapers and there were no flowers at his funeral, due to the total hysteria over Stalin's death. However, ten years later, Prokofiev's anniversary was front page news, while Stalin's was only celebrated in Georgia.
The first time I went to Italy I was staying out in the Tuscany countryside, and being interested in bird watching, was surprised by how quiet the Italian countryside is. In Britain we're used to a constant background sound of birds, in town gardens as well as in the woods or by the sea. In Tuscany it was common to hear the sound of guns in the distance and the fruits of their labours turned up on the restaurant menus, though I never saw larks' tongues or blackbird pie! But every year thousands of small brown birds are shot in Italy and Greece, many of them en route for northern Europe. To me, it seems barbaric and ignorant, and here, the shooting of eagles or birds of prey will find its way into the newspapers, as well as the theft of eggs. The RSPB has over a million members, and it seems obvious now to protect bird life and cherish it. Yes, there are still plenty of people who like to shoot birds here, but we have civilised laws that stop them from wiping out whole species as has happened before.
I was watching the TV the other night and hating that stupid Dove moisturiser ad 'I'm a man!' using the William Tell overture as music. Really, there is no way anyone can listen to the William Tell overture now and access what it was originally intended to say. I am old enough to still think of the Lone Ranger when I hear it, but it has officially become a joke piece. If you hear the whole overture you can still dimly perceive some unique meaning, but unless you care you're unlikely to know that Rossini did a cutting edge thing – made a political statement even -by introducing Italian folk music into classical opera. There are quite a few pieces of classical music now that have more or less lost their depth of meaning – whole chunks of Carmen and Tchaikovsky, the Hallelujah chorus and Zadok the Priest, and most sadly, the tenor voice, which is drip drip drip being turned into a joke voice by the media and pop music. Viz the Go Compare ad. On telly at the moment you have The Queen of the Night aria advertising Haribo sweets, the humming chorus from Madame Butterfly for Asda (why??) and the Barber Adagio over or under a burnt Warburton's loaf. More and more classical music is being seen as a virtually free resource in a costly industry. Want to have a poignant moment in a historical drama? Stick in Nimrod. Want a noble patriotic tune? Why not have the big tune from Holst's Jupiter. Stick in a bit of classical music just to give something the aura of sophistication. Or, frighteningly, to make a joke of culture. The trouble is, this music may come free in financial terms, but the cost is enormous. A piece of classical music is not owned by anyone (however much they may try), but is a work of art for the individual to experience in their own way. By attaching it to an image, especially the trashy images of advertising, you devalue, even debase the vocabulary of the music, and make it virtually impossible for anyone to have an individual experience of it without the image of a loaf of bread or a chocolate bar popping up. The piece of music with all its unique meaning, is lost to that person, even to a generation. Like the bird world, there are always plenty of people happy to savage and despoil without thought, either from idiotic and meaningless self indulgence, or from simple greed. Like the birds, once you protect them, it seems an obvious thing to do, and impossible to live without.
I think it is time to list classical music in the same way that buildings are listed. I really believe that it should not be possible to use classical music for commercial purposes. I would make it (if I ruled the world) illegal to use listed music for ads, for films, for any kind of background or commercial music. I think it needs time to recover, and I think people need to see its value and that the classical music world values it. Of course, you can knock a building down and it is gone, and I remember the shock of seeing that happen in a way that it could not now happen. A piece of music cannot be knocked down in that way, but its possibilities, deep and unfathomable, can be taken away from you for your lifetime, for no more reason than that somebody wants to make more money from their product. As a child, I used to laugh with the rest of my family at the Hamlet cigar ads, which used, famously, the Air on a G string, by Bach. Even the title of the piece made us laugh. Now it makes me almost want to cry that I cannot listen to this music, this spiritual music, without thinking of those ads. Nobody can give me back the clear head space I need to hear this music in a fresh way. In some terrible way, the music has been murdered.
Mozart as a child
It seems to have fallen to Radio 4 (rather than 3) to have informative and engaging programmes about classical music. The last one I heard was about the enduring power of 'When I am laid in earth,' by Purcell. Various bods were wheeled out to deliver their epiphanies and insights, and I have to say that I really enjoyed Alison Moyet's gorgeous rendition, a fifth down – how much easier to do that tricky word 'remember' -normally on a top G! Everyone had their point of view, including the muso who declared it 'the best melody of the 17th century!' Does it irritate you as much as me when people create league tables and play off one unique work of genius against another? I shouted 'shut up!' at the radio.
What was absent from a composer's point of view was just that – the composer's point of view. To me, whatever a piece of music becomes, whatever peg the composer hangs it on, it always starts with the composer. Amongst all their sense of personal ownership, nobody seemed to wonder about Henry Purcell, the human being, and what his personal input had been into those 40 bars of exquisite pain. Could anyone doubt that he identified with Dido rather than the colourless Aeneas? This is not an idle point, for Aeneas is on a mission to create a new country, surely something a creative person might identify with, and yet it is Dido's fragility and easy decline into early death that is drawn with such pain. I wondered why nobody mentioned the surely pertinent fact that Purcell was a child of 6 or so when the Great Plague hit London, and then the following Fire. And/or wondered whether Purcell, still a young man, had just experienced something similar by way of a rejection.
It is the vagueness of music and it being a non-verbal language that makes people take ownership of it, and elbow the person that was the composer out of the picture. This doesn't seem to happen so powerfully in the visual arts and it certainly doesn't happen with books or poetry. It is a wonderful thing to become totally engrossed in a piece of music. I like to binge on a particular piece, playing nothing else for days, - the music becomes subsumed into your existence like the first days of being in love. The downside of this is the ludicrous and depressing mythologizing of dead composers that goes on. If you believe that some God-given gift is at work then that rules out any influence from dreadful upbringings, or hot-housing parents. Let's face it, living composers are nothing like the Jill and John picture of dead ones. You can have a pizza and a laugh with them, get irritated by them, owe them money, talk about mobile phone tariffs with them. They can sleep with your wife or have to go to AA.
Recently I read a brilliant book about Schumann by Peter Ostwald called Music and Madness, - a psychological study based on letters and diaries. I nearly laughed out loud to read that Schumann, as a young man, may have had a sexual relationship with William Sterndale Bennett. Immediately, the two young men seemed totally recognisable as people I know now, and I felt a tremendous rush of sympathy for them. It made me want to listen to some Sterndale Bennett as well.
How different to the repulsion I feel (and I seem to be alone in feeling)towards the latest biogs of composers on BBC4, by Christopher Nupen, in which a profoundly reverential tone is taken and the things which influence other people – 'normal' people – are ignored – stuff like alcoholism, or child abuse. Psychologically, they are 100 years out of date. Near the end of the Schubert episode, which seemed to be made up of one long close up of the pianist's right hand (modern piano of course – nothing too real!), Nupen mentioned in a hushed voice that Schubert had contracted syphilis. Now I am shouting at the TV! – When, where, why?? But already he has moved on.
It is this ghastly attitude to dead composers that bedevils the lives of living ones. The lack of compassion towards their everyday existence, the lack of interest from the press as compared to the truly extraordinary interest there is in books and writers, the impoverishment that accompanies the lives of 90% of composers, is only enhanced by this romanticising of the dead. Living composers can only ever be a disappointment.
Friday night I went to a concert at the Bishopsgate Institute, that odd little tucked away venue in the heart of the City. The concert was Czech piano music played by William Howard and included some preludes and fugues by Pavel Zemek Novak, part of a huge piano work over an hour and a half long that William Howard has championed here.
There was a pre concert talk with David Matthews, an old pal of mine, and it was remembering his enthusiasm for Novak's music that attracted me to the concert. Novak is very interesting, despite his very sober and rather shy appearance: he has a preoccupation with unison writing, and an interest in trying to erase dissonance both horizontally and vertically – he tried not to have the 'melodic' line travel in seconds or sevenths even.
The music is not without tension though, but has an unusual freshness and energy all of its own. Intriguing was the word that came into my mind. In the pre-concert talk I asked Novak what the music world in Czechoslovakia had been like after the war, given that so many musicians had died in Terezin or had fled the country. Did the composers that were left look back, or did they try and create something entirely new? Novak spoke very sympathetically (and with a lot of emotion) about two composers, Miloslav Ištvan, and Miloslav Kabelác who were subject to virtual house arrest by the Communists after the war, and not allowed to travel, nor have many performances.
I think I wasn't alone in feeling a bit shame-faced that I hadn't heard of them, or heard their music. He spoke with passion also about the different sorts of folk music in Czechoslovakia, and about national feeling. Afterwards I thought how different it is to live in a country that was not invaded, and how it has allowed us to be incredibly complacent about our own cultural identity. Can you imagine anyone ever asking me in a pre-concert talk about national identity? - I always feel that if I have used British folk music I have to be a bit apologetic, or risk looking either very conventional or worse, fascistic.
I wonder how we would feel about 20th century composers like say Vaughan Williams, Finzi, Britten, Tippett, or Malcolm Arnold, Elisabeth Lutyens, Elizabeth Maconchy et al if they had been carted off to death camps, or forced to leave everything behind and flee? The last time British composers came under any real threat was the Reformation, and their music has come to represent a kind of essential Englishness, and along with choral evensong it encodes an extraordinary national identity.
The other day some dimwit in a major newspaper talked about how few great composers Britain has produced, and was the usually disparaging idiot about contemporary music. When I was a student it was absolutely forbidden to like the sort of music known as 'cow pat music,' (a term coined by Liz Lutyens!) as if national identity was something to be utterly despised.
Then as now to some extent, professors in music colleges prefer a European model to a native one. We have no experience of what it would be like to lose our cultural exponents in the way most European countries have, and have become unbelievably careless with our own culture. Maybe one day it will all be taken away from us, and then we will talk, with tears in our eyes, like Novak, of the treasures we had and lost.
I am writing a piece at the moment, a singspiel, which is taken from a satirical story by Hoffman. Hoffman was satirising Napoleonic times with its delusions of grandeur and attendant subservient flunkeys – a universal theme if ever there was one! Although I have moved the story away from Napoleon, I feel that I want to keep one foot in the early 19th century, and so I am referencing Rossini a bit, and using one particular melody 'Di tanti palpiti' from Tancredi (for all you Rossini fans!) as a basic source material for the music.
This tune is a real ohrwurm. I do recommend that you look at the Wikipedia entry for earworm (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earworm) – it is amazing how much people have thought about tunes that get stuck in your head. And did you know that earworms should not be confused with 'endomusia, a serious affliction, through which a sufferer actually hears music that is not playing externally.' Hmm.
The brief for my singspiel was that the theme of the festival it's in is Robert Schumann and mental health, and you may know that Robert Schumann had endomusia, and sometimes believed that angels were dictating pieces to him. But I wonder just where the dividing line is between hearing music in your head when you are composing and the serious affliction known as endomusia? I often wake up in the night and the piece I am writing is playing in my head, and I maybe even find it is solving a problem. (Sometimes I find it thinks it is solving a problem but it is not.) But whatever, I am always reassured that in the attic room that is my subconscious, work is being done while I (the drone) get to sleep.
History demonstrates that it seems to be important for a piece of music to be memorable in order for it to survive. But it is hard to define what memorability means. It doesn't mean easy or hard, for something like the Rite of Spring is extremely memorable, both melodically and harmonically. When I was in the BBC Singers it was always interesting what stayed in your mind and what didn't. We recorded all of Boulez' choral works, and performed them many times and yet personally I could not sing you anything from any of them, or even properly recall them in the way that I can recall The Rite. Sometimes as soon as the rehearsal had finished, the music was gone and the reigning earworm whether it was by Reich, Radiohead or even me, would return as if it had simply been put on hold.
Pieces which have been heard only once but have impressed can be recalled months or years later in a sort of compressed memory chip, some aural image of them which has been retained. What it is that makes them memorable is not necessarily that they can be whistled, like Rossini, but that something about them is so important to us personally that we need to repeat the memory of them. Maybe our subconscious minds are sending us some sort of psychological message in the same way that I believe illness is a physical message. I realise that this is an unsatisfactory explanation! and would welcome everyone's input. Meanwhile, I must get back to the serious affliction that is composing.
I am still reeling a bit from the British Composer Awards, held last Monday in case you didn't know. I was up for an award in the Choral category for Shakespeare Requiem, written for the Leeds Festival Chorus and the BBC Phil last year. It wrote it under the cloud of my brother's death so it held a special meaning for me. Having been at previous awards I knew better than to prepare a speech! Yes, superstitious. But I had a vague idea of what I might say if I won. The category before mine was Wind Band, and Adam Gorb, who won, said some kind words about Tim Reynish. If you haven't come across Tim, he is the superhero of wind bands and has personally commissiioned - well it might be hundreds of pieces for all I know, but he is a bit of an unsung hero in the wider music world. I thought that I would add some more words about him if I won. This was fatal as I was still thinking about this as I lost! Gabriel Jackson's piece The Spacious Firmament, which I've heard a few times now at JAM concerts, won, which was brilliant for him and very good news for JAM.
Don't let me go on about losing, I know I am neurotic. It is horrible though! Bad reviews are one thing, they may be public, but you can read them in the kitchen and then push them to the back of your mind. But losing in front of the music industry is another thing altogether. It has made me think a lot about the value of arts awards. All composers are acquainted with grief, to quote a seasonal piece, and spend their lives struggling to be recognised but also struggling with the work itself. I don't know about you but I think writing gets harder and harder. Any piece of art is unique, and it is surely folly to try and compare a piece of funky minimalism with some New Complexity utterance?
BASCA of course knows who has won each award. They say they don't tell the composers but it is not a well kept secret that some better known composers will not come unless they know, and who can blame them? Birtwistle lost 3 awards on Monday, he could hardly be expected to stand there with a smile on his face pour encourager les autres! There is definitely a temptation to say to Sarah Rodgers at the beginning 'we who are about to die salute thee, Caesar!' Obviously it is a lot more exciting to make the event competitive and a surprise, but it makes a very difficult experience for the composers, whether you win or lose. This isn't X Factor, nor is it the Oscars. Composers are not film stars, they don't earn vast amounts of money and public appearances on these occasions do not necessarily benefit them. Keep the surprise for the audience but just have the one winning award in each category - this would also give more time to talk about the piece and the commissioner. I would have liked JAM to have got a bit more publicity than it did, given its stellar work for new music. This evening should be celebrating new music and not BASCA.
And the standing! It was the topic of the evening and the next day, that standing for an hour and a half (in new shoes in my case!) is not good for you. A composer friend of mine said he had to take pain killers when he got home and was thinking of sueing! All the people at the back of the packed hall can't see and just chat and drink, while the rest of us hop from foot to foot. An already long evening this year had the addition of two new jazz pieces. For goodness sake BASCA, get real and book a theatre!


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Miriam Landor is a National Supervisor / Trainer (AVIGuk) with over 15 years experience. She is a freelance educational psychologist (HCPC-chartered, BPS-registered) and a member of RAPPS, the Register of Applied Psychology Practice Supervisors.
Affiliated to Czech Republic Germany Hungary Finland Netherlands USA
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"This book is the first to offer a comprehensive introduction to Video Interaction Guidance (VIG), together with an accessible account of the strands of theory and research underpinning the approach. It provides a much needed resource for both practitioners and trainers in the fields of psychology, social work and education. Connections with other perspectives and approaches are explored and encouraged in a book that is likely to inspire further development and research in VIG, as well as stimulating interest and engagement more broadly among practitioners."
— Professor Norah Frederickson, Director, Educational Psychology Group, Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, UK
"Video Enhanced Reflective Practice is a dynamic 'complex and creative dance' in Landor, Kennedy and Todd's hands. They tell how videos create challenging 'retrospective mirrors', bringing practitioners face to face with themselves and previously unperceived elements, including unfounded assumptions. Hard questions are asked, helping practitioners develop greater understanding, trust in, and respect for, themselves and their clients."
— Gillie Bolton, PhD, author of Reflective Practice Writing and Professional Development, 4th Edition (Sage, 2014)
Books and chapters
- Video Interaction Reflective Practice: professional development through attuned interactions, 2015, eds Miriam Landor, Hilary Kennedy and Liz Todd; Miriam Landor: 'Preface', 'How and why VERP works' and co-authored Introduction. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
- Video Interaction Guidance: a relationship-based intervention to promote attunement, empathy and well-being, 2011, Hilary Kennedy, Miriam Landor and Liz Todd; Miriam Landor co-authored chapters on 'Video FeedForward' and on 'Video Interaction Guidance and mindfulness'. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
- 'VIG in Scottish schools'. Jansen, H. (ed.) 2011 Verbondenheid in beeld – 10 jaar School Video Interactie Begeleiding, Retro Perspectief Volume 3. Amersfoort: Uitgeverij Agiel
Refereed journal papers
- Landor, M. (March 2011) 'Is the glass half-full or half-empty? Perceptions of recently-qualified educational psychologists on the effectiveness and impact of their Masters level research.' Educational Psychology in Practice.
- Kennedy, H.A., Landor, M. and Todd, L (September 2010) 'Video Interaction Guidance as a method to promote secure attachment'. Educational and Child Psychology – special issue on attachment.
- Landor, M., Lauchlan, F., Carrigan, D., & Kennedy, H. (2007). 'Feeding back the results of dynamic assessment to the child'. Advances in Speech-Language Pathology, 9(4), 346-353.
Conference organisation / papers
- June 2016 Conference, International Society for Early Intervention (ISEI), Stockholm. Paper: Video Interaction Guidance Applied to a 18-Month-Old Boy With a Mild Feeding Disorder and his Mother Dr Kornilia Hatzinikolaou and Miriam Landor
- Organised Newcastle 2014 International Research Conference on Video Enhanced Reflective Practice
- Newcastle 2011 DECP Annual Development Event (symposium: Educational Psychologists working in Video Interaction Guidance: New possibilities for creative relationship work. Paper: VIG and mindfulness: Attuned interaction in the present moment
- Dundee 2009 Video Interaction Guidance IRC Video Feedforward for change: transitions towards a preferred future
- Stavanger 2008 EECERA (European Early Childhood Education Research Association) 18th Annual Conference Reconsidering the basics in Early Childhood Education (symposium: For West Lothian's Children: A Scottish Authority's Response to Improving Educational Outcomes for Looked After Children. Paper: Delivering Early Intervention through Adult Learning and Professional Development
- Prague 2007 EECERA 17th Annual Conference Exploring Vygotsky's ideas: crossing borders (symposium: Video Interaction Guidance. An Effective Intervention based on Vygotskian Principles. Paper: An Exploration of the Perceived Effects of Giving Verbal and Video Feedback to the Child, Following Dynamic Assessment
- Miriam has also presented workshops on several occasions at SDEP / ASPEP annual conference Heriot Watt; e.g. 2009 Circles of Resilience; 2010 Writing for publication.
Journal editorial
- Attuned Interactions (e-journal for the VIG community). Founder; lead editor (current)
- Educational Psychology in Scotland (journal of Scottish Division of Educational Psychology. Editorial board; lead editor (previous)
Miriam has also published many book reviews for The Psychologist and other professional journals.
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text: LAS VEGAS (AP) — Las Vegas has been selected to host the NAACP national convention in July 2014. The choice was announced by NAACP and Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority officials after the conclusion of the organization's national convention in Orlando, Fla., last week. NAACP Las Vegas branch president Frank Hawkins hailed the selection, saying local members are up to the challenge of hosting the gathering. He says they realize they'll need the help of the Las Vegas community to make it a successful event. Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization.


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|Seriously, how could I not make this the cover picture for the series?
Here's the beauty of the playoffs: both the Devils and the Flyers are coming off emotional, physical and at times crazy series (for many different reasons), but it's time to quickly forget the past and get ready for the next series. Of course, these two division rivals know each other very well, and they're about to get even more familiar with each other. It's the #5 Flyers and the #6 Devils, and the winner will reach the Eastern Conference Finals.
First of all, let's quickly recap what happened between the Devils and Panthers. Many people thought this would be a quick series and that the more skilled Devils would blow by the Panthers. I picked the Devils to win in 5, but everyone who knows either team knew that it would be a tough series, and it was just that. The Florida Panthers' first trip to the playoffs since 2000 was a very competitive series. They gave the Devils everything they could handle, and were one goal in double-overtime of Game 7 away from knocking off the Devils.
The Devils played one of the best periods of hockey you'll ever see in Game 1 against Florida. They scored three times, had 26 shots on goal and established themselves as a true force in the series. While they didn't score after the first period of Game 1, they held on to win 3-2 and took the lead in the series. They played a bit of a lackadaisical Game 2 until the third period, when they attempted to overcome a 3-0 deficit with two quick goals early in the third, but fell short, 4-2.


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Worldwide, people are suffering the effects of skyrocketing food prices. Mexico -- where over half the population are poor -- is part of this global disaster that, according to the World Bank, has already impoverished an estimated 100 million people. As Frances Moore Lappé of Food First indicates, this is perhaps the largest human rights crisis in decades; however, it is altogether avoidable because it is the product of bad policy. Mexico's vulnerability and the impacts on its population are easily anticipated as the result of eroding Mexican food security under U.S.-backed trade liberalization and the legacy of policies in the U.S., such as the recently approved 2008 Farm Bill, that grant unfair advantages to large agricultural corporations and prioritize profit over the basic rights of people.
In January 2006, a Mexican consumer needed about $74 to purchase the items in a market basket, a selection of basic products necessary for survival. By April 2008, the same items cost about $117 -- a staggering 58-percent increase in only 27 months. While food staples such as beans, rice, condensed milk, and eggs rose in price 79 to 114 percent over the course of 2007, there was only a 4.5-percent increase in wages.
The urgency of the issue is heard in the voice of a poor indigenous shopkeeper in Oaxaca: "I hope to God that prices come back down -- there is no hope otherwise." She then lamented, "Another one from our family will have to emigrate to the U.S."
This is a crisis, however, that has been in the making for over two decades. Wages for Mexican workers lost 82-percent of their purchasing power since 1982, the year when trade liberalization, privatization, and market deregulation were first imposed on Mexico by the U.S.-dominated International Monetary Fund. The same IMF structural adjustment programs, in conjunction with the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, plowed under Mexico's food security by mandating the privatization or dissolution of state-regulated grain reserves and price-support programs, sweeping reductions in farmer credit and subsidies, the deregulation of commodities markets, and the elimination of tariff and quota protections on imported agricultural products. These radical changes to Mexico's largely self-governed food system and the precipitous fall in real earning power, compounded by the dumping of U.S. agricultural commodities that were heavily subsidized under previous Farm Bills, made it utterly impossible for almost all Mexican small producers and most medium-size growers to maintain an internal market for their goods.
Mexicans can no longer produce the basic food their country needs, nor can they afford the products sold to them by U.S. agribusiness giants such as Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland. Twenty years of this "silent food crisis" have resulted in increased undocumented migration, rising crime, unplanned urbanization, and many more people trying to make their way in the informal economy - trends that are likely to amplify given current policy and the mounting issues affecting global food prices.
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The new Farm Bill (approved in May), despite having been praised for domestic nutrition programs and financial support for small farms, maintains the unfair practice of designating the majority of its billions in subsidies to large agricultural conglomerates. As a result, large U.S. firms will keep the upper hand in setting the price for Mexican consumers.
Moreover, as it governs U.S. agricultural policy through 2012, the new law will continue subsidizing corn-based ethanol (now mandated to supplement every gallon of U.S. gasoline), furthering the trend of increased scarcity in corn -- the main staple in the Mexican diet -- and also raising the cost of other grains by diverting cropland for ethanol production. The World Bank recently stated in a leaked internal report that biofuel production accounts for 75 percent of the current rise in global food prices, a finding which brings further subsidization of corn-based ethanol into serious moral question.
The potential for windfall profits in the biofuel sector, combined with other factors such as the mass surge of unregulated investment coming out of the collapsed housing market, has created a bubble in agricultural commodities that is driving up prices. Rising costs of oil, which inflate fertilizer and transportation prices, as well as supply shortages due to overexploitation of groundwater and the devastation of harvests by floods and droughts, also contribute to the sudden, meteoric increases.
Having an integrated global food economy means that these alarming issues and their consequences hit the poor without restraint, and free market policy leaves little room to change local laws to safeguard people's economic rights. The food crisis many are confronting is the direct result of a failed U.S.-backed trade model and policies like the Farm Bill that rob Mexico -- and many other impoverished countries -- of their sovereignty in feeding their own people, potentially starving millions and distending people's need to migrate just to survive.
Robert M. Saper, originally from West Sunbury, PA, is a member of the Witness for Peace international team based in Oaxaca, Mexico; Witness for Peace is a Washington, DC, based non-profit organization that monitors and seeks to change U.S. military and economic policy in Latin America in support of peace, justice, and sustainable economies in the region. Robert and the WFP Mexico team can be contacted at email@example.com.@witnessforpeace.org>


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Benihana - Dulles
Populairste tags:
I have not been to this restaurant in awhile, but it seems as if the quality is going down. I'm not going to give up just yet, but I hope the Resturant pays attention to the posted reviews.
Sheron, thank you for sharing your review. We understand your concern. If you would like to get in touch with our team, please do so via the Contact Us page on our website. Your feedback helps us to make improvements, and we're hopeful that you will provide us with an opportunity to serve you again. Arigato.
It was very expensive-chicken was dry, tuna was dry- they forgot the shrimp on one plate- they forgot our icecream at the end and did not sing my daughter in law Happy Birthday 😒. Not worth the money we spent!!
Lee, thank you for sharing your review. We understand your concern. If you would like to get in touch with our team, please do so via the Contact Us page on our website. Your feedback helps us to make improvements, and we're hopeful that you will provide us with an opportunity to serve you again. Arigato.
Dinner was good, not great. The food wasn't as flavorful as usual.
We were seated at 7pm, but the chef did not start cooking at the hibachi till close to 8pm and the last person to be served at our table was not served till 8:45pm. We were not even offered drinks till about 7:45pm after my husband went and asked for a waiter. This timeline is unacceptable. We will not be back.
If you don't order a special that includes everything, they charge you a la carte, and it's more expensive. Better to order a special and put what you don't want off to the side or take it home and give it to someone. The food and service are amazing. Pricey, but worth it for a special occasion
Great service and staff, fun atmosphere
Me and a friend took our sons here to celebrate birthdays and we had a lovely time. The service is great and the food was delish!
Overall the experience was good. The food was delicious. Our chef wasn't up to par for a Benihana restaurant. She was very quiet and timid. Smiled a bit but hardly communicated with the group. Not sure if she didn't speak English too well or she was new and was nervous. She didn't even do the shrimp toss which is the best part of a Japanese Steakhouse experience.
Good food, fun atmosphere, attentive service
Overall food was good as always although it depends on chef
It's was ok.
Birthday was great
I ordered Filet and lobster and only got filet. The chef was junior.
Would i recommend maybe yes or no. Yes, the food is good but expensive. No, because Our chef got confused. She almost went to the table behind us who just arrived. She's not as friendly at the other chef's I met in a different restaurant. She did an ok job doing a cooking presentation to our kids. Even if she barely talk to us. I don't think she cooked that much rice compare to the other places we have been. She also got confused once. She gave my extra shrimp of my order to my husband. I didn't even noticed it. My husband did & he had to check the menu on his phone to double check. We just switch plates. She did say sorry for getting confused where to put what food. Our little girls did enjoy their ice cream for dessert.
We love the "Show" and fresh food. The Chef was great and prepared everything pretty fast. The waitress was a bit slow and not very attentive.
Went for my sons birthday,they gave my 4 year old daughter a broken pencil to color with because they didn't have crayons. I ordered a Chardonnay server came back with red wine and when I told her it was wrong she proceeds to tell me it was because I didn't specify.. regardless if I hadn't specify it was not a Chardonnay it was red wine... she sang happy birthday to my son and forgot to light the candle and we couldn't tell her because she was just rushing through the song.. she took a picture of us only to have another server tell her the printer was broken... the atmosphere is dead in there very boring.. the food was excellent no complaints on that. The server was terrible.
We went for a birthday celebration and within minutes were greeted by rude and aloof management. Making a reservation is not necessary; you'll be kept waiting with no communication regardless. At the end of the day, Customer service counts and bad customer service can ruin a dining experience.
Awesome!!!!!! It's a really nice place to celebrate
This was our first visit to the Dulles Town Center location (since in the past we frequented the Bethesda location) and DTC Benihana did not disappoint! We had an enjoyable meal for my son's birthday and the service was spot on! We look forward to going back to this location again!
Average and kinda pricy for lunch
Food was not good and overpriced.
dirty tables, extremely slow service, a waiter who seemed like he just rolled out of bed, orders wrong, and none of the typical fun of a japanese steakhouse experience. overall - just terrible
We went to celebrate our son's birthday. That was on our reservation and we also told our server about it. And our 4 year old son made sure he told everyone about it. That was the last we heard anyone mention his special day. Our chef was ok, but for the prices we paid, we expected much better. The preparation is part of the meal, part of the spectacle. Very blah. Food was a little overcooked all the way around. Our server was MIA for most of the meal. Getting refills wasn't easy. Had to ask another server. They charged for fried rice. Another (better) local hibachi place doesn't charge for that so that caught us offguard. And to cap it off, on a birthday dinner, they forgot to give our kids desserts (included on kid's meals). Disappointing. I think the old Benihana name and reputation would stick out. Turns out that was well in the oast. Definitely not recommended.
Our chef Jonathan was wonderful, talented and a great cook. Jack our server was helpful as well.
The hibachi chef was not very exciting to watch as I would usually expect at hibachi restaurants. It was also extremely over priced for service I could've gotten elsewhere with the same quality of food and better service.
The cook made good food, but the performance was a little weird.
Our family enjoys celebrating birthdays at Benihana. Unfortunately, the experience hasn't been a consistent one. Either the Chef doesn't provide a detailed performance, or a family photo isn't taken when on other birthdays it has, or the guest of honor doesn't receive their birthday treat and song. The food is excellent, the atmosphere fun, and we will continue to celebrate. There was just some lack of consistency in our experiences lately.
Wonderful experience for my dinner
Birthday Dinner
Servers could definitely be nicer!
Food was excellent but service was rushed and not very good. Server brought salad once chef had already started cooking show. Then brought dessert while we were still eating our main course. Cleared drinks that we had not finished yet and then came back twice asking if we were done with the check yet. Very unprofessional and made us feel like he couldn't wait for us to leave.
Our cook was very nervous and very unsure of the orders. I believe this somehow slowed down the meal being prepared in a timely manner. My meal was filet and shrimp. The shrimp were prepared last which is fine however the cook was confused and apparently thought she had cooked too much shrimp. So she put the 'extra' cooked shrimp in a bowl and wasn't going to serve them to me. I had to ask for the shrimp because they were part of my order. She still seemed reluctant to give them to me and had to be coaxed by the entire table to give me the shrimp I ordered. It was, to say the least, very weird. The food was prepared fairly well, just much slower than we are accustomed to at Benihana's.
Wait went 60 past reservation time. Food was delicious. Service felt as if we were bothering the waitress and she was doing us a favor.
Husbands promotion.
Always a good spot for a special meal. We came at an off time to avoid the rush. But service was bad (lots of mistakes in the otder) and the food just didnt taste as good as usual.
Service was awful. Waited 30 minutes for drink orders to be taken. Refills never came .. to forever to get forks. For the cost not worth it!
I like the Benihana, but seems that service is usually slow. This time around, our service was extremely slow. She may have been new. She did not know the menu very well. Friend ordered one brand of beer and received another brand and style. He wasn't told that the beer he wanted was out of stock. My beer was out of stock too, but I was told that. I also ordered an iced tea and had to ask 3 times for it. My wife did not order dessert, but she was given a dessert anyway. The server forgot to turn the heat up on the grill. That delayed the meal. I hope the service improves.
Food was really good and our showman, Jonathan, performed wonderfully. He tested the grill before cooking and realized that it was not hot enough. He apologized and said that we will be delayed 5 to 10 minutes. The manager came to apologize too.
We love Benihana! Our last two trips we have had Sandra...who is fabulous. Thank you for always providing good food, an enjoyable atmosphere and friendly staff.
Celebrating early Father's Day. Sushi was really fresh, we got three different kinds of. Our daughter got a lunch boat and we got hibiscus tea, very refreshing. Green tea ice cream for dessert. Not too crowded, just right.
No, hope to try another one in future - maybe. The service was really bad.


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Do What You Can
Venture Out
All About You
For me it is All about you. Would like to see it on a regular album...
I second what heimo said.
Do What You Can....Same as the first round....I think....whatever
"I knew a transsexual guy whose only ambition was to eat, drink, and be Mary." ~ George Carlin.
All About You.
But I like them all.
Venture Out...or All About You...hmm...it's tough...
Venture Out.
My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.
~Dalai Lama
I reject your reality and substitute my own.
~Adam Savage
I liked Venture Out on this one
Is this the way of the world, to take a boy and a girl and show them lying is real!
Please vote on the song you like the most if you haven't already.
Round 2 will come to a close soon.
i bet all about you would walkaway with this if their was a clean digital version like the other two!
hope someday it shows up on some project....
"There can be no tradition without innovation."
- Earle Hitchner, Irish music journalist
This poll ends on February 4.
Please vote if you haven't already.
Only one of these songs will move on to the final round in the Great Fixx Off!.
Will it be Do What You Can or All About You?
It's a tight race.
Round 2 polls will remain open, however, the Final Round is NOW in progress and is based on total votes present on February 4, 2006.