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Foreign Travelers
We just not only say that GUESTS ARE OUR GOD but we mean it and also provides the same experience to the guests. In India, Ranthambhore is one of the many places that truly gives you a feeling of home. Here you can see a tiger from a close range. With us, you can enhance this experience by staying very close to the prime zones of the forest. We do also provide personal guides who are highly knowledgeable about Ranthambhore, and can guide you through the area for your any activity like shopping, village touring, museum visit, jungle safari.


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Logan Trailer #2
Hugh Jackman gears up for one last ride as Wolverine as 20th Century Fox releases the second trailer for the upcoming superhero film Logan. View trailer below.
Set in 2024, one year after the events of X-Men: Days of Future Past, the atmosphere isn't in favor for the mutants and there is an evident decline in the mutant population, and those who are still existing are unable to use or maximize their powers anymore. The abilities of Professor X that greatly helped and guided the mutants is also destabilized and this thing leads to the possible depression of Logan who seems to be lost in an oblivious state of uselessness after swearing he will not use his claws to bloody purposes after his healing factors are also weakened. Meanwhile, an evil powerful organization had been amid upon the impending topple of the premium line-up of good and trustworthy mutants, project Transigen arises, where evil doctors and scientists turn kid mutants into killing machines. Logan and Professor X will have to rise above their pain and weaknesses to be able to defeat the brains behind the evil Transigen project.
Hmmm….interesting. So the identity of the girl (aka Laura Kinney) is revealed and having similar mutant powers to Wolverine (it was pretty cool to see her claws come out). As I said before, the movie interesting, but I've never been a huge fan of the solo Wolverine movies. However, this one looks a bit more intriguing than the last two, so I'm definitely going to see this, with some expectations for it to be good. Let's hope that Jackman's last X-Men movie will send off the character of Logan in a proper way.
Logan arrives in theaters on March 3rd, 2017

subset: commoncrawl


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A year ago, budget cuts at Florida State University threatened the future of the FSU/Asolo Conservatory, until a fund-raising drive generated $130,000 to ensure the three-year acting program would be able to recruit a new class for this fall.
This year, the graduate acting program needs to raise only half that amount, and a good portion of it is already available as a matching grant.
Greg Leaming, director of the conservatory, announced before Wednesday's opening performance of "Two Gentlemen of Verona" that the school is trying to raise $65,000 by January. In addition, conservatory donors Judy Zuckerberg and George Kole have set an $18,000 grant to match new donations, which could quickly provide more than half the money needed.
Leaming said the fund-raising total was cut in half because of "the success of last year's campaign and the number of endowments set up by donors to fund first-year student tuitions."
He said that "FSU, the FSU Foundation and Asolo Rep's development department are all working in very close collaboration to set a number of short- and long-term goals that will help bridge the gap between now and the successful completion of the endowment campaign" that will allow recruitment of a new first-year class to begin in January.
Zuckerberg and Kole got involved with the conservatory program last year and gave an initial gift of $25,000. They are now also sponsoring three students in the conservatory program.
For more information about the fund-raising campaign, contact Leaming at (941) 351-9010, ext. 2310.


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Back when accusations first started flying against Bill Cosby, Jill Scott was quite vocal in refusing to side with the accusers without "substantiated proof."
Now that she has hard proof that Cosby admitted to drugging women for sex, she responded to the endless barrage of "I told you so's!" from users of social media.
She wrote:
About Bill Cosby. Sadly his own testimony offers PROOF of terrible deeds, which is ALL I have ever required to believe the accusations.
— ?Jill Scott? (@missjillscott) July 6, 2015
1) We live in America. Many African American men are detained &/or imprisoned for crimes without evidence. I will never jump on bandwagons
— ?Jill Scott? (@missjillscott) July 6, 2015
2) based on social media or hearsay. Proof will always matter more than public opinion. The sworn testimony is proof. Completely disgusted.
— ?Jill Scott? (@missjillscott) July 6, 2015
I stood by a man I respected and loved. I was wrong. It HURTS!!! When you get it ALL right, holla.
— ?Jill Scott? (@missjillscott) July 6, 2015
Jill, next time nearly 40 women say they've been assaulted by one man, take it upon yourself to consider that at least ONE is telling the truth. That's disgusting enough as it is.


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In this episode, we sit down with Scott Barry Kaufman, one of the most-influential and prolific psychologists working today, to discuss his new book, Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization.
Business Insider magazine named Kaufman one of the "50 groundbreaking scientists who are changing the way we see the world," and you would likely agree after hanging out with him. In my experience, you feel seen, heard, respected, challenged, and above all, when you leave a conversation with Scott, you do so feeling either like you must work on your purpose in life from that point on, or you must work to find it.
In the show, we discuss our shared desire to bring humanistic psychology back to the forefront and walk through Kaufman's re-imagining of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and trace Kaufman's journey through Maslow's unpublished journals about his unfinished theory of transcendence which Kaufman hopes to complete by picking up where Maslow left off just before his untimely death.
From Kaufman's official bio:
Hi, I'm Scott! I'm a humanistic psychologist exploring the depths of human potential. I have taught courses on intelligence, creativity, and well-being at Columbia University, NYU, the University of Pennsylvania, and elsewhere. I am interested in using my research to help all kinds of minds live a creative, fulfilling, and self-actualized life.
I like to share my enthusiasm and knowledge of the science of potential through my books, teaching, self-actualization coaching, podcast, blog, articles, and speaking engagements. If you are interested in receiving personal self-actualization coaching from me, you can fill out the application here.
My writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Scientific American, Psychology Today, and Harvard Business Review. In my latest book Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization, I present a new hierarchy of human needs for the 21st century, one that allows for the fulfillment of individual potential as well as the actualization of transcendent purpose and peak experiences.
I host the #1 psychology podcast in the world— The Psychology Podcast—which has received over 17 million downloads and was included in Business Insider's list of "9 podcasts that will change how you think about human behavior."
Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization
Amazon – Barnes & Noble – Indiebound – Audible
A bold reimagining of Maslow's famous hierarchy of needs–and new insights for realizing your full potential and living your most creative, fulfilled, and connected life.
When psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman first discovered Maslow's unfinished theory of transcendence, sprinkled throughout a cache of unpublished journals, lectures, and essays, he felt a deep resonance with his own work and life. In this groundbreaking book, Kaufman picks up where Maslow left off, unraveling the mysteries of his unfinished theory, and integrating these ideas with the latest research on attachment, connection, creativity, love, purpose and other building blocks of a life well lived.
Kaufman's new hierarchy of needs provides a roadmap for finding purpose and fulfillment–not by striving for money, success, or "happiness," but by becoming the best version of ourselves, or what Maslow called self-actualization. While self-actualization is often thought of as a purely individual pursuit, Maslow believed that the full realization of potential requires a merging between self and the world. We don't have to choose either self-development or self-sacrifice, but at the highest level of human potential we show a deep integration of both. Transcend reveals this level of human potential that connects us not only to our highest creative potential, but also to one another.
With never-before-published insights and new research findings, along with exercises and opportunities to gain insight into your own unique personality, this empowering book is a manual for self-analysis and nurturing a deeper connection not only with our highest potential but also with the rest of humanity.
Support the show directly by becoming a patron! Get episodes one-day-early and ad-free. Head over to the YANSS Patreon Page for more details.
Links and Sources
Download – iTunes – Stitcher – RSS – Spotify – Patreon – Soundcloud – Omny


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Associate Editor
Rooted in Rights
Rooted in Rights
Allexa Laycock is a video producer and editor with Rooted in Rights. She is passionate about art as advocacy and decriminalizing mental illness. She has worked on a variety of projects for Rooted in Rights including a piece on the aging prison population, a project on the American with Disabilities Act for the city of Seattle, and a poetry video about mental illness. She also works with Rooted in Rights' Storytellers program providing training and guidance for individuals with disabilities to share their own stories.
Netroots Nation participation
- Netroots Nation 2019


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On 28 May 2021, the German Copyright Reform Law ("Law on the Adaptation of Copyright Law to the Requirements of the Digital Single Market") was passed. It transposes the Digital-Single-Market Directive (EU Directive 2019/790 of 17 April 2019), as well as the Online-SatCab Directive (EU Directive 2019/789 of 17 April 2019) into national law. What started as part of the "Digital Single Market" strategy in September 2016 will thereby come to an end on 7 June 2021, when the most comprehensive reform of German copyright law in two decades enters into force. Just in time for the transposition deadline, this marks another milestone on the road to a European, digital single market. The newly created Copyright Service Provider Act takes effect a little later on 1 August 2021.
What does the reform entail?
The reform targets platforms which publish the content of their users, such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Twitch and TikTok. It establishes their direct liability for copyright infringing content, uploaded by their users without authorisation. Such platforms are now obliged to acquire licences for any copyrighted content that might be published by their users. Copyright proprietors are to be awarded a direct remuneration claim against the platforms in exchange for such a license. Content that is not covered by such a licence must be blocked previous to it being uploaded, or removed immediately afterwards. Only start-ups and small companies are exempt from this comprehensive blocking obligation.
Exceptions are provided for the use of copyrighted works in the context of quotations, caricatures, parodies or pastiches, as well as, for the non-commercial use of small amounts of content (i.e. 160 characters, 125 kilobytes or 15 seconds). In contrast to the underlying directives, this de minimis exception does not apply to content from a live event or an unreleased film for the duration of the broadcast and as far as the rights holder requires it to be blocked.
Furthermore, press publishers must now receive an appropriate financial share when platforms display even just an excerpt of their journalistic content (e.g. accompanying a link to the entire article).
What does this mean in practice?
Despite past assurances from the German government that the use of upload filters would not be necessary to achieve this goal, it is difficult to imagine implementation without them. While the introduction of upload filters is not explicitly provided for in the law, it will be factually impossible for platforms to comply with their new comprehensive obligations without the help of such automated procedures. Whether the reform actually lives up to the claim made by Christine Lambrecht, the Federal Minister of Justice, that it will make German copyright "fit for the digital age", or whether the fears of "internet censorship" voiced by many critics will prove true, remains to be seen.


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Медицинский туризм/Medical tourism
Материал опубликован:
Medical tourism in the Penza region
Contact Information
Address: 2, Tsvetochnaya St., r.p. Tamala, Penza Region, 442900
Phone/fax: (84169) 2-12-44
Email: email@example.com
Basic information about a medical organization
The state budgetary healthcare institution "Tamalinskiy district hospital" of the Tamalinsky district of the Penza region is a medical organization that provides specialized and primary health care. Medical care is carried out in accordance with the license for medical activity License No. LO-58-01-002279 08/23/2019. The hospital was founded in 1926 . The hospital includes a round-the-clock hospital with 47 beds, a day hospital with 22 beds, a hospital in the home with 9 beds, a clinic with a capacity of 250 visits per shift, an in-hospital pharmacy.
List of medical services
Medical assistance is provided to residents in the following specialties:
- Therapy
- Pediatrics
- Surgery
- Anesthesiology - resuscitation
The clinic provides outpatient care in the following specialties:
- Medical massage
- Physiotherapy
- Functional diagnostics
- Ultrasound diagnostics
- Endoscopy
- Neurology
- Otolaryngology
- Ophthalmology
- Pediatrics
- X-ray
- Orthopedic dentistry
- Therapeutic dentistry
- Therapy
- Surgery
- Obstetrics and gynecology
- Dermatovenerology
- Phthisiology
- Psychiatry
- Narcology
- Traumatology and orthopedics
- Cardiology
- Clinical laboratory diagnostics
- Oncology
- Occupational pathology
Algorithm of applying to a medical organization for a foreign citizens
Free visit, hospitalization of foreign citizens is carried out in emergency cases, as well as in the presence of a voluntary or compulsory health insurance policy.
In case of emergency, you can contact a medical organization by calling(84169) 2-12-44, address 2, Tsvetochnaya St., r.p. Tamala, Penza Region, 442900.
If you have a medical policy Rules for making an initial appointment / consultation / inspection.


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fabfab on Dec 18th 2009
Here I am at the Brooklyn Historical Society, on my search through 180 year old Land Conveyences. Looking for the previous owners of 99 Ryerson street I found a few peices to the puzzle.
This is a short part of the Whitman Walking tour guided by Greg Trupiano, i created an introduction with pictures i took of my own visit to Ryerson street.


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Feature Story in The Outpost Magazine- Dutch Oven Cooking
I had the privilege of sharing information on Dutch Oven Cooking, one of my all-time favorite styles of cooking, with THE OUTPOST MAGAZINE, which by the way is a great magazine. I could probably talk all day about the various ways you can cook in a Dutch Oven. I have often said, if there was only one cooking vessel I could take with me on a deserted island, it would be my Dutch Oven. They are just that wonderful.


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US Ameribank Holiday Display
The Holiday Season is about family, festivities, and giving back to the community. US Ameribank knows how to give back by donating a 15 minute custom laser show in downtown Tampa, FL. Located 2 blocks from Amelia Arena this show could be seen all around the city and by cars driving through the city. Here…Details


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Saudi Gazette report
RIYADH — Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan Bin Abdullah met here on Thursday with his Eritrean counterpart Osman Saleh.
During the meeting, they reviewed bilateral relations and ways to enhance them in all fields to serve the aspirations of the two countries, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
They also reviewed the Kingdom's tireless efforts in support of regional and international efforts to lay the foundations for security and stability, resolve conflicts in the African continent, advance development, and promote investment in the continent.
The two foreign ministers discussed the latest developments in regional and international events. of common interest.
The meeting was attended by the Saudi ambassador to Eritrea, Saqr Al-Qurashi, and the director-general of the General Department for Arab-African Affairs at the Saudi foreign ministry Muhammad Al-Ali.


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June 9, 2021 – JOLT – Smelling Out Shinola
"Life often turns to sh*t before it turns to shinola."
– Jen Sincero
The old saying, about knowing the difference. . .
between sh*t and shinola is well known. But, on the flipside, can we always smell out the shinola from the sh*t?
I do a weekly Facebook Live video on Wednesdays for our new group (see the link above and join us) and took some time today to remind myself and others that, though we all have challenges to face every day — especially when we're playing for big outcomes (but even if not) — how we perceive those challenges makes all the difference in what comes out of them.
Do we perceive them as crummy circumstances getting in our way just when we thought we might have a good day?
Do we see them as situations, conditions or effects that have somehow befallen us and allow ourselves, even in the most internal of voices, to claim that we're a victim?
Do we see them as the necessary refinements to ourselves, our skills, our character, our personality traits to actually have us best prepared for attaining our goals?
or (and even best yet)
Do we see them as the absolute PERFECT and BEST things that could ever happen to us so that we become who we came here to be and do what we came here to do?
PRO TIP: None of the above possible perceptions (or any others you can come up with) are "true" but only possible interpretations. Yet, the choice of the filter through which you see your world impacts your experience of that world.
Take a look at any challenge you're going through right now, or any particular "negative" thing that's happened to you in the past, and run it through each of the four possible perceptions outlined above. Which ones leave you feelin more powerful? Which ones leave you believing that your life has rhyme and reason to it?
PRO TIP: Pick that one to view your life from.
Perhaps inside of any sh*t that has, can or could ever come your way, there's all the shinola in the world just waiting for you to see it.
If some sh*t has involved moving your career forward in a powerful way, on a budget and with velocity, check out a new program my HR executive wife and I put together to get folks ramped up for the BEST career transition time coming: summer!
Yes, you'd be amazed that, beyond a good resume, your being in a position to meet the thought-leaders, hiring professionals and executives sitting beside you at the beach or an outdoor cafe can actually initiate way more traction than you'd imagine. . .when most people think summer is the time to lay back.
Check it out here – https://www.careersecrets.com/dream-job-landing-pad – and let me know if you have any questions.
BTW, it's a BRAND SPANKING NEW program with some polish, nips and tucks to be implemented. . .which is why we're offering a HUGE discount for our initial beta testers.
This is the structure that can get you moving if your career is in any sh*tty holding pattern whatsoever: https://www.careersecrets.com/dream-job-landing-pad.
Think differently, play better.
CareerGuy and Back Forty Freedom Flier
Got your shinola out of your sh*t?
– Hazel Hira Ozbek
The post June 9, 2021 – JOLT – Smelling Out Shinola appeared first on CareerGuy.com.


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The Total Supply Chain Summit is specifically organised for senior professionals who are directly responsible for supply chain within their organisation, and those who provide the latest and greatest products and services within the sector.
Come and meet MacAndrews if you are looking at improving your logistics solutions help you perform better in your supply chain.
Both our representatives Stephen Smith & Graham Revis will be pleased to discuss how your business can benefit from our logisics solutions model.
13-14 November 2017, The Met Hotel, King Street, Leeds, LS1 2HQ
For more information and how to register to attend visit the Total Supply Chain website.


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Your favourite F&B outlets are now offering takeaway and delivery options
From Nasi Lemak Grain Bowl to Seafood Linguine Cartoccio, the choice of takeaway items has expanded significantly as restaurants switch gears to cater to those staying home.
With Singaporeans being urged to defer non-essential trips to the malls, and purchase food and groceries online, casual lunches and fine dinners might have to wait for a while. This is the best time to support your favourite F&B businesses, which are struggling to cope with the latest social distancing measures and drastic drop in bookings.
The situation is grim. Jeremy Nguee, who founded events catering service Preparazzi and Batu Lesung Spice Company and co-founded MRS KUEH, says that the recent launch of his Dream Shop online pop-up, featuring well-loved heritage fare such as Hokkien mee, nasi lemak and ngoh hiang, was a result of him realising the importance of diversifying his operations.
"COVID-19 caused all our events to be cancelled but it also forced me to be creative – and fast! It isn't as if there's less business gradually. It felt like the earth opened up and you just free fall into nothing," he told CNA Luxury.
"COVID-19 caused all our events to be cancelled but it also forced me to be creative – and fast! It isn't as if there's less business gradually. It felt like the earth opened up and you just free fall into nothing." – Jeremy Nguee
Michael Pekarsky, Director of Operations for The Dandy Collection, which is behind Neon Pigeon, Summerlong and Fat Prince, agreed: "It's unfortunate that it takes a crisis like the one we are currently facing to provide an impetus to launch our restaurants for delivery service. Nevertheless, it does give us an opportunity to create new offerings and build sub-brands within our bigger brands." This includes Neon Pigeon Bentos and Summerlong delivery menus that will debut in the coming weeks.
"It's unfortunate that it takes a crisis like the one we are currently facing to provide an impetus to launch our restaurants for delivery service. Nevertheless, it does give us an opportunity to create new offerings and build sub-brands within our bigger brands." – Michael Pekarsky
The Deliciae Hospitality Management group of restaurants, which include BTM Mussels & Bar and L'Entrecote The Steak & Fries Bistro, has also started delivering Family Packs suitable for four from its restaurants.
Restaurants that CNA Luxury spoke to say that the usual mandatory food hygiene and handling practices apply with takeaways and deliveries, and orders are usually prepared as close to pick-up timings as possible to ensure freshness.
Staff temperatures are recorded twice daily, with some such as Putien taking additional measures such as delivering food with the names and temperatures of the delivery staff to assure customers that everything is being tracked. Prefer contactless delivery? Your meals can be left at your doorstep upon request whenever practical.
In this crisis, every order is a delivery of hope. Here's a selection of what's available.
It's hard to say no to an Angus Beef Burger paired with housemade Valrhona chocolate brownie, a Country Sourdough Sandwich with a vanilla financier, or a generously stuffed Rye Sourdough Reuben Sandwich with a Gula Melaka Canele.
These lunchbox sets are now available for takeaway in limited portions of 50 a day from the one-Michelin-starred restaurant from Tuesdays to Thursdays, with 10 per cent of the proceeds going to the National University Hospital (NUH). You can also order a set specifically for the staff as Alma has committed to delivering 50 lunchboxes to NUH twice a week.
To order, email reservations [at] alma.sg () or call 6735 9937. More info on alma.sg
Create your own classic French meals from Bistro du Vin with dishes such as seasonal mushroom soup, braised beef cheek and 72 per cent Venezuelan dark chocolate mousse. Wines are also available for takeaway.
To order, call 6733 7763. More info at bistroduvin.com.sg
Order from a range of seven different flavours of seasonal European mussels, such as the popular savoury Au Roquefort and the more Asian-styled Thailandaises and Au Curry. There are also small bites such as Jamon Croquettes and Beef Tartare Toast as well as cheese and charcuterie platters. Add in a wine bottle or two and you're ready for a chillax soiree.
Order from Deliveroo, GrabFood and Foodpanda. More info at dhm.com.sg/btm
Sate those hunger pangs with appetisers, salads, pastas and mains such as grilled octopus, Kabocha pumpkin salad, SRF Kurobuta pork chop and bouillabaisse. Call at least 30 minutes in advance.
Order from bit.ly/culina-delivery or call 6854 6169. More info at culina.com.sg
Italy has extended its lockdown so the next best way to satisfy your Italian cravings is ordering some of Da Paolo's bestsellers such as its pizzas, the Mushroom Truffle Risotto served with carnaroli rice, mushrooms and topped with Italian black truffles and pecorino, and the Seafood Linguine Cartoccio, which is brimming with slipper lobster, scallops, squid, mussels and lobster bisque.
Order from Deliveroo and dapaolo.com.sg/dempsey
Get your paella and fideua fix here and they will come in a proper pan for you to scoop up the delicious socarrat. Just wash and keep the pans aside when you're done and the restaurant will pick them up another day. There is also a wide range of hot and cold tapas and meats for an all-rounded, happy-belly meal.
To order, send a WhatsApp message to 8218 6969 or go to GrabFood
Cheers to heritage fare prepared with the freshest ingredients and hours of home-cooked love. The menu changes every month and includes seasonal mains such as the Great Nasi Lemak Grain Bowl that has Angus beef cheek, rempah and local mushrooms, Ngoh Hiang with a whole prawn at the centre of each roll, and Kueh Salat made with pure pandan juice, fresh coconut cream and high-quality glutinous rice.
Order from dreamshopsg.com
From Esquina, say hola to Spanish signatures such as the Carabinero Paella (serves three to four), Iberico Ham Arturo Sanchez with Pan Con Tomate (serves two) and Basque Cheesecake (serves six to eight). Feeling especially hungry? Get the Homely Spanish Family Meal that includes all the above plus a Traditional Spanish Omelette.
Order from esquina.oddle.me at least two hours in advance. More info at esquina.com.sg
Take a virtual trip to West Asia as you savour aromatic flavours of dishes such as the Cashew Hummus that comes with fluffy baked Turkish flatbread, Spring Pea Falafel Kebab, and the hot favourite Pit Roasted Lamb Kebab filled with zhoug, olive, dukkah, rocket and fried garlic.
Order from fatprince.oddle.me. More info on fatprincesg.com
If you're within a 2km-radius of the hotel, or in the Raffles Place and Tanjong Pagar neighbourhoods, you're in for a treat. Delivery items include Asian delights from the Coffee Lounge such as Hainanese Chicken Rice and Provencal Herb Marinated Spring Chicken, and Min Jiang's Sichuan and Cantonese signatures such as Drunken Chicken and Fried Mee Sua with Seafood in XO Sauce.
Order from goodwoodparkhotel.oddle.me. Delivery fees apply. More info at goodwoodparkhotel.com
Learn a new craft while staying home. Janice Wong's new monthly subscription boxes are not only filled with her signature products and yet-to-be-released exclusives, they also include a "Bake at Home with Janice Wong" recipe card with instructions to replicate her treats.
There are five chocolate paint jars, two brushes and edible paper and chocolate crayons. Subscriptions start from a minimum of six months at S$35 per month.
Order from janicewong.online
Its mouthwatering zi char-style dishes are already available for takeaway and delivery. This May, it will launch UbinEats with six different one-person meal boxes such as the Ubin Nasi Lemak and Vijay Banana Leaf rice set served with choice of chicken masala, black ink squid or mutton curry.
Order from newubinseafood.com and GrabFood.
The restaurant chain has introduced Takeaway Specials at all its outlets (except Jewel Changi Airport), with popular favourites such as Fujian Lor Mee and PUTIEN Cabbage Rice available in lower-priced and smaller portions. It has also extended its delivery menu to include set meal options and dishes such as Deep-fried Pork Trotters and Braised Luffa with Conpoy.
Order from on Foodpanda, Deliveroo and GrabFood. More info at putien.com
Chef Lim Yew Aun's wood-fired Neapolitan pies and fresh handmade pasta paired with biodynamic wine gems come with an accompanying 20-track, Spotify playlist too. Items include handmade Casarecce pasta, Iberico Pork and Brussel Sprouts.
All three Cicheti concepts – Cicheti, Caffe Cicheti and Bar Cicheti – will have takeout menus with pre-orders available on their respective websites. There are also DIY kits with pasta, sauces and instructions also available.
Order from Deliveroo, GrabFood and Foodpanda or the respective restaurant websites
While it isn't quite the same as dining at The Halia's foliage-filled location, its modern European dishes with Asian influences is still a comforting indulgence indoors.
Their halal delivery menu ranges from their famous Singapore-style Chilli Crab Spaghettini to the Paperbag Oven Baked Halibut Fillet, which comes with sesame Japanese rice, wakame and truffle aioli.
Order from Foodpanda, GrabFood and bit.ly/haliaonline
Nouri's chef-owner Ivan Brehm has opened a new multi-disciplinary space Appetite to celebrate art, food and design under one roof. The online shop has just started pick-up and delivery service, and already popular items from their R&D kitchen such as the To Nourish You bread and broth care package and Just Buy A Loaf rye sourdough bread are sold out. Fastest fingers first as Chef Brehm rolls out more items in the coming weeks.
Order from shop.appetitesg.com
The highlight of Vianney Massot's eponymous one Michelin-starred restaurant's L'Agneau de Lait takeaway set is legs of milk-fed lambs from the Pyrenees mountains. These are pan-seared before being slow-roasted to juicy perfection. Served with freshly-made bread and pilaf rice, the dish feeds four to five persons, with the option of items such as Tarte aux Fraises and red wine.
To order, call 6909 6360 or email reservations [at] vianneymassot.com () at least one day in advance. Delivery fees apply.
Choose from Nyonya Bentos, a la carte choices and Petit Feasts good for four to six people. The Petit Feasts come in four different six-course menus, featuring flavourful Peranakan dishes such as Rebung Masak Lemak, Violet Oon's signature Dry Laksa and Gado Gado.
Violet Oon Singapore Satay Bar and Grill has also launched a Stay Home BBQ Feast with a selection of grilled meats and vegetables and VO Street Satay in beef, chicken and Impossible Meat variations.
To order, email eat [at] violetoon.com or call 9138 3592 (Violet Oon Singapore Satay Bar and Grill) / 9834 9945 (Violet Oon Singapore at Buikit Timah)
Enjoy a heartwarming meal of modern Italian dishes such as Linguine Astice Pomodoro with Canadian lobster and Merluzzo Asparagi Verdi Patate (oven-baked cod with asparagus and roasted potato puree). Or pick a freshly baked pizza or two with homemade focaccia bread for simple, rustic evenings.
Order from Deliveroo. More info at zafferano.sg


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FNB on mobile
Mobile Banking continues to surge in customer usage and customers therefore needed to make sure that they were aware of the safety measures that they needed to take to ensure they do not compromise their personal banking details, this according to Garth Kleintjes, Chief Information Officer at FNB Namibia. "During the festive season fraudsters are very active as they know some of us have more money, while others tend to be less vigilant and in a holiday mood," said Kleintjes. FNB thus calls on all customers to be aware of the fraud mechanisms used by fraudsters' to defraud customers. "The first step in the safekeeping of personal banking information is to ensure firstly that you have created a password for your mobile device and then having a separate password for mobile banking and other electronic profiles and not to disclose your Login PIN, User ID, Password or One Time Pin (OTP) to anyone. Clients should avoid using easily guessable passwords such as 1234 or 0000 etc, as criminals can easily bypass these and gain access to devices," he said.


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5 ways to stay safe on a family canoe trip this Summer
Few things beat a paddle down the river with the family on those sweltering Summer days. As an activity that promotes team work, effective communication and the acquisition of numerous outdoor skills, it is unsurprisingly that swathes of families around the world take to the rivers once school is out. That said, nothing comes before safety, and river safety comes with its own wave of nuances. Provided that the sternsman (that is, the person sitting in the stern and assuming the role of captain) has the necessary skill set for downriver canoeing, here are 5 tips for staying safe on the river this Summer.
1. Know the river, know your route
Before anything else is considered, it is imperative that you know the river. This means knowing where your entry and exits are, if there is any white water and if there is, exactly how it needs to be navigated, being aware of what is coming and what needs close attention paid. It is so important that there are no blind spots on the river – sections where you do not know what is coming and how the water is moving. Even when you are familiar with how the river runs, you also need to be aware of any variable factors that may effect and change how the river is flowing. Severe weather in nearby mountains could produce sudden surges and changes in hydraulics – making the river faster and the current stronger. Recent storms in the region could also down trees across the river, creating deadly sweepers. Having an overall awareness of current weather patterns in the region as well recent weather is paramount.
2. Double check vessel suitability
Once the route has been determined, it is important to consider the suitability of your proposed vessel. It is not uncommon for inflatables to be seen on rivers that should be navigated by fibre glass, plastic or wooden canoes, and invariably end up needing help. A canoe with a keel is well suited to flat water paddling – as you would on a lake – but is not ideal for downriver as it is less manoeuvrable and more likely to flip. When renting or purchasing a canoe, be sure to check its suitable for down river excursions, if that is your intention for it.
3. Make sure everyone wears a properly fitted lifejacket
Before placing a toe into the canoe, make sure that everyone has a properly fitted lifejacket. No matter the level of swimmer or comfort with water, everyone needs to be in a lifejacket. At least one person should have a throw bag – and be practised in its use – and well as a whistle and a knife attached to their lifejacket. For children, it is imperative that it is not too big and has a strap between the legs that makes the lifejacket slipping over their head impossible. If a canoe unexpectedly flips it can be frightening for everyone, and knowing that your little ones will be kept visible on the surface, and that a powerful current will not pull their jackets over their heads is extremely reassuring. Check kid's lifejackets, and then check them again.
4. Pack properly
Be sure that you pack all that you know you will need, and that which you hope you will not need. Particularly if the excursion is more than a few hours, covering all eventualities is really important. Some basics would include plenty of water, snacks, sun screen, sun hats, a first aid kid, a way to communicate with those outside of your family/group, extra rope, dry clothes, dry towel and a dry bag to put these items in. Many canoes will have a place to clip the dry bag too, so you need not worry about it unintentionally floating away. Fast moving weather – especially in mountainous regions – or unexpected flips, are ways to get wet and cold quickly, and if you are in the wilderness far from your exit point, it is important to have a means to warm up.
5. Take frequent breaks
Take frequent breaks and opportunities to play and refuel. A fun activity after-all, it is good to take a break or two, cool down in eddy or section without a strong current, cliff jump and refuel with food and drink. After an hour or so the novelty of paddling will wear off for kids, so breaking up the day with fun breaks is a great way to keep them enthusiastic about paddling. Furthermore, drinking plenty of water on a hot day is a must, and making sure to eat enough to stay energised and focused is important. As an adult on the trip, it is easy to neglect your own needs – skip a meal or two – in favour of keeping the kids safe, fed and watered, only to later find that you're desperately low on energy and strength. Stop, rest, eat, drink and play.
Whatever corner of the world you find yourself in this Summer, stay safe on the rivers, but also seize the opportunities to have fun in the outdoors with the family.
Nadine Robb is Owner and Instructor at Hakuba Ski Concierge. Hakuba Ski Concierge is a boutique ski school in Hakuba, Japan.
If you would like to be a guest blogger on A Luxury Travel Blog in order to raise your profile, please contact us.


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Raoul Middleman
Raoul Middleman (born 1935 in Baltimore, Maryland) is an American painter known for his "provocatively prolific work--primarily traditional, including figure studies, landscapes, and still lifes--and for being a megawatt personality." [1] Middleman has been a member of the Maryland Institute College of Art faculty since 1961.[2] In a 2009 Baltimore City Paper article Bret McCabe described Middleman's paintings as featuring "... expressive strokes, a tight control over an earthy palette, a romantic tone slightly offset by a penetrating eye —becomes distinctive even if you haven't seen them before, so strongly does he articulate his old-fashioned sensibility in his works." [1]
American University Museum at the Katzen Center has described Middleman as a "Baltimore maestro [whose] nudes are not pretty—they are sagging, dimpled, and real. His cityscapes reveal the underbelly of post-industrial rot, his narrative paintings give contemporary life to his personal obsessions. They are intelligent, messy, and utterly masterful." [3]
"Other artists would look at the relatively undramatic landscape of this region and respond with quiet paintings, but Middleman sees all of nature as being animated. If anything, the countryside is so inherently full of life that animals, people, and buildings are usually no more than blips on the horizon." Giuliano continues to say, "Middleman's theatrical and somewhat claustrophobic portraits remain firmly within a studio environment; when he goes to the country, people pretty much drop from the scene. It's as if the landscape itself is so completely exposed that placing a female nude out there would be redundant." [4]
Paintings by Raoul Middleman can be found in private and corporate collections such as Baltimore Museum of Art, MD; Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC; National Gallery of Art, Washington DC; Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; National Academy of Design, NY; New York Public Library, NY; and Syracuse University, NY.[5]
The C. Grimaldis Gallery in Baltimore, Maryland has represented Raoul Middleman since 1977.[6]
Beer with a Painter: Raoul Middleman
Beer with a Painter: Raoul Middleman
Jennifer Samet
November 9, 2013
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I met Raoul Middleman in Baltimore, and after stopping for fried oyster po' boys and ginger ale at the Tooloulou Café, we drove to his studio-warehouse, a building that houses about seven thousand of his paintings. To call him prolific would be a major understatement. We took a tour around the space, sat down to talk, then toured some more, pulling out dozens of paintings from the racks.
Middleman talks fast — really fast — just like he paints. It is a raucous rollercoaster of conversation. To illustrate an idea, endless allusions and references roll off his tongue. His energy bursts at the seams, like the figures that can't be contained in his painted space.
Middleman was born in Baltimore in 1935, and was a philosophy major at Johns Hopkins. After spending time in New Orleans, he served in the army in the mid-1950s. From 1959 to 1961, he studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Skowhegan Summer School, and the Brooklyn Museum Art School. He has taught at the Maryland Institute College of Art since 1961.
He is represented by C. Grimaldis Gallery in Baltimore. From the 1960s through the 1990s he showed with Allan Stone and the Ice Gallery in New York, and more recently with Kouros Gallery and MB Modern. In 2012, he was the subject of an exhibition at the Katzen Museum of American University in Washington, DC. A retrospective exhibition will be held in the fall of 2014 at the University of Maryland University College, which has a major collection of Middleman's work.
- * *
Jennifer Samet: You were a philosophy major at Johns Hopkins and planned to be a writer. I've read that a girlfriend introduced you to painting. Did you draw or paint as a young person at all?
Raoul Middleman: I always drew and I started painting a little bit, but I wanted to be a writer. I wrote a novel around the same time as Kerouac's novel, which I didn't know about at the time. Mine I called Hitchhike; his is On the Road. It wasn't very good, but I did save a chapter out of it. And I wrote poetry.
I went to New Orleans. I wondered if I could be both a writer and a painter. I met this girl who was older than me and she said, "A writer you already are, we'll make a painter out of you."
JS: How did you end up in New Orleans?
RM: I was hitchhiking around. I wanted to see the country. I was a cowhand, went to California, worked on a wrangler and deer hunting concern. Then I went down to New Orleans and worked for the Department of Agriculture. I also worked in a library, and that's where I learned art history.
I got a license to sell my drawings in the French Quarter. I made portraits of people and people would always tear them up, even though they were only fifty cents, because, as Al Hansen would say, I'm an uglifier.
Then I had to go to the army. I went back to Baltimore to get my physical and waited around there all summer. There were two things I liked a lot in Baltimore. We had a big burlesque area, called "The Block." Now it's condensed, but it used to go into all the side streets. The strippers and the burlesque comedians and burlesque shows were a big part of my life; I loved it.
Two blocks south of that was the harbor. It was full of darkness and decay: the wharves, built by man, and reclaimed by nature. My friends and I would get a bottle and sit on the barge and dream about being artists and writers, as the fog would roll in. These two things: the burlesque being carnival, and the harbor being funereal, really influenced my work.
In the army, they noticed I had talent, and cut orders for me to be an artist. But I had problems. I was too messy for commercial art. Once I was drawing an eagle and I slid the T-Square the wrong way. The pen went over the wet ink. I messed it up, and next thing I knew, they put me on weapons detail, mowing the lawn, anything but art! I did cut-outs of enemy soldiers. I would try to paint them straight, but they came out ugly and they would be used for target practice.
Three days after I got out of the army, I went to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. It was five hundred dollars a year and my parents paid for it. The next year I got a scholarship. I loved the teachers there. And I went to the Barnes Foundation and studied with Violette de Mazia. I got started teaching at the Maryland Institute in 1961. I used to be the youngest guy, now I'm the oldest guy.
JS: Were you making figurative paintings during those early years?
RM: I was doing abstract art. Then Roy Lichtenstein came around, and I wanted to be current. I remember Grace Hartigan said, "You've gotta go to New York, seize destiny by the hand." My friend Jon Schueler took my slides up to Eleanor Ward, who had the Stable Gallery.
My Pop paintings were discovered. I moved to New York into Malcolm Morley's old loft down on South Street. Agnes Martin was upstairs. I had a beautiful wife, my first wife, and an art dealer fell in love with her. The whole thing disintegrated. My marriage broke up. My whole life was cancelled. I had to reinvent myself. I couldn't go anywhere with Pop Art. There was a wall.
I knew how long it would take me to make a Pop Art painting. It was like being a car mechanic in Detroit. It would take me three months if I was teaching, and a month if I wasn't teaching. Jon Schueler and I would have long talks about painting. He said about his own work, "I don't know how long a painting will take me. I might do it in fifteen minutes, or I might do it in fifteen years." That appealed to me: the freedom you have in that.
People who interest me come from different quarters. I knew guys around Schueler, like B.H. Friedman. But I also knew the Pop world pretty well – Al Hansen, Richard Artschwager, Lichtenstein. I became friends with Raoul Hague and I rented a place in Port Jervis, New York. I started doing my first landscapes up there. I thought making landscapes was the dumbest thing you could do. You got flies, insects, cowpies, humidity. But I loved it.
Maybe I loved it because I couldn't attribute some kind of graduate school theory to it. The absurdity of making landscapes in the 20th century was a kind of release, and I was angry and rebelling against the whole Pop art world. There is a crazy arrogance to taking on the whole avant-garde.
I went down to the meetings of the Figurative Alliance. I met my friends there — Paul Resika, Paul Georges, Rosemarie Beck, Louis Finkelstein, Gretna Campbell. Gabriel Laderman — he was difficult and complex, but ultimately supportive. Marjorie Kramer and Sam Thurston. They were welcoming.
JS: Some have suggested that your paintings are literary. Do you agree? How do you see the differences between telling a story visually versus in writing?
RM: The point of view at that time was art for art's sake. Form and color were the important things, and anything that smacked of illustration was morally evil. The question is: what makes a painting illustrational, and what transcends it.
In Shakespeare's Julius Ceasar, Antony says, "This was the most unkindest cut of all." That is bad grammar. But, it is great. Here was Brutus doing something so unkind that it breaks the law; the morality of friendship was broken. The grammar becomes a violation of its own rules, in order to express the idea.
Or, take the example of Mozart's Don Giovanni. Usually in opera you have the main character sing an aria that would identify the persona. But in Don Giovanni, you wait for him to deliver the goods. The story of Don Giovanni is that he tells the girls, "Wait for me." So the idea of waiting for the form — the aria — to transpire, is also the content.
r2 Raoul Middleman, "Death and the Maiden" (1984) (all images courtesy of the artist) In Titian's Bacchanal of the Andrians, in the Prado, the nude is in the corner. You never put the most voluptuous nude in the corner. But the painting is all about being drunk. Everything is out of whack because the form is a drunken kind of form.
The form can become an extension of the content. I find in my own work that these things happen organically. Often, it is only after I have finished a painting, that I discover the formal elements, which add to the narration. For example, I did a portrait of a man in politics who accepted bribes and went to prison. He was a great guy, though, head of the city council, and did a lot for the city. There was this bit of red. I left it, but I was going to come back to it. But I forgot and he took the painting. He said to me, "You know something? You put the brand of Cain on my forehead." He could never go back into politics.
So what is this? As an artist, you are like a medium. It is very mysterious. You have to listen to the structure, and not impose your own intellectual will too much upon it. At the same time you have to impose your will. It is like riding a horse: if you give too much rein he'll run away with you, but if you pull back, you will numb the mouth. That is all in the touch, the paint. Being in the groove, the zone, applying the right amount of pressure to the brush.
JS: You talk about cultivating a mess, admiring the idea that you can smell the humanness in a Rembrandt, painting ugliness that is real life. Can you address this? Aside from Rembrandt, who else are your models for this in art history?
RM: Yes. With a Rembrandt you can smell the cabbage cooking, and the cream cheese and lox in his gums. Whereas painters like Velazquez and Corot stand back; there is a reserve. Rembrandt is hot and he is vulgar.
De Kooning said he liked the melodrama of vulgarity. Vulgarity isn't necessarily about painting armpits that exude a vapor of stench. It could be just about getting into your private space. Frans Hals does that. He paints like a used car salesman — the elbows in your face. It's like a schmuck trying to sell you a Dodge.
In A la recherche du temps perdu, Proust says that every time a new art form comes along, it might appear ugly. It doesn't necessarily obey the canon of rules of beauty, and so it challenges the old order. When Jackson Pollock first came up, the paintings looked like vomit to people. Now they look like cake icing. Impressionism was considered to look like dirty laundry.
Beethoven's Grosse Fuge is a great work of art but it is still an incredible lumbering giant of ugliness. It hasn't become cake icing like Pollock. It is still inchoate energy, dysfunctional sound.
There can also be elegance within that, however. Soutine's paintings have tremendous power, anxiety, and turmoil, but at the same time, his paintings are like a bird builds a nest. His body throws the paint, and makes a perfect oval. A certain tenderness encapsulates the violence of his emotions. Ugliness can be beautiful, enchanting, transformative, and it can create a new order.
Rembrandt's painting, "The Apostle Paul," in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., has a furious expressionist brushwork. Saint Paul is listening; his pen is poised. His ear is the center of the painting. And, the garment that comes over St. Paul's shoulder is shaped like an orifice, like a big ear. The painting is about listening for otherness to inform. St. Paul is listening for the word of God. But that becomes a metaphor for listening for a new order of painting that Rembrandt is developing. Ugliness can be about attacking this closed moral system.
JS: There is a quote by Renoir, in which he says something like, "You should smell the perfume of the model but not her body." Still, I think of him when you talk about these issues. What are your thoughts on him, in terms of these ideas about ugliness and beauty?
RM: I think of Renoir's paintings as experiential; I think of them as truth. Renoir has terrific balance between thick and thin. Renoir is good, really good. And the reason why people have trouble with Renoir now is that they have forgotten the language of painting.
People have forgotten the great sensibility of Renoir — how he just touches the paint and brings it out opaque. You get that in a Titian. I always tell students: "You want to learn how to paint? Put your nose up against a Titian! See how the paint goes in and out of the fabric of the linen, and the weave." You start to feel that sensuous application of the paint, being a kind of lovemaking, in the case of Renoir. Renoir paints youth: the sheer unabashed luminosity of flesh, of youth, whereas Rembrandt paints age.
JS: You are prolific and tend to work quickly. Do you generally complete paintings in one session? And do you consider the compression of space in your paintings aesthetically related to a compression of time, in terms of working fast?
RM: There is a concept in literature: like in Charles Dickens's David Copperfield, the character Mr. Micawber. Whenever you come across him, he is this bundle of compacted energy, compressed, about to explode.
In my paintings, I am like a rat. I will work with any space but the image just gets bigger and bigger — bulging out. It gets out of control that way. I don't set out to do that, but it happens. Occasionally, I can fit a whole figure in a space, but usually, when I want to put the whole figure in, I am lucky if I fit the earlobe.
I generally do better when I am going fast. Most of my paintings are one-session paintings, although I have some I've worked on for years — the narratives. But the best things I do all at once, even big paintings.
I try to do my portraits in three or four-hour periods. My landscapes I like to do all at once. I guess I am like a slugger. John Scheuler said I'm an intellectual; I ain't no intellectual! I need to get into the fray. There's something phony about coming back into a painting. The day is not the same; the mood is not the same; the light is not the same.
Usually if I come back into it, I repaint everything; I don't try to improve something I've done. Sometimes you have to take out the best part of it, or you get stuck. Where my intentionality is focused, I might not get it. It is a matter of having a balance of looseness and intentionality. A certain amount of daring-do, but not so much that you become irresponsible.
I try to keep the primitive quality of a painting. I paint fast, because if I spend too much time on a painting, I might bring it back to a place where it becomes a palliative condiment to assuage the nerve endings of a jaded public. I would rather keep it at that point where it is a frontal assault on our central nervous system.
- Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Brooklyn Museum Art School, Brooklyn, New York
- Skowhegan Summer School, Skowhegan, Maine
- B.A. Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
Selected Solo Exhibitions
- Kouros Gallery, New York, NY
- also 09, 07, 04
- Howard Community College, Columbia, MD
- C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, MD
- also 07, 05, 03, 01, 99, 84, 81, 79, 78
- The Painting Center, New York, NY
- Rodger Lapelle Galleries, Philadelphia, PA
- Maryland Art Place, Baltimore, MD
- Bavarian Paintings, Murnau, Germany
- MB Modern, New York, NY
- University of Maryland University College, College Park, MD
- Roger LaPelle Galleries, Philadelphia, PA
- Troika Gallery, Easton, MD
- Ice Gallery, New York, NY
- also 97, 96
- City Hall Galleries, Baltimore, MD
- Steven Scott Gallery, Baltimore, MD
- Jewish Community Center, Baltimore, MD
- Ingber Gallery, New York, NY
- Contemporary Realist Gallery, San Francisco, CA
- Swanston Fine Arts, Atlanta, GA
- Anne Arundel Community College, Arnold, MD
- Allan Stone Gallery, New York, NY
- also 81, 78, 75, 72, 69, 68
- Kornbluth Gallery (with Wolf Kahn), Fair Lawn, NJ
- William Capro Gallery, New Bedford, MA
- The Water Gap Gallery, Walpack Center, NJ
- Boston University, Boston, MA
- Yale Summer School of Art, Norfolk, CT
- Scott-McKennis Gallery, Richmond, VA
- Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
- also 63
- Krasner Gallery, New York, NY
Selected Group Exhibitions
- C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, MD "Summer '07"
- C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, MD "The Dialectic of Line"
- C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, MD, "Summer Show"
- C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, MD, "Narrative Visions, Works by: Grace Hartigan, Beverly McIver,
Raoul Middleman, George McNeil, Sangram Majumdar, David Rich, and Tony Shore"
- National Academy, New York, NY "173rd Annual Exhibition"
- Ice Gallery, New York, NY
- C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, MD "The Painterly Landscape"
- National Academy, New York, NY "172nd Annual Exhibition" [Benjamin Altman Prize]
- American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, NY "Invitational Exhibition"
- National Academy, New York, NY "171st Annual Exhibition"
- The Art Museum at Florida International University, Miami, FL "American Art Today: Images from Abroad"
- National Academy, New York, NY "169th Annual Exhibition"
- American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, NY "Invitational Exhibition"
- Artscape '92, Baltimore, MD "Masters, Mentors, and Makers" National Academy, New York, NY "167th Annual Exhibition"
- National Academy, New York, NY "165th Annual Exhibition" [Robert and Rochelle Philipp Prize]
- University of Maryland, Baltimore County "A View from Baltimore to Washington"
- Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD "The Landscape Observed"
- Gaumann Cicchino Gallery, Fort Lauderdale, FL "The Landscape Revisited from Maine to Key West"
- The Art Museum at Florida International University, Miami, FL "American Art Today: Narrative Painting"
- Norman and Sarah Brown Gallery, Jewish Community Center, Baltimore, MD "Invitation Exhibition (in honor of Israel's 40th anniversary)" [First Prize]
- Maryland Art Place, Baltimore, MD "Landscape: Three Perspectives" 1987 School 33 Art Center, Baltimore, MD "Three on Three: Hartigan, Leake, Middleman"
- Haus der Kunst, Munich "Das Automobil in der Kunst"
- W.C. Bradley Company, Columbus, GA "Contemporary American Realists" 1984 Artist's Choice Museum, New York, NY "The First Eight Years"
- National Academy, New York, NY "159th Annual Exhibition"
- Thorpe Intermedia Gallery, Sparkill, NY "Primacy of Seeing"
- One Penn Plaza, New York, NY "New Landscape"
- Jersey City Museum, Jersey City, NJ "Painterly Landscape"
- William Capro Gallery, New Bedford, MA "The Artists' Choice"
- Goucher College, Towson, MD "Contemporary Watercolors"
- George Washington University, Washington, DC "The Painterly Vision"
Selected Collections
- American Broadcasting Company, New York, NY
- Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
- Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
- Frye Museum of Art, Seattle, WA
- Hamline University, Saint Paul, MI
- Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
- National Academy of Design, New York, NY
- National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
- New York Public Library, New York, NY
- Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
- Towson University, Towson, MD
- University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Selected Awards & Honors
- Edwin Palmer Memorial Prize, National Academy of Design, New York, NY
- Artist In Residence, LMCC, World Trade Center, New York, NY
- President, National Academy of Design, New York, NY
- Benjamin Altman Prize for Figure Painting, National Academy of Design, New York, NY
- Robert & Rochelle Phillip Prize, National Academy of Design, New York, NY [7]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 McCabe, Bret. "Pleasures of the Flesh." The Baltimore City Paper 8 April 2009. Print.
- ↑ Middleman, Raoul. "Your Wikipedia Page." Message to MacKenzie Peck. 8 May 2012. E-mail.
- ↑ American University Museum at the Katzen Center. "Raoul Middleman: City Limits." American.edu. American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center. Web. 9 May 2012. <http://www.american.edu/cas/museum/gallery/raoul-middleman-city-limits.cfm>.
- ↑ Giuliano, Mike. "Wild World: Raoul Middleman's Raw, Reckless Recent Work at C. Grimaldis." The City Paper [Baltimore] 14 March 2001, Arts sec. Print.
- ↑ C. Grimaldis Gallery. RAOUL MIDDLEMAN Custer's Last Stand & Other Painterly Obsessions. C. Grimaldis Gallery. C. Grimaldis Gallery. Web. <www.cgrimaldisgallery.com>.
- ↑ Grimaldis, Constantine. Personal interview. 26 April 2012.
- ↑ C. Grimaldis Gallery. "Raoul Middleman Resume." C. Grimaldis Gallery. Web. 26 April 2012. <www.cgrimaldisgallery.com>.
Suggested Reading
- Rasmussen, Jack, "City Limits" (Washington D.C. and Baltimore, American University Museum and C. Grimaldis Gallery, 2012) ISBN 978-1-61979-499-3.
Celebrated painter Raoul Middleman works to perfect the art of the selfie
Johns Hopkins alum, longtime MICA faculty member has created more than 1,000 self-portraits over his 55-year career
ByMichael Yockel / Published Dec 28, 2015 Editor's note: This article was originally published in the Fall 2015 issue of_Arts & Sciences Magazine_.
Over the past 55 years, the celebrated artist and respected educator Raoul Middleman estimates that he has produced a staggering 20,000 paintings and drawings: landscapes, cityscapes, seascapes, figures and portraits, equestrian images, still lifes, narratives, and more than 1,000 self-portraits. His work is included in collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, Corcoran Gallery, and the National Academy of Design. Meanwhile, he has served continuously on the faculty of the Maryland Institute College of Art since 1961, chairing its painting department from 1975 to 1978.
Middleman took a somewhat circuitous path to his dual careers. After graduating from high school in three years, he entered Johns Hopkins intending to study physics but graduated three years later with a degree in philosophy. Courses in the Romantic poets, Milton, art history, and philosophy lured him away from his previous infatuation with mathematics.
"I had what now would be called a humanities degree," explains Middleman, 80, sitting in the midst of his vast, paint-spackled artist's studio at his home in Baltimore. "But that didn't exist then; they called it philosophy."
With bohemianism at its midcentury apogee, Middleman considered becoming a writer. He roamed the country Jack Kerouac-style for a year after graduation, eventually landing in New Orleans. Afflicted with writer's block, he turned to painting—he had drawn and painted casually from an early age—at the urging of his then-girlfriend, hawking "uglified" caricatures on the city's streets.
He has been a fine artist ever since, at first working as an abstract expressionist; then pop art briefly seduced him; finally, his own style, often termed "expressionist" by critics, evolved in the 1960s, with assertive brushwork, tactile surfaces, a sensitivity to color, and depictions of the quotidian, the mythological, and mashups of the two.
Middleman, however, is wary of such constricting labels. "Style is not a conscious thing," he says. "It's the misbehaving saga of my intrinsic choices that decide a style. The work shows me; the style chooses me; I am the servant of the style."
Primarily self-taught, he studied art formally for only two years in the late 1950s and never earned a degree in the field, absorbing art history (about which he speaks insightfully and confidently) by reading on the sly while working at a library, plus visiting the National Gallery. Nonetheless, he managed to snag a teaching job at MICA after the college's then-president saw his work.
Middleman cites his Hopkins classes in literature with professors Earl Wasserman and J. Hillis Miller as essential training for his role in the classroom: "They were invaluable mentors. Because of them, I have an ability to empathize with work that's not mine and to be articulate about it—that's the core of my teaching. I try to have some empathy with the components of students' sensibilities. I try to get inside what they're after and then work from their point of view rather than my own."
His own point of view remains fluid, open to myriad possibilities. Frequently, he explains, he has no idea where a painting is headed or what it means, sometimes discovering what he really has done long after the piece's completion. And he works restlessly and relentlessly. "I would say 70 percent of my oeuvre has been done in a single session, within four hours for the paintings," he says. "The narratives take longer, from a week to sometimes years. There is no rule; each has its own imperative."
With a resume that already boasts countless solo and group exhibitions, Middleman enjoyed a career retrospective of his work this past year at the University of Maryland University College, while MICA showed 400 of his self-portraits (titled "Selfies").
By painting his own likeness, Middleman feels no compulsion to flatter another person. Additionally, he can experiment, he does not need a model, and he can stay active. "Each time I do a self-portrait, it comes out different," he says. "Out of accident and intentionality combined, you get an image that awakens you to a sense of being alive in the present tense. Each is an attempt to find out who I am. It's an infinite process of discovery. I'm constantly learning from this."
Middleman's passion for art—for discussing it, for teaching it, for reading and writing about it, for seeing it, and, especially, for making it—remains undiminished. "What really is interesting is the work itself," he says. "It's such a great experience to take colored mud and oil, and put them on a blank surface and see an illusion of ontological proportions come into positive existence."
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Latest Stories about Pickens Museum
- Bronze statue from Pickens Museum to grace Osage Nation campus through the end of the year
- Pickens Learning Commons Opens at NOC Tonkawa
- Pickens Museum puts Monumental Sculpture on Display in Ponca City
- Woolaroc Announces New Exhibit Featuring the Collection of Dr. S. J. Pickens & Hugh Pickens
- Ponca City Monthly publishes story about Pickens Learning Commons at NOC
- Pickens Learning Commons Opens at NOC Tonkawa
- Pickens Museum Acquires "War Club" by Yatika Starr Fields January 20, 2022
- Bronze statue from Pickens Museum to grace Osage Nation campus through the end of the year
- Pickens Learning Commons Opens at NOC Tonkawa
- Pickens Museum puts Monumental Sculpture on Display in Ponca City
- Woolaroc Announces New Exhibit Featuring the Collection of Dr. S. J. Pickens & Hugh Pickens
- Ponca City Monthly publishes story about Pickens Learning Commons at NOC
- Pickens Learning Commons Opens at NOC Tonkawa
- Pickens Museum Acquires "War Club" by Yatika Starr Fields January 20, 2022
- Pickens Museum/NOC Mural Dedication Set for June 16th
- Yatika Starr Fields Completes Mural for Pickens Museum May 12, 2021
- Pickens Museum and NOC Announce Mural by Osage Artist Yatika Starr Fields May 5, 2021
- Osage Warrior in the Enemy Camp (Counting Coup) by John Free March 29, 2021
- Pickens Museum Displays Route 66 Murals by Robert Hardee March 29, 2021
- Pickens Museum Opens Exhibit of Sculpture by Donald De Lue at NOC March 24, 2021
- Pickens Museum partners with NOC February 23, 2021
- Three Faces of the Pioneer Woman February 21, 2020
- Letter from a Birmingham Jail by Faith Ringgold February 21, 2020
- Exhibition: "Winter in New York" January 22, 2020
- The Turquoise Guitar by Jolene Bird November 26, 2018
- World's Largest Naja August 29, 2018
- A 1949 Hudson Limousine August 29, 2018
- Meet the Museum Design Team May 21, 2018
- A Ponca City Mystery April 5, 2018
- Tonya Rafael Visits Ponca City February 2018
2015 and before
- Sculptor Bryant Baker's Lost Masterpiece November 3, 2015
- Pioneer Woman Models Come Home February 26, 2010
- Pioneer Woman Models Should Return to Ponca City July 13, 2007
About Pickens Museum
Three Faces of the Pioneer Woman by Artist Daniel Pickens at our Ponca City location.
War Club" by Osage Artist Yatika Starr Fields
Three Faces of the Pioneer Woman by Artist Daniel Pickens. located in City Centra in Ponca City.
Painting by Peruvian Artist Josue Sanchez. Photo Credit: Hugh Pickens Pickens Museum


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Hey there guys! How are you today? Did you had the chance to check out our latest and hot college boy physicals scenes around here? It was a cold day outside and we thought we might have the chance to show you what were these two guys doing in the doctor's office! And we are talking about this cute dude Bill and this new doctor in charge! It seems like he was going to need an anal examination! Are you interested in seeing this doc in action? Stay around and we are going to give you the chance!
A few hours ago we got a message that invited us to the medical's office as there was a new guy that was going to be examined! And it was our old pal Bill, that was going to be examined! So we got inside and watched this doctor doing his job! Right after taking his clothes off, he was about to ask him to stay in the doggy style position! Soon after that he was going to lube his ass and next thing we knew he started to finger that lubed hole while he was rubbing his nuts, exactly like in this other scene with Andres Feliz! Did you got the chance to watch this scene entirely? If you want to, you are also invited to join our community! We have some more hot stuff that we wanted to share with you! See you soon with more hot pics and videos, stay close!


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Brooke Hogan: I Love My Body
Four years ago, when Brooke Hogan, then 17, went on TV with her family in Hogan Knows Best, nobody could have predicted the turmoil that would engulf her life.
It has been a difficult period for the Hogans, with Nick's car crash in August 2007 followed by Hulk and Linda's separation a few months later. OK! met up with Brooke, whose next album is due out in July, at the Ritz-Carlton in Key Biscayne, Fla., to talk about how she's coped and to discuss her show, Brooke Knows Best, which returns to VH-1 on June 7.
For the first time, the 5-foot-11 bombshell sets the record straight about all the family drama and her revamped, stunningly fit physique.
CLICK HERE for OK!'s photo shoot with Brooke!
OK!: Have you always wanted to be a singer?
I've always been really passionate about music. My dad was, too, before he became a wrestler. I couldn't see myself doing anything else.
OK!: There was some tension between you and your mom for a while. Is everything resolved now?
I had a talk with her and I said, "I think everyone in America knows why I won't accept Charlie." But what people don't know is that he's a bad influence on her. She's not staying as healthy as she should be. He's 19, he can party his ass off. She's 48. I said, "Mom, if you want to have a relationship with me you have to dump Charlie." It's not because of his age. If he were 5 years old and a good influence on her then that would better. But I'm just not happy with the situation because of their poor judgment — with what they do.
OK!: What kinds of things do they do?
I know there are things that could damage her health and make her get old really quick. I don't want to see that happen. I'm trying to stick to the tough love thing. I'm just staying away until she wakes up. In order for me to keep my sanity, I have to love her from afar. We are totally different women. I'm straightlaced, don't do drugs, stick to my regimen. It's different there.
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OK!: What can we expect this season on Brooke Knows Best?
It's crazier. I went on a date with a girl. The girl was really awesome and we had a blast. Then it got to the point where she was wanting to kiss me. Everyone knows I do not go there.
OK!: Can you see how someone like Lindsay Lohan was straight and then switched?
Oh, totally. You can fall in love with anyone. I naturally migrate toward
men first; some people may be more open about it. Personally, it's not me.
OK!: What are some of the best lessons you've learned from your dad?
The best advice he ever gave me is that you're the only person in charge of your happiness. You can't depend on other people to make you happy.
OK!: How do you feel about your current weight?
I feel great at this weight, but I've started sticking to a diet again. I'm trying hard to get down even more. You need to keep to the old-school bodybuilder diet of eggs, fish, chicken, meat and broccoli. I want to always look healthy, not anorexic.
OK!: Do you feel comfortable in a bikini?
I do. I love my body. Thick or not, I'm firm. I don't have cellulite. I'm happy with how I am. People should know, I'm only doing the diet for the entertainment business. It's not really what you're supposed to look like in real life.
For more of OK!'s exclusive interview with Brooke, pick up the new issue of OK!, on sale everywhere Thursday!


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Meghan over at the F-Word has a thought-provoking piece about the recent post by the Pervocracy on sex-positivity, and it's inspired me to finally write something that's been on my mind for a while.
As I've said before, I think that the only relevant criteria for assessing a sexual act or practice is the consent, pleasure, and well-being of the people involved. While that may sound simple, there's a lot more to it than may be immediately apparent. After all, consent is really only meaningful when one has the ability to make a fully empowered decision. That's limited by what options people are aware of (sex education!) and believe are open to them, among other things. If you've been taught that you have to have sex in a certain way, or that your partner will leave you if you don't have sex, or anything else that restricts your ideas about what sex is supposed to be, that can shape your capacity to consent. But to take it even further, in a world that offers remarkably restricted ideas of what "sexy" is, how do you know that your desire to do those things is authentic? At what point can you say for sure that your decision is genuinely yours and not influenced by media representations of sex? Exploring these questions is, I think, both a sex-positive and a feminist act. And I feel sadness that two groups of people who offer such useful and complementary tools for looking at these questions end up arguing, instead of finding ground for meaningful dialogue.
One place where we might begin looking for this common ground is the issue of "well-being." The fact that one has a particular desire or fantasy doesn't necessarily mean that acting upon it is going to support their well-being. For example, a man might have fantasies about being sexually dominant. To the degree that that comes from his internalizing the "Act Like a Man" Box, enacting those desires may actually hinder his well-being rather than fostering it, especially if he's performing dominance in order to comply with the rules of masculinity. In his book Arousal: The Secret Logic of Sexual Fantasies, clinical psychologist Michael Bader points out that we each have different motivations for our fantasies, even when the narratives of the fantasies might be similar. Without knowing what the backstories are, any interpretations we make are going to be at least partly the result of our own projections, which is a notoriously inaccurate tool. In my experience, rather than describing what's actually going on for someone else, those projections are likely to express our own Shadows.
I think that it's often worth asking "how do these desires or practices support well-being?" I can't answer that for anyone else- that has to come from each individual. All I can do is make room for people to explore that for themselves. Unfortunately, a lot of people either assume that "if I enjoy it, it's ok" or judge someone without finding out what their motivations really are. In my view, both of those are often manifestations of arrogance.
When people argue that the fact that they enjoy something is sufficient justification for doing it, they often neglect the question of their well-being (or that of the people affected by their choices). People do all kinds of things that feel pleasurable and that are harmful to themselves or the people around them, and in my view, a sex-positive response is to challenge that. Meanwhile, it can be just as much of a problem to assume that everyone who does those things is ranking their pleasure above their own or other peoples' well-being. Ignoring the diversity of motivations and experiences that people have, even when they engage in the same sexual practices, isn't going to help, either. We need to be able to hold onto both pieces, if we're going to get anywhere.
So where does well-being reside? How do we know whether someone's choices are fostering it or not? And what do we do with that information? Those are some of the really important (and fascinating) questions to explore. I would love to have those sorts of conversations with Meghan- she's smart, insightful, and articulate. Unfortunately, she also seems to oversimplify what I'm saying about sex-positivity, or at least, that's how it seems to me. I'd like to be able to hold onto both the individual experiences AND the socio-cultural factors that shape our lives (and that we contribute to through our actions) as part of that discussion. If Meghan or anyone else is up for that, I'd enjoy that.
Update: Meghan responded to my comment and raised a really important question:
How do you decide where and when 'well-being' begins and ends? And how does, for example, pornography and prostitution contribute to the well-being of women at large, even if it, according to some, benefits individual women?
That is exactly the kind of question that I want to explore. I don't think it's up to me to "decide where and when 'well-being' begins and ends" for anyone but myself, although I would find the conversation around it really useful.
17 Responses so far.
One answer to Meghan's second question in her response to you is agency. Pornography and prostitution contribute to the well being of women at large specifically because it benefits individual women.
If we decide the voices of some women are somehow "too influenced by the patriarchy" then we deny their ability to make informed decisions. If we ignore the voices of women in the porn industry for example, we're reinforcing the idea that women's choices are suspect from the start. That somehow, they're unable or unwilling to pull themselves back from cultural influences to make decisions that effect their lives.
When we recognize that people have the ability to make informed decisions (even when they differ from our own) we're contributing to the well being of people as a whole.
When are we going to realize that the question of sexual 'authenticity' and wondering whether a sexual practice is *REALLY* good for someone are just means of policing marginalized sexualities? It's no one's goddamned business if, for example, the kinky sex I engage in is *really* healthy for me, and it's rude of them to ask. It's especially rude if, like the "smart, insightful, and articulate" Meghan and her followers, you publicly bully women for being dupes of the patriarchy for having alternative sexualities.
There are also incredible ableist currents running through her kind logic, because it's based in a neurotypical framework of what constitutes 'healthy' and a belief that anyone with a mental illness or trauma history can't possibly know what's sexually beneficial for her.
I honestly don't understand how you can support someone like Megan by giving her line of logic a boost.
When it comes to porn, I always get annoyed when it is treated monolithically. Already almost everybody means 'filmed pornography' when they say 'pornography'. I think one can be a lot more imaginative with written pornography, for example, because the issue of how people are treated doesn't even come into it. When it comes to filmed pornography, unless you're prepared to argue that all voyeurism is inherently damaging, then it really becomes an issue of which particular films or series have dangerous messages and why. In the same way it is relatively easy to point out the flaws in a relatively low brow 'comedy' like 'Just Go With It', it is easy to see the problems in Max Hardcore's work. It is harder to see exactly what the problem is when a thoughtful person, such as Bobbi Starr, directs a film such as 'Bobbi's World'. I think that's the only level where it makes sense to engage.
Discussion of sexual authenticity is problematic because the criteria is self-reported and all the dominant culture has to do is say "nope, don't believe you." The entire frame of authenticity is tailor made for oppression.
It's one thing to ask someone "are you sure you really wanna do that? really?" and it's another thing to refuse to take "yes, I'm sure" as an answer. If a person eventually says "I've decided not to do it" how can we be sure which is the authentic choice? When authenticity is questioned repeatedly, and affirmative answers aren't accepted – can eventual negative answers themselves be considered authentic? I don't see how they could.
Has anyone ever told you that your sexuality isn't authentic? I've had people telling me that for quite a while now, and it's beyond infuriating. So far beyond until it turns to dehumanization, that it results in women like me being easy prey for serial killers.
That this "authenticity" argument is actively used TODAY to deny rights to people, to lock people up in jail, to put them in mortal danger – that is a problem that should be addressed. Instead our local blogosphere decides to once again ask "yeah but are they really sure they want to be doing that?" and the kicker here is that the final question isn't even being addressed to us, and it wouldn't make a difference if it was because we've answered it a hundred times already, only to be told, "nope. don't believe you."
Go look at how many people are being told that they aren't 'authentic', check Uganda for starters. It consistently petrifies me that people don't seem to realize that the concept of gender performativity is the VERY SAME thing that is used by anti-homosexual bigots the world over.
@Charlie, thanks for responding, and to clarify just a bit:
When I say the problem is with the 'concept', I mean that the concept of authenticity gives cover to those who oppress others, and that's what needs to be exposed.
What I am saying is that if you can recognize that 'authenticity' is used as a method of delivering oppression rooted in arrogance, it should be called out when we see it. Even if it's feminists who are doing it.
All of us have a responsibility to understand and actively work to discredit, or at the VERY least we should acknowledge, the tools used for oppression. It's not enough to know that arrogance is behind it, we need to know how that arrogance is expressed, and I believe we need to tell others to watch out for it.
I think I can put the concept of authenticity better. Here's the simple rule you could tell anyone questioning whether a sex worker is being "authentic": "No means no, and yes means yes."
Denying either one is equally insulting, equally oppressive, and very harmful in their separate ways. If they deny that yes means yes, then no must not really mean no either. They can't have it both ways.
If a free adult woman (or man) chooses to take money and provide sex, she has said "yes" to her client. And there should be as much respect for that decision as there is for if she says "no."
The problem with sex-nags trying to infer authenticity is this: people are pathetic at detecting lies. This has been shown in study after study. There's no doubt about it. And if you're disbelieving a story are the prejudices you've brought into it, such as: "No true woman would do this unless she was forced," you should probably instead go with facts, like the dozen pages of releases she signed before doing the porn scene, or the fact that she receives money for sex regularly.
"In what way is the discussion of sexual authenticity a way to police marginalized sexualities?"
If you seriously don't get this, maybe you shouldn't be writing about it.
"Can you point to one place where I "publicly bully women for being dupes of the patriarchy for having alternative sexualities"? I "
Perhaps my original sentence was unclear. It was meant to read as "IF you (i.e. one) do this, like Megan…"
" I get that you're angry at Meghan, but why take that out on me?"
Because you're engaging with her nasty sexuality policing? The fact that you even *can* engage with her is telling enough. If you were a woman and a sex worker, she wouldn't bother having an open conversation with you.
And, finally, in regards to this part of your response to manfromfred, "In my experience, some of the more useful questions to ask are:…", where the hell does anyone get off asking those questions of anyone else? *That* is what I'm talking about with policing people's sexual behaviors. And by 'people', I mean the only people who ever get asked those questions: queer folks, kinksters, and sex workers… *especially* if they're female.
No, what I'm saying is you're not a sex worker, and you're having a discussion with a woman who is anti-sex worker, who cannot have a reasonable discussion with us and whose followers publicly attack us, but is having a reasonable discussion with you partly because you are not one of us. It's like if I, as a straight ally, were to thoughtfully engage with a virulent homophobe. That's not being a good ally. The only proper response, as an ally, is to either condemn or ignore that behavior, not parse out whether this bigoted person has a right to examine the 'authenticity' of sexual minorities I am not a part of.
Being willing and able, as you say, to have that kind of conversation, is a privilege, and I utterly fail to see what it has to do with sexuality education. Seriously. What positive things can possible come out of dissecting other people's sexual well-being unless the people doing that dissecting are that person and hir doctor? It's like proposing with a fat-hating nutritionist to examine what fat people eat and whether they know if it's good or bad for them. It's stupid, useless, patronizing, and borderline abusive.
I'm not going to get sidetracked on the minor point of listing all of the people with whom it's appropriate to talk to about your health/well-being. So let's just say that the list is longer than 'doctor' but does not include 'some stranger on the internet who responds to your divergent point of view about your own sexuality and political ideology by claiming you are misinformed and a liar' (referring to Megan there, not you). Sufficient?
"Further, to use your example, what if the nutritionist wasn't "fat-hating" and was only interested in encouraging and supporting someone's health?"
Megan is the fat-hating nutritionist in this example. I would love to see evidence that she has been anything other than disrespectful, dismissive, and condescending to people with marginalized sexualities like sex workers and kinksters.
"Again, the problem isn't the tool, it's the intention behind it."
You can't pull this out of its context. It's not like you spontaneously decided to expand your definition of sexual well-being, or decided it by reading other reasonable, qualified people's divergent points of view. According to this article, you were spurred by a conversation, an interaction, with a particular person with a particular history regarding her treatment of the people this 'tool' is to be most frequently used on.
"As far as whether there's any value in engaging with people, I disagree with you."
Apparently I was unclear about this. It's not that there is no value in engaging with people with different opinions. It's that there's no value in you, a person from dominant group X (non-sex workers) engaging with a person also from dominant group X, who is hateful towards people from oppressed group Y about something that largely affects group Y, when people from group Y can't even engage with her without being dismissed.
"I think that condemning or ignoring problematic behavior are sometimes the best strategies, and they aren't the only ones."
Um, they're the only strategies I have in this situation, because trying to engage with this person gets me outright dismissed by her and harassed by her followers. If I were just some random person that wouldn't relate to any of this here in the slightest, but *I'm part of the group directly affected by what you two are discussing.* I mean, seriously, who do you think inquiries of 'sexual well-being' are mostly being directed towards by people on the left? I'd say, primarily, sex workers and kinksters and *of course* (eegads!) kinky sex workers (and to a lesser extent, the mentally ill, trauma survivors, poly folks, queer folks, and women. God help you if you're all of the above.)
And you two can discuss all you want the complexities of sexual well-being in society, as is alluded to in the 'update,' but there really should not be anything complex about sexual well-being for individuals: listen to people, *trust* them, and/or mind your own business.
What I find most frustrating about all of this is that I agree with Megan that the definition of 'sex-positivity' should include the broader social impact of certain aspects of sex/ sexuality as judged through a radical feminist framework (where we diverge is that I think certain things have a positive impact and she thinks those same things have a negative impact) but she thinks so little of me that *she straight up does not believe me when I say this.* And here you are, having pretty much the same conversation women like me could have had with her, because you are privileged by not being a sex worker and therefore she doesn't automatically wave you away. This is a woman who will not talk about sex workers with sex workers in any productive fashion, and you are encouraging her to talk over us anyway. That is what gets me. That is insulting, and, furthermore, it's really not going to get you anywhere useful in the end.
[…] issues are important to me.See Authors Posts (4) Dec 02, 11 Charlie Glickman's recent post about sex-positivity on his blog got me thinking about an issue he touched on, the reasons people […]