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Rushdie Rocks
His life, his exile, and his rock-and-roll novel
By Peter Kadzis
MAY 10, 1999: As a young man, Salman Rushdie considered becoming an actor. But he stayed true to a more primal ambition and became a writer. Today the world is his stage, and -- although he may have wished otherwise -- he has become perhaps the most famous writer in the world. That distinction was thrust upon him 10 years ago, when the Iranian government placed a bounty -- a fatwa -- on his head after the publication of his novel The Satanic Verses.
Although some Islamic fundamentalist groups would still like to see him dead, the Iranian government backed away from its fatwa last fall. In the wake of that decision, life for Rushdie has become more relaxed, yet hardly casual. He still travels with armed guards. But even though his movements are still cloaked in a degree of secrecy, he moves more freely than he has in years.
In recent weeks Rushdie has indeed been on the move, publicizing his most recent novel, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, which was simultaneously published in 12 nations -- an act of creative (not to mention commercial) affirmation that clearly pleases Rushdie.
Even for this most protean of talents, The Ground Beneath Her Feet is a startling and sprawling novel. To simplify: it is a rock-and-roll story. To amplify: it is a retelling of the ancient myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. To sum up: its ambition is epic.
Perhaps the most succinct summary of the story comes from Publishers Weekly: "Ormus Cama, a supernaturally gifted musician, and his beloved, Vina Apsara, a half-Indian woman with a soul-thrilling voice, meet in Bombay in the late '50s, discover rock and roll, and form a band that goes on to become the world's most popular musical act. Narrator Rai Merchant, their lifelong friend, is a world-famous photographer and Vina's 'back-door man.' Rai tells the story of their great abiding love (both are named for love gods: Cama as in Kama Sutra, and Vina for Venus)."
Rushdie's fame as a controversialist is, as he explains below, unwarranted and unwelcome. Before the publication of The Satanic Verses, he already enjoyed an international reputation as the man who, said the New York Times, "redrew the literary map of India" with the publication of his 1981 novel Midnight's Children.
Before Rushdie, the tone of Anglo-Indian literature was decidedly cool. There was, for example, the sensitive reserve of E.M. Forster and the stiff upper lip of Rudyard Kipling. Rushdie's prose is more pungent, his range of reference more polyglot, and his world-view playful to the point of daring.
Although I suspect that Rushdie -- who exhibits a sort of muscular diffidence -- might shiver at the suggestion, he comes as close as anyone in public life to matching Hemingway's ideal of courage: grace under pressure.
A: The thing to say about the Bombay of the 1950s and the 1960s is that it was a very different place than the city that now exists. I suppose it's true that, to a certain extent, there's a kind of golden glow of childhood about it in my memory. But it's also the case that the people who were of an older generation thought of that city as going through a particularly beautiful and sort of memorable phase. It does seem to have been Bombay's great moment. How to describe it? I mean, as a child, it was a very exciting town to grow up in. It was a very cosmopolitan town, much more so than most other Indian towns. Like any great city, it acted as a magnet, and so people came to Bombay from all over India. It had a greater diversity of Indians than other Indian cities. And it was the commercial center, so it attracted a large population of non-Indians. When I grew up, the kids I played with were by no means all Indian kids. They were American kids, Australian, Japanese, Europeans, and so on. It felt like a very cosmopolitan, big-city upbringing.
A: Well, we all were. I think this idea of a separation of cultures between the East and the West was certainly never the idea I grew up with. They were all mixed in together from the beginning.
A: Not really, as far as I can remember. I think that's one reason why, although it was technically an Indian-Muslim family, my parents -- at the independence of India and at the division of India into India and Pakistan -- never considered going to Pakistan. They certainly felt more like Indians than Muslims. And my father's family was an old Delhi family from the old Muslim neighborhoods of Old Delhi, and that's where my parents lived when they first got married. They decided to move to Bombay about nine months before I was born, I guess. They, like many other people, were nervous about the trouble that everybody could see coming at the partition. And my father felt that Bombay would be a safer place. Bombay has always had -- until recently, anyway -- a reputation of being a more tolerant environment than the rest of India. So they moved to Bombay to get out of the firing line. When the terrible events of the partition happened, the riots and the massacres and so on, almost nothing happened in Bombay. And so they stayed there, and that's where I was born and raised.
A: I can't remember my father's father, who died before I was born, but he was, by all accounts, one of my few literary antecedents, in that he was an essayist and a patron of young writers and so on -- and he also made a fortune, which my father then spent most of his life losing.
A: Yes, my mother's father I remember very well. He was a huge figure in my childhood. Unlike my parents, he was really quite a religious man. He was a practicing Muslim. He said his prayers five times a day. He performed the pilgrimage to Mecca. But at the same time, he was one of the most tolerant and open-minded men I've ever known. For myself, my sisters, my many cousins, he was a huge figure in all our lives because he loved children and was never happier than when he was amongst us.
A: I remember -- not when I was a very small child, but when I was more grown up -- we would needle him by claiming not to believe in God and so on. You'd say, in your 10- or 11-year-old self, "I don't believe in God, Granddad." And he'd say, "Oh really? Come and sit down here and tell me all about it." And so you'd sit down next to him and he would very seriously listen and probe as you offered your 11-year-old reasons for not believing in God. And then, instead of contradicting you, he'd say, "Yes, well, that's a lot to think about, I think you've given me a lot to think about, I'll have to think about it." And then, a couple of days later, he'd come back and he'd say, "I just did have a couple of thoughts about what you were saying, and let me just talk to you about them." And he'd then offer you, in a very gentle way, his rebuttals to your childish atheism. And when you'd say, "No, no, Granddad, that's just complete nonsense, it's completely wrong," he'd say, "Yes, well, you're probably right, but I just think we should go on talking about it." So certainly, the atmosphere around him was that anything could be said, anything could be discussed, and that's how we all grew up.
A: Oh, I think Heartbreak Hotel. It was very difficult in India in those days to buy rock-and-roll records, because they were not locally produced. You had to rely on occasional imports and then run to the record shop when the bush telegraph told you that there were some there. And these were old-style 78 rpm discs that I'm talking about -- fragile, you know? They were often damaged in transit or scratched because they were secondhand and being sold off by somebody whose family was going home. So it wasn't easy to come by these things. There was a particular record store in Bombay, called Rhythm House, which used to occasionally have these imports.
A: Yes, but not, oddly, on Indian radio, which was state controlled and didn't permit the playing of Western music. I think in that post-colonial moment, it was thought to be culturally unsound. Radio Ceylon, as it was then called -- it's Sri Lanka now -- had a rather more tolerant policy, and, yes, at the weekends, it would play a few hours of a Western hit-parade kind of program. That's where we first heard a lot of these songs. But also, because the city was so international, we had access. I often heard this music in my friends' houses, listening to their records. It wasn't easy for that music to arrive, given these constraints. And yet it did arrive, and we all heard. So, in a way, it became the first globalized cultural phenomenon.
A: Rugby was tough. Cambridge I had a very good time at, but coming to Rugby was really quite brutal. I was not quite 14 and taken aback to be made to feel like a foreigner, which, until that point, I had never thought of myself as. I did experience certain amounts of racial discrimination -- not from the staff, from some of the other boys. And that was shocking and depressing. And so I remember my school days as not being particularly happy. I was bad at games. I think it was the triple whammy: foreign, clever, bad at games. [Laughs] I think if I'd been any two of those three, I might have been able to get away with it. Foreign, clever, good at games -- that would have been all right. I mean, there were some boys there with Indian or Pakistani or, indeed, African backgrounds, but who were excellent sportsmen, and they seemed to have a perfectly nice time at school.
A: Well, for a start, there were girls. That helped. But also, I didn't feel any oppression. I didn't feel any racism aimed toward me. I didn't feel excluded. And then, also, I was at Cambridge at quite a good time to be young. I went there in 1965 and graduated in 1968 and, you know, of all the years in the last 50 years to have been at university, those were probably the years.
A: I did, really. My parents tell me that when I was 10 years old, I would say that I wanted to be a writer. Now, obviously, at the age of 10, I didn't know what that meant. All it meant, I suspect, is that I liked being a reader and therefore wanted to be a part of that world which made those things that I liked to read. I did for a time wonder if I might be able to be an actor. I did a lot of theatricals at university, and some after leaving, and then decided (a) that I wasn't good enough and (b) that, anyway, I wanted to write more than I wanted to act. But I still have an unscratched itch about acting. I think I'd be a better actor now than I was then. So maybe I can have a late career, like Gore Vidal.
A: I was born as an Indian citizen, and the only passports I've ever held are Indian and British. In England now, there are probably getting on two million people with Indian or Pakistani origins, either first-generation immigrants like myself or their children. Indeed, by now, their grandchildren. And I think in that group, in which I would include myself, the sense of identity is plural. They're described in Britain as British-Asians, and that's a description which is completely unproblematic to me. I mean, I think one of the facts of the contemporary world is that people have plural identities. African-American, British-Asian: these are perfectly comprehensible terms.
A: You mean in general?
A: Regarding myself, it depends on my mood. [Laughs] But I think actually there are certain things about me that just inescapably, 100 percent, will always be Indian. That's to say, that's what I racially and ethnically am. And yet, much of my life has been spent away from India. And certainly at this moment, having spent a great deal of my life trying to understand and write about the world from which I came originally, I find myself turning away from that, feeling that I've done enough, if you like, or enough for the moment -- and I find myself more and more interested in the world to which I came, about which I first wrote in The Satanic Verses. That's the aspect of The Satanic Verses that really got blotted out by the storm that surrounded that book.
A: It's not at all a bad description of the way that I felt at the time that I wrote The Satanic Verses. I felt that I'd written one novel, broadly speaking, about India [Midnight's Children] and one novel, broadly speaking, about a kind of version of Pakistan [Shame, published in 1983], and I thought it was time that my writing made the same movement that I'd made -- that's to say, migrate into the West. And I felt, first of all, that I wanted to write a novel about the act of migration and, secondly, a novel about the internal effect of migration. It's so ridiculous in light of what happened, but I did think about The Satanic Verses that it was the least political novel I'd ever written. I thought it was a novel of introspection and a novel which tried to make sense of the kind of life experience that people like me had had. And then, boom. It turned into the most public novel I'd ever written.
A: Well, of course, it was an extraordinary discovery that it should be my book that ended up mattering so much. Particularly when it was written as an introspective book, not as a book designed to shake the world. I suppose Uncle Tom's Cabin was designed to have a certain public impact and did have it. But in this case, it really caught me unawares. But I do think that, as somebody once said, you can judge the importance of literature by the apparatus that tyrants set up to repress it. And the more repressive the society that exists in the world, the more tightly literature is censored and the more danger writers are in. I was in the unusual position of living in a free country and being attacked across the world from a much more censorious and closed society, but it happens to writers around the world all the time. And in that sense, what happened to me is not unusual at all.
A: Well, all I can say is, it was the most shocking moment of my life. And I think the moment when I actually saw television images and, afterwards, photographs of my book being burned was the moment that engendered in me the kind of fury that I can't remember otherwise feeling. This was, after all, a month before Khomeini imposed the fatwa. And in that month, what I did was to more or less go on the warpath and try to make sure that this act was seen as -- I can't think of a word other than barbaric. I also wanted to make sure that I was fighting this with all my strength. And then, a month later, there was the escalation from Iran, which changed the argument again.
A: Well, I don't know. The main reaction is one of disappointment. It's a terrible thing to be famous for the wrong thing. I'd always hoped that people would respond to and like my work, and that's all I'd ever wanted, really -- to write books that did well and that were well thought of. I'd begun to do that with Midnight's Children and Shame. It's easy to overlook this now, but they were books which had quite a considerable international reputation. The road I was going along was the only life I'd ever wanted, and I was delighted that I was beginning to have it. And to have this other reputation hasn't at all been beneficial to me as a writer. I think in many ways, for people who didn't know my writing or don't know my writing, it's often been something that put them off because they felt that this dark, theological cloud that descended over my work must in some way be representative of the work itself. And, I think, it made them think I must be an arcane writer, with these dark, theological inclinations. And I think it made a lot of people less likely to pick up a book by me as well as, of course, making some people more likely, even if only out of curiosity.
A: It took a lot. It was terribly bewildering. I had to find my feet again. I had to learn how to fight back. I had to find the strength to get back to writing, and I had to then set about the task of going on being a writer in fairly difficult circumstances. But you discover things about yourself under extreme pressure, and I guess one of the things I discovered about myself was that I was able to find that equilibrium again, and I was able to find ways of fighting back, and I was able to go on with my work. So I guess I'm tougher than I thought.
A: Well, it made me think a lot more about it. I think one of the things about living in a free society -- which, broadly speaking, I've done all my life, first in India and then in England -- is that you don't have to examine the idea of freedom too much because it's simply there. You've got it, you don't need to make great speeches about it because you already have it, and it would seem unnecessary to bang on about the importance of free speech when everybody has free speech. I guess what happened in my case is that somebody tried to turn off the tap. Somebody tried to deprive me of those basic freedoms and, as a result, drew my attention to the importance of them -- not just the importance, but the importance of articulating the case for these fundamental freedoms. I became much more involved in that battle than I ever had been before. I mean, one is always asked to sign things. I'd probably sign my share of petitions on behalf of this or that. But it suddenly became to me, for obvious reasons, a very central issue of my life, and I think it will remain so even though the bad days have come to an end.
A: Yeah, that had something to do with it, but that wasn't the starting point. I mean, that was one of the valuable things about rock and roll. It meant that there was a language of cultural reference that I could use which people all around the world would easily get, just in the same way that people once might have got a range of classical or mythological reference. Rock is the mythology of our time. It was interesting to contrast it in the novel with that older mythology, which now requires more explanation than it used to. I wanted to write about rock and roll partly because it's the music of my life. When I was young, it was young. We've more or less grown up and grown old together. It feels as if rock music is the soundtrack of my life. As if I could associate all kinds of moments in my life with songs, and songs would evoke memories that otherwise might have been lost.
A: Well, I suppose it starts with Elvis, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bill Haley -- all that takes me right back to the late 1950s and early 1960s, even before I'd come to England. Many of those songs can evoke moments of my childhood. Then I came to England at the time when the music was in the process of transforming into what became the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. And that music, the music of the Beatles and the Stones and the other bands, that period seems to have been the background to most of my teenage years. Bob Dylan was very, very important for me. I remember one of the boys at Rugby, in the boarding house where I lived, first introducing me to an early Bob Dylan album. And actually, I have to say, at that time, he made a bigger impression on me than the Beatles or the Rolling Stones. I'd never heard this noise before, you know, the nasal intonation, the strange phrasing, the -- oh, you know, the harmonica, the extraordinary surrealism of his lyrics. And I became a Dylan fan at that point, and I have never ceased to be one. So yes, it was very important.
Then what I've always considered to be my political awakening was the protest against the war in Vietnam, which took place in England because the British government so strongly supported the American presence in Vietnam, even though no actual troops were sent. That protest seemed also to be very closely wrapped up with the music. Traditionally the music of war is there in order to instill, in soldiers and civilians, patriotic feelings. But this was music which was much more -- I'd say, much more dissident than that. And music which was simply affirming love during a time of death.
A: The country that has mattered the most to me with this book has been the US. It should be well received here, and I'm happy to say that it has been, if only because it's my first American novel. I mean, not just because a lot of it happens in America, but because rock and roll is a thing that came from America. And so one of the things that I was writing about was how the rest of the world has responded to American culture, and how America has responded to the rest of the world. That's one of the kind of -- the under-themes of this novel.
A: Yes. I mean, I think of the end of the Orpheus myth, in which the head of Orpheus, having been torn from his body, is thrown into the river and goes on singing. That's the meaning of that story. You can destroy the singer, but you can't stop the song. And I think for fairly obvious reasons, that's an important thought for me to have and to hold on to. The durability of art and the paradoxical fragility -- that was the message, that was the thing that I wanted people to take away from the book.
A: It's really a very simple thing, and what I should say is that, of all the things in this novel, it was the thing I was most uncertain of. I vacillated a great deal about whether to leave that date in or not. There was a bit of me that thought it was digging the reader in the ribs too hard to leave it in. In the end I did, simply because I thought, well, one of the reasons I'm writing a novel about cataclysms in people's lives, about earthquakes, about the fact that the world is provisional and the life that you think is yours can be removed from you at any moment -- one of the reasons I'm having these ideas and writing this book is because of what happened in my life, and I may as well just acknowledge the fact.
A: No, not at all. I think where it comes from in my writing, all this business with twins, is that I've always been very conscious of the choices that I didn't make in my life. That's to say, when I left university at the age of 21 I decided that I would make a life in the West and not back in the East. And I've always wondered about what would have happened if I'd gone down the other road. So I've always had this strong sense of the path not traveled, the road not taken, and of that shadow self, of the person that I might have been but chose not to become. And that kind of doubling and splitting in myself is the reason why it keeps happening in my books and is the reason why, in this novel, the character has a shadow self running down the corridors of his mind. But I think this time I may have done it. I may have pushed it to the limit with two sets of twins and, indeed, a twin world, an entirely parallel world as well as the real world. So I think maybe that's enough twins.
A: Yeah.
A: Well, in a way it is a coincidence, in that I'd actually devised the book and, indeed, written an earlier version of what happens after Vina's death before Princess Diana's accident. It was obviously essential to the idea of the book that Vina dies -- indeed, she dies in the first sentence, and by this time she's one of the most popular singers in the world. That she would be much mourned was obviously always a part of the design, but then the real-life event happened, which was on a scale so much greater than anything I'd envisaged. It shocked me because it seemed as if it jumped off my pages into the real world. It made me think again about what I'd written and actually rewrite it on a bigger scale, and with a dimension to it that it certainly couldn't have had without that real-life occurrence. So yes, in the end the book is affected by what happened, both what happened to Princess Diana and what happened after her death. But it is one of the most bizarre things about writing this book, that I'd actually already written it before it happened.
A: Yeah, this is true. Well, Wag the Dog does seem to have become the text of our times.
A: You don't actually worship the celebrities, you just watch them and obsess about them.
A: I think I'm interested in the way in which we as a culture use celebrities. In that respect they are quite like the old pantheons of gods, who, you know, behaved very badly. Ancient gods were not model examples, but simply instances of human beings enlarged to divine proportions. It was about how humans might behave if you removed all restraints and gave them great power. In that sense, celebrity is a kind of recurrence of that theme: we take this group of people and we shine on them a very bright light and give them, if not great power, then certainly great influence. We ask how they behave when we remove all controls and restraints, and we enjoy watching the answer to that question. Sometimes they behave very well, and sometimes they're destroyed by it.
A: Well, he can't sing because I can't sing. That's very simple. He's a photographer because I thought, if you look to the left of a rock star, you'll find the photographer. And if you want a point-of-view character, a slightly voyeuristic point-of-view character, it seemed a perfectly appropriate choice of profession. And then again, mentioning Princess Diana, in the aftermath of her death, I discovered -- having already chosen a photographer for my narrator -- that for a moment there, photography became the most unpopular profession in the world. All photographers, even artists like Richard Avedon, suddenly began to be thought of as paparazzi, and the profession began to be something that people scorned. There'd be boos when photographers took cameras out at public events. And I thought how strange that was, and it made me even more interested to write about the business of representation, the business of image-making, about what it is to take a picture of the world, what it is to walk up, walk up to the world and take its photograph. So it became doubly interesting to me. And I've always been interested in photography. I'm not particularly a good photographer, but I've got great heaps of photography books.
A: Well, just by great bloody-mindedness. [Laughs] I love literature. I think of it as a great privilege to be able to do this thing that I admire so much, the art of the novel. And it just struck me that lots and lots of writers have had a hard time. I'm not the first one. And many wonderful books have been made by writers who have gone through or are going through very bad times. And I just thought I could not use my particular bad time as an excuse. "Just get on with it and do your work," I thought. So, I've always gained something -- I've said this before, but I do think it sums my feelings. If somebody's trying to shut you up, sing louder and, if possible, better. My experience just made me all the more determined to write the very best books I could find it in myself to write.
A: Wish I knew. I like to find new things to do. And in this book, I found quite a lot of new things to do, both in terms of rock-and-roll music and in terms of being able to write about the West in a way that I'd not written before. And also, I felt that I found a new and very liberating and rich language to write in. I hope that I just find another new step to take, because otherwise I'd bore myself.
A: Well, I'd like to spend time in America, and I hope -- I hope that I will spend more time here. I have a two-year-old son, and I'm not sure whether I want to send him to school in America just yet. It seems to be too many people getting killed in schools in America just now.
I think certainly my wife would not be very keen on it, on educating a child over here, but the truth is, I've always loved coming to America. I hope things are loosening up a bit so that I will be able to spend more and more time here.
Opening linesOn St. Valentine's Day, 1989, the last day of her life, the legendary popular singer Vina Apsara woke sobbing from a dream of human sacrifice in which she had been the intended victim. Bare-torsoed men resembling the actor Christopher Plummer had been gripping her by the wrists and ankles. Her body was splayed out, naked and writhing, over a polished stone bearing the graven image of the snakebird Quetzalcoatl. The open mouth of the plumed serpent surrounded a dark hollow scooped out of the stone, and although her own mouth was stretched wide by her screams the only noise she could hear was the popping of flashbulbs; but before they could slit her throat, before her lifeblood could bubble into that terrible cup, she awoke at noon in the city of Guadalajara, Mexico, in an unfamiliar bed with a half-dead stranger by her side, a naked mestizo male in his early twenties, identified in the interminable press coverage that followed the catastrophe as Raúl Páramo, the playboy heir of a well-known local construction baron, one of whose corporations owned the hotel.
She had been perspiring heavily and the sodden bedsheets stank of the meaningless misery of the nocturnal encounter. Raúl Páramo was unconscious, white-lipped, and his body was galvanized, every few moments, by spasms which Vina recognized as being identical to her own dream writhings.
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So I told you guys that I was helping my friend design his new apartment. Here are some of the options I sent him. Remember the theme for his bedroom is "murder." The mural is the main focus of the design. Let me know what you all think.
Option 1
Option 2
Option 3


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Nudelanza - Naturist Accommodation - Information - Charco del Palo
Wendys Blog
All the news from Charco del Palo
All the news from Charco del Palo
A "bit of a do" for Jackie
Jackie has hung up her apron at Reiner's Pub. Thursday last week was her last night working at the bar. A sad day indeed for Charco del Palo now that she has left. We had a Bit of a Do last night for Jackie, we presented her with some lovely gifts and and lots of good wishes in all she has planned for the future. Reiner made a nice pasta salad and his famous cucumber salad and Bernie cooked some snorkers on the barbecue along with some chicken. A good night and plenty of people there to wish her well. We will miss you xx
31/3/2017 19:40:39
I would like to thank everyone who contrubuted towards my leaving "do" and lovely presents. THANK YOU all so much. Special thanks to Wendy, Anita, Reiner and Bernd for organising everything. I am sure I will see all of you in and around the village, maybe in Reiners Bar but from now on I will be on the drinking side, not the working side!!! Thank You x
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April 2020


text: Yes, folks, once again I'm droning on about Channel 4 and their propensity for making biased documentaries. This time, it's another episode of Christianity: a History (Channel 4, 7pm, Sunday Feb 22, 2009). The programme, subtitled: God and the Scientists was presented by Oxford neurobiologist, Colin Blakemore. Blakemore began by telling us that he doesn't believe in God. One immediately wondered what kind of a history of Christianity was likely to be presented by an atheist? Well, I'll tell you what kind; a very selective and biased one. Read more »


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THE EDITOR, Sir:
The demolished market at Manor Park remains in the news. The Reverend Garnett Roper, president of the Jamaica Theological Seminary, has admitted that it was he who first responded to the 'plight' of the market vendors and pressed attorney-at-law Bert Samuels into service to champion, pro bono, the cause of the vendors.
Reverend Roper feels that the vendors should be moved to some 'proximate location.' Can you identify a 'proximate location' in Manor Park, sir?
Built just three years after Independence, when Martin Luther King visited, the market in Manor Park was a godsend for vendors travelling from Portland and St Mary. They did not have to overnight at Half-Way Tree and then journey downtown to Coronation market. Manor Park was nothing like what it is today. Fewer residents, fewer buildings. But it was an opportunity to meet people, learn their names and buying habits. So, in addition to selling their produce, it was a social event.
But the world has changed, Reverend Roper. We now have supermarkets. I am inviting you to go into one of these operations, reflect on the history of how we buy groceries, and it will reveal a lot about socio-economic trends. Tell me, sir, if there is anything in your market that is not in the supermarket.
Commerce has evolved. We have debit and credit cards, warehouses and refrigerated vans. The physical forms of markets has progressed. That type of operation no longer has a place in a modern urban setting. Fresh produce and the value of close-knit relationships have given way to convenience and more formal human relationships.
And yes, sir, I do read the Bible – when I am in trouble. So, when you see Mr Livingston, the shoemaker again, apologise to him and tell him that Esau made a big mistake.
Glenn Tucker
[1] mailto:firstname.lastname@example.com


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or if you prefer to mail your donation, you can send it to the address below, please make checks payable to Suzy Foundation.
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By Rachelle Smalldon, Young Adult Ministries
In a Leadership Theory course I took in graduate school, we studied the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and were asked to discover and analyze our own personality types. I discovered I am an INFJ (Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Judging), which means I often am categorized as an idealist.
My supervisor at work during those graduate years (who most definitely was not an idealist) said to me one day in a fairly snide tone, "You seem to have a very idealist, utopian view of life. I'll be interested to see where that gets you in life."
I used to resent that comment (and sometimes still do). His words cut me deeply and obviously stuck with me. But I think they have helped me grow, remember who I am, and know where that can take me in life.
I think he was right. I am an idealist. The more I learn about what that means, the more I am OK with it, even proud of it. I do believe in the potential for beauty, greatness, and a world of peacefulness in some capacity.
As we set our sights and beliefs on the vision we have for our church and our individual discipleship, maybe we all have a bit of "idealist" in us. Maybe having vision, striving for a beautiful and peaceful world, and believing the end goal is possible aren't such bad things.
For as long as I can remember, I have known about Jesus. I have known he was the Son of God and brought to the world to share the gospel and teach us how to live in peace and with authentic love. I have always believed the teachings of Jesus to be good ones. I often remember the profound but simple "Golden Rule" when making behavioral decisions. These lessons have made a difference in my life and, I feel, have helped me be a better person.
As I have become more involved in this church, experiencing and sharing more about our faith and growing in my own relationship with God, I have learned much more about who Jesus was. The more I learn about Jesus, the more I like.
I find I can relate to Jesus because his life and teachings are practices I can attempt in my own life. I may not be able to perform miracles, but I can practice kindness and peace, extending God's love to those I meet.
Knowing how Jesus lived gives me something to strive for. I continue to follow him because, for me, Jesus is the ultimate example of humanity. Jesus is the example of how I want to live my life and the footsteps I want to follow in.
Jesus was the kind of person I want to be. He was loving, compassionate, and radical. He promoted peace and love in all he did. Jesus makes me want to be better and do better.
Jesus is my ideal.


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"FOOTCRAB FOOTCRAB FOOTCRAB F-F-F-FFOOTCRAB FOOTCRAB FOOTCRAB FOOTCRAB F-F-FF" as we're careful not to choke on our tongue. There's a whole demographic of kids eager to geek out on a barely-tilted snare sound, just imagine the pandemonium when Addison Groove (Antony Williams) threw his gauntlet. "Footcrab" was the quintessential juke anthem, the sort of all-hands-on-deck bedlam that bypasses the brain and directly exploits the body; it was the premiere "OH SHIT" moment of 2010, peerless in its proud obviousness. It's unspeakable, indescribable, held in no parameter or criterion – dressed in crisp, scarlet propulsion. Nobody knows what a footcrab is, but we do know that something otherworldly happens to the human body on the other side of its momentum.
Two years have disappeared and people are making music that's just as silly, but never with the same reckless honesty. For dance music, a scene that moves at hyperspace Twitter-feed speeds, "Footcrab" remains a remarkably singular experience – so much so that it's hard imagining the schematics of an album that could possibly contain it. Transistor Rhythm is Addison Groove's first longform affair with an attentive audience, and in some ways he plays it safe, unable or unwilling to summon something exotic, definite or challenging – instead settling for a tight, defendable montage of pummeling juke beats.
Addison Groove has never captured his point of view on an album before, like most producers, he's most comfortable administering brief, concentrated experiences. As such Transistor Rhythm could've easily been parceled out in intermittent doses, the only real association these songs have is the track listing. Flawed, aimless, and childishly eager, it's a record that wants to be everywhere all at once, but that's not always a bad thing. There's something charming to its clumsy navigation – like a pensive Williams surveying his gathered material, shrugging as the obtuseness of its polychromatic throb. A lively, dizzy-weird dance record freshly pressed from the DJ circuit.
"Sooperlooper" is the stupidest. A flushed, brassy strut of bleating synths, tropical drums, and a jittery vocal-sample, you can practically see the gushing soundcloud comments eclipsing after the shitkicking opening-third. Still, it stops just short of being bonkers-dumb. A few tracks later Spank Rock endlessly toasts about pussy over a buzzing bass-rumble, but even that feels a little guarded. 2012's Addison Groove isn't after the iconoclasm dollar; his new tunes are a little more viscous, introverted, coiled, and digestible – gently resonating a quiet expertise.
"Skylight" swirls like an ode to the diva-led house of the mid '90s, but Williams' leading lady is grated to a few loose syllables and a shredded 808 twerp. "Rudeboy" might be "Footcrab's" mellower cousin, but the stuttering, titular sample is a lot more seasick than danceable. The red-out sonic debris of "Ass Jazz" is shockingly serious for a throwaway name. For any complaints you could lobby with Transistor Rhythm, there's no denying that it's full of worthy, tightly-orchestrated music. There aren't any mailed-in moments to speak of. Addison Groove has recorded his own personal joyride, there's nothing universal. You'll fall in love with him on his terms.
Closer "Starluck" is tangled between baggy bass-thumps, phosphorescent synth darts, and a cartoonish slink. It pounds out its aggression and disappears off the other end. It is not the ideal closing act, but nothing on Rhythm really fits that bill. It's hard to be surprised. Addison Groove specializes in bizarre, microscopic journeys; the pitfalls are obvious when those are stretched into an opera. Edgy, flashpoint moments desperately searching for a sensible thesis, a record that puffs up endorphins but remains strangely ajar in our memories, it's got the wafer-thin philosophic density of a singles comp. You can't knock the songs, but it's hard to swallow whole.


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Edward Feser, a philosophy professor in California, calls Jerry Coyne's new book, Faith Versus Fact: Why Science and Religion Are Incompatible, an "omnibus of fallacies."
[Coyne] has no consistent account at all of what religion is. On one page, he will tell you that Jainism is not really the sort of thing he means by "religion." Forty pages later, he'll offer Jainism as an example of the sort of thing he means by "religion." If the views of some theologian are clearly compatible with science, Coyne will assure us that what theologians have to say is irrelevant to determining what is typical of religion. But if a theologian says something that Coyne thinks is stupid, then what theologians have to say suddenly becomes highly relevant to determining what is typical of religion. When churchmen refuse to abandon some doctrine, Coyne tells us that this shows that religion is dogmatic and unwilling to adjust itself to modern knowledge. When churchmen do abandon some doctrine, Coyne tells us that this shows that religion is unfalsifiable and desperate to adjust itself to modern knowledge. It seems Coyne also missed that lecture in logic class about the fallacy of special pleading.
This is vintage New Atheism. One of the recurring themes in NA bibliography is the utter inability to talk about religious language in a way that is actually meaningful. Over and over and over again, Dawkins, Harris, and Coyne use the word "religion" to describe base irrationality, while at the same time stacking the deck so that any trace of reasonableness becomes evidence of how elastic and meaningless religion really is.
Feser says Coyne's book "might be the worst book yet published in the New Atheist genre." That's a highly sought-after award, as Feser notes, but Coyne seems up to the challenge:
Coyne's own method, then, is to characterize religion however he needs to in order to convict it of irrationality. Nor is "religion" the only term Coyne uses in a tendentious way. The question-begging definition is perhaps his favorite debating trick. He characterizes "faith" as "belief without—or in the face of—evidence" and repeatedly uses the term as if this is what it generally means in religious contexts. Naturally, he has no trouble showing that faith so understood is irrational. But this simply is not how faith is understood historically in Christian theology. For example, for scholastic theologians, faith is assent to something that has been revealed by God. And how do we know that God exists and really has revealed it? Those are claims for which, the theologian agrees, evidence needs to be given.
This kind of mistake would be avoided if Coyne were at least marginally conversant with theology. But theology is rubbish, a hoax, so why waste time with it? It is remarkably convenient for these writers that because theology is nonsense and we mustn't talk about it, we should need to rely on biologists and neuroscientists to explain it, and take their word that it really is turtles all the way down.
Of course, this doesn't matter if your main objective is to vent your spleen about how stupid religious people are, or how much better the world would be in total secularity. And that is, after all, what the entire New Atheism was about from the beginning. NA's most glaring fault has always been a severe internal ignorance about religion. There's no rule that says biologists can't talk about philosophy, of course, but there is a rule that says people who don't understand–or even totally reject–categories of thought beyond the empirical shouldn't embarrass themselves and waste time for others.
If philosopher kings are a bad idea, biologist anti-philosopher kings are an even worse one. At least Plato gave us The Republic, instead of a grumpy Twitter account.


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Teachers' union to release education proposes reforms
HARTFORD -- A union representing more than 41,000 Connecticut teachers is asking lawmakers to require districts to evaluate all teachers each year, but to ensure the reviews encompass far more than the standardized test scores of those teachers' students.
The Connecticut Education Association's recommendations, released Tuesday, also call on legislators to streamline the 120-day process set out in state law for dismissal hearings, revamp how the state helps pay for local schools and offer incentives for all districts to offer full-day kindergarten.
The CEA's proposals are the latest in a growing number of reports from professional associations, education reform groups and others in advance of the next General Assembly session, which starts Feb. 8.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, state Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor and legislative leaders have said education reform will be the major focus, and that they want ideas from all corners of Connecticut on how to improve its schools and close the achievement gap between wealthy and poor students.
Pryor, who has been on the job for three months, attended the CEA's unveiling of its report Tuesday and said afterward that he's found "an enormous potential for common ground" on reform ideas between his department and the union.
"I think it's really a great day when such a credible plan is presented with so many great ideas in it," Pryor said of the CEA report. He said he disagreed with a few of the ideas, but would not say which ones.
The CEA's report comes a few weeks after a group representing Connecticut school superintendents unveiled its own recommendations, including an idea of eliminating teacher tenure and replacing it with renewable five-year contracts.
The CEA report does not propose or support eliminating tenure -- which teachers receive after four years -- but wants all teachers evaluated every year in procedures that are fair; offer chances to improve; and recognize skills that aren't necessarily reflected in students' test scores.
Mary Loftus Levine, the CEA's executive director, said that includes letting teachers' peers have a say in how they perform and judging them on factors such as how they manage their classrooms, if they seek professional development, whether they take leadership roles in their schools and other indicators.
The American Federation of Teachers, another union that includes thousands of teachers among its 28,000 Connecticut members, also has been advocating for an overhaul of the evaluation system.
It represents teachers in some of Connecticut's largest cities, including New Haven, where the union and administrators set up an evaluation procedure that includes peer input, factors beyond test scores and other factors to judge teachers' effectiveness.
The AFT members were not among the teachers helping craft the CEA union's ideas, but according to AFT Connecticut spokesman Eric Bailey, "Pretty much everything they put in their report are things we see eye to eye on."
The Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now, or ConnCAN, said Tuesday that it found "several components worth celebrating" in the CEA report, but believes student test performance should be the primary indicator to help determine teachers' effectiveness.
"Ultimately, the success of our state, our schools, our teachers, and our kids is based on performance and student outcomes. We must not lose sight of that as we build a truly effective teacher evaluation model," said Patrick Riccards, chief executive officer of the New Haven-based school reform association.
The CEA is also asking lawmakers to consider incentives to encourage all Connecticut school districts to establish all-day kindergarten, and to push for universal preschool -- an idea that Malloy has also championed even since before he became governor.
"We know the achievement gap exists when students walk through the door on the first day of school," Loftus Levine said.
As for costs, the CEA has not calculated how much the state or districts would have to allocate to provide those kindergarten and preschool slots: "I think we need to work collaboratively on that, but quite frankly, I think we can't afford not to," she said.
Some other CEA proposals include:
-- Developing tutoring opportunities and extending students' time in school if necessary to ensure they are all proficient readers by the end of third grade.
-- Encouraging employers to provide leave time for their workers to attend school-day activities. The CEA says 12 other states already do that, and that students are more likely to succeed when their parents are deeply involved in their schools -- regardless of the family's income.
-- Establishing a board separate from the state Department of Education to set professional standards for state teachers, and create or support programs to identify, recruit and retain good teachers.
-- Use lessons learned from charter and magnet schools, from "turnaround" schools that have been revamped under state law and apply them to local public schools.


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On leaving lepidoptera….*
I am with bite. Yes, I know. Hardly an earth-shattering news item. But, trust me, this has so far been the story of our holiday. And not least because of the furore surrounding the identity of its perpetrator, who, naturally enough, has long since left the building. Or, indeed, hire car footwell, or terrace, or table at Mr Noodles, or last table on the left, just adjacent to the Epping Massive, in Slainte Irish Bar on Avenida Gladioli. (Such is the way of things when your flight lands at midnight. You have no choice but to cut your cloth accordingly.)
There was, naturally, little fuss on my part. Not originally. I woke up the following morning with a slightly tender heel and, echoing the clarion call of holidaymakers everywhere, said "**** I've been bitten!". Followed by, "why do I always forget about the bloody mozzie cream till it's too late?" Honestly, it's so reliable that you could set your watch by it.
The day commenced as per. Got some food in. Hired some bikes. Applied sun cream. Headed to the beach. And I didn't fuss, even though it hurt. I never fuss. I'm not a fusser. But by early afternoon the tender heel was fast becoming a serious annoyance. So I took a proper look at it, and then I did fuss, because it looked like it had increasingly begun to feel. Like a series of small incendiary devices had been secreted just beneath my epidermis, operated remotely, and over-enthusiastically, by a leprechaun of little intellect, on minimum wage.
"Don't keep fussing," said Pete. (I was doing a lot of it by this time.) "It's just a mozzie bite. Welcome to my world." (Pete is to mosquitos as black truffles are to epicurean Gallic pigs. I have sympathized a LOT over the years.)
"Do I fuss?" I spluttered crossly. "Do I ever fuss? Have I ever been a fusser? If I fuss, let me tell you, it's because there is something to fuss about! Look at my foot! It is being eaten from within!"
So we all cycled home – up a challenging hill or five (in my case, painfully) – where some proper professional looking then ensued. Then the 'poke' test – he poked it, and I screamed the place down – followed by some consternation that the state of my foot (which was now getting irksome even to walk on) was quickly changing.
It was now hot to touch, swollen, livid and locally haemorrhaging – the harbinger, in fact, of that most ennervating of holiday hell-fests; the possibility of having to attend the local emergency walk in clinic, there to while away many a merry hour being misunderstood.
'Now we're talking!' I couldn't help but think, despite the agony. I was finally at the epicentre of the bitten-to-buggery universe, and I was milking it for all it was worth. After years of being saddled with the knowledge that bitey things didn't like me (a curiously FOMO kind of thing with me) I had a bite like no bite that had ever troubled the family. And with the spectre of it perhaps even getting worse.
"It looks infected, too," said Pete." We'll have to keep a close eye on it. Could get nasty." My emergency stash of antibiotics were duly administered, right away. But it still didn't look like anything any of us had seen before.
"I reckon that's a spider bite," said our resident globe-trotting nature girl, Georgie. "A girl I was travelling with in Thailand got bitten by a spider and it looked exactly like that."
And needless to say (we're on holiday, in a hot place, the imagination tends to wander) – the idea of attack by unknown arachnid took root. It looked nothing like a mosquito bite after all. And isn't that the miracle of the internet? I typed in 'bruised swollen painful ankle red bite?' and did an image search.
And as quick as you could say 'help! There's a Tarantula!', up came the results. And forget mozzie. I had fetched up at eepy-eepy central. And it looked EVERYthing like a bite from the jaws of a spider. Which I hadn't felt, much less seen, so which one?
Another search, then. Of the spiders of Spain. And it turns out that there are two possible species in the frame. The Brown Recluse (so Brown and reclusive they named it, um, Brown Recluse) and, oh, lordy lord, the Black Widow. Could it be true? Had I been touched by the kiss of the spider woman? Rubbish film, yes, but, oh my, watch this space…
(*which we didn't. Lots of them in Spain too. Just a nod to my fellow Alice Cooper fans, who will get this :))
First published in The Western Mail Weekend magazine, 17th Sept 2016


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Farmers will be planting their potatoes soon. Not long from now, this field will be full of potato blossoms.
The rows, rows, rows will be seeded as those who live in the Valley drive around the fields, eyeing them with a little bit of love and a little bit of hate. Up here, we all love our mashed potatoes, but many of us know what it's like to pick them by hand or work on a harvester. Money's good, but the work's back-breaking or limb-losing (this has happened on harvesters before).
This landscape will change so much in its color and vibrance throughout the year. Brown may be the dominant color now, but not for long. :) Summer's about to get all up in this field's face!


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"Homewrecker," the crazy chick and the convict meet cute.
Posted by Alison Willmore on
Reviewed at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.
"Homewrecker," the winning entrant in Sundance's inaugural low-budget NEXT program, won me over with an early scene at an upscale Chelsea bistro. Mike (Anslem Richardson), a locksmith who's out on work release, has essentially had his day hijacked by Margo (Ana Reeder), your archetypal crazy chick. She thinks her boyfriend Charles (Stephen Rannazzisi) is cheating on her, and insists Mike follow Charles into a restaurant to strike up a casual conversation with him and figure out if her suspicions are true.
It's all terribly sitcom set-up, and you're wincing in anticipation of the awkward hijinks that are sure to ensue when the black convict tries to talk to the uptight white gallery owner he's never met before about the intricacies of his dating life. But Mike asks him Charles if he thinks the shoes he's wearing will be okay for a date, tell Charles he's just out of jail and is out of practice, and Charles is immediately disarmed. "I'm happy for you," he tells Mike. And he means it.
And so goes "Homewrecker," a slight but charming comedy from brother filmmaking team Brad and Todd Barnes that keeps undermining its own strenuously quirky set pieces with an overwhelming generosity towards its characters, who are allowed to expand far beyond the labels I've just pinned on them. In "Homewrecker"'s New York, people are genial and open — not unnaturally so, but just enough, enough that life in the big bad city might not seem so hopeless for a fundamentally nice guy who believes in true love and who's just trying to get back on his feet. Even loopy Margo, who has the potential to be a seriously problematic character, is just grounded enough to keep tugging sympathy periodically back to her side.
"Homewrecker" does not yet have U.S. distribution.


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Bobby Wagner interviews Robert Turbin at Utah State's Blue and White gamePosted by on April 22, 2013 – 5:11 pm
Before they dressed in Seahawks blue and green together on Sundays at CenturyLink Field, linebacker Bobby Wagner and running back Robert Turbin were clad in Utah State blue and white on Saturdays at Romney Stadium in Logan, Utah.
The Seahawks 2012 second- (Wagner) and fourth-round (Turbin) draft picks returned to their alma mater this past weekend for the Aggies' annual Blue and White spring football game. It was there that Utah State Insider Matthew Glade tried to catch up with Turbin, only to have his interview highjacked by Wagner, who took the microphone from Glade and grilled Turbin with a few questions of his own.
After a bit of back and forth banter, Wagner isn't all that impressed with Turbin's answers for the camera.
"Your answers are pretty vanilla," Wagner offered to Turbin. "Can you elaborate, or are you just going to stay vanilla?"
After a brief pause, Turbin carefully replies with, "Well, it's my favorite ice cream."
Well played, Turbin. Well played.
Tags: Bobby Wagner, Robert Turbin
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When I first started out, I was not so picky about the book blogs that I follow. I followed just about anyone I encountered in the 'book reviews' or 'young adult' tags just on the basis that we've got the same interests. I followed back just about anyone who followed me first without even really looking at their blog and evaluating whether or not it's actually something that I'm interested in. 🙈
As I got older, though (cough cough), I learned that time is of the essence. One of the main things I seek from book blogging is the interaction and the connection with other book bloggers, and the reality is this: no matter how much I want to talk to ~everyone~, I just physically can't. Following a lot of people is good and all, but even I can't deny that I have limited hours (sometimes minutes, sometimes not at all) in a day to go through my feed and check out what other people have posted.
Because of that, I've had to be more selective with my following list. The below are the things that would make a book blog more appealing to me. ✨
1) The blogger is reading books I'm interested in.
Self-explanatory, am I right? I mean, the majority of the book blogs that I follow are YA/Romance book blogs, and those make up maybe 80% of my reading list. 😂
2) The blogger is reading books I might be interested in.
I'm a huge believer in cross-genre reading. I actually really love reading non-fiction as well, though admittedly it's harder to find non-fiction I'm interested in than YA books I'm interested in — probably because, well, the 'community' that I'm most involved in does talk about YA books the most. 🙏
I would, however, totally follow a book blog that covers genres outside my usual preferences, just as long as the books that they are touting are something I think I might be interested in in the future.
I probably won't follow blogs that review cookbooks just because I don't see myself ever wanting to buy cookbooks (unless it's as a statement piece for the coffee table), but I would so, so love book blogs covering my non-fiction areas of interest: memoirs, Japan, North Korea, Asian culture, cults, etc. (I know, I've got kind of a mixed bag of interests. 😅)
3) Their posts discuss things that are important to me.
So, so many book blogs review books in my genre, but I love it that much more when bloggers take things to the next level and mention not just the technical stuff (characters, setting, world-building, etc.) in their reviews but also put forward how the book does in breaking down stereotypes and promoting diversity. I think it shows insight and I always feel like I can learn a lot from the blogger on that front. 😊
4) They're interactive.
After my last discussion post on commenting, you betcha that this is part of what's important to me! Like I said above, interaction is one of the major things that I'm looking for, and I tend to gravitate towards the bloggers who do interact with their readers quite a bit, whether that's through comments or social media or something else. 🙆
5) They make it easy for me to be interactive.
I have no problem at all commenting on WordPress, but it's when I venture outside my small bubble that interaction can get a bit tricky. Case in point, I follow so many Blogspot blogs on Bloglovin' that make it almost impossible for me to interact with them (i.e. to leave a comment) because their blog just won't let me.
I can't just leave my name and URL — all too often I find that I need to be logged into something else: Google Plus, WordPress, OpenID, TypePad, LiveJournal… and the sad thing is, even when I'm logged into WordPress or Google Plus it doesn't always work. The blog can be super amazing and all, but I'm most likely already feeling defeated before I even start. 😂
6) They just have that extra something.
This last point is going to be very vague, but it's because this 'extra something', quite literally, can be anything:
- It could be in what they post — some bloggers post discussions about blogging, writing, diversity and other important things, while others create downloadable graphics.
- It could be in their design — they've a particularly pretty yet functional blog, or maybe a unique design that makes them more memorable.
- It could be in their blog focus — maybe they're not a book blog that covers only books, they're also interested in graphic novels, manga, movies, etc. and let their readers know about it.
Whatever the 'extra something' is, it's what makes their blog different from all the others. It's what makes them stand out. It's the thing that I, as a reader, don't want to miss — hence the follow. 😉
Now, let's talk! 💜💙
- Are you picky about who you follow?
- What do you look for in a book blog?
- How many bloggers do you follow?
This post is part of Blogger's Corner, a section of my blog that discusses all things blogging. 🤗


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Great news! Qlayers is one of the 21 startups around the world chosen to take part in the Paint The Future event. The AkzoNobel startup challenge will be held in Amsterdam from May 14 to 16, and it consists of a 3-day accelerator program where startups can accelerate, test, launch and scale early stage tech company innovations. Our solution: an automated printing head to coat large surfaces in any weather. We will have the chance to collaborate with industry experts and further scale up our innovation. Let's change the world of paints and coatings!
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If you have forgotten your password, click the "Forgot Password" link. Remember, your password is case sensitive. WARNING! You are logging into a system owned by Kennebec Federal Savings. This system is for authorized users only. Unauthorized access is prohibited and may result in civil and/or criminal prosecution. Your activity on this system will be recorded and may be disclosed to law enforcement. Continuing with the login process constitutes your agreement to this notice.
Use ctrl + m to toggle protection
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Business Card Display TemplateDisplay your business card designs in style with this awesome display template, this pack includes 2 hi-res 3800×2600 300dpi PSD templates that are created using hi-res photography and smart object technology.
These templates have 2x hand holding styles and 5x smart object card styles giving you a total of 10 different template layouts to display your business card designs.
You can also change the background of the template to any colour or image without any rough edges, everything in these templates is layered and has ultra clean edges.
Pack Features:
- 5x Card Styles
- 2x Hand Styles
- 10x Total Style Combinations
- Smart Object Placeholder
- Compatible with Photoshop CS3 & CS4


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Location: Washington, DC
How will clients benefit with you as their coach?
I am fueled by a belief that doing your job well isn't enough. Without executive presence and the ability to communicate effectively with diverse stakeholders, association leaders can't achieve their full potential or achieve the results they seek. After working in the association community and political arena for many years as a senior communications professional, today I am passionate about helping others in the association and nonprofit community tap into their full potential and maximize their impact through individual and team coaching and training.
Carol Vernon is a certified executive coach with more than 20 years of experience in non-profits, for-profits, and government organizations. After more than a decade in senior leadership positions in national associations, Carol became a coach to help individuals and teams become more effective in the workplace and more fulfilled in their lives. She serves as an on-site executive coach at the ASAE Annual Meetings and is a frequent speaker and presenter at their women's executive forum luncheons and career development programs. She also serves on the faculty of Yale's Campaign School for Women Leaders, where she provides leadership and communications coaching for rising leaders committed to public service.
Carol's professional experience includes, congressional and White House political staffer, senior director for a trade association, and acting executive director for a professional society.
Carol is certified by the coaching industry's primary certification body, the International Coaching Federation (ICF). She completed her coach training through the Coach Training Alliance and the Coaches Training Institute. She has a BA and did graduate studies in communications.


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The 2020 Cadillac XT9 is suggested to be the biggest high-end SUV in the Caddie lineup. Although the company is quiet on it, we understand that idea exists. Likewise, broadening of the XT lineup will end with the biggest of all crossover.
At this minute, we have just XT5. In 2019, XT4 and XT6 will sign up with. In 2020 the lineup needs to be total by including 2 full-size SUVs– XT8 and XT9.
Cadillac currently has the vehicle in this class. It is a famous Escalade. Although elegant, the 2020 Cadillac XT9 will be listed below the flagship crossover. On the other hand, Escalade will be its matrix and the base for additional advancement. With the development of the Caddie XT5, new models in the lineup might threaten the supremacy of its older brother or sister.
2020 Cadillac XT9 Concept
To be competitive in the market, every company requires to provide models for all classes. Now, we do not have easy ranking– little, mid-size, and huge vehicles. There are subclasses and not just one in between these primary. The early success of the Cadillac XT5 made managers in the company to purchase more models for the crossover lineup. The 2020 Cadillac XT9 will take a position above all. Nevertheless, the idea is not so basic– the XT9 is not simply a larger variation of XT5.
Initially– the 2020 Cadillac XT9 might look like coupe crossover. That is a reasonably new class. However, it is popular, particularly in the high-end sector. The other thing that might make this SUV various is a hybrid drivetrain. We do not have a lot of models in hair salons that support this type of drivetrain. The XT9 Hybrid might be among the very first to get an electrical battery to assist the standard drivetrain.
2020 Cadillac XT9 Hybrid
Under the hood of the 2020 Cadillac XT9 will be a petrol drivetrain. This is not going to be the only part of the system. The electrical motor will be under the seats of the new SUV. Both axles will get a power increase from the hybrid system, making its balance and stability much better.
At this minute, it is still uncertain what type of a powertrain is going to be the base of the hybrid system. It might be the old mix Escalade utilized back in 2013. That implies the XT9 is going to utilize a 6.0-liter V-8 fuel engine in mix with electrical motors. Nevertheless, 7 years will lag this system, so Cadillac needs to update it with most current features and devices. With it, the XT9 will have the ability to return over 20 mpg in a city drive.
2020 Cadillac XT9 Expectations
Huge stakes are on the 2020 Cadillac XT9. The company is eagerly anticipating releasing among the very first full-size hybrid SUV in the high-end section. Its primary competitor will be Lexus LX. That is among the unusual models by this maker comes just with petrol system. Quickly, the LX 570 will get the hybrid brother or sister. So, that will make other business go the very same method. With XT9 out there, Cadillac would remain in lead when such models get here.
2020 Cadillac XT9 Release Date
It is uncertain in which stage of advancement the 2020 Cadillac XT9 is. It is still an idea and there are no spy pictures to verify its presence. Likewise, these images can offer us an idea about more examinations. For instance, absence of spy shots most likely indicates that Cadillac is not all set to check XT9 Hybrid yet.
In 2019, fans are visiting the very first idea look. We hope by the end of 2019, the 2020 XT9 will be out. However, it is not a surprise if the carmaker postpones its best for 2020.
2020 Cadillac XT9 Price
The 2020 Cadillac XT9 is going to be among the most pricey crossovers in the lineup. It might leave Escalade behind. However, all this is possible thanks to the hybrid engine.


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Southernmost Mile-High City in the U.S.
Bisbee is a former mining town located a mile high in the Mule Mountains. It's the southernmost mile high city in the United States! Today, it is home to a thriving arts and antiquing community. Bisbee's unique shops and galleries along Main Street are complemented by an array of fine restaurants. For a glimpse of what life was like in Bisbee's 1800's heyday, visit the famed Bisbee Mining & Historical Museum (a Smithsonian Institute affiliate) or take the fascinating 75-minute Queen Mine Tour conducted by knowledgeable former miners. Join the town for its After Five Art Walk, the second Saturday of every month, to tour galleries, hear local musicians and enjoy hometown cuisine and brews in the evening hours.
For more information about Bisbee, reach out to the Bisbee Visitor's Center at 1-866-2BISBEE or (520) 432-3554.
The Editors of Frommer's Magazine named Bisbee to their "Best Places to Go in 2018."
The Editors of SUNSET Magazine selected Bisbee as the "Best Small Town of 2016" in their annual feature of the best hometowns in the West!


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Release Date: 2010 |
I could not for the life of me think of a good summary.
I have the opposite problem so I can't really empathize haha. Great review!
I forgot he as releasing a follow up EP to his last album. I'll have to check this out.
But nice review. You're really cranking them out nowadays.
Great review Xeno - have a pos. I particularly like the personality you display in this piece - you're really striking a perfect balance between being conversational and critical, and that makes your reviews even better to read. And trust me when I say they were excellent already.
Suggestion for a summary: This one's pretty o-Kayo.
The synth whirs in this are the only flaw because they're not as effective as they could have been had he not have been avoiding the use of guitar.
Hahaha you make me sound like a saint Xeno, but all I'm really doing is describing what it is that I see =)
Also, the last sentence of this review is somuchwin.
Album Rating: 3.0i'm glad you brought up that wack transition. this one certainly does not compare to coyote or blue lambency downward if you ask me.
here is your summary:
"i am not a poodle"
"kayo dot. good? you decide."
Album Rating: 3.0bud i got em both last night spinnin on my stereo
Album Rating: 3.0nahhh
Album Rating: 3.0dling as we speak master spudnik
Excited to listen.
oh xenophanes, whilst you write great reviews and I respect your opinion, I don't think I can ever look you in your SputnikFace again.
BLD was the best album of 2008 along with Extra Life's Secular Works
Album Rating: 4.5good review,im just lovin this.....ko
Album Rating: 4.0It sounds like he's saying "going to take out the ......garbage" at one point o_o
this can't be worse than coyote can it
I thought this was coming out next year.
Either way, I'm really enjoying it. Only criticism is that it wanders a bit too much. A more focused
meandering would've suited this better I think.
Album Rating: 3.5I really enjoy the first half of it.
Digging: Protest the Hero - Palimpsest
Album Rating: 4.5i have ordered it,i cant wait to hold it in my hands ooooooooo
Bands: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z


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I used to be very embarassed about showing people any sort of poetry I had written – not to mention such slushy heart-baring stuff as this. Now it doesn't bother me too much, and I think publishing stuff via the net gives a sense of detachment too, so it feels less exposing and embarassing, even though in reality I am exposing my quite bad poems to a potentially infinite worldwide audience (potentially infinite – my blog hit counter registers just a very modest number of people viewing this site). Nevertheless I will still blush if anyone I know mentions having read this blog, but then I tend to go red at pretty much any given situation anyway, so it doesn't matter.
I wrote this poem a few months ago for my American girl (cf: Your Red Sock, Siren Call). We are no longer together. Really it would increase the appeal of this blog (such as it is) if I spilled my heart on the matter, but I don't really go in for that.
This is a poem expressing those times when all you really want is her, and you can never quite get enough. I still feel like this about her to a degree, but that's no use as our differences are too extreme. I will probably write a poem about losing her (again) soonish.
On to the poem itself:
I miss you, I want you; yearn to reach out
and touch you, across the
vast grey wastes of water
that divide us;
Touch you with my hands
that are always empty without you,
feel the warmth of your skin,
beautiful brown, next to mine.
I could spend a lifetime exploring
the contours of your body – every smooth line –
an hour drinking down the taste
of your lips, sweet like wine.
To taste the very essence of your being
is what I thirst for,
to swallow every last drop
is what I want – and then more.
I want to talk with you, laugh with you,
tell you all the ways
that I love you.
Or just stand and smile for days,
in silent heart-swelling happiness.
Perhaps I'll show you poems (better left unread)
or tell you daft jokes (better left unsaid).
Sit with you on a park bench,
lie with you in a soft bed.
You make me feel more than lust.
I lie awake and dream of your dark eyes, your lips, your bum;
dream of thrusting inside you until we
together come.
I want you to lie in bed
all morning with me,
and we'll tell the rising sunne
he's only half as happy as we.


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If you liked, "Go the f**k to Sleep," but somehow wish that it was more morbid, then you should check out a new book, "Inside, Screaming, Sinking Down," a parody of the Berenstain Bears, "Inside, Screaming, Sinking Down" pokes fun at the anxiety-riddled parent by showing a morbid version of the Berenstain Bears morality tales.
The book is written by one of my Facebook friends, Karl Middlebrooks, who, by the way, is also a parent, and even if don't read the book, if you like absurdity in everyday life, you should at the very least friend him or subscribe to his updates, because his dry sense of humor and daily musings on life keep me quite entertained when I tire of a newsfeed filled up with cute kid pictures, which I fully admit are often my own.
Btw, this book came out before Jan Berenstain died a few weeks ago, so it's purely coincidental. Or perhaps Karl killed her just to get attention for his book. Hmmm
After sending me my very own review copy (oh the perks of blogging!) Karl answered a few of my questions about the book.
"It's a parody of one of my childhood favorites that became one of my daughter's favorites when she was younger: "Inside, Outside, Upside Down." If you haven't read that one…a little bear goes and gets inside a box, the box gets loaded on to a truck and the truck drives off. Ultimately the little bear falls off the moving truck and walks down the road until he gets home. The book was in pretty heavy rotation on the reading list for my daughter along with some other Berenstain Bears books ("Bears at Night", "The Spooky Old Tree", etc) and various other ones of varying qualities.
"And just because my mind works in weird ways, as we'd read "Inside, Outside, Upside Down" I found myself thinking that if you're particularly dense, you could come away with the message that little kids who go playing in boxes, wind up being accidentally kidnapped, and fall off moving vehicles can just toddle on home down the highway without any ill befalling them at any step of the journey."
As his morbid sense of humor took over, he asked himself, what would be more akin to a real life situation?
"…After all, it wasn't unusual for my friends and I to be allowed to play in cars when we were little. Cars were awesome, and normally when you're in the car with your parents, you have to sit still. If the car was sitting in the driveway, we could climb all over the place and do all the things you weren't normally allowed to do in the car. And I kind of ran with it from there, because I've seen cars slip out of gear and roll down driveways and streets before."
(This totally happened to me when I was 5! I remember it very clearly because I tried to push my moms' green Rambler back up into the driveway while wearing my silver tap shoes, as if that was the real deterrent. Luckily, my mom was standing on the porch and saw me behind the car.)
Karl fully admits that the book is completely inappropriate for kids, even though his now 11-year-old daughter read it when she was 10, and thought it was hilarious, he says he would not show it to just any 10-year-old.
"I loved the idea of having all these cute little illustrations and pastoral scenes as a setting for a story that was just terribly inappropriate for children.
"Someone mentioned to me that this book was just terribly inappropriate for anyone, and I told them, 'Well, yeah. But let's face it. If we're talking about how everything has a message or agenda, my take is a more realistic cautionary tale than the original. So, there's definitely a little bit of a dig at our own anxiety as parent."
"…I think most parents have stories of toys and activities that we survived but were just completely unsafe."
Karl says his book also allowed him to poke a bit of fun at one of his own pet peeves, helicopter parents.
"…I see a lot more focus on safety, whether its in toys, activities, or literature. I've met folks like that, and they irk me. At some level, I understand the idea that we want our children to grow up independent and strong, but we also want to keep them safe; from my personal point of view, though, we're a little out of balance on that. Teaching kids to be independent involves risk. Sometimes, I think we focus on safety to the extent of being just weirdly paranoid about it, as if safety is the apex of childhood."
Karl's book can be found under the pseudonym, Karl Keaton, in honor of his late mother (her maiden name), who was a voracious reader, and also had a twisted sense of humor.
Since Karl is an uber-geek, he's on every social networking site on the planet, so take your pick of favorite spots to check him out.
He blogs at www.listlessennui.com
He's got a Facebook fan page
His Facebook profile: www.facebook.com/bhazotl
He's on Twitter @kaffeenhed
On Google+, he's gplus.to/kaffeenhed
On Pinterest, he's pinterest.com/kaffeenhed
Oh wait, you say you want the book? Right. At the moment it's available in print on Lulu at http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/inside-screaming-sinking-down/18931042 It's $9.95. He's working on getting it into Amazon and also into ebook form, which will be out in approximately a month.
There was no form of compensation other than a book reminding me not to allow Annika in a car near a body of water. The end.


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After busy week in the global market, the ETFdb pop quiz returns with another round of questions about Nuclear Energy, Norway, and National Municipal Bonds.
As always, all answers can be found using the suite of free tools at ETFdb.com, including the ETFdb Categories, ETF screener and the new ETF Analyzer.
1. Which National Municipal Bond ETF has the most assets?
2. Which Leveraged Equities ETF has the highest YTD return?
3. Which Norway ETF has the highest 4 week return, Global X's FTSE Norway 30 ETF or iShares MSCI Norway Capped Investable Market Index Fund?
4.Which Vanguard ETF has the lowest beta?
5. Which Nuclear Energy ETF has the highest highest average trading volume?
Disclosure: No positions at time of writing.
Click here to read the original article on ETFdb.com.
Read more posts on ETF Database »


text: The UUID module uses network byte order, regardless of the platform byte order. On little-endian platforms like Windows the ".bytes" property of UUID objects is not compatible with the memory layout of UUIDs: >>> import uuid >>> import pywintypes >>> s = '{00112233-4455-6677-8899-aabbccddeeff}' >>> uuid.UUID(s).bytes.encode('hex') '00112233445566778899aabbccddeeff' >>> str(buffer(pywintypes.IID(s))).encode('hex') '33221100554477668899aabbccddeeff' >>> Ka-Ping Yee writes* that the Windows UUID generation calls are not RFC 4122 compliant and have an illegal version field. If the correct byte order is used the UUIDs generated by Windows XP are valid version 4 UUIDs: >>> parts = struct.unpack('<LHH8s', pywintypes.CreateGuid()) >>> parts[2] >> 12 # version 4 >>> ord(parts[3][0]) & 0xC0 # variant 128 The first three fields (32 bit time-low, 16 bit time-mid and time-high-and-version) are stored in the platform byte order while the remainder is stored as a vector of 8 bytes. The bytes property and bytes argument to the constructor should use the platform byte order. It would be nice to have explicit little endian and big endian versions available on platforms of either endianness for compatibility in communication and disk formats. There is another issue with version 1 uuid generation: >>> len(set(uuid.uuid1() for i in range(1000))) 992 The problem is that the random clock_seq field is only 14 bits long. If enough UUIDs are generated within the same system clock tick there will be collisions. Suggested solution: use the high-resolution of the time field (100ns) to generate a monotonically increasing timestamp that advances at least by 1 for each call, when time.time() returns the same value on subsequent calls. Oren [*] http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2006-June/065869.html


text:
Business Class flights to Los Angeles
Fly LON-LAX in Air New Zealand Business Premier and experience the ultimate blend of business and pleasure.
In Business Premier you will enjoy:
- Luxurious levels of comfort in our 6' 7.5" lie-flat beds with memory foam mattress, fluffy pillows and duvet
- Seriously delicious inflight menus and award-winning wines served with refreshing personality
- Over 1400 hours of the latest entertainment available from the moment you take your seat on your personal 12.1" touch screen with noise-cancelling headphones
- Privacy with each seat positioned in a herringbone style for direct aisle access
- Dining together, for travel companions the ottoman footrest doubles as a visitor's seat
- In seat power, USB port and iPod connection to help you continue working
- Premium check in and ample baggage allowance (take three pieces of checked luggage up to 23kg each)
Our daily flight leaves late afternoon from London Heathrow arriving into Los Angeles in the evening. Great timing to grab a late supper, get some sleep and wake up the next day refreshed and LA ready.
London Heathrow Partner Lounge update
Air New Zealand's Partner Lounge at London Heathrow Airport has changed from the Air Canada Maple Leaf lounge to the Singapore airlines SilverKris Lounge. Air New Zealand Business Premier passengers are also entitled to use the Singapore Airlines SilverKris lounge at London Heathrow Airport when travelling on eligible flights. Partner lounge arrangements can change from time to time, so it's a good idea to check our Partner Lounge Directory each time you fly.
Flying regularly to New Zealand for business?
Find out more about our Extra Mile programme. If your company travels to New Zealand on a regular basis for business you can receive discounts on all your flights with us and earn money off for future flights.
Flights to Los Angeles in our other cabins
Flights to LA in Premium Economy
Flights to LA in Business Premier™
Los Angeles Travel Guide
The lowdown on LA
The LA vibe
Eating & drinking
Discover new areas
^ Bookings made via the Air New Zealand Call Centre will incur an additional offline booking fee of £30 per ticket issued.
PLEASE READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THIS SITE. By using this site, you signify you have read and accept these terms and conditions. If you do not agree to these terms, do not use the site.
Fare/Price details - Prices are in GBP and include estimated government taxes, fuel surcharge, ticketing and handling fees. Fares are based on payment by debit card. Fare is subject to availability and may be withdrawn at any time. Unless otherwise stated above, fares are based on non-stop routings on Air New Zealand operated services from London to Los Angeles. Fare Listings are for general information only and not a reflection of current seat availability. Prices are subject to change at any time. We want to provide you with the most competitive fare deals in a fluctuating marketplace and because of this prices may go down. We are not able to provide refunds or rebookings if a lower fare becomes available.
Payment & Ticketing - Bookings made online must be purchased immediately with a debit or credit card. Electronic Tickets will be issued for these fares.
Cancellation/Changes - Time/Date changes permitted before each flight departure for a fee of £200 per change. Where the original fare booked is no longer available or applicable for new travel dates, any difference in fare will be also be required for payment in additional to the fee for change. £30 service fee may also apply for changes. Ticket is non-transferable. Ticket can be cancelled before outbound departure date and a refund will be given less 50% of the original fare purchased. Fare may be used as credit towards a higher Air New Zealand fare. At all times the Non-Refundable portion remains Non-Refundable.
Stopovers - Not applicable.
Frequent Flyer - Air New Zealand Airpoints and STAR Alliance Frequent flyer points/miles accural is permitted. Members of other airline frequent flyer programs, should check with their member guide.
Minimum/Maximum Stay - No minimum stay. Maximum stay is 3 months.
Advanced Purchase - Fares must be purchased and confirmed at least 14 days before departure.
Children/Infants - Children (aged 2 - 11 years) pay 100% of adult fare. Infants (aged under 2) accompanied by an adult are entitled to a 90% discount off adult fare, however the infant is not entitled to a seat. The infant will therefore be required to travel on the adult's knee/lap. Unaccompanied minors NOT permitted on these fares.
TTY assistance is available for deaf and hearing impaired via Text Relay on 18001 0800 028 4149.