This is especially for Danny Liv... (RI295N) this stretch of road in Rhode Island was carved out between the deep rock formations that are prevalent in this state. The warning sign to watch for FALLING rocks reflects our New England accent, and as an amateur proofreader, never ceases to make me laugh!

Canon 40D, Canon 50mm/f1.4, Lightroom.

Kamera: Nikon FM

Linse: Nikkor-S Auto 55mm f1.2 (1970)

Film: Rollei P&R 640 @ box speed

Kjemi: Rodinal (1:25 / 13:30 min. @ 20°C)

 

-Monday 26 February 2024: What an eventful day - so many things happening all at once - all of which deserves looking further into:

 

- US Air Force soldier Aaron Bushnell self-immolates in a shocking protest outside the Israeli embassy in Washington D.C and dies from his injuries.

- Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh (b. 1958) and his PA government resigns.

- Jordanian Air-Force airdrops humanitarian aid of food and other supplies in Gaza

- Last day of the ICJ hearing on the legality of Israeli occupation of West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.

- Final day for Israel to deliver their report to the ICJ in the South Africa vs. Israel genocide case on what measures they have been taking in order to prevent genocide - it was delivered just hours before the deadline.

  

While we try to digest the rapid bombardment of suddenly fast-forward development, news and unexpected flux - for a better understanding of the context, I want to share with you a worthwile broadcast which goes deeper into the history of Palestine, the PLO and the PA:

  

COLONIAL LAW AND THE ERASURE OF PALESTINE

 

by Chris Hedges (b. 1956), The Real News Network February 2, 2024 [See and listen here]

 

For a century, international law derived from British colonial rule has been premised on the non-existence of Palestinians as a people.

 

In Palestine, the law has been used as a tool of oppression to legitimize and advance the dispossession of the Palestinian people for more than a century. From the theft of Palestinian land by legal mechanisms to the non-recognition of Palestinians as a people with the inalienable right of self-determination, the law is yet another weapon wielded against the Palestinian people by Israel and its patrons. Activist, attorney, and Rutgers University professor Noura Erakat joins The Chris Hedges Report to discuss the use of lawfare against Palestine and her new book, Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine.

 

Studio Production: Cameron Granadino

Post-Production: Adam Coley

 

TRANSCRIPT

 

The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.

 

Chris Hedges:

 

“Time and time again,” the human rights attorney, Noura Erakat (b. 1980), writes, “we see evidence of the laws assumed insignificance in the dispossession of Palestinians. Great Britain remained committed to establishing a Jewish national homeland and Palestine, despite its legal duties as the mandatory power to shepherd local Arab peoples to independence. The permanent mandates commission remained committed to the incorporation of the Balfour Declaration into the Mandate for Palestine in contravention of the covenant of the League of Nations, which in discussing the dispossession of the communities formally belonging to the Turkish empire, stated that the wishes of these communities must be a primary consideration.”

 

“The United Nations proposed a partition of Palestine without legal consultation and in disregard of the existing populations wellbeing and development, which the same covenant had declared to be a sacred trust of civilization. Zionist militias established Israel by force without regard to the partition plans stipulated borders.”

 

“The United Nations accepted Israel as a member despite the state’s violation of the non-discrimination clauses of the partition plan and of the UN’s own condition that Israel permit the return of forcibly displaced Palestinian refugees. The very origins of the Palestinian Israeli conflict,” Erakat continues, “suggests that it is characterized by outright lawlessness and yet few conflicts have been as defined by astute attention to law and legal controversy as this one.”

 

“Do Jews have a right to self-determination in a territory in which they did not reside but settled? Are Palestinians a nation with the right to self-determination or are they merely a heterogeneous polity of Arabs eligible for minority rights? Did the United Nations have the authority to propose partition in contravention of the will of the local population? Are the West Bank including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip occupied as a matter of law that is, are they recognized as such by law?”

 

Does Israel have the right in law to self-defense against the Palestinians living in the occupied territories? Do Palestinians have the right to use armed force against Israel? Is the root of Israel’s separation barrier built predominantly in the West Bank illegal? Is Israel an apartheid regime?

 

Joining me, discussing these issues examined in her book, Justice For Some: Law and The Question of Palestine, is the human rights attorney and assistant professor at Rutgers University, Noura Erakat (b. 1980).

 

You begin the book, I think making a crucial point, and that is that the entire legal system, and this predates the establishment of the state of Israel under the British mandate, is grounded in the denial of sovereignty to the Palestinian people. And I, as we said before I went on air, reminded me very much of the construction of the American legal system, another settler colonial project, basing it on Locke’s primacy of property. So you build a legal system on a distortion. And this was something that the British imposed. Let’s go back and look at that.

 

Noura Erakat:

 

Absolutely. And so I think that the invocation of John Locke (1632-1704) is very apt here. Specifically as we were discussing earlier, Locke theorizes the social contract as was later applied in the United States as a social contract for settlers only through the exclusion of indigenous peoples and their erasure. And here what you’re describing as the perversion and the denial of sovereignty to Palestinians is what I capture as a colonial erasure, the erasure of the juridical status of Palestinians as a international people with the right to self-determination. There was never a denial that there were people on these lands, but that there was an outright denial whether these people constituted a political community with the right to exercise self-determination, what we’re using interchangeably here with sovereignty, though I would caution that sovereignty has come to take on quite new meaning beyond just statehood and self-governance. But in so far as we’re discussing this particular moment, it’s the aftermath of the First World War.

 

And the British have basically promised Palestine to its native peoples and promised self-determination across the former Ottoman territory is what they describe as the area a mandate. They’ve also promised Palestine and designated it as a site of Jewish settlement as captured by the Balfour Declaration, which was approved by British Parliament in 1917. That later becomes the Preambular text for the Palestine mandate, which governs the regulation of this mandate territory. Now, in so doing, and this is why I examine the language of the Balfour Declaration, the declaration itself only recognizes Jews was having a right to self-determination when they designated as a site of settlement and recognizes the original inhabitants, but only describes them as having a right to civil and religious rights. So they have the right to practice their religion freely and to move about freely, but they do not have a right to political rights.

 

And that’s what I capture as the colonial erasure. Once the British do that, and now it’s incorporated in the Palestine mandate in 1921, it becomes, I suggest, not just British colonial prerogative as the mandatory power. It now becomes international law and policy by which the entire permanent mandate commission, which is overseeing the governance of all the mandates. Now remember the mandates are set up as being trusteeships that will be shepherded to self-determination. But as Timothy Mitchell points out, this was about the consent of the governed. That self-determination here only meant that the governed decided who would be their mandatory power. But this becomes an other way to continue French and British colonial penetration into the Middle East and North Africa without necessarily granting independence to these peoples who have to fight for their independence. But even within that construction, they set apart Palestine as a part of international law and policy.

 

They set it apart from the other class A mandates in saying unlike those mandates that are being shepherded to independents that have a provisional government, that are able to represent themselves, Palestine because of its designation as a side of Jewish settlement has to be now developed in another way. And so they suppress any form of Palestinian sovereignty and self-determination even in contravention of the League of Nations covenant, which regulates the mandate territories, the mandates themselves that says, for example, “You cannot contravene the wishes of the original inhabitants.” Well, obviously we know that the inhabitants rejected Zionism and wanted self-determination, that there should be some sort of self-government, but they wouldn’t allow representative self-government because if they did, that would contravene the Balfour Declaration.

 

And now the Balfour Declaration was part of the Palestine mandate, which was international law. The PMC resolves this in basically saying, “Why don’t we first prioritize the settlement of Jewish persons and then we’ll move on to resolve the issue of the rights of the original inhabitants?”

 

And this points out to something interesting, Chris, which is often I think we give too much credit to Britain and to this imperial access of having a plan, that they planned that there would be a Jewish state. And I don’t think so. I don’t think so. I think that they wanted to thwart self-determination in general and maintain Palestine as a site where they can continually justify their intervention and their colonial penetration in order to basically compete with the French in the MENA region as well as to justify their presence through some sort of colonial benevolence.

 

And what crystallizes later is why this becomes the demand. Now, the Zionist demand for a Jewish state is not something that they necessarily intended and why it becomes a blunder. This becomes a blunderous policy for them as we see in the aftermath of the Second World War, when the British leave and they give this to the United Nations and they say, “We don’t know what to do anymore. We can’t resolve this. We’ve made too many promises, we’ve created a bit of a Frankenstein here.” But all that to say is that it was through their 30 years of that mandatory authority that they create the conditions that basically make ripe Zionist militias to then establish a Jewish state themselves, a Zionist state with a solid Jewish demographic majority that is contingent on the removal and dispossession of the original Palestinian people.

 

Chris Hedges:

 

Well, at the inception, the Jews and Palestine who were a small minority were essentially seen as colonial administrators. And during the Arab Revolt, 37, 38, 39, the British were arming the Zionist militias as auxiliary units. You’re write, all of it backfired. But from the inception, and this was I think the underlying point of the Balfour administration, it was through the Jewish community that essentially they were going to maintain this colony. Isn’t that correct?

 

Noura Erakat:

 

Yeah, very interesting here. This is also part of a broader colonial trope that they wanted to protect the minority Jewish population as a religious population, and it’s under this kind of benevolent auspices that they can justify their own intervention, right? But they wanted, for example, to maintain direct access and build a railroad from Haifa to Baghdad as part of a broader British vision, that this wasn’t about creating a homeland for Jews, for the British as much as it was about achieving their policy as you’re describing. A few things about the Great Revolt. The Great Revolt is so significant, not only because here the British are arming the Jewish Yeshu, the Zionists and training them in this moment leaving arms to them. At the same time, Rashid Khalidi (b. 1948) points out to us that through the course of the Great Revolt, the British actually end up decimating 10% of the male adult population either through imprisonment, exile, or outright killing.

 

And so this makes the Palestinians, in fact, some 10 years later when now they’re facing off with the Zionist militias in the falling apart of the partition plan, unable to resist I think more forcefully. So that’s absolutely significant.

 

The second thing I’ll say about the Great Revolt is that it changed British policy that whereas the British refused to reexamine their commitment to Zionism between 1917 and 1936 in the aftermath of the Great Revolt because they realized that they could not resolve this forcefully, they could not partition Palestine as a matter of force, that the Palestinians refused that outcome, that it would have to be done by force. They actually revised their Zionist policy for the first time when they issue the white paper and they walk back that policy and now say that the future will be determined by a referendum and that there will somehow be an Arab federal state instead. Obviously, none of this comes to fruition, not least of which because the Second World War begins.

 

Chris Hedges:

 

And I just, as you point out in your book, the Arab Revolt was actually quite successful. I think they even occupied, as you say, Jerusalem for five days, huge parts of the country. And the British declared martial law and brought in, was it a hundred thousand or 200,000 British troops? So it required Draconian British military power, in essence to crush these aspirations. And then as you point out, left the Palestinians weakened. You had a Jewish brigade of course in World War II incorporated into the British Army, and then they pushed through the seizure of land, 78% of land 1948 when they created the state of Israel, which is an important part.

 

Noura Erakat:

 

Before you go there, Chris, I just want to point out this point about martial law significant in three ways, I should say. Number one, the martial law regime that the British apply during the Great Revolt in order to basically crush the Palestinian insurgency and uprising is something that they’re applying across their colonial geographies and their colonial holdings, whether it be in Malay, in Kenya, in India, this is a form of their suspending all civil rights in order to be able to exercise whatever they deem necessary for their national interests. And so the colonial legacy, here, I say that to just emphasize that as exceptional as many aspects of the Palestinian struggle for liberation are, that it’s actually quite common and emblematic of a broader colonial history. The second thing that I want to point out is that upon its establishment, Israel, one of the first act of the Knesset is to adopt Britain’s emergency regime, almost verbatim, almost verbatim, for the purpose of achieving its settler colonial ambitions.

 

Of course, they become sovereign over 78% of Palestinian lands, but those lands still belong to Palestinians. It takes 12 years until 1960 in four phase plan where now the state of Israel, no longer the Zionist militias, are now the state forces, are incrementally taking that land through a regime of immigration law, property law, and emergency rule of which the military law is central as it’s applied solely to the Palestinian population that remains, that eventually become citizens of the state as well.

 

And then the third thing that I’ll say about that martial law is that once they lift the martial law, in 1966, this is precisely what now they apply to the Palestinians and the West Bank in Gaza to continue that settler colonial expansion. So the legacy, this broad global legacy of martial rule in order to achieve their colonial ambitions becomes a central organizing technology of Israeli governance in order to fulfill its own settler colonial ambitions, both within what becomes Israel as well as in what we describe as the occupied territories in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.

 

Chris Hedges:

 

So there were two key points I picked up from your book. One, this continuum between a legal system set up by the British settler Colonial project and the Israeli settler colonial project really almost seamless and premised on exactly the same point that the Palestinians have no sovereignty, the Palestinians, Golda Meir (1898-1978), I think said they don’t exist as a people. And so just the same legal tools that the British were using to dispossess and strip Palestinians of basic rights are no different from the tools that Israel uses. Is that correct?

 

Noura Erakat:

 

I’ll modify that slightly. And also, unfortunately, [inaudible 00:18:35] D. Muir says this in an interview with the International Herald Tribune where she says, “It’s not as if there was a land with a people that we dispossessed. It was a land without a people for a people without a land.” This is emphasizing that colonial erasure, Golda Meir, Theodor Herzl (1860-1904), Chaim Weizmann (1874-1952), Arthur Ruppin (1876-1943), all of these founding figures, Zionist figures understand full well there are Palestinians, they just do not recognize them as a political community.

 

There’s this continuing discourse of savagery, barbarism, lack of civilization, do not know how to rule themselves. It’s a colonial project. Zionism is very much a settler colonial project, which makes this revisionism that we’re seeing today, describing it as a national self-determination movement, or worse as the greatest form of anti-colonial revolt. So laughable because it is exalted, self exalted as a colonial project. The other thing I’ll just modify slightly is that insofar as the British were concerned, it wasn’t just that they were targeting Palestinians, they were also suppressing any form of national self-determination because of their imperial interest.

 

They wanted to stay there, they didn’t want to leave. But the infrastructure that they set up for us, this emergency infrastructure in particular is what Zionists adopt in Toto, almost verbatim, when the Israel establishes itself and they do so whereas when the British passed, they actually impose the martial law and the emergency regime on everyone. The Jewish Zionists as well as Palestinians, when Israel adopts it in the Knesset, it’s imposed on Palestinians only in order to continue now a specific form of dispossession. What the British do is engage in immigration, which is engage in a discriminatory form of immigration that just doesn’t regulate the immigration of Jewish settlers. And also a land regime where we’re seeing a tremendous sale of lands that’s also unregulated, not regulating the market properly so that Palestinians are not necessarily stripped forcefully what they’re stripped of as their political right, their political right to represent themselves, their political right to organize their political right to make decisions on what this looks like.

 

But not in the same way of once Israel is established. At that point, the law is retooled specifically to transform Palestinian lands into Israel lands. And once in the form of Israel lands, that’s just the cover because if you say Israel, that means that, oh, everybody who’s a citizen of Israel. But in fact, it’s a cover to say Jewish national lands in particular because upon its establishment in 1950 and 1952, Israel bifurcates Jewish nationality from Israeli citizenship. And this is key. This is key especially to those who discuss apartheid because Israel doesn’t become an apartheid regime for failing to establish a Palestinian state and truncating Zionist sovereignty across the 1949 Armistice lines or what we know as the 1967 lines. Israel is predicated on a discriminatory framework that bifurcates Jewish nationality through which all rights flow.

 

This is an extraterritorial right that promises any Jewish person within outside, who’s never even heard of the state, who might be born today, to land, to employment, to housing, to education, to governance in a way that will never become accessible even to the Palestinian inhabitants that never leave. 20% of Israel’s population are the Palestinians that stay through the 1948 war, but even they don’t have those same rights. They’re only entitled to Israeli citizenship. And there’s a two-tiered system, one of nationality and citizenship, and one of citizenship only, and citizenship only is a form of second class citizenship or a fifth pillar. And so this too is part of a legal edifice that defines the state and its establishment.

 

Chris Hedges:

 

In the book, you talk about the legal recourses that Palestinians, in particular the PLO, and what I found interesting is that while they didn’t achieve their ultimate objective, they often achieve secondary objectives that benefited the Palestinian people almost by default. Can you explain that?

 

Noura Erakat:

 

Well, you’re leaving it very open-ended because as you know, I divide the book into five critical junctures. Each of those junctures is really catalyzed by some sort of violent confrontation that becomes an opportunity to recalibrate the balance of power. And in each of these episodes, that relationship between power and law becomes formative in both defining how we understand the question of what becomes the question of Palestine as articulated by the United Nations in 1948, it suddenly becomes a question, and defines the meaning of law in particular. So what the Palestinians do, and those junctures are 1917, in the aftermath of the first World War, 1967, the 1967 war, 1973, the October 1973 war, 1987, the First Palestinian Intifada and 2000, the Second Palestinian Intifada, which also shapes and defines ongoing warfare to this day when Israel shifts from a policy of occupation to explicit warfare against the Palestinians who live under its occupation.

 

So I say that all to lay out the audience, that I’ll just focus on the juncture and the aftermath of the 1973 war. When I articulate in the book that this was really the apex of when the Palestinian Liberation Organization due to the law astutely to achieve its national ambitions. Now, this is also nuanced because at this time in 1973, the PLO as defined by its militia forces who take over the PLO in 1968, their goal is full liberation. They want to liberate all of Palestine. They have no ambitions for a state. There’s no articulation of that. This is a decolonization movement they want to liberate. They want to free the land. In the aftermath of the 1973 war, and specifically we see this very explicitly in ’74, we might see it earlier, but very explicitly in ’74, there is now a seed planted that envisions the establishment of a truncated Palestinian state as either the stepping stone of full liberation or the final solution.

 

We don’t see that question resolved until 1988 when the Palestinians now enter Oslo. So I’m just setting this up for the audience to be able to explain that even we say, what do Palestinians want? At this point there’s a lot of nuance. There’s an explicit agenda of full liberation, but there’s also now a latent agenda by some elements of the PLO led by Fatah, and I would say even a very conservative element of Fatah, not all of Fatah at this time. So now what? Okay, so in ’74, the Palestinians basically make their first foray into the United Nations. Their objective is actually not to enter the United Nations. They want to enter the Middle East peace process now being shepherded by the Soviet Union, but by primarily the United States, by Nixon, who’s both the Secretary of State and the head of the National Security Council, who in pursuance of Zionist goals as well as US national interest, disaggregates the Arab Israeli question, or the Arab Israeli conflict, I should say, into an Egyptian Israeli track, a Lebanese Israeli track, a Jordanian Israeli track, a Syrian Israeli track, and leaves out the Palestinians altogether.

 

What the PLO really wants is to be able to negotiate on behalf of themselves and not by proxy. Failure to be able to incorporate themselves into that negotiating process, now they set their sights on the United Nations, and that’s when they enter in ’74 to pass Resolution 3236 and 3237, which together both affirms their Juridical status as a people when it says that the PLO is the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and not merely a [inaudible 00:28:23] of refugees in need of humanitarian assistance and establishes a corrective to Resolution 242, which doubles down on their erasure by describing them as refugees only, and establishes a quid pro quo arrangement whereby Israel will enjoy permanent peace in recognition for returning all of the territories. And so this is seen as an instrument of defeat. So that’s the first kind of what, I guess, one might describe as that’s not exactly what they wanted.

 

What they wanted was to enter into the negotiations. This is what they do, which is also very successful. That didn’t advance their cause as much. And in the summer of ’75, they decided that they wanted to expel Israel from the United Nations in the same way that the non-aligned movement had expelled South Africa and unseated it from the United Nations. But in their effort to do so, they were primarily blocked by Egypt under the leadership of Anwar El-Sadat (1918-1981), who saw that the only pathway forward was through some sort of US alliance in order to get the Sinai back to recoup the Sinai and wanted to continue negotiations with Israel. So actually stymied this initiative to unseat Israel from the United Nations. Instead, what the Palestinians do in the summer of ’75 at the International Women’s Conference, at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, at the non-aligned movement, amongst the organization of African Union is basically a condemnation of Zionism as a form of racism and racial discrimination.

 

That wasn’t the primary goal, but that was the consensus. So they come back to the general assembly and now work to create one of the most significant, I think, legal achievements when they amend the decade against racism that was targeting apartheid in Namibia and South Africa to also include a condemnation of Zionism. And we get Resolution 3379 that declares that Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination that would only be rescinded by the PLO itself in 1991. And so I would say that these are just a few examples of what… I think I’m responding to your question of perhaps what Palestinians had sought and what they do instead using these legal maneuvers. And obviously all of this entry of foray is also restricting the Palestinians themselves, but it’s a restriction that they welcome in order to advance their other goals.

 

Chris Hedges:

 

Let’s talk about Oslo. You opened that chapter quoting Edward Said (1935-2003), who calls it a Palestinian Versailles, and really, I think, you make a very persuasive argument that it destroys the PLO as an effective resistance organization.

 

Noura Erakat:

 

When I started this chapter, I really was starting it and interested in it as a legal scholar, and I thought to myself, one of the offerings that I can make is to explain to a non-specialist, what did Oslo do in order to permanently subjugate Palestinians? Because that’s what it is. Oslo is a sovereignty trap. It doesn’t promise, there’s never even a mention of the Palestinian state. None of its negotiating terms promises an eventual outcome of a Palestinian state. Palestinians don’t get anything. And so I wanted to explain that, how does Israel create this new administration under Oslo to regulate access to water, access to land, access to movement? How does Oslo set up all of these strictures? But when I read the actual documents, the Declaration of Principles, also known as Oslo 1, when you read Oslo 2, that sets up this jurisdictional regime of area A, B, and C, when you read why and Taba and so on, it’s so obvious how Palestinians are subjugated that I thought to myself, well, you don’t need to be a legal expert to have this takeaway, you just need to be literate.

 

So instead, I decide to answer a question I don’t know the answer to yet, which is why? Why would the PLO enter into something so obviously devastating and self-defeating. And in trying to answer that question, what becomes clearer to me anyway, is that this really is about salvaging the PLO, that that’s what was being done. The PLO after its expulsion from Lebanon in 1982 in removal to Tunisia, is now no longer has a solid base where it almost oversees, one would say the infrastructure of a para state with a significant refugee population within Lebanon that constitutes an entire institution of representation and services and functioning, and also it doesn’t have the grounds for cross border attacks. That’s a significant blow. By 1987, they continue to weaken, not least because of the emergence of opposition like Hamas, that now becomes even more popular than the PLO struggle, as well as the fact that now there’s an organic movement within the West Bank in Gaza that’s leading an Intifada, an uprising so that the center of gravity shifts from the Palestinian diaspora to Palestinian lands themselves.

 

And this is undermining the PLO’s authority together with the fact now by the time Arafat throws his hat in and supports Saddam Hussein’s occupation of Kuwait, which in retribution Gulf states, Kuwait, number one basically says Palestinians out. And now there’s a whole loss of remittances to the Palestinians, as well as the fact that anybody that wants to support Palestine is going to support opposition and not the PLO itself. So all of these things come together to basically shape a moment where the PLO was at the edge of irrelevance, at the edge of irrelevance. And entering into the negotiations, they had a very adept team at Madrid, Washington, that saw the writing on the wall [foreign language 00:35:33] are very clear in their legal analysis in mourning that Israel is basically offering the same thing that was offered in the 1978 Middle East peace process in the negotiation between Sadat and Begin leading up to the 1979 permanent Egyptian Israeli peace, which is an autonomy framework.

 

That’s all they’re offering. They offered the same thing in ’78. The only difference now when they’re offering it in the lead up to the adoption of the Declaration of principles is that they’re saying that Palestinians will not only be able to govern themselves on these different plot of lands, but can also govern certain plots of land, but only there. They still won’t be able to exercise jurisdiction. And instead of electing a local government to do it, they’ll allow the PLO to do it. Those are literally the only differences between ’78 and what we ultimately see in ’93. One of the interesting things about doing this work, Chris, and this research, is that the legal literature is dominated by Israeli scholars, especially on these questions. So part of the work that I was doing was also helping to create a Palestinian archive to advance these legal arguments.

 

And doing that meant that I interviewed the interlocutors that were there. I interviewed the negotiators themselves, so Camille Mansour (b. 1945), who was there and was a negotiator and is a legal scholar. It’s his words where he illuminates that if you lose Palestinian representation, we go back to being just no people anymore. We had to save the PLO in order to save our status as a juridical people. But in exchange for that recognition, we basically relinquished Palestine.

 

The rescindment of the 1975 resolution declaring Zionism is a form of racism, is emblematic. The amendment of the charter that says that Palestinians will no longer resort to armed force when Israel is not making similar concessions. It doesn’t say we’re not resorting to armed force. The recognition of Israel. Palestinians recognize Israel. There’s no mutual recognition of a Palestine. And so Palestinians basically see and surrender what should have remained on the table as part of their negotiating leverage as a condition for entering into Oslo, which becomes the trap that they remained frankly ensconed within. Although we obviously see many, many cracks and Oslo has been dead, even though many have tried to keep it up on stilts. But that’s what’s happening. That’s what people are celebrating in 1993, even though though Edward Said, Haidar Abdel-Shafi, Nabil Shaath, and many others recognized as an instrument of defeat, this Palestine, it’s done, Palestine has been lost. And even Hanan Ashrawi (b. 1946), Dr. Hahan Ashrawi, who recognizes what a loss this is, also agrees that it was still worthwhile because they didn’t want to relinquish the status of the PLO. And so people are not stupid.

 

This was a very logical decision. The PNC approves Oslo, approves the DOP. So this is also not necessarily just betrayal by the PLO, even though it is betrayal by the negotiating team in Oslo, which was the back channel secret negotiation, but the negotiators in Washington had no idea about. But just adding nuance here that there was a lot. The PLO in its own documentation says that they entered into Oslo and Dr. Nabil Shaath (b. 1938), who’s also one of my interlocutors, says, “We knew it was bad, but we entered on good faith.” And that faith obviously didn’t bear out for them. It didn’t do what they had hoped.

 

Chris Hedges:

 

There was a lot of corruption. I was in Gaza after Oslo and the PLO leadership were importing their duty free Mercedes and building villas. As you point out in the book, the PA (Palestinian Authority) spends most of its budget on internal security functioning in essence as a colonial police force, the hierarchy that’s willing to do that dirty work can live very well. But we’ve now reached a point, and of course in the elections in 2006, the PA lost, Hamas won even in the West Bank. So in many ways, I don’t know if you would agree, it’s nullified itself as a credible movement on behalf of the Palestinian people at this point. Would you agree?

 

Noura Erakat:

 

100%. I think that this is consensus amongst Palestinians, which is what’s so troubling that the PA, even according to Oslo, the PA is only meant to be an administrative body. It should deliver mail. It should pick up the trash. It should complete administrative functions. It was never appointed to lead the Palestinian liberation movement, which should have remained within the purview of the PLO. But we see a collapse of the PA in the PLO in a way that blurs these lines on the firsthand. And then instead what we see, it was supposed to have a temporary function until we moved into permanent status negotiations and the establishment of the Palestinian state. There’s never a mention of the Palestinian state, Chris. Even the negotiators themselves, Yitzhak Rabin (1922-1995) who is hailed as the peacemaker and assassinated for his willingness to enter into Oslo by an Israeli settler.

 

Even he says there will never be a Palestinian state. So this temporary arrangement should have only lasted for five years. Let alone now we’re above three decades, and the PA has been a very, very significant instrument part and parcel of Israel’s occupation regime. It is doing the work on behalf of Israel. It is coordinating security with Israel. It is arresting Palestinians. It is providing intelligence on where Palestinians are. It is actually entering into Palestinian public squares to beat Palestinians to suppress their protests, even now against the genocide in Gaza. Just think. Just think the fact that the public sector is bloated, but the primary part of the Palestinian public sector is the security sector. And that security sector is basically policing Palestinians to protect Israel settlement enterprises. I had said before, and I’m saying now again, that in contrast, there’s no dedication, for example, to invest in the agricultural sector.

 

Had the PA now collapsed with a PLO invested in an agricultural sector, it might’ve been able to create and cultivate an economy that can engage in boycott of Israeli goods even rather than be flooded with Israeli goods into the market. But this also goes hand in hand with the fact that the PLO has never even endorsed boycott. There’s still committed, even if it’s a state led, a truncated Palestinian state, to that structure at the expense of liberation. And why at the expense of liberation, because this is not inclusive of all Palestinians. It’s not inclusive of the Palestinian refugees. It’s certainly not inclusive of the Palestinians who are citizens of Israel, and it doesn’t have a vision of how is it that Palestinians are going to be free from Israeli dominance as opposed to what they’re banking on, which is an autonomy arrangement whereby they will forever receive certain incremental privileges from Israel and its patron, the United States, in exchange for being good natives.

 

And this is the trap that we remain in, and it puts Palestinians… It makes our struggles so much harder. And many people are asking, how is Gaza? And the West Bank too. I mean, obviously the West Bank is being subject to untold and unprecedented violence from the beginning of this year, but especially since early October. But Palestinians are not even able to mount a significant and a robust resistance to protect themselves because not only are they being attacked by Israel and their settler vigilantes who are being armed, but they’re also being attacked and policed by the Palestinian authority.

 

Chris Hedges:

 

You compare the PLO to the Namibians and you make some, I think, really important points about how they were far more astute. They rejected the South African peace process as an alternative. SWAPO refused to enter South Africa’s exclusive sphere of influence and maintain an adversarial position, unlike the PLO, which has committed to US mediated bilateral talks for 25 years, SWAPO never relinquished its right to the use of force, and it never ceased its armed struggle. Talk about the difference because they were far more successful. And then of course you had Cuban troops stationed in Angola.

 

Noura Erakat:

 

I bring up Namibia in the conclusion because there is, especially in the realm of Palestine, and we see this now because of the South Africa application at the ICJ, there is a way because of the failure of politics really, and a failure of a Palestinian leadership to articulate some sort of a political program and a resistance vision. And resistance here, I mean robustly like diplomatic resistance, economic resistance, popular resistance, cultural resistance, delegitimizing, a Zionist colonial project. Nothing. There’s nothing. And in the absence of that, unfortunately, human rights and rights-based programs have taken up an inordinate amount of space in a way that even supplants the language of politics that now Palestinian politics are hollowed out instead with principles of law, which is detrimental, is detrimental because the law is only a tool. That very same law like human rights law that Palestinians use to assert their right to family and their right to not be harmed.

 

Settlers in the West Bank are invoking that same body of law to say that it’s their human right to maintain these lands and to be protected and to be free of Israeli state violence. The law will set up a battleground only, but that can only be resolved through politics. And so I bring that to the fore to say, because so many people bring up Namibia as an example of a very astute use of the law. Here it is. Namibia waged a multi-year legal battle where they incrementally scaffolded a legal argument at the ICJ in order to demonstrate firstly and foremost the illegitimacy of South Africa as a mandatory power and a governing power in Namibia and South Africa. And then scaffolding on top of that other rights of their right to self-determination and so on and so forth. But it’s not because of this robust jurisprudence that the Namibians ultimately gain independence. That’s necessary.

 

That was strategic. That helped build a language to use. It helped cultivate international support. But ultimately it wasn’t a legal decision. South Africans don’t leave Namibia because the court said so, they could care less. Ultimately why they leave is because you have Cuban forces who are fighting alongside, who are in Angola that the US wants out of Angola. This becomes a proxy for the US and the Soviet Union and Cuba being involved, and part of that negotiation of withdrawal includes withdrawal from Namibia. So there are other things happening where this influences the United States and shifts its position on apartheid as well. But the Namibians, as you point out in and as I point out in the book, are also very astute. They never enter into a South African sphere of influence. They’re offered the same thing that Palestinians are offered in the form of black homelands and autonomous governance.

 

They reject that. They never rescind their right and to use armed force, which is enshrined as a result of the non-aligned movement, enshrined as a right for people living under alien occupation, racism and domination. So that matters too. Now, I say all that to say to the credit of the Palestinians that this environment in which Namibia is maneuvering or Namibians are maneuvering, excuse me, doesn’t exist by the time the Palestinians are entering into Oslo. In fact, we’re seeing Namibian and South African independence. Mandela has been released. We’re seeing the fall of apartheid. We see the fall of the Soviet Union. We see the emergence of a unipolar world. So this balance of power that really did enable a different kind of liberation struggle for Namibians is not available to the Palestinians at the time. And so we can sit here retrospectively and say, “Well, nothing could have been worse than what they’ve done now.”

 

But all of this is conjecture, obviously. I’m less concerned about the trap that Palestinians enter into based on this balance of power based on the political considerations. I’m more concerned that they haven’t shifted course and policy when it was clear. If you didn’t know the day of like Abdel-Shafi and Said than others, you certainly knew by 2000 when the Camp David agreement collapses. Now it’s over. [inaudible 00:51:44] is besieged and killed. That’s it. There’s no excuse. Because I want to give some benefit of the doubt that they thought they couldn’t get anything better. Fine. But by 2000, you knew that this was a dead end. So there’s absolutely no explanation why Palestinians would stay in that arrangement since 2000 through 2023, a quarter of a century, knowing full well, there’s no way out.

 

Chris Hedges:

 

Well, Palestinian Street. The average Palestinian has walked away from it. They walked away from it a long time ago.

 

Noura Erakat:

 

Even in this moment, the Palestinian liberation struggle’s not being led by an official Palestinian leadership, which makes this moment even more profound, that we’re Palestinian Diaspora, Palestinians on the ground. Everybody has been coordinating and working without a centralized governance system, certainly without any means and funding, and yet has been able to mobilize in a decentralized fashion.

 

The Boycott National Committee establishes itself in 2005, launches an international boycott divestment in sanctions movement. This is civil society. It has nothing to do with the Palestinian leadership. The way that Palestinians bring back a condemnation of Zionism, which we see first in the Durban Conference in 2001. The review conference of the decade against racism happens in Durban, South Africa in 2001, where Palestinians raise the banner and say, “Israel’s an apartheid regime, and Zionism is racism once again.” Palestinians have never relinquished that front, and we even see it in the realm of knowledge production where scholars have reconstructed very robustly, not only making clear that Israel is a settler colonial project, but that there’s an entire realm of Palestinian indigenous studies of tradition, of economy, of belonging, of family, all sorts of tradition of land use, of sea technology that could be studied, which brings us into 2024.

 

The reason we remain alive as a people is because the people have insisted that we are here.

 

Chris Hedges:

 

I want to close by talking about the resistance. That was more than a hundred days of saturation, bombing of Gaza, destruction of every form of infrastructure that can sustain existence from wells to hospitals, to bakeries to schools, horrific numbers of dead. I was in Sarajevo during the war, which was awful, three to 400 shells a day, four to five dead a day, two dozen wounded a day. I only say that as a comparison to Gaza, where hundreds of people are being wounded and killed a day just to point out the scale. And yet, US intelligence estimates that only 20 to 30% of resistance or fighters, Hamas fighters, have been killed. It’s becoming clear that if Israel does not achieve its goal, which I don’t see how it will of eradicating Hamas, and Hamas and the resistance survives, which I feel it will then in any way, the Palestinians win.

 

And however horrific Gaza becomes other than the Yemenis, the Houthis, nobody is intervening to halt this genocide despite all the legal bodies we have at the UN and everywhere else. But talk about the resistance and whether I know how I knew one of the founders of Hamas, Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi (1947-2004) was in his house with him and his family. His wife was just killed on October 19th. And not by the way, the demonized image of a leader of Hamas. He was a pediatrician, highly educated, graduated first in his class from the University of Alexandria, very soft-spoken, brilliant figure, assassinated in 2004 along with one of his sons. Let’s talk about the resistance. And so whether you embrace the ideology of Hamas or not, for me, is irrelevant. I think it’s been amazingly successful.

 

Noura Erakat:

 

Well, I want to nuance this in many ways. I want to nuance this by having a lot of mixed feelings about strategy and moving forward. And I want to emphasize here, I think, and I understand, I understand this idea of that if they’re not defeated, they win, which is a tenant of asymmetric warfare and guerilla combat. But I can’t do that with ease, given the magnitude of loss and given just how painful it’s been.

 

Images that I saw last night are still ravaging me inside of what are we going to tell these kids who have suffered so much? 355,000 children because of dehydration are at risk of permanent, cognitive, under development and stunting, right? So it’s hard for me, Chris, as much as if they’re not defeated, obviously I don’t want them to be defeated. And what people don’t understand when they say that is because surrender doesn’t bring us back to an ordinary life, which is normally what war looks like. You fight, you fight, you fight, you fight, and then one party surrenders because then you just go back to ordinary life. Palestinians don’t go back to an ordinary life. So surrender is not an option. At the same time, I want to take time to mourn. Palestinians have not had time to mourn. There is such deep devastation that’s generational, that’s traumatic, that’s social, that’s political that I want to honor and hold here. And it’s very painful. It’s just very, very painful.

 

And I don’t know what we do. I don’t know what we do because not only are we holding onto that pain, but now we have in Israel a society that is not just quasi okay with an apartheid racist regime. They have literally become avid supporters of genocide as a matter of rights. They’re fascists, society, media, children are taunting their elders, their principal for expressing empathy for Palestinians. For me, I paused to say, what is the victory here when now we have to deal with a society? What is the exit plan? How do you defeat fascism in a world where it’s being nurtured by Germany and the United States and Britain and Canada? They’re applauding them. And so where is the accountability here? So I just countenance the language of victory, to be honest, and I know that puts me at odds and probably deflates a lot of people who want to hear something else, and I just want to ground this in something else of what it means that Israel cannot decimate Hamas military.

 

They cannot. There is no military solution. There is no military solution. They cannot decimate Hamas. They haven’t. Hamas is still firing rockets from the middle of Gaza City. As you point out, they’ve not even decimated half of their militants in the Gaza Strip. They’ve not turned the Palestinians against Hamas, which was part of their military objective. If anything, they’ve made Hamas more popular and robust, not only amongst Palestinians, across the air world and the world in general. And they’re not any closer to retrieving their captive, their captive military personnel or rescuing their civilian hostages, which they were only able to retrieve and return through diplomatic negotiations. Someone has to ask, how can you justify the 11th most significant military in the world? Be trust by US intelligence, with advanced weapons technology that has had no red lines for over a hundred days, that has not even come close to achieving any of its military objectives, but has certainly destroyed Palestinian life, conditions of life that’s promising devastation into the future.

 

We have to agree that anybody who’s now supporting this is outright supporting a terroristic program that’s basically targeting Palestinian civilians, as put by Professor [inaudible 01:01:51], Palestinian civilians are clearly the military objectives. Hamas is the collateral damage.

 

So I think that we have to use this to agree that there is no way out, but that the road ahead is what we absolutely need to keep our eyes on. For me, victory is liberation. Victory is a world where Palestinians are recognized as having human life that is sacred and worthy of protection and deserving of self-defense, which Palestinians have asserted over and over and refused to relinquish. I cannot believe this is in controversy.

 

And so insofar as the cessation, for me, first and foremost, the cessation of hostilities is necessary just to end the genocide. And then insofar as it demonstrates there’s no military solution and exposes that Zionism is predicated on just a genocidal program that’s an ongoing Nakba in their own words, Avi Dichter (b. 1952) said it clearly, “This is Gaza.” Gaza Nakba 2023. They’ve equated their peace and security to genocide and ethnic cleansing. In so far as it illuminates that in order to get us to the threshold that it’s not controversial, that it’s not controversial, that Palestinians deserve life.

 

Chris Hedges:

 

Thank you. That was Noura Erakat, human rights attorney and assistant professor at Rutgers University. I want to thank the Real News Network and his production team, Cameron Granadino, Adam Coley, David Hebden, and Kayla Rivara. You can find me at chrishedges.substack.com.

 

This article first appeared on The Real News Network and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Feel free to use this JPG format graphic electronically or for print purposes.

 

Black & white version is available at www.flickr.com/photos/vblibrary/6322368951

January 07, 2014

 

"A loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge." - Thomas Carlyle

 

-----

 

My secret is out; they've discovered I'm a fairly decent proofreader within the office and now I have a stack of documents that need to be attacked with a red pen.

 

I don't mind the work and it's a wonderful excuse to brush up on my lackluster grammar skills. The issue for me is context. I usually use writing as a means to ramble, but with official documents I have to do my best to keep the sentences structured and the points clear while maintaining the rules and regulations for the specific documents I'm going through.

 

I'm getting the hang of it now; but what I would like to know is just who let my secret out of the bag? Next they'll discover that I'm fairly well versed with the quirks of Microsoft software.

 

On another note; what do you think of the processing for this photo? I'm never sure when I attempt HDR if the results are good or overdone and I've been trying to find that happy medium lately.

 

Hope everyone has had a good day.

 

Click "L" for a larger view.

Marcin Białas "Above the pavements"

 

Book info:

- 300 copies, signed and numbered (dedication on request)

- hard back cover, cloth spine

- number of pages: 128

- size: 300×215 mm

- number of images (graphic, photos, projects): 93

- language of texts: polish and english

- autors of texts: Maciej Linttner , Grzegorz Hańderek, Marta Anna Raczek-Karcz

- type of papier: Cyclus Print 130g (eco)

- concept and edition: Marcin Białas, Katarzyna Wolny

- graphic design: Katarzyna Wolny, Marcin Białas

- typesetting: Katarzyna Wolny

- photography: Marcin Białas

- english translation: Katarzyna Drewniak

- proofreading: Izabela Blacha

- ISBN 978-83-937997-0-1

 

Details about prices and shipping - check out: www.facebook.com/notes/marcin-bialas-graphic-arts/above-t...

 

If you'd like to order or have any other question please use this email address: abovethepavements@gmail.com

The Flock of Words is a 300‑metre typographic artwork created in 2003 as part of Morecambe’s Tern Project, designed to celebrate the birdlife of Morecambe Bay through poems, quotations, and word‑based sculpture.

 

The Flock of Words is one of Morecambe’s most distinctive pieces of public art—an outdoor literary walkway that blends typography, sculpture, and local identity. Installed in 2003, the artwork forms part of the wider Tern Project, an arts‑led regeneration scheme designed to revitalise Morecambe’s seafront by celebrating the rich ornithological heritage of Morecambe Bay. The installation stretches approximately 300 metres, linking the town’s railway station with the promenade.

 

The project emerged from Lancaster City Council’s ambition to use public art to help reverse the decline of Morecambe as a seaside resort. The Tern Project, led by artist Gordon Young, sought to create a trail of artworks themed around birds—reflecting the bay’s status as one of Britain’s most important habitats for migratory species. The Flock of Words was conceived as a way to bring this theme literally under visitors’ feet.

 

The installation was a six‑year collaboration between:

 

Gordon Young – public artist

 

Andy Altman of Why Not Associates – typographic designer

 

Russell Coleman – sculptor and technical lead

 

Their shared interest in text‑based art shaped the project’s unique character.

 

The walkway is composed of poems, proverbs, nursery rhymes, jokes, and literary quotations, all connected by the theme of birds. Sources range from Genesis and Chaucer to Shakespeare, Robert Burns, and Spike Milligan.

 

Multiple materials: granite, concrete, bronze, brass, stainless steel, and cut glass

 

Eric Gill typefaces, linking the work to Gill’s carvings in the nearby Midland Hotel

 

Words arranged in all directions, encouraging visitors to wander, pause, and read

 

Authentic historical spellings (e.g., “turtel”, “pecok”), which caused proofreading challenges during production

 

The manufacturing process pushed technical boundaries. Engineers repeatedly froze and thawed the concrete to ensure durability, and sands and gravels were sourced from Spain, Scotland, and Devon to achieve the desired colours.

 

At the seaward end of the path stands the Genesis Tower, a 9‑metre‑high triangular steel structure topped with a dove—symbolising the biblical story of Noah and the dove returning with an olive branch. This tower acts as a visual anchor and thematic culmination of the walkway.

 

Cultural and Regenerative Impact

The Flock of Words is more than a decorative feature; it represents a shift in how Morecambe reimagined its public spaces in the early 2000s. By integrating literature, local ecology, and urban design, the installation encourages residents and visitors to engage with the town’s heritage in a new way.

 

The artwork also complements other Tern Project pieces—such as bird sculptures, stone eggs, and the Eric Morecambe statue—creating a cohesive cultural trail that supports tourism and community pride.

 

Today, The Flock of Words stands as a testament to Morecambe’s creative regeneration. It transforms a simple walkway into a living anthology, celebrating the language, wildlife, and imagination associated with Morecambe Bay. Through its blend of art, typography, and local identity, it remains one of the town’s most engaging and meaningful public installations.

Is it possible to have "too many" mutations? What about "too few"? While mutations are necessary for evolution, they can damage existing adaptations as well. What is a mutation?

A photograph shows approximately 100 different species of beetle arranged in an oval pattern against a black background. The beetles vary in the size of their bodies, the length of their legs, their coloration, and the shape and size of their mandibles.

The diversity of beetle species.

Genetic mutation is the basis of species diversity among beetles, or any other organism.

© 2009 Courtesy of John C. Abbot, Abbott Nature Photography. All rights reserved. View Terms of Use

Mutations are changes in the genetic sequence, and they are a main cause of diversity among organisms. These changes occur at many different levels, and they can have widely differing consequences. In biological systems that are capable of reproduction, we must first focus on whether they are heritable; specifically, some mutations affect only the individual that carries them, while others affect all of the carrier organism's offspring, and further descendants. For mutations to affect an organism's descendants, they must: 1) occur in cells that produce the next generation, and 2) affect the hereditary material. Ultimately, the interplay between inherited mutations and environmental pressures generates diversity among species.

 

Although various types of molecular changes exist, the word "mutation" typically refers to a change that affects the nucleic acids. In cellular organisms, these nucleic acids are the building blocks of DNA, and in viruses they are the building blocks of either DNA or RNA. One way to think of DNA and RNA is that they are substances that carry the long-term memory of the information required for an organism's reproduction. This article focuses on mutations in DNA, although we should keep in mind that RNA is subject to essentially the same mutation forces.

 

If mutations occur in non-germline cells, then these changes can be categorized as somatic mutations. The word somatic comes from the Greek word soma which means "body", and somatic mutations only affect the present organism's body. From an evolutionary perspective, somatic mutations are uninteresting, unless they occur systematically and change some fundamental property of an individual--such as the capacity for survival. For example, cancer is a potent somatic mutation that will affect a single organism's survival. As a different focus, evolutionary theory is mostly interested in DNA changes in the cells that produce the next generation.

 

Are Mutations Random?

The statement that mutations are random is both profoundly true and profoundly untrue at the same time. The true aspect of this statement stems from the fact that, to the best of our knowledge, the consequences of a mutation have no influence whatsoever on the probability that this mutation will or will not occur. In other words, mutations occur randomly with respect to whether their effects are useful. Thus, beneficial DNA changes do not happen more often simply because an organism could benefit from them. Moreover, even if an organism has acquired a beneficial mutation during its lifetime, the corresponding information will not flow back into the DNA in the organism's germline. This is a fundamental insight that Jean-Baptiste Lamarck got wrong and Charles Darwin got right.

 

However, the idea that mutations are random can be regarded as untrue if one considers the fact that not all types of mutations occur with equal probability. Rather, some occur more frequently than others because they are favored by low-level biochemical reactions. These reactions are also the main reason why mutations are an inescapable property of any system that is capable of reproduction in the real world. Mutation rates are usually very low, and biological systems go to extraordinary lengths to keep them as low as possible, mostly because many mutational effects are harmful. Nonetheless, mutation rates never reach zero, even despite both low-level protective mechanisms, like DNA repair or proofreading during DNA replication, and high-level mechanisms, like melanin deposition in skin cells to reduce radiation damage. Beyond a certain point, avoiding mutation simply becomes too costly to cells. Thus, mutation will always be present as a powerful force in evolution.

 

Types of Mutations

So, how do mutations occur? The answer to this question is closely linked to the molecular details of how both DNA and the entire genome are organized. The smallest mutations are point mutations, in which only a single base pair is changed into another base pair. Yet another type of mutation is the nonsynonymous mutation, in which an amino acid sequence is changed. Such mutations lead to either the production of a different protein or the premature termination of a protein.

 

As opposed to nonsynonymous mutations, synonymous mutations do not change an amino acid sequence, although they occur, by definition, only in sequences that code for amino acids. Synonymous mutations exist because many amino acids are encoded by multiple codons. Base pairs can also have diverse regulating properties if they are located in introns, intergenic regions, or even within the coding sequence of genes. For some historic reasons, all of these groups are often subsumed with synonymous mutations under the label "silent" mutations. Depending on their function, such silent mutations can be anything from truly silent to extraordinarily important, the latter implying that working sequences are kept constant by purifying selection. This is the most likely explanation for the existence of ultraconserved noncoding elements that have survived for more than 100 million years without substantial change, as found by comparing the genomes of several vertebrates (Sandelin et al., 2004).

 

Mutations may also take the form of insertions or deletions, which are together known as indels. Indels can have a wide variety of lengths. At the short end of the spectrum, indels of one or two base pairs within coding sequences have the greatest effect, because they will inevitably cause a frameshift (only the addition of one or more three-base-pair codons will keep a protein approximately intact). At the intermediate level, indels can affect parts of a gene or whole groups of genes. At the largest level, whole chromosomes or even whole copies of the genome can be affected by insertions or deletions, although such mutations are usually no longer subsumed under the label indel. At this high level, it is also possible to invert or translocate entire sections of a chromosome, and chromosomes can even fuse or break apart. If a large number of genes are lost as a result of one of these processes, then the consequences are usually very harmful. Of course, different genetic systems react differently to such events.

 

Finally, still other sources of mutations are the many different types of transposable elements, which are small entities of DNA that possess a mechanism that permits them to move around within the genome. Some of these elements copy and paste themselves into new locations, while others use a cut-and-paste method. Such movements can disrupt existing gene functions (by insertion in the middle of another gene), activate dormant gene functions (by perfect excision from a gene that was switched off by an earlier insertion), or occasionally lead to the production of new genes (by pasting material from different genes together).

 

Effects of Mutations

A line graph shows the probability density of mutational effects. A log scale of mutational effects is shown on the x-axis, and probability density is shown on the y-axis. The line follows the shape of a right-skewed bell curve. Probability density increases as mutational effects increase from 10-10 to 10-4, where the curve peaks. As mutational effects increase from 10 4 to 1, probability density decreases. All mutational effects equal to or less than 10-10 are shown as a spike at 10-10 on the x-axis.

View Full-Size ImageFigure 1: The overwhelming majority of mutations have very small effects.

This example of a possible distribution of deleterious mutational effects was obtained from DNA sequence polymorphism data from natural populations of two Drosophila species. The spike at 10-10 includes all smaller effects, whereas effects are not shown if they induce a structural damage that is equivalent to selection coefficients that are 'super-lethal' (see Loewe and Charlesworth 2006 for more details).

© 2008 Nature Education All rights reserved. View Terms of Use

A single mutation can have a large effect, but in many cases, evolutionary change is based on the accumulation of many mutations with small effects. Mutational effects can be beneficial, harmful, or neutral, depending on their context or location. Most non-neutral mutations are deleterious. In general, the more base pairs that are affected by a mutation, the larger the effect of the mutation, and the larger the mutation's probability of being deleterious.

 

To better understand the impact of mutations, researchers have started to estimate distributions of mutational effects (DMEs) that quantify how many mutations occur with what effect on a given property of a biological system. In evolutionary studies, the property of interest is fitness, but in molecular systems biology, other emerging properties might also be of interest. It is extraordinarily difficult to obtain reliable information about DMEs, because the corresponding effects span many orders of magnitude, from lethal to neutral to advantageous; in addition, many confounding factors usually complicate these analyses. To make things even more difficult, many mutations also interact with each other to alter their effects; this phenomenon is referred to as epistasis. However, despite all these uncertainties, recent work has repeatedly indicated that the overwhelming majority of mutations have very small effects (Figure 1; Eyre-Walker & Keightley, 2007). Of course, much more work is needed in order to obtain more detailed information about DMEs, which are a fundamental property that governs the evolution of every biological system.

 

Estimating Rates of Mutation

Many direct and indirect methods have been developed to help estimate rates of different types of mutations in various organisms. The main difficulty in estimating rates of mutation involves the fact that DNA changes are extremely rare events and can only be detected on a background of identical DNA. Because biological systems are usually influenced by many factors, direct estimates of mutation rates are desirable. Direct estimates typically involve use of a known pedigree in which all descendants inherited a well-defined DNA sequence. To measure mutation rates using this method, one first needs to sequence many base pairs within this region of DNA from many individuals in the pedigree, counting all the observed mutations. These observations are then combined with the number of generations that connect these individuals to compute the overall mutation rate (Haag-Liautard et al., 2007). Such direct estimates should not be confused with substitution rates estimated over phylogenetic time spans.

 

Summary

Mutation rates can vary within a genome and between genomes. Much more work is required before researchers can obtain more precise estimates of the frequencies of different mutations. The rise of high-throughput genomic sequencing methods nurtures the hope that we will be able to cultivate a more detailed and precise understanding of mutation rates. Because mutation is one of the fundamental forces of evolution, such work will continue to be of paramount importance.

 

References and Recommended Reading

Drake, J. W., et al. Rates of spontaneous mutation. Genetics 148, 1667–1686 (1998)

 

Eyre-Walker, A., & Keightley, P. D. The distribution of fitness effects of new mutations. Nature Reviews Genetics 8, 610–618 (2007) doi:10.1038/nrg2146 (link to article)

 

Haag-Liautard, C., et al. Direct estimation of per nucleotide and genomic deleterious mutation rates in Drosophila. Nature 445, 82–85 (2007) doi:10.1038/nature05388 (link to article)

 

Loewe, L., & Charlesworth, B. Inferring the distribution of mutational effects on fitness in Drosophila. Biology Letters 2, 426–430 (2006)

 

Lynch, M., et al. Perspective: Spontaneous deleterious mutation. Evolution 53, 645–663 (1999)

 

Orr, H. A. The genetic theory of adaptation: A brief history. Nature Review Genetics 6, 119–127 (2005) doi:10.1038/nrg1523 (link to article)

 

Sandelin, A., et al. Arrays of ultraconserved non-coding regions span the loci of key developmental genes in vertebrate genomes. BMC Genomics 5, 99 (2004)

 

www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/genetic-mutation-1127

 

"Consider, for example, the dragon. Basic physics will almost certainly combine with biological constraints to prevent the creation of flying or fire-breathing dragons.

 

But is it possible dragons could ever exist beyond the pages of Celtic mythology or the celluloid of fantasy film?

Academics have suggested in a recent essay the creation of large, winged dragons using cutting-edge genome editing is not beyond the realms of possibility.

Is the seemingly far-fetched idea a flier or, like dragon's breath, just hot air? The BBC asked the authors.

'Not impossible'

The essay in The American Journal of Bioethics said spectacular animals could be brought to life using a targeted gene-editing system known as CRISPR-CAS9.

Co-authors Prof Hank T Greely, director of the Centre for Law and the Biosciences at Stanford Law School, and Prof R Alta Charo, Professor of Bioethics and Law at Wisconsin Law School, said their dragon suggestion was "somewhat tongue-in-cheek" but "not impossible".

"There are the possibilities of spectacles," they wrote. "Animals and plants not created for personal use but to be exhibited.

 

"But a very large reptile that looks at least somewhat like the European or Asian dragon (perhaps with flappable if not flyable wings) could be someone's target of opportunity."

And it may not be as improbable as it seems at first blush.

CRISPR and other similar techniques involve DNA being inserted, replaced, or removed from a genome using artificially engineered nucleases.

 

The method has been adopted by scientists around the world.

CRISPRs (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) are sections of DNA, while CAS-9 (CRISPR-associated protein 9) is an enzyme.

They are found in bacteria, which use them to disable attacks from viruses.

linebreak

They have led to the creation of patented "GloFish" that shine under UV light, the eradication of horns from certain cattle species, manipulation of crops and attempts to produce hypo-allergenic cats.

Artist Eduardo Kac even commissioned a French geneticist to create Alba, a genetically modified "glowing" rabbit.

Debate

Debate has raged over whether CRISPR, which occurs as part of a bacterial process, could be safely and ethically used on humans since 2012.

But professors Greely and Charo argue its potential to produce "CRISPR critters" is "likely to be overlooked" by legislators and regulators "because they are unexpected".

The method is "cheaper and easier" than older forms of genetic engineering and can be done "outside the traditional laboratory setting".

Their essay looks at the possible uses of CRISPR for de-extinction of wild species - such as 700,000-year-old horses - for domestic de-extinction - such as tomato species - and for making creatures of "personal whim".

They point out that Harvard geneticist George Church is using CRISPR to edit Asian elephant cell lines to give them some woolly mammoth genes.

Woolly mammothsImage copyrightTHINKSTOCK

Image caption

Geneticist are working on cloning or engineering woolly mammoths

Asked about the likelihood of dragons, the co-authors said: "We imagine it would be low although not impossible with respect to appearance (the fire-breathing and flying aspects are undoubtedly beyond any plausible genetic engineering).

"In the US, the determining factor is usually cost as compared to return-on-investment, where cost can be substantial given the regulatory hurdles.

"Does this mean some determined and well-funded geneticist might do this as an artistic experiment, similar to the work done on the fluorescing rabbit?

"Yes. But the operative word is 'might'."

A potential process could involve modifications to an existing large reptile - for instance, a Komodo dragon.

Problems

The professors said, even if scientists knew how to make them larger, there would likely be problems with the creature's mass increasing faster than its surface area or its bone cross-sections.

The first issue could make the animals overheat; the second might mean the edited reptile's bones would be too weak to hold its weight.

"If and when we actually come to understand in detail what every specific DNA sequence does and how they all fit together, though, all bets are off - things could move more quickly," they added.

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What does a CRISPR expert think?

Thinkstock

Dr Sam Sternberg - formerly of the University of California's Doudna Lab, which pioneered work with CRISPR-CAS9 - said his boundaries were stretched when Minnesota firm Recombinetics announced it had used a gene-editing technology to dehorn certain types of cattle.

However, he is not hopeful genetic engineers could ever cross the Rubicon to create dragons.

"You're talking about, not just one or a few changes, you're talking about massive changes and it gets to the point where, how much can you cut and paste the DNA that causes some of the traits of one species to another?

"I would say it's probably bordering on impossible/never going to happen."

linebreak

Even if the difficulties connected with gene editing could be overcome, there remains the tricky task of assisted reproduction with an existing lizard species.

Giving birth to any edited dragon would involve taking stem cells from, say, a Komodo dragon before inserting an altered nucleus into an egg for in vitro fertilization (IVF) in an adult komodo.

GloFish in an aquariumImage copyrightGETTY IMAGES

Image caption

Bright GloFish were genetically modified for fluorescence in aquariums

That would be no mean feat; in December scientists carried out the first successful IVF on dogs after decades of trying.

"If you got access to Komodo dragons and could quickly resolve the regulatory, stem cell, and assisted reproduction problems, you could start tinkering.

"But it would likely take a very long time before you could hope to get something that looked much like a dragon," Prof Greely and Prof Charo said.

So, how far off might all this be?

"A while," they said.

  

www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-35111760

We're building 4 of these. The custom drawn mixte tubes from True Temper came in the mail yesterday.

  

Come all ye proofreaders, let's have it.

February 14: I'm not a big fan of Valentine's Day, but here's a heart anyway: in the spirit. Alas, today is being given over to work. But that's okay: if I keep at it, the work will go away--and then I can enjoy life (and love) again!

Check out a similar goof at a hotel I once visited for a night:

www.flickr.com/photos/doylewesleywalls/49915267316/in/pho...

 

drive.google.com/file/d/1xcK3l1kFwFc2KVjiXFjayd-5ZIJzWQNw...

 

375に纏わる謎Vol_4

 

drive.google.com/file/d/142tV5Wb6J8qj7a7LX1jXBZ6Hdr-54T9M...

 

　In the previous article Vol.3, Mr. Tim de Palavicchini pointed out that inch should be added to the [LE85] diaphragm diameter in mm. Therefore, I added it to [Mystery of 375] Vol.3 and added cross-sectional views of phasing plugs of [WE594A] and [375]. At that time, I noticed a new difference between the two, so I would like to point it out.

 

　I think it was around 2002, but when I printed and scrutinized a design note for Jim Lansing's 4-inch driver from LANSING HERITAGE, I found out the dimensions of each component in detail. Therefore, I started by reproducing the cross-sectional view in full scale based on the values in this memo.

 

The number I wrote was in inches, so when I multiplied it by 2.54 and turned everything into centimeters, I was able to reproduce 100% of the shape and size of each part from the notes he left behind. The drawings are conveniently drawn in millimeters. The full-scale drawing had the advantage that it could be drawn as-is without conversion. This figure and [WE594A] did not have the same number.

 

What's more, Lansing writes a sketchy note with up to three decimal places. When I saw this, I intuitively thought that it was not a blueprint of the driver, but a memo of the actual object. Moreover, it was obvious that the magnetic circuit of [WE594A] was not replaced with Alnico 5 because the dimensions of both were different. Then, it can be inferred that the compression driver written in this memo is not a remedy for the flaws of [WE594A], but a new record. Therefore, I compared the two well. The result is the following difference.

 

[Figure.1]

[Black letters are Lansing letters, and red letters are converted by Fujimori to cm. Based on this number, I have transcribed the following figure.]

 

[Figure.2]

[Driver cross section taken from Lansing memo. The unit is millimeter. The red letters are the inches left by Lansing.]

 

He number I wrote was in inches, so if I multiply it by 2.54 and turn it into centimeters, I was able to reproduce 100% of the shape and size of each part from the notes he left behind.The drawings are conveniently drawn in millimeters. The full-scale drawing had the advantage that it could be drawn as-is without conversion. This figure and [WE594A] did not have the same number.What's more, Lansing writes a sketchy note with up to three decimal places. When I saw this, I intuitively thought that it was not a blueprint of the driver, but a memo of the actual object.Moreover, it was obvious that the magnetic circuit of [WE594A] was not replaced with the Alnico 5 because the dimensions of both were different.Then, it can be inferred that the compression driver written in this memo is not a remedy for the flaws of [WE594A], but a new record.

Therefore, I compared the two well. The result is the following difference.

 

First of all, the first thing I did was change the magnification of the copy of the [WE594A] cross-section drawn by Mr. Shozo Kinoshita to the actual size, and reproduce the wrong aspect ratio correctly, the same screen as the sketch reproduction on the right This is what I copied above.

Looking at the figure below, you can see the difference in depth between the two phasing plugs. It can be seen that the distance that the air flow passes through each slit is designed to be shorter at [375]. ‥

The difference between [WE594A] and [375] is that the cross-section of the inner wall of the pole piece indicated by the red line is a straight line or an exponential curve, as was often pointed out in the previous article. The phases of the air flow when they merge at the throat are aligned, but further improvements can be seen in this paper.

 

[Figure.3]

[Cross-sectional view of [WE-594A] (actual size) written by Kinoshita]

 

Figure 4

[Sketch = [JBL375]? Full-scale cross section of]

 

[What I noticed this time is the difference in the length of the 1st plug indicated by the white line. The length of ① from the diaphragm side (left end) to the right end of the 1st plug is 43.8 mm in [WE594A], while [375] is 36.83 mm, so it is 6.97-mm shorter (-15.9%).

The difference of slightly less than 16% is represented by the difference in depth between the tip of the plug group (blue line) and the tip of the pole piece (yellow line). Along with the difference in shape, Jim Lansing is the main improvement to the [WE594A] phasing plug. It can be considered that the high frequency characteristics are improved by this.

The small difference in size between the two is not a big difference, but the difference in the inner wall of the pole piece and the plug length is a big difference that affects the sound.]

 

Considering the improvements made by Lansing, I think that the fact that the shape of the inner wall of the pole piece has been changed has made it possible to spread the airflow in the same manner as other slits.

Also, by shortening the slit length that was pointed out this time, the air flow will gather in the throat somewhat earlier, so the compression time will be slightly shortened (16%).

Did you expect the effect of shortening the trumpet pipe? .. Is this a change in tone closer to the Flugelhorn than the trumpet?

In any case, you can see that suppleness is added to the peaky [WE594A].

 

However, in the 1940s, duralumin was a lightweight and strong material in the 1940s, and there was nothing better than this. I think the high range was limited to 10,000 Hz due to the distortion of the 4-inch diaphragm made of duralumin material.

Therefore, Lansing, which 3Way dislikes, may have secretly sealed [375], which he secretly developed. Still, there is a section that was developing the 075 for 3Way for future JBL. If you look at the model number of the device he developed, you can guess the circumstances at that time.

JBL drivers are changing their initial numbers to [075], [175], [275], [375]. The ones modified by Locancy have the LE prefix, and conversely, for consumers without LE, it can be considered Lansing's own work. By the way, looking at the order of release date, it is D175: 1948, T530A / 375: 1953, 275: 1958, LE75 / LE85: 1960, LE175: 1965.

 

Forty-five years ago, after re-challengeing audio with JBL's LE15A + LE85, I began to study the life and achievements of James B. Lansing with mysterious ties. At that time, it was said that he produced most of the speakers that were behind the scenes of a movie screen. However, in 2000, former Mitsubishi Electric engineer Mr. Tamon Saeki said, “Lansing made the 284 with the technology of a compression driver that was repaired in the subcontracting era of Western Electric.” “WE555 and WE594A are Wente from Bell Labs. "Toulus made and patented it." Because of this, I've been so sad that I couldn't sleep at night. Certainly, the US Patent Office records the names of E.C.Wente and A.L.Thuras, who belonged to Bell Telephone Laboratory. However, it was a certain common sense for the company that bought the driver prototype to apply for a patent in the name of an employee. So in the 1950s and 80s, audio magazines also published articles in honor of Lansing's accomplishments.

 

When all of the seniors at that time died, that is, when there were no witnesses, Mr. Saeki said, `` I didn't listen to audio superstitions or exaggerated stories, and after hard work. In order to bring out the many technologies that were almost buried in the history, we aimed to bring out the technology developed by the company and the materials and patents by the developers themselves, and to dig this out, aiming to bring out many spoker technologies. I wrote the book "100 Years of Speaker Technology" with the concept "I wrote the technical records of the times in the references."

Knowing the story about Lansing that "The Western driver was developed by Lansing," and then dare to bring up the patent record and despise Lansing, there is no word.

It can be said that this is a kind of violence that exploits weaknesses.

He prioritized the patent record, which was just the cause, and repeated the claim to overthrow the true genius, Lansing, which is rare in speaker history.

When all of the seniors at that time died, that is, when there were no witnesses, Mr. Saeki said, `` I didn't listen to audio superstitions or exaggerated stories, and after hard work. In order to bring out the many technologies that were almost buried in the history, we aimed to bring out the technology developed by the company and the materials and patents by the developers themselves, and to dig this out, aiming to bring out many speaker technologies. I wrote the book "100 Years of Speaker Technology" with the concept "I wrote the technical records of the times in the references."

Knowing the story about Lansing that "The Western driver was developed by Lansing," and then dare to bring up the patent record and despise Lansing, there is no word.

It can be said that this is a kind of violence that exploits weaknesses.

He prioritized the patent record, which was just the cause, and repeated the claim to overthrow the true genius, Lansing, which is rare in speaker history.

 

So I wrote my sentence "James Bullough Lansing".

In January 2020, my friend M recommended that "this research is valuable for future generations, so why not put it on my home-page"? The sequel reached 20 manuscripts.

In the meantime, there was cooperation such as the collection and translation of materials by Mr. M.

In addition, it has been promoted under a number of collaborations such as proofreading important texts and providing ideas. I would like to thank Mr. M for his kindness, and at the same time, I hope that this sentence will catch the attention of music lovers and JBL enthusiasts.。

 

I wrote this article on Windows 10 using LibreOffice6.

When viewed at a magnification of 106 on a PC, the size of the drawing is almost the same as the actual size.

This typo takes the pancake!! ;p

Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin 1895 – 1925, sometimes spelled as Esenin, was a Russian lyric poet. He is one of the most popular and well-known Russian poets of the 20th century. One of his narratives was "lyrical evocations of and nostalgia for the village life of his childhood – no idyll, presented in all its rawness, with an implied curse on urbanisation and industrialisation".

 

Sergei Yesenin was born in the village of Konstantinovo in Ryazan County, Ryazan Governorate of the Russian Empire (now Rybnovsky District, Ryazan Oblast) into a peasant family. His father was Alexander Nikitich Yesenin (1873–1931), his mother was Tatyana Fyodorovna Yesenina, née Titova, (1875–1955).

 

Both his parents spent most of their time looking for work, his father in Moscow, his mother in Ryazan, so at age two Sergei was moved to the nearby village of Matovo to join Fyodor Alexeyevich Titov and Natalya Yevtikhiyevna Titova, his relatively well-off maternal grandparents, who essentially raised him.

 

The Titovs had three grown-up sons, who were Yesenin's companions in his early life. "My uncles taught me horse riding and swimming, one of them... even employed me as a hunting dog when he went duck hunting in local ponds," he later remembered. He started to read at age five, and at nine began to write poetry, inspired originally by chastushkas and folklore, provided mostly by his grandmother, whom he also remembered as a highly religious woman who used to take him to every single monastery she visited. He had two younger sisters, Yekaterina (1905–1977), and Alexandra (1911–1981).

 

In 1904 Yesenin joined the Konstantinovo zemstvo school, where in 1909 he graduated with an honorary certificate. He then went on to study in the local secondary parish school in Spas-Klepiki. From 1910 onwards he started to write poetry systematically; eight poems dated that year were later included in his 1925 Collected Works. In all, Yesenin wrote around thirty poems during his school years. He compiled them into what was supposed to be his first book, which he entitled "Volnye Dumy" (Free Thoughts) and tried to publish it in 1912 in Ryazan, but failed.

 

In 1912, with a teacher’s diploma, Yesenin moved to Moscow, where he supported himself working as a proofreader's assistant at Sytin's printing company. The following year he enrolled in Shanyavsky Moscow City People's University to study history and philology as an external student (вольнослушатель), but had to leave after eighteen months due to lack of funds. At the University he became friends with several aspiring poets, among them Dmitry Semyonovsky, Vasily Nasedkin, Nikolai Kolokolov and Ivan Filipchenko. Yesenin’s first marriage (which lasted three years) was in 1913 to Anna Izryadnova, a co-worker from the publishing house, with whom he had a son, Yuri.

 

1913 saw Yesenin becoming increasingly interested in Christianity, and biblical motives became frequent in his poems. "Grisha, what I am reading at the moment is the Gospel and I find a lot of things which for me are new," he wrote to his close childhood friend G. Panfilov. That was also the year when he became involved with Moscow revolutionary circles: for several months his flat was under secret police surveillance and in September 1913 it was raided and searched.

 

In January 1914 Yesenin's first published poem, "Beryoza" (The Birch Tree), appeared in the children's magazine Mirok (Small World). More appearances followed in minor magazines such as Protalinka and Mlechny Put. In December 1914 Yesenin left his job "and dedicated himself to poetry, writing continually," according to his wife. Around this time he became a member of the Surikov Literary and Music circle.

 

In 1915, exasperated with the lack of interest in Moscow, Yesenin moved to Petrograd. He arrived in Petrograd on 8 March and the next day met Alexander Blok at his home, to read him poetry. He was quickly acquainted with fellow poets Sergey Gorodetsky, Nikolai Klyuev and Andrei Bely, who were well known. Blok was especially helpful in promoting Yesenin's early literary career, describing him as "a gem of a peasant poet" and his verse as "fresh, pure and resounding", even if "wordy".

 

The same year he joined the Krasa (Beauty) group of peasant poets which included Klyuyev, Gorodetsky, Sergey Klychkov and Alexander Shiryayevets, among others. In his 1925 autobiography Yesenin said that Bely gave him the meaning of form while Blok and Klyuev taught him lyricism. It was Klyuyev who introduced Yesenin to the publisher Averyanov, who in early 1916 released his debut poetry collection Radunitsa which featured many of his early spiritual-themed verse. "I would have eagerly relinquished some of my religious poems, large and small, but they make sense as an illustration of a poet's progress towards the revolution," he would later write. Yesenin and Klyuyev maintained close and intimate, a friendship that lasted several years, and indeed it is likely they became lovers.

 

Later in 1915, Yesenin became a co-founder of the Krasa literary group and published numerous poems in the Petrograd magazines Russkaya Mysl, Ezhemesyachny Zhurnal, Novy Zhurnal Dlya Vsekh, Golos Zhizni and Niva. Among the authors he met later in the year were Maxim Gorky, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Nikolai Gumilyov and Anna Akhmatova; he also visited the painter Ilya Repin in his Penaty. Yesenin's rise to fame was meteoric; by the end of the year he became the star of St Petersburg's literary circles and salons. "The city took to him with the delight a gourmet reserves for strawberries in winter. A barrage of praise hit him, excessive and often insincere," Maxim Gorky wrote to Romain Rolland.

 

On 25 March 1916 Yesenin was drafted for military duty and in April joined a medical train based in Tsarskoye Selo under the command of Colonel D.N. Loman. On 22 July 1916, at a special concert attended by the Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna (the train's patron) and her daughters, Yesenin recited his poems "Rus" and "In Scarlet Fireglow". "The Empress told me my poems were beautiful, but sad. I replied that the same could be said about Russia as a whole," he recalled later. His relationship with Loman soon deteriorated. In October Yesenin declined the colonel's offer to write (with Klyuyev) and have published a book of pro-monarchist verses, and spent twenty days under arrest as a consequence.

 

In March 1917, Yesenin was sent to the Warrant Officers School but soon deserted Kerensky's army. In August 1917 (having divorced Izryadnova a year earlier) Yesenin married for a second time, to Zinaida Raikh (later an actress and the wife of Vsevolod Meyerhold). They had two children, a daughter Tatyana and a son Konstantin. The parents subsequently quarreled and lived separately for some time prior to their divorce in 1921. Tatyana became a writer and journalist and Konstantin Yesenin would become a well-known soccer statistician.

 

Yesenin supported the February Revolution. "If not for [it], I might have withered away on useless religious symbolism," he wrote later.[8] He greeted the rise of the Bolsheviks too. "In the Revolution I was all on the side of October, even if I perceived everything in my own peculiar way, from a peasant's standpoint," he remembered in his 1925 autobiography. Later he criticized the Bolshevik rule, in such poems as "The Stern October Has Deceived Me". "I feel very sad now, for we are going through such a period in [our] history when human individuality is being destroyed, and the approaching socialism is totally different from the one I was dreaming of," he wrote in an August 1920 letter to his friend Yevgeniya Livshits. "I never joined the RKP, being further to the left than them," he maintained in his 1922 autobiography.

 

Artistically, the revolutionary years were an exciting time for Yesenin. Among the important poems he wrote in 1917–1918 were "Prishestviye" (The Advent), "Preobrazheniye" (Transfiguration, which gave the title to the 1918 collection), and "Inoniya". In February 1918, after the Sovnarkom issued the "Socialist Homeland is in Danger!" decree-appeal, he joined the esers' military unit. He actively participated in the magazine Nash Put (Our Way), as well as the almanacs Skify (Скифы) and Krasny Zvon (in February his large poem "Marfa Posadnitsa" appeared in an issue of the latter). In September 1918 Yesenin co-founded (with Andrey Bely, Pyotr Oreshin, Lev Povitsky and Sergey Klychkov) the publishing house Трудовая Артель Художников Слова (the Labor Artel of the Artists of the Word) which reissued (in six books) all that he had written up until then.

 

In September 1918 Yesenin became friends with Anatoly Marienhof, with whom he founded the Russian literary movement of imaginism. Describing their group's general appeal, he wrote in 1922: "Prostitutes and bandits are our fans. With them, we are pals. Bolsheviks do not like us due to some kind of misunderstanding." In January 1919, Yesenin signed the Imaginists' Manifesto. In February he, Marienhof and Vadim Shershenevich, founded the Imaginists' publishing house. Before that, Yesenin became a member of the Moscow Union of Professional Writers and several months later was elected a member of the All-Russian Union of Poets. Two of his books, Kobyli Korabli (Кобыльи корабли, Mare's Ships) and Klyuchi Marii (Ключи Марии, The Keys of Mary) came out later that year.

 

In July–August 1920, Yesenin toured the Russian South, starting in Rostov-on-Don and ending in Tiflis (Tbilisi), Georgia. In November 1920, he met Galina Benislavskaya, his future secretary and close friend. Following an anonymous report, he and two of his Imaginist friends, brothers Alexander and Ruben Kusikovs, were arrested by the Cheka in October but released a week later on the solicitation of his friend Yakov Blumkin. In the course of that year, the publication of three of Yesenin's books were refused by publishing house Goslitizdat. His Triptych collection came out through the Skify Publishers in Berlin. Next year saw the collections Confession of a Hooligan (January) and Treryaditsa (February) published. The drama in verse Pugachov came out in December 1921, to much acclaim.

 

In May 1921, he visited a friend, the poet Alexander Shiryaevets, in Tashkent, giving poetry readings and making a short trip to Samarkand. In the autumn of 1921, while visiting the studio of painter Georgi Yakulov, Yesenin met the Paris-based American dancer Isadora Duncan, a woman 18 years his senior. She knew only a dozen words in Russian, and he spoke no foreign languages. Nevertheless, they married on 2 May 1922. Yesenin accompanied his celebrity wife on a tour of Europe and the United States. His marriage to Duncan was brief and in May 1923, he returned to Moscow.

 

In his 1922 autobiography, Yesenin wrote: "Russia's recent nomadic past does not appeal to me, and I am all for civilization. But I dislike America intensely. America is a stinking place where not just art is being murdered, but with it, all the loftiest aspirations of humankind. If it's America that we are looking up to, as [a model for our] future, then I'd rather stay under our greyish skies... We do not have those skyscrapers that have so far managed to produce nothing but Rockefeller and McCormick, but here Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Pushkin and Lermontov were born."

 

In 1923, Yesenin became romantically involved with the actress Augusta Miklashevskaya to whom he dedicated several poems, among them those of the Hooligan's Love cycle. In the same year, he had a son by the poet Nadezhda Volpina. Alexander Esenin-Volpin grew up to become a poet and a prominent activist in the Soviet dissident movement of the 1960s. From 1972 until his death in 2016 he lived in the United States as a famous mathematician and teacher.

 

As Yesenin's popularity grew, stories began to circulate about his heavy drinking and consequent public outbursts. This may have been caused by his a struggle to deal with his bisexuality In autumn 1923, he was arrested in Moscow twice and underwent a series of enquiries from the OGPU secret police. Other accusations against Yesenin and three of his close friends, fellow poets Sergey Klytchkov, Alexei Ganin and Pyotr Oreshin, were made by Lev Sosnovsky, a journalist and close Trotsky associate. The foursome retorted with an open letter in Pravda and, in December, were cleared by the Writers' Union comrades' court. It was later suggested, though, that Yesenin's departure to the Caucasus in the summer of 1924 might have been a direct result of harassment by the NKVD. Earlier that year fourteen writers and poets, including his friend Ganin, were arrested as alleged members of the (apparently fictitious) Order of Russian Fascists. They were tortured and executed in March without trial.

 

In January–April 1924 Yesenin was arrested and interrogated four times. In February he was admitted to the Sheremetev hospital, then moved into the Kremlin clinic in March. Nevertheless, he continued to make public recitals and released several books in the course of the year, including Moskva Kabatskaya. In August 1924 Yesenin and fellow poet Ivan Gruzinov published a letter in Pravda, announcing the end of the Imaginists.

 

In 1924-1925, Yesenin visited Azerbaijan, and stayed in the village of Mardakan, where he published a collection of poems in the "Krasny Vostok" printing house, and was also published in a local publishing house. According to one source it was here, in May 1925, that the poetic “Message to the Evangelist Demyan” was written. There is today a street and a museum house in memory of the poet in Mardakan, Azerbaijan.

 

In early 1925 Yesenin met and married Countess Sophia Andreyevna Tolstaya (1900–1957), a granddaughter of Leo Tolstoy. In May, what proved to be his final large poem, Anna Snegina, came out. During that year he compiled and edited The Works of Yesenin in three volumes which were published by Gosizdat posthumously.

I did not realize that Flickr only allows 3 minute uploads until now... So I'm posting it in parts.

 

Written & Directed by: Yi Chen

  

Executive Producer: Fausto Di Marco

  

Cast:

Fausto Di Marco

Yi Chen

Danyal Zafar

Eric Mayer

Kira Walls

Lakni Hansika

Lucas Shepherd

Matteo Pennarts

Pihla Pekkarinen

Sylvie Dumont

William Tippins

  

Assisstant Director: William Tippins

  

Cinematography Supervisor: Marina Buening

  

Director of Drama: Lakni Hansika

  

First Assisstant Camera & Lights: Alessandra N. Garber

  

Second Assisstant Camera: Pihla Pekkarinen

  

Original Music:

Brian Balmages

Yi Chen

  

Sets & Props: Fausto Di Marco

  

Lights & Lenses:

Oisin Curran

Marina Buening

  

Focus Puller: Pihla Pekkarinen

  

Script Proofreading:

Jacob Sadoff

Lucas Shepherd

  

Location Scout: William Tippins

  

In Association with St. Stephen's Cineasti. Visit their Youtube page: www.youtube.com/channel/UCci2oEOTzPvg2DGPfr7dnlw

  

Visit Marina Buening's website: www.marinabuening.com

  

The wiki for this film: thetimemachinefilm.wikia.com/

Born in 1734, Restif de la Bretonne took an apprenticeship with a printer in Auxerre and later at the Imprimerie Royale. He began writing in 1767 and from then on he wrote more and more. He started printing his own books in 1791. Imagination, sensuality and verve are found in his descriptions of the people around where he lived most of the time: the peasants, the workers, the petty bourgeoisie … The Revolution ruined him and he sold his printing works and became a proofreader until his death.

 

Nicolas Edme Restif, dit Restif de La Bretonne, également épelé Rétif et de La Bretone, est un écrivain français né le 23 octobre 1734 à Sacy et mort le 3 février 1806 à Paris.

Scene XXIII - Testament

#flickrnovel #novel @lunamir #neya

 

Paul held me all night close to him and when we finally got off the bed we wondered what we’re going to do next. It was clear that I had stolen the package because of a reason and it was also very obvious that I was trying to protect myself since I didn’t want to give the package to the lawyer. I was sure that everything had something to do with the fact that I was related to the Marie and now I just should find out what it was.

 

Few hours later Vincent called me and said that we should all have a meeting as soon as possible. There was now more things involved than we first thought and that we should see at public notary because he was holding both Rafael’s and Marie’s testaments. We set up the meeting to the next day at noon. I called to Sebastian right after the Vincent had called me but apparently he had already called to Sebastian, too. It was all going to conclude and we, especially Paul, Sebastian and I, should need to be stronger than ever.

 

The next day we all three went to the notary where Vincent and the lawyer were waiting for us already. I felt the tension in the air and it was everything else but polite. The Vincent’s lawyer gave me a deadly look and I was glad that I didn’t need to sit next to him. The notary began to tell about Rafael’s will and that everything seemed to be alright with it. Sebastian is entitled to everything Rafael left behind, but what comes to Marie’s will, there was a lot to talk about since new things have come up that complicate matters. By that he meant about me being part of the family. “What comes to Vincent, Marie’s husband’s nephew, unless a closer relative is found, he’ll get everything Marie and his husband left behind”, said the notary.

 

I had taken the letter and the jewelry with me and I gave the letter to the notary. He had already read the copy of it but now was the first time he saw the real one. He read what it said again to make sure it really was the right one and then we started discussing. Notary told us that since Marie had noble roots it means that she also had a certain status and expectations. Because of her marriage and her own investments the assets were rather big and to be sure that I was really her heir we needed more proof. The letter alone wasn’t enough, even though it provided lot of information.

 

In Marie’s will there had been a certain part that the notary didn’t quite understand what it meant. The section read: “Look at the second stone and see the engraving behind”. Notary asked us if we had any idea what it could mean.

 

Everybody shook their heads quietly and Vincent’s lawyer looked triumphant. He said: “Since nobody seems to have any idea or further evidence, my client is entitled to all the assets Marie and her husband left behind”.

 

I had a strong feeling that I had forgotten something really important. My hand was in my pocket and it touched the necklace. Suddenly I had the strongest vision I had ever felt. I felt like I was in the huge ballroom that had the huge mirrors. I had seen the room before in a previous vision, but never as clearly as now. I saw how Marie walked down the stairs in her blood-red velvet gown to meet her husband who was waiting downstairs. He was holding some jewelry that looked familiar. He put the necklace around her neck. The jewelry sparkled more than all the chandleries together. Mirrors multiplied the effect and it seemed like there were jewels everywhere. I walked closer like I was in the room and then I realized that the necklace was the same that was in my pocket. I heard a familiar voice ask me, if I’m alright. Then the vision ended and I was back in the room with the others.

 

Paul was looking at me with a worried expression. I asked what had happened and he told that I had sat still with a glassy look in my eyes for a moment. I told them I had a vision and that I understood what the will meant. The lawyer looked worried, but he remained quiet.

 

I took the necklace from my pocket and showed it around. It sparkled in the lights of the office and everybody looked stunned. Vincent asked where I have got it. I explained my vision and that it had been in the package with the letter. Lawyer looked like his head was steaming from anger and he shouted: “I knew that the letter wasn’t the only thing in the package!” I smiled at him and felt like a winner.

 

The notary took the necklace from me and started to investigate it. He took a loop from a drawer and began examining the necklace. In no time he found what he was searching for: there was a symbol and a date with “Chloe”. It meant that the necklace was Chloe’s and the date was her birthday. The symbol symbolizes the connection to the royal blood. Apparently Marie had wanted to give the necklace to Chloe as a proof that she was part of the family.

 

The notary raised his look from the jewelry and looked straight at me before he said: “Faye, your future is about to change.” I looked up at him quietly and nodded. He gave me a file of papers for me to look. I opened it and saw pictures and newspaper stories about a family, writings about their influences to the world and people. Then I saw a picture of Marie and her husband in some gala in a ballroom with mirrors. She looked stunning in her blood-red velvet dress. I was stunned and last piece of the puzzle was now solved. So this is what I had been waiting for all my life without even knowing. Finally I felt whole as a person.

 

Vincent rose from his seat and approached me slowly. I felt Paul tensing up next to me, but I touched his hand to indicate everything was ok. I wasn’t afraid of anything now and stood up to face Vincent. He put out his hand for me to shake mine and said: “Congratulations, Faye. Now that we are related I want to welcome you to our family.” I shook his hand and thanked him with a smile.

 

We started to leave and just before I left the door, the notary stopped me and said: “Faye, there is one more thing. This old key was in the envelope with the Marie’s will and it was meant to the person who inherits her. I don’t know what door it will open, but maybe you’ll figure it out.” I thanked him and put the key in my purse and hurried after the others.

 

Few weeks went by and in the meanwhile I got lot’s information about my roots and relatives. Apparently they had many properties around the world – all of which were now mine. I planned visiting them all, starting with the one in the Venice. That sounded like a good destination to travel with Paul after all this excitement we had experienced together. I felt like the whole world was smiling at me.

  

The End

  

Read the other scenes here: www.flickr.com/photos/neya365/sets/72157625025686050/

 

___________________________________________________________________

  

PDF-version of this novel will be published soon and it's available to be downloaded then.

I will let you all know soon as I'm done with it :)

 

Last but not the least: I wanna thank you for my husband Jemm for supporting me to continue writing this and proofreading every single scene without no complains. Also I thank you all here in Flickr who have read this and supported me with comments/favs/invites, Flickr-mails and all; without You I would have ended writing this novel a long time ago <3

___________________________________________________________________

 

Text & pic all rights reserved Neya

January 23.2011 Finland.

 

NO BANNERS. thanks* words are kindly welcome <3

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how it happens. This is my image build for the Facebook Group "The Best Car Photos"'s Photoshop contest.

 

(Top photo/photo of the Ferrari courtesy of GF Williams. The lowest photo is my edit. All other photos are my own with the exception of the railing and the road sign; I do not know who to credit for those).

 

___________________________

More details: I began by editing the original photo with the same background. However, it just didn't have that "wow!" effect for me. It just wasn't impressive. Plus, other editors were posting essentially the same thing over and over again, so I knew that a photo just like that would not stand out at all. That's when I decided to go ahead and put the car onto a new background.

 

Now, I did not want to pay for or even borrow someone else's backdrop--that just wouldn't be right. I mean... it's got to be my work. It'd be too easy to paste a car onto someone else's photo of a winding mountain road. Anyone else can do that. So this question popped into my mind: why not just build my own background from my own personal library? Why not go all out and see what I'm capable of creating? Well, now we all know that's precisely what I did.

 

I started out looking for a background by searching through some old photos I had taken in the Colorado Rockies back in '09. After selecting several potential shots, I moved on to two photos of a straight, flat road I shot a few weeks ago. Once that was decided, I continued on with searching Google for the railing and then realized I would need to add more depth to the photo by adding rocks and grass behind as well as in front of the railing. Those three photos came from the same set as the backdrop. Next was the sky. Nothing special to say, really; Just something I shot out of my backyard a few months ago. I absolutely love Kansas skies. They are the greatest ever! End of story. :)

 

After the photo all kinda came together, I decided it was missing three things: something to balance the photo out from the brightly-colored Ferrari, something to lend some more authenticity to the photo, and a little bit of sun flare to top it all off.

I decided at some point that the best thing I could do to balance it all would be to add in a yellow road sign. Long story short, I replicated a sign post by rendering fibers into a rectangle, colored that brown, added a grunge texture (thanks Google once again) over the sign, resized it, and bam. I had myself I decently-convincing road sign. As for adding authenticity? Well, aside from overall/general curves, levels, and color adjustments, it finally donned upon me that I forgot to add a shadow to the railing! I had added the car's shadow already, but had neglected to put the railing's shadow in there. Now, I kid you not, that part was truly the most difficult and annoying part of the entire photo for me. That shadow just would not cooperate for me no matter how much I manipulated it. I finally got it down and was satisfied, so I added the sign's shadow in there too. That part was a cinch. haha. After that, I topped it all off with the flare.

 

Oh! And just for Casey since he asked: I stripped the car of all the decals by using a combination of the Clone Tool, Healing Brush, and lots of patience. Nothing really other than that except curves and levels complete with masking.

__________________________

 

Well, that about wraps it up. I apologize for any grammatical and spelling errors as I have not taken much time to proofread this post. :) Have a great day, ya'll. Take it easy out there.

  

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Favorite/Press F if you like this shot!

 

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Found this note in a random hallway of the MoMA NYC offices. love it!

Last Saturday, I proofread a 400-page book as a Monday deadline loomed.

 

Today, I read a few newspapers, worked in my garden, went for two long walks, and played with Sophie in a green field dappled with wildflowers.

 

All in all, I preferred today.

 

Cute big.

  

At long, long, long last, my 2013 Christmas card slash book is finished! This is the reason why I haven't posted any drawings since last August.

 

Obviously you'll have to view Original Size in order to read the text. Note that the white page numbers don't actually appear in the card slash book, they're included here to help you figure out the order in which to read the book.

 

Like every year, it was touch and go there for a while and I honestly wasn't sure it would be done in time for Christmas. Christmas 2013, that is.

 

The Good News: It's finally finished, with a few days to spare before the Holiday! The Bad News: This is the last of these cards I'll be doing. I know I say that every year, but this time I mean it.

 

As I do every year, right after I finished the 2012 card slash book I started thinking about what I was going to do for 2013.

 

I'd drawn both Dr. Killdeath and Count Gothula way back in 2009 and even made a fake Little Golden Book cover starring the Doctor back then. I'd always wanted to do something with the characters and decided this was the proper venue for them.

 

I quickly came up with an idea where the two would battle it out with deadly Christmas gifts. For the past three years these cards slash books have been sixteen pages. This year was going to be a whopping twenty eight! Almost twice as long! I knew the extra page count would take longer to draw, so I started working on it much earlier than I usually start these things, in late August.

 

Thank Thor I did. Despite the fact that I started so early, it came right down to the wire again. Although this book only has two main characters, each page was incredibly complicated and took a long time to draw. Then I had my annual spate of computer problems, as my graphic tablet started unexpectedly losing its pressure sensitivity. If you've never used a graphic tablet before, trust me, that's a bad thing.

 

Even the weather conspired against the project! In early December a huge ice storm hit my neck of the woods. The last time that happened the ice downed power lines all over the city and my electricity was out for a whopping five days! Five! I sat nervously at my computer during the this year's storm, fully expecting the power to go out any second. Fortunately that didn't happen, but it was a harrowing night.

 

I finally finished the thing on December 14! If I'd have started it in October or November like I usually do, I'd still be working on it at Valentine's Day!

 

Because of the amount of pages I had to draw, I took advantage of Photoshop and reused elements whenever possible. For some reason I have a lot of trouble drawing brains. All those fiddly little folds are really tough for me to get right. So once I drew Dr. Killdeath's brain once, I reused it on every page in which he appears. Yep, every time you see his brain, it's the same piece of art.

 

The same goes for the Doctor's little robotic minion. I drew him once, then started to draw him again on the next page and thought, "Why am I reinventing the wheel here?" He was basically a ball and appeared pretty much the same from any angle, so I reused him on every page as well.

 

Is this cheating? I like to think of it as working smarter, not harder.

 

Like last year, I didn't draw the pages in order. This was intentional, as it's normal for you to get better at drawing your characters as time goes by. I didn't want the later pages to look better than the early ones, so by jumping around they all have a uniform mediocrity (heh).

 

Drawing the pages out of order meant I had to keep track of all kinds of little details. I drew the page where Count Gothula opens the gift containing the Man Eating Tornado before he received it, so I had to remember that the gift box should be red with gold ribbon in both.

 

Working out of order came back to haunt me at least once though. The first time I drew the Count's castle was in a closeup on the page in which he receives the first gift. Much, much later I drew the establishing shot of the castle, and then found that it didn't match the closeup at all. So... I had to go back and redraw the closeup. Whoops!

 

In all we see eight deadly Christmas gifts. There were originally a lot more, but even with the expanded page count I couldn't include them all. I did manage to at least mention the rest of them on the Soul Sucker page though.

 

In past years I've always written out the story first before illustrating it, so I'd know how much space I'd have for the drawing. This year I wrote out the story last, after everything had been drawn. A dangerous way to work, I know. Some pages had way too much text and I had to shrink the artwork a bit just to get it all in.

 

Hopefully there aren't too many typos in the text. A few always creep in, no matter how many times I proofread it.

 

As I said before, this will unfortunately be the last of these card slash books that I do. I enjoy making on them, but they're a lot of work. A lot. I worked on this thing virtually every day for four months! Four! And not just a few minutes a day for four months, I'm talking hours, every day, for 120 days. That's a big chunk out of my year. It's just too much work for too little reward.

 

I'll probably still do some kind of Christmas thing next year, but it'll be something simpler that doesn't take up a fourth of my year.

 

You can check out my earlier card slash books here:

 

• Gronkorr, The Monster Who Hated Christmas And Stomped On All The Shoppers He Saw

 

• SantaTaur Is Comin' To Town

 

• The Space Dweebs Vs. Space Santa

 

• Santa Claus, The Yeti And The Really Bad Decision

 

Want to see more? Check out my new blog! All the cool kids are doing it!

I'm also on Twitter for some reason.

These little taglines are scattered throughout the store, as little filler bits between department signs along the sponge-painted band. I took a picture of this one in particular, because I'm prety sure it should be "any time", not "anytime", in this context. (looking around online just made me more confused, not less...) Anyways, it's also amusing how this one is posted above the deserts and ice cream... though I suppose I could eat ice cream at any time of the day, at least in summer :)

Proofread texts before sending ladies.

Facebook | Twitter | Youtube | Blog

 

Until now I've only heard rumors of the pure awesomeness of the Canon 70-200mm Lens. Today, I joined the 70-200 enthusiast club. This lens is like A hot chick… NAKED - Amazing! Its like an ice cold Guinness… frickin fantastic, its like… ya, I can go on and on! I admit, its not the lens I'd find myself grabbing for out of default. There are a number of reasons for this. First and foremost, my "style" wouldn't work with the buttery bokeh that this lens flawlessly produces. If depth of field were a pool, this lens would be a puddle! 2.8 at 200 is unbelievable. Unbelievably difficult to master sharp focus that is. Although, with a little practice, I seemed to get the hang of it.

 

Another downfall of this lens as a default is the sheer size and weight. It's definitely the fat kid of the lens family. Attach it to the 5d Mkii with Battery grip and you have a camera that can double as a blunt force weapon. My arms aren't weak but this lens forced me to mount it to a tripod after 2 short minutes. Carrying this around a city will definitely be a challenge. Looks, like I'll be busting out the old mono pod.

 

So, if you follow this crazy adventure of mine, you'll wonder how I obtained a 2300.00 lens when I'm clawing and fighting for the funding to adopt my own MKII. If there is one thing that I have to be thankful for other than my charm, wit and striking good looks, it's undoubtedly the kindness and generosity of people. I have never had such an outpour of support then I have had this year. I have had so many people help me in so many ways. From gear loans, to volunteers and even proofreaders. I've been lucky for such amazing people in my life this past year!

 

To all who have helped. You are appreciated more than words can express. Thank you!

 

So, with a new lens to test, what better subject then dear old dad? He was there the first day and he is still willing to sacrifice dignity for my art. Don't feel bad dad, The wide open aperture really helps soften those hard lines on your face. The squinting eyes don't help though. Although they do make for one funny ass picture.

 

I figured that at f 2.8 I'd get such a soft background that I wouldn't need to photoshop a new one in. Boy, was I right. The background looks as if it weren't a Walmart bed sheet! Straight out of the camera, it looked bad ass. Once I got it into Lightroom I realized that with very minor tweaks, I wouldn't really need Photoshop. However, because its me, I had to take it into PS just for a minute. I enjoy these kind of portraits as you can really focus on the person and not the overall look. My dad is a great participant as he really does have incredible patience in front of the camera. As long as there's not a football game on or a poker match starting up.

 

This blog is the end of a very long day! I had to wake up at 2am to drive Shawn to the airport 100 miles away. His flight departed at 6am, so we had to be there at 5am, which means we had to leave at 3am. We arrived at the airport just before 5, rolled into a parking spot and proceeded to the moving sidewalks! I told Shawn I'd race him going the wrong way. It was a challenge but I managed to whoop his ass! So what if he wasn't trying, I still won!

 

Since it was his first time flying alone, I walked him through the procedure. My father also gave him a 35 minute lecture on airport safety! We get the same talk every time we travel. My car has several long screw drivers and pointy objects just incase I ever need them! He makes sure of that!

 

We stroll up to TSA, I shake his hand and see him off. I hang back just long enough to listen to him strike up a battle field 3 conversation with one TSA agents and then get "randomly" chosen for additional screening. Funny that out of 4 people in line, he gets picked. I swear, TSA hand book says, facial hair = potential threat! Once Shawn's done getting violated, I leave. First up was breakfast, Stupid Mc Donald's in Lauderdale doesn't do the $1 any size drinks. I paid 2.00 for a large coke - Rape! I also seem to never learn as every time I eat a mc Donalds Mc Skillet burrito and Coke, I get a stomach ache. Today was no different!

 

I wanted to catch the sunrise so went straight to the beach after food. I paid for 1 hour of parking and made why way to the water. I snapped dozens of shots of the ocean, sky, beach and birds before the sun finally peaked over the horizon. That was my cue to move on. Next up was down town Fort Lauderdale. I was hoping to get some bad ass city shots but soon remembered that Ft. Lauderdale isn't much of a city. I instead decided to try and get some stock shots of the airplanes coming in for a landing. I got several shots before I got the impression that TSA was sending an army of minions to beat me down, steal my camera and piss on my CF card! Animals, I tell you… animals!

 

I met up with Adam Kaplin of ASK media Productions to get my HDD from the Patty Madden Shoot. I then made my way to the Boynton Beach art district and ended up shooting the shit with Ronaldo Barrero who runs and promote the district. Chatted a bit about a photography show I'll be doing in March and how he has BIG plans for the area, Including an opera house. "dream big" he says to me! I think I'll take his advice and dream about my own 747 jet painted with my obnoxious face on the side of it!

 

I figured since I was out this far south, I'd stop in and get that creative meeting in with Patty Madden for the next ad campaign were working on for February. This one should be way over the top and SO much fun!

 

After patty's I was on a mission to collect more backgrounds. Soon after I leave, I get a call from patty saying her husband Gary was in Palm beach and found a cool location. I make a detour and exit the highway. I find my way to Palm Beach and find Gary, on his bike, smoking a fat cigar. I follow him down the street and he shows me one of the biggest trees I've ever seen! I snap a few shots of it and of him. We part ways after some interesting business talk. Soon after I found myself at the Port of Palm beach. There is a giant bridge that goes over the shipyard. I'm not to sure how legal it is to be taking high res photos of somewhere that you need an id and badge to enter. All I know is I parked the car and walked almost 1/4 mile over broken beer bottles, condoms and nasty shit I can't identify, all the way to the top of the bridge. I then attempted to be as inconspicuous as possible while hanging the camera off the side of the bridge. I captured several 3 shot HDR's of the ship yard and quickly retreated before someone decided to question me. I also drove down several streets that appeared to be abandoned, they butted right up against the ship yard and with the broken windows, open doors and booze bottles everywhere. One could only assume that these un livable boxes were vacant. I was wrong as a suspicious big assed woman walks out of one of the windowless, doorless domiciles. While talking on the phone, she looks over to me, gives a strange smirk and then walks back into the box. Not shutting the door of course, since it was missing!

 

I did however, manage to get some pretty kick ass shots of the shipping containers despite putting my life and gear in jeopardy. My final stop was The Rankin family home to pick up the gear that the Good Dr. was lending me for the trip, the 70-200 being among the items lent!

 

I am barely able to keep my head up, let alone type. I'll just give up now before I start rambling or even worse, repeating myself. LIke how I shot in downtown Ft. Lauderdale… Anyway, thats it. In about 20 minutes I'll video chat with Cory, Katie and Shawn and tell cory that the box he's been keeping for me for the past 2 weeks was actually his christmas gift! If I wasn't so tired, I'd probably laugh pretty hard!

 

Lighting:

 

AB800 Med Gridded Softbox at both 10:00 and 2:00. full power

AB800 Beauty Dish Boomed overhead at 6:00 3/4 power

 

Triggered Via Cyber Syncs and Commander.

Professional, In-Residence The english language Proofreading Services. Educational Proofreading For ... t.co/rO5aFITPA6 #acn (via Twitter twitter.com/AgenciaCN/status/822415794906787841)

After 5 long years of field work and photography and over a year of analyzing data, writing, editing and proofreading the book is finally out!

 

It is available for international order and shipping from this address:

guyhaimovitch.com/reptiles-and-amphibians-of-israel/index...

I really put a lot of thought into this theme. Obviously, being open to almost limitless interpretation meant I had a huge wealth of lyrics to draw on, from a spread of artists whose work I adore and has comforted, confronted, and challenged me over the course of my life. My initial plan was to work with lyrics from the band who most encapsulate that range of emotion and responses, Coil. However even by my standards I found myself diving into rabbit holes that I couldn't even begin to get a handle on (the 30+ releases of theirs I have made this no small task to explore, either) and eventually I realised if I wanted to get something that felt even close to fully formed, I needed to go elsewhere.

 

After an awful lot of text which I just typed out, proofread, and deleted, I ended up back with Fever Ray, the solo project of Karin Dreijer Andersson (perhaps better known for The Knife, her project with brother Olof Dreijer). As a musician and lyricist, Karin is known for using myriad effects on her voice, obscure and cryptic lyrical refrains and generally cultivating a mysterious and theatrical persona through which she presents her work. Perfect. She also has a knack for coming up with phrases and lines in her work that stick firmly in my head, little nuggets of emotive power, taking on a life beyond the original songs.

 

The one I chose to use has been taken from the context of the song and given it's own by me. Not for this project - Actually, for a long time it has had this second meaning. Ever since I read an article about people being encouraged to write letters to younger versions of themselves, I had wondered what I would tell a young me - and what I would leave out. What would be better discovered fresh, should I leave a warning, or advise myself to avoid things and experiences? What if that changed who I was now? What if I could ease some of the difficulties I had experienced? Is that worth the risk? Should I be explicit, or cryptic? Should I lie? It's an interesting idea to chew over.

 

So, that's where I went with this theme. A little flight of fancy that I could, somehow, pop back to have a short chat with a 12 year old me, back when life was simple (but wouldn't be for much longer) and just.. encourage him. Be kind to him. Give him something to look forward to. Let him know there is an amazing life ahead, full of wonders and experiences and fun - so hold on tight. You'll get there.

 

Fever Ray - 'Coconut' ~ "he came back one day and told me stories that I now dream of"

A short film about a homeless man telling a teenager a heartbreaking story about his life. The original story inspired by a dream. Shot on the grounds of St. Stephen's International School of Rome, Italy, and a street adjacent to it.

  

Written & Directed by: Yi Chen

  

Executive Producer: Fausto Di Marco

  

Cast:

Fausto Di Marco

Yi Chen

Danyal Zafar

Eric Mayer

Kira Walls

Lakni Hansika

Lucas Shepherd

Matteo Pennarts

Pihla Pekkarinen

Sylvie Dumont

William Tippins

  

Assisstant Director: William Tippins

  

Cinematography Supervisor: Marina Buening

  

Director of Drama: Lakni Hansika

  

First Assisstant Camera & Lights: Alessandra N. Garber

  

Second Assisstant Camera: Pihla Pekkarinen

  

Original Music:

Brian Balmages

Yi Chen

  

Sets & Props: Fausto Di Marco

  

Lights & Lenses:

Oisin Curran

Marina Buening

  

Focus Puller: Pihla Pekkarinen

  

Script Proofreading:

Jacob Sadoff

Lucas Shepherd

  

Location Scout: William Tippins

  

In Association with St. Stephen's Cineasti. Visit their Youtube page: www.youtube.com/channel/UCci2oEOTzPvg2DGPfr7dnlw

  

Visit Marina Buening's website: www.marinabuening.com

  

The wiki for this film: thetimemachinefilm.wikia.com/wiki/The_Time_Machine_-_A_Sh...

...of concrete and nature.

 

(I will catch up with everyone today. I've been busy helping a friend proofread some deposition transcripts. She described them as boring reading...I found them better reading than any Jackie Collins novels -- not that I've read any Jackie Collins novels.)

Because of my wife’s severe scoliosis, I handle almost all of her needs. I still lay out her panties daily, as I have for many years. She now wears only a bra during doctor visits. She gets out of bed and stands for about 20 minutes each day, then returns to bed, adjusts her pillows, and spends the rest of the day reading or knitting. When we go anywhere that requires standing longer than 20 minutes, she uses a wheelchair.

 

Hoping to cheer my wife up, I decided to rearrange her drawer the way a 70s-style housewife would. I also knew that behind all her bras and panties, the back of the drawer was a special place to stash things.

 

Most housewives in the 70s probably wore the same bra style. I imagine their panties were all identical. I am sure everything was white, though some might have worn beige panties under pantyhose. There might have been a pair or two of black panties in their drawers for special occasions.

 

I told Diane I planned to rearrange her drawer to resemble that of a 1970s housewife. After that, I took her out of the room to begin my overhaul.

 

My wife has proofread my stories before. This time, I asked her to reread the story about my first time seeing Lorraine’s mother’s panties. Lorraine’s mother would be your typical 1970s housewife.

 

I told my wife that what interested me at the time was that I saw only white bras and panties in her drawer. “At least my mother had black panties,” I said. Diane asked me how I knew so much about Lorraine’s mother’s panties all being the same. I told her, “For whatever reason, when I first opened the drawer, all I saw was a sea of white.” I picked up a handful of panties, and each pair looked the same as the others. I looked at the tags on each pair, and they all said Sears.

 

“I told my wife that I had taken about a dozen of her panties over the summer while watching her house, and that these were the same panties my mother discovered when she found my stash.” “What was strange was that my mother kept all of Lorraine’s mother’s panties and several from other mothers. She made me give back the panties she didn’t keep and told me to give the rest back, of course, but I didn’t.”

 

I told my wife, "I imagined that the housewives of the 70s mostly wore only white bras and panties. I am sure most wives back then did not wear sexy lingerie on a daily basis.”

 

To the average wife, whatever her mother bought for her when she was growing up is what she still buys for herself.

 

I told Diane, “What do you think it would be like if you wore the same color panties every day?" “No different-colored panties from your aunt’s collection. Only white!” “Okay, whatever you want to.” “I will also put out Freda’s because she has white panties.”

 

This is the most recent photo of Diane’s “Housewife of the 70’s” drawer. On the left are all the panties I have been collecting over the past two years from her best friend, Janet. Janet would definitely be considered a 70’s housewife. She wears only white Fruit of the Loom nylon briefs with a double cotton gusset.

 

Next to Janet’s panties are the ones I took from her other best friend, Karen. Karen only wears Sears VIP panties, the same as her mother, Ruth. Except Ruth’s are much sexier. I guess Karen didn’t get the message from her mother.

 

Behind the panties are strapless bras Diane did not give to Carole.

 

The basket on the right holds the eight bras Janet gave my wife, replacing the bras my wife gave to Carole. These bras are old, but Diane tells me they fit better than the VS bras my wife gave away. The beige bra next to Janet's bras is the Bali Diane purchased for herself. Most likely will never get worn again since it stretched over a few washings.

 

Diane’s entire collection of vintage panties is lined up behind both baskets. Every pair is irreplaceable because it is over 50 years old. When I decided to do this project, I pulled out each vintage pair and showed it to her. She remembers every pair and where she got it.

 

I can count on one hand how many of the panties had elastic that was brittle from age. Amazingly, the rest are still wearable.

 

I am sure the reason was that these panties were never put in a dryer and the elastic was never baked because her mother didn’t own one. While dating, I couldn’t wait to go to her house, hoping to see her and her mother’s panties hanging on the clothesline.

 

If I did see their panties, I was so tempted to take a pair, but I had to exercise restraint to avoid getting caught. After looking at the panties, I decided that both her bras and panties would always be hung to dry.

 

I showed her the picture of Freda’s panties hanging in the shower. I decided that, since we were doing the 70’s housewife scenario, why not do the same as Aunt Freda.

 

I bet Freda has been drying her panties this way for years. If it was good for her, it would be good for you. “From this point on, every bra or pair of panties you wear that comes out of the washer will be hung in your shower.”

 

My projects will not be limited to panties from Karen or Janet; I have plenty from other people as well. Speaking of this, I told Diane that so many of your friends would fit the 70s housewife classification, so get ready because this is going to be fun.

 

I tried to proofread as much as I could but I take no responsibility for any of the graffiti.

 

(Important: make sure humans don't catch you doing this!)

 

First you need to type in what you want to say. Second, make sure you proofread your post. Paws are bigger than fingers making it very easy to hit more than one key at once! Don't be afraid to use the spell check function. Next, remember to click the "Publish Post" button. This is a fun part because you get to play with the mouse! Lastly, it is very important to take a nap. Blogging really tires you out.

 

Cats of the world are learning and finding the joy in computing.

Here is a picture of Yi from Japan. :)

 

The next issue has been proofread, so we will be sending out PDF's to all contributors to glance over. Then the printing can start!

 

Here's an updated version of the video (I first shared yesterday) about achieving my Second Life Goals for Easter 2024.

 

My proofreader (some guy named Simon Garrison - who is now in the naughty corner) missed a few typos in the earlier video 🤔

 

I've also added different audio to Version 2 and have created a PDF with active links in it for all the Second Life Destinations visited as well as products and creators mentioned. the PDF is available here: drive.google.com/file/d/1Ayhsvqzdw5beff34HpmBBcvWYYmlK-_z...

 

My Facebook: www.facebook.com/simon.r.garrison/

  

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Okay, we have no intention of insulting your intelligence any further ... We here at Blythe Fifth Avenue realize it is blatently obvious who is wearing the Madame Ze Cat antic [sic] castle dress :) :)

 

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fyi: editors' proofreading symbol: Sic in square brackets is an editing term used with excerpts. It means "that's really how it appears in the original." listing

 

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All my girls out for a little Spring sunshine ...

 

Left to right:

 

RUBY RAPUNZEL: Prima Dolly Adorable Aubrey (PDAA), Custom #3 by Phillaine; with UC (Urban Cowgirl) scalp (adopted from kitty); Licca body

 

YARDLEY YOPLAIT: My Mrs. Sally Rice (matte when I adopted her); with SAFFY scalp; MSR Takara body

 

PRUDENCE PEACH: My Mademoiselle Rosebud, with custom dyed scalp by Minklet ~ of Blythe Rescue Mission fame ~ Adopted from Gina Garan. She now has a new RBL face-up by BFA, and a Licca body.

 

FRENCHIE FAITH: One of the Blythe Fifth Avenue TWINS; She is a Sunshine Holiday with a Sleeping Elf scalp in white mohair; Takara body (for now, until maybe Veronica can help me out later ... ;)

 

GODIVA GRACE: One of the Blythe Fifth Avenue TWINS: She has an RBL faceplate and a pale pale factory body (again, for now ... ) and a Sleeping Elf scalp in rich black mohair.

 

NENETL NENETL: My first Blythe ... she is an ADG Aztec Arrival; so many transformations along the way, but presently wearing her RIT dyed Sunshine Holiday scalp in Brave Hot Red. (Licca body)

 

INGRID INGENUE: My little translucent factory girl with the "human-like-hair" ... She also has a Licca body now :)

 

ZABRINA ZADORA: She is a PD2Se, SAFFY GIRL ... with a NEON scalp, and Licca body.

 

- That is 8 of the "Nouveau Nine" Modeling Troupe at Blythe Fifth Avenue ;

 

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ALL girls are wearing Floral headpieces by Blythe Fifth Avenue;

   

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I normally am not a fan of "barefoot Blythe", however, today I made an exception ;)

 

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It's a slow lesson to learn that effort owes you nothing. I'm not impressed by hard work, not even my own – art isn't like some physical labour. Pile up a hundred hours on something heartless, and you'll still reach the same range of nowhere. Sure, there's technical time to get good at what you do, but chasing perfection has diminishing returns. Most of my favourite musicians have their very best songs on their first couple albums, and it's not because they had no room to improve. Listen later in their careers, and you'll likely hear better playing or vocal control – but a certain loss of spark in the core creative output. It's a part more tricky to work on, the reason behind the work itself. Inspiration is the ghost we all chase.

 

From the very beginning, I've created quickly. Almost everything I write is done in half an hour, poem or prose – proofread then left alone, unedited, forever. Photos and videos are shot in the moment, pulled from my camera and shared with minor adjustments. If something is a failure, no effort could ever turn it around. If something is successful, fiddling too much can easily kill the spark. I did both enough in the early years to lose my taste. Part of the drive behind my daily journal has always been enforced immediacy. When every single day has its own kind of story, you've got to shake off yesterday's in time to make room.

 

To reach the old cabin where I took this picture, I hiked an hour through deep snow, got wet and cold feet, and aching muscles in my legs. The scenes I saw never really moved me. Hard to say why, it's impossible to define, just is. Maybe I was feeling too down-hearted, disconnected in a way that stopped me seeing beauty. Maybe I was just in the wrong place and time. It can be tempting to start obsessing, trying to make it mean more – but some days are just there to let go. I've spent a lot of my life on adventures to the edge, places with no pity or expectations fulfilled. I've learned to leave a looser grip, for things that I can't grasp anyhow.

 

December 21, 2022

Annapolis County, Nova Scotia

 

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Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 – June 7, 1980) was an American writer and, to a lesser extent, painter. He is known for breaking with existing literary forms and developing a new sort of "novel" that is a mixture of novel, autobiography, social criticism, philosophical reflection, surrealist free association, and mysticism, one that is distinctly always about and expressive of the real-life Henry Miller and yet is also an imaginative construct. His most characteristic works of this kind are Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn, and Black Spring. He also wrote travel memoirs and essays of literary criticism and analysis.

 

He was played by Fred Ward in the 1990 movie Henry & June, and Rip Torn in the 1970 film adaptation of Tropic of Cancer.

 

Biography

 

Miller was born to tailor Heinrich Miller and Louise Marie Neiting, in Manhattan, New York City, of German Catholic heritage. As a child he lived at 662 Driggs Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. As a young man, he tried a variety of jobs and briefly attended the City College of New York. In both 1928 and 1929, he spent several months in Paris with his second wife, June Edith Smith (June Miller). He moved to Paris the next year unaccompanied, where he lived until the outbreak of World War II. He lived an impecunious lifestyle that depended on the benevolence of friends, such as Anaïs Nin, who became his lover and financed the first printing of Tropic of Cancer in 1934.

 

In the fall of 1931, Miller got a job with the Chicago Tribune (Paris edition) as a proofreader, thanks to his friend Alfred Perlès who worked there. Miller took the opportunity to submit some of his articles under Perlès name, since only the editorial staff were permitted to publish in the paper in 1934.

 

A small number of his works contain detailed accounts of sexual experiences, and his books did much to free the discussion of sexual subjects in American writing from both legal and social restrictions. He continued to write novels that were banned in the United States on grounds of obscenity. Along with Tropic of Cancer, his Black Spring (1936), and Tropic of Capricorn (1939), were smuggled into his native country, building Miller an underground reputation. One of the first acknowledgements of Henry Miller as a major modern writer was by George Orwell in his essay Inside the Whale [1], where he wrote in 1940, "Here in my opinion is the only imaginative prose-writer of the slightest value who has appeared among the English-speaking races for some years past. Even if that is objected to as an overstatement, it will probably be admitted that Miller is a writer out of the ordinary, worth more than a single glance; and after all, he is a completely negative, unconstructive, amoral writer, a mere Jonah, a passive acceptor of evil, a sort of Whitman among the corpses."

 

In 1940, he returned to the United States settling in Big Sur, California. He continued to produce his vividly written works that challenged contemporary American cultural values and moral attitudes. He spent the last years of his life in Pacific Palisades.

 

The publication of Miller's Tropic of Cancer in the United States in 1961 led to a series of obscenity trials that tested American laws on pornography. The US Supreme Court, in Grove Press, Inc., v. Gerstein, citing Jacobellis v. Ohio (which was decided the same day in 1964), overruled the state court findings of obscenity and declared the book a work of literature; it was one of the notable events in what has come to be known as the sexual revolution. Elmer Gertz, the lawyer who successfully argued the initial case for the novel's publication in Illinois, became a lifelong friend of Miller's. Volumes of their correspondence have been published.

 

In addition to his literary abilities, Miller was a moderately talented painter and wrote books about his painting. He was a close friend of the French painter Grégoire Michonze. He was also an amateur pianist.

 

Miller died in Pacific Palisades, California. After his death, he was cremated and his ashes scattered off Big Sur where he had lived for some time. There are two museums holding Henry Miller's watercolors: The Henry Miller Museum of Art in Omachi City in Nagano, Japan and The Henry Miller Art Museum at Coast Gallery in Big Sur.

 

Miller's papers were donated to the UCLA Young Research Library Department of Special Collections.

A Titanic mistake on Amazon? There's no pride at amazon and no proofreaders either.

Hello lovely people,

I put together a little book with some of my writings and words. I haven't gotten it in the mail yet, but once I do and make sure it is all proofread and stuff, I'll put a link up on here for anyone who cares to buy one. It's very short, only about 32 pages, because I picked the wrong setting and I couldn't switch it so there were more pages :( Silly me. So, maybe if anyone enjoys it and I start to be creative again, I'll make another sometime. For now, I'll be selling An Overflow Of Nothings. I'm not sure whether or not I should just have you order your own through the website or just order a bunch and you can buy it through me, I'll let you know. Hopefully you're interested, if not.. that's okay :) hehe. Thank you <3

I never wanted you to be my man

I just need your company

Don't want to get dependent on

Your time or who you spend it on

Or lose the way you love me

Like smoke, I hung around

And be your balance

    

[Nas]

It's not a movie, this is not a script to proofread

I'll spit some untruths to dumb fools and groupies

Tryna punctuate the funds I make amounts I take

put in your face oh, my mistake

You're not a floozy? Then excuse me

Before I talk, my style introduced me

Get your name and phone number like 1-2-3

Y'all know the story, y'all know the commentary

I kick the narrative, this is legendary

The good Samaritan, good thespian

Like a polygamist, with a twist

Will I marry again? Maybe, I guess

I hold a lady's interest, I just met

The love scholar, she the teacher's pet

Every other eve we'd meet and make each other sweat

I feel triumph with no strings

Just a fling to have fun with

I be out in London, Camden

Huntin' for the answers, why did God take away the homie?

I can't stand it

I'm a firm believer that we all meet up in eternity

Just hope the big man show me some courtesy

Why? 'Cause I'm deemed a heartbreaker

Like smoke, girls linger 'round a player

Yeah-yuh

    

I never wanted you to be my man

I just need your company

Don't want to get dependent on

Your time or who you spend it on

Or lose the way you love me

Like smoke, I hung around

And be your balance

    

[Nas]

Yo, this recession is a test

It's affecting my complexion

Misdirecting my affection

My concerns of bill collections

The facts is the taxes, they after me

Chapter three, my property

My handlers, they dealt with me improperly

I say some things I should probably keep privately

Evaluate the world bank trusts like I'm IEG

This fly sweet bourgeoisie

Tall freak, she wouldn't protest with me at Wall Street

She says, no you're so deep

I said, no let's go thru it

Historically so ruthless feds came for Joe Lewis

She said, my man you needs to laugh sometime

Classifies me as a bore, I told her have some wine

You colder than penguin pussy at her her dismay

She's thinkin' that's just so silly to say

But if you really think about it hussy

See a penguin, he drags his ass on the ground all day

And there's a drag

And it's a bust and you're in tune with just lust

I'm thru with you after I crush, so is that humorous enough?

The smoke I puff

Tell the car to go to Aura, Funky Buddah, Whiskey Mist

on Mayfair

I hope I meet some Monie Loves so she can show me love

NYC to UK I might stay there

Everybody in the club tonight say, "Yeah"

You know how me and Amy are, straight players

    

I never wanted you to be my man

I just need your company

Don't want to get dependent on

Your time or who you spend it on

Or lose the way you love me

Like smoke, I hung around

And be your balance

Ohh, ohh, ooooohh, ohh

     

Had a lovely Saturday, just pottering around at home (what's new?) Did a bit of cleaning in the bathroom this morning, caught up a bit on my photos, and sat outside with my laptop this afternoon to do a bit more proofreading of my friend's novel (I'm about two-thirds of the way through now). Went out for a walk after dinner - it was looking a little gloomy, but the evening sun was just starting to break through and it was lovely by the time I got to the heath.

 

Slightly shocked to strike out across one part of the heath and then see a car coming towards me at high speed across the grass (thankfully not directly at me!) I fully expected to see a police car follow after it, but there was none. The car drove off onto the road at the end of the heath and sped off round the corner. I just managed to video it as it did that, but couldn't get the reg number, unfortunately.

 

Anyway, made it to the pond alive and stalked the Egyptian geese again. It seems this is a regular perch for mummy goose :)

My name is Brandon Boyd. I am a Los Angeles native, a Vegan sympathizer, an artist by day and come nightfall I sing in a band called Incubus. I am suspicious of religion, advertising and know-it-alls. My teeth will one day fall out from overconsumption of licorice. My closest friend on the Earth is a dog from France. I sleep diagonally until I have company, then I sleep lengthwise. I am straight, yet I adore sparkling mineral water. I have a bionic right leg as a result of a freak gardening accident. My right eye goes lazy after about 3am. If you feed me after midnight, I multiply. My name, when translated literally, means 'Broom-Hill' which I find horrifyingly exotic. I live in an old building that at one point in the 1900's was a working brothel. As a result, the ghosts of under paid and over worked prostitutes roam my hallways. So, there is a lingering smell of cheap perfume on the second story of my home after 3am, which might explain my occasional lazy eye. I am allergic to milk and as a result have never had an ice cream party. You may have just heard the sounds of very small violins playing behind that last comment, but don't feel bad for me; I have sorbet parties at every Equinox and spend about half a day thereafter happily cleaning the 'sticky' out of my fingernails. My right knee is named Chet and my left is Garrison. Everything I wear once belonged to someone else with the specific exception of socks and underpants.

 

I am quite certain that in the above rant/ Myspace 'About Me' section there is a sizable window for you curious and or skeptical observers to peer through. I have always cringed at the thought of describing myself and my multiplying creative endeavors, but it seems as time wears on, that the personal 'Bio' is a necessary evil in the vast catacombs of the "I wish I didn't have to, buts..." of our strange culture. So with that veiled apology out of the way, I shall now recall (for those who desire to know more) a not so brief remembrance of my time in art thus far...

 

The first piece of art I can remember is actually now hanging in my kitchen. It is a self portrait my Mother did while she was in Art School. She was very pregnant with my older brother and thought it would be funny to paint herself as the Virgin Mary. So this painting, for all it's cracked and aging beauty, looks very pious and intimidating. It hung in the guest bedroom of my Grandfather's house that my brothers and I would bunk in when staying there. On more than three occasions, I woke in the middle of the night and saw the eyes of this painting alive and looking down at me! My Mother ( the Virgin Mary) in a very ominous voice would say, "Go back to sleep, Brandon!"

 

I started scribbling in very small pads with very small pencils as a child. I have since been scaling up exponentially. In Medium, content and size. As my mind grows, so do my sights on what is possible creatively. This has allowed me to reach into pen-ink, paint, pencil, photography, music, literature and lifestyle. All of which are as important as the next.

 

The kinds of art that have stood out to me have never really followed any particular pattern. I guess my eyes and my heart gravitate towards unusual, dark, absurd, sincere and beautiful works. I obsess over line work and flow.

 

I have no formal training; other than a few semesters at community college and some classes at the YMCA. I would very much like to return to school in the near future and absorb the myriad different techniques I have been missing out on! That being said, I was raised in a creative environment, and that does wonders for a young person's mind.

I have always had a hard time in describing my creative style. I find the same dilemma when asked what type of music I play. But if I had to, I would say that I am doing my best to turn my mind inside out and see what it looks like framed. ;) Once you get past the gooey bits and the debris, there is the occasional sparkly gem that glows like the edges of Barbara Walters in one of her interviews.

 

My creative process is both complex and simple. The complexities arise when I try and understand what I am doing when I am doing it. It's like trying to describe the sensation of love; one is better suited just experiencing it for oneself. But it becomes simple when I let go into the process and don't question it so much. Kind of a surrender into right brian, as it were. But for clarity's sake, I have waves of creativity, followed by times of drought. In these times, I have learned that just reading, listening to music, and surfing a whole lot help to pass the time before the next creative pulse arises. It's been this way in my life for as long as I can remember.

 

I work predominately out of my kitchen. It looks like a kitchen, but it's actually...well, a kitchen. Things are cooked there, and things are consumed. But just as much paint is thrown into amorphous abstractions onto paper and canvas that reveal my inner perv and my longing for contact with extraterrestrial intelligences (not to be confused with one another) as there is corn chowder stirred and swallowed!

 

I like to allow any and all influence into my world. Cultural or geographic. Political, or emotional. As far as I am concerned, anything is game. I find that large parts of my work are observational in the sense that I am merely living as I chose and the art, in whatever form it takes, is the unconscious filter of my experience.

 

I think that to live a life of expressivity is paramount. To me it is the embodiment of freedom. I don't have a particularly specific statement that I am trying to convey; like the Romantic's Manifesto, or something akin. I am more interested in existing in a continual state of creativity. To be able to see the art in every occurrence. To find beauty in the mundane and in the otherwise trite and or trivial. My life, as it were, is not unlike one of my drawings; a continually evolving, bulbous, mass of thought, after-thought, absurdity, intention and enthusiasm. Scribbled happily in ink without pencil lines and signed at the bottom.

 

I am currently working on a new series of paintings on canvas in acrylic that I will have no idea how to talk about until they are hung and dry and my shrink is standing back from them with an inquisitive scowl.

 

I just did a quick proofread of this communication, and I am struck by how often I used the word, "I." To my count, it is repeated 63 times in this glorified Personals Ad. Cheese and Rice! You'd think I was a fucking rock star with these levels of self absorption. Fuck it. I think that'll do for now. If anybody has anymore questions beyond art, music, haunted paintings, relevance, used clothes, literature, tiny pencils on tiny pads of paper, heartbreak, disillusionment, love, death, addiction, leather goods, lactose intolerance, the future, optimism, nihilism, idealism, plagiarism, environmentalism and the smell of turpentine, please don't Google my name or ask your "friend who knows about music". Call me at your Mom's house, I'll be there having a sorbet party on March 20th.

 

Your friend and lover,

Brandon Boyd

 

www.flickr.com/photos/beautifulinblue

www.flickr.com/photos/beautifulinblue

www.flickr.com/photos/beautifulinblue

 

me mato tres veces

"mi ojo perezoso ocasionales. Soy alérgico a la leche y como resultado nunca han tenido una fiesta de helados. Es posible que acabamos de escuchar los sonidos de violines muy pequeño jugando detrás de ese último comentario, pero no te sientas mal por mí..."

   

Sketchcrawl , Lyon le 16 avril 2011.

I used of the white proofreader called Pentex!

@kalliebah ift.tt/1KhP2uD kalliebah