text:
Browsing gets decentralized, Xfce 4.14 is almost ready, CoderDojo eats some Pi, and we argue about universal packages, again.

Subscribe: Linux Weekly Daily Wednesday

Colour key – Venn Pedro Mathieu Jordan

Gnome Mail

  • It’s the Gnome Shell equivalent of gmail-notify which has been around since 2009
  • You wouldn’t be needing that if you were using a proper email client, you savages!
  • Or you could use your Gmail account /w Thunderbird because that has, ya know, desktop notification.
  • I have disabled Thunderbird’s desktop notifications, since the MATE dock shows a little indicator icon above the Thunderbird icon telling me how many new emails I have.

  • Josh Triplett, a Debian maintainer, makes a good point. The reason why Debian has reached such a high level of stability is that there is a policy surrounding the whole ecosystem. With Flatpack or Snaps, no one is in charge, there is no QA from any particular entity and as we’ve seen with 3rd party RPM or Deb packages, the quality can vary greatly.
  • The only people I have seen pushing FlatSnapImages are the people working on them.
  • I’m willing to bet by this time next year we will still be having the same arguments with little to no progress being made.
  • Honestly, this is just going to devolve into the merits of Flatpaks over snaps, over debs, over rpms.
  • I can hear Martin Wimpress shouting at me right now, seeing as he’s currently working on Snapcraft, about how I don’t get snaps at all.
  • So I will say this instead, if the point of “Universal” packages are to dispel the notion of “fragmentation” in Linux packaging, they’re doing a horrible job of it.
  • Instead of Canonical/Ubuntu and Red Hat/Fedora coming together and creating a proper Universal package format, they each went their separate ways and keep doing what they’ve always done.
  • So tell me again how different this discussion around Snaps vs. Flats is any different than debs vs. rpms?

Stretch of the imagination

  • Debian 9 release is planned for June 17th
  • The inclusion of Secure Boot will be postponed to a future update
  • Wonder how long Valve will take to update SteamOS
    • VALVe Time™, that’s how long!

  • Too bad that the founder isn’t named Richard Hendricks because that is the exact same things as in the Silicon Valley show
  • There is a developer preview available and a public release planned in 6 months
  • Right now this is a plugin for existing browsers.
  • Designed to give users a seamless browsing experience by granting access to websites via a single identity login that — unlike profiles created on the traditional internet — they actually own.
  • While I like the idea of decentralized everything I’m also a fan of things that work.
  • In an age where Internet freedom and “Net Neutrality” are always under constant fire, decentralizing everything is not just a good idea in ideological terms but also in a practical sense.
  • The problem with practicality and feasibility of decentralizing “The Internet” is that there’s no way they’re going to get ISPs and domain registrars to fork over everything for it to be blockchained.
  • So the only way to do it is the old fashioned way and basically creating Schröedinger’s “Internet”, which may or may not work.
  • Unless I’m just a big idiot and am completely misunderstanding the point of all this.

Road to 4.14

  • GTK3 all the things!
  • Almost all core components have now a gtk+3 version.
  • Thunar needs some help.
  • If you want to test the current state of Xfce 4.14, you can look at xfce-test, a docker image (check notes).
  • No ETA because Xfce but it’s still a better love story than Enlightenment.
  • By the time they finish the Gtk3 migration, Gtk4 might already be released!

Five ten

  • Adds option to group windows in the task bar
  • Folder view is now the default for the desktop
  • Improved volume control lets you switch audio sources
  • Software center now has Flatpak and Snap support
  • Ah, KDE, when developers play UX designers… they’re not
  • I mean, does anyone think Linux adoption is low because it’s not pretty enough?
    • Actually, a few people seem to.
    • No. Gnome (and its variants) and KDE are by far the prettiest desktops. OSX looks okay-ish and Microsoft has done quite a nice job with Windows 10. Linux desktops are still prettier.
  • As the one stubborn person in this show who keeps trying to use KDE or Plasma or whatever they call it nowadays, the 5.10 update b0rked KWin.
  • It borked it because some of the packages which the new version of KWin needs are not getting updated.
  • They’re not getting updated because they were linked against a specific version of libqt5core5a.
  • Version 5.6.1 to be specific and even though I have version 5.7.1, they still refuse to install.
  • I don’t know whether to blame KDE, Ubuntu or something else, but fact of the matter is, I’ve never had as many issues with version mismatching on Fedora than I do in Ubuntu.
    • Shouldn’t you be using KDE Neon if you want the latest version of Plasma?
    • Of course if you try to install a brand new desktop on Ubuntu you’re going to run into issues.
      • KDE Neon is based on Ubuntu 16.04.
      • Run that by me again.
    • That’s the job of distro maintainers to make sure that these things are neatly integrated and work properly

Slice of Pi

No Pi

  • I think I’ve been saying that since the beginning of the show
  • The Pi is a powerful device, there are more suited alternative if all you want is to control a motor and a bunch of LEDs
  • Don’t be afraid of making your RaspberryPi do a bunch of different things at once
  • You buy a Pi because of the ecosystem.
  • It’s a great device for beginners since they can take the monkey-see monkey-do approach.
  • The Pi is like the Ubuntu of prototype boards.
  • There’s a bunch of people using it, developing for it, and supporting it.
  • So, given the choice between something with as much support as the Pi, for so many different skill levels, or anything else where the only support you get is an obscure sub-forum on a website that’s been barely maintained, and everyone in there speaks with a completely impenetrable lingo, I know what I’d pick.
    • Wait. The Arduino is obscure?

  • Kinds of reminds me of the OLPC initiative

  • 4 steps to a live YOUTUBE stream.
  • This is a lot better than building ffmpeg on a Pi.

  • I wouldn’t say efficiency is the main purpose of Synaptic but it’s great for complex package management. I use it quite rarely but when I do it’s a life saver!
  • I discovered Synaptic around the time Ubuntu 9.04 showed up and never found anything better for my specific taste, as far as Ubuntu goes.
  • In fact, until Yumex became usable, I wished there was something like Synaptic for Fedora and derivatives for a long time.
Tweet about this on TwitterShare on Google+Share on FacebookShare on TumblrShare on Reddit
Take a second to support Linux Game Cast on Patreon!


Content-Type: application/http; msgtype=response

WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: text/html

WARC-Type: response

text:
[linux-dvb] PATCH: Tevion DVB-T 220RF

Hartmut Hackmann hartmut.hackmann at t-online.de
Mon Feb 6 00:11:26 CET 2006

Hi, Adrian

Adrian Bunk wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 06, 2006 at 08:39:31AM +1100, Peter Hartshorn wrote:
>>+	[SAA7134_BOARD_TEVION_DVBT_220RF] = {
>>+		.name           = "Tevion DVB-T 220RF",
> This should perhaps be something like SAA7134_BOARD_220RF and
> "KWorld/Tevion 220RF", since KWorld is selling the same card (with
> the sae PCI ids).
I just pushed Peters patch to the repository. The internal name of the
board is not so important but we of corse can change the name field.
I don't worry much about this, it is quite normal that the same board is
sold under many different names.

Best regards

More information about the linux-dvb mailing list

warcinfo:
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-148-41-166.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2017-30
operator: Common Crawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web for July 2017
publisher: Common Crawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf


text:
[linux-dvb] HVR-1300 problems with new kernels

Mika Laitio lamikr at pilppa.org
Sun Jun 22 15:17:20 CEST 2008

> DVB is however still not working with 2.6.24, 26.25 and 2.6.26-rc4
> kernels I have tested. But will work if I build and load v4l-dvb drivers.
> cx88/dvb related dmesg output looks ok for me and I have things created
> under /dev/dvb...

Some progress... It seems that the hvr-1300 drivers are actually ok for
dvb-t in 26.24-26.26 kernels, the problem seems just be somehow in the
load order of drivers.

If I remove the kernel/drivers/media/video/cx88 directory temporarily for
the boot time to prevent the drivers to get loaded automatically and then
put the cx88 folder back after boot and load following drivers manually,
then dvb-t starts workinng ok

modprobe cx88_dvb
modprobe cx8800
modprobe cx22700

Any idea should I specify some module loading rules somewhere for example
in /etc/modprobe.conf ?

More information about the linux-dvb mailing list


text:
Mailing Lists

Below is a listing of all the public mailing lists on Click on a list name to get more information about the list, or to subscribe, unsubscribe, and change the preferences on your subscription. To visit the general information page for an unadvertised list, open a URL similar to this one, but with a '/' and the list name appended.

List administrators, you can visit the list admin overview page to find the management interface for your list.

If you are having trouble using the lists, please contact

List Description
Builds Automatic Regression Test Messages
Commits Automatic Push Notification Messages
Developers The Mailing List for Development of CakeML
Users The Mailing List for Users of CakeML

Delivered by Mailman
version 2.1.24
Python Powered GNU's Not Unix


text:
[Openmcl-devel] Performance tips

Gary Byers gb at clozure.com
Sat Jun 24 10:20:24 UTC 2006

On Fri, 23 Jun 2006, Erik Pearson wrote:

> Not knowing how I've implemented this I realize there is not much for you go
> to on.

In the absence of specific information, the answer to the question "why
do things run more slowly than they should ?" winds up being something
like "er, um, misspent youth ..." and the answer to "why are things so
fast ?" is often "Good Clean Living!".  While both of those answers might
be at least somewhat accurate, they're unlikely to be helpful.

> However, all things being equal (i.e. my less than optimal implementation of
> the above!), the app did slow down and I'm hoping to rectify this. I'll try

Shark (the GUI profiling tool in CHUD) has options that allow you to export
its summaries to text files (and/or directly email them); I'd be glad to
take a look at those results and try to interpret them and/or suggest ways
of getting further information.

> Thanks,
> Erik.

More information about the Openmcl-devel mailing list


WARC-Truncated: length

text:
Review | The Winter People, Jennifer McMahon

18007535What if you could bring the dead back to life? If you’ve read Stephen King or seen any number of classic horror movies, it should be pretty obvious that this is never a good idea. A character says as much near the beginning of this book, only to be told that someday, she just may love someone enough to seriously consider it.

Indeed. A mother loses her child. A woman loses her husband. Two children lose their mother. Loss is everywhere in this book, and Stephen King nightmares aside, how much can we really blame anyone for wanting just a few extra days with a loved one?

That being said, as we all know, the reality is never as good as we imagine. In Jennifer McMahon’s The Winter People reanimated corpses called sleepers are rumoured to haunt the woods, and in classic horror story tradition, these sleepers turn out to be rather thirsty for human blood. Reviews on Goodreads have compared it to Stephen King’s Pet Sematary, which either I’ve never read or it freaked me out so much I’ve blocked it completely from my memory. If you have read it, that might give you an idea of what to expect.

There is a Stephen King feel to McMahon’s book, particularly near the end. The story spans over a century, and refers to several mysterious deaths over the years, but McMahon keeps her focus tight and intimate. There is Sara in 1908, who has grown up hearing tales of sleepers in the woods from her Auntie who practices dark magic. When Sara’s daughter Gertie dies, Sara’s desire to be reunited with her leads to mysterious knocks in the night and notes in childish handwriting suggesting Gertie had been murdered.

The story switches between Sara’s story and the present day, with sisters Ruthie and Fawn living in the house Sara used to live. When their mother goes missing, their search for answers leads them to discover Sara’s story and realize that the tales of sleepers in the woods may be real after all. Also in the present day is Katherine, who discovers her husband met with a mysterious woman before he died, and her investigation into the last day of his life leads her to Ruthie and Fawn, and to Sara’s story.

It’s a scary book, though the supernatural elements weren’t quite explored enough to haunt the reader past the last page. The reveal about Gertie’s murderer mostly just confused me, and I had to flip back to see what I’d missed, and with regard to the ending, a couple of the characters appear far too easily accepting of their fates. Overall, it’s a good weekend read, an atmospheric, creepy tale that I can easily imagine being adapted for screen.

Thank you to Random House Canada for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Logo

You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s


text:
Dream-House Jesus

If the sactified, soon-to-be-beatified corpse of Pope John Paul II isn’t cute and cuddly enough for you, the Beverly Hills Teddy Bear Company will soon release a Barbie-sized doll of Jesus “Son of God, Bee-Yotch!” Christ that not only takes the image of the Christian Messiah, but will also quote Scripture at the push of a button:

Also part of the series are Barbie-size Moses, David and Virgin Mary dolls, being developed by the Beverly Hills Teddy Bear Co. in Valencia, which already markets a teddy bear that sings “Jesus Loves Me.”

“It’s been on my heart to do these for at least three or four years,” said the company’s founder and executive officer David Socha. “We are targeting the inspirational market, to do good things for children, something that adds to their quality of life and doesn’t corrupt their minds. Our company has always created very conservative products.”

I can’t help but think of some unintended consequences of this approach. For instance: how long will Mary remain a Virgin? Everyone I know who had dolls or “action figures” wound up at some point making little orgies with them. Will Mary and Esther wind up consumating a forbidden love together? Will Jesus take up with that hussy Barbie in her famed Malibu Beach House of Sin? Or will he go the other way and cruise WeHo with Ken?

Maybe none of the above. Perhaps doll-Jesus will convince Barb and the rest to give up their wicked ways and come to the Lord. Time will tell.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s


text:
this weekend...

It has been a long old week for me.  Running around, ferrying my kids to something or other. Doctors appointments.  Checking in with family.  Exercising (more about this another time).  I am cream crackered!  You know when the alarm goes off in the morning and just for a second you race through your mind thinking, is it Saturday?  Only to find it isn't.  Yes, it's happened to me every day this week.  Ah well, tomorrow is Saturday! YEAH!

This weekend...
* I am off on a trip to London to see some lovely friends.  Shopping, eating and chatting - more on this later.
* Visiting Lambs Conduit and a shop in this store.
* Sunday - wild time.  Hopefully hanging with some blogging babes in the woods.

Two days of contrast.  I can't wait to get back to London, it's been too long.
Have a great weekend!
Don't forget to enter the Paper & Clay giveaway - ends Saturday at Midnight.


text:
Chocolate Cheesecake Monkey Bread

Monkey Bread is truly a delicious and fun way to indulge. I simply love this chocolate cheesecake version. It sits on the counter and as anyone passes by, a piece gets picked off and it’s gone in no time. Best of all, it’s super easy to make.

You will need:

2 packages of Pillsbury Biscuits dough

1 package of cream cheese

3/4 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips

3/4 cup of white sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup margarine

Bundt Pan

optional: 1/2 cup skor bits, nuts or raisins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Start by separating the pillsbury biscuit dough into the packaged sections (10 per package), then slice those in half. You should end up with 40 pieces.

Cube the cream cheese into equal number of pieces to dough pieces

Flatten out doug piece in small circle (like a tiny pizza crust) and place a piece of cream cheese and a few chocolate chips in the middle.

Fold up the sides enclosing the cream cheese and chocolate inside the dough. You should end up with a little dough ball. Repeat this with all the dough pieces.

In a freezer bag or large bowl, mix together white sugar and cinnamon. Place dough balls into sugar mixture and coat evenly. I like to use the freezer bag method as i can shake the coating on quickly. Set aside for moment.

If you are not using a non-stick bundt pan you will want to coat your pan with grease, oil or butter.  Place optional ingredients in bottom of pan. I used skor pieces. Place each of the sugar coated dough balls into the pan. This doesn’t need to be fancy, just throw it all in evenly around the pan.

In a separate microwavable bowl, mix together brown sugar and margarine.  Microwave for 45 seconds, or until the margarine has melted.  Give the mixture a good stir once out of the microwave. Alternatively, you can melt mixture in a saucepan on the stove.

Pour the mixture all over top of the dough pieces in the bundt pan.

Bake in oven for 35 minutes at 350 degrees F.

After baking, let cool in pan for 10 to 15 minutes, then turn pan upside down onto a serving plate.

Stand back and admire your creation.

Do not slice cake! The pieces pull apart.  Enjoy and Bon Appetite!


text:
Electric Muscle Stimulation Training

Have you ever heard of EMS (Electric Muscle Stimulation) training?

Well the guys over at Exerceo Training got me suited up for an EMS workout and taught me all about it.

Meet your trainer

Nooroa at Excerceo was energetic and professional. He’ll seek your goals, learn your weaknesses and strengthen them. The session can be as intense as you like but he does have a way of coxing you into more, making sure you get the most out of your workout.

Suit up

Your workout gear involves an EMS vest, trousers and sleeves around your biceps and calves.

All you need to bring to your session is a pair of trainers. No need to lug around a massive gym bag.

First you’re asked to define the intensity of the electrical sensation… Nooroa plays with the nobs on the EMS unit and it sort of feels like you’re taking part in a mad scientist’s experiment…

Once you find the intensity that suits you and suits your goals, you’re off! The workout I took part in was full body – targeting a variety of upper body, lower body and core focused exercises. Nooroa leads the way and fits in a series of short breaks.

As soon as you get used to the electric stimulation sensation, it feels strange when you have a break and your muscles go back to their normal state… and right when that happens – bam, you’re back on again – muscles begin to contract and your break is officially over.

A workout with Exerceo will span 25 minutes – so it’s a perfect way to fit in a full body workout when you’re time is limited. You definitely leave knowing you’ll be sore the next day… and the day after. When you’re looking for results, this is the best feeling.

so how does ems work?

The electrical impulses are generated by the EMS unit and delivered through electrodes which sit near target muscles areas. The impulses cause your muscles to contract, simulating a natural contraction stimulated by the brain.

The concept of EMS isn’t new, it has been around in the world of rehabilitation and recovery for many years… What is relatively new (or at least newly accepted) is the concept of using EMS for training and toning.

For EMS recovery and rehabilitation, the EMS unit creates a comfortable tingling sensation. For EMS training, the electrical sensation is more pronounced as it demands more from your muscles.

EMS training is currently more widely accepted in European countries than North American.

EMS Training

Dependent on your goals, this can mean many things: injury prevention and/or recovery, performance training working with fast twitch muscle fibres, strength training without the heavy load on your joints, fitting in a full body workout when you are tight for time etc… there are many reasons to give it a try.

Exerceo give a free trial for your first go – if you’re in London check them out!  IMG_0030

Respond to Electric Muscle Stimulation Training

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s


text:
Dynamic Date Offers

Dynamic Date Offers

Here at Local Fresh we build a lot of paid search landing pages and offers. When creating offers one of our objectives is to create a sense of urgency. Offers that make it clear to prospects that they need to act soon will convert more effectively than those with no specific expiration date.

Here’s an example; Dental patient searches Google for “Dentist in Yourtown” and finds our client’s offer for a Free Dental Exam & X-Rays (with paid cleaning). They click on the ad and go to our client’s free dental exam landing page. The offer includes our dynamic date so the offer states that it expires tomorrow.

If the prospect does not take action and then click on the ad again tomorrow, when they return to the landing page they will see that the offer now expires on the next day. This makes our offer landing page more efficient, effective and flexible.

So, we use a WordPress Plugin called Dynamic Dates to enable the expiration date on many of our offers to update daily and automatically to tomorrow’s date.

The benefits of these Dynamic Date Offers include:

  1. Efficient – You don’t have to do anything or remember that expiration dates need to be updated.
  2. Effective – The expiration date encourages higher conversion rates on paid search offers.
  3. Flexible – If Client wishes to modify or delete any offer, there is no future expiration date about which to be concerned since every offer is subject to expiration the next day!

Leave a reply

Contact Us Today!


WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: application/xhtml+xml

text:
Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Riding With LSP

Do you, so-called LSP, remember how to ride? To find out I went to the Heart ranch and made friends with Trace, again. And I tell you this.

Riding is good for mind, body and spirit and, in the bucolic Mesquite groves of Olde Texas, especially awesome.

Beat the Jihad.

Ride on,

LL said...

It's important to connect with things that are real. It brings solace.

Jules said...

What a wonderful way to spend the day!

LSP said...

It was right on, Jules.

LSP said...

LL, I totally agree. Riding's good all 'round.


text:
Protein & Carbs – How Much Should I Be Eating?

There is a lot of confusion about how much protein and carbohydrates to eat.

According to the Harvard School of Public Health adults should get a minimum of .8 grams of protein for every kilogram of body weight per day. That’s about 64 grams for a 160 pound adult.

In the U.S. adults get an average of 15 percent of their calories from protein. Replacing the sugar in our diets that we get from refined carbohydrates such as white bread or drinks filled with sugar by increasing our protein intake to 20 to 25 percent could actually reduce the risk of heart disease.

And if your taking that amount of sugar out of your diet. Can you imagine what it will do for your waistline?

Good sources of protein include chicken, fish, eggs and lean meat.

Carbohydrates. Wow! What a bad rap this food group has gotten.

Man cannot not live a healthy lifestyle without carbs! So how much?

The AMDR (Acceptable Micronutrient Distribution Range- amount that the FDA considers healthful) is 45 to 65 percent of total calories.

Before you get all excited about this know that we are not talking about foods that have added sugars.

The carbohydrates you should be eating are fiber-rich fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

For more Health and Fitness information please visit our ongoing blog at

Tags: , ,

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this:


text:
Thursday, October 29, 2015

Day 29: Toil & Trouble ATC by Kim!

Welcome back to Lost Coast Portal to Creativity where Lost Coast Designs and Carmen's Veranda collide to bring you twice the inspiration and double the fun!

Only 2 more sleeps until Halloween!  Woohooo!
We are now in the final week of our 31 Days of Halloween blog hop hosted by Smeared Ink!  If you joined the hop from the beginning then you got here from DominoART and your next stop is Susan.  If you just popped in to visit us today and want to join the fun then the blog roll is over there in the right sidebar!  For more info about this hop and how to win prizes see Terra's blog.

Carmen's Veranda is proudly sponsoring Smeared Ink's Scavenger Hunt prize today! You can win a $10 spending spree to Lost Coast Designs and Carmen's Veranda!
Good Luck!

pssst...we are having a World of Borders sale!
Various borders up for grabs, some for as little as a $1!

LCDesigner Kim is back today to share another one of her spooktacular creations!  This time Kim is getting you thoroughly inspired to enter our Day of the Dead contest starting Oct 31 with her Sugar Skull ATC featuring stamps from Carmen's Veranda!
Happy Skull
Flying Skull
Grunge White Swirl
Grunge Black Swirl
Lost Coast Designs - Murder of Crows
On top of all the fabulous daily blog hop Scavenger Hunt prizes up for grabs don't forget you can also enter your spooky projects in our Lost Coast Portal to Creativity activities too!  We currently have our BOO! Halloween linky party and our first Facebook Pages Challenge for you to enter with 2 upcoming contests as well, Day of the Dead and A Carmen's Veranda Christmas!  Continue reading for all the details!

When the 31 Days of Halloween hop ends our celebrations continue through to Nov 15 with our Dia de los Muertes - Day of the Dead Contest!
grab our badge and spread the word!
Dia de los Muertes is celebrated Oct 31 through to Nov 2 so we will continue with our daily offerings until Nov 2 and we invite you to enter all your fabulous Day of the Dead projects by Nov 15 for the chance to win a $15 spending spree to LCD/CV!

Enter your spooktacular creations in BOO! our linky party HERE to
win a $15 spending spree to LCD/CV!
Enter our LCD/CV Facebook Pages Challenge at Lost Coast Designs and Carmen's Veranda
Click on over, read the pinned posts and enter
Challenge #1 Something Wicked this Way Comes!
win a $15 spending spree to LCD/CV!
Upcoming is our A Carmen's Christmas contest so I hope you've become a follower of Lost Coast Portal to Creativity and will continue to visit us and stay to play ;0)
 Please make sure you read the rules pertinent to each event to ensure your entries qualify to win!

Thank you for hopping with us today, see you again tomorrow!
look who is here to hide and cause mischief...quick go let T&T know you spotted their rascal here today for Day 29!
Leigh S-B
LCD/CV DT Leader

  1. How awesome does that white image look on the black background, and then it really pops on that beautiful orange background!

  2. Such a happy little guy and he looks so fab on the gorgeous bright background. xxD

  3. This is a fab ATC--love the background!

  4. Brilliant images and love the hint of pink and "toil of trouble"

  5. hahahaha this is fabulous made me smile. :)

  6. Wonderful ATC, great images and background!

  7. Spectacular characters - that white really does them justice!

  8. Love this Kim, he looks awesome

  9. Fun chalkboard look and great combination of images.
    Such exciting events coming up for the rest of the year!

  10. Love the images1 Great background colour!

  11. Thanks everyone for the awesome comments! I love this skele dude, so fun. Happy Almost Halloween!~kim

Thank you for playing with us at Lost Coast Portal to Creativity! We appreciate your visit and your comments!


text:
Why Do You Homeschool?

I was asked recently. And of course I have asked myself regularly too.

The reasons are complex. My thinking started one way, but it has kind of moved in another direction. I started out in avoidance style thinking. Have you seen that school? Seriously! In other schools I’ve looked at, LE would never stop looking at the walls! He is so aware of things happening around him, he would never be able to concentrate in that environment. Basically, it was lots of negative things about schools in general.

But then – things changed… I started doing it for positive reasons. I get to see those moments when they figure out something and I won’t be giving those moments to someone else. We have time for family and holidays whenever we want to, not just school holidays. (Well, almost.) I like that I won’t have to get up in the morning and rush them up and out the door. I won’t have to pack lunches, at least not everyday – that are acceptable socially to a bunch of children for whom nutrition is a foriegn language. I enjoy having my morning coffee while we figure out what to do for the day. My baby likes that he doesn’t need to be woken up from his nap to get my oldest from kindy.

LE and A are lucky to be able to explore topics that interest them in the order that they interest them, instead of having to wait for next lesson/week/year/whatever. They can progress at their own pace, even if their strengths are much more advanced than their weaknesses.

But the number one reason is because its working for us.

Right now, this is working. It might not work for everyone, it might not work forever, but my philosophy is very pragmatic. We take it as it comes, and will I enjoy it while it lasts.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this:


text:
Little Rock Culture Vulture

Cultural events, places and people in the Little Rock area

Black History Month – Maya Angelou and Robinson Center

1414mayaOn February 23, 1998, Maya Angelou appeared with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra in a concert at Robinson Center.  The evening featured Dr. Angelou narrating Joseph Schwantner’s tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “New Morning for the World.”

Dr. Angelou, a former resident of Stamps, Arkansas, was not a stranger to Little Rock. She had appeared before at Wildwood Park and would later appear at the Clinton Presidential Center.

A former Poet Laureate of the United States and Tony nominated actor, she won a Grammy Award for her reading of “On the Pulse of the Morning” which had been written for the first inauguration of Bill Clinton as President of the United States.

A poet, author, educator, dancer, singer, actor, and activist, she wrote seven autobiographies. The most notable was arguably I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.  Born in St. Louis, she spent part of her childhood in Arkansas before moving to California.  She led a peripatetic life both geographically and career-wise ending as a professor at Wake Forest and residing in North Carolina.  It was there that she died in May 2014.

Author: Scott

A cultural thinker with a life long interest in the arts and humanities: theatre, music, architecture, photography, history, urban planning, etc.

Comments are closed.


text:
Mathieu can remain student at LSU

ESPN reported earlier Monday that Tyrann Mathieu is considering an option of returning to LSU and serving a one-year suspension before seeking reinstatement to the football team.
According to LSU officials, Mathieu can enroll as a student when classes begin next week. School officials would not comment on the possibility of Mathieu rejoining the football program. LSU Director of Athletics Joe Alleva said last Friday that Mathieu has lost his scholarship.
No one connected with the university has confirmed that Mathieu's dismissal pertained to a third violation of the athletic department drug policy. However, it is widely believed that another violation of the LSU Athletic Department Substance Abuse Policy resulted in Mathieu's removal from the team.
Mathieu was suspended from last year's Auburn game due to, reportedly, a second violation of the drug policy. According to the school policy, an athlete would meet with the Athletic Department Assistance Program (ADAP) staff psychologist or associated medical services for evaluation and a course of action.
After a second violation, the athlete is subject to unannounced testing at an increased frequency at the discretion of the Drug Prevention Coordinator. The athlete must follow the prescribed treatment program and is responsible for the cost of any missed appointments.
If a test reveals the existence of drugs after an eight-week period, the athlete will receive an additional violation of the Substance Abuse Policy. Failure to successfully complete the recommended treatment will result in the loss of scholarship and participation as an athlete.
According to LSU's Substance Abuse Policy, a third violation will result in up to a one-year suspension from all athletic-related activities. Reinstatement after the one-year period is with the support of the ADAP treatment team and the Director of Athletics.
If the Administrative Voting Committee - Director of Athletics, Associate Athletic Director, ADAP Administrator, Drug Prevention Coordinator and head trainer - allows an athlete to return to the team, the restoration will be based upon full compliance of all athletic department rules.
The committee may impose conditions for reinstatement that are binding in order for the athlete to be given full eligibility. The athlete would be routinely tested. If there is a positive test at any time, the athlete would become permanently ineligible at LSU.
Discuss this story with other LSU fans


text:
Recording project

I am excited to announce that I will be recording my very first CD this summer with organist Mark Swinton. The main work will be Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending, the piece which first inspired our collaboration when we were still students at the University of York and which we have included in every concert we have given together. Although it is originally for violin and orchestra it works very well in this version too, with the organ able to imitate the sustained sounds of the strings and create interesting colours throughout the score.

As we are combining the violin with the organ and the latter is primarily associated with the church, the rest of our programme consists of music written for or inspired by christianity, from 17th-century Biber’s Mystery sonatas to William Lloyd Webber’s Benedictus, first performed on the occasion of his own wedding in 1942.

We will be recording during August in St Mary’s Collegiate Church in Warwick. Release date to be announced.


text:
Another poem

My friend, I’ve made it,
sorry for the wait,
it’s a long way
up the narrow stairs to your room
from the night outside with no moon,
so intelligent and lonely we are,
I’m happy to see you.

And you, you’re a reflection
in the open window.
I’m wide-eyed
and I can’t shut up.
God, it’s so easy
to lose it all in this place.

There’s no more sleep left.
I grow thin
in the green light,
so we have bagels from the dumpster
on a cellophane blue plate,
with cream cheese and
gobs of fresh strawberry jam.

The old wood floor sways, under you,
then the fiddle, then the blues.
A quick swig of whiskey, and
from somewhere far off the 3am faint
smell of cigarette smoke.

Hey, what do you say,
let’s go for a drive.
I’m not bluffing, and you’re not shy,
just lettin’ the buzz go by,
just losing time again.

Listen, I’m starting to really like those trees
outside your window, and

rumor has it, the sun sets real low
over the west coast.
But while these folks are sleeping
huge stars are spinning,
and by daybreak,
we’re well on our way
sober and stumbling.

-Lulu Liu

I wrote this for my junior lab partner. Spent a lot of late nights with this guy.

4 thoughts on “Another poem

  1. Daniel says:

    hey lulu, it’s daniel, the guy you showed around mit one summer. just wanted to say how much i like this poem — it’s so.. real

  2. larisaberger says:

    is this after john wieners? The third-to-last stanza makes me think so..

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Logo

You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this:


text:
User: Password:
Subscribe / Log in / New account

Did they read it?

Did they read it?

Posted May 28, 2004 14:27 UTC (Fri) by mmarsh (subscriber, #17029)
Parent article: Did they read it?

I'm amazed at some of the other uses they mention on the "About Us" page:

"A student applying for jobs who wants to know if employers are reading her e-mails." This will probably get your resume thrown in the trash if the potential employer realizes you're doing it.

"A business owner who had made an offer to sell a piece of property. He used DidTheyReadIt to track how often the recipient had read his message, and how long the message had been read for. DidTheyReadIt also showed that the message had been forwarded to a law firm." That last part might be grounds for a lawsuit, and the whole thing smacks of industrial espionage and unfair trade practices.

(Log in to post comments)

Copyright © 2017, Eklektix, Inc.
Comments and public postings are copyrighted by their creators.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds


text:
At The Hospital & Then Going Home

Mark was there then, he’s always been there for me.  I love you more than words can express.

When the brave rescue team got down to where I was, I thought that they were going to have to use a Jaws Of Life to pull me out of my car.  Luckily, that wasn’t the case but I do wonder if the best procedures were followed in getting me out of there?  Initially, my two rescuers came to my aid and specifically told me NOT to move my head or neck. They did not know the severity of my injuries but when the team came down, they simply opened my driver’s door and told me to lift my feet over and onto the ground and try to stand up on my own.  I knew that my legs were still capable of moving, so I did just that.  I painfully got out of my seat and stood up right next to my car.  I was still pretty disoriented but I quickly noticed how torn up the top of my car’s roof was.  After waiting there on my feet for probably 5 to 10 minutes, they laid me down on a stretcher and began the process of getting me up the mountain.

This is what I saw after I was asked to get out of my Honda.

When I arrived at the hospital, I was immediately placed on the ICU floor and I could hear them use male pronouns when talking about me.  Even then, it was painful for me to hear them but that is what they saw.  Initially, while I was being cared for in critical condition, my two nurses were very kind and polite.  That quickly changed however when my doctor came into the room along with other hospital staff.  I just felt like if I were to allow them to operate on me, I would not make it out alive and at best would have been left a vegetable.  My doctor did not seem to care about my well-being but in getting himself another patient to practice on.  He told me that my injuries were going to require for me to have surgery sooner or later, there was simply no way around it.

By January 3rd, four days after being admitted to El Paso University Medical Center, I was upgraded from critical to stable condition and was moved up to another room.  Doctors and nurses were no doubt informed about the trans freak show that was on their floor. Mark had let the hospital staff know that he too was trans and that he was born female. This, no doubt, I am sure made for an unusual amount of people who would peer into my room and gawk.  The nurses were all very awkward when it came to dealing with me and would always use male pronouns when addressing me.  Mark was always quick to respond by using female pronouns when speaking about me whenever he conversed with them.  It was around that time that I had the strength enough to lift my right arm and noticed that on my wristband they had me down as male.  Even though my license and other documents were female, they had listed me as male.  Upon noticing it, I asked Mark to let them know that I wanted it changed.

The view from my hospital room in El Paso, Texas.
Mark actually slept in this make-shift bed for almost a week.

The transphobia was no more evident than when another doctor along with a woman from the hospital staff came into my room and tried to encourage me to take the surgery option. This Latino doctor and this Latina woman came in addressing me as sir this and that.  Mark was in overdrive trying to correct them from misgendering me but they kept right on.  Mark was sick of it, so he stopped the doctor and interrupted him by saying, “we are transgender sir, please use the correct pronouns when addressing Lynna, she is a transwoman and she goes by female pronouns”.  He was caught aback but after Mark said that, he granted me the courtesy and addressed me properly.

This is pretty much all I did that week, I was so helpless.

We could not wait to get out of there, all we needed to wait for was that clamshell brace to arrive and for me to practice putting it on and we could check out of there.  I won’t forget just how painful they made it to put that thing on when it did arrive.  I hated wearing it too from day one.  First of all, initially it took like four or five people to have me get it on.  It was so stiff and unforgiving and actually exacerbated the pain in my neck even worse.  I felt like it clamped my head in this awkward position and just kept it there.  I knew that I had to wear it though and prove to them that I was getting better.

Before I could leave, I had to show the doctor that I was getting better.

After they placed it on me, I felt so restricted and immobile and they expected me to get up and walk with this thing on?   At first, I thought that it was going to be impossible but not long later, I had successfully walked around the hospital hallways a couple of times, with the help of a couple of occupational therapists.  Mark could not wait to get out of there because he knew that I was not going to get any better by being in a hospital and lying down in my bed.  We were so relieved when we got the news that we were going to be able to check out soon and go home.  Kelly Winters arrived the next day and she gave Mark and I a ride to Silver City, where Mark was living.

This is us with another angel and friend, Tyler.  He also married us, six months later.

The thing is that we had no place to stay.  Mark lived in an RV and he knew that I was not in any shape to navigate the steps up into it.  What were we to do?  Mark called around and one of his friends, an LGBT-friendly pastor , Tyler Connely, helped us out.  He somehow got Millie’s Assisted Living Facility in Silver City to take us in.  I will never forget the moment that I made it outside of the hospital, I was so grateful to be outside for the first time since my accident and I was very grateful for Tyler.  I had to wear that cumbersome and painful brace and when Kelly drove up in her car and I tried to get into it, I almost fell back.  I could not bend my upper body so they had to carefully slide me in.  Then there was the drive, oh gosh, I felt every single bump and dip.  Mark was sitting in the back seat and he was cradling my head as Kelly drove.  I am sure that he must’ve gotten tired of doing that but it was just one of the many ways that he was taking care of me.

These people at Millie’s were all so very sweet to me.

We got to Silver City just as the sun was going down and I was exhausted from being in the brace and in the car for so long.  I could not help but think of my accident and the PTSD that I felt as we drove through New Mexico and up into the mountains.  Thankfully, there were no treacherous mountain passes to navigate around. Initially we could not find the place but eventually  we pulled into Millie’s.  I breathed a sigh of relief and Mark opened the door to get me out.  The staff had a wheelchair for me to get into and after greeting some of the wonderful women who worked there, they showed me to my room.  It was small room with a bed that was able to adjust, with a mounted tv and a sink.  It had a recliner and that was where Mark ended up sleeping on for the three days that we were there.  The restrooms were community ones and I think that I used it once to shower. They were so kind to me, the staff were so genuine and sweet to both of  us, along with the people who were living there.  They were gracious enough to feed us too, breakfast, lunch and dinner.  We joined the rest of the people for a meal around a big table and let me tell you, that was quite the experience.  I remember at first that I could not even lift a spoon up to my mouth.  Mark fed me and helped me to drink, I was really helpless initially.  It was going to be a while until I would be able to do anything on my own.

My room at Millie’s and that awful brace.

One moment that I know that Mark remembers quite well was either the second or third day at the assisted living home.  We were in the room and he was wanting me to get up so that he could put the brace on so that we could go eat dinner.  I was able to roll over on my side and he helped me up but as he left me there for a second, I attempted to get up and then passed out in the process.  I don’t remember what all happened but apparently, I just lost it, my eyes rolled to the back of my head and I nearly clobbered the back wall next to the bed.  It was at that moment that he thought to himself that maybe that in taking me on, he had possibly bitten off more than he could chew?  He got me back to consciousness but it left a real impression on him.  He got me ready to go anyways and we climbed right over that obstacle and went to dinner that night.

By the third day, we were needing to come up with long-term solutions to where I would stay.  Mille’s had been generous but they had never had options to allow me to stay longer than a few days and so Mark was trying to find a place for us to go to.  I needed a place that was handicap accessible and in a town of 10,000, there just were not that many options for us.  He found a motel that might fit the bill but about that time a highway patrol officer showed up.  He was the officer who had been at the scene of the accident back on December 31st.  He wanted to ask me some questions about the incident and he wanted to know a few things about my condition the night of my accident.

I told him that I drove too far and for far too long.  I told him that I had broken headlight and my visibility was not the best.  He said that my car had launched itself off the highway and impacted a tree head-on.  My front license plate had been found embedded into that same tree and my car had flipped over several times before it came to rest at the bottom of the mountainside 500 feet below the roadside.  He said that because of the nature of my accident that I was being given a ticket for reckless driving.  Mark and I were incredulous upon hearing him say that he was going to give me a ticket.  He pleaded with the officer and asked him if he could forego the ticket but the officer said that he had to do it.  Had I not been through enough?  This ticket was like adding insult to injury for sure.  I reassured me and said that it was not going to be so bad.  I had a real chance of potentially going to jail and/or having to pay a fine on top of the broken neck to recover from.  We just smiled and said thanks and chocked it up to another mountain that we had to climb ourselves out of.

Silver City & Radiator Springs are so similar!

Silver City is known for the natural beauty, the climate, the terrain.  You go from desert to mountain pines in a 10-minute drive.  Hmm, just like Radiator Springs!

Mark did find a place and it was a couple of miles down the street and it was called The Drifter Motel.  I was a drifter alright and this town seemed like a real-life version of Radiator Springs from the Disney animated movie “Cars”.  I loved that movie and now I was living in Radiator Springs myself.  We packed up my things and we made our way over to our new home for the next month.  This room was pretty barebones too but it did have its own handicap shower.  It also included a TV and a microwave.  We had a couple of chairs and I think a table, maybe not.  Like I said before, I don’t really have a really great memory of that first month.  I do remember the hate that I received though, that is something that I can’t forget.

The Drifter was our month-long home.
Mark cooked all of our meals using a rice cooker and microwave but that didn’t mean that we didn’t eat well, we did!
This was our second article that the local newspaper had about our ordeal.

During the time that we were in the hospital, a local newspaper reporter came to the assisted living facility to do a follow-up story on Mark and I.  When it went online on their website, I started to look at the comments that people were leaving.  I have never seen so much hate?  People who did not even know me, were randomly leaving hateful and hurtful messages that no one should ever have to hear. I think that this is what made me so defensive for so long.  I mean, there were old friends and family who were just being rude, mean, inappropriate and hurtful towards me.  I was still trying to recover from the pain that I was dealing with and I had to put up with all of this.  It was awful.

My head cradled itself in the arch of that far right triangle.  Had my head been positioned left of that, I would have been killed.
As you can see, I did not have much head room left.

After being settled for a week in our hotel room, we got news that my Honda had been brought to a local junk yard and was ready for us to take a look at it.  I still had so many things of mine inside that SUV and I did not know what was left?  Mark rented a van and we made our way to take a look and when we got there I was amazed at how packed my SUV still was.  I wanted all of it and Mark just wanted me to leave it all behind.  I think that this is when we had our first disagreement because he just got so annoyed that I had all of this stuff and that I wanted him to get it all out and into the van.  We would not have room for any of it in the hotel room and we ended up getting a storage locker in order to store it all.  Hectic and crazy times no doubt.

7 thoughts on “At The Hospital & Then Going Home

  1. After reading your post, i am soo angry that i could spit not at the trash who posted such horrible comments to you they are simply that…………..trash but at the doctors and medical care givers who are in their field to help make other lives better, to ease pain and suffering not to make it worse and certainly not to make judgement calls. This is yet another reason for me to stay away from Texas. You and Mark are soo brave, true heroes. i find myself crying for you but at the same time i am in awe of you. ((((((((((((((((hug)))))))))))).

    Liked by 1 person

  2. I used to really struggle with the guilt that they projected at me, especially over my kids. It has taken me a couple of years to grow past that. Haters are gonna hate, it will impact them more than me in the end. Thanks for your encouraging word, we appreciate you so much 🙂 ❤

  3. You struggled with ptojection? Wasn’t it you who chose to meet a possible love interest, thousands of miles away when you are about to have one of the most important court dates of all time about your life with your kids, within days? You made your choice to not fight to see them, or even represent yourself regarding your kids. You chose to drive away for a new love interest with a person you never met yet. All that time before with your kids, and yet you chose a new possible relationship that you could not wait just a few days to start. No one forced you to drive out on that day. Couldn’t it have waited 2-3 days? That is the reality. It was your decision with your life in regards to your kids, to drive away to a complete stranger. Any guilt you have is your own, own it. Stop blaming others for your life decisions and any consequences that remain.

    1. I had every intention to be with my kids that very week but my ex blocked that from even happening. The children had all indicated that they wanted to see me and I had made plans to make it possible to finally see them as well. I had reached out to clients down in Tennessee and had been scheduled to work both in Memphis and in Nashville during that time. I had not signed a lease up in Minnesota because I knew that I was not going to stay there. I had most of my things in storage and I was making plans to fight for them.

      You are wrong about the “important” court date in January because it would have meant something had my ex not filed to remove the children’s attorney. My lawyer contacted me and told me that it would not be necessary to be at what had now become a non-essential meeting. She said that she was sorry that my ex had taken this route but that she would continue to do whatever we needed to do and she would get back in touch with me when an important date for the court hearing would be set.

      My hopes had been crushed yet again and I did not know what to do. I have always been a very emotional and spontaneous person and when things went well over the phone with Mark, I felt as if it was something that I should pursue. Yes, he was a stranger at first but this stranger welcomed me more than my family. He was very kind to me and I was very vulnerable at that time.

      I find it amazing that you, after reading this honest account would just tell me to accept responsibility and not blame others? Really? Where is your humanity, what in the world does it take or you to show the tiniest bit of compassion? I have no guilt anymore Anonymous, none whatsoever. So you can hurl accusations all that you want but the fact is that I was left for dead by everyone but Mark and if I had to do it all over again, I would do the same thing. Love comes rarely and I found true unconditional love in Mark.

    1. That’s it? You accuse and then follow up with that? What is your purpose for saying anything if you do not have all of the facts? Why not just ask me instead, rather than constantly attack me? Again, why do you comment here, this blog is not even read by that many people? Do you have any answers?

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Logo

You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s


text:
Those Tebow commercials

It's midway through the first quarter of Super Bowl XLIV, and time for a break in the action. There's a spot for Snickers that's good for a laugh, the kind that distracts you briefly as the next commercial begins.

If you're like me, you see an unfamiliar woman on the screen with a white background, but you're really still thinking about that Snickers ad.

Then, about 12-15 seconds into it, you realize: Hey, this must be Pam Tebow, talking about her son Tim, the Florida quarterback, in the much-ballyhooed Focus on the Family commercial. About that time a flying form knocks Pam Tebow out of view ... until mother and son re-emerge with a lighthearted, harmless joke.

If you're like me, and you never saw it or missed most of it, try this:

The final shot simply gives the Focus online site and encourages viewers to go there.

That's it. All that controversy, and at least $2.5 million, for what? An ad that, for many unprepared viewers, surely got lost in the shuffle, not to mention being overshadowed by Snickers.

Didn't even see the pregame ad, which didn't include the flying tackle. Here it is:

But hey, the game was worth watching.

Add a comment

Clicky Quantcast


text:
Music » Reverb

Music news and gossip

Tommy Gallaghers Incredible Friends are entirely credible.
  • Tommy Gallaghers Incredible Friends are entirely credible.

So, upon completion of this week's issue, it will have been a full year of you all having to decipher my incoherent and tense-confused rants and rambles, and I think now would be as good a time as any for a bit of collective "scene" reflection. Take a moment.

See, it could be worse. It has been worse, and it seems to be getting better. All the time. Get-ting-so-much-bet-ter ... ah, crud. You can blame my dad for that!

But it really is getting better. Even the quality of bar bands is simply stellar. Tommy Gallagher's Incredible Friends will be performing tonight (Thursday, July 31) at Southside Johnny's, and I've got to admit, Tommy Gallagher, in addition to being a fairly impressive performer and songwriter, has some pretty incredible friends.

First, he's got his buddy, the guitar virtuoso Michael Reese (Los Angeles Music Awards '95 "Guitarist of the Year"), on guitar and vocals. Then his pal Kim Stone, from Spyro Gyra and the Rippingtons, jumping in on bass and vocals. And then, if that wasn't enough, his comrade Lenny Campanaro, who has hit the drums for both Badfinger and Iron Butterfly, will be keeping the beat going strong all night long.

Incidentally, I baby-sat Lenny's kids a few times a dozen years or so ago, and still to this day, whenever I need to sound cooler than I really am, I tell people, "You know, I used to baby-sit for the drummer of Badfinger and Iron Butterfly." It totally blows their minds.

Speaking of incredible friends, I've gotten to make quite a few in the last year. I've met hundreds of musicians and bands from near to far (and not just on MySpace). I even hung out with Daniel Johnston and Kimya Dawson, and got to talk on the phone with my hero, Gogol Bordello's Eugene Hutz, for 15 minutes. But honestly, I can't think of anything more incredible than befriending the Haunted Windchimes, who have just returned home to Pueblo from their extensive national summer tour.

If you have yet to experience the mysterious allure of the Windchimes, please, for the love of God, I beseech you, make the effort to do so. Never in this life (but maybe in a past) have I heard such brilliant and authentic folk blues recorded and performed by such determined, interesting, genuine, modest and just plain nice kids. In fact, although they just covered many a mile, they will be performing a series of concerts across Low'rado, including a Colorado Culture Cast session at Smokebrush (218 W. Colorado Ave.) on Friday, Aug. 1; a couple shows at Pueblo's Downtown Bar (103 Central Plaza, Pueblo) on Saturday, Aug. 2, and Tuesday, Aug. 5 (the latter with Nashville's Happybox); and one on Monday, Aug. 4, at WeUsOur Artist's Market (10 Ruxton Ave., Manitou Springs). Finally, they'll play Alamosa's Cole Park, Sunday, Aug. 10. For more info, visit You shan't regret it.

Looking for some rockin' family fun this Saturday, Aug. 2, from noon to 4 p.m.? Then look no further than the Pikes Peak Library District's Battle of the Bands at Acacia Park. Get out there and cheer for your favorite local high school bands, and never doubt for even a moment that a battle of the bands can, and has, rocked hard enough to save the entire universe.

Wyld Stallyns rule, smell you later!

Send your hi-res photos and excellent adventures to or

Add a comment

Clicky Quantcast


text:
Share this story
Close X
Switch to Desktop Site

February 8, 2010

Image 6 of 13

One of three newborn endangered golden takin calves plays in the snow at the Zoo in Liberec, Czech Republic. The calves were born in January and joined the herd outside in their enclosure on Monday.

PHOTO: Radek Petrasek/CTK/AP

Next Image Previous Image

Image 6 of 13

About these ads


text:
Best Place to Buy Fresh Seafood

Bob's Seafood

It's no tale, ha-ha-ha, that Bob's is a great place to find the best fish and seafood in this area. Bob's, which has been in business 24 years at the Market in the Loop, deals fish and seafood to about 100 area restaurants, including the Blue Water Grill. You can find the following underwater creatures at owner Bob Mepham's itsy shop: salmon, tuna, trout, striped bass, sea bass, halibut, shark, skate, tilapia, snapper, swordfish, mahi mahi, wahoo, grouper, escolar, amberjack, cobia, black bass, flounder, sole, sturgeon, corvine, redfish, catfish, walleye, cod, crab, lobster (which you can buy live), mussels, clams, oysters, crawfish, scallops, shrimp and even some ungilled, land-based offerings, including andouille, tasso and bacon. Fresh items are couriered daily to Bob's, and the same quality available to his restaurant customers is available to his retail patrons. Looking for a particular variety of fish or seafood not commonly found in the area? Bob's can probably get it. The store also sells fish and seafood fixins: spices, breading, sauces. But if you want instructions on how to cook your selection, don't ask Bob -- chances are, he'll direct you to his wife Barb, who always has the best advice.
More Categories

More Categories

Arts & Entertainment

Food & Drink

People & Places

Sports & Recreation

Goods & Services


text:
Best Place to Rollerblade

Grant's Trail

Grant's Trail takes the things in life you take for granted, like the invention of the wheel, the wind in your hair and semi-picturesque wildlife scences with cattails and creeks, and distributes them along six paved miles. Trailnet ( paved the way for the two-lane foot-friendly path in 1994, having purchased the route three years earlier under the "Rails to Trails Act." Now the former Missouri-Pacific stretch provides south-county inline skaters with a welcome alternative to the unremitting asphalt of Gravois Avenue and Lemay Ferry Road. If the woodlands and wetlands skirting the eastern edge of Grant's Farm ain't enough to keep you on your scenic toes, the trail also cuts through some residential areas, making for decent backyard browsing.
More Categories

More Categories

Arts & Entertainment

Food & Drink

People & Places

Sports & Recreation

Goods & Services


text:
"Macro Art In Nature"

Explorations in the artistic world of macro photography.

In Photography, Can I Really Teach Someone To See?

Probably a couple of times a month, I am asked by someone who is really getting into photography to teach them to see. Sometimes they will ask for me to teach them to see the same way that I see things.
I have been confusing myself quite a bit while thinking about this, and honestly don’t know if I have the answer to that question.
Can I teach someone to see, … or possibly to see subjects out in nature the way that I see them?
Well, … maybe there is a answer after all.

So, for the past couple of days I have been thinking of the ways that I approach certain subjects out in nature.
I think that I have found myself going one step further than most when approaching a subject and in the way that I will see it, giving me a different perspective on things which also shows in my images.

Now for instance, when I approach a flower in a garden or out in nature that has caught my eye, I will ask myself “what attracted me to this flower”? This is what everyone should do of course. Ask yourself, “what is it about this flower that attracted me to it?”
Is it the stamens, the petals, the color, the texture, the throat, the contrast ….. whatever!
Now, this is where I think that I really get a handle on it all.
Let us say that I choose the stamens as what attracted me to this flower in the first place.
I look at these graceful stamens reaching up to the sky, all neatly lined up, the filaments are glowing from the back lighting, the stamen heads are full of details.
So, I simply get a perspective that is appealing for these stamens and then photograph them, … right?
Concentrate on the stamens, and everything else will fall into place, … right?
Well, ….. no!
Going a step further, I will concentrate on photographing “grace”, or “uniformity”, or maybe the “glow”.
It’s really no different than many of those well known portraits that you sometimes will see that stays in your mind forever, where the photographer did not zero in on just a person’s face that shows wrinkles, or smoothness, etc., but focused more deeply on a face that maybe shows “strength”, “weakness”, “age”, “pain”, “fear”, “happiness”, “grace”. They have focused more on the deeper character of their subject, a bit more beyond than what is normally seen, just like we should do for any subject that we photograph out in nature, or maybe in our own gardens.

So, … can I teach someone to see?
I am still not so sure, but by me trying to get a individual to open their minds up and to tune into their selected subject, to dig deeper into their own thoughts about what they are viewing at any particular moment, and in some ways to become emotional about their subject, … then maybe one can teach another to see.

Or, ….. maybe I have just confused you and myself even more! :)
Oh well, … just some thoughts for today!!

© 2004 – Michael Brown
* Copying/downloading of images is prohibited.

“Dogwood Petal”

Having a group outing scheduled for tomorrow, then back to shooting Tuesday.
Also have all new cameras coming in Monday.
Joy! :)

Everyone take care, and thanks for stopping by!

June 16, 2007 - Posted by | abstract, art, blog, botanical, canon, composition, Digital, DSLR, fauna, Fine Art Nature Photography, flora, flowers, horticulture, landscapes, life, macro, Macro Photographer, nature, Nature Photographer, outdoors, paintings, Photo Blog, photoblog, photography, photoshop | , , , , ,

  1. This is a superb post.

    Years ago as a young television journalist it was my job to train interns in shooting video. I was always amazed at those who just didn’t “get it” – as if they had no real ability to see what was in front of them. I write this not out of arrogance – in fact I must’ve done a pretty poor job teaching them to see, as you put it – but I think you can teach someone up to a certain point and then that’s it.

    Your comment about really trying to figure out what attracted you to a particular scene is dead-on, however. That strikes me as an excellent technique, for those who are not visually inclined… as well as those of us who are.

    Thanks for the insightful post – you’ve really got me thinking now!

    Comment by Christopher Scholl | June 16, 2007

  2. Here’s my lesson on how to see:
    1. Open your eyes
    2. Shut off your brain.

    Comment by Daniel Sroka | June 16, 2007

  3. As we all know we see with our brain. It depends on who/what “influenced” our brain. What do you feel when you look at that flower, animal, landscape or man. Do you see your world as one large community from which you are part of. Or are they just subjects. What do you feel?
    I think you can teach someone to see, but can you teach a person to feel. Someone taught me to see nature, but did he thaught me to love nature, to get a feeling for it…

    Comment by André | June 16, 2007

  4. I forgot something.
    A beautifull, surprising shot of the dogwood.

    Comment by André | June 16, 2007

  5. I think Daniel and Andre are on the same page really. The goal is really to train someone to let go and allow themselves to respond emotionally to what they are seeing in a fundamental way. That is, as I think Daniel is saying, forget about what the subject is in any scientific or labeling way, and respond to the things that turn you on – color, light, pattern – and to the way that you see that – graceful, quieting, peaceful, sad, happy, or just interesting. Photography is the exploration of the self as much or maybe more than an exploration of the subject. We have a “Michael”, what we want is “Daniel” and “Andre”, well and for “Paul” to be themselves.

    Comment by Paul Grecian | June 16, 2007

  6. I think if you can teach somebody to not see but recognize what they are seeing it the big thing. For one since I found this site I have been spotting wild flowers all over the place and have been looking at things in a different way. Its kind of like when you get a different looking car and then you see them everywhere. They were there before you just didn’t notice. Michael I know you can teach somebody to see because you have with me. I have found so much just in my own back yard that I really didn’t see before. I just hope I can be as big of an influence on somebody else as you have been to me keep up the good work I love your pictures they have inspired me to great heights and I plan to go much further!

    Comment by Theo | June 16, 2007

  7. Simply superb image, as usual!
    Training to ‘see’: one can teach this using many tools. One such tool I found, in my early years as a photographer, was to look at picture-books created by famous photographers, to see how they saw. This fed my imagination, inspiration. I tried taking pix along similar lines, until such time as I found my own voice and felt comfortable with it. Of course, I am continually feeding my voice by surfing the web and looking at wonderful images such as yours. I am not interested in comparing, just seeing. So, you also teach in that way, Mike!

    Comment by [jm.n] | June 17, 2007

  8. Lovely post Michael. I’ll always thank you for opening my eyes to the wonders of cramming!

    Comment by BobC | June 17, 2007

  9. We all have different vision which makes us unique. If we all saw things the same way then it would be pretty mundane.

    Teaching others to see is an interesting thought. I think that it is the vision that makes the final product and I don’t know if that can be taught because while many may have similar vision, it would still be unique to each individual influenced by their environment, experiences, and personality. Maybe teaching one to see is a way to help them to find their vision?

    This photo is truly a work of art.

    Comment by Laurie | June 17, 2007

  10. Thank you for dropping by yesterday ! Love your blog and images and will have a proper longer look and read soon !

    Comment by Michèle | June 17, 2007

  11. What’s that old saying–you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink? The same is true of photography. You can share your vision and approch through your unique style, but everyone eventually finds their own way of seeing. I’ve learned a lot from studying the work of others, yet I’m sure my approach is different, too. That’s the joy of photography – there’s room for everyone to express what they see in their own way. (*Love this shot, by the way!)

    Comment by Photo Buffet | June 17, 2007

  12. Great image, Michael! Love the detail and texture on the white and the red-green dialogue (if i can say that)and tension. And interesting ideas. I agree with you in the sense that we should go deeper in our observations of the subjects when aproaching to them. Specially trying to find what they mean to us. A sort of “find the image inside”, and then we can get an “original” point of view. I try to do that, while keep on pondering… your posts make me think :)

    Comment by Jose | June 18, 2007

  13. To me, this IS the fundamental question to anyone’s growth with their images. Forget all the technical huhah – this is the stuff that people need to spend more time on. Plenty of people already bottle and sell the technical stuff. Very few can effectively bottle up the seeing part.

    Comment by Mark | June 18, 2007

  14. Thanks again everyone!

    It has been interesting to read everyone’s thoughts on this subject, and now I will go through them again and try and wrap this up into a neat package for myself. :)

    Plenty to think about, and I want to thank everyone for their thoughts/ideas.
    I really do appreciate it!

    Comment by macroartinnature | June 19, 2007

  15. I love your work, Michael. Sometimes it’s quite enough to stop for a moment, and simply see.

    Comment by joey randall | June 29, 2007

  16. These kind of arts only handful people can appreciate.

    I have been kick by some forum for exhibiting my “NaNo” arts.

    I just felt that I am home on your site. Atleast I know Mike appreciate alots & each creation is superb!!

    Thanks for sharing.

    Comment by Charlie | July 13, 2007

  17. In Two Words: Totally Awesome!

    Comment by Nawfal Nur | July 20, 2007

  18. I love this simplicity!!

    Comment by Charlie | July 21, 2007

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.

  • Meta

  • %d bloggers like this:


text:
Thursday, 17 May 2012

The Opium War by Julia Lovell book review: Smoke and mirrors

The Opium War by Julia Lovell
Review by Anna Chen

The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.
George Orwell

With renewed calls for the West to assert its imperial might in the interest of "capitalism and democracy ... if necessary by military force " (historian and BBC Reith Lecturer Niall Ferguson), it's useful to examine one episode in Britain's history when we attempted to do so, with catastrophic results for the conquered nation.

Britain’s craving for chinoiserie in the 18th and 19th centuries resulted in a trade imbalance which threatened to empty the treasury. In order to pay for the tea, silks, spices and porcelain we liked so much, the East India Company mass-produced enormous quantities of cheap Bengal-grown opium and, along with other British merchants, sold it on to China, turning an aristocratic vice into a nationwide addiction.

The profits from the opium trade made fortunes, earned revenues for the British government, paid for the administration of the Empire in India and even financed a large slice of the cost of the Royal Navy. In 1839, when the Chinese tried to enforce their own laws and halt drug imports, the narco-capitalists persuaded Foreign Secretary Palmerston and Lord Melbourne’s government to go to war in order to protect their profits. The first military conflict — thanks to superior technology, more a series of massacres — lasting a bloody three years, resulted in the Treaty of Nanking and the transfer of territory including Hong Kong to British rule. In waging the second war (1856-60) the British finally achieved their goal of seeing opium legalised in China.

That the Chinese government might use this notoriously brutal example of British imperialism to bolster their power is little surprise. That western authors now seek to diminish British culpability and shift responsibility onto the nation that suffered the predations of drugs and war is disturbing, though probably inevitable in the current febrile atmosphere of the China-bashing seen by many western intellectuals as a substitute for informed criticism.

The latest in a string of histories reviving positive images of Empire, Julia Lovell's The Opium War is on a mission to reassess history, presumably seeking to replicate her literary agent stablemate Jung Chang's success with Mao: The Untold Story.

Lovell's argument hangs by the revisionist thread that, far from creating a market for opium, the British were only satisfying what was already there. "What had happened," she asks, "in those four decades [to 1840], to transform opium-smoking from an acceptable displacement activity for an idle emperor-in-training to a perilous scourge?" Not British traders — who were only exploiting an existing weakness, it seems — but the Chinese themselves who were gagging for it and therefore the authors of their own doom. The point that opium was an expensive luxury until the British were able to mass-produce it cheaply in India and transform the market, is buried in a welter of smoke and mirrors.

Lovell sets out to correct the Chinese government's overplayed narrative of victimhood but overbalances into a 400-page vilification of the Chinese: theirs is a response to a Western threat "supposedly" determined to contain it ("supposedly" is wide open to argument); the 150th anniversary of the first Opium War "offered a public relations gift to the government"; it is a "founding myth", a mere "border provocation". Opium is a "scapegoat" for the emperor's problems, those who opposed it "ambitious moralizers" and "ambitious literati".

The Chinese are capable of only the basest motives in their efforts to wipe out the drug that is crippling the nation, their emotional and behavioural range running the Sax Rohmer gamut of dehumanising tropes: stupid, arrogant, cowardly, lazy and pragmatic. "Perhaps they objected for Confucian, humanitarian reasons; or then again, out of indolence, maybe." Their avowed repulsion and fear of what opium can do is dismissed, individual suffering skated over and characters never humanised. I'm not sure I detected any irony in her use of that old colonialist favourite, "wily", and the drooling pages of lurid descriptions in the Yellow Peril chapter might have made room for the moving contemporary accounts of the destruction of the Summer Palace, for example, or the massacres of the Chinese which shocked even hardened British soldiers.

In contrast, although some of the inescapable truths about the British drug-dealers and perpetrators of war are acknowledged, their actions are ascribed to human feelings; they are "generous"; their inner lives are explored; their flaws are treated with understanding for they are men on a quest to better themselves against a monstrous Empire that will not give them what they want.

When the moral high ground runs out, equivalence is strained: it was "mutual incomprehension that pushed both sides towards war". "Contemporary China's line on opium transforms it into a moral poison forced on helpless Chinese innocents by wicked aliens. The reality was more troublingly collusive." Both were as bad as each other. When everyone is guilty, no one can be innocent.

The book's selectivity is irritating, ultimately undermining the story. The British who grew industrial levels of opium and sent the price plummeting, are "diligent", their supply benignly "reliable". James Matheson is described kindly as a "tough Scot" and "living under the influence of the holy spirit", but whose banishment to the wilds of Canada of 500 residents of the Isle of Lewis — which he bought and decorated with Stornoway Castle on his drug money — is overlooked in this hefty tome. Of Charles Elliot, Chief Superintendent of British Trade in China, one of the architects of the first Opium War and later first administrator of Hong Kong, she writes sympathetically that he " ... instinctively disliked the opium trade and everything bound up with it: both its moral dubiousness and its ungentlemanly profit-hungry merchants". Sentimentally, "his weakness was to see a little of everyone's side: he understood the economic imperative of the opium trade, even while he hated the vulgarity of its perpetrators; he understood that his duty was to protect the British flag in Canton, even while he detested what some of Britannia's children were doing in the China seas."

Commissioner General Lin Zexu, who destroyed 20,000 cases (each holding 140 pounds) of British opium in 1839, is presented as a bureaucrat (Niall Ferguson couldn't even bring himself to name him in his account), albeit an incorruptible one, caught between a rock and a hard place. Lovell complains that "History has been kind to Lin Zexu", although it's not difficult to see why such an incorruptible force who tried to right an injustice might be a much-needed inspiration today. Her extensive research does, however, unearth the little gem that, once Elliot had finally handed over the opium stash, Lin made a gift to him of prized roebuck meat before which he "was careful to kowtow nine times".

There are some asinine reductions: "The Ming Dynasty was brought down in 1644 by insurrections led by a postman who happened also to be a failed candidate." (Note the snobbery — how would a carpenter fare in her scheme of things?) The Taiping Rebellion with all its fascinating complexity and humane objectives (the abolition of landlordism, the redistribution of wealth for all, and the prohibition of prostitution, bound feet and the smoking of opium) is reduced to a nervous breakdown of a "provincial schoolmaster" — a movement crushed, incidentally, with the aid of the British acting in concert with the Manchu imperial army during the Opium Wars, a fact missing here, at a cost of 20 million lives over 14 years.

It's not as if the Chinese need any lessons in the part played by the rotten Qing Empire in the nation's downfall. The "disorganisation and cowardice of its own officials and armies" is already well known. There was indeed much "self-blame", "self-pity" and outright "self-loathing" during and after the conflict which is still going on, as documented ad infinitum in China, with local militias fighting where Qing armies feared to tread, such as at Sanyuanli in 1841 (also derided by the author). It was the corruption of the old empire which led to its fall in 1911 and the establishment of a republic under Sun Yatsen, and which added grist to the communist mill in trying to stamp out the remnants of the old system described so luridly by Lovell.

Reading her account is a bit like hearing a rapist declaring his innocence because his victim wore a short skirt as she walked up a dark alley. Not only were there an estimated 120 million addicts in China at the trade's peak, but national treasures were looted or destroyed, and massacres and rape perpetrated by the invading troops intent on forcing the drug on the nation. So bad was this savagery that large swathes of British public opinion clamoured against the opium-driven conflict, led by the voices of such as Richard Cobden, William Gladstone and the Chartists. But Chinese outrage is ridiculed, with no room for the possibility that they might authentically feel empathy and concern or be justified in their anger. While paying lip service to some acceptance that a crime had been committed, Lovell offsets the gravity of the injury with a running national character assassination and a downplaying of facts already known and documented.

It's difficult to relax into the rollicking story that's fighting to get out as you are constantly poked in the ear with the author's "they made us do it" mantra. Lovell is much stronger when she tells the story straight and without pro-imperialist spin, but it is largely marred by an unfortunate sneering tone which plays to a gallery of prejudice and jingoism, a Great Wall that will keep out any reader whose bigotry is not being fed. This is a shame because she has done a formidable job by laying out the story in so much riveting detail.

However, far from presenting a brave new take on the history, this is an old dish reheated, a rebranding of Empire (do we still call it the Indian "Mutiny"?). Lovell replays the excuses made in Britain at the time by the narco-capitalists and Lord Palmerston, who tried to win over a public opinion revolted by the idea of a narcotics war by playing the insult to the flag by the Chinese and the "liberating values of Free Trade" cards. To this she adds a steady poisonous drip of various distancing devices and systematic "othering" of the Chinese.

The narrative spin dehumanises the Chinese, divesting them of moral capacity while painting violent drug dealers as acting out of a higher calling, themselves passive victims of force majeur. Hence, while Elliott considers opium smuggling to be "a trade which every friend of humanity must deplore", he wants the Qing to "legalise it, because it would force the Chinese to take full responsibility for its moral dubiousness", the opium trade being the fault of the addicts and not the suppliers. Elliot has a "conscience" while Lin is merely a bureaucrat who is described from the outside in, a bundle of facts with no heart. Elliot possesses an interior landscape. His "weakness was to see a little of everyone's side". He "understood his duty was to defend the British flag in Canton" even though he "detested" what his compatriots were doing. Yet, like Lewis Carroll's Walrus, he weeps into his handkerchief over the plight of the poor oysters while scoffing the biggest ones himself when he lands the British government with the inflated £2 million bill for the confiscated opium and thereby hands them the final excuse for war.

The rest of the book similarly struggles with balance in a scattergun outpouring of distaste for nearly everything and everyone Chinese. Lovell's account of the breakdown of the Copenhagen climate summit in 2009 is ludicrously one-sided — she makes it appear that it was all China's fault, with no mention of the Danish Text stitch-up of the talks by the wealthy nations — and she has nothing to say about China's massive efforts to cut carbon emissions and combat pollution. She condemns Chinese anti-Japanese hysteria but never mentions former Prime Minister Koizumi's provocative visits to shrines of war criminals and rewritten history books. Sun Yatsen is a "chancer" who was snubbed by the head of state and that's why he brought down the Qing. Bored students obsess about their careers. Interviewees interrupt their "self-loathing" denunciations of the West with requests for job-tips and enquiries about how to get on in the land of the rising shun. Chinese don't need to indulge in self-loathing while Lovell's on the case because she can loathe for England. By the end, you are willing the poor woman to retrain in another field altogether just so she can find some peace of mind.

Perhaps it's the illustrations which tell the story best. A photograph of Akmal Shaikh, the Briton executed in China in 2009 for smuggling heroin, is juxtaposed favourably with one of an emotional protester following the US bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1999, killing three journalists — an outrage claimed by the US as an accident even though the allies had the map co-ordinates and knew where the embassy was. Those of us opposed to the death penalty argued that a prison sentence was a more humane and apt option for Shaikh, especially if he was ill as claimed. But if one picture is worth a thousand words, then the juxtaposition of these two photographs speaks volumes. The British smuggler of 4 kg of heroin into China is portrayed with sympathy while the other is not. It is a deeply flattering, almost saintly, portrait revealing the humanity of the drug-dealer, set against the ape-like rictus of the Chinese protester in the grip of a feral rage. One is humanised, the other dehumanised. One life has value, the three dead and 20 injured Chinese do not even warrant a mention anywhere. This twisted morality evoking a visceral response — empathy for us and revulsion for "them" — as employed in the use of the photographs, permeates the book.

Lovell seeks to make a case against the communist government, but her thrust replaces one orthodoxy with another. In describing the fundamental rottenness of an ossified and decadent empire (China's, not ours) she inadvertently stirs a degree of sympathy with those men and women who tried to build a better society in response to the horrors visited upon a country on its knees but who have tragically failed to avoid writing their own catalogue of misery despite doubling life-expectancy and raising 600 million out of absolute poverty. As a demolition job on the upstart rival on the global stage, this book is sure to do well among those less scholarly than the professor who will seize on this exercise in exculpation with glee.

Anna Chen wrote and narrates The Steampunk Opium Wars.

Niall Ferguson dismisses the Opium Wars

At last, someone else has done a thorough analysis here at Hidden Harmonies.

Paul Anderson said...

Excellent piece - makes me want to read the book!

Louisefeminista said...

Excellent review!!

I lurve Lovell"s view re "all bad as each other" as it is such an almighty cop-out and a total abdication of thought and analysis. But that's right-wing revision for you!!

harpymarx said...

Excellent review!! I lurve Lovell's "all as bad as one another" as it is such an almighty cop-out along with a total abdication of thought and analysis. But what can you expect from a right-wing revisionist and apologist for British imperialism....

Madam Miaow said...

She didn't actually use those words and there's lots of thought in there but it seems to be in service to an agenda that I find quite horrible. It certainly is a revision, though, and, from where I'm standing, looks pretty right wing.

Oliver Shykles said...

After reading your review of this book I was intrigued to see how it had been reviewed elsewhere. I read the reviews at The Indy and the Guardian which are both, basically, unquestioning explanations of the opium wars, presumably just abridged versions of the book - hardly enlightening and they certainly don't critique the book in any meaningful way. One would have hoped for more from a professor at SOAS and a supposed expert on China.

However, thankfully there was Madam Miaow to redress the balance a bit! Thanks for a great, and informative, review.

ty said...

I felt a certain sense of uneasiness after reading the first 15 pages. By the time i got to the end of a hundred, i was keen to read a critical review. Yours was the only one i came across and i'm grateful since it affirms the sentiments i was feeling. It's a paean to Empire, certainly an attempt to absolve Britain's culpability in state-sanctioned brutality and murder. It is racist and takes a completely amoral stance - the very posture required by pro-empire types. Lovell is not unlike a Niall Ferguson - how could anyone be so Brutish, one might ask - perhaps a tad more subtle. Thanks for your review. It deserves to be widely read. Ever considered publishing it in academic circles?
best wishes

Madam Miaow said...

Thank you, Ty. The absence of analytical criticism of this book was most disappointing. Academia and media asleep at the wheel.

ty said...

Thanks, Madam Miaow.
Irritated by her subtle but resolute defence of the British empire, I looked online for Julia Lovell
and was shocked by the tremendous awe caused by the Opium War:

As you'll see, she was feted in HK at the launch of her book.
But that is not all. The moderator at the launch, a bloke called Chip (not sure if he's just a potato chip or a French Fry) is an even greater apologist for British empire!

At the end of the talk he tells her that "as beneficiaries of the Opium War" (he seems quite presumptuous about his self-conferred right to speak for others), he would like her to return to Britain to convey to the British people how grateful "we are", and that "we" feel sentimental about the times pre-1997 .

At some point in the talk, he even tells Julia Lovell to dispense with any guilt she might have still harboured about Britain's culpability in the Opium War.

Its incredible and painful to watch, the self-loathing and sycophancy.

Back to Julia: when asked about 'unequal' treaties (around the 1hr 11min mark), she remarks something to the effect that although they represent a loss of political and economic sovereignty, these treaty ports actually became hubs for practices and freedoms of all sorts i.e. centres of political, cultural, economic vibrancy.

See how subtly these pro-imperialists make their case? They completely side-step the moral question of the British imperialist enterprise by referring, retroactively, to its (incidental) 'positive' consequences. It's a little like absolving a rapist post-hoc when the child produced from his act of depravity turns out to be a genius.

In this amoral scheme, the ends ('civilization') are absolute and so they justify the means, whatever their costs. There is complete amorality.

Obviously, what seems to be sadder than the perfidious colonial apologetics of the likes of Lovell is the subscription to such ideology by the very subjects - the 'victims' - of empire. This is quite evident from the clip, with virtually every comment from the audience expressing views supportive of Lovell's, seemingly oblivious to its racism and pernicious implications.

Where is Fanon, Nandy, Memmi or Cesaire when one needs them? It's almost as if the colonized have been so deformed by their colonization they can't recognise the phenomena even when it lands on their faces!

Again, I'd urge you to consider publishing your review more widely.

Madam Miaow said...

Oh, dear lord. That video is tragic, Ty. However, there are forelock-tugging house-slaves everywhere and always will be. All we can do is marvel and blow raspberries whenever they embarrass themselves like this. Re publishing my review more widely, I'm cheered by the fact that it will turn up in any online search for the book and people can make up their own minds based on the argument. Anyone who wishes to publish it in the interests of the debate is most welcome.

ty said...

Wanted to commend J.Y Wong's comprehensively erudite treatment of the second Opium War:
Deadly Dreams and the Arrow War (1956-60) in China. He's also fittingly written a review of Lovell's book, generously suggesting that it was her 'mistakes' that put her 'in grave danger of being an apologist for British imperialism.'